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--6 



History of 
Custer County, Nebraska 




^'^ M.'^u ^k^ 



HISTORY OF 
CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



A NARRATIVE OF THE PAST, WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS UPON THE PIONEER 
PERIOD OF THE COUNTY'S HISTORY, ITS SOCIAL, COMMERCIAL. EDU- 
CATIONAL, RELIGIOUS, AND CIVIC DEVELOPMENT FROM THE 
EARLY DAYS TO THE PRESENT TIME 



BY 

W. L. GASTON AND A. R. HUMPHREY 




LINCOLN, NEBRASKA 
WESTERN PUBLISHING AND ENGRAVING COMPANY 

1919 



COPYRIGHT. 1919 

BY 

WESTERN PUBLISHING & ENGRAVING CO. 



"«^K 



THE TORCH PKESS 
LINCOLN. NEBRASKA 

AND 
CEDAR RAPIDS IOWA 



AUG 15 1919 

©Cl.fi5?fl5R4 



/J"^ 



PREFACE 

Long centuries ago when the children of Israel had passed dry-shod over the 
river Jordan, intent upon invading and subduing the promised land, their young- 
leader, whose reputation was then unmade, commanded that there be taken out 
of the ri\er twelve stones and that they be set up in monument form in the first 
camping place. "And it shall come to pass," he said, "when your children shall 
say to you, '\\'hat mean these stones ?' ye shall answer them that the waters of 
the Jordan were cut oft before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord when it 
passed over Jordan, and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of 
Israel forever." 

The contents of this volume are given to the public to^^erve exactly the same 
purpose for the people of Custer county that those stones which Joshua caused 
to be carried from the river and set up in the land of milk and honey served for 
the children of Israel. \\'e have gone to the river of forty years ago and from 
under the waters of the past have brought up stones with which to build a mon- 
ument to another set of pioneers who at a later date invaded another promised 
land. We have attempted to establish a few landmarks, to erect an enduring- 
monument and to embalm the traditions of the earlv pioneers for the benefit of 
the next succeeding generations. A\'e claim for the work no literary merit. It 
has no distinguishing marks of genius to parade. We claim only that it is a 
simple recital of a comparatively few things which took place in this county 
since the exit of the Indian and the coming of the white man. In addition to 
this, we claim that it is a roster of heroic names that shotild be preserved, and 
contains life sketches of some of those indomitable spirits whose early achieve- 
ments were the foundation stones of our present-day homes and public institu- 
tions. 

There was a great demand for a volume of this kind. Only a limited num- 
ber of the first settlers who actually had to do with the beginning of things were 
alive, and if their storv was to be preserved, first-handed, the time to write it 
had come. Any history that laid any claim to accuracy mtist be written under 
their direction. For this reason we vielded to the pressure of the prominent cit- 
izens of the county and attempted the work. How well we have succeeded, the 
readers must judge. In the compilation we ha\e encountered innumerable diffi- 
culties which have been accumulating for forty years. The records of early- 
day events and public transactions are few and meager. The memory of man 
is exceedingly treacherous. Traditions are always contradictory, but with the 
material at hand we have done the best we could to give an accurate account of 



8 INTRODUCTION 

those early days which will never return.. W'e lay no claim to infallibility. 
There are doubtless errors and omissions, it could hardly be otherwise. When 
records failed us we depended upon the memory and statements of those who 
had best opportunity to know. When there was a conflict of statements and 
records, we gave preference to the records, and when there was a conflict of 
statements, without records, we made reconciliation by careful analysis of 
known conditions and turned upon the mooted question the light of probabili- 
ties in connection with general events. 

A\'e acknowledge with deep gratitude the valuable service rendered by people 
from all parts of the county, who contributed much valuable information and 
in every way assisted the compilation of this volume. The newspapers gave us 
free access to their files. The county officials were exceedingly courteous, and 
explored for us the dust\" volumes of early records in the county vaults. Pio- 
neers who had long since left the country wrote valuable contributions, and so 
much help has been extended that we can lay no claim to originality. We have 
gathered from other men's flowers and claim only the poor form into which we 
have woven them. 

Very sincerely, 

W. L. Gaston 

A. R. HUMPHRKY 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I — In THE Beginnixg 19 

The First Owner — In Far Off Days — The Prehistoric Tribes Were Here — The 
Finding of Pottery — The Indians of Sixty Years Ago — No Indian Atrocities in 
Custer County— Probable Battles — Well Marked Rifle Pits — The Signs of Battle — 
A Fort in Custer County — New Helena Frightened — An Indian Battle — The 
Clarion Article — Who was the First White Man? — Did Coronado Find Us? — Plenty 
of Wild Game — Other Expeditions — General Warren was Here in 1855 — John Wil- 
mouth the First Man Here — Uncle John's Story 

CHAPTER II — Descriptions, Lines AND Boundaries 36 

Table Lands and Valleys — Undulations Tabulated — Towns and Ranges — No Tech- 
nical Terms — Harvey's Contribution — Bridging Clear Creek — A Mutiny — Find 
Ruins of Old Fortifications — An Impending Indian Battle — A Camp Fire — Find 
an Error on Fifth Parallel — A Lame Ox and the Remedy — Names of Creeks — 
Fooling the Cook — Government Surveys — Custer County Weather — Temperature 
and Precipitation Tables 

CHAPTER HI — In THE Days OF Cattle 51 

Ranches are Located — Big Profits — Life With the Cowboys — Women Were 
Scarce — A Stampede — The Roundup — A Roundup of Roundups — Cattle Men 
Versus Settlers — A Near Battle — An L'nderground Railroad — The Wild West has 
Wild Horses 

CHAPTERS' — County Organization AND Development 67 

The Proposed Garber County — Kountz County — Governor's Proclamation — First 
County Officers — First Meeting of Supervisors — First Voting Places — First Elec- 
tion Results — The New Officers — Custer County Judges — The First County As- 
sessment — Names of Those Who Have Served as County Clerks — Clerks of District 
Court — County Treasurers — Registers of Deeds — County Superintendents — Offi- 
cial Roster of Custer County — A Noted Sheriff — Multiply Voting Precincts — The 
, Last Precinct Supervisors — The New Board — Brand Commissioners — County 
Division — First Land Documents — The Evolution of the Court House — The Custer 
County United States Land Oflice — Kinkaid Bill Goes into Effect — New Law Takes 
Effect — A Quiet and Orderly Crowd — Crowd Gets a Rest — The Land Entries — 
Opening of the Military and Forest Reserves — Personnel of the Notaries — Letup, 
Stop, Over, and Rest 

CHAPTER V — The Coming OF THE Settlers 83 

No Settlement in the County — The Buffalo Bill Tree — The First Home — Who was 
^ the First Homesteader? — Lewis R. Dowse First Settler — Frank Ohmc was First 
Man to File — The First Comers — More for Douglas Grove — New Helena Home- 
steaders — Discover Cedar Canyon — Establishes First Postolfice — The Beginning of 
Lee's Park — A Fine Stock Breeder — A Signal Service Man — Spencer's Park — 
Mauk was a Gay Bachelor — Now They Come to Lillian — Settling in Merna Val- 
ley — A Bunch of lowans Arrive — An Impromptu Reception — Settling in Custer 
Center — Down in Ash Creek Valley — How Custer County Got Bob Hunter — They 
Fill up the Table — First of the Deep Wells — Settlers Come to Dale — Lohr Runs 
Some Store — More About Lillian — Down on the Redfern Table — Plenty of Room 
in a Small House — An Accommodating Englishman — Too Many Roosters for Ream 
and Jeffords — Settlement of Georgetown — Help Yourself — "Getting in Bad" — 
Custer County Pioneer Honored — Pelham Stretches the Quilt — A Flock of Bach- 
elors — Gibbonites on the Loup — Find an Old Dugout — Twin Fawns at the Cen- 
tennial — Would not Stand for the Name — The Haumonts — Where Broken Bow 
Stands — Early Days ; Hard Times — One of the Old Settlers 

CHAPTER VI — Old Settlers' Stories 116 

Entertains Bob Olive — A Wild Night fur Hans — Bob Hunter has Close Call — 
Mrs. Hunter Learns the Way of the West — "A VV'ise Cow Tale" — Terrible Fall in 
a Deep Well — A Thousand Elk in One Herd — Made His Own Powder — Won by 



10 CONTEXTS 

a Nose — A Back-acting Wedding Fee — A Pluckj- Custer County Woman — Was 
a Justice AH Right — God and Boblits — A Courtship in the Court's Office — Experi- 
ences of a "School Marm" — Life too Short for a Sod Roof — Entertained the Paw- 
nees — All Ready for Indians — Mysterious Death of Trapper — A Fight for "Deer 
Life" — Saved One Bed — J. D. Haskell's Personal Experience — Douglass Finds 
Relics — Jess Gandy Joins the Elks — Mrs. Gandy Entertains a Stranger — Jess 
Gandy Rides a Buffalo — The Masons Buried Him — The First Great Flag Pole — 
The First County Seat Contest — A Hospitable Roof — A Little Sport with Guns- — 
Lassoed an Elk — Lost in the Sand Hills — Hunters Find Game in the Bed — Had 
no Religion — One of the Countj- "Dads" — A Prairie Fire — Twin Tragedies — A 
Watermelon Stampede — It Killed the Toad — Dan got the Logs — Indian Scares — 
The Grasshopper a Burden — A Land Quarrel — Grasshoppers Chewed Tobacco — 
The Senator was not Handsome — Burlin and Kellenbarger Have Some Experience 

— A Race Through the Storm — Something of a "Mixup" — Nearly Ruined His Eye 

CHAPTER VII — Hard Winters and Hard Times 146 

The Black Winter of 1880-81 — A Tough Time in 1880 — Heavy Losses — As Things 
Looked to Bishop — Accidents and Tragedies — No Christmas Presents — An Early 
BliEzard — Down Twice but Not Out — Frozen to Death in Powell Canyon — The 
Blizzard of 1888 — A Hard Times Christmas — Christmas Entertainments in the 
Various Churches in Broken Bow — Filled up on Christmas — The Glovers Weather 
Ninety-four — Didn't Carry off the Mortgage — Fourth of July Hailstorm — Dry 
Ninety-four — He Won Out- — Had to be Helped — Poor but Happy — A Home- 
grown Cyclone — Worst Blizzard in Thirty Years — Sheep Perish in Transit 

CHAPTER VIII — A Chapter IN Black 159 

The Mitchell-Ketchum Tragedy — The Shooting — The Arrest — Escaped the Kear- 
ney Mob — Judge Gaslin's Story — Deputizing a Posse — Turns State's Evidence — 
Judge Boblits Takes a Hand — The Haunstine Tragedy — Hamer and Others Quiet 
Crowd — The Execution Takes Place — The Only Execution — A Fatal Land 
Quarrel — War Breaks Out — Spilled the Booze — Making an Honest Mexican — 
Fatal Hilarity at Anselmo ^ 

CHAPTER IX — Towns AND Villages 177 

Westcrvillc — Might Have Been County Seat — A New Town Laid Out — Lee's 
Park — Other Dead Ones — Comstock — The Beginning of Callawaj' — J. Woods 
Smith has a Dream — Town Christened — Smith was an Advertiser — A New Town- 
site — A Town Fight is On — "Podunk" News Items — -Acknowledges the "Corn" — 
More Improvement — Build a Mill — The Train Arrives — Moving Day at Night — 
Callaway up to Date — The County Seat — The Broken Bow — The Town Grows — 
Twenty-five Miles for Butter — The Town Still Grows — First Town Officials — Rail- 
road Comes — Big Buildings Go Up — Gets to be a City — Modern Buildings Go 
Up — Plenty of Good, Pure Water — Broken Bow to Date — The Public Service 
Club — Present Officers — The Town of Arnold — A Big Celebration — Village of 
Berwjn — The Hustling Town of Merna — Atkisson Speaks for Merna — Mason 
Cit>' — Present-day Business Interests — Oldest Inhabitants — Federal Officers — Sar- 
gent — Ansley — Ansley's Banks — Ansley's Mercantile Establishments — Anslej-'s 
Mills, Shops, Livery Stables, etc. — Ansley's Lumber and Coal Yards — Ansley's 
Shipping Association — Ansley's Drug Stores — Ansley's Professional Men — Ansley's 
Electric-light, Water, and Telephone Systems — Ansley's Newspapers — Ansley's Post- 
office — Ansley's Patriotism — Ansley's Library — The Story of Anselmo — Postoffice 
History — Town Improvements — Anselmo Newspapers — -Anselmo Fights the Kaiser 

— Anselmo Churches — Anselmo Fraternal Societies — The Story of Oconto 

CHAPTER X — The School System IN Sod AND Brick 233 

The Beginning — Districts Organized — First County Institute — The Mason Cit>' 
Schools • — Broken Bow — Ansley — Anselmo — Arnold — Callaway — Comstock — 
Sargent — Oconto — Merna — Jaynesville — Berwyn — Lower Lodi — District No. 
97 — King — - Hoosier Valley — Longwood — Sand Valley — In General 

CHAPTER XI — Churches AND SuxD.w Schools 241 

.A Cowboy Preacher — .-\ Story of Early Church W'ork — .-Vnd Now the Methodists — 
The .Ansley Church — The Broken Bow Methodists — Gates and Walworth — Arnold 
Methodist Church — Sargent Methodists — Merna Methodists — Westerville Methodist 
Church — -Methodist Church of Callaway — Baptist Pioneer Work — The Baptist 
Churches that Live — The Broken Bow Church — New Baptist Church at Broken 
Bow — Mason City Church — The Merna Baptist Church — The .^nslev Baptist 
Church Organized — The Eudells — Lomax and Lodi — Bethel I'nion — Highland — 
The Free Methodist Church — The Presbvterians — Broken Bow Prcsbvtcrians — The 
-Anslev Presbvterian Church — Episcopalian Work in the Countv — Callaway Protes- 
tant Episcopal Church — The Broken Bow Episcopal Church — The Church of God — 
Christian Church — Christian Churches of Arnold, Liberty, Broken Bow, Anselmo, 



CONTENTS 11 

White Pigeon, Ansley, Coburg, Mason City, Lillian, Sargent, Banner Schoolhouse, 
and Milburn — Custer County Catholics — Beginning of Catholic Work in Dale — 
The Broken Bow Catholic Church — The Oconto Church and Mason City Church — 
Ansley Catholic Church — United Brethren in Christ — The United Brethren Begin 
at Custer Center — Sunday Schools in Custer County — County Sunday School Asso- 
ciation — The Reorganization Works VVell — State Sunday School Convention at 
Broken Bow — Comparison of Convention Attendance 

CHAPTER XII — Lodges and Social Organizations 276 

An Early-day Feed — A Stag Party Performance — Fun with a Meek-eyed Broncho — 
A Pioneer Picnic — An Old Settler's Association — 1883 was the Boom Year — Old 
Settlers' Association of South Loup — Ancient Free & Accepted Masons — Independ- 
ent Order of Odd Fellows — Modern Woodmen of Custer County — Ansley's Lodges 
^ Mason City Lodges — Royal Neighbors of Arnold — The Grange — Woman's 
Clubs in Custer County — Shakespeare Club -- Callaway Sorosis Club — History of 
Browning Club — The Book Lovers' Organziation — Broken Bow Art Club — Arnold 
Women's Improvement Club — The Broken Bow Woman's Club — Sargent Woman's 
Club — Woman's Club of Ansley ■ 

CHAPTER XIII — -Political and Partisan Activities 294 

The First Election — Had Some "Pep," However — In Scrappy Days — A Toint De- 
bate—The Populist Version — Through Republican Goggles — The "Populist" Move- 
ment in Custer County — First County Ticket — The Cat Creek Club — Like a Lamb 
to the Swallowing — The Republican Party Organizes — The Republicans Split — The 
Democratic Partv — Very Prominent Politically — The Primaries of 1918 — The Elec- 
tion of 1918 

CHAPTER XIV — ^ Legal and Other Professions 309 

The History of Custer County's Bar — First Grand Jury — A Hog in the First Case 

— A Lawyer Engaged in L'seful Work — Two Custer County judges — Another 

Class — The Younger Bloods — Didn't Know Anything — Was Criminal Enough 

No Spread-eagle Stuff — Had to be Shown — Had Two Chances to Escape — Sum- 
moned the Dead Man — Confused the Witness — All Lawyers on the Same Side — 
Too Old for the Pen — Ten was a Plenty — Trials by Day and Night — A Square 
Lawj'er — Custer County Medical Men 

CHAPTER XV — ^ Military and Patriotic Contributions .... 318 

The Grand Army of the Republic — Broken Bow Organizes a Post — Berwyn Post 

Post at Mason City — Post at Anslc:, — Post at Arnold — The Post at Sargent — Post 
at Comstock — Post at Callaway — Post at Merna — In tlie Spanish-American War — 
The Missing — The Company Personnel — The World War — Clyde G. Seiver — 
Joseph Ehvood Palmer — Raymond Ross Killed — Paul CofFman — Lewis H. Rob- 
ertson — Gustav Roerick — Claris A. Tucker — Orrie Amsberry — Henry E. Cain — 
Arthur Bergman — Glen Buckner — Loyd Clow — Sam Miller — Gage Sauter — Ros- 
coe Rhodes — John M. Rudge — Jeff Andrews — Clyde O. Thomas — Chester Webb 

— James N. Burdick — Roy Imboden — Homer M. Yates — ^ Harvey M. Sloggett — 
Ralph C. Lcui — Vanner A. Gustus — Josepli Bernert — Custer's Military Roster — 
World War Activities — The Exemption Board — Bond Drives — The War Savings 
Stamp Drive — The Yoimg Men's Christian Association — The Four Alinute Men — 
War Savings Societies — The American Red Cross — Woman's Council of Defense — 
Public Meetings and Celebrations — General Pershing's Birthday Celebration 

CHAPTER XVI — Custer County Literature 343 

Newspapers of Custer County — Westerville — Broken Bow's First Paper — More 
Papers for Westerville — Now Comes Ansley — -Algernon — A Daily Paper — Pol- 
itics Didn't Pay — Purcell Starts at Merna — "Sun" Shines at Anselmo — The "Chief" 
Shows I'p at Broken Bow — Arnold — Calla-u-ay — The Callawav Courier — Berwyn 

— Sargent — West L^nion — Comstock — Oconto — S. D. Butcher, Historian — A State 
Contribution — "Farewell Homestead Shantv" — Elmer E. Dowse — A Picture of 
Early Davs — Mrs. M. B. A. Martin — "The Broken Bow" — A. J. McArthur, M.D. — 
Prize Article — Custer County — George B. Mair — "The South Loup River" — Harry 
B. Iszard — ^ Tabulated Knocks — Mrs. G. W. Dewey — "The Blizzard" — Court 
House Corner Stone — Corner-stone Poem — A Custer County Poet — "Little Bohe- 
mian Girl" — "Early Davs in Custer" — Sol. J. Cook — "The Poet" — Mrs. Martha 
A. Hunter — Mrs. A. H. Stuckey — "The Lark's Returning" — "The Goldenrod" — 
"The Service Flag" — Mrs. Sabina Penrod — "Dawn in the Custer Countv Hills — 
Gaston's Rhymes for Padding — "Home in Broken Bow" — "Walking the Waters" 

CHAPTER XVII — Agricultur.\l .\nd Industrial Development . . . 36,s 
Years, Two Score and One — Horse and Cow Pull the Plow — Corn Wears the Tassel 
and is King — A Great Alfalfa County — Custer Stands at the Head — Dressed in 



12 CONTEXTS ■ 

Green, Custer County Heads the List — An Early Live-stock Association — Live-stock 
Raising — Cattle Grades Improved — Hogs, Black and Red — The Porker Pays the 
Mortgage — The Purple Blood of High Breeding — Sheep in the Wild and VV'ooly 
County — A City Alan Makes Good — A Sample of Custer County Thrift — Custer 
County Agricultural Society — Out of Debt — Races Twenty Years ago — The Lundy 
Hydro-Electric Power Plant — Custer County Irrigation — Horticulture in Custer 
County — J. D. Ream Makes a Find — Fruit Received Too Little Attention — The 
Milling Industry — The Broken Bow Roller Mills — Electric Lights Everywhere — 
Towns Have Good Water — Xo Mining Industry — Has Developed Wealth Slowly — 
Happy and Prosperous Now — "Since He Paid the Mortgage" — The First Settler 
Tells the Story of the Years 

CHAPITER XVIII — Present Day Wealth AND Resources .... 395 

A Bright-red Contrast — They Go Faster Now — They Have Traded Plows — Xo 
Telephone Gossip — Xo More Freight Hauling — Custer County Resources — Per- 
sonal Property — Live Stock and Crops of the Present Year — The Automobiles 
Honk — Banks and Banking — Figures in Recapitulation — Another Statement 

CHAPTER XIX — Founders AND Builders 403 

Personal Mention of Many of Those Who Have Been Exponents of Civic and Mate- 
rial Development and Progress in Custer County 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



W. L. Gaston 

Indian Relics found in Custer County 

Black Kettle, a Cheyenne Chief . 

A Full-dress Party .... 

An Indian Council and War Dress 

Custer County's First Drying Plant 

Rifle Pits on the Westerville Battle-field 

Facsimile of Letter of J. N. Dryden 

An Early Winter Scene 

An Old Settler on the South Loup 

Owl's Nest in Cheesebrough Cany'on 

Robert Harvey, State Surveyor 

A Morning Hunt on the Middle Loup 

A Ranch Scene on the South Loup 

A Typical Cattle Scene in Early Day; 

Cattran and Sanders Cattle Ranch 

Rounding up of "White Faces" on the McDown 

The Old Black Ranch on Deer Creek 

Old Cottonwood Tree on the Anton .^bel Ranc 

A Trinity of Old-timers ... 

Building that Served as First Court House of i 

Present Custer County Court House . 

The Land Opening at Broken Bow in 1904 . 

Buffalo Bill when a Hlinter in Nebraska . 

William Comstock and Wife in front of their 

Historic Residence of Judge C. R. Mathews 

C. P. Foote's Old Pioneer House at Merna . 

Emigrants Headed for Custer County . 

A Typical Ducx3ut 

Jacob Cover's Sod House 

Edward Haumont's Sod Palace 
J. A. Woods, First Settler in Woods' Park . 
Sod Residence of Thomas J. Butcher . 
New Residence of Thomas J. Butcher . 



Ev R 



Old 



NCH 



uster County 



Log 



House 



I'rontisf^iccc 
21-23 

7 



26 
26 
27 
28 
29 
31 
22 
37 
41 
50 
52 
58 
60 
62 
64 
68 
71 
77 
79 
80 
86 
88 
89 
95 
98 
107 
108 
109 
110 
112 
113 



14 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Roundup of a Coyots Hunt . 

Ruins of Old Jefferson Postoffice 

Powell Canyon 

The Old L P. Olive Ranch 

Westerville Mill and Pond 

comsixkk .... 

Views in Comstock . 

Residence of Charles D. Bragg 

Residence of Edward F. Skolil 

Residence of Robert S. S'tone . 

Citizens State Bank, Comstock 

The First Building in Callaway . 

Callaway Views .... 

Street Scene in Callaway 

A Mixed Train at Callaway in 1890 

Old Marble Top Hotel . 

Broken Bow State Bank 

First Printing House in Broken Bow 

First Tr.aix into Broken Bow 

Carnegie Library at Broken Bow . 

DiERKs Block, Broken Bow . 

Broken Bow Residences 

Public Square Park, Broken Bow . 

Rooms of Broken Bow Service Club 

An Early Day in Arnold 

Views in Arnold 

Buildings in Merna 

BiRDSEYE View of Berwyn 

Merna Elevators 

Group of Residences at Merna 

Residence of Dr. J. H Morrow 

Mason City Twenty Years Ago 

Residence of John T. Wood . 

Farmers State Bank, at Mason City 

City Water Tower. S.\rgent 

Views in S'argent . 

Views in Ansley 

Views in Anselmo . 

Views in Oconto 

Custer County Schoolhouses 

Custer County Schoolhouses 



114 
115 
151 
160 
178 
180 
181 
182 
182 
183 
183 
184 
185 
189 
190 
192 
193 
194 
1% 
197 
198 
199 
200 
201 
202 
203 
206 
207 
207 
208 
209 
210 
211 
213 
215 
216 
218 
226 
231 
234 
236 



ILLUSTRATIONS 15 

Methodist Episcopal Church at Broken Bow 244 

Methodist Episcopal Church at Arnold 245 

Methodist Episcopal Church at Sargent 246 

Baptist Church at Broken Bow 250 

Presbyterian Church at Broken Bow 254 

Broken Bow Episcopal Church and Rectory 257 

Christian Church at Broken Bow 261 

Christian Church at Ansley 262 

Christian Church at Sargent 265 

Dale Catholic Church and Parsonage 266 

Catholic Rectory at Broken Bow 268 

Catholic Church at Oconto 268 

Catholic Church at Sargent 268 

Catholic Church and Rectory at Anselmo 269 

United Brethren Church at Broken Bow 270 

J. M. Fodge 274 

Farmers' Picnic near Ansley 280 

Laying Corner Stone of Masonic Temple at Anselmo 283 

Frank H. Young 284 

Alpha Morgan 28o 

Hon. William Gaslin 310 

Custer County Veteran Member of the Grand Army of the Republic . . 319 

Members of Stone River Post, G. A. R., of Mason City 321 

Clyde G. Seiver 327 

Joseph Elwood Palmer 328 

S. D. Butcher and Family 349 

A Typical S'od House 369 

Mammoth Piles of Corn 370 

A Custer County Alfalfa Field ^"^^ 

Two Crops that Never Fail 373 

The Pale-face Cattle have taken Custer County 374 

An Early-day Team 377 

Sheep Industry, Lee's Park, 1887 378 

Li\t; Stock on Farm of George Chipps 379 

A Custer County Exhibit at the Nebraska State Fair 382 

Views of Lake Doris and Hydro-electric Plant 384-387 

CoMSTocK Flouring Mills 390 

Mason City Flouring Mill 391 

Milburn Bridge over Middle Loup River 396 

Farm Home of John Cherry, on the South Loup 397 



CHAPTER I 

IN THE BEGINNING 
Thb First Owner — In Far Off Days — The Prehistoric Tribes Were Here — The 

POINDING OF POTTERV ThE INDIANS OF SiXTY YEARS AGO — • No INDIAN ATROCITIES IN 

Custer County — Probable Battles — Well Marked Rifle Pits — The Signs of Bat- 
tle — A Fort IN Custer County County — New Helena Frightened — An Indian 
Battle — The Clarion Article • — Who was the First White ]\Ian? — Did Coronado 
Find Us? — Plenty of Wild Game — Other Expeditions — General Warren was 
Here in 1855 — John Wilmouth the First Man Here — Uncle John's Story 



"In the beginning God made Custer county." 
That is a famous old Hebrew declaration, with 
a localism attached — a localism which does no 
violence to the text, nor sins against the 
truth. In that far ofif morning when creation 
was the order, the Great Creator seems to have 
inspected the product of his hand and in each 
case, so far as the record goes, pronounced it 
good. So it is taken for granted that after he 
made Custer county, he pronounced it good, 
and there is little doubt in the minds of the 
thirty thousand people who have their homes 
in this western county that he was right. 

If God made it good in the beginning, he 
expected the ages to improve it. He seems 
to have blended soil and climate into splendid 
conditions for human life and happiness. 
When, after the lapse of ages, he turned loose 
upon its virgin prairies the sturdy, progressive 
young manhood and womanliood who came, 
red-blooded, from the homes of Iowa, Ilhnois, 
Wisconsin, Ohio, and all the rest of the older 
states, it was charged and surcharged with 
natural resources and opportunity. They were 
a tribe of men and \\'omen in whose veins 
flowed the warm blood of energy, and whose 
characters massed the traits of virtue, strength, 
and progress. They came to subdue a soil in 
which opportunity lay in the surface stratums, 
or protruded in ledges from the hillsides. They 
came to find, in fine assortment, the elements 



of life and growth, a place where energy and 
thrift could subdue the unplowed sod and find 
the place for home and sanctuary. 

THE FIRST OWNER 

France was the first owner of record. It 
came to France by right of exploration, if not 
discovery. All that part of North America 
known as the Middle West, came without dis- 
jmte or protest to the royal house of the 
Ivouises. Through the process of some barter, 
not vital to this story, the Louises ceded it to 
Spain in 1763. It was some land transaction. 
A vast wedge of territory, bounded on the east 
by the Mississippi and ranging irregularly 
westward until it reached the Oregon shore of 
the Pacific, went from French to Spanish pos- 
session. So far as the territory itself is con- 
cerned it profited little by exchange of owners. 
It should go unnoticed but that Custer county, 
then unnamed and unmarked, was in this ter- 
ritory, and represented then the equity of its 
present inhabitants. In 1802 Spain and France 
again became swappers, and possession went 
back to France. This prepared the way for 
the transaction of 1803, when Thomas Jeffer- 
son shied his young repubHc into the auction 
ring, from which it emerged with the Louisi- 
ana Purchase. If former transactions were 
big land deals, this outranked them all. The 
extent of land in the Louisiana Purchase was 



19 



20 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



vastly more than the original transaction of 
1763. Custer county was in it, however, — it 
had survived the shuffles and now and for all 
time it is in the jX)ssession of, and is an inte- 
gral part of, the United States of America. 

IN" F.\R OFF D.\YS 

Imagination runs, always, back into the far 
ofif days and asks a thousand times the ques- 
tions : "Who was the first human being to see 
that spot of earth now known as Custer coun- 
ty? Whose eyes first beheld its hills and val- 
leys or swept across its plain, or were there any 
hills and valleys when the first human eye 
beheld this region ? Was its land exhibiting 
naught but barren waste, or were its fields 
green robed and grassed ? Did the scene pre- 
sent anything that is familiar to this modern 
day? Or was it water covered, a part of an 
inland sea, in which was housed the masto- 
donic life of some far off amphibious day? 
(Jr had the waves subsided, leaving exposed 
to sun and wind flats of silt, and dunes of 
sand ?" All these questions, and a thousand 
others, come surging into the mind tliat con- 
templates the ancient days of the formative 
period. The great majority of these ques- 
tions will never be answered. Neither the his- 
torian nor the geologist brings any message 
from that distant age. 

Did the primitive inhabitants of North Am- 
erica ever traverse Custer county? Did the 
descendants of the cliff dwellers ever look for 
building sites along our river bluffs or can- 
yon breaks? Did the Algonquin Indians of 
the far east New England ever drift as far 
west as central Nebraska, or did the Myas and 
the Aztecs graze their cattle here before they 
immigrated to Mexico and Yucatan ? When the 
tribe, to which now the famous Calaveras man 
belonged, was delighting in a higher civiliza- 
tion farther west, were any of his kinsmen 
located in Nebraska? All these questions are 
hard to answer and it may be that the world 
will have to wait the results of the archeolo- 
gists' long search. 

THE I'RE-HISTORIC TRIIiES WERE HERE 

Though no traditions came down from the 



hoary centuries of the past there is abundant 
evidence of occupancy by a pre-historic race. 
Rich discoveries of broken pottery, stone im- 
plements and many other relics of a forgotten 
people have rewarded the Nebraska ethnolo- 
gists and archeologists. Nebraska was once 
the home of a people who either antedate the 
American Indian by uncounted centuries or 
else were the far off ancestors from which he 
both descended and degenerated. 

Nebraska archeolog}- is still in the morning- 
twilight of commencement, yet twenty-four 
village sites have been discovered, explored, 
and charted. Along almost every Nebraska 
stream, stone implements and weapons have 
been found. Some scientists declare that the 
possessors of these stone implements had no 
jiottery and belonged to a race which ante- 
dates the molders of earthen vessels. These 
are not questions to be settled here. We pass 
them along to the student and the scientist. 

THE FIXUIXG OF I'OTTERV 

The possessors of potter)' once lived in Cus- 
ter county, how long ago no man can tell, but 
the fact is not disputed. I\Iany stone imple- 
ments, such as stone hammers, stone toma- 
hawks, battle axes, stone knives, and arrow 
heads have been found. 

Al. Morgan, one of the early settlers, in 
the vicinity of Cumro, has gathered many curi- 
ous implements, many of which were produced 
and used by Indians who inhabited Custer 
county, perhaps generations before the tribes 
of a later day were found here by the white 
man. 

The molders of pottery once roamed these 
hills and drank from these springs and 
streams. It is presumed that this potterj' was 
manufactured by the remote ancestors of later- 
day Indians. If it is argued that the molders 
of the pottery and the makers of the flint iin- 
])lements indicate a higher civilization than 
that of the modern red man. the ethnologists 
reply that these plains and hills were not al- 
ways covered with buft'aloes and elk. and that 
some time in the remote past the ancestors 
of the noble red man were grain eaters. Grain 
eaters rise to a higher degree of intelligence 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



21 




1— Iron arrow-heads used by Indians after tliev began trading with white men. 2— Indian 
stone knives and spear-heads. 3— .\rrow-heads found in Custer county bv A L Morgan 
4— Specimens ot pottery excavated from Indian grave on the Bentlev "farm near Sargent' 
5— Indian battle-axe found on the South Loup. " oaigini. 



-79 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



and civilization than meat eaters. When the 
Indian was compelled to find his bread in the 
soil and gather the har\'est of fields' and for- 
ests he was more enlightened and civilized 
than his descendants, who found life easy when 
the bulTalo and the elk made it too easy for 
him to subsist. 

The grain eaters needed stone implements 
with which to grind and dig. and vessels in 
which to conserve and retain. It required men- 
tal effort, as wel^ as physical, so evidences 
of a creditable mentality are found in the ves- 
sels and implements they have left behind. 

The citizens of Callaway attest the finding 
of broken pottery on the South Loup hills 
north of the river. 

A few years ago Frank Kelley and others 
found fragments of pottery, each piece clear- 
ly defined, on the Ed. Neth farm some eight 
oi* ten miles west of Broken Bow. All this 
testifies to the fact of former inhabitants. 

In 1916 H. M. Bentley, who lives in section 
32, township 20 north, range 17 west, which 
is located appro.ximately four miles northeast 
of Sargent in this county, while plowing on a 
hill top, uncovered some thirty or forty pieces 
of gray pottery. This pottery had evidently 
been made by weaving grass baskets and daub- 
ing clay mud or slime on the inside and then 
burning them in some kind of an improvised 
kiln. This process left the pottery with the 
imprint of the grass basket embossed on the 
exterior. 

The material of the pottePi- resembles a 
form of hard gray-blue stone. Two or three 
of the pieces found are of good size, and one 
is from the rim of the vessel of which is was 
once a part, and describes an arc of at least 
one-fourth of the circumference of the ves- 
sel. At the same time and in the same place 
Mr. Bentley uncovered parts of human bones, 
among which, still clinging to a f ragmen* of 
a human jaw-bone, was a well preserved hu- 
man tooth. 

The size of the tooth and the bones indi- 
cates that they belonged to a child of twelve 
or thirteen years, or else to some diminutive 
adult. Drs. Bass, Beck, and Mullins. all rep- 



utable dentists of Broken Bow, have examined 
the tooth and declare it to be the upper first 
molar of the right side. They believe it to 
be the first or baby tooth, but in this they 
are not certain, as the tooth gives evidence of 
much wear, perhaps more wear than a child's 
tooth would have received. The wear indi- 
cates that the tooth belonged to a grain eater 
and, if so, its owner lived at a time when the 
ancestors of the present Indian families were 
grain eaters, and a higher intelligence made 
them manufacturers of ware and implements.' 
Other pieces of pottery and similar relics left 
by an aiicient tribe were found on a high hill 
on the farm of J. E. Grint, some two or three 
miles south of the Bentley farm. 

Not long since Professor Elmer E. Black- 
man, curator of the Nebraska Historical So- 
ciety, visited the scene of these finds and spent 
some time in making examinations. On this 
tour of inspection he was accompanied by 
Judge Humphrey, associate editor of this pub- 
lication. Professor Blackman believes that 
these relics were deposited by the far-off an- 
cestors of the present Pawnee Indians. He 
further believes that these Indians were not 
permanent occupants of the region, but that 
they came here on summer hunting trips, dur- 
ing a period when the elk and buffaloes were 
numerous. This would place this particular 
people, who have so kindly left us the relics, 
in the transition period between grain-eating 
and meat-eating Indians. In support of his 
theory he submits the following statements : 

"In relation to the Indian remains in Cus- 
ter county which I inspected with Judge Hum- 
phrey, August 20, 1918, I may offer the fol- 
lowing conclusions : 

"A little preliminary study of the situation 
shows that the area of Custer county was part 
of the land ceded to the United States by the 
Pawnees on the 24th of September, 1837. The 
treaty was signed at Table Creek, Nebraska 
Territory. Table Creek is near Nebraska City, 
and we have in the museum of the Nebraska 
Historical Society a photograph of the signing 
of this treaty, the same showing Pe-ta-Le- 
Sharu, Samuel Allis. J. Sterling Morton, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



23 




^Arrow-heads and human hone and tooth excavated from Indian grave on the Bentley 

[^d m CnJ^^:;n/;;^t;eSTl.-L^SVcn;r^^^n ^^^^^^^ 
the \Ve"tervillc battle-field bv A. R. Humphrey, during a recent examination ol the field. 

0-Batde-"xes t'ound on the" South Loup "-^Ii--rT^P^ir.Tn°S'" Indian ba'tl-^^^^^ 
at mouth of Deer creek, Custer county, and owned by A. L. Morgan. 12-lndian battle axe. 

13— Indian pipe found on the South Loup. 



24 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COLXTV, XEURASKA 



James W. Denver, and others who were pres- 
ent at the signing. For the full text of this 
treaty reference may be made to the United 
States Statutes at Large, \'olume XI, page 
729. 

"The Repulilican Pawnees once lived south 
of the Platte — Pike says he was at their vil- 
lage in 1806. 1 find the ruins of their habitat 
along the Republican river, even west of Or- 
leans. From the banks of the Republican they 
chiefly secured the flint which was used for 
implements. This was easy to get. splendid in 
quality, and was probably the cause of their 
residence there. This implen;ent-making ma- 
terial became the direct cause of the suprema- 
cv which this tribe gained over their neigh- 
bors, and which they held until the whites 
came with firearms and 'fire-water.' 

"The area now occupied by Custer county 
was the abundant buffalo plains over which 
the Pawnees hunted during the time preced- 
ing contact with the whites, as well as later ; 
but the site explored does not show contact 
with white men, and antedates firearms — 
hence the reference to the earlier date. 

"Both the sites visited may be classed as 
one. Due east of Sargent are evidences that 
show this to be the point where the hunting 
party probably left the Middle Loup river, and 
thence was afforded an easy trail to the loca- 
tion farther north and west of this point, which 
I determine as the location of the camp. 

"In the hill-encircled valley near where the 
farm house stands is a beautiful, level expanse 
upon which the summer tepees were .set up. 
This was an ideal spot, protected from ob- 
servation by the hills which separate this shel- 
tered valley from the Middle Lou]) river. 
There was ample timber for fuel, and water 
from springs. Probably year after year the 
same tribe came here to secure the meat sup- 
ply. Doubtless small game was abundant. We 
know that vast herds of buffaloes roamed this 
region, and from here the hunters sallied forth 
to capture the wintc'j- sujjply of meat and hides, 
while the squaws remained in the sheltered 
valley, to clry the meat and dress the hides. 

"Some of their people died from sickness 
or accident, and the surrounding hill-tops (es- 



pecially west of the camp) were the sites for 
the final resting places of the noble dead. 

"The pottery found on the hill-top indicates 
that these Indians had a custom of placing 
food and water in the graves, for the use of 
the departed on their journey to the happy 
hunting-ground. Many tribes observed the 
custom. The Pawnees practiced it. 

"I believe this site antedates contact with the 
whites. This is proven by the absence of any 
white man's artifacts. I believe it is one of 
the sites used soon after the Pawnees migrated 
to the plains region, because the chips of flint 
found on this site are from the flint found in 
the Texas region from which they migrated. 
I do not doubt but this summer camp was 
occu])ied by the Pawnees. First, l^ecause the 
specimens of pottery found are identical with 
the pottery made by the Pawnees, and, sec- 
ond, because the flint chips are from nodules 
which originally were found in the vicinity of 
the Brazos river in Texas, the land from which 
the Pawnees originally came. 

"The implement-making material brought 
w ith them on their migrations north, would be 
exhausted in time, so, finding the chips from 
these nodules leads us to believe the camp was 
used at an early date. 

"The small, flint arrow-heads found on the 
same hill-top as were the pottery and bones, 
are not so crude or large as those used by the 
modern red man. They give evidence of a 
skill and workmanship the latter did not pos- 
sess. The workmanship declares a degree of 
civilization, while the barl>ed flint itself tells 
the story of the battle and chase in that un- 
known time. The bow and arrow constituted 
the equipment of both the warrior and the 
hunter of this primitive race. The flint-head, 
well formed, well edged, and sharjily outlined, 
would argue that the arrow to which it was 
attaciied, with thong or grass, was skill-fash- 
ioned and high-grade, and likewise that the 
bow would be designed and modeled with 
more skill than those used by the later In- 
dians. 

"The utility of the imiilement de]5ends upon 
the degree of intelligence of the user. In the 
hands of keen intelligence it does better e.xe- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



cution and is more deadly than in the hands 
of the untutored savage. And then, as the 
workmanship declares the degree of skill and 
intelligence, we must conclude that these ar- 
rows were once used by a people who in some 
degree outranked in civilization the Indians of 
the present century, and were very effective 
in their hands. They served their owners well 
and were the Winchesters of their day. This 
race used the arrow for the hunt, and if. like 




Bl.\ck Kettle, a Cheyenne Chief 

their civilized brethren of to-day, they slaugh- 
tered each other, they relied for victory over 
their enemy, upon the same implement, which, 
like the vendor's liniment, was made for man 
or beast. This is all we know — it would be 
useless to add more. Their past is sealed. 
Their centuries are dead." 

THE INDI.\NS OF SIXTY YEARS AGO 

Coming down to the day of maps and rec- 
ords, we know something about the Indian 
tribes which inhabited Custer county in the 
generations next preceding the white man's 
advent. 

The ethnological traces of the red man's 
genealogy, divide our North American Indians 



into live great families, and with glib tongue 
rattle off the names "Caddoan family, Siouan 
family, Algonkain family, Shoshonean famil}', 
and the Kiowan family." 

At least four of these families were repre- 
sented in the tribal relations of the red man 
who once hunted and haunted the wild game 
herds of these prairies. 

The Pawnees were here. This was their 
treaty reservation. It was their legal home'. 
They were owners, in fee simple, and claim- 
ants b}' possession. If Professor Blackmail is 
right, they were here for a thousand years 
before the white man bothered them. The 
Pawnees belong to the Caddoan family. The 
Omahas. the Poncas. and the Otoes hunted 
these plains and here warred with the Paw- 
nees. These tribes belonged to the S'iouan 
family. An Indian authority says that the 
domain of the Omahas lay north of the Platte 
river. That might include Custer county or 
at least a part of it. If they never lived here 
they were ofttimes visitors and long-time 
campers on these hills and river vallevs. 

Fremont records the Cheyenne Indians as 
located on the Platte above Grand Island. 
From this location the buffalo chase would 
often take them over the South Loup country. 
The Cheyennes held their family membership 
with the Algonkains. Mooney, in his eigh- 
teenth annual report to the bureau of ethnology, 
says that the Comanches, who have sometimes 
been called by the Siouan name of Padoucas, 
once had a permanent home on the north fork 
of the Platte river and that their ordinary 
range over the plains was from five to eight 
hundred miles. A range of less than half that 
circle would center their hunting field in Cus- 
ter county. The Comanche belonged to the 
Shoshonean family. 

This is all that is known about our Indian 
predecessors. Their tepees are down, their 
camp fires are out, and the bronzed master of 
the wild herds is gone. When any of his 
descendants come to Custer county now they 
wear the white man's garb, — pants, white 
collar, and a red necktie, or, if the gender is 
more favorable, a calico skirt, of wall paper 
pattern, and a silk handkerchief over plaited 



26 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 







A Full-dress Party 



hair. The Indian pony and the Indian dog 
live only in the pictures of the past; their 
bones and poverty are forgotten ; with hoof 
beats and yelps they follow the herds no 
more. 

NO INDI.XX ATROCITIES IN CUSTER COUNTY 

Beyond doubt the early trappers and hunters 
in Custer county had many e.xciting times and 
several of them may have been killed by the 
Indians, but concerning tragedies of this time 
we have no records. John W'ilmoulh, who 
will be mentioned later, claims to have been 



engaged in an Indian battle in the year 1860, 
somewhere in the vicinity of Milburn. He 
makes the claim that three or four white men 
were killed at this time. Mr. Wilmouth is 
ninety years of age and his memory hardly 
accurate. 

Aside from this there is no statement made, 
by any one who pretends to know, to tlie 
effect that any settlers were disturbed. 

PROB.\BI.E B.\TTLES 

Beyond doubt, several battles were fought 
within the confines of the county during the 




An Ixdi.\.\ Council .and War Drf.ss 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



27 



days when these prairies were ranged by scout- 
ing parties from the United States forts at 
Kearney and Hartsetif. Old settlers claim that 
several battle fields have been found in the 
county : one is located near the present town 
site of Berwyn, and one on the Forsythe farm 
near New Helena. On both of these fields 
arrow-heads, human bones, and other relics of 
conflict have been found. 

WELL MARKED RIELE PITS 

Perhaps the most clearly defined of any 
battle field in Custer county is the one located 
in section 16, township 17, range 18, which 
location is in the school section owned by 



and this helped, of course, to form aii im- 
provised breastwork. These pits with their 
accompanying mounds vary in length from 
six to sixty feet and if they were ever fully 
manned, at least four or five hundred white 
men or soldiers must have been engaged. 

In the center of the enclosed area is a de- 
pression which early settlers say was a water 
hole when they came to the country. If a 
stand was to be made by a company of soldiers 
on ground of their own choosing there would 
naturally be some provisions for water. 

It is claimed that in an early day another 
such system of breastworks and pits was found 
near the mouth of Spring creek, on the farm 







m 




< 


' ^Miiiiinil 




^^^^^H^^^^^r i£^$ 


P: 1^ 


^^ 


^iMia 


kM 


|M 


I 






I 


Pv^M 


IK ^n, 




L 






1 




1 


^Mi^Mli-IIL 


^ 



Custer County's First Drying Plant 



Allen brothers and lies three miles north and 
one-half mile west of the present Westerville 
store. 

After much investigation, in which the ser- 
vices of the state historian, Professor A. E. 
Sheldon, and Curator E. E. Blackman have 
been rendered, it can be stated positively that 
here a battle of some importance has been 
fought. Here a line of rifle pits, clearly de- 
marked, encloses an area of perhaps six or 
eight acres, the line conforming more nearly 
to an ellipse than a circle. The pits were 
probably three feet deep at the time they were 
dug. The dirt was thrown to the outside, 



now owned by Judge A. R. Humphrey. J. 
T. Douglass, who saw this field, says that or- 
iginally a well had been dug in the center of 
the enclosure. Talking with a former United 
States soldier who served in the regular army 
in the days of the early '60s and who for a 
number of years, during the '60s, was sta- 
tioned at Kearney, Mr. Douglass learned that 
the soldiers of the fort had located in a num- 
ber of places what they called outposts, where 
they dug pits, threw up breastworks made in 
circle form, enclosing water, and marked them, 
so that in case they were too hotly pressed 
by the Indians they could make a run for 



28 



HISTORY OF CrSTER COUXTV, NEBRASKA 



the nearest of these outposts and find there 
some protection in making a stand. 

It is altogether probable that the Allen field 
was one of these outposts, and was probably 
attached to Fort Kearney. It will be noted 
in another place that State Surveyor Robert 
Harvey finds an old wagon trail coming out 
of \'alley county through Mira valley and 
entering Custer county in the vicinity of 
^^'oods Park. This trail came from the north- 
east and led in a southwest direction directly 
in line with the rifle pits described. It is 



in the battle was in evidence when the first 
settlers came to the countrj-. A skull which 
belonged to an Indian was found by the Allen 
brothers near the battle ground, where it had 
probably been exhumed by wind or coyotes 
from a shallow grave. 

As late as August 18, 1918, Judge A. R. 
Humphrey found on the ground within the 
circle the stock of an old carbine. 

E.xcavations made in the bottom of some 
of the pits disclosed deposits of charcoal which, 
no doubt, was the remains of fires built in 




Kiixt i'ns ox iKi: W EsiEKN mLE Jjattle-field 

Curator E. E. Blackman at right ; Judge A. R. Humphrey stands in one of the pits ; W. 

Gaston at the right 



L. 



possible that this trail is connected in some way 
with the battle field. 

THE SIGNS OF E.XTTLE 

Accepting the theory that this was an out- 
post, it is also evident that it was the scene 
of a battle. Arrow-heads in abundance have 
been picked up. This would show that In- 
dians were the parties engaged on one side, 
while broken gtins, bullets, and parts of a 
sabre, would indicate that white men and sol- 
diers were the occupants of the pits. A mound 
supposed to be a field grave for soldiers killed 



the pits, and might indicate that the stand 
was made in the fall of the year, when the 
weather was cold, but before the ground had 
frozen. 

This is all that we know positively. There 
is a tradition that in an early day a band of 
Indians attacked a party of gold miners, re- 
turning from the Black Hills, and robbed 
them of a large amount of gold dust, that 
the soldiers followed them to recover the gold 
and that here they overtook the Indians and 
made their stand. Tradition also has it that 
a large number of Indians were killed and 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



29 



only a few of the soldiers engaged survived. 
But the tradition lacks confirmation. 

A FORT IN CUSTER COUXTV 

To guard against the depredations of In- 
dians, the citizens of Douglas Grove built, in 
1876, a fort which, at first, they named Fort 
Garber, in honor of the governor, but later, 
because no Indians came and the scare did not 
materialize in war whoops, tomahawks, and 
scalps, it was called Fort Disappointment. 

It was built with bastioned corners, so that 
the Indians could not scale the walls from 
without, and was large enough to hold all 
the settlers. A well was dug inside for water 
supply, forty stands of arms were obtained 
from the government, and a company of state 
militia organized, called the Garber County 
Regulars. W. H. Comstock was made captain 
and from that time forth the genial pioneer 
was known as Captain Comstock. 

NEW HELEN. \ FRIGHTENED 

About the same time, rumors of an Indian 
outbreak and massacre further north fright- 
ened the people of New Helena or Mctoria 
Creek. The Omaha Bcc published an account 
of the massacre of settlers in the ?\Iiddle Loup 
valley. J. N. Dryden. now of Kearney, then 
sent the following note addressed to the sur- 
viving citizens of Victoria Creek : 

Douglas Grove, May 27. 1876. 
To the S'urviving Citizens of \"ictoria Creek : 

My Dear Friends: I send you all the in- 
formation relative to the movements of the 
Indians I am able to procure and think is 
reliable. 

The clippings are from the late Omaha 
and Chicago dailies. Saw Mr. Merchant's 
folks off all right on the 6:45 train Thursday 
morning. They were vtrj uneasy about !Mr. 
Merchant. Truly. J. N. D. 

This general uprising of the Sioux, who 
resented the intrusion of miners pushing into 
the Black Hills territory, so frightened the 
people of New Helena that when they re- 
ceived the Dryden note, they rallied the settlers 
and built a fort of cedar logs on the Forsythe 
place, but some of the families were so fright- 
ened that thev fled the countrv. After the 



fort was built Judge Mathews applied to the 
state for arms and received fourteen rifles and 
two thousand rounds of cartridges. Jilost of 
the people who had fled for safety returned to 
their claims. Their fears proved groundless. 
No Indians came. So it can be stated on the 
best authority that no settlers of Custer county 
were ever seriouslv molested bv Indians. 














z^;^- 







F.\csiMiLE OF Letter of J. N. Dryden 

AN INDIAN BATTLE 

On the 4th day of July, 1918, A. K. Holmes, 
editor and publisher of the Tavlor Clarion, 
published the following account of an early 
battle, which took place in Custer countv, 
between a surveying party of twelve men and 



30 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



a marauding tribe of Indians. The article 
here appended has been submitted to the old 
settlers of the northeast corner of the county 
and, according to their testimony, the Clarion 
account is authentic. Mr. Holmes writes a 
personal letter in which he states that the 
William Stevens mentioned in the article is a 
very reliable and trustworthy citizen and ab- 
solute dependence can be placed upon his word. 
C. E. Gibbons, of Comstock, also bears testi- 
mony to the standing and character of Will- 
iam Stevens, and he, with others, locates the 
scene of battle close to the junction of Spring 
creek, which heads on Gibbons' place three 
or four miles southwest of Comstock and al- 
most directly south of Comstock forms its 
junction with the Middle Loup river. This 
locates the battle ground aproximately three 
and one-half miles south of Comstock. 

THE CLARION ARTICLE 

The following article, under the caption "A 
no nitm's land of early days." is the one re- 
ferred to above : 

Like all the pioneer settlers of forty years 
ago, William Stevens depended on Central 
City and Grand Island as his railroad points. 
The road down the valley, as then traveled. 
was long and wearisome. It was sometimes on 
one side of the Loup river, and then on the 
other, just as the exigencies of the breaks and 
soils and untamed wilds demanded. The trips 
were not always free from dangers, nor were 
the drivers always care free as to the safety 
of families and properties left at home dur- 
ing the week or more of absence. There was 
no rapid transit of message in those days, and 
the valley never echoed the chug of the auto 
bringing help in case of unanticipated dis- 
tress or Indian visitation. 

But the trips were frequently enlivened by 
impressive incident, experiences related, or tra- 
ditions and tales told over, which now stand 
out in the memory of the pioneer as a pleas- 
urable and cherished reminiscence. It has 
been so always, and everywhere. In taming 
the wilds of every country the pioneers en- 
acted the scenes which sul)set|u.entiv became 
the play puppets of the retrospective hour. 

^Ir. Stevens occasionally hauled loads of 
cedar posts to Central City. Small and few as 
were his financial transactions in those days, 
some were certain to come, and the posts of- 



fered one of the very few solutions to the 
incoming revenue problem. 

Stopping at nightfall with some lone settler 
on the endless prairie, who was trying to de- 
velop a home amidst the haunts of the coyotes, 
the owls, and the rattlesnakes, the driver could 
get his night's lodging and hay for the team 
for twenty-five cents. The quarter looked 
ver}^ big and very welcome to the owners of 
the soddies on the claims down the valley. 

On one of those trips, jMr. Stevens found the 
bridge at St. Paul washed away, and so he 
proceeded to FuUerton, in the hope that he 
might be able to get across, perhaps over the 
ferry. It was while there that Mr. Stevens 
met a resident of the town who had in pre- 
vious years been a member of a United States 
surveying party of twelve which made the 
original federal survey of this country. And 
thence we get this little tale. 

Like in many such instances, there are no 
positive means of identifying locations. Dis- 
tances were not accurately known. But from 
the surveyor's minute description of the creek, 
its bank, another draw to the southward, sep- 
arated from the creek by a level prairie, the 
upward slope to the south of the draw, and 
the hills and canyons beyond, — these, and 
other minutiae, enabled Mr. Stevens to feel 
satisfied that the location lay upon the land he 
had subsequently homcsteadcd. He has an- 
other proof — which is quite conclusive. In 
the field and pastured hills on the up-slope 
south of the draw, he has since picked up per- 
haps half a hundred of rifle balls, which had 
in the after years lain where they struck or 
fell. Their numbers indicated* an oldi-time 
battle-field. 

The surveying party was engaged along the 
creek near its mouth, one morning, when a 
band of Indians came out of the canyon to the 
south and advanced northward. It didn't mat- 
ter to what tribe they belonged,^ for they 
were warlike in manner and too numerous to 
justify a parley for negotiations. The sur- 
veyors dropped below the creek bank for shel- 
ter, feeling that such situation would olTer 
means for an advantageous resistance. The 
government had provided them with the old- 
time, long-range "Needle-guns" — and it was 
now time to use them. 

Before the Indians got to the draw the sur- 
veyors began to i)ick them off as best they 
could. So it was l.ut natural that the red- 
skins should crouch in the draw for their own 
protection. Their guns were of the sJiort- 
range class, and they could not reach the sur- 
veyors. They were safe in the draw, but 
thev dare not venture across the level to- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



31 



ward the surveyors. Both parties were safe 
where they were, but neither dared to show 
itself in open, and neither cared to assert 
claim to the expanse between — for it was a 
"No Man's Land" of another day. 

Yet neither could get away without taking- 
chances. So they kept up their spasmodic ex- 
change of compliments through all that by- 
gone day, both waiting for the welcome cloak 
of the night-time to cover their strategic de- 
signs. 

\Mien darkness came, as an encompassing 
friend, the plans that were evolved during the 
day were set in motion, and the surveying 



they came. That would iiave been the ro- 
mance of history. 

The same hills that reverberated o'er the val- 
ley the desultory crack of the defender's rifle 
that day are still sitting guard at the valley's 
brink, but they now send back the echoes of 
agricultural and pastoral pursuit — for the 
"No Man's Land" of that pioneer day is a 
field in the "one man's land" of the present, 
sending its corn from the ditches and dairy 
products from the herd, — all as silent testi- 
mony of the changes of time. 

The same creek (now known as Spring 
creek) wanders through the same crooks, and 




[From Butcher History of Custer County] 

An E.-^rly Winter Scene 



party began its "strategic withdrawal." Slip- 
ping along under the bank of the creek to 
the river, they were soon quietly going with 
the stream to surroundings that promised 
greater safety. But there was no further 
conflict. 

Such is the story as it was outlined to us. 
The original relator went no further. The 
next chapter, if any, was not revealed. And 
why did the Indians not follow ? It is every- 
body's guess. They could have harassed — 
but they did not. Possibly they, too, were 
strategists. Perhaps they also longed for the 
cover of darkness, in order that they might 
likewise resort to a "strategic retreat," and 
go slinking back to the canyon from whence 



the same banks to-day aflford tempting play- 
grounds for the romping children of anglers 
who cast hook or seine in the quiet little chan- 
nel. 

More rifle balls lie plugged in the slope and 
the hill sides, waiting to be picked up by some 
wandering stroller who will stand and wonder. 
He may not have even the shadowy tradition 
of the two belligerent parties — each sneaking 
away in a strategic retreat — to give direction 
to his imaginative tread. 

WHO WAS THE FIRST WHITE M.\N? 

Coming now to the days in which men made 
records and wrote history^ — who was the first 



32 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



white man that ever set eyes on Custer coun- 
ty? \\'ho, among all the explorers of early 
days, had opportunity to cani^j in this re- 
gion? Following Columbus came the Cabots, 
Vespucius, and Magellan, DeSoto, Balboa, 
Ponce de Leon, Coronado. Drake, and a dozen 
such kindred spirits. They tramped the con- 
tinent and sought for gold, for territory, for 
hot springs of youth and any form of wealth 
the new land might possess, but did they ever 
see Nebraska ? Did their expeditions ever ex- 
tend so far west or so far east, did any of 
them come up from the south or drop down 
from the north into our central Nebraska? 
Suspicion at- 
taches to none 
of them un- 
less it be to 
Coronado. 

DID COROXAno 
FIND us 

If we can be- 
lieve his biog- 
raphers, some 
of his explor- 
ing party may 
have been the 
first Euro- 
])caiis to have 
seen Custer 
county. In 
July of 1541 
this Spanish 
general and 
explorer, bent 

on exploring the country he called Quivcra, 
came out of New Mexico from the south 
and west and penetrated into the region 
of Nebraska as far north as the Platte river, 
and how much farther we do not know. 
From the Coronado camp on the Platte, it is 
not unlikely that the hunters rode out in all 
directions and, if so. perhaps they might have 
touched the south part of our young domin- 
ion. If Coronado did not find us then, ])er- 
haps we were discovered a few years later Ijy 
Padilla. a Franciscan friar, who was one of 
the Coronado party and who returned to do 




[Photo by S. D. Butcher] 

An Old Settler ox the South Loup 



missionary work among the Indians in the 
Platte region. According to tradition. Padilla 
not only labored for several months among a 
powerful tribe of Nebraska Indians, but it 
was here that he lost his life and in Nebraska 
soil, perhaps not far removed from Custer 
county, his bones went back to virgin dust. 
During his operations he had with him per- 
haps a dozen men, mostly friars and body- 
servants, and imagination need not labor hard 
to believe that some of them wandered far 
enough north to reach this county and to have 
been among the first, if not the first, to set 
foot on Custer county soil, or walk the green 

carpet of Cus- 
ter prairies. 

PLENTY OF 
WILD G.\ME 

Perhaps here 
they hunted 
the buffaloes 
or other deni- 
zens of the 
new land. The 
country then 
m n s t have 
been a hunt- 
ers' paradise. 
B u fif a 1 o e s 
ranged in such 
numbers that 
s t a m peding 
herds made 
the ground 
tremble, while 
the sound of their treading resembled dis- 
tant thunder. Elk and deer were plenti- 
ful in those days. Antelope and wild tur- 
keys, with goose and grouse, added varie- 
ty to the hunters' menu and fattened the 
red man on savory meats that kings could 
not buy. 

Since Coronado and Padilla may have ftunid 
our location and looked it over full centuries 
before this generation fell heir to its posses- 
sions, we will list their advent as among the 
possibilities, and for want of better record, let 
it go at that. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



53 



OTHER EXPEDITIONS 

The Lewis and Clark expedition of 1803 
passed by so far to the north and east, that 
it is not likely that any side expeditions were 
made into the Custer county region. They 
followed the Missouri river from their Coun- 
cil Bluff's camp to where it crosses the state 
line, a route that missed the Custer portion of 
the state by nearly a hundred miles. 

There is still another chance that we may 
have been exposed to the survey of an early 
expedition. A party of French Canadians, 
eight or ten in number, in charge of Pierre 
and Paul Mallet spent one winter at the junc- 
tion of the Niobrara and Missouri rivers an,d 
from there journeyed south until they dis- 
covered and named the Platte river. As the 
river course seemed to lead in the direction 
they wished to go, they followed it sourceward 
for seventy m.iles and then traversed a wood- 
less plain. Some of their side expeditions or 
hunting parties might have visited some of 
the places now in the confines of this county, 
and have been the first or second white party 
to behold it. 

Zebulon INI. Pike missed a mighty good 
chance to pay us a visit as long ago as 1806, 
when he conducted his expedition from east- 
ern Missouri to the Colorado mountains, where 
he nailed his name to the high, bald mountain 
now known as Pike's Peak. Some writers 
claim that he traveled through parts of south- 
ern and central Nebraska. But Kansas is sel- 
fish, and down four miles south of Hardy, 
Nebraska, and at least three miles south of the 
Nebraska-Kansas state line, it has erected a 
monument and marked it "The northern limit 
of the Pike route." Unless that stone comes 
as wide of the truth as tombstones often do. 
Lieutenant Pike never saw our territory, un- 
less he had unusually long vision when he 
looked north and east from the tip-top rocks 
of his mountain namesake. 

In the winter time of 1812, one Robert Stu- 
art, a Scotchman, who went west in the vear 
before, in an expedition headed by himself 
and Wilson Price Hunt, wandered back with 
a few of his party to the headwater of the 
Platte river, where thev undertook to winter. 



The Indians routed them out of their winter 
quarters, and they journeyed east three hun- 
dred and thirty miles down the river, when 
they were stopped by heavy snows and, not 
finding comfortable winter cjuarters, they 
turned back toward what is now Scotts Bluff 
county, where they remained for the rest of 
the winter. It may be that they invaded Cus- 
ter county. 

Captain Henry Dodge, with an expedition 
of soldiers, came out of the southeast in 1835 
and must have penetrated almost, if not quite, 
to the Custer county line. 

GEXER.VL W.\RREX WAS HERE IN 1855 

In 1855 or 1856 Lieutenant G. K. Warren, 
a major-general in the Civil war, conducted 
a military exploring expedition up the Loup 
valley in search of the most suitable route 
for a transcontinental railway. His route was 
along the north side of the Loup river, through 
the Pawnee Indian village, forded the North 
Fork and crossed the present townsite of St. 
Paul, as later shown by his wagon tracks, 
thence along the north side of the Middle 
Loup to its source. This road was very plain 
in 1872 when Robert Harvey made the govern- 
ment survey on the north side of the river. 
It was made by an old military expedition as 
shown bv the uniform wide-gauge and grass- 
covered wagon tracks, and was the onh' wagon 
train in the Loup valley. There was also an 
old, wide-gauge, grass-covered wagon trail 
through Woods Park, leading out of Mira 
valley in \'alley county. These trails cross 
each other on the north side of the Middle 
Loup river in the Woods Park vicinity, yir. 
Harvey mentions in his surveyor's field notes 
the point where the trails cross. 

JOHX WILMOUTH THE FIRST M.\N HERE 

One of the questions of burning interest for 
the purposes of this history is : Who was the 
first white man to come into the county on any 
pretext whatsoever, is now alive, and of whom 
there is a definite record? If information ob- 
tained is correct the question can be answered. 
In the hills seven miles northeast of Merna is 
the home of L'ncle John Wilmouth. Uncle 
John lives on the same homestead upon which 



34 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



he settled in the spring of 1883 and which 
has been his home continuously since that time. 
He has never mortgaged it nor offered it 
for sale. He lives in a sod house, which has 
been repaired as the occasion required, and 
as the years passed. His good wife lives with 
him and although they are advancing in years 
they are in comfortable circumstances. 

If the story that Uncle John tells is cor- 
rect, beyond any doubt he is the first white 
man to have seen Custer county and who is 
still living. 

uxcLE John's story 

Uncle John does not know his age but 
thinks that he was born probably in 1831 or 
1832. His brother, George Wilmouth, who 
lives in Broken Bow, is sixty-six years of age, 
and George is the youngest of eleven chil- 
dren, while John is the oldest. Naturally that 
would substantiate the dates Uncle John gives 
for his birth. He says that when he was a 
boy of sixteen or seventeen he ran away from 
his home in Virginia, with another boy about 
the same age, and that they made their way 
down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to St. 
Louis, where they joined a caravan of Mor- 
mons en route for Salt Lake ; that with them 
he passed over the Platte river trail through 
Nebraska in 1851. He claims to have spent 
nine very exciting years in Utah and the moun- 
tain region, during which he had many start- 
ling encounters with Indians. He claims to 
have been captured by Indians two or three 
times and exhibits knots and scars on his 
wrists and hands which show the Indians tied 
him with sharp thongs that cut through the 
skin into the flesh. In the early spring of 1860, 
in company with twenty or twenty-five other 
men, he started on the return trip to the states. 
They made their way through Wyoming and 
into the region of the Bad Lands and the 
south line of the Dakotas. Here L^ncle John 
gives a graphic description of a rendezvous 
of thieves whom they found in this locality 
and with whom he and one or two others of 
the party had an exciting adventure. From 
this place the party headed south in an en- 
deavor to reach Fort Kearney. Members of 



the party fell out along the route or were 
killed by Indians until there were only eight 
or nine left in the company that turned south 
through Nebraska. Uncle John thinks that 
his party struck the ^liddle Loup river and 
followed it down into the .region of Custer 
county and that they were probably in Cus- 
ter county when surrounded by a band of 
Indians with whom they had a hard fight. 
Their horses got away from them but were 
not captured by the Indians, and after Uncle 
John and three or four of the survivors suc- 
ceeded in crawling away from the Indians un- 
der cover of night they were fortunate enough 
to find their horses in a canyon pocket next 
morning. They succeeded in catching the 
horses and started south in the direction of 
Kearney with all possible haste. They crossed 
the South Loup river, L'ncle John thinks, some- 
where near the present site of Oconto and in 
about a days ride from that place they came 
in sight of the United States flag and in a 
short time after they sighted the flag they met 
United States soldiers. They were none too 
soon, however, for a cloud of dust rising from 
the plains back along the way they had come 
showed plainly that the Indians were pur- 
suing them. 

This is Uncle John's story. It has to be 
taken, analyzed, and examined in the light of 
every possibihty. Could it be true? Is it 
possible that it is true? Is it probably true? 
All these are questions to be considered. It 
must be taken into consideration that L'ncle 
John is old, and memory is treacherous. Uncle 
John's neighbors are inclined to believe that 
approaching old age makes suggestions and 
fancies personal realities. This is one of the 
caprices of old age and halting memory. On 
the other hand the story could have been true. 
The dates fixed make it all possible if not 
probable. Seven years ago Uncle John recited 
to a creditable witness the same story, with 
the same details, which he recites now to 
Judge A. R. Humphrey and the recorder of 
this story. Uncle John's description of con- 
ditions in Utah and western Colorado is true 
to conditions that prevailed at the time he says 
he was there. His account of the thieves en- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



35 



countered in Dakota and description of their 
rendezvous tallies exactly with the under- 
ground railroad story related by Robert Har- 
vey in another chapter of this volume. The 
United States flag which he claims to have 
seen at or near Fort Kearney helps to cor- 
roborate his story, for there was at that lime 
a tall flag pole from which the flag continually 
floated, standing on a promiinence in front of 
the fort. A portion of this flag pole is now 
in the historical museum in the state library 
at Lincoln. 



It is altogether probable that Uncle John's 
stimulated imagination may account for some 
of the details he recites, yet we think it al- 
together possible and probable that he made 
the trip he claims to have made, at or near 
the time he claims to have made it, and as 
none can dispute the story it becomes credit- 
able history and accordingly we make the state- 
ment that Uncle John Wilmouth is the first 
man to have seen Custer county who is still 
alive. 



CHAPTER TT 

DESCRIPTIONS, LINES AND BOUNDARIES 

Table Lands and Valleys — Undulations Tabulated — Towns and Ranges — No 

Technical Terms — Harvey's Contribution — Bridging Clear Creek — A Mutiny — 

Find Ruins oi* Old Fortifications — An Impending Indian Battle — A Camp Fire — 

Find an Error on Fifth Parallel — A Lame Ox and the Remedy — Names of 

Creeks — Fooling the Cook — Government Surveys — Custer County 

Wicather — Temi'Kraturi: and Precipitation Tables 



If Nebraska is the central state nf the L'nimi, 
Custer county is the central county of the 
state. If Nebraska is the heart of the na- 
tion, Custer county is the heart of Nebraska, 
and in its relation to the entire country is the 
lieart fif the heart. All that Nebraska is in 
rank and place to the United States, Custer 
county is to other counties of the state. If 
there are advantages in a central location, 
they accrue, in the whole, to Custer county. 
So far as north and south are concerned the 
north line of the county is eighty-three miles 
south of the north line of the state, while the 
south line of the county is seventy-two miles 
north of the south line of the state. In its 
relation to east and west, the east line of the 
county is one hundred and seventy-four miles 
west of the average east line of the state, and 
the west line of the county is one hundred and 
si.xty-two miles east of the average west line 
of the state. This ])laccs the geographical 
center of the state well into the heart of Cus- 
ter conntx'. As nearly as can be ascertained 
by map measurements, the northwest corner 
of township LS, range 2^ west, townsliip IS 
north, is the geographical center of Nebraska. 
This falls in Custer county and is approxi- 
mately four miles south of .Xnselmo. 

But since it is best, perhaps, to trace its 
boundaries so as to record size as well as 
location, drive a stake down on the northeast 
corner of section 1, township 20 north, range 



17 west, 'ith princi|)al meridian, then run a 
straight line west fifty-four miles over hills 
and valleys to the northwest corner of sec- 
lion 6, township 20 north, range 25 west, 
thence south in a straight lline foTtv-eight 
miles to the southwest corner of section 3L 
township 13 north, thence east in a line 
straight and true to the southeast corner of 
section 36, township 13 north, range 17 west, 
th.ence north forty-eight miles, as the sur- 
veyor would say, to the place of beginning. 
Now we have run the boundaries of the coun- 
ty. We have enclosed seventy-two townships 
of thirty-six sections each or a tract of land 
containing 2,592 square miles. The average 
man can perhaps best understand the extent 
of territory if it is described in acres. Cus- 
ter county contains 1.658.880 acres of land. 

TABLE LANDS AND VALLEYS 

The general to|K)graphy of the county might 
be described as rolling or undulating, ranging 
from precipitous and broken cliffs along the 
rivers to the level lands of tables and valleys. 
There are several plateaus which arc com- 
nionly called table land, antl accordingly have 
received their res])e:tive cognomens. In the 
central part of the county is the celebrated 
"West" table, a very fertile, jirdduclive soil 
region and the largest table in the county. 
Directly east across on the eastern side of 
the dale or Merna vallev is the "East" table. 



36 



IIISTORN- Ol'^ CL'STER COUNTY, NJUSRASKA 



37 



Over in tlie northeast section of the county the 
■'French" tahlc and "Bog-gs" table have promi- 
nent place and arc celebrated for their ]iro- 
chictive farm lands. South of the center of 
the county is the "Ryno" table. In the south- 
east corner there is a large tract of table 
land that is called "P-lackhill r.a,sin.'" Let no 
man think because this table is called the 
"Blackhill Basin" that it is not table land. 
All plateaus (m- tables are higher at their 
outer edge or rim than in the center. The 
southwest corner of the county has a ni(in(ii>o- 



ty, nine miles west of the soutlieast corner. 
The Middle Loup valley is appro.ximately for- 
ty-eight miles long and from three to eight 
miles witl'e. It conies in from the north, 
crossing- the county line in the exact center 
of the county east and west, and runs out 
tiirough the east line of the county eighteen 
miles south of the northeast corner. In ad- 
dition to these major valleys there are smaller 
valleys, along the creeks and smaller streams, 
that are unnamed. Other well defined val- 
leys have been gfivcn place and name on the 




\Phulv hy S. I), lliilclu-i] 



Owi/s Nest in Cheesehrough Canyon 
Near West Union, Custer county 



ly of small tables. I lere are located "Red- 
fern" table, "Stop" table, "Tallin" table, "Od- 
ensciants" table, "Rock Island" table, and sev- 
eral others. 

Along with the tables go the valleys, and 
if the county is celebrated for its table-land 
it is also noted for its extensive and fertile 
valleys. The South Loup valley leads all 
the valleys of the county in size. It is :ip- 
proximately sixty miles long and from ihnc 
to five miles wide. It enters the county at 
the west line, west and north of .\rnold, and 
runs out through the south line of the coun- 



Custer county niaj) and demand a place and 
name in this volume. In the northwest sec- 
tion of the county are Dale valley, Ortello val- 
ley, Eureka valley, Sand valley, lloosier val- 
ley, and Muddy Creek valley. Over in the 
northeast the valleys are dignified by the 
name of ])arks, accordingly we have Cnm- 
niings Bark, Woods Park, Lee's Bark, and 
Sjiencer Bark. Roten valley is over in the 
snutheast corner of the county. All these 
valleys are generally level, deep-soiled, and 
well-watered and in an early day were very 
attractive to home-seekers. They were the 



38 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



first lands to be settled and accordingly are 
to-day the sites of the oldest farms. 

In addition to the two forks of the Loup 
river which flow through the county there 
are several other small streams which af- 
fect more or less the topography of the coun- 
ty, — Clear creek, in the east portion of the 
county, the ]\Iuddy, originating in the center 
of the county and flowing down toward the 
southeast corner : Deer creek. Spring creek, 
Ash creek, and Wood river are all in the 
south half of the county. Over in the north, 
Mctoria creek, Lillian creek, and Rifle creek 
are the principal water courses, outside of the 
rivers. The lineal measurements of Custer 
county's rivers and creeks are more than 
two hundred and fifty miles. In the early 
days many of these streams were well wooded 
with ash. bo.\-elder. jack oak, willow, elm, 
and other varieties, among which red cedar 
figured prominently. 

U NDUL.VTIOXS TABULATED 

A more detailed description of the topog- 
raphy of the county given by townships 
and ranges as displayed in the records of the 
state office of the surveyor general is as fol- 
lows : 

R.W'GE 17 

Township 13. Rolling: black loam; fine 
grass lind. 

Township 14. Rolling; black loam ; smooth 
valley along Muddy creek. 

Township 15. Rolling; black loam ; smooth 
valley along Muddy creek. 

Township 16. Fine valley along Clear 
creek ; balance rolling. 

Township 17. All rolling; black loam; fine 
grass land. 

Township 18. East of Middle Loup; quite 
sandy ; west, fine, irrigation ditch in opera- 
tion. 

Township 19. Sandy in Loup valley, fer- 
tile ; balance rolling, grass land. 

Township 20. Rolling, fine black loam, 
good grass land. 

R.'XNGE 18 
Township 13. Rolling; fine black loam; 
fine farms in Elk creek valley, rest grazing. 



Township 14. Good farms along Elk 
creek ; balance rolling, fertile. 

Township 15. Muddy creek valley, fertile; 
balance rolling. 

Township 16. Rolling, except in Clear and 
Muddy creek valleys. 

Township 17. Fine valley land along creek, 
with rolling, grass land between. 

Township 18. Fine valley, surrounded by 
rolling, grass land. 

Township 19. Middle Loup valley, fertile, 
some sand ; rolling south of river. 

Township 20. Nearly all rolling; some 
rather rough, good grass land. 

RANGE 19 

Township 13. Fine ranches along South 
Loup ; balance rolling ; black soil. 

Township 14. Rolling; black loam; good 
valleys. 

Township 15. Rolling; black loam; good 
valleys. 

Township 16. Fine valleys along ]\Iuddy 
and Dutchman creeks ; balance rolling, good. 

Township 17. Good valley along Clear 
creek ; balance rolling, good land. 

Township 18. Several small valleys, very 
fertile ; balance rolling. 

Township 19. Good valley north of Middle 
Loup, south, sandy: balance rolling, with good 
valleys. 

Township 20. Rolling, but good land. 

R.\XGE 20 

Township 13. Rolling; black loam; fine 
valley along Loup. 

Township 14. Good valley along Loup; 
balance rolling. 

Township 15. Rolling; rough in north 
part. 

Township 16. Good along Muddy creek; 
balance rolling, rough in south. 

Township 17. Good along Muddy and 
Clear creeks; balance rolling. 

Township 18. Rolling with good valleys. 

Township 19. Good valleys along Middle 
Loup river and Lillian creek; rolling in south 
part with good valleys ; Lillian irrigation 
ditch. 

Township 20. Good valley along Middle 
Loup; balance rolling. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



39 



RANGE 21 

Township 13. Very fine land along W'ood 
river; balance rolling. 

Township 14. Rolling, except along Loup 
river. 

Township 15. Rolling; fine grass land. 

Township 16. Fine level land in south- 
west ; some sand in northeast : balance roll- 
ing. 

Township 17. Fine valley in northwest; 
table-land in northeast ; balance rolling, some 
sand. 

Township 18. Table-land in south ; fine 
valley in center ; balance rolling. 

Township 19. Fine valley along Victoria 
creek ; balance rolling, some sand. 

Township 20. Middle Loup valley ; balance 
rolling and sandy. 

RANGE 22 

Township 13. Rolling; good valleys and 
grass land. 

Township 14. Wood river valley, fertile ; 
balance rolling. 

Township 15. South Loup river and 
Spring creek valleys, good ; balance rolling, 
rough. 

Township 16. Rolling with good valleys; 
good soil : grass land. 

Township 17. Northwest part fine table- 
land; northeast part good valley; east, sandy. 

Township 18. East part fine valley ; bal- 
ance rolling, with good valleys. 

Township 19. Southeast good valley; bal- 
ance sandy and rolling. 

Township 20. Sandy, rolling land ; good 
ranches. 

RANGE 23 

Township 13. Rolling lands with good val- 
leys ; good table-land in northeast part. 

Township 14. South part fine table-land ; 
balance rolling, good valleys. 

Township 15. South part rough ; large val- 
ley ; Loup valley and west of township sandy 
loam. 

Township 16. Good valley along South 
Loup ; balance rough, rolling. 

Township 17. North and east parts fine 
table-lands ; rest rolling, rough. 



Township 18. Southwest fine table : Ortel- 
lo valley, fertile : north part sandy, rolling. 

Township 19. Rolling, sandy land ; good 
ranches. 

Township 20. Rolling, sandy land, good 
ranches. 

RANGE 24 

Township 13. Rolling land with good val- 
leys. 

Township 14. Some fine table-land ; bal- 
ance rolling. 

Township 15. South third rolling; central 
third valley, sandy ; north third sandy and 
rough. 

Township 16. Good valley along Loup; 
balance rolling and rough. 

Township 17. Rolling and rough grazing 
land ; northeast table-land. 

Township 18. South part fine table-land; 
balance rolling ; north some sand. 

Township 19. Rolling, sandy, grass land. 

Township 20. Rolling, sandy land ; ranches. 

RANGE 25 

Township 13. Rolling lands with good val- 
leys. 

Township 14. Rolling lands with good val- 
leys and table-lands. 

Township 15. Fine table-land : valley in 
eastern part. 

Township 16. Rolling land ; some sand in 
north part. 

Township 17. Good valley along South 
Loup; balance rolling, rough. 

Township 18. Rough, rolling, grazing 
lands. 

Township 19. Rolling, sandy ; grass lands ; 
ranches. 

Township 20. Rolling, sandy ; grass lands ; 
ranches. 

Custer county has a deep, rich soil, well 
suited to all kinds of agriculture and grass 
production. In the north and west part of 
the county is a region known as the sand 
hills, but these hills are well grassed and pro- 
duce continually a nutritious crop of more 
than forty different kinds of grasses. These 
grasses are very nutritious and make splendid 
grazing for cattle. Many of the vallevs in 



40- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



the sand liill region have a mixture of clay 
or black loam in the sand composition which 
makes them profitable for farming or agri- 
cultural purposes. In all other sections of 
the county the hills are generally clay sub- 
soil and in addition to producing luxuriant 
grasses produce in abundance all kinds of 
agricultural products. The table lands and 
valleys are adapted to all kinds of grains and 
especially to the growth of alfalfa. 

NO TECHNICAL TERMS 

In the description of soil, it does not serve 
■ the purpose to be technical. This is not a 
scientific treatise. Geologists tell us that the 
soils of the county that are tillable are of 
cretaceous rock formation, or in other words 
decomposed rock. When decomposition was 
complete the soil thus formed was distributed 
over the lower levels by the action of wind 
and water. A recent soil survey of central 
Nebraska west of Hall and Howard counties, 
made by the United S'fates government, desig- 
nates the soil of Custer county generally as 
"Colby silt." Silt is defined as mud and fine 
earth deposited by water, and in its distri- 
bution, if not in its production, the water 
has always been aided and abetted by the 
wind. Generally speaking, the soil is from 
a few feet to many feet in depth and may be 
divided into three principal kinds. The allu- 
vial soils of the creeks and river valleys are 
called Lincoln loams. The hills or upland 
table soils are called "Colby silt" and the 
sandy silt, ranging from a good sandy soil 
to almost pure sand, is found on top of the 
sand dunes. -Ml these soils have value in the 
])ropagation of plant life. The soil charac- 
ter so far as the valleys are concerned is gen- 
erally uniform. For miles on either side of 
the -Streams the alluvial soil belongs to the 
Lincoln silt series and is rich in humus and 
very productive. This silt has a strata of 
Colby silt, washed from the hills and higher 
ground in the formative periods. The Colby 
silt of the hills or upland tables is also uniform 
and exceedingly productive when climatic con- 
ditions are favorable. Like the soils of the 
valley it contains nitrotjcn. ])otash. and phos- 



phorate in sufficient amounts to produce abun- 
dant plant life. 

For a full three dozen years the soils of 
Custer county have been in cultivation, and 
(luring these years, when rainfall was suffici- 
ent, have justified the claim that they are well 
adapted to ag'ricultural purposes. 

L'nderneath the soil stratum lies a deep bed 
of glacial gravel, through which flows an in- 
exhaustible quantity of purest water, ven>- soft, 
and free from mineral compositions. All 
deep wells in the county go down into this 
gravel stratum and are thus guaranteed the 
finest kind of water, in absolutely inexhausti- 
ble quantities. 

H.\RVEV'S COXTRIBUTION' 

[Robert Harvey, the man who ran the lines 
of Custer county survey and who has been 
Nebraska stale surveyor for many years, 
n:akes the following contribution to this vol- 
ume] : 

The territory embraced within the hmits of 
my exterior lines was a tract thirty-six miles 
north and south and forty-eight miles east and 
west, and during the progress of the work 
there naturally occurred incidents of trivial 
moment at the time and few of them found 
a mention in the field notes of surveys or in 
the reports to the surveyor general ; but as the 
years pass and the generations succeed each 
other on the stage of action their thoughts 
turn back to the first things, first happenings 
and the first movements toward planting a 
new civilization. 

In all new countries a certain line of alleged 
incidents becomes current, stock stories and 
traditions, and some have found their way 
into jHiblished histories as historic facts. 

I will endeavor in the following pages brief- 
ly to tell the story of some of the incidents 
which occurred in connection with mj' party 
and progress of the work and obsen^ations 
made, some of which are of record and some 
of memory. 

BRIIXUXG CI.E.\R CREEK 

The party was organized and outfitted at 
St. Paul, Howard county, and on going to the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



41 



work I proceeded up the south side of the 
Middle Loup and over the table land to Clear 
creek, which I found to be about ten feet wide 
and five feet deep, near the north line of sec- 
tion 1, township 15 north, range 17 west. 
The banks were soft and there was no timber 
within five or six miles, except a small clump 
of box-elders near our camp. I cut steps in 
the banks and on these set four ten-gallon 
water casks, two on each bank, and upon these 
we placed the 
empty wagon-box. 
For approaches, 
the end-gates and 
the box - elders, 
were used. The 
supplies were car- 
ried over and the 
four mules led 
through, all with- 
in two hours. A 
few days after- 
ward two survey- 
ing parties of 
about eighteen 
men spent half a 
day building a 
bridge six miles 
below, of cotton- 
wood logs, cut in 
a nearby canyon. 

A MUTINY 

After reaching 
our initial, which 
was the corner of 
townships 14 and 
15 north, ranges 
17 and 18 west, on 
the south side of 
Muddy creek, I ran north six miles, when, upon 
reaching camp, I found that the camp luen, 
unused to conserving the water supply, had 
nearly exhausted it, so after a late dinner I 
told the men we would hitch up and run 
the line a mile or two north to where I sup- 
posed the creek to be, and camp for the 
night. Two of the men revolted, struck, said 
they had done their day's work and would 




Robert H.\rvey, St.\te Surveyor 



go no farther. I had not known these men 
before they were engaged, they having been 
recommended to me. During our travel to 
the work they had studiously avoided reach- 
ing the noon and night camps until after the 
camp work was done, but always in time for 
their meals ; jocosely they said to the men, 
out of my hearing, that they were out on a 
"lark," a "picnic" and to "have a good time." 
Now I considered the time had come when 

there must be a 
"show of hands," 
so after e.xplain- 
ing the necessity 
for the move and 
their still declin- 
ing to move, I 
told them they 
could either obey 
orders or quit ; 
they said they 
would quit. I told 
them to turn in 
theirarmsand am- 
munition (which 
belonged to the 
government), roll 
their blankets, 
take two days' ra- 
tions and get out- 
side of the camp 
ground within fif- 
teen minutes, and 
that fifteen meant 
fifteen and not 
sixteen ; it was 
done and they 
walked out. When 
the surveyor gen- 
eral heard of this 
he mildly reprimanded me. saying that it was a 
dangerous procedure to discharge men in an In- 
dian infested county, but I said they were given 
a choice and they volunteered to quit. In after 
years when I went into the jurisdiction of an- 
other surveyor general, in one of the southwes- 
tern territories, I found I had a record, the 
story had preceded me. I was compelled, how- 
ever, to return and procure other men. 



42 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



FIND RUIXS OF OLD FORTIFICATIONS 

I completed the township Hnes south of the 
fourth standard parallel, returned to the east 
side of the work, and began running the lines 
between the fourth and fifth parallels. (3n 
running east on the line between townships 18 
and 19, range 17, we found on the right bank 
of the Loup river a circular line of fortifica- 
tions overgrown with grass and extending 
from bank to bank. In the grass we found 
rust-eaten tin plates and tin cups and in the 
brush on the east side an old set of hay 
scales. 

AX IMPENDING INDIAN BATTLE 

This was in section 33, township 19, range 
17 north. Being nearly out of provisions, I 
only ran this line east to the river and i)ro- 
ceeded down the river to the upper end of 
an island which I think is about opposite 
Comstock, and camped close to the river bank. 
C^n the west, about fifty or a hundred yards, 
was a broad, bulrush slough which entered 
the river farther down. I thought this a good 
defensive position against Indians, as the only 
way they could get at us with their ponies 
would be to come down along the narrow strip 
of solid ground between the ruin and slough 
for a mile or two. 

While the cook was getting dinner, I looked 
across the valley and noticed several horse- 
men on the bluffs, who were going southeast 
toward the river, and before reaching the val- 
ley they saw us and came directly toward our 
camp : of course, they were Indians. I there- 
fore sent the two best shots into the bulrushes 
with instruction not to let them cross the 
slough, while we threw up a line of breast- 
works in front of the camp. While thus en- 
gaged I got into the wagon, so I could see 
across the swamp. Someone said, "Where 
is Jim Scott?" His spade was in the rifle 
pit but he was gone and the word went round 
that Jim had run. The wagon stood close 
to the cut bank and looking over I saw Jim 
putting on a new pair of overalls. I yelled, 
"Jim, what arc you doing? Whv ain't vou 
digging?" "Well, boss," said Jim, "I just 
thought if we are to fight I don't want to 



be found dead in an old pair of ragged over- 
alls." 

No sound came from the bulrushes, neither 
could I see any signs of Indians or my two 
men. when finally one of the men appeared 
and called that they were white men and 
soldiers. Captain John Mix, of a cavalry 
command, was out on reconnoisance and was 
camped about tw'o miles down the river, be- 
hind some timber, and these men were return- 
ing hunters for the command. 

.\ CAMP FIRE 

After having received supjilies I continued 
the range line north. I camped at the corner 
of townships 18 and 20. ranges 17 and 18. and 
completed the line between townshijis 19 and 
20. range 18. in the afternoon. Next morn- 
ing I found that the teamster, Charlev Storey, 
had brought, from the river the evening be- 
fore, only one barrel of w-ater and the stock 
and camp had used nearly all of it. leaving 
only a small supply for use of the men and 
team that were to go north to the county line, 
or parallel. So Storey was instructed to re- 
turn to the river for more w'ater. 

The tent stood about three chains north of 
tlie township corner and it had to be taken 
down so that I could see to set the flagman. 
We reached the county line at noon and at the 
last flag station, on a hill just south of the 
line, I looked back and noticed a thin column 
of smoke shooting straight up and directly 
over the line. We hurriedly ate our din- 
ner and hurried back to camp, and from 
the bluflf overlooking the valley saw that 
the camp was on fire, the tent down and men 
trying to put out the fire. It seemed that 
after we had started north on the line 
the cook concluded to go with Storey to the 
river, for Storey's father had bt-cn killed by 
the Indians and he was very unsafe to be 
trusted alone. Before going, however, he dug 
a trench, emptied the fire bo.x of the sheet 
iron stove into it. sjirinkled water on the 
living coals and then covered them over with 
earth. They were at the river when they 
noticed the smoke. Inn the cook ran the three 
miles, reached camp before the tent fell, saved 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



43 



the small trench containing field notes and 
maps, etc., and carried out the box of five 
hundred rounds of paper cartridge ammuni- 
tion for revolvers. The pine box had burned 
through at one corner, scorched the inside pa- 
per lining and in perhaps another instant the 
entire contents would have exploded. The 
tent, one wagon-cover, all of our bedding, ex- 
tra clothing, and the grain and flour sacks 
were consumed. John M. Daugherty, who 
was running section lines, was camped in 
front of the entrance to Woods Park and 
lent us what assistance he could by loaning us 
grain sacks, boxes, etc., to hold what we were 
able to save, and some extra blankets. Mr. 
Daugherty's party was at dinner when they 
saw the smoke and through a field glass said 
they saw some men at the camp, saw the team 
returning from the river and saw the tent 
fall. They thought it was Indians raiding 
the camp. It was suggested that the two men 
discharged in July, had returned to commit 
the depredation. Upon exainination it was 
found that the dry buffalo grass had not been 
burned for several feet around the stove, 
and there was no evidence of there having 
been an explosion of the buried coals. I have 
never been able to formulate a satisfactory 
theory as to the cause of this fire. This 
caused me a loss of several days in going 
to the settlement on the Loup where I was 
loaned tents, blankets, etc., by Captain Munon, 
of Company C, Ninth United States Infantry, 
who was then camped near the present town 
of Cotesfield, Howard county. 

FIND .\N ERROR OS FII'TH P.\R.\I,I,Ei:< 

Resuming work, I returned to the 4th paral- 
lel and projected the next range line with 
its complement of township lines, and at the 
end of the twenty-four miles I should have 
intersected the 3th parallel or county line 
north of a cedar canyon, and after a half 
day's search found the corner nearest my in- 
tersection had within a few days been torn 
down and a new one built about fifty rods 
west, and on the west side of the canyon near 
a pine tree. Here was more trouble. 

Aly camj) was on the north side of the 



Loup river and Daugherty's camp on the south 
side below. On my return 1 reported to 
Daugherty what I had found and proposed a 
joint examination. He opposed it, as it would 
cause a loss of time and besides that, that 
our authority was to close on the line as we 
found it. We locked horns at once. I in- 
sisted that according to my closing six miles 
east a few days before a great balk had been 
made somewhere along the line and we would 
have to show to the surveyor general's office 
that it was not in our lines, by pointing out 
by an examination wdien it existed, and since I 
had the township lines between the 5tli and 
1th parallels I would then have to explain 
the discrepancy. In fact, I would not be able 
to run their lines until it was reported and 
passed upon by the surveyor general. Fur- 
ther, that I proposed to find the error and re- 
port it, as neither of us would be able to get 
jiay for any work in townships 20 in any of 
the ranges until it was settled. I insisted 
that he should bear a part of the expense, so 
n was finally agreed that next morning he 
bring his team and two or three men, and 
that I should send to his camp three men so 
that his work could go on. We spent two 
days on that examination and found that Park 
had torn down his original line and set all 
of the corners west from fifty to sixty rods f6r 
five miles and from the southwest corner of 
section 36. range 18, had set a section corner 
west 15.80 chains and marked it for the corner 
of sections 34 and 35, which we found on 
the west side of the canyon among some trees 
and south of the old Kent postoffice in Loup 
county. The corner one mile west of it was 
marked the same. The construction of the 
new corners showed fraud, for some of them 
were scarcely distinguishable. We left them 
as found, for we knew they must or should 
be destroyed and a new line run. On our 
return to camp we made out a report to the 
surveyor general, read it to the assistants, 
vihich were subscribed to before us. Next 
day Mr. Daugherty, being in need of pro- 
visions, sent his team and driver with one 
of my men to St. Paul, with the report to be 
mailed to the surveyor general. We also 



44 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



sent noti:e to Mr. Park at North Platte, so 
that he could correct his line. 

I had a partial acquaintance with Mr. Park 
in 1869, in Omaha, had been in his camp and 
had seen him at work in the field. In the 
Civil war he was lieutenant colonel of the 
Fourth Michigan Cavalry, which captured 
Jefferson Davis, and therefore came to the 
state with political and military prestige. His 
first connection with the surveys of the public 
lands that I find in the re:ords is his contract 
number 1, dated July 2, 1867. In the same 
party with me in 1869 were two men who were 
with Park in 1868, in Howard and Sherman 
counties, and I heard a great deal about him. 
so I was anxious that Mr. Daugherty should 
join me in the examination of the parallel for 
his individual and moral support. 

Park, Daugherty, and myself were called in 
conference in January following, when it was 
agreed that Mr. Park should correct the line 
in early spring and correct our closing comers 
to alignment on the new line and report the 
same to us. I never received any report, but 
I notice in my notes that my figures, in black 
ink, are corrected, in red ink. by the surveyor 
general's office. 

.\ L.x-ME ox .\xn tup: remkov 
In early September one of the oxen became 
very lame in one of its hind feet, by reason 
of the wearing through of the sole of the 
hoof. \'arious schemes were tried without re- 
lief and it became a question of turning it 
loose in the brush 'along the river, when it 
was bethought to try shoeing it with hoop 
iron. A heavy hoop was taken from a water 
barrel and a shoe cut out to fit the toe. The 
ox was tied up along the ' side of the camp 
wagon with the foot strapped down on top 
of the hub. \\e were unable to drive the 
shingle nails through the edge of the dry hard 
hoof. The holes were drilled and the burned 
nails driven and clinched. We had no further 
trouble and the shoe remained for several 
months. 

X.\MES OF CREEKS 

I gave the name of Rock creek to the little 
stream of water flowing into the deej) river 



at the south edge of the oak grove, in town- 
ship 18, range 17, on finding rock in the bot- 
tom of the river at its mouth ; the name of 
Lillian to the stream on the south side of the 
Loup in township 19, ranges 18 and 19, and 
Mctoria in townships 19 and 20, ranges 20 
and 21. after two nieces living in Indiana. 

FOOLIXG THE COOK 

During all my previous years on the plains, 
I had heard it claimed that the antelope was a 
species of the sheep family, and especially the 
pilgrim plainsmen maintained they had the 
odor of sheep, that the meat tasted like sheep 
and they were sheep. So it was with nearly 
all of my party in Custer county, and the cook 
was so very positive that they were mutton 
that his stomach rebelled when he cooked the 
meat. To bring matters to a test, a bet was 
made of an oyster supper for the entire crew 
that he could not distinguish the difference 
blindfolded. So one forenoon by good luck a 
deer and antelope were killed, and the saddles 
and sirloin cut out. In the evening the cook 
fried in separate pans cuts of sirloin of each, 
so that he knew he would have a square deal. 
When blindfolded he was given a piece of the 
deer and then the antelope and failed each 
luiie. It was tried in various ways and finally 
he was given one kind several times in suc- 
cession, then the other. He guessed it cor- 
rectly once and his stomach never rebelled af- 
ter that. Antelope and sheep are of an en- 
tirely different and distinct species. 

GOVERXMEN'T SURVEYS 

The act of congress, approved July 22, 1854, 
created the surveying district of Kansas and 
Nebraska territories. 

John Calhoun, of Springfield. Illinois, was 
rq^pointed surveyor general, by President 
Franklin Pierce, .\ugiist 15. 1854, with head- 
(|uarters at Leavenworth, Kansas. 

The first contract for surveys was awarded 
to Professor Jonathan P. Johnson, November 
2, 1854, for the first sixty miles of the Base 
line on the fortieth parallel of north latitude. 

On March 1. 1867, Nebraska territory was 
admitted into the L'nion as a state and the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



45 



surveying distri:t was changed, Kansas being 
consolidated with Wisconsin, and Nebraska 
with Iowa July 28, 1866, under the title of 
"Iowa and Nebraska," with the surveyor gen- 
eral's office at Plattsmouth. Phineas P. Hitch- 
cock, of Omaha, for surveyor general, was 
appointed by President Andrew Johnson in 
April, 1867. 

While the two territories constituted the sur- 
veying district 233 contracts were awarded for 
surveys in the two territories, but in the new 
district contracts began with number 1. 

The first survey of the public lands which 
affected Custer county was the establishment 
of the southeast corner of township 13 north, 
range 17 west, or the third initial point of the 
second guide meridian west, by H. C. F. Hack- 
busch, 1866. 

Surveyors whose work in any way affected 
Custer county were : 



1 — H. C. F. Hackbusch, Leavenworth, 
Kansas ; 

2 — J. B. Park, Omaha; 

3 — Nicholas J. Paul, Omaha, now St. Paul ; 

4 — John F. Burch, Omaha ; 

5 — Robert Harvey, St. Paul ; 
6 — ^Joe E. North, Columbus; 

7 — John W. Daugherty, Fremont ; 

8 — James L. Slocum, Falls City; 

9 — D. V. Stephenson, Falls City ; 

10 — Zadok Stephenson, Falls City; 

11 — S. C. McEJroy, Falls City; 

12 — H. C. Campbell, address not known. 

Of the above list of twelve surveyors, only 
numbers 3, 5, and 8 are known to ine to be 
now living. 

An abstract of the history of the gov- 
ernment survey is given in the following 
tables : 





TABLE I 












Lines Designated 


By Whom 
Surveyed 


Djte of 
Contract 


No. of 
Con- 
tract 


Miles 


Chains 


Links 


When 
Sur- 
veyed 


3rd Standard Parallel 


J. B. Park 


July 2, 1867 


1 


48 







1866 


3rd Standard Parallel 

4th Standard Parallel 


Wm. J. Allason. . 
T. B. Park 


April 29, m>9 
July 2, 1867 


17 
1 


6 






1869 


39 


03 


1867 


4th Standard Parallel 


J, B. Park 


Oct. 16, 1868 


14 


48 






1868 


4th Standard Parallel 

5th Standard Parallel 


Wm. T. Allason.. 
Nicholas J. Paul. 


April 29, 1869 
June 6, 1868 


17 
7 


5 


16 

40 


90 
43 


1869 
1868 


5th Standard Parallel 

5th Standard Parallel 


J. B. Park 

J. B. Park 

J. B. Park 


Mav 10, 1872 
May ■ 10, 1872 
July 2, 1867 


53 
S3 

1 


48 

5 

24 






1872 


19 


34 


1872 
1867 












Nicholas T. Paul. 
L B. Pafk 


June 6, 1868 
Oct. 16, 1868 


7 
14 


24 
24 






1868 


3rd Guide Meridian 






1868 




J. B. Park 


May 10, 1872 


53 
Total 


24 






1872 












257 


35 


70 




Exteriors — Township Bounda 
Tps. 13 and U, Rs. 17 to 24... 


ries. 
1 Nicholas J. Paul. 


Tune 11, 1869 


21 


179 


70 


53 


1869 


Tps. 15 and 16, Rs. 17 to 24... 

Connecting Lines 

Tps. 17 to 20, Rs. 17 to 24.... 
Connecting Lines 


Robert Harvey.. . 
1 Robert Harvey.. . 
1 Robert Harvey.. . 
1 Robert Harvev.. . 


Tinie 20, 1872 

Tune 20, 1872 

1 Tune 20, 1872 

Tune 20, 1872 


54 

54 

1 54 

1 54 


126 

"3i7" 



IS 
63 

35 
74 


29 

70 
98 

45 


1872 

1872 

1 1872 

1 1872 


Tps. 13 to 16, Rs. 17 to 24.... 

Connecting Lines 

Tps. 17 to 20, Rs. 17 to 2 4.... 
Connecting Lines 


1 T. B. Park 

IT. B. Park 

IH. C. Campbell.. 
IH. C. CampbelL. 

1 


1 Tune 11, 1869 
1 April 29, 1869 
1 April 11, 1873 
1 April 1!, 1873 

1 
1 


1 21 
1 18 

70 

70 

Total 


179 . 

"ki" 


70 
16 
78 
19 


1 53 

1 90 

57 

34 


1869 

1869 

1 1873 

1873 




709 


58 


93 





Table I includes the standard parallels, 
guide meridians, township lines, and connect- 
ing lines, names of the surveyors, date of con- 



tract of survey, number of contract, lengths of 
lines in miles, chains, and links, and the year 
when the survey was made. 



46 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



TABLE II 



Townships Designated 



By Whom 
Surveyed 



No. of 
Con- 
tract 



Date of 
Contract 



I 
Miles I Chains 






Links 



When 
Sur- 
veyed 



Tp. 13, Rs. 17 to 24 inc 

Tp. 14, Rs. 21 to 24 inc 

Tps. 14 to 16, Rs. 17 to 20 and 

IS and 16, Rs. 21 to 24 inc. . 

And Connecting Lines 

Tp. 17, R. 17 

Meanders 

Tps. 17 to 20, Rs. 17 to 24 inc, 

and Tp. 17, R. 21 

Meanders 

Connecting Lines 

Tps. 18, 20, R. 21; Tps. 17, 18, 

20, R. 22; Tps. 18, 20, R. 23; 

Tp. 19, R. 24 

Meanders 

And Connecting Lines 

Tp. 19, Rs. 21, 2l\ Tps. 17, 19, 

R. 23; Tp. 20, R. 24 inc 

And Connecting Lines 

Tp. 17, R. 24; Tps. 18,20, R. 25 

Connecting Lines 

Tp. 18, R. 24; Tp. 19, R. 25. 
Tps. 13 to 15, R. 25 



J. F. Burch. 
J. B. Park... 



J. E. North 

Robert Harvey.. 
Robert Harvey.. 

T. W. Daugherty 
J. \V. Daugherty 
J. W. Daugherty 



Jas. L. Slocum. 
Jas. L. Slocum. 
Jas. L. Slocum. 



Tp. 16, R. 25. 
Connecting Lines. 
Tp. 17, R. 25....;. 



D. V. Stephenson 
D. V. Stephenson 
S. C. McElrov... 
S. C. McElroy... 
Z. Stephenson... 

T. B. Park 

T. B. Park 

"T. B. Park 

H. C. Campbell.. 



I 



20 

53 

55 



54 
54 

64 



73 



73 



June 3, 1869 
May 10, 1873 

Tune 22, 1872 



Tune 20, 1872 

June 20, 1872 

Tulv 22, 1872 

July 22, 1872 



64 I July 22, 1872 



Mav 14, 1873 



Mav 14, 1873 



74 I May 20, 1873 



74 I Mav 20, 1873 
18 Apnl 29, 1869 
47 June 16, 1871 



70 



April 11. 1873 
Total 



479 
239 

1204 

4 

60 



959 

32 

1 



480 
9 
2 

300 

1 

182 

1 

120 

180 

61 

1 

59 



4384 



77 
66 

13 

16 

3 

75 

70 
25 
34 



68 
38 
50 

44 
15 
78 
18 
4 
21 
13 
19 
77 



33 



44 

4 

47 
41 
80 
10 

44 



55 



68 
25 
19 



13 
59 
51 
86 
93 
30 
69 



OS 



1869 

1873 

1872 
1872 

1872 



1872 



1872 

1873 
'i873' 



39 I 1873 
28 I 1873 



1873 
1873 
1873 
1869 
1871 
1871 
1873 



Note : The connecting lines are the distances from the closing corners to the nearest corners on the 
parallels, owing to the convergence of meridians and not to errors of surveys. 



Table II is the subdivision of townships into 
sections and gives tlie numbers of the 'town- 
ships, names of the surveyors, date and num- 
ber of contract, lengths of lines in miles, chains, 
and links, and year when survey was made, 
and includes the length of the right bank of 
the Loup river and all connecting lines. See 
note above in table II. 

TABLE III 

REC.\PITUr,.'\TION 

I I I ^ 

I Miles I Chains I Links 



Standard Parallels I 161 

Guide Meridians I 96 

Township Lines I 707 

Section Lines \' 4329 

Meander Lines I 42 

Connecting Lines I 14 

Total I 5351 



I 
35 I 



70 



44 
60 
58 



47 



54 
38 
35 
71 

68 



Table III is a summary of the dififerent kinds 
of lines and their lengths. 



TABLE IV 

L.XND .AND \\ ATER ArE.\ 



Range 


Land Area 


Water Area 


R. 17 


1831250149 


Acres 


1 


051 


18 


Acres 


18 


1831650108 


.\cres 




550 


96 


Acres 


19 


183 1835 ISO 


Acres 




568 


41 


.Acres 


20 


183 24SI74 


.\cres 




524 


68 


Acres 


21 


183 319I9S 


Acres 




575 


77 


.\cres 


22 


184 056 94 


.-Kcres 










23 


183 453 58 


Acres 










24 


183 893 02 


Acres 










25 


184 358 43 


Acres 












1653I0M 03 

1 


Acres 


3 


270 


77 


Acres 



Total number of Acres 1.656.334.80 

Land Area 2579.7875 square miles 

Water ,'\rea 5.1106 square miles 



Total 2.SS4.8981 square miles 

[August 24, 1919,— Robert Harvey.] 

Table I\' is a tabulation of the land and water 
area of the county by ranges. These data 
by townships are very instructive and useful, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



47 



but would occupy about three pages and there- 
fore are omitted. 

The Middle Loup river having been mean- 
dered, the water area is deducted from the 
public lands. The south branch was not me- 
andered and its area was sold as a part of 
the land area and is therefore not included in 
the tabulation. 

I always employed a full crew of men, 
consisting of a cook, teamsters, two chain- 
men, two cornermen, and one flagman. In 
Custer county I had altogether twelve 
men ; two were discharged at the begin- 
ning, for mutiny, and two discharged af- 
ter the destruction of the camp by fire 
in August ; three remained throughout the 
work, six were accessions. Only five are 
known to be living. 



CUSTER COUNTY WEATHER 

No detailed description of climatic condi- 
tions in Custer county is necessary. It can 
hv truthfully stated that the climate is much 
the same as in other parts of the middle west, 
and admirably adapted to stock-raising and 
agriculture. It has always been a very health- 
ful climate. 

Through the courtesy of G. A. Loveland, 
meteorologist in charge of the United States 
Weather Bureau, at Lincoln, Nebraska, the 
following tables showing precipitation in the 
county covering a range of thirty-si.x years and 
temperature covering a period of seventeen 
years are given. 

The earliest reports come from Sargent and 
the following tables in the order of their es- 
tablishment, are submitted. 



S.^RGENT 



Year 


Jan. 


Feb. 


Mar. 


1 
April 1 May 


June 


July 


Aug. Sept. 


Oct. 


Nov. 


1 
Dec. Ann'l 


1883 




0.40 


0.90 


2.75 
2.55 
2.92 


3.90 
3.12 
6.23 


6.65 
1.25 
3.32 


2.98 
4.20 
3.01 


2.95 
2.65 
3.14 


4.17 
0.09 
2.15 


0.51 
0.32 
1.00 


0.00 
0.10 
1.50 


0.30 
1.65 
0.25 




1884 . . 


0.33 
0.08 
1.52 
0.25 




1885 

1886 


0.15 


1.58 


26.03 


1887 

1888 


0.29 


0.35 
2.27 
0.78 
0.76 
2.67 


2.61 
2.31 
1.50 
1.67 
1.90 


1.51 
8.30 
1.03 


2.09 
3.02 

4.18 


's!63' 

4.76 


5.17 
2.97 
1.28 
3.64 
6.18 


4. is 
1.62 
1.02 
0.71 
0.87 


0.01 
0.83 
0.39 
1.24 
0.28 


0.60 
0.00 
0.72 
0.49 
0.20 


0.42 
1.35 

'6'66' 

1.10 





1889 


1.00 
■o'.75' 


0.17 
0.55 
1.18 




1890 




1891 


0.41 


7.46 


3.28 


26.28 


189? 




1893 






2.04 
2.02 


2.59 
0.30 


3.49 

3.50 


2.08 
2.29 


0.81 
0.68 


0.60 
1.67 










1894 




0.91 


1.44 








1895 










18% 




0.91 


4.31 


2.01 


3.97 


3.09 


0.42 


2.25 


2.20 


1.29 

.52 

.80 

T 

T 

.51 


T 

.05 

";75' 
"'.68' 




1908 


1 




1909 

1910 


.30 
.70 
.75 
.59 


1.05 




.62 

.20 

1.99 

2.33 


2.54 
1.82 
2.55 
2.59 


1.83 

3.21 

.58 

3.57 


5.75 
1.40 
5.49 
3.56 


2.12 
6.47 
4.65 
3.40 


i.S7 
1.40 
2.11 
1.64 


.90 

.15 

4.04 

1.31 




1911 




.10 
.58 


.20 
.99 


21^75 











ANSLE^ 








Year 


Jan. 


Feb. 


Mar. 


II III 
April 1 May 1 June July Aug. | Sept. | Oct. Nov. 


Dec. 1 Ann'l 


1888 






1 




1 1 1 
1 1 T 


0.59 1 


1889 


0.30 
0.40 

T 
1.70 
0.25 


T 
0.20 
2.00 
1.30 
0.80 


2.20 
1.20 
2.05 


6.50 i.36 2.93 
3.50 3.40 1 2.60 
ft.m 1 1.90 1 8.19 


8.90 
1.00 
4.57 


1.23 0.40 0.60 0.80 
3.00 1.10 2.60 0.75 
1.22 1 0.80 1 1.14 0.00 


T 1 19.16 


1890 

1891 


T 1 19.75 
1.25 1 29.42 


1892 


1 42 1 3 03 1 6 90 1 1.66 


3.03 1 3.43 1 0.18 1 1.82 1 


0.20 1 


1893 

1894 


1.80 


0.82 I 2.39 1 1 1 1.20 0.00 | T 

1.38 1 0.92 1 2.34 1.40 1 0.44 1.64 1.06 1 T 


'o.u\ '9^36 


1895 




0.05 


1.37 


0.32 


2.76 I 2.59 1 5.90 

1 1 


1.08 


2.63 1 2.78 1 0.45 1 0.91 

1 1 1- 


0.10 20.94 



48 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



CALLAWAY 



Year 



Tan. 



Feb. 



Mar. April May ' June 



July Aug. 



Sept. I Oct. 



I I 

Nov. I Dec. I Ann'l 

I I 



1892.... 

1893 .... 

1894 .... 

1895 .... 
1896.... 
1897 .... 
1898.... 
1899.... 

1900 .... 

1901 .... 
1902.... 
1903 .... 
1904.... 

1905 .... 

1906 .... 

1907 .... 
1908.... 
1909 .... 
1910.... 
1911 .... 
1912... 

1913 .... 

1914 .... 

1915 .... 
1916.... 

1917 .... 

1918 .... 
Normal 



T 

0.20 

0.30 

0.25 

0.35 

0.45 

T 

T 

0.17 

0.70 

0.45 

0.64 

1.35 

0.50 

0.45 

T 

.25 

.28 

.59 

.30 

.15 

.22 

1.10 

.53 



0.29 
0.15 
1.65 
0.05 
0.48 
0.15 
0.55 
1.57 
1.01 
0.35 
1.53 

T 
0.50 
0.34 

T 

T 
1.68 



.75 



0.40 



1.04 
.29 

1.34 
.47 
.35 
.20 

0.59 



1.67 
0.80 
0.12 
1.33 
1.28 
0.60 

T 
0.47 
3.13 
1.30 
0.10 

T 
0.61 
1.00 



0.18 
T 
.31 
.65 



1.75 

1.55 

2.71 

.31 

.80 

.19 

0.87 



0.94 
0.81 
3.15 
5.69 
5.30 
2.35 
0.55 
4.50 
3.35 
0.90 
2.05 
0.51 
3.50 
8.88 
0.40 
T 



.62 

4.14 



2.87 
2.05 
4.60 
1.26 
1.07 
1.60 
2.59 



2.53 
0.18 
2.35 
1.53 
0,30 
4.45 
2.21 



.90 

.15 

,25 

.45 

.24 

7.70 

1.06 

3.95 

4.93 

1.94 

.92 

2.61 



1.03 
2.61 
4.23 
3.72 
4.51 
6.35 
3.21 






2.79 
2.74 
9.03 
3.58 
4.95 
2.98 
5.65 
0.95 
8.30 
3.95 
2.25 
2.97 
6.21 
1.32 
4.70 



1.32 
4.01 
.60 
1.96 
2.2; 



1.36 

2.38 
0.38 
1.93 
0.70 
2.60 
1.40 



2.50 
3.88 
3.87 



1.28 
0.40 
6.35 
1.95 
1.78 
6.85 



1.85 
4.70 
3.85 
1.35 
4.28 
5.89 



3.72 



2.11 
1.13 
4.82 
4.48 
1.58 
.23 
1.49 
4.50 
2.80 



2.70 
3.05 



0.13 
0.60 
0.40 
1.40 
2.20 
1.15 
1.50 
0.75 
1.90 
6.65 
3.95 
0.30 
1.83 



I 



4.17 



2.73 



2.58 
'2.98 



2.06 



1.55 
0.39 
1.00 
0.05 
1.00 
5.00 
T 
0.45 
1.25 
1.90 
0.95 
1.10 



0.66 

4.73 

T 



.59 



1.59 



1.31 



0.13 

0.05 
0.00 
0.90 
0.20 
0.30 
0.65 
1,65 
0,50 
1,15 
0,10 
0,55 



1.02 
1.10 

T 

T 
2.28 


.05 

.53 

2.04 



.29 



0.59 



0.37 
0.79 
0.00 
0.03 

T 
0.95 

T 
0.63 
0.35 
0.67 
0.95 

T 

T 

T 
0.96 
0.38 

i'.u 

1.34 

..55 
.50 

"'.69' 
.73 



0.50 



12.69 
9.06 
25.71 
19.71 
22.54 
22.58 
15.69 
22.59 
33.66 
25.15 
25.76 



30.28 



39.04 



22.10 



BROKEN BOW 



Year 


Jan. 


Feb. 


Mar. 


April May 


June 


. July 


Aug. 


Sept. 


Oct. 


Nov. Dec. Ann'l 


1895 


0.05 

0,07 

0,10 

0.70 

T 

0.05 

0.10 

0.32 

0.24 

0.10 

0.93 

0.55 

0.78 

T 

.10 

.22 

.19 

.60 

.07 

.10 

1.00 



.73 

.88 

0.34 






2.30 
2.73 
0.37 
4.71 
3.08 
2.46 
1.71 
5.59 
5.40 
5.06 
5.73 
2.23 
? fin 


9.90 1 05 


3.94 1.89 


0.00 

2.35 

4.03 

3.90 

0.42 

1.10 

1.60 

1.41 

0.98 

3.92 

1.13 

3.75 

0.46 

1.96 

.81 

.18 

4.66 

1.27 

.22 

.90 

.55 

.60 

.09 


0.50 0.05 1 


1896 

1897 

1898 

1899 


0.01 
0.55 
0.10 
0.22 
1.03 
0.50 
0.32 
1.15 
T 
1.10 
0.22 


2.45 
1.60 
0.00 
0.32 
0.51 
1.88 
0.76 
0.35 
0.20 
1.10 
0.62 


6.10 
5.40 
2.54 
1.30 
6.17 
2.45 
1.11 
0.81 
1.47 
5.59 
9.35 
28 


4.89 
4.28 
2.49 
4.47 
1.29 
9.26 
2.76 
2.32 
3.73 


7.73 
1.11 
2.03 
6,42 
4.35 
1.15 
6.98 
6.27 
6 50 


'i.'36' 

3.55 
2.82 
4.00 
1.03 
2.75 
6.16 


2.14 
1.14 
1,38 
0,60 
1,32 
4,83 
3.93 
0.50 


0.30 
0.40 
0.22 
1.64 
0.32 
0.75 
0.00 
0.40 

T 
0.71 
1.60 
0.06 


0.20 

1.15 21.49 

T 21.62 

0.66 21.95 


1900 

1901 

1902 

1903 


T 22.60 
0.10 25.36 
0.72 26.65 

T 1 24.58 


1904 


1.97 1 3.66 
0.94 3.14 


T 1 26.61 


1905 


8.26 5.41 
1.77 5,89 
4,91 5,01 
7.13 4.51 
3.65 1 6.93 
5.22 1 8.40 
.64 1 4.31 
1.30 1 3,10 
3,32 1 2,11 
3,87 1 1.07 
6.85 1 5.91 
3.24 1 4.12 
2,80 1 2,09 
1 61 2 12 


0.00 1 34.04 


1906 

1907 


4.06 
1.70 
4.19 
4.08 


2.55 
0.94 
2.32 
3.18 


1.03 1 33.62 
0.64 1 


1908 

1909 


i.53 
.48 


0.15 
.05 


0.40 1 3.77 

1.17 1.38 

.43 3.12 

4 04 


0.34 i f i 26.30 
1.07 1.44 1 24.34 


1010 


9.89 1 1.92 
3.74 1 2.25 
1.30 1 1.37 
1.29 2.33 


.75 


1911 


.33 
.20 
.69 
.30 

' ' !39' 

.36 

0.50 


2.50 
2.29 
1.08 
2.37 

.18 
1.20 

.13 
0.99 


T .70 


1912 

1913 


2.24 
3.23 
1.76 
2.87 
1.16 
2.89 
1 70 


.57 
2.76 
3.01 
3.12 
3.61 
6.86 
5 56 


.12 1 14.57 
1.27 5.32 24.90 


1914 

1915 

1916 

1917 

1918 


3.10 
2.96 
3.16 
2.55 
2.17 
3.16 


.50 
2.54 
2.71 
3.43 


T .56 16.25 
47 

.35 .42 

1.85 .28 1 25.16 
1 


Normals 


2.75 


3.41 


4.16 


3.90 


2.20 


i.S8 


0.54 1 0.63 1- 24.39 

1 1 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



49 



MASON CITY 



Year 


Jan. 


Feb. 


Mar. 


April 


May June 


July 


Aug. 


Sept. 


Oct. 


Nov. 


Dec. 


Ann'l 


1906 




.45 

.65 

.25 

.45 

.05 

.60 

.30 

1.02 

1.02 

2.27 

.40 

.35 

.60 

.66 


1.10 

.20 

.35 

.25 

.45 

1.04 

2.80 

2.22 

1.23 

2.88 

.42 

1.21 

.09 

1.10 


9.40 






4.60 

■5;47" 
4.66 
1.32 
6,38 
3,53 
2,92 

,46 
7,60 
1,11 

.90 
1.69 
1.65 


4.30 
3.30 
2.10 
2.49 
5.86 
2,02 
1.87 
1.58 
1.61 
2.03 
.85 
,70 
1.65 
2.77 


2.84 
3.02 
2.77 
1.66 

1.64 
2.25 
3.25 
2,13 
.75 
3.60 
1.65 
1,22 


4.45 
.50 

2.50 

1.20 


4,00 
.95 
.20 
.61 
.70 
.90 
.10 


1.30 
.02 

i^io" 

.15 
.16 
.10 
.65 

.52 
.40 
.72 


1.40 

1.16 

.26 

1.85 
1.05 
.52 
.40 
5,65 
.86 
.94 
.85 
.40 




1907 


.53 
.02 
.20 

1.00 
.15 
.82 
.45 
.10 

1.30 
.88 
.58 

1.29 
.55 




2.63 

4.83 
1.20 

4.29 
.92 
1,38 
2.03 
8.23 
8,38 
2.40 
1.85 




1908 


,30 

.53 

.62 

3.48 

1,60 

1.94 

1.92 

4.20 

.86 

4.25 

.80 

2.64 


2.03 
1.81 
3.39 
3.32 

'i;7s' 

1.42 
4.40 
2.27 
4.45 




1909 

1910 

1911 


17.60 
19.82 

24.84 


1912 




1913 . . 


22.54 


1914 


18.21 


1915 


38.82 


1916 


12.99 


1917 


16.73 


1918 




Normals 


3.42 


4,06 


2,56 


1.61 


0.48 


0.97 


24.83 



BROKEN BOW 



Year 


Jan. 


Feb. 


Mar. 


April 


May June 


July 


Aug. 


Sept. 


Oct. 


Nov. 


1 
Dec. 


Ann'l 


ISIean Temp. . . 
Highest Temp, 
Lowest Temp, 


23.8 

78 

-25 


24.9 

78 
-36 


34.4 

85 
-10 


47.8 

94 

9 


58.8 

110 

19 


68.8 

102 

33 


73.5 

102 

40 


71,8 

101 

36 


62.8 

106 

22 


49.5 
92 
10 


37.2 

75 
-11 


1 
26.8 
80 
-27 


"iio 

-36 


CALLAWAY 


Year 


Jan. 


Feb. 


Mar. 


April 


Mav Tune 

1 ■ 


July 


Aug. 


Sept. 


Oct. 


Nov. 


Dec. 1 


Ann'l 


Mean Temp,. . 
Highest Temp. 
Lowest Temp. 


24.4 

66 

-30 


24,5 

75 

-36 


36.9 

87 

-10 


48.5 

93 

5 


58.2 68,1 73.6 
97 105 106 
21 32 40 
1 


72.4 

103 

35 


62,7 

102 

21 


51.0 
95 
11 


38.5 

78 

-12 


1 
27,3 
74 
-28 


"'ici6 

-36 



50 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




CHAPTER HI 
IN THE DAYS OF CATTLE 

Ranches are Located — Big Profits — Life With the Cowboys — Women Were 

Scarce — A Stampede — • The Roundup — A Roundup of Roundups — Cattle Men 

\'ersus Settlers — A Near Battle — An Underground Railroad — 

The \\'ild West has Wild Horses 



When the white man found this location the 
prairies were covered with buffalo, deer, elk, 
and antelope, while the prairie chickens. 
grouse, wild duck, and goose were found in 
great abundance. This was nature's sugges- 
tion that the country was suited to stock-rais- 
ing and poultry production, and the demon- 
stration of the years since has justified the 
prediction. In the early days of Custer coun- 
ty, cattle raising was the only occupation. It 
indeed was a profitable industry. As early as 
1869 the great advantages of this country at- 
tracted attention of the cattlemen of the south 
and east. The territory, well grassed and 
well watered, was very attractive. 

Texas was then the greatest breeding 
ground for cattle and horses in the United 
States and probably in the world, but it was 
railroadless and without means of transporta- 
tion. Cattlemen were compelled to trail their 
stock across many hundred miles of prairie 
to find a railroad shipping point. At that 
time Ogallala, in western Nebraska, was the 
shipping point for all the adjacent plains to 
the south, including the Panhandle territory 
and all northern Texas. Cattle were brought 
to this point in such numbers that at times it 
was estimated more than a hundred thousand 
head grazed on the surrounding ranges, await- 
ing shipment. These cattle were sometimes 
held for months. Grass ranges were in de- 
mand. 

During these long waits the cattle were 
frequently allowed to range over the divide. 



on the north into the South Loup valley, and 
thus the Texans and southern cattlemen dis- 
covered that their herds could live and keep 
fat all winter on the rich, luxurious grasses 
which they found here in great abundance. 
The fame of the South Loup valley spread 
among cattleman. They investigated. They 
found plenty of grass of different varieties, 
among which was an abundance of buft'alo 
grass, best adapted for winter pasture. They 
found hills and breaks that aft'orded shelter 
from the winter storms. They found an 
abundance of running water in open streams, 
and all these advantages combined to make it 
an ideal cattle country, into which cattlemen 
v/ere not long in driving their herds. 

ranches are located 

At this late day it is almost impossible to 
be accurate about dates or the order in which 
cattlemen settled in the country. At that time 
all was government land and the stockmen 
came in and appropriated their ranges. They 
set up land marks and made claims for so 
many miles of prairie in this direction and 
that direction until they had assured them- 
selves of plenty of territory. Ranges, often 
overlapped, herds became mi.xed, but that made 
small difference. Some few erected fences 
but for the most part herds ran at large. Con- 
cerning dates and settlements, the following 
13 given uiion the authority of Judge H. AI. 
Sullivan : 

In the winter of 1869 and 1870 one Captain 



51 



52 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA. 




< 

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o 



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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



33 



Streeter for the first time wintered cattle in 
the territory now comprising Custer county. 
On Ash creek, a short distance soiitli of Bro- 
ken Bow, lie turned out in the fall 821 cattle, 
of which 385 were yearlings. They were all 
Texas cattle ; the following spring he rounded 
up 819, a loss of only two head. 

In 1872 E. J. Boblits came into the South 
Loup country, located a range on what is 
now known as Tuckerville and stocked it heav- 
ily with cattle. Boblits has since acquired the 
title of judge, through efficient occupancy of 
the ofifice of county judge, to which he was 
several times elected. He is one of the few 
stockmen who is still in the country occupy- 
ing the same location. In fact, he claims the 
distinction of being the oldest continual resi- 
dent of the county. He also claims to have 
built the first frame house in the county. 

The Boblits family is still living on part of 
the ranch, in a magnificent country home 
where generous southern hospitality is still on 
exhibition. 

Childs B. Harrington, H. C. Stuckey, and 
Anton Abel located ranches shortly after this 
in the eastern half of the South Loup val- 
ley. About the same time Williams and Kil- 
gore and John Myers located in the same re- 
gion, a little more to the south. 

In 1872 John Harrington came from Texas 
and located a ranch on the South Loup, eight 
miles northwest of Callaway in the region of 
Triumph. He brought in about two thousand 
head of cattle and built three cedar-log houses. 
These houses were built in true southern fash- 
ion, with the passways between them roofed. 

A cattle ranch was established by Nimrod 
Caple and Manly, his son, in 1875, on the head 
of Spring creek, where bursts forth from the 
side of a steep hill one of the largest and 
purest springs in the country. Mr. Caple sold 
out his cattle and left in 1876. In his de- 
parture many a settler rejoiced, for his cattle 
were always doing some damage to crops. 
Mr. Caple always offered to pay, but invari- 
ably carried a fifty-dollar bill, which none of 
his neighbors could ever "bust." He always, 
in this way, got his cattle, but the farmer sel- 
dom got any pay. 



In 1876 Edward Holway and J. D. Haskell 
occupied the same ranch formerly located by 
Harrington, and this ranch was afterwards 
sold to the Parker Live Stock Company of 
Illinois. The range claimed by those owning 
this ranch was the South Loup valley from 
Triumph west to Cedar canyon and the ter- 
ritory north adjoining. 

The Parker Live Stock Company first came 
to the county in 1876. It located its head- 
quarters at a point about two miles west of 
Callaway, and claimed as its range what is 
now known as Sand valley and the territory 
lying south and west. This company began 
with 1,500 head of cattle, and J. J. Douglass, 
afterward clerk of the district court of this 
county, was the manager. 

In 1876 Durfee & Gasman located a ranch 
a short distance north of Callaway on the north 
side of the Loup, at what is known as the 
Big Spring, on the farm now owned by N. M. 
Morgan, and they began business with 3,0C0 
steers. 

W. H. Paxton, of Omaha, in 1876, located a 
ranch a short distance southeast of Callaway, 
on the Cottonwood, with 2,000 cattle. 

In 1878 Durfee & Gasman bought out the 
Paxton ranch and consolidated it with their 
ranch on the opposite side of the river. The 
range they claimed after the consolidation was 
the large valley about Callaway, the Wood 
River valley and the valley of the Cotton- 
wood. 

In 1876 Arnold & Ritchie located a ranch 
on the Loup, a short distance east of Arnold, 
with 1,000 cattle. 

In 1877 Henry Brothers located another 
ranch, west of Arnold, with 3,000 cattle. 

Some time previously to this, the afterward 
famous Olive Brothers located a ranch on the 
Dismal river, in Blaine county. Later, in the 
fall of 1877, without giving up the Dismal 
river ranch, they moved headquarters to the 
South Loup and established a ranch which in- 
cluded a good many thousand acres of South 
Loup valley and included Spring creek and 
Turner valley. They claimed to have, in all, 
something like fifteen thousand head of cattle. 



54 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUXTV. NEBRASKA 



but those who had opportunity to know, 
doubted their holdings were so extensive. 

In 1875 X. 11. Dryden, now of Kearney, 
located a range on X'ictoria creek, settled there 
and brought with him about 100 head of 
cattle. 

.In 1876 Thomas Loughran and I. Childs 
each entered land on the river, near the Dry- 
den ranch, and also began raising cattle. 

The same year Frank Ewing located a ranch 
in the Middle Loup valley, near where Mil- 
burn now is, with 600 head of cattle. 

In 1878 Smith & Tee located on the nortli 
side of the .Middle Loup river, not far from 
the ranch of Ewing. They turned out about 
800 head of cattle. 

In 1879 Finch-Hatten Brothers located a 
ranch on the Loup, just below the mouth of 
the Dismal, with 700 head of cattle. 

Shortly afterward Miles & Gamlin followed 
with 1,600 head of cattle, locating not far 
from the ranch of Finch-Hatten Brothers. 

Ofher cattlemen came into the country 
during these times of whom it is impossible 
to get much reliable data. Among these were 
the Finlen Brothers. Rankin Live Stock Com- 
pany, and others. The Finlen Brothers re- 
mained in the country for years. Thomas Fin- 
len is still a resident. 

The cattlemen met with no reverses until the 
winter of 1880-81. 

At this late date it is impossible to know 
accurately, the number of cattle in Custer 
county in the summer of 18?0. but there were 
probably very ncarl\- 60,000 head of cattle, 
of the value of not less than $1,. 500,000. The 
greater ])art of these cattle had been reared 
or brought into the comitv after the vear 
1875. 

HIG PROFITS 

Probably in the settlement of the I'nitcd 
States no agricultural or grazing territory 
of a similar area witnessed such a rapid ac- 
cumulation of wealth. L'p to the winter of 
1880-81 the jjrofits fromi the business had 
exceeded the most sanguine expectations of 
the ranchman. 

The winters were mild and pleasant, with 
plenty of moisture during the springs and 



summers. The buffalo grass upon the hills 
each year made a splendid growth. During 
the spring and summer the cattle did not graze 
upon this grass, for there was plenty of blue- 
stem, grama, and rye grass in the valleys and 
lagoons. But with the advent of freezing 
weather the cattle at once went to the hills 
to feed ufwn the buffalo grass. Xo more 
valuable winter forage e.xists than buffalo 
grass properly cured. Cattle fed upon the best 
of wild hay will not be in better condition in 
the spring than those which have wintered 
ujjon buffalo grass. In the economy of nature 
this grass seems to have been created and 
brought forth especially for winter feed. The 
thousands of buft'aloes that originally roamed 
this country and made it their winter home 
lived upon this grass during the winter ; hence 
the name. 

In those days there was a greater profit 
in buying young Texas steers and holding 
them, than in raising calves. Yearling steers 
brought here from Texas could be bought at 
from five to six dollars per head ; two-year- 
old for nine dollars ; three-year-old from 
twelve to fourteen dollars : cows from ten to 
twelve dollars. 

These same steers, kept on Custer county 
range for from eighteen months to two years, 
would sell from twent\-five to forty and f oi ty- 
five dollars per head. 

For a number of years no taxes were levied 
against the cattle. Xo investment in real cstatf; 
was necessary. The cedar canyons furnished 
material for houses, corrals, and fuel. There 
was no ex])ense for fencing or wells. The in- 
crease in value was nearly all profit. The only 
important items of expense in the business 
were supplies for and wages to the cowbo3'S. 
They received thirty-five to forty dollars per 
month. 

LIFE WITH THE COWBOYS 

It would be hard to give a better portrayal 
of the experiences, hardships, and danger to 
which the cowboys were subjected in the 
early days than that written by J. D. Haskell, 
of .Arnold, who is now a prominent rancher 
au(l stockman of the South Loup region: 

"In those davs big cattle-owners thought 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



55 



that if they furnished a tent for their men to 
sleep in it would be too much luxury and 
would make life with the herd altogether too 
easy. They figured that men would be slow 
to leave the tent on stormy nights and look 
after the cattle. On the roundup and on the 
trail cattle always had to be night-herded. 
The cattle that had been gathered during the 
day were never left for a moment until they 
were back on the owner's range. Night shifts 
were necessary. The first shift rode around 
the cattle until eleven o'clock. The second 
from eleven until two. and the third from 
two o'clock until after breakfast. These re- 
liefs were composed of from one to four 
men. according to the size of the herd. In 
the spring, through the months of April and 
Alay, a good deal of rain generally fell and 
not infrequently there was snow and bliz- 
zards. It was often cloudy and drizzly for 
three or four days at a time. The cowboys 
were compelled to make their beds on the wet 
ground, and very often a heavy rain would 
come on in the night and they would find 
themselves lying in a sheet of water. In such 
cases there was nothing to do but get up and 
lean against the wagon or saddle horse until 
morning. 

"\\ith daylight, work would begin and no 
opportunity was offered through the day to 
dry clothing and bedding. \\'hen night came 
on again there was nothing to do but turn 
into wet blankets. 

"No stove was furnished with the cook 
wagon. Bread was baked in a "dutch oven,' 
and other food in skillets. Frequently there 
was no time to eat breakfast. It always 
seemed strange that the men, compelled as they 
were constantly to endure this exposure, es- 
caped contracting fatal diseases. 

WOMF.N WERE SCARCE 

"( )ii a regular cattle ranch no women were 
to be found. There was always a man to 
do the cooking. Thojc who sampled cattle- 
ranch hospitality claim that the cooks were 
almost experts. 

"Ranchmen and cowbovs, like most other 



members of class occupation, were clannish and 
stuck together in protection of each others' 
interests. They were generous to a fault 
among themselves and to any one needy, but 
for an outsider to mingle in their business was 
not altogether healthy exercise. 

A STAMPEDE 

"In 1877 three men and a cook were hold- 
ing a band of 1,000 Texas steers on the 
Muddy, where Broken Bow now stands. They 
had to night-herd the cattle every night. They 
saw only one. man pass during the three 
months they were there. They received no 
mail and had nothing to read. As they were 
all young men who had been reared in the 
far east they experienced a lonely time, shut 
in from the outside world. 

"The last of September the owner sent a 
man to direct them to move the cattle to the 
ranch near where Callaway now is. that they 
might be taken from there to Lexington and 
shipped to Chicago. The first night after the 
start for the ranch they camped about seven 
miles west of where they had held the cattle. 
The earlv part of the night was beautiful. All 
the boys but the night-herder had turned 
in and for the first time in three months were 
enjoying sleep under a roof. 

"About ten o'clock the man out with the 
cattle observed a black, angry cloud moving up 
from the north. lie rode to the tent, called 
to the other men to hurry up and help hold 
the cattle. They got up slowly, grumbling. 
However, as soon as they looked out and saw 
what a terrible storm was coming, they rushed 
for their horses, but before they could saddle 
and mount, the storm had struck them. 

"In the meantime the watcher had hurried 
back to the cattle. He had almost reached the 
head of the herd when the storm broke. The 
darkness was intense. A terrible wind drove 
the rain in sheets. The entire herd jumped 
to their feet as one steer and started on a 
wild stampede before the storm. And oh, such 
a night ! 

"The instant the cattle started, the boy was 
also gone like a shot along the side of the 



56 



HISTURY OF CUSTER COL'.XTY. NEBRASKA 



herd. ' For more than a mile he ran beside 
the herd, over chop hills, across canyons, try- 
ing to get in the lead of the steers. 

"The roar of 4,000 hoof beats, mingled with 
the constant crash of thunder, made it a race 
nfever to be forgotten. The cattle could only 
be seen by the rider at the flash of the light- 
ning, which was so dazzling as almost to blind 
his eyes. Time and again the wiry pony was 
on his knees, Ijut almost instantly up and go- 
ing again. 

"Gradually the pon\' gained upon the leaders 
and the rider held him in against them. They 
began to swerve from their straight course 
before the storm. Gradually he brought them 
to running in a circle, then as he closed in 
nearer the outside cattle the circle became 
smaller and smaller until they were at a stand- 
still. 

"The storm ended as suddenly as it began. 
Shortly his companions were there and the 
cattle were driven back to the tent and held 
until morning, when, on a count of the herd, 
it was found twenty-five were missing. These 
were found later — not far from where the 
cattle were stopped the night before — lying 
upon the hillside and resting from their terrible 
run. 

"The point where that stampede was stopped 
was at what is now the Charles Jefifords farm 
at the foot of the Big Table." 

THE ROUNDUP 

Prior to the winter of 1880-81 very liule 
hay was prepared for winter use. The cattle 
wintered on the range where they summered. 
During the winter the cattle were permitted 
to roam wherever they felt in.-lined. and nn at- 
tention was ])aid to them. 

The work of handling the cattle began with 
the spring roimdup, about the first of May. 
and closed with the last shipment of cattle to 
market in the fall, which was about the first of 
November. 

The cowboys, after the long, idle winter, 
looked forward to the spring roundup with 
the same desire that the soldier, after months 
in the barracks, longs for active duty in the 
field and for battle. As the time for beginning 



of the roundup drew near the cowboy would 
be found busily engaged in washing his cloth- 
ing and blankets ; his saddle and bridle were 
cleaned and oiled ; bits, spurs, and si.x-shooters 
were polished : and saddle ponies were curried 
and given extra feed and attention. 

Among these men was found that same di- 
versity of character, temperament, energy, and 
intelligence common to mankind everywhere. 
A reputation for courage was a necessary 
requisite to good standing in cowboy society. 
He who could display the greatest reckless- 
ness, or assume the role of the greatest dare- 
devil, stood foremost and was the leader of 
that society. 

This desire for notoriety among his fellows 
led the cowboy into many serious difficulties 
and gave rise to the general opinion that he 
was without feeling or regard for the rights 
of others and was naturally cruel. This 
opinion was erroneous. His recklessness ami 
occasional cruelty were not the natural pro- 
ducts of his nature but were rather, in most 
instances, assumed in a spirit of bravado. As 
a rule, the cowboy was true to his friends, and 
with him it was a religious principle to stand 
by and never desert a friend in a "tight place." 

In the general roundup in the spring, all 
cattlemen having cattle upon the territory to 
be covered took part. Sometimes as many 
as one hundred men worked together. A 
captain was selected, and he directed the men. 
Cook wagons were provided and these were 
kept convenient to the men at work on the 
range. 

Each day cattle found were driven to a 
r-oint selected by the captain, where the calves 
\vere branded and the cattle of the different 
owners were "cut out"" from the others and 
driven back to the range of the owner, and 
so work went on from week to week until all 
the territory where it was probable cattle of 
those engaged in the roundup could be found, 
was covered. 

After this roundup was completed each 
ranchman again covered his own range, 
branded the calves found there, and again, 
later in the summer, when the steers had be- 
come fat. the range was acain irone over, and 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



0/ 



those in condition for the market were cut out 
and driven to the railroad and shipped. 

A ROUXDUP OF ROUXDUPS 

After the South Loup spring roundup was 
finished the cowboys who had been riding the 
ranges for from four to six weeks would 
mount their horses and hike for North Platte, 
where they would meet the riders from the 
North Platte roundup, and then would be held 
a roundup of roundups that made history of 
its own. On these occasions there would as- 
semble from two to three hundred men, with 
from five to seven hundred saddle horses. 
Each ranch outfit represented would have a 
crack shot, a foot racer, a boxer, a race horse, 
a bucking broncho, and all these would be 
trotted out in their turns and matched against 
the rivals of the other ranches. Defeats and 
victories w^ere both celebrated by drinks for 
the crowd. These celebrations lasted as long 
as the cowboys' money held out. Associated 
at different times in these lusty carnivals were 
such characters as Buck Taylor, ^lajor North, 
John Shores, and Bufifalo Bill, all of whom had 
race horses of their own and were always 
ready to back them up with all the money 
they could get their hands on. 

CATTLEMEX VERSUS SETTLERS 

As early as 1874 settlers began coming in — 
that is, a few adventuresome spirits drifted into 
the ]\Iiddle and South Loup countries and a 
settlement or two w^as made in the eastern 
section of the county and also in the New 
Helena district. They came in slowly at first 
and their coming was not encouraged by the 
cattlemen, who saw that the homesteader would 
sooner or later absorb his range and supplant 
stock-raising and grazing with farming and 
stock-raising on the farmer's scale. He was 
naturally averse to this, and the reckless cow- 
boys, who understood that with the going of 
the large herd would go their occupation and 
employment, never put themselves out to make 
things attractive and pleasant for the settler. 
One writer says : 

A very bitter feeling existed between those 
engaged in the two occupations ; neither was 



fair nor just with the other. The weaker 
was compelled to give way to the stronger. 
There were a hundred homesteaders to every 
ranchman. A few of the more courageous 
cattlemen made a struggle to hold their ranges. 
They fenced in large tracts of territory, con- 
structed wells in these pastures, and the cow- 
boys in their employ made homestead, pre- 
emption, and timber-culture entries therein, un- 
der the government land laws. 

Frame shacks or shanties were constructed, 
called by the cowboys, in their application and 
final proof, houses. These were in many in- 
stances upon runners or wheels and were 
moved from claim to claim. The same shanty 
ofttimes answered the purpose of a house in 
making final proof for three or four cowboys 
upon as many different claims. But all this 
was of no avail to the ranchman. The home- 
steader made entries within his pasture. He 
contested and had cancelled the claims of the 
cowboy. He cut and destroyed the fences. 
Bloodshed and murder were in some instances 
the result. In the courts the ranchman had 
but little hope of success. In his controversy 
with the homesteader he must try his case be- 
fore a jury of homesteaders. 

A NEAR-BATTLE 

Early in the fall of 1884 a few settlers lo- 
cated homesteads in the northeast corner of 
the Brighton Ranch Company's pasture, on 
Ash creek. This pasture was about fifteen 
miles square and extended several miles south 
of the Loup river almost to Broken Bow, and 
was inclosed with a wire fence. The land be- 
ing government land, and subject to entry, 
these settlers served notice on the ranch com- 
pany to remove their fences from about their 
claims within thirty days. The company paid 
no attention to this request, and at the expira- 
tion of the time the settlers made a raid on 
the fence and appropriated the posts to make 
roofs for their sod houses. Roofs in those 
days were made by laying a large log, called 
a ridge log, lengthwise of the building at the 
top. The fence posts were then laid up to 
form the rafters, to which brush was fastened, 
the whole being covered with one or two layers 
of prairie sod, coated with several inches of 
yellow clay, procured from the canyons, which 
turned water very eft'ectually. 

In a short time after the appropriation of 
these posts the foreman of the ranch had the 



58 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




HISTORY CF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



59 



settlers arrested and taken to Broken Bow for 
trial. The sheriff had no sooner departed with 
the prisoners than the second foreman of the 
ranch rigged up two large wagons, drawn 
by four mules each, and proceeded to the 
houses of the settlers, accompanied by a num- 
ber of the cowboys. They drove up to a 
house, took a team and a large chain, hitched 
on to the projecting end of the ridge log, and 
in about three seconds the sod -house was a 
shapeless mass of sod, hay, brush, and posts 
mixed up in almost inextricable confusion. 
The ranchmen then culled their posts from the 
wreck and loaded them into the wagons, when 
they went to the next house and repeated the 
operation, leaving the occupants to pick their 
few household goods out of the ruins at their 
leisure. The boys were having great fun 
at the expense of the settlers, cracking jokes 
and making merry as the work of destruction 
went on. After destroying several houses 
in this manner they proceeded to the claim 
of a Air. King, and Airs. King, seeing them 
approaching, met them with a shotgim and 
dared them to come on. Had it been Mr. 
King, the invitation would possibly have been 
accepted, but the cowboys were too gallant to 
enter into a quarrel with a lady, and withdrew 
without molesting her. 

In the meantime a boy of the settlement had 
been despatched to Broken Bow, on the fastest 
pony that could be procured, to secure help, 
and quite a posse of men from the town 
started for the scene of action. The foreman 
of the ran;h, who was in Broken Bow at the 
time as complaining witness against the 
settlers, heard of this and sent one of his 
cowboys in haste to warn the second foreman 
of the impending invasion. The messenger 
arrived at the settlement in advance of the 
citizens and gave the alarm. The house- 
wreckers were thoroughly scared, and. turning 
the heads of their mule teams toward the 
South Loup, a]3plied the whij) freely. As the 
mules began to run over the rough prairie the 
posts began to fall off the wagons, and as 
the teams began to show signs of weariness 
the cowboys began to heave off more posts to 
lighten the load as they bumped along, leaving 



a trail behind them like that of a railroad con- 
struction gang. Arriving at the ranch, they 
turned out their mules, secured their ^^'in- 
chesters and made a break for tlie hills on 
the south side of the river, to await develop- 
ments. When the posse of rescuers arrived 
at the little settlement and found the invaders 
gone, they did not follow them, but returned 
to Broken Bow. The cowboys remained in 
the hills two days, waiting for the approach 
of the enemy in vain. 

The ranch company failed to make anv case 
against the settlers, it being shown that the 
ranch pasture was government land and that 
the claims were lawfully held by the home- 
steaders, who had a perfect right to remove 
the fence which inclosed their property. The 
prisoners were accordingly released and were.' 
not again molested. The second foreman of 
the ranch was subsequently arrested for tear- 
ing, down the houses of the settlers, was tried 
at Broken Bow, found guilty, fined twentv'- 
five dollars and costs, and confined one day 
in the county jail. 

The winter of 1880-81 marked the termina- 
tion of extraordinary profits in the cattle in- 
dustrv' in Custer county. The severe winter 
entailed frightful losses upon cattlemen. Some 
whole herds were wiped out of existence. This 
opened the door to the settlers, who were not 
slow to flock in and settle in all parts of the 
county, picking out, of course, the choice and 
level land without regard to whether it was 
in some ranchman's range. By the close of 
1884 there were fully 18.000 people in Custer 
county, and probably not to exceed 4,000 
cattle. 

As the ranchman and the Texas steer in the 
'60s and early '70s had driven out the Indian 
and the buffalo, so now in the '80s the ranch- 
man and the steer were compelled to give way 
to the farmer and the horse. 

It may be well to record here one more 
incident which illustrates the kind of war 
waged in those days between settler and 
rancher. In 1875 Frederick Schreyer located a 
homestead about five miles up the river from 
where Callaway now stands. His only neigh- 
bors were cowboys, and peace and harmony 



60 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



61 



did not prevail in his neighborhood. He was 
not given a welcome reception. No bands 
played in his honor. There were presented no 
testimonials expressing the pleasure of the 
ranchmen and cowboys because he had moved 
in. In order to discourage the lone home- 
steader, the festive cow-punchers stampeded 
their herds over the roof of his dugout, and 
herded their steers in his cornfield. When he 
resorted to arms to defend himself he was 
arrested and put into jail. But Schreyer was 
an indomitable spirit and not easily put down. 
His career, however, was so marked in the 
early days that it is given another place on 
these pages. 

The last cowboy has disappeared from the 
South Loup country, from the Middle Loup, 
and from other parts of Custer county that 
were once covered with cattle. The plucky 
pioneers, however, who paved the way for 
others to follow, are still with us, for the 
most part, full of years and honors, living in 
the enjoyment of the fruits of their toil. 

AN UNDERGROUND R.MLROAD 

The following story, told by Robert Harvey, 
describing a discovery made in the South Loup 
country in July, 1872, by himself and surveying 
party, seems to disclose the "main line" of the 
famous "underground railroad," over which a 
great number of valuable horses, and perhaps 
other property, passed through the county in 
the days of the early '70s. 

"During the last days of July we completed 
all but six miles of lines south of the fourth 
standard parallel and camped at the corner 
of townships 15 and 16 north, ranges 23 and 
24 west, near the northeast edge of a beauti- 
ful round, flat valley, located on wliat is now 
the line between Triumph and Delight pre- 
cincts. The depression, is, no doubt, a very 
remote lake-bed or basin formed by the rocking 
of an ancient iceberg. 

"In the afternoon we started north on the 
last six miles of the range line of this part 
of the work and ascended the long, grassy 
south s\oY>e of a high hill or promontory. Af- 
ter considerable labor and fatitrue. we reached 



the summit of the clean-cut northeast rim. 
The diagonal descent along the steep north- 
east slope was attained with considerable diffi- 
culty, and having reached the bottom I found 
that the bluffs' dark shadows cast far out into 
the valley, rendering farther progress that eve- 
ning impossible. We proceeded to camp, 
which we found on the right bank of the 
South Loup river. 

"Next morning we resumed the work of 
projecting our abandoned line northward, and 
at the half-mile corner between sections 13 and 
18 we crossed a small spring brook having its 
source in springs under the east slope of the 
high bluff". A little farther north we ascended 
an elevated clay spur formed by the river on 
the north and the little brook on the southeast. 
Ihe bluff terminated a little east of our line 
in a low bottom covered with wild hemp and 
sunflowers. 

"Crossing this spur, I noticed a deeply cut 
wagon track, which appeared to have been 
made in soft wet ground and then grass 
grown, which excited my curiosity, and turn.- 
ing down the trail a few yards I came upon a 
cowbell and a spring of a wagon spring-seat, 
■common to that period. Descending to the 
low bench I passed to the left along the foot 
of the spur and near its point suddenly came 
upon the door of a cave which was set flush 
with the perpendicularly cut bank. 

"Pushing open the door, I entered a room 
containing a fireplace at the north end, a 
single sleeping bunk at the south end and an 
old rough-board table. Evidently it was the 
kitchen, dining room, reception hall, parlor, 
and cook's sleeping room. Passing through a 
door in the partition I entered a large room 
which had feed stalls arranged along the north 
side and west end, and sleeping bunks along 
the south side. Some shelled corn was scat- 
tered about and a copy of Harper's Weekly of 
the previous June lay on the floor. 

"On the outside we searched in the grass 
and weeds for signs of occupancy, but found 
no tracks or paths leading to the river or 
creek, but at the water's edge of the brook 
found a block about three feet long, cut from 



62 



HISTURY OF CL'STER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



63 



a Cottonwood and pegged with forked stakes 
to hold it fast so one conld stand upon it and 
dip water from the brook. 

"Tlie dis:overy of such an abode, far from 
any settlement, and in an Indian infested coun- 
try where hunters had not yet ventured, was 
remarkable. It brought to my recollections a 
story I had heard repeated in Benton county, 
Iowa, three years before. The story ran that 
a young man of the neighborhood had gone 
west in 1866 or 1867, and joined a band of 
horse thieves whose 'runway' was from Mexico 
to the British possessions. The party with 
which he worked operated in Nebraska and 
perhaps Dakota Territory. 

"One of the stations along the route was in 
a cave on a branch of the Loup river and 
near the foot of a high, dark hill, with pine 
timber growing along the blufifs and a little 
stream of spring water flowing past the mouth 
of the cave. Their next station was two days' 
ride from this cave and located in a forest 
of pine and cedar in the canyons of the Loup 
river. 

"The story seems to describe this place. 
Here was a cave on the right bank of a 
branch of the Loup, with a small spring brook 
only a few yards away. There was a high, 
dark, frowning hill nearby, while scattering- 
pine timber grew along the blufifs on the oppo- 
site side of the river, and about seventy-five 
miles to the northeast, about two days' ride, 
were the cedar and pine-wooded canyons of 
the North Loup below the mouth of the Cala- 
mus river. All of the details of the story 
dovetailed exactly with the place. 

"In the latter part of September I was op- 
erating north of the parallel and on the 30th 
pitched my camp on the long, high mesa, or 
table-land, west of where Broken Bow is now 
located. Being almost destitute of water in 
the afternoon, I sent two men with the light 
wagon to the south branch and gave instruc- 
tions to fill the barrels that evening and return 
early next morning. It was about seven miles 
to the river and six to our initial point on the 
parallel for the survey of the line between 
ranges 23 and 24 west, township 17 north. 

"On our way to the initial point we came to 



the south edge of the high undulating table- 
land about three miles south of camp, when 
we halted to scan the country. We expected 
to find evidence of two surveying parties op- 
erating south of us, who should be near the 
close of their work and about ready to return 
to their homes. We had brought with us a 
lot of written mail, hoping We might send it 
with them. 

"We scanned the country south, east, and 
west, and finally observed a bright spot far up 
the river. It looked like the reflection from 
a bright surface, and a dark object loomed 
near it. To ascertain if it was moving I 
directed the instrument towards it and made 
out that it was moving down the valley. 

"After watching the object for a time we 
concluded it was a wagon. But our curiosity 
was excited when we discovered that only one 
or two men were walking and several rode in 
the wagon, which was a very unusual thing 
for surveyors to do. when traveling over the 
prairie. The bright spot we had seen was the 
reflected sunlight from the bright tire of the 
hind wheel. The wagon proceeded down the 
valley and halted on the clay spur where our 
cave of July was found. Here the horses 
were turned out and the men passed from 
sight over the end of the spur. 

"It was now quite late and my suspicions 
were thoroughly aroused, and being anxious 
for the safety of the teamster, who had not 
returned from the river, and the team, I deter- 
mined to go to their relief. Sending a man 
to camp, we hurried to the river and reached 
it at dark, just as the wagon arrived. The 
men were entirely ignorant of the presence of 
strangers and surprised at the suspected char- 
acter of their very nearby neighbors. Giving 
directions for guard duty during the night, 
Charley Starkweather and I walked along the 
bank, perhaps a hundred yards, and yelled 
several times without receiving an answer, then 
fired two shots, which brought a feeble voice 
inquiring what we wanted. We told him we 
were surveyors and had lost our way to 
camp, that we were hungry 'and tired and 
wanted accomniodations for the night. The 
fellow told; us thev were strangers in the 



64 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY. NEBRASKA 



country and poorly provided, so could not 
entertain us. We told him there was plenty 
of room in the cave and we would come 
over. 

"Fording the river, we followed him to the 
dugout, which it really was. and instead of 
there being three or four men. there were 
sixteen. After explaining who we were and 
our business we asked for supper and a place 
to sleep. \\'e tried to be friendly and agree- 
able, but none of the men would talk except 



equally strange to us that so many men were 
there, far from settlements, in an Indian 
country. They claimed to be hunters, yet, in 
a splendid game country, they had gotten only 
one or two deer in a week and were poorly 
supplied with bedding and food. 

■■\^'ithout supper, we lay down on a blanket 
before the fire-place, but each of us quietly 
slipped a cartridge into his gim and each 
took a turn on guard, feigning to be asleep. 
At break of day we quietly slipped out. and, 




The Old Black Ranch ox Deer Creek 



one abnut tifty years old who appeared to be 
the spokesman and leader. He said they 
were hunters, had been there about a week, 
had killed only one or two deer, and were out 
of provisions, excepting a little coffee. A 
team and two men had gone that morning to 
Plum Creek station on the Union Pacific rail- 
road for provisions, but had not returned, 
therefore they could not feed us. 

"It seemed very strange to us that one man 
should do all the talking for the gang and 
he refused to tell us where they were from, 
except that he came from Iowa. It seemed 



on going around the south side of the spur, 
saw two fine black horses and a n.ew top 
buggv". I have been told by some of the early 
settlers that this was the rendezvous or hiding 
place of Doc Middleton ; but Doc had not 
gained notoriety in 1872, nor do I think he 
had gone into the rustling business then. If 
this was the cave, or station, attributed to 
the young man in Iowa, which I have every 
reason to believe it to be. Doc Mitldleton and 
he were one and the same person. Doc Mid- 
dleton was only a boy when the cave was 
occupied by the horsethieves." 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



65 



THE WILD WEST HAS WILD HORSES 

Dan Haskell, who came to Custer county 
before its organization, and who had to do 
with its development as much as any other 
man, gives this interesting account of a wild 
horse hunt in the county : 

"A correspondent of the Chicago Drovers' 
Journal says: 'I have seen the stag hunt in 
Scotland and the steeple chase in Ireland, but 
compared with a wild-horse hunt on the Has- 
kell & Company ranch in Nebraska, these are 
tame sports." 

"In the summer of 1884. we had a herd of 
six hundred horses on our ranch. ( )ne eve- 
ning about sundown we were driving them 
across a small bridge when they became fright- 
ened and commenced to run. This raised a 
dense cloud of dust, which added to the fright 
of the animals, causing them to stampede, 
break through a fence on either side, and kill 
five of them, the balance of the herd flying in 
every direction into the hills. During the 
night they became mixed up with a herd of 
wild horses, of which there were large num- 
bers roaming over this country at that time. 
One would naturally suppose that the wild 
horse could outstrip his domesticated brother 
in a long race, but in separating our stampeded 
herd from the wild ones we discovered that 
such is not the case. The domesticated horse, 
being better bred, proved to have superior 
powers of endurance. As the wild horse has 
long ago disappeared from Custer county, a 
short description of his habits and the man- 
ner of hunting may be interesting to the reader. 

"Wild horses roamed over the prairie in 
small bands, each led by a stallion, who was 
the head of the family. The first business of 
the hunter was to shoot these band stallions, 
which would cause the mares and colts of 
that family to unite themselves with another 
band. By repeating the operation of shooting 
the leading stallions quite a bunch of horses 
would soon be gathered together, the object 
being to chase as many down at once as pos- 
sible. Having gone thus far. the work of the 
hunter has just begun. \\'hen pursued, we 
found that wild horses always traveled in a 
circle, and that they would eventually get 



back to the place from which they started. 
After getting a bunch of the required size to- 
gether, by shooting the stallions as described, 
our next move was to establish camps along 
the course we concluded the animals would 
run. with a man at each station to take care 
of the saddle horses, which were used in re- 
lays. Two men. well mounted, then started 
the herd of wild horses, and crowded them 
to their utmost limit, giiving them time neither 
to eat nor rest until they were completely 
run down, and would permit themselves to be 
corralled. It usually took about five days of 
constant motion to accomplish this, although 
sometimes a herd would succumb in two or 
three davs. Whenever we reached a relay 
camp our saddle horses were changed, thus 
keeping the wild horses on the constant move 
day and night. The long race generally broke 
the old ones down so that they were seldom 
of any use afterward, but the young ones 
seemed little the worse for their chase after 
a few days' rest. 

"Occasionally we would start a bunch led 
by an old stallion that would, when pushed 
hard, start out and run for fifty miles in one 
direction, taking us away from our camps iil- 
together and compelling us often to ride a 
hundred miles without a change of horses. 
At intervals in the chase one or more of 
the wild horses would drop back, not able to 
keep up with the flying herd. These were 
alwavs roped, thrown, and hobbled, so that 
we could return and get them after the main 
bunch had been run down. We had a one- 
armed man on our ranch, by the name of Jim 
Hunnell, who could rope and hobble a wild 
horse with the best of them. With one end of 
his lariat tied to the horn of his saddle, he 
would take the bridle-rein in his teeth, and, 
holding the coil and loop both in his hand, 
would catch and throw his horse every time, 
putting on the hobbles by using his hand and 
teeth. Those who have tried to rope a wild 
horse and hobble him with two good hands will 
appreciate the work done by Jim Hunnell. 
The most favorable time to chase wild horses 
was when there was snow on the ground, as 
we could then follow the trail much easier dur- 



66 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



ing the night. We carried small, dark-lanterns 
with us, to be used when it would be impos- 
sible to follow the trail without them. We 
would sometimes be caught by a blizzard, in 
the middle of a chase, and be obliged to give 
up and get back to the camp as best we could. 
In February, 1883, my brother and myself 
started out to catch a small bunch of eleven 
horses headed by a fine roan stallion. One of 
the neighbors had been catching the colts for 
two seasons. We had si.x good saddle horses 
with us, expecting to locate them at two dif- 
ferent points along the course we thought the 
wild horses would take, but when we reached 
our friend's house he said he had chased the 
bunch several times and they took a circle only 
of ten or twelve miles, so we left our extra 
horses at his place and set out with but one 
feed of corn and a lunch in our pockets. \\'c 
soon located the herd, and away they went 
like the wind, the fine old roan stallion in the 
lead. When the old fellow found out that 
some one was after him that meant business, 
he struck oflf on a tangent at the top of his 
speed in a southwesterly direction. Late in 
the afternoon we struck the North Platte val- 
ley northwest of Ogallala. The roan then 
changed his course to northwest, and traveled 
at such a killing gait that, had it not been for 
the snow on the ground, we could hardly have 
been able to follow him. .As we neared the 
B. and M. Railroad, the snow became quite 
fleejx and after the darkness came on we ' 
lighted our lanterns and followed the trail 
without any trouble. At three o'clock in tlie 
morning we concluded to stop and give our 
saddle horses a rest, as they had been ridden 



hard all day and night, except when we had 
stopped to feed them the corn and to eat our 
lunch. We scraped a little round place in 
the snow, which was twelve inches deep, and 
lay down on the frozen ground together, hold- 
ing our horses by the bridle reins. We were 
so cold our teeth chattered together, while our 
horses stood and shivered. As soon as day- 
light appeared we arose from our downy bed 
and rode up to the top of a high bluflf. from 
which we discerned the wild horses huddled up 
in a small valley with their heads down, taking 
a much-needed rest. Hearing the bark, of a 
dog, we ])roceeded in that direction and came 
to the ranch of Carl Gross, southwest of Lake- 
side, where we remained that day and the fol- 
lowing night. We were both snow-blind. 
Early next morning, we took up the trail of 
the horses and followed them back to the 
place from which they had started. We pro- 
cured fresh saddle horses, set out after them 
again, and two days later had the entire Inmch 
in a corral at our home ranch. While in pur- 
suit of this roan band, we sighted another herd 
of fourteen, headed by a fine brown horse, and 
next month gave them chase and had them cor- 
ralled in two days. This was our last horse hunt. 
"Wild horses have almost entirely disap- 
peared from Nebraska, although it is said 
there are still a few small bands in the vicinity 
of Blue river. The writer has seen hundreds 
of them on Tallin Table in Custer county, and 
i: was a grand sight to see the fat, sleek fellows 
watering at the pools, which stood there as 
late as the month of June, each leader herding 
his family to keep it from mixing with other 
herds." 



CHAPTER IV 
COUNTY ORGAXIZATIOX AXD DEVELOPMENT 

The Proposed Garber County — Kouxtz County — Governor's Proclamation — First 
County Officers — First Meeting of Supervisors — First Voting Places — First 
Election Results — The New Officers — Custer County Judges — The First County 
Assessment — Names of Those Who Have Served as County Clerks — Clerks of Dis- 
trict Court — ■ County Treasurers — Registers of Deeds — County Superintendents 
— Official Roster of Custer County — A Noted Sheriff — Multiply' \"oting Pre- 
cincts — The Last Precinct Supervisors — The New Board — Brand Commission- 
ers — County Division — First Land Documents — The Evolution of the Court 
House — The Custer County United States Land Office — Kinkaid Bill Goes into 
Effect — New Law Takes Effect — A Quiet and Orderly Crowd — Crowd Gets 
A Rest — The Land Entries — Opening of the Military and Forest Re- 
serves — Personnel of the Notaries — Letup. Stop. Over, and Rest 



From the vast sweep of an almost endless 
prairie, entirely without human inhabitants, 
save marauding tribes of primitive red men, 
to a white population numerous enough to jus- 
tify the organization of a county, is a far cry. 
Prior to June. 1877, the territory now com- 
I'rised in Custer county covered all the dis- 
tance between the uninhabited waste and the 
nucleus of organized government. L'nder early 
conditions the cattlemen or ranchers had been 
compelled to pay taxes to the organized coun- 
ties on the east. They had no benefit from 
any taxes paid and no enforcement of 
the law. If lawless characters committed 
depredations, ran off or branded their stock, 
there was no recourse of law. Of course 
the cattlemen never expected that this would 
become an agricultural territory. It seemed 
evident to them that it would always be a range 
country and cattle-raising the chief industry; 
still, they must have some semblance of law, 
there must be some way provided to punish 
cattle thieves and, perhaps, a few schools would 
have to be established. In order to accomplish 
this, it was evident that county organization 
should be established and maintained. 



County organization began to be talked over. 
Several meetings were held at different times 
for the purpose of taking steps toward or- 
ganization. One of these meetings was held 
in the residence of Nc George, at which were 
present Frank Young, L. D. George, Coe Kil- 
gore, and Joshua Woods. No action was taken, 
however, and in different places were held sev- 
eral other meetings, which were barren . of 
results so far as effecting organization was 
concerned. 

THE proposed garber COUNTY 

During the winter of 1875 a bill was intro- 
duced into the legislature, and passed by both 
houses, authorizing the organization of a coun- 
ty to be known as Garber county, comprising 
a territory of twenty-four miles square, ly- 
ing immediately west of A'alley county. It did 
not appear, however, that the proposed new 
county had enough inhabitants to support and 
maintain, through taxation, a county organiza- 
tion. So. the proposition received the veto of 
Governor Garber. The governor's veto did not 
take into consideration the fact that the new 
county was named in his honor. The territory 



67 



68 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



includ'-d in the bill to create Garber county was 
about one-fourth of the present Custer county, 
and on the basis of the precinct organization 
would have included the precincts of Sargent, 
West Union, half of Milbum, most of Lillian, 
all of Garfield, Douglas Grove, Comstock, 
Spring Creek, W'esterville, some of Berwyn, 
and about one-fourth of Broken Bow. The 
southwest corner of the county would have 
been located in the present townsite of Broken 



how this name came to be applied or who 
was the first to apply it, is not known. The 
government, however, seems to have given 
some recognition to this cognomen. The early 
postofifices of the county were designated as 
being in Kountz county. Nebraska. This 
statanent concerning the counties accounts for 
the conflicting opinion that prevails among 
early settlers concerning the first covuity 
names. Some state positively that Custer 




Old Cottonwood tree on the .Anton .-\bel rancli, south of the Lonp river, where was held the last 
meeting to effect county organization, in 1877. This meeting named the county and chose the officers 
who were later appointed by the governor. The only two survivors of that meeting are shown in 
the above picture and are J. J. Douglass and Al. \\ ise, both of Callaway. 

Bow. Notwithstanding that the measure failed, county was first known as Garber county, 

the name Garber county attached to this ter- others that it was first known as Kountz 

ritory initil after the organization of the pres- county and. in harmony with the above ex- 

ent coimty. planation, both are right. 



KOUNTZ COUNTY 

Exclusive of that portion of the county which 
wanted to be organized into Garber county, 
all the rest of the unorganized territory west 
of \'alley and Sherman counties was known 
as Kountz county, so named after Kountz 
brothers, wealthy bankers of Omaha. Just 



NOW COMES CUSTER COUNTY 

.\gitation for the new county continued and 
finally culminated in the organization of Cus- 
ter county. The taxpayers of the unorganized 
territory were growing continually more rest- 
less im<ler the assessment of high taxes which 
they could pay but could not spend. This left 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



69 



them, they declared, holding the hot end of the 
poker. Other organization meetings were held 
and the agitation kept up. Eight ranchmen 
met one day under a tree on the Frank H. 
Yo'Ung place and took the preliminary steps 
toward organization. A later meeting at 
which thirteen ranchmen were present finally 
put the machinery in motion. This second 
meeting was held at the Anton Abel ranch. 
The first officers were recommended to the 
governor by the men in attendance at this 
meeting. 

In the legislature of 1877, the Hon. J. II. 
]\IcCall, of Dawson county, came to the rescue 
of these settlers and introduced in the legis- 
lature the following bill, which accordingly 
passed both houses and was signed by Gov- 
ernor Garber : 

Be it enacted by the legislature of the State 
of Nebraska : 

Section 1. That all that portion of the state 
of Nebraska, commencing at the southeast cor- 
ner of township thirteen (13), north of range 
seventeen (17), west of the sixth principal 
meridian, thence north to the northeast corner 
of township twenty (20), north of range sev- 
enteen (17), west, then:e west to the north- 
west corner of township twenty ( 20 ) , north 
of range twenty-five west, thence south to the 
southwest corner of township thirteen (13), 
north of range twenty-five ( 25 ) , west, thence 
east to beginning, shall constitute the county 
of Custer. 

Approved February 17, 1877. 

It is not known who is entitled to the dis- 
tinction of naming the new county, but it wa^ 
named "Custer" in honor of the gallant In- 
dian fighter who perished with all his com- 
mand at the memorable battle on the Little 
Big Horn the previous summer, 1876. 

In May a petition was sent to Governor 
Garber, signed by most of the cattlemen of 
the county, asking for the appointment of tem- 
porary officers to complete the organization of 
the county, as follows : 

To the Honorable Silas Garber, 
Governor of the State of Nebraska : 

We, the undersigned, inhabitants of Custer 
county, Nebraska, and taxpayers therein, pe- 
tition you to appoint and commission James 
Gasmann, Anton Abel, and H. C. Stuckey as 
special county commissioners, and Frank H. 



Young as special county clerk of said county 
for the purpose of forming a permanent or- 
ganization for said county, and that you will 
appoint and declare the southeast quarter of 
section 23, in township l.S north, range 22 
west, as the temporary county seat of said 
county, and for this we will ever pray. 

(Signed) Frank H. Young 

fames G. Gasmann Emmett V. Filer 
W. T. H. Tucker Nate Fuller 

H. C. Stuckey J. J. Douglass 

Denman Fritt P. W. O'Brien 

Phil Dufrand A. B. Bradney 

Anton Abel W. W. Wattles 

E. J. Boblits I. O. Child 

James Paxton W. H. Kilgore 

A. H. Wise Joshua Wood 

T. M. Jameson S. C. Stuckey 

Reginald AIcKee Uouis Wambsgan 

St.^te of Ne:br.\sk.\ 

County of Dawson, 

Personally appeared before me, a notary 
jniblic in and for Dawson county, Nebraska, 
James P. Paxton, Frank H. Long", and James 
Gasmann, who, being duly sworn, depose and 
say that they are resident freeholders in the 
county of Custer and state of Nebraska, 
that such county contains a population of not 
less than two hundred inhabitants, and that 
ten or more of such inhabitants are taxpayers, 
and further they say not. 

James P. Paxton 
"Frank H. Young 
James Gasmann 

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 
I'Jth day of May, 1877. 

(Seal) H. O. Smith, Notary Public 

The following letters and recommendations 
from prominent citizens of Dawson county 
were forwarded with the petition to the gov- 
ernor, and may be interesting as a part of 
this history : 

Office of the Clerk of County and District 
Courts, Dawson County. 

Plum Creek, Nebr., June 14, 1877. 
His Excellency, Silas Garber, 
Lin:oln, Nebr. 

Dear Sir — Several of the citizens of Cns- 
ter county have been speaking to me about 
the organization of that county, and desire 
me to write to you about the matter. There 
is quite a large amount of personal property 
owned by the citizens of that territory, and 
under the present status it is under the con- 
trol of no one. One-half of the county is 
in this judicial district, and the other in the 



70 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



sixth. Mr. Young, a resident of that county, 
will call upon you for the purpose of seeing 
about the matter, and will explain the situa- 
tion to you. I feel like accommodating them 
if it can be done. Please let me know the 
situation. Yours, etc.. C. J- Dilworth 

Plum Creek, Xchr.. June 23, 1877. 
Governor Garber, 
Lincoln. Xebr. 

Sir — I am acquainted with a great many 
of the residents of Custer county and they 
all are very anxious to be in running order, 
and it would be a great help in stopping the 
cattle and horse stealing. I am personally ac- 
quainted for a long time with F. H. Young, 
and can recommend him in every respect. 
R. F. James, Sheril? Dawson county, Xebr. 
We have read the statement of Mr. James 
and believe it true in everv particular. 
H. T. Hedges, P. M. ' 
E. S. Stl'ckev, County Treasurer 
H. O. Smith, Deputy Sheriff 
T. L. ^\'.^RRI.^■GTox, Attorney at Law 
W. H. Levgel, County Clerk 
R. B. Pierce, County Judge 

Plum Creek. Xebr.. June li. 1877 
Hon. Silas Garber, 
Lincoln, Xebr. 

Dear Sir — Enclosed find letters from the 
county officers in regard to Custer county. 
Mr. ^lacColl is absent and will not be back 
for about two weeks : the other officers all 
signed the papers. I would like to get the 
commission by return mail, if possible, as I 
am in a hurry to get out of Custer county 
to look after my calves, as it is time to brand 
them. Hoping you will give this your early 
attention, I remain. 

Yours respectfully, 

Fr.\xk H. Young 

The governor, on the 27th day of June, 
•issued the following proclamation, which 
launched Custer county on its glorious ca- 
reer: 

procl-\m.\tiox 

Whereas, .\ large number of the citizens of 
the unorganized county of Custer have united 
in a petition asking that the said county 
be organized and that James Gasmann, An- 
ton Abel, and H. C. Stuckey be appointed 
special county commissioners, and Frank H. 
Young be appointed special county clerk of 
said county, for the purpose of forming a 
permanent organization, and that the south- 
east quarter of section twenty-three, in town- 
ship fifteen north, range twenty-two west, be 



designated as the temporary county seat of 
said county of Custer, and it appearing that 
the said county contains a population of not 
less than two hundred inhabitants, and ten 
or more of said petitioners are taxpayers and 
residents of said county : 

Xow, therefore. I. Silas Garber, governor of 
the state of Xebraska, in accordance with the 
memorial of said petitioners, and under and 
by the authority in me vested and in pur- 
suance of the statute in such cases made and 
provided, do declare said county to be tem- 
porarily organized for the purpose of per- 
manent organization, and do appoint and 
commission the persons above named as the 
special county commissioners, and the said 
person above named as special county clerk 
of said county, and do declare the place 
above named and described as the temporary 
county seat of said county. 

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set 
my hand, and caused to be affixed the great 
seal of the state of Xebraska. 

Done at Lincoln, the capital, this twenty- 
seventh day of June, in the year of our Lord 
one thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven 
and of the independence of the L'nited States 
one hundred and first, and of this state the 
eleventh. SiL.\s G.\rber 

By the Governor: 

Bruxo Tschuck, the Secretary of State. 

FIRST COUXTY OFFICERS 

Prior to the issuing of the proclamation by 
Governor Garber, establishing a temporary 
organization for Custer county, a meeting 
had been held at the home of Frank Young 
at which were present E. J. Boblits, Al Wise. 
J J. Douglass. Joshua Woods. \'ergil Allen, 
and other early settlers to the number of 
thirteen. This meeting recommended the ap- 
pointment of Frank Young as temporary 
county clerk, .\nton Abel, James Gasmann, 
and H. C. Stuckey as county commissioners, 
and accordingly the governor was petitioned 
for their ap])ointment. Complying with the 
request the governor named these men for 
their respective offices and they liecame. by 
the governor's proclamation, the first officers 
of Custer county. 

FIRST MEETING OF SUPERVISORS 

Bv the authority of the governor's procla- 
mation, the first session of the special county 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



71 



commissioners met at the temporary county seat 
and the}' were ckily sworn into office. Frank 
H. Young had taken the oath of office as 
county clerk in the governor's office at Lin- 
cohi, so when the supervisors had been duly 
inducted into their office, they were ready 
to commence business. The first matter of 
business attended to was the passing of an 
order calling for a special election to be 
held on Tuesday, the 31st day of July, 1877, 
for the purpose of electing a county judge, 
a sheriff, a clerk, a treasurer, a coroner, a 
surveyor, and three county commissioners. 
The matter of selecting a county seat, or 
of making the temporary county seat the per- 



voting place should be the home of Joshua 
Woods. In precinct number two all the elec- 
tors were to resort to the home of Anton 
Abel, the third voting precinct was in the 
home of E. Halloway. This last voting pre- 
cinct was so far to the south end of the pre- 
cinct that the New Helena people objected 
and, at the first opportunity, presented the 
first petition ever presented to a Custer coun- 
ty board praying for a new precinct. As this 
request was granted, this special election of 
July 31 was the only election ever held while 
the county was divided in only three pre- 
cincts. The election came off in due form. 
Fifty-eight votes were cast, which constituted 



^VH 




^^^^^^^^K' '^^^^B 


■ 








B 








1 



A Trinity of Oi,d-timers 
Virgil Allen Milo Young J. J. Douglass 



manent location of the county capital, was 
also to be decided at that special election. 

After the special election had been pro- 
vided for, the three commissioners proceeded 
to chop the county up into three voting pre- 
cincts, which they did by cutting off tiers of 
townships running clear through the county 
from north to south on the east end of the 
county and constituting that as precinct num- 
ber one. Another three ranges of townships 
west of first precinct and running through the 
middle of the county constituted the second 
precinct, while the remaining three tiers of 
townships on the west end of the county be- 
came the third precinct. 

FIRST VOTING PL.\CES 

In the first precinct it was ordered that the 



the sum total of the new county's voting 
strength. It was the first election, it was be- 
ing held far from the centers of eastern civili- 
zation and, consequently, form and ceremony 
were little observed. In the third precinct 
they did not go to the formality of adminis- 
tering the oath to either judges or clerks, 
consequently the vote in the third precinct 
was thrown out when an official canvass of 
the vote was made by the county commis- 
sioners. 

The election, however, was an event long 
remembered in those days, conducted under 
a purely western regime. The voters came 
early and in most cases stayed for dinner 
with the judge of election, who was also host 
for the occasion. It is related that not more 
than three or four voters in ea:h precinct 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



made the trip to the polls and back without 
trading horses. One early narrator makes 
the too extravagant claim that more horses 
were traded that day than votes cast. 

FIRST KLICCTION RESULTS 

When the supervisors assembled in August 
to canvass the returns of the special election, 
they rejected the vote of the third precinct, 
for reasons that have been previously statetl, 
and, on summing up the returns from the oth- 
er two i>recincts, announced that the tem- 
porary county seat was to be the permanent 
county seat, and that the following officers 
were duly and regularly elected : 

Commissioners, Anton Abel, James Gas- 
mann, William Kilgore. 

Clerk, Frank H. Young. 

Treasurer, S'. C. Stuckey. 

Sheriff, Joshua Woods. 

Coroner, Charles R. Mathews. 

Surveyor, II. C. Norton. 

County Judge, Louis Wambs'gan. 

AH of these officials filed their bonds, which 
were accepted by the newly elected county 
judge. Equipped with these officers, the Cus- 
ter countv shi]) of state was ready to sail. 
The New Helena people were on hand with 
tlieir petition requesting a new precinct witli 
a voting place in the New Helena postoffice, 
which was then in the home of Judge 
Mathews, it was an accommodating board of 
conimissioners that received the petition, 
hence the re(|uest was granted, and never 
since that time has this been a county of three 
precincts. 

The special election was scarcely over be- 
fore the commissioners and the people began 
to campaign for the regular election in No- 
vember of the same fall, only four months 
off. The regular election came on and was 
belli in the four voting places. This time 
all the judges and all the clerks were sworn 
into office, the voting proceeding regularly, 
and counts were didy made and returns 
sworn to. Horse trading came in for its 
regular ])lace on the program and several 
cleverly hidden spavins went home with new 



owners. This election did not greatly change 
the personnel of the official staff. 



THE XEW OFFICERS 

The same commissioners, Abel, Gasmann, 
and Kilgore, were retained in office, S. C. 
Stuckey w^as retained as treasurer, Joshua 
Wood as sheriff, Charles R. Mathews as 
coroner, but John W, Benedict was made coun- 
ty surveyor, and Wilson Hewitt was elected 
county judge. 

The early records of the county are very 
meagre. No official roster has been kept. It 
is a hard and laborious task to trace the pro- 
ceedings of county commissioners, to fill out 
in detail the official roster, or to name the 
men in succession who have served the coun- 
ty in various capacities down to the present 
time. Some of these early officers performed 
very little service. They had no offices other 
than their own residences, so that in fact the 
county seat was scattered all over Custer coun- 
tv, according to the places where officials had 
their residences. Salaries were small, son^e 
offices, in fact, being without any salary at- 
tached, and for services rendered the incum- 
bents were remunerated only by a nominal 
fee. The offices were not as attractive as they 
are now — they were not considered plump 
I'lums to be grabbed every time some power 
shook the political tree. There were no con- 
ventionalities : a county official w-as in his of- 
fice and rcadv for business whenever and 
wherever he was found. If the treasurer was 
in the hay-field when a taxpayer came along 
with the money, there was a lousiness transac- 
tion forthwith to which Custer county was 
I'artw 

It took one lovelorn candidate for matri- 
mony three days to hunt up the county judge 
in order to ])rocure a license, and when he 
located the judge, that official had to stop 
lighting fire long enough to grant the license. 
lUit if it took some time and trouble to locate 
the office and the officer, there was no diffi- 
culty about formalities when they were found. 
.\ judge would enter in a day-book a state- 
ment that a marria"'e license had been issued 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



to such and such parties, then proceed to 
perform the ceremony and make the same 
entry do for both the license and return. 
Ceremonies, too. were simple and informal. It 
is related that when Judf^e llolilits performed 
his first marriage ceremony he simply said : 
"If you folks want each other for husband 
and wife you are married. And what God 
and Boblits have joined together let no man 
put asunder." 

CUSTKR COUNTY JUDGES 

The statement has been made that all the 
men who have served Custer county in the 
capacity of county judge during the past forty- 
one years are still alive and in a reasonable 
state of health. This is a very remarkable 
fact. Great pains have been taken to ascer- 
tain if the statement is correct. Louis 
Wambsgan was elected county judge at the 
first election ever held in Custer county. He 
filed a bond and took the oath of office but 
never transacted any official business other 
th.an to pass on the bonds of the first officers. 
Four months later, at the time of the regidar 
election, he was not a candidate for re-election 
and Wilson Hewitt was elected county judge. 
Hewitt was sworn into office in January, 1878, 
and in April of the same year resigned. The 
board accepted his resignation and appointed 
E. J. Boblits to fill the vacancy. At the next 
regular election, in the fall of 1878, Boblits 
was regularly elected as his own successor and 
served for two more years. In the fall of 
1880 Judge C. R. Mathews, of New Helena, 
was made the county judge. From that time 
on the following have served as county judges 
in the order named: Judge John S. Ben- 
jamin, Judge Arthur H. Kilgore, Judge John 
Reese, Judge H. J. Shinn, Judge J. R. Rhodes, 
Judge J. A. Armour, Judge A. R. Humphrey, 
Judge H. C. Hokomb, and Judge N. Dwight 
Ford, who is the present incumbent. 

The first assessors to serve the new county 
were VV. H. Comstock, Coe Kilgore, H. A. 
Chapin, and I. P. Bell, who were appointed 
to assess all taxable property in their respec- 
tive precincts. In the spring of 1877 W. H. 
Comstock had been ajjpointed by the authori- 



ties of Valley county to assess the property 
in the Custer county territory. This was done 
and returns made to Valley county but later 
an agreement was made by which the tax was 
collected by the Custer county officials and 
paid in to the Custer county treasurer. This 
was the first revenue coming inio the coffers 
of the young county. 

THU FIRST COUNTY ASSESSMENT 

In the spring of 1878, eight months after 
the organization of the county, the first as- 
sessment was made by the assessors mentioned 
in the foregoing paragraph. When the re- 
turns were compiled it was found that the 
young county had taxable property to the 
amount of $136,054.50. 

N.-VMES OF THOSE WHO H.WE SERX'ED AS COUNTY 
CLERKS 

Frank H. Young was the first clerk to serve 
the county. He was one of the most efficient 
officers that every served in any capacity. He 
was first appointed by the governor and after- 
wards elected at both the special and regular 
elections in the year of 1877. He served for 
three years and six months. Since his retire- 
nient the following men have served in the 
order named : Wilson Hewitt, J. J. Brown, 
.V. W. Hyatt, George Richtmyer, J. B. Os- 
l)orne, George W. Dewey, Joseph E. Pigman, 
W. H. Osborn, Jr., Robert E. Waters, pres- 
ent incumbent. 

CLERKS OF DISTRICT COURT 

A complete roster of county officers has been 
very hard to obtain. Some of the offices have 
been created since the organization of the 
county. In the early days the county clerk 
served also as clerk of district court until 
the office of clerk of district court was insti- 
tuted, in 1888. Those who have served the 
county as clerk are Wilson Hewitt, J. J. 
Brown, J. J. Douglass, S. M. Dorris, James 
Stockham, C. T. Orr, George B. ]\Iair, and the 
[iresent incumbent, Jess Gandy. 

COUNTY TRE.VSURERS 

The men who have been intrusted with the 
public funds of the county are as follows: 



74 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



S. C. Stuckey. C. T. Crawford. Dr. R. C. Tal- 
bot. \V. C. Bidwell, Hues Brown. David Wei- 
mer. H. Lomax. }ilark Schneringer. W. A. 
George, J. E. Cavenee. Clarence IMackey, and 
yi. S. Eddy, the present incumbent. 

REGISTERS OF DEEDS 

The office of register of deeds has had five 
occupants. It dates from 1894. when D. \\". 
l.anternman first filled the office. His suc- 
cessors have been Charles H. Jefifords, C. O. 
Linn, J. T. Wood, and the present recorder, 
George E. Porter. 

COUNTY SUPERIXTEXDEXTS 

The office of superintendent of public in- 
struction is one that dates from the organiza- 
tion of the county. The first superintendent 
was E. D. Eubanks. who served five years and 
who at one time might have said that he was 
superintendent of public instruction in a county 
in which there were no schoolhouses. It was 
during his regime that the first districts were 
organized and the first schools established. The 
following men have filled the office of county 
superintendent since the retirement of E. D. 
Eubanks as a public officer: D. M. Amsberry, 
C. F. Randall. \V. H. Hendrickson. H. H. 
Hyatt, J. J. Tooley, J. G. W. Lewis. H. M. 
Pinkney, G. E. Lewis, and T. C. Grimes, who 
is filling the office at the present lime. 

OFFICIAL ROSTER OF CUSTER COUXTV 

• The following constitutes the official roster 
of Custer county as it stands on this first 
day of September, A. D. 1918: 

District Judge. Bruno O. Hostetler. 

County Judge, X. Dwight Ford. 

Senator, Twenty-third Senatorial District, 
Charles W. Beal. 

Representatives. ^\^ J. Taylor. George 
Greenwalt. 

Sheriff, Joseph F. Wilson. 

Deputy Sheriff, Ernest Thompson. 

Treasurer. M. S. Eddy. 

Deputy Treasurer, Mrs. J. B. Osborne. 

County Clerk. Robert E. Waters. 

Deputy County Clerk, Essie Holcomb. 

County Superintendent, T. C. Grimes. 



Register of Deeds, George E. Porter. 

Clerk of District Court, Jesse Gandy. 

Deputy Clerk of District Court. M. M. Ruu- 
yan. 

County Attorney. Frank Kelley. 

County Surveyor, A. J. ^"anAntwe^p. 

County Assessor, G. T. Robinson. 

County Commissioners: R. J. Mills. First 
District ; Robert Farley. Second District ; Scott 
Cooper, Third District: J. H. Phillips. Fouith 
District : H. B. Schneringer, Fifth District ; ; 
E. K. Li:htenberger. Sixth District ; John 
Walker, Seventh District. 

.\ NOTED SHERIFF 

One of the men who has served as sheriff 
of Custer county rendered such excellent ser- 
vice and in so many ways made himself both 
prominent and useful that a somewhat ex- ■ 
tended mention may not be out of place in 
this connection, although it is not the policy 
to bring biographical sketches into this depart- 
ment of the volume. 

Charles U. Richardson served as deputy 
sheriff under Eli Armstrong for three years, 
following whi;h he was twice elected sheriff, 
making in all seven years of service rendered 
for the county as sheriff' or deputy sheriff. 
He was in many ways a remarkable man. was 
a native of Virginia, and was a veteran of the 
Confederate army, in which he rendered an 
unusual and helpful service. He was counted 
too young to carry arms when he first entered 
the service and was made a messenger boy 
for Stonewall Jackson. After two years' ser- 
vice in this capacity he was promoted to a 
full-fledged soldier and served to the end of 
the war. He was with General Robert E. 
Lee at the surrender at Appomattox. He was 
one who participated in the famous charge led 
by George Pickett at Gettysburg. He was 
v.ounded four times and carried the effects 
of his wounds to the grave. He was once left 
for dead on the battlefield, but Charlie Rich- 
ardson, as he was familiarly called, was not 
to be killed by bullets. He was destined for 
a career in Custer county, to be a homesteader, 
a mail contractor, and a useful citizen. It 
was to be his lot to die in peace, surrounded 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



bv his friends in Custer county, December 3, 
1910. His widow and family still survive. 

JIULTIPLV VUTI.XG PRECIXCTS 

\'ery early in the Hfe of the new county 
it was found that voting precin;ts were so few 
and far apart that people living in remote 
parts were practically disfranchised. The 
three precincts already noted, lasted only for 
the first election. The first petition for a 
new voting precinct came from New Helena, 
early in the first year of the county's exis- 
tence, and the accommodating supervisors 
granted the prayers of the petitioners. In the 
winter of 1878, through the influence of Judge 
Alathews and others living in the north part 
of the county, the legislature passed the fol- 
lowing bill : 

Each board of county commissioners shall 
divide the county into convenient precincts, and 
as occasion requires subdivide precincts or 
erect new precin;ts, alter precinct lines and 
whenever any portion of territory containing 
in the aggregate not less than one township 
of land nor more than four townships lyin.g 
contiguous shall contain not less than fifteen 
voters, it shall be the duty of the board of 
county commissioners, upon receipt of a pe- 
tition signed by a majority of such voters, 
to constitute such territory a new voting pre- 
cinct. 

With the passage of such an elastic measure 
the jig was up. There would be no good place 
to stop. Of making many precincts there was 
to be no end. However, it all worked to the 
advantage of the young county. Settlers came 
in very rapidly. There were over two thou- 
sand voters in the county as early as 1884. 
Precincts were laid out, polling places were 
established, and by 1888 the present organiza- 
tion of the county was, with the exception of 
a few divisions that had been made recently, 
the same as it is to-dav. 

For the benefit of future investigators, we 
record here the present organization of the 
county. Reading from left to right, com- 
'mencing in the north tier, the precincts are as 
follows: Hayes, Mctoria, Milbnrn. West 
Union, Lillian first, Lillian second, Sargent, 
.\rnold, Cliff, Kilfoil, Broken Bow, Garfield, 
Douglas Grove, Comstock, Spring Creek, Tri- 



umph, Ryno, Berwyn, Westerville, Myrtle, 
Elim, Delight, Custer, East Custer, Ansley, 
Algernon, Wavne, Grant, Wood River, Loup, 
Elk Creek. 

Over the first fegime of county organiza- 
tion each precinct constituted a supervisoral 
district and was reported in supervisors' meet- 
ings earli month until the number reached 
twenty-five. This made a meeting of the su- 
pervisors look like a young legislature. The 
liody was unwieldy and likewise expensive. 
It was, perhaps, the expense that started the 
campaign for representation on a different 
basis. As a result of the campaign in 1895 a 
change was made and the county was divided 
into seven super\'isoral districts with one su- 
pervisor or commissioner from each district. 

THE L-\ST PRECIXCT SUPERXISORS 

The last board to serve under the old pre- 
cinct basis was as follows : I. A. Reneau, 
Broken Bow ; L. McCandless, Broken Bow ; 
J A. Daily, Ansley; J. S. Spooner, Douglas; 
Jules Haumont, Garfield ; M. R. Foster, \'ic- 
toria : W. A. George, Loup ; W. C. Nixon, 
Grant : A. Pool, Hayes ; G. W. Dewey, Lillian ; 
;\I. Schneringer, Delight ; John Samuelson, Ar- 
nold ; A. C. Towle, Kilfoil ; J. C. Hutt. Clifif ; 
V. Schreyer, Triumph ; T. W. Carr, Elim ; H. 
Lomax, Wood River: B. L. Nicholas, Elk 
Creek; S':ott Cooper, Myrtle; R. J. Mills, Wes- 
terville, S. Neth, Custer ; A. S. Welch, Ber- 
wyn ; B. P. Morris, Algernon. W'ith the pass- 
ing of this board, mass meeting of supervisors 
was a thing of the past. In January, 1896, the 
new board met to resume the business of the 
county under increased responsibility because 
of reduced representation. 

THE NEW BOARD 

The first representatives of the districts were 
L. \\'. Cole, district 1 ; G. W. Dewey, district 
2; George E. Carr, district 3; J. C. Hutt, dis- 
trict 4 ; E. B. Whaley, district 3 : W. A. George, 
district 6: B. P. Morris, district 7. These dis- 
tricts have remained intact without niu:h ger- 
r\-mandering until the present time. Under 
the present division, it was ordered in 1880 
that each precinct constitute a road district. 



76 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



Accordingly the roads of the county have 
been maintained by public expense under pre- 
cinct direction ever since its organization. 

P.R.\ND COMMISSIONERS 

One of the early officers of the county, and 
one not in vogue to-day, was a brand com- 
missioner. The brand commissioner was ap- 
pointed by the commissioners or supervisors 
and in each case, so far as the record shows, 
the brand commissioner was a member of the 
county board. In the days of cattle when 
everything was an open range, herds were 
mi.xed. and identity of stock was something 
that occasioned a good deal of trouble. It is 
charged that a good many people were very 
careless with the branding irons and often 
stuck them on to the wrong animal. Some 
cattle were rebranded. All this caused trouble. 
Disputes constantly arose. In order that every 
brand used by a cattle-owner might lie known, 
and that cattle branded with his recorded 
brand might be protected, the brand commis- 
sioner was appointed. It can well be imagined 
that he had his hands full. Anton Abel was 
the first brand commiss'oner. having been ap- 
pointed in 1877. It did not take Anton very 
long to get all the glory that the office of 
l)rand commissioner could furnish. He was 
soon satisfied and in the spring of 1878 he 
resigned and J- D- Haskell was appointed his 
successor. It is recorded that Haskell was 
one of the best authorities on brands to be 
found anywhere in the western part of the 
state. It is claimed that he could read brands 
halt a mile away on the opposite side of the 
steer while he was going at a forty-mile clip. 
Mr. Haskell seems to have given good satis- 
faction and a great many disputes were amic- 
ably settled during his tenure of office. 

With the passing of the big herds and the 
closing of the range there was no longer work 
for the brand commissioner and the office 
ceased to exist. 

COU.NTV DIVISION' 

Dividing the county up into precincts seemed 
to have gotten the early settlers into the di- 
vision habit. So, verv earlv in the history of 



the county, division sentiment began to show 
itself. In September, 1879, coimty division 
propaganda commenced in earnest. .\ peti- 
tion was presented by Phil Dufrand. which 
asked that the proposition of dividing the 
county be submitted to the people. The pro- 
position was to cut a slice ofT from the east 
end of the county, which should be twelve 
miles wide at the south line of the county, 
and pass in irregular jogs to the north part 
of the county, the west line of- the profKJsed 
county reaching the north line of Custer coun- 
ty at a point twenty-four miles west of the 
northeast corner of Custer county. This new 
county was to be known as Hlaine county. 
The people voted on the proposition, but it was 
rejected. 

FIRST L.\ND DOCUMENTS 

Ever since the settlers landed in the county 
all kinds of bickering, bartering, trading, and 
selling have been going on. Somebody has 
made the statement that every acre of land in 
Custer county has been sold twice since the 
county was organized. Whether the statement 
is correct or not can never be ascertained. It 
may be interesting to record that the first 
United States patent for Custer county land 
was made to Charles A. Xale and filed with the 
regi.ster of deeds December 24, 1878. This 
patent was for the west one-half of the south- 
east one-fourth, section 13, and the northwest, 
northeast lot 1, section 22, township 18. range 
17. The first deed was for the same land, 
made by Charles A. Xale to F. S. Nightingale, 
and was filed fur record Ma\- 1. 1879. 

While land has been shunted around from 
one owner to another in a somewhat promis- 
cuous way, much of it has been mortgaged. 
There was a time when it was a popular belief 
tiiat you could not raise corn or wheat on 
land that was not mortgaged. The first mort- 
gage of record in the county, however, was 
not a farm mortgage but was a mortgage of 
the Union Pacific Railroad to Cyrus H. Mc- 
Cormick et al., trustees. This mortgage was 
filed August 26, 1878, before any land patents 
had been granted. The .second mortgage 
which reallv figures in Custer land transac- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



n 



tions was made by tlenry Goodyear and wife 
to Henry G. Wiley, and it was filed for rec- 
ord December 21, 1880. The first mortgage 
ever released, and therefore it is to be pre- 
sumed the first one paid, was one released by 
Charles C. Burr to Charles A. Hall and wife. 

THE EX'OLUTION OF THE COURT HOUSE 

Since the location of the county seat of 
Custer county at Broken Bow, four separate 
court houses have been built and used for 
the accommodation of the public. As an 



cated on the northeast corner of block 12. In 
this building the ofii:ers were housed and the 
public business transacted until the commence- 
ment of the term of officers who were elected 
in 1889. The county clerk, the county judge, 
the county treasurer, and the county superin- 
tendent maintained offices in this building. 

The question of county division was always 
a sore question to the people in and around 
Broken Bow, and to placate the county-division 
sentiment and to meet the criticism of division- 
ists outside of the immediate vicinity of Broken 



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[Photo by S. D. Butcher] 

Building th.^t Served .•\s First Court House of Custer County 



incentive to the location of the county 
seat at Broken Bow the Gandy brothers, 
A. W., J, F'., and Jess, agreed to put up 
a building and donate its use to the county 
for court-house purposes, until the sale of 
county lots, under the terms of the location of 
the county seat made by them, would provide 
a fund with which to build a more commodi- 
ous building. Following out their agreement, 
they erected a small frame building on the 
southeast corner of block 5, where the Custer 
County Chief office now stands. This was the 
first court house in Broken Bow. 

After the sale of the lots in the proposed 
town, a four-room court house was built, lo- 



Bow, who insisted that Broken Bow should 
build a court house because the town re- 
ceived all the advantage incident to its being 
center of public business, a bond proposition 
was duly submitted at the election of 1888 and 
Broken Bow precinct bonded itself in the sum 
of twelve thousand dollars, for the purpose 
of building a court house on the site selected 
by a vote of the people as the county seat. 

These bonds were twenty-year bonds bear- 
ing six per cent. The last bond was paid on 
the first day of January, 1909. With the 
money thus obtained from the bonds, aided by 
private subscriptions from various people in 
Broken Bow, the court house located on block 



78 



HISTORY OF CUSTER CorXTV, XEDRASKA 



of the original town was built. The list of 
private subscribers to this court-house fund 
has been lost, and it is impossible now to tell 
who the private subscribers were or the amount 
contributed by them toward the building of 
this third court house in Broken Bow. The 
court house was built and ready for occupancy 
on the first of January, 1889. 

At the fall election of 1888 the political 
situation in Custer county turned upside down. 
The Republican ticket was defeated and for 
the first time county officers of a political 
complexion other than Republican were elect- 
ed. It seemed a <|ucer coincidence that the new 
court house should be btiilt and first occu- 
pied by an entirely new set of men who were 
in no way charged with its building. This 
court house served the purpose from the time 
of its occupancy, commencing January 1. 1889, 
until it was destroyed by fire, on the 14th day 
of January. 1910. 

Immediately after the destru:cion of this 
third Cdurt-house building by fire, the citizens 
of Broken Bow. aided by friends from other 
precincts, presented a petition to the county 
board of supervisors asking that a special 
election be called for the purpose of voting 
a tax of five mills on the taxable property of 
the county for the purpose of building a court 
house on the site of the one destroyed bv 
fire. The question was duly submitted to the 
voters of the county by the board. Strenuous 
opposition to this tax proposition was met 
from the county divisionists and the county 
division centers of the county. They argued, 
and with some for:e. that the time to divide 
the county was when the court house was 
destroyed and while no bond or tax rested 
on the county for public puildings. The five- 
mill tax-levy proposition was submitted to the 
voters of the county, at a special election held 
on the first day of March. lOJO. and the 
proposition to vote the tax was defeated by a 
vote of 2234 for, to 2213 against the proposi- 
tion. In the meantime the county board had 
arranged their local offices here and there 
throughout the town, wherever they could rent 
a building, and the business of the county was 



conducted in the various offices scattered 
throughout the town. 

During the summer of 1910. county-division 
petitions were freely circulated, signed, and, in 
September, presented to the board, and the 
proposition of dividing the county into coun- 
ties was submitted to the electors of the county 
at the general election in 1910. The names 
selected for the new counties were : Arbor, 
Albany, and Corn, the fourth county being 
the old county of Custer or what wnuld remain 
of it in the event that division carried. Proba- 
bly as warm a county division campaign as 
was ever waged, occurred in the fall of 1910. 
The vote on the proposition at the general elec- 
tion showed that Arbor county received 2344 
votes while there was cast against the proposi- 
tion 2995 votes ; Albany county 2298. against 
2975 votes; Corn county 2312. against 3001 
votes. Since that time there has been no fiu'- 
ther effort to divide the county. 

-After the election of 1910. ])etitions were 
again presented to the county board and a 
special election was called for the pur[)ose of 
voting a tax to build a new court house, on 
the site of the old one destroyed by fire. This 
second proposition asked for an election op 
the seven-mill tax, four mills to be levied and 
collected in 1911 and three mills to be levied 
and collected in 1912. This proposition was 
submitted to the electors of the county on the 
9th day of January. 1911. It carried by vote 
of 2732 for the levy and 2203 against. 

Immediately after the canvass of the vote, 
stejjs were taken to adopt a plan to let a 
contract and commence the erection of a court 
house under the supervision of the board of 
supervisors. The contract for the new build- 
ing was let in the early spring of 1911, the 
contract price being $55,087.00. This was the 
contract price of the building alone. At the 
time the old court house was destroyed, the 
comity board carried an insurance of thirteen 
thousand dollars on tiie building and fixtures, 
and this insurance money was retained for the 
purpose of furnishing the new court house. 
Work on the new court house ]>roceeded rapid- 
Iv, and in the summer of 1912 the contractor 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



79 



turned it over to the Ijuilding board, ready 
for occupancy. 

The fourth court house stands on the site 
of the one destroyed by fire and in every way 
is a model of architecture, convenience, and 
durability, fite-proof throughout the commodi- 
ous offices, and vaultage-room sufficient to care 
for the public records of the county for many 
years to come. It is regarded by capable 
judges who have seen it and examined its com- 
partments as a model court house in all re- 
spects. 

CUSTER COUNTY UNITED STATES L.XND OI'FICE 

Since 1890 Custer county has had a govern- 
ment land office 
located at Bro- 
ken Bow. In 
June, 1916, the 
present register, 
M. C. Warring- 
ton, and present 
receiver, John P. 
Robertson, went 
into their respec- 
tive positions, 
and the event 
was chronicled 
in the local pa- 
per at the time, 
giving in outline 
a history of the 
office from its inception to the present day. It 
is here quoted at length : 

In March, 1890, by an act of congress, the 
Broken Bow land district was created and the 
office established at Broken Bow, Nebraska. 
On April 24, 1890, Judge John Reese, of 
Broken Bow, was appointed the first register 
and Hon. James Whitehead, the first receiver, 
by President Harrison, and they both continued 
in their respective offices until July 1, 1894, 
when Hon. A.' J. Robertson, of this city, a 
son-in-law of Judge Reese, and Hon. Charles 
H. Adams, of Lincoln, were appointed, by 
President Cleveland, receiver and register, re- 
spectively. These officials both retained their 
positions for a term of four years, which ex- 
pired July 1, 1898. 




PrESKNT Cl'STER COIINTY CoURT HoUSE 



In change of administration from Cleveland 
to McKinley, Hon. James Whitehead, now of 
Emporia, Kansas, and Hon. F. H. Young,' of 
Broken Bow, were appointed by President Mc- 
Kinley, register and receiver, respectively. 
Mr. Young, at the close of his first four-year 
term, was reappointed for a second term, but 
at the expiration of about a half-year, owing 
to the necessary press of private business, re- 
signed his position early in 1903. On ]\Iarch 3. 
1903, the day of Mr. Young's resignation, 
Judge Reese again entered the federal service 
by being appointed receiver, by President 
Roosevelt. The Judge served as receiver and 
Mr. Whitehead as register until June 24, 1906. 

During the pe- 
riod b e t w e e n 
March 3, 1903, 
and August 1, 
19 06, Judge 
Reese was asso- 
ciated with Mr. 
Whitehead, who 
was register of 
the land office. 

( )n June 24. 
1 9 (), J u d g e 
Reese preferring 
the office of reg- 
ister, which he 
had for m e r 1 y 
held, was again 
appointed to that position, by President 
Roosevelt, upon the retirement of ]Mr. 
Whitehead. On the same date Hon. D. 
M. Amsberry was appointed receiver, by Presi- 
dent Roosevelt, to succeed Judge Reese, who 
had just vacated that position to assume the 
office of register. On the expiration of the 
official terms of Judge Reese and Mr. Ams- 
berry, on June 24, 1910. they were both re- 
appointed by President Taft. By this appoint- 
ment Judge Reese received his fourth com- 
mission to a four-year term in the Broken Bow 
land office and Mr. Amsberry his second com- 
mission. They served together as land office 
officials until Alay 1, 1916, when Mr. John P. 
Robertson, of Broken Bow, a son of former 
receiver Robertson, entered upon his duties as 



80 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 




:2; 









Tt J. 



^ « 






5 ^" ^ 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



81 



receiver to succeed Mr. Amsberry, to which 
office he was appointed April 10, 1916. by 
President Wilson. On June 24, 1916, Hon. 
M. C. Warrington, of Alason City, who was 
appointed register by President Wilson to 
succeed Judge Reese, assumed the duties of 
office, that date being just two years to a day 
after the expiration of Judge Reese's last four- 
years term. In jiassing it may be noted that 
from May 1, 1916, until June 24, 1916, Judge 
Reese and John P. Robertson held the offices 
of register and receiver, respectively, this be- 
ing the first instance in the history of the 
Land Department of the United States where 
a grandfather and grandson held the offices of 
register and receiver in the same office at the 
same time, one being a Republican and the 
other a Democrat. Judge Reese has the unique 
distinction of having held the positions of reg- 
ister and receiver of the United States land 
office under the administrations of five presi- 
dents for a period covering almost eighteen 
years in the same office. It is doubtful if this 
record has a parallel in the history of the land 
department of the United States. During this 
eighteen-year period, more than three millions 
of acres of government land have been taken 
by settlers as homesteads in the Broken Bow 
land district. Many hundreds of contests have 
been decided, involving the settler's title to his 
home, and on appeal not to exceed ten cases 
have been reversed by the department. Judge 
Reese and his associates in the land office have 
reason to be proud of the prominent part they 
have taken in the development of central and 
western Nebraska as federal officers in charge 
of these greatly responsible positions. For 
the disting-iiished gentlemen who have so 
worthily succeeded to these responsible posi- 
tions, namely, Hon. M. C. Warrington as reg- 
ister and J. P. Robertson as receiver, their 
many friends, with a confidence born of a 
knowledge of their merits, bespeak a continu- 
ance of the splendid record of honorable ser- 
vice that has been made by their predecessors 
in the land department of the federal govern- 
ment. 

KIXK.MD BILL GOES INTO EFFECT 

As a result of the passage of the congres- 



sional measure known as the Kinkaid bill, 
more than two million acres of land were 
tlirown open to homesteads under provision by 
which entrvman was entitled to 640 acres of 
land. .\ ruling of the general land office at 
Washington provided that any homesteader 
already on land entered prior to June 28, 1904, 
was entitled to adjacent land enough to make 
640 acres, and to such holders a thirty-day 
preference was allowed in which to make 
filing. All the rest was open to the entryman 
first coming. 

This caused a land stampede that is still 
remembered by the people of Broken Bow 
and also by all who secured land at that time. 
The following from the Custer County Cliicf 
gives a faithful account of the event : 

Broken Bow already shows unmistakable 
evidence of a big rush which is to be on in 
this city next Tuesday, when the time arrives 
for making homestead entries under the new 
Kinkaid bill. There have for the past several 
days been from fifty to one hundred strangers 
in the city constantly, to get pointers in regard 
to the grand rush. The land office has been 
unusually busy preparing for the work that 
is coming, and re])orts from the county clerks 
of adjoining counties show that a very large 
number of entries will be made. There is con- 
siderable speculation as to how the crowd will 
be taken care of by the land office, and what 
method will be adopted in regard to making 
entries. It is expected that there will be at 
least one thousand people in line when the 
land office opens next Tuesday morning. In 
nearly all land rushes of this kind a large 
number of pickpockets and thugs make their 
appearance, and on this occasion our people 
will be protected by government detectives and 
an increased force of deputy sherift's and depu- 
ty police. The town will be well policed from 
now on until the rush is over. In the mean- 
time, however, it would be well for our citi- 
zens and visiting people to take a little extra 
precaution. 

NEW L.WV T.\KES EFFECT 

Hundreds of people clamor to make entries 
under the new homestead law. Broken Bow 
displayed considerable activity for some days 
prior to June 28th, at which time the Kinkaid 
homestead law took effect, under which law 
it is possible for one man to acquire 640 acres 
by homestead right. As early as the fore part 
of last week strangers from all parts of the 
countrv began to arrive in town. ]\Ianv of 



82 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTV, NEBRASKA 



them would make inquiries in regard to the 
workings of the new law and would then go 
into the district where the vacant land was 
situated, make their selection, and then wait 
for the grand opening. Those who had prefer- 
ence rights, by which they had thirty days to 
take land adjoining their present homesteads, 
were resting easy, but those who were after 
sections of land where they knew about half 
a dozen parties more were endeavoring to get 
filings -on the same piece were, of course, un- 
easy and endeavoring to get what advantage 
was possible. On Monday morning people be- 
gan to get their entry papers made out and 
until the early hours of Tuesday morning ev- 
ery attorney in JJroken Bow was snowed under 
with business. As early as five o'clock on 
Monday evening people began to form in line 
at the foot of the land ofifi:e stairs and started 
in on the long wait until the land office opened 
at nine o'clock Tuesday, that they might be 
in line to make early entries. In this they were 
disapi^ointed, for at eight o'clock Register 
Whitehead and Receiver Reese gave out the 
word that no line would be recognized until 
eight o'clock the next morning, and it was 
with reluctance that the hundreds of people 
who had maintained the line for two or three 
hours gave way. 

A QUIET AXD ORDERLY CROWD 

By daylight on Tuesday morning the crowd 
began to gather and by eight o'clock nearly 
two thousand people, attracted there through 
curiosity or through a desire to make entries, 
congregated about the land office, eager to 
have the line formed. In the meantime Gov- 
ernor Mickey was asked to permit the militia 
company to assist in maintaining the line of 
march. \\'hile no trouble was experienced 
and the crowd was nothing but a great big, 
good-natured, jolly lot of people, yet it was 
difficult to handle them without plenty of as- 
sistance, and for this reason it was that the 
militia could be of material help. Governor 
Mickey, after some delay and a good deal of 
telegraphing, gave his consent to the militia 
boys assisting, and after a half-hour's work 
in lining the people up, the filings commenced, 
the first one going over the counter at prompt- 
ly nine o'clock. It was a curious sight, old 
men, old women, some of whom were eightv 
years of age, young men and young women, 
just past their majority, cowboys, farmers, 
business and professional men, ladies in plain 
dress and ladies in silks, waiting for their 
chance to take a section of Uncle Sam's land. 
As the day wore away, many people becairie 
tired and would grasp at chances to buy 



boxes to sit down on : many of them were 
fortunate enough to have umbrellas, but most 
of them did not. and could not leave the line 
to procure these comforts unless they had a 
friend who could hold their place for them. 
The cit\' officials furnished the crowd with 
water and the restaurant people sold sand- 
wiches, pies, lemonade, pop, cigars, etc. It 
was an interesting sight to go down the line. 
Some people were playing cards, others ar- 
guing politics, others making burlesque stump- 
speeches, and many of them singing old fa- 
miliar hymns. 

CROWD GETS A REST 

At three o'clock in the afternoon numbered 
cards, each bearing the name of the holder and 
countersigned by the register and receiver, 
were issued, and the people broke ranks, and 
were admitted to the land office as their num- 
bers were called. When the people found 
that they were to be turned loose with num- 
bers one enthusiastic gang started up "Praise 
God from Whom All Blessings Flow." The 
first hour about twenty people were taken 
care of, after that an average of twenty-five 
entries were made per hour. While the line 
was being formed an occasional favorable 
position would command five or ten dollars. It 
seems strange to some that people should be 
so anxious to secure this land wliich has been 
open to settlement for years past. If it had 
any particular value it would have been taken 
long ago in the same manner that other gov- 
ernment land was taken. Some of it is of 
value, owing entirely to its location in con- 
necting land owned by an individual or com- 
pany on either side. It is the general impres- 
sion that more land was entered in this grand 
rush than will be proved up on. The vacant 
land in the Broken Bow land district at the 
time of the passage of the law comprises about 
two million acres, the amount in each county 
being as follows : 

Blaine 219,912 

Brown 141,856 

Cherrv 51.=; .020 

Custer 20.843 

Grant 178.149 

Hooker 316.158 

Logan 140.804 

:\rcPherson 275.'>:»1 

Thomas 245,266 

THE L.\ND ENTRIES 

During ten days over one thousand ap]>li- 
cations for homesteads under the new Kin- 
kaid law. were filed in the land office at 
Broken Bow. Six hundred of these were made 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



83 



at the land office and four hundred were re- 
ceived by mail. The land officers and their 
force of clerks have been putting in long hours 
checking over these entries, and have passed 
on about five Iiundred and fifty of them. Of 
this number one hundred and tifty have been 
rejected. From now on the work of check- 
ing entries will be slower, owing to more 
complications arising, and it is e-xpected that 
it will take ten days to complete the work. 
The land officers are to be congratulated in 
handling this work as rapidly as they have. 

OPENING OF THE MILIT.\RV AND FOREST RE- 
SERVES 

In October of 1913 the government land 
in the military reserve of Niobrara and the 
forest reserve of IMcPherson county were 
opened to settlers, and Broken Bow in this 
county was one of the land offices at which 
registrations were made. The following from 
the local newspaper gives a good description 
of the event: 

The _ Saturday and Sunday preceding the 
opening of the registration was one of un- 
usual activity about town. People had begun 
to arrive early in the week and by Saturday 
night there were over five hundred strangers 
in town. The night trains brought in more, 
as did also those of Sunday morning, so 
that there must have been fully one thousand 
strangers in town during Sunday. By the 
time the last train load was emptied Sunday 
night, a few minutes preceding the opening, 
the number of people waiting to register prob- 
ably exceeded fifteen hundred. The first es- 
timate placed the number at twelve hundred, 
but later figures proved this to be too low. 

Sunday was a beautiful day and the people 
passed the time by strolling about, lounging 
in the park and going sightseeing. ]\Iany 
viewed the fair grounds and viewed the 
wreckage caused by the tornado of last Thurs- 
day. In fact there were several hundred who 
paid their respects to the defunct buildings 
and carried away souvenirs in the shape of 
splinters, small pieces of board or any other 
odds and ends they could find. The crowd 
was quiet and orderly and appeared to have 
no inclination to indulge in boisterous con- 
duct. Early in the day some interest was 
taken in a lady who planted herself in a chair 
in front of the registration booth and gave 
out that she intended remaining there until 
the doors opened, at twelve o'clock that night. 
There seemed to be some mystery attached to 



her at first, especially as she appeared reti- 
cent about giving her name, excusing herself 
with the plea that she was not seeking news- 
paper notoriety. Her reticence, however, was 
finally overcome and she turned out to be 
Dr. Allie B. W'einer, a prominent suffragette 
from Lincoln. Later in the day Dr. Weiner 
was persuaded to vacate her post and, during 
the evening she favored the waiting crowd 
with a spirited lecture on the suffrage ques- 
tion, which was well received. 

In the meantime, the crowd kept growing 
larger and hundreds of people were endeav- 
oring to locate the best points of vantage. 
The police were kept busy trying to form a 
regular line and keep the people in it. As 
the hour of midnight approached, the excite- 
ment grew intense, although there was little 
or no disturbance. At intervals the crowd 
would relieve its emotions by joining in a 
popular chorus someone had started ; at other 
times it would roar forth some well known 
hymn. Many women were scattered among 
the ranks and joined their voices with the 
others. 

Within the registration bootli the notaries 
were placing themselves behind the long coun- 
ter and preparing for a busy night. Over 
all Judge. Humphrey kept a fatherly eye, and 
thoughtfully chewed the end of his cigar as 
he looked through the glass doors at the sea 
of faces on the outside and speculated on just 
how many twenty-five cent pieces would jingle 
through the cashier's window during the 
night's rush. Sheriff Joe Wilson perched him- 
self on the railing within the entrance, while 
several burly officers spread themselves across 
the entrance on the outside to keep the crowd 
in order. 

A small clock belonging to one of the no- 
taries chimed the hour of twelve. Judge Hum- 
phrey gave a last word of instruction. Sheriff 
Joe Wilson shouted: "Let her go," and the 
rush was on. The first to register was Dr. 
Allie E. Weimer, of Lincoln, the lady who 
had occupied the chair for the best part of 
the day; the second was Miss Emily Robert- 
son, a Broken Bow young lady. Both of these 
ladies were registered by Miss Emma Scott, 
secretary of the notaries' association. 

The first men to enter the door were two 
veterans of the Civil war, their names being 
respectively Almond Burgess, of Johnson 
county. Missouri, formerly of the Second Iowa 
regiment, and James Clayton, of Hamburg, 
Iowa, formerly of the Twenty-fifth Missouri 
regiment. Both of the veterans were extreme- 
ly hopeful and signified their intentions of 
becoming sturdy homesteaders if they were so 



84 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



fortunate as to make a winning. The third 
man to register was Dr. A. X. Horn, a 
dentist of E-xeter, Nebraska. The last named 
registered quickly and was really the first of 
the trio to drop his envelope in the box. 

All night long the stream of people kept 
up, the applicants entering by the front door, 
selecting any disengaged notary, registering 
and passing out the back door into the alley. 
By the time the first rush was over the morn- 
ing trains arrived bringing in another batch 
and it was the same story over again, with 
this exception, that tliere was a change of shifts 
among the notaries and the tired ones had a 
chance to go home and sleep. 

Xor were the trains the only conveyances 
bringing in landseekers. Autos galore glided 
into town all hours of the day and night and 
from all parts of the country. Up to the date 
of this issue, over three hundred and fifty cars 
have brought people to Broken Bow for the 
purpose of registering. One citizen taking a 
trip east of here Wednesday forenoon, counted 
in two hours, 102 autos headed in this direc- 
tion, and he missed a few at that, when he 
turned his head to spit. Let all come who 
want ; Broken Bow has ample accommoda- 
tions and can feed and shelter an unlimited 
number of people. The Burlington took care 
of the traffic in a manner that called forth 
the highest praise, and between it and the 
excellent town facilities there was no dis- 
comfort at any period of the rush. 

During the twelve days the registration 
lasted, the Broken Bow authorities handled 
over 32,000 applicants. For the protection of 
the crowd, most of whom were strangers, everv 
precaution was taken. The eating houses did 
not advance the price of meals and every pri- 
vate house in town contributed one or more 
rooms. The train service was so organized, 
however, that no one was required to remain 
in town over night unless they so elected. .\ 
large tent office was erected in the street and 
maintained as a bureau of information. W. L. 
Gaston had charge of this bureau and or- 
ganized an able corps of assistants, who were 
on duty day and night and left nothing undone 
for the comfort of the strangers. 

I'ERSONNEL OF THE NOTARIES 

The s])lendid organization of the notaries. l)y 
which they handled the crowd as fast as they 
arrived, can not be too highly praised. Thcv 
were accommodating and very efficient. Their 
names are as follows: I. A. Reneau. Broken 
Bow; M. M. Leonard. Anselmo : M. M. Ruii- 
yan. Mason City; W. B. Eastham, liroken 



Bow; Emil Gschwind, Broken Bow; Robert 
F^arley. Milburn; Dale P. Stough. Broken 
Bow : Mabel Darnell, Broken Bow ; H. H. 
Andrews, Callaway; J. C. Moore. Broken 
Bow ; James A. Kirk, Broken Bow : E. House, 
Broken Bow ; A. R. Humphrey, Broken Bow ; 
John S. McGraw, Broken Bow ; A. J. Wat- 
kins. Oconto ; Ross G. Moore. Broken Bow ; 
Frank P. Knox, Arnold; J. Thull. Ansley ; J. 
M. Fodge, Broken Bow; Charles H. Holcomb, 
Broken Bow ; Emery F. Bush, Broken Bow ; 
Arthur \^^ Holcomb". Broken Bow ; E. S. Hol- 
comb. Broken Bow ; B. C. Empfield, Broken 
Bow ; E. Taylor, Broken Bow ; Charles L. 
Gutterson, Broken Bow ; Willis Cadwell, Bro- 
ken Bow ; C. L. Bennett, Broken Bow ; R. D. 
Pickett, Broken Bow ; H. F. Hanson, Broken 
Bow : J. E. Ferguson. Broken Bow ; A. B. 
Cornish. Lodi ; Prank Kelley. Merna : Emma 
Scott, Ansley. 

The land office was represented by Register 
John Reese; Receiver D. M. Amsberry ; W. 
L. Lovelace, and Leo Poole. 

LET UP, STOP, OVER. AND REST 

From the beginning of settlements post- 
offices were in demand and. as noted elsewhere, 
were located in an early day so as to give 
best possible service to the scattered settlers. 
Some of the names selected for early post- 
offices were so peculiar and seemed to have 
been arranged with so much of design that 
we stop to record a few of them. In 1880 
was established in the present vicinity of Calla- 
way a postoffice which was named "Letup." 
In June. 1884, on what is to-day called the 
Stop Table, a postoffice was established called 
"Stop." In August of the same year another 
postoffice was established and called "Over." 
In November, 1890, on the West Table, a 
postoffice was established and given the de- 
lightful name of "Rest." Taken altogether 
these four postoffices, in the order in which 
they were established, read. Letup. Stop, Over, 
and Rest. 

None of them is in existence to-day. Ira 
Ciraves was the ])ostmaster of "Letup." He 
had the name changed to Delight. Later it 
was changed to Grant and then, in August, 
1886. it was changed to Callaway. "Stop" 
was discontinued ten years after its estab- 
lishment. "Over" was discontinued in 1907. 
"Rest" lasted until .August. 1906. 



CHAPTER V 
THE COMING OF THE SETTLERS 

No Settlement in the County — The Buffalo Bill Tree — The First Home — Who 
WAS the First Homesteader? — Lewis R. Dowse First Settler — Frank Ohme was 
First j\L-\n to File — The First Comers — More for Douglas Grove — New Helena 
Homesteaders — Discover Cedar Canyon — -Establishes First Postoffice — The Be- 
ginning of Lee's Park — A Fine Stock Breeder — A Signal Service Man — Spen- 
cer's Park — Mauk was a Gay Bachelor — Now They Come to Lillian — Settling in 
^Ierna Valley — A Bunch of Iowans Arrive — An Impromptu Reception — Settling 
IX Custer Center — Down in Ash Creek A'ali.ev — ■ How Custer County Got Bob 
Hunter — They Fill up the Table — First of the Deep Wells — Settlers Come to 
Dale — LoHR Runs Some Store — IMore About Lillian — Down on the Redfern 
Table — Plenty of Room in a Small H(3use — An Accommodating Englishman — Too 
AIany Roosters for Ream and Jeffords — Settlement of Georgetown — Help Your- 
self — "Getting IN Bad" — Custer County Pioneer Honored — Pelham Stretches 
the Quilt — A Flock of Bachelors — Gibbonites on the Loup — Find an Old Dug- 
out — Twin Fawns at the Centennial — Would not Stand for the Name 
— The Haumonts — Where Broken Now Stands — Early Days: 
Hard Times — One of the Old Settlers 



The transition period between the white 
man and the Indian is always a very interest- 
ing period in the development of a new coun- 
try, but it is one that affords little comfort to 
the historian who covets accuracy. Records 
are scarce if. in fact, there be any at all; 
treacherous memories and conflicting state- 
ments are about the sum total of obtainable 
material. The best that can be done is to give 
tlie general narrative and let the old settlers 
supply the details. 

no settlement in county 

The present state surveyor, Robert Harvey, 
who with his party surveyed the principal lines 
of this county in 1872, says: 

"There was not a settler in Custer county 
tl'iat we observed, and the only evidence no- 
ticed of an intention to settle was in section 
26, township 18 north, range 17 west, in the 
south end of the Oak Grove, close to Rock 



creek, where we found four logs cut and laid 
up for the foundation of a cabin, and on a 
blazed oak tree nearby was the notice in pencil 
of 'Buflfalo Bill's' claim of intention to file. It 
was dated in June and my recollection is that 
it was on the anniversary of the battle of Bun- 
ker Hill." 

In 1873 and 1874 the first settlements were 
made. During that period several parties came 
up from the Grand Island country, or perhaps 
a little farther east, and settled in the Middle 
Loup valley, — Lee's Park and the present 
New Helena. Other families came up from 
the south, filtering through Kearney, Lexing- 
ton, then called Plum Creek, and made settle- 
ment in the South Loup valley. It was in 
these localities that Custer county settlements 
began. Some of the settlers were married 
men who brought their families with them and 
were therefore ready as soon as possible to 
establish some kind of a home. Whether a 



85 



86 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



dugout, a log house, or sod house, it didn't 
matter. If four walls could be erected or 
dug out. and a roof constructed over them, it 
was home and in it home life began. 

THE BUFFALO BILL TREE 

A tree in the vicinity of Douglas Grove 
bore for years the name, "William Cody, 
1869," cut deep into its shaggy bark, showing 
that "Bufifalo Bill" had camped here on some 
of his hunting or scouting trips. Opposite the 
grove were three large pine trees, standing 
four miles back from the river. Two of them 





Brri-WLO Rill whkn a Hunter in Nebraska 

were cut in the winter of 1873, taken to Loup 
City and sawed into boards, which were taken 
to Omaha and Lincoln as an advertisement for 
Kounlz county pioneers. In 1880 the last of 
the three pine trees disappeared. They had 
stood for years, faithful sentinels in the dreary 
sand hills — a guide for the weary hunter to 
his camp. All the early settlers miss that last 
lone pine, which could be seen for miles on 
either side of the river. None but a tender- 
foot could have destroyed the last remaining 
relic of early times. Owing to the fact that 
Cody"s name was found carved on this tree, 
the story became current that Cody had located 
a claim within the boundaries of the county. 
There is nothing to substantiate the claim. 



THE FIRST HOME 

Who had the first home in Custer county? 
That is one of the many interrogations no 
historian can answer. During the early '60s 
trappers and hunters often visited the country 
but it is not known that any of them had per- 
manent stopping places. Perhaps some of 
them ]5ut up rude shelters. Init they were noth- 
ing more than shelters. Out south and west 
of Callaway, on the old Finch-Hatton ranch, 
was located what is probably the first white 
man's abode of any kind ever established in 
the county. Old settlers tell us that in 1872 
the remains of a demolished dugout were dis- 
covered in this locality and at that time it 
gave evidence of having been abandoned at 
least ten years. The excavation and side wall 
were clearly demarked and no mistake could 
be made concerning the fact that it was made 
for a human occupant. Beyond doubt, then, 
this was the first home in Custer county. As 
the proprietor was never at home to any of 
his neighbors, or rather did not wait until his 
neighbors movtd into the country, his name 
will never be recorded in these pages. 

WHO W.\S THE FIRST HOMESTE.\DER ? 

There has always been more or less dispute 
concerning the first homesteader who filed on 
land within the boundaries of Custer county. 
I'.oth the South and Middle Loup countries 
have, with more or less insistence, laid claim 
to the distinction. Both Douglas Grove and 
the Xew Helena district make claims to this 
distinction, and it has been rather hard to 
harmonize all these claims and assertions. 
15utcher's history gives the honor to Edward 
Douglas, of Douglas Grove, to whom this 
volume gives third place. Great pains have 
been taken to ascertain the facts in the case. 
The dift'erent claims have always been main- 
tained, no one took the trouble to search rec- 
ords and ascertain when these different parties 
filed. 

LEWIS K. noWSE FIRST SETTLER 

Tlie honors of being the first bona-fide settler 
belong, without doubt, to Lewis R. Dowse, 
who came into the coimtv and settled in the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



87 



Middle Loup valley in August, 1873. He 
brought with him his breaking plow, reaper, 
and mower. He put up hay, did some break- 
ing, and settled on the homestead where he 
now resides. He did not file on his land at 
the time he located, but held it by squatter's 
right until such time as he had the money 
to make homestead entry. Accordingly Dowse 
is the first settler but was not the first to file 
on Custer county land. Before he could make 
entry of his land several others had filed home- 
stead claims. 

FR.\NK OHME WAS FIRST MAN TO FILE 

Frank Ohme, who settled over on the east 
county line and whose address is Arcadia, in 
\'alley county, is beyond doubt the man who 
filed on the first claim in Custer county and the 
second place goes to Edward Douglas, who is 
championed by the Douglas Grove people, and 
for whom Douglas Grove was named. As a 
matter of fact, there is only three weeks' differ- 
ence between the times of their filing. Frank 
Ohme filed January 26, 1874, and his filing 
number at the land otifice was serial 4728. 

Edward Douglas filed February 16, 1874, 
and his serial number was 4972. This puts 
twenty-one days between the entry of Frank 
Ohme and that of Edward Douglas, and we 
believe it definitely settles the question of 
priority. 

The next entry found in the land office 
records is that made by Joseph A. Woods, 
March 21, 1874. Ten days later he was fol- 
lowed by Daniel Wagner, who filed May 1, 
1874. The next name on the land office record 
is Patrick Kelly, May 5th of the same year, 
and this is as far down the column of entries 
as it is profitable to go. 

THE FIRST COMERS 

We quote W. D. Hall as authority for fir.st 
Douglas Grove settlements and they were 
among the first, if not the first, in the county. 

The third claim taken in what is now Cus- 
ter county was in what is known as Oak Grove, 
and was entered February 16, 1874, by Ed- 
ward Douglas, who died the following sum- 
mer, at Loup City. For him the town was 



named. W. H. Comstock settled here in the 
spring of 1874, with D. J. Caswell, Sam 
Wagoner, B. D. Allen, James Oxford, E. D. 
Eubank, C. A. Hale, A. E. Denis, and Thomas 
Darnell. A. A. Higgins came in the spring 
of 1875 and brought with him a family of 
twelve, which greatly added to the population 
of the little settlement. Mr. Higgins was a 
patriarch of the gospel, a staunch upholder of 
the teachings of Wesley, and it was under 
his roof that Elder Lemin, the pioneer of 
Methodism in Nebraska, preached the first 
Methodist sermon and held the first quarterly 
conference in the county. 

Frank Ingram bought from the heirs of 
Edward Douglas the Oak Grove claim in 1875. 
Oak Grove is a beautiful place. The country 
around is rough and rugged in the extreme, 
and is well known to all the old settlers on 
the Loup. 

MORE FOR DOUGLAS GROVE 

Douglas Grove received its full share of the 
pioneer inflow until 1884, when practically all 
government land was occupied. The first 
settler in Dry valley was James Wagoner, who 
settled on what is now the Len Town place, 
in 1878. Frank Muthic took the next claim, 
followed by N. W. Alberts, Dewitt Konklin, 
W. Bener, J. W. Scott, John Campbell, the 
Amos family, Brumbaugh family, Joe Armour, 
J Roth, John Jems, the Twombly family, 
Worley brothers, Mr. Mattox, S'wanson broth- 
ers, C. Collier, A. Kohn, W. Newcomb, L. L. 
Wood, James Boggs, Mr. Bowers, and others 
who have made Dry valley a neighborhood of 
permanence and thrift. 

M. E. Vandenberg located at the mouth of 
Sand Creek in 1878; the Payne ranch was 
located in Dry valley in 1880 and has been 
since 1884 the property of S. L. Glover and 
sons : Charley Hill located in 1880 on Wagoner 
creek. 

To do justice to those who helped to make 
the history of Douglas Grove in its first de- 
cade, we mention the three Mickle brothers 
and their families, the Glazier family, I. C. 
Buck, John Stewart, the Stevens family, the 
Cleveland familv, W. Hudson, Dewitt Com- 



88 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




2) 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



89 



stock, W. S. House, H. H. Mcintosh, H. G. 
Stockes, J. A. Kenyon, G. E. Whitcomb, W. 
D. Hall, J. H. Walton, W. C. Caddish, and 
W. P. Higgins, who twice has represented the 
county in the state legislature. 

Captain Comstock, B. D. Allen, and Sher- 
man Wagoner hoinesteaded in the Douglas 
Grove country in the spring of 1874. Captain 
Comstock remained in the country till the time 
of his death, a few years since, and became 
one of the noted characters of the community, 
— one whose life history is interwoven with 
the story of Custer county and its develop- 
ment. 

NEW HELENA 
HOMESTE.\DERS 

In the spring 
of 1874 C. R. 
jNIathews, who 
still lives upon 
his homestead 
in the New 
Helena district, 
organized a 
party of \"ir- 
ginians for the 
invasion of 
Custer county. 
The party con- 
sisted of him- 
self, C. R. Ma- 
thews, Amos Broughan. Watts Sifford, Harv 
Andrews, George Snyder and wife, William 
King. W. P. Tolley, J. H. Withers, and a man 
bv the name of Circle, whose first name is not 
recorded. They came by way of Omaha, 
Kearney, and Loup City into the Middle Loup 
country, fording the ^Middle Loup river 
where the old town of Wescott now stands. 
There were no roads, no lines of any kind, 
:io bridges, so they pushed their way over the 
])rairie. At Lillian creek they encountered a 
snow storm, wliich before the night was over 
became a blizzard. They had difficulty in 
crossing the stream, which was almost bank- 
full at the time, but they managed to reach 
the western bank, took oflf the wagon box and 
braced it up for protection from the storm. 




Harv Andrews "shinned" up a cottonwood 
tree, broke off dead limbs, and soon had a 
roaring camp-fire. The next morning, after 
the blizzard had subsided, they moved up to 
the mouth of \'ictoria creek, where they met 
trappers who described to them the Victoria 
valley. They followed the creek until they 
came to the present site of New Helena. Here 
too they found many evidences of trappers and 
Indians. 

DISCOVER CED.VR C.XNVGN 

Fortunately they found enough cedar logs 
and poles, which had formerly been used by 

trappers. to 
make bridge 
enough to get 
the wagon 
across \'ictoria 
c r e e k. after 
w h i c h the }' 
headed for the 
breaks and the 
hills in a north- 
westerly direc- 
tion. In about 
three miles and 
a half t h e \^ 
struck what is 
known in Cus- 
ter county at 
the Big Cedar 
canyon. The canyon was a dense forest 
of cedar and other trees. This timber was 
very valuable, and has furnished cedar logs 
for most of the early homes within a 
radius of twenty-five miles. Judge Matthews' 
present dwelling is made of cedar logs from 
this canyon, and consists of two log cabins 
place side by side with the doors fac- 
ing each other in old Virginia style. At the 
present time the logs in Judge Mathews' house, 
if sawed into lumber and sold for market value, 
would bring money enough to build as fine a 
home as could be found in Custer county, but 
the Judge prefers the old home and the old 
logs with which all the memories of early days 
are associated. The undergrowth in the can- 
\-on was so thick that it could hardly be pene- 



HisTOP.ic Residence of Judge C. R. Mathews, xe.\r Helena 
Buildings constructed of cedar logs 



90 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



trated, but pushing their way through they 
came to a clearing in the center of which stood 
an Indian wigwam. They experienced cold 
chills in the region of the spine, but their fears 
were groundless for the wigwam proved to 
be empty and in it they spent a very comfort- 
able night. After a few days spent in ex- 
ploring the country they returned to Loup 
City and proceeded to equip themselves for 
starting life on the Nebraska claim. 

Their return was the starting of the settle- 
ment. These settlers consisted of H. B. An- 
drews. Edward Nelson, Judge C. R. Mathews, 
George E. Carr, and O. A. Smith. The next 
winter Ezra A. Caswell and Thomas Lough- 
ran took claims further down the creek, near 
the Middle Loup. About this time Jacob Ross, 
with a large family of grown-up daughters, 
made a welcome addition to the community. 
In the next spring, 1875, N. H. Dryden and 
family, J. R. Forsythe, and J. P. Bell settled 
in the neighborhood. 

EST.VBLISHES FIRST POSTOFFICE 

During the winter of 1874-5 C. R. Mathews, 
circulated a petition asking the authorities at 
Washington to establish a postoffice at New 
Helena, to be served by a post route from 
Kearney, via Loup City, Arcadia, and Douglas 
Grove. New Helena received the first mail by 
this arrangement on the 15th day of April, 
1875. Aaron Crouch brought the first mail 
and subsequently served as mail carrier for 
several years. The mail came but once a 
week, arriving and leaving on Saturdays. 
Mathews" commission as postmaster bears 
the date of February 9, 1875, during President 
Grant's administration. It locates New Hele- 
na in Kountz county, Nebraska. 

THE BEGIXXING OF LEE'S PARK 

In September, 1874, James Lee, discovering 
a fertile valley in the eastern part of the 
county located on a central quarter-section, 
and made it his home. The following 
summer he entered the c|uarter on which he 
lived as a pre-emption, and also the adjoining 
quarter as a tree claim, under the old law 
which required forty acres of trees planted. 



This gave the name of Lee's Park to the valley. 
Although parties often passed through the 
park, no one seemed inclined to locate. Mr. 
Lee kept bachelor's hall in a sod house, and 
began to subdue the native soil. He evidently 
succeeded, as his first wheat crop of one acre 
testified. He obtained from it forty bushels 
of wheat, which is supposed to be the largest 
yield ever raised in the park. 

The following spring he continued his opera- 
tions on the farm, and planted some trees on 
his timber claim, but the grasshoppers again 
■found him, and ate up his corn crop, as well 
as his little trees. During these years, as 
hunters and adventurers passed through, they 
occasionally stopped at the bachelor's mansion, 
and the fact of his being the onlv settler, and 
working with his trees on his timber claim, 
caused the travelers to name the valley "Lee's 
Park." Here then this settler dwelt, year after 
year, in solitude — farming, planting trees, and 
doing his sewing, cooking, and washing. He 
tried to get others to locate, but no one volun- 
teered. Nearly four years had passed by, and 
his courage, which had remained firm for 
years, began to wane, with the result that he 
at last decided to leave his beautiful half-sec- 
tion of land. 

About this time, however, Frank Wright of- 
fered to locate in the park, providing Mr. Lee 
surrendered to him his pre-emption, on which 
was his house and well. This Mr. Lee agreed 
to do, and soon afterward !Mr. Wright started 
to claim his new possessions. On his way he 
fell in with some land-seekers who seemed to 
be headed for Lee's Park, so they went to- 
gether, and on arriving at -Mr. Lee's, Wright 
asked for the papers, which were immediately 
surrendered. Soon afterward, however, this 
Mr. Wright sold the place for twenty-five dol- 
lars to F. E. Morrison. These land-seekers 
were William and Joseph Murray, who, i'n 
February. 1878, took claims in the park, and 
their families arrived in May the same year. 
Soon after this, in March, Benjamin Knight 
located in the park. He then returned to his 
Wisconsin home to claim the hand of his "best 
girl," and together they journeyed to their 
frontier home. From this time on, settlers 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



91 



flocked in rapidly, and James Lee, no longer 
solitary, decided not to leave. His pre-emption 
right, however, being gone, he proceeded to tlie 
extreme end of the park and filed a 160-acre 
piece as a homestead, on the bank of a little 
stream afterward known as "Lee's creek." 

In July Messrs. Overton, Chandler True, 
Jay Hamlin, George Hamlin, Jr., E. Stephens, 
and William Van Alstine settled. In August 
T. J. Johnson and Amos Smith ; then followed 
Parish Freeman and his son Charles, William 
Hall, Joseph Peacock, and James Thompson. 
In 1879 Edward Knight, Philip Lynch, James 
Wisely, N. Mehrhofif, Nelson Potter, Sam Min- 
chell, and Mr. Abel located here. In 1880 
Thomas, David, and Archie Tod, F. E. ^lorri- 
son, and James Bradford, also Thomas, John, 
and Sam Berridge, who afterward commenced 
the importation of English shire horses, under 
the firm name of Berridge Brothers. They 
made three importations, among which were 
some very choice specimens of the breed. 

.\ FINE STOCK BREEDER 

In 1881 J. L. H. Knight settled permanently 
here with his father, Edward Knight, and as 
this youngster was a lover of fine stock, he 
early sought an opportunity to obtain some 
thoroughbred hogs. His first purchase was in 
1885, and was a Poland-China pig. which cost 
him thirty dollars. Two years after this he 
purchased three head of Shorthorn cattle, and 
from that time he continued to show his belief 
in good blood by frequent purchases. He pur- 
chased 520 acres of his father and brother in 
the southern end of the park and named it 
"Pleasant Hill Stock Farm." Here he had 
choice specimens of Shorthorn cattle, Poland- 
China hogs, and the Plymouth Rock fowls. Al- 
though not confining himself exclusively to 
hogs, he made the raising of fine pigs a 
specialty and was often spoken of as the "hog 
man." 

A SIGN.^L-SERVICE M.\N 

In 1883 the fine section of school land in 
Lee's Park was put upon the market, and two 
brothers, C. A. and W. A. Forbes, energetic 
voung men, were fortunate enough to obtain 



160 acres. At the same time, J. L. H. Knight 
purchased the remaining 320 acres for W. S. 
Delano, who was then in the signal service 
and who was one of Mr. Knight's classmates 
in the Michigan Agricultural College. In 1886 
his term of enlistment expired, and very will- 
ing was he to leave the service of L'ncle 
Sam to engage in farming. He at once com- 
menced raising seeds for D. M. Ferry & Com- 
pany, of Detroit, Michigan. His two broth- 
ers, F. E. Delano and Milton Delano, shortly 
afterward entered iftto partnership with him, 
under the firm name of Delano Brothers. 

spencer's park 

Spencer's Park, located in township 16, range 
19 west, is comprised of about 3,600 acres of 
level land surrounded with hills, and opening 
in the Muddy valley by a narrow neck one 
and one-half miles northeast of the town of 
Berwyn, in Berwyn precinct. Its greatest 
length is three miles and its greatest width 
two miles, and it comprises some of the finest 
land in Custer county. The soil is of a black 
loam from three to six feet deep, underlaid 
with a fine light-colored clay from thirty to 
fifty feet in depth, and is particularly adapted 
to hold moisture in extreme drought, besides 
taking moisture readily. 

Probably the first home-seekers that looked 
over the park with a view of locating were 
George Early and Clark Wellman, who came 
from near Lincoln, in the fall of 1879. The 
former entered the southwest quarter of sec- 
tion 10 and the latter the east half of the 
northeast quarter of section 9, and west half of 
northwest quarter of section 10, but they did 
not make permanent settlement on the above 
land. 

The first permanent settler was Ira D. Spen- 
cer, with his family, in whose honor the park 
was named. They came from Jefiferson county 
in the usual way, with prairie schooner, driv- 
ing their cattle with them and having some 
thirty head. The family consisted of wife and 
three sons. On reaching Seneca, which is now 
called Westerville, on Clear creek, Mr. Spen- 
cer made his first stop and began looking 
around for a location. \\'hen he viewed S'pen- 



92 



HISTORY OF CfSTER COUXTV. NEBRASKA 



cer's Park he said. "This is good enough for 
me." and in the summer of 1880 he staked out 
a claim which was nearly in the center of the 
park, on the southeast quarter of section 10. 
He began to break the same and put up hay 
for the winter. The family lived on Clear 
creek during the winter, until the necessary 
preparations were made for their new home, 
which was a large sod house, the latch string 
of which was always on the outside for wears- 
travelers who chanced to come that way. 

I. E. Spencer, son of the above, entered 
the west half of the northeast quarter and the 
east half of the northwest quarter of section 
10. in May. 1881. Later he built a sod house, 
furnished it with a stove, bed. table, and a 
couple of soap-boxes for chairs, and began a 
bachelor's life in his sod shanty on his claim. 

In the fall of 1880 an old rnan by the name 
of Gaskell entered the northwest quarter of 
section 14 as a timber claim, and his son-in- 
law. H. Dorncn, entered the northeast quarter 
of section 13 as a homestead. They moved 
their families on their claims. But being un- 
prepared for the hard winter that followed, 
after losing all their stock, they abandoned their 
claims and sold their relinquishments, for 
twentv-fivc dollars aj^icce. to W. H. Mauk. 

MAUK WAS A GAY BACHELOR 

Mauk entered the northeast quarter of sec- 
tion 1.^ as a homestead, the other as a timber 
claim, in May. 1881. In the following fall he 
made a dugout about eight by ten feet, covered 
with ])oIes. brush, and sod. and began house- 
keeping in earnest, as a bachelor. His fur- 
niture consisted of a stove, bed and bedding. 
one dishpan. one skillet, one breadpan. one 
coffeepot, two plates, two knives and forks, and 
one spoon. The sheet was spread over the 
bed in a slanting position to run the water 
and mud off when it rained. His time was 
about evenly divided between farming, going 
to the canyons for wood, and thinking which 
neighbor he would call on next to get a square 
meal. But the ]jlace to-day does not look 
like it did then. It has increased in value at 
least one lumdrcil fold and a frame house has 
taken the ])lace of the old sod. This was 



erected in the spring of 1888 and was the first 
frame house in the park. 

In the summer of 1881 H. J. Dupes settled 
on the northwest quarter. On December 15, 
with his wife and six children, he came from 
Jefferson county, Nebraska, and began improv- 
ing his farm, which is a very good one. He 
also entered the southeast quarter of section 
9, as a timber claim, which he sold in 1887, to 
Charles Kemp. 

Miss Julietta Wellman moved from Lincoln 
in 1881 and located on the east half of north- 
east quarter of section 9 and the west half 
of northwest quarter of section 10. as a home- 
stead. Later she built a sod house on it. made 
other improvements, and lived on it until she 
perfected her title. She went through all the 
hardships of frontier life, a great deal of the 
time living alone, which shows the grit and 
determination of the ladies who were among 
the first settlers of the park. She also filed 
on the southwest quarter of section 2 as a 
timber claim and improved both claims. 

Clark Wellman bought of George Early the 
relin(|uishment on the southwest quarter of 
section 10 and entered the same as a timber 
claim, in 1883, and later sold it to C>. B. Green- 
wood. 

In the summer of 1882 Nathan Davidson 
came here from Tama county. Iowa, with his 
wife, three sons, and two daughters, and lo- 
cated on the southwest quarter of section 14. 
His oldest son, James, who also had a family, 
entered the southeast quarter of section 15 
which is to-day well improved and valuable 
land. His second son, Henry, homesteaded the 
northeast quarter of section 14. in the summer 
of 1883 and began "batching" on his claim, 
which added another settler. 

In the summer of 1883 R. W. Barton settled 
on the northwest quarter of section 4. He 
brought his family from Hamilton county. 
Nebraska, and settled on the northwest ex- 
tremity of the park, which is mostlv table land. 
Overlooking the park, it commanded a lieauti- 
ful view of the surrounding country. ISarton 
was a veteran of the Grand .\rmy of the Re- 
]iublic and later was elected justice of the 
peace. He was among the foremost in or- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



93 



ganizing schools, laying out roads, and im- 
proving and building up the country. 

In the spring of 1884 Peter Rapp moved 
with his family from near Lincoln, Nebraska, 
and settled on the southeast quarter of section 
4. as a timber claim. He came with horses, 
machinery, and a herd of cattle and has made 
very rapid improvements. His first residence 
was a dugout. The stables were built of sod. 

In the spring of 1884 C. Coswell located on 
the northwest quarter of section 3 and led a 
bachelor's life, made some improvements and 
then sold out, in 1889. The place has changed 
hands a good many times. 

NOW THEV COME TO LILEI.AN 

Probably the first men who ever looked 
ufwn this valley with a serious idea of pos- 
session were J. M. and H. A. Goheen and 
William H. Gwinn. They located their claims, 
made a "dugout," cut some hay, and prepared 
for winter. Some time during that fall John 
W. Goheen, a brother of the first arrivals, came 
with their parents, quite old people, who had 
been pioneers in the settlement of western 
Pennsylvania. The aged couple, full of the 
fire of youth, were delighted with the new- 
found earthly paradise and soon filed on a 
homestead, which they occupied until the death 
of the aged James Goheen. which occurred in 
August, 1887. 

The greatest obstacle to the settlement of 
these table-lands as yet, was the great depth 
to good water. Many of the first settlers along 
the streams had seen and admired this valley, 
but they did not dare venture too far from 
the running water. The Goheen boys were' 
fortunate enough to secure the services of two 
settlers north of the Middle Loup river, 
Charles Bishop and Burton Gates, who owned 
a rig for putting down tubular wells. They 
were successful in obtaining a bountiful supply 
of good water at a depth of eighty to one 
hundred feet, piercing a soft manganese rock 
and finding water in gravel just beneath. Dur- 
ing the summer of 1881 the Goheen boys built 
comfortable sod houses, preparatory to moving 
their families to their new homes. 

The next settler to make his appearance 



was J. E. Gwinn. William Gwinn had re- 
turned to Nemaha county to remove his cattle 
to the rich grazing grounds of the west, and, 
uniting their little herds these two, accom- 
panied by D. H. Gwinn, on his tenderfoot ex- 
ploring expedition, started April 17, 1882, with 
forty head of cattle, an emigrant wagon and 
a herd of ponies. They were twenty-two days 
making the journey. 

Some idea of the seclusion of this valley at 
this time may be gained from the fact that 
while J. E. Gwinn was engaged in breaking 
fifty acres on his claim in the summer of 1882 
he saw only two travelers, and one of these 
had lost his way. 

In October, 1882, came J. O. Bates with his 
son, J. M., and daughter, Susie, all prospect- 
ing for land that they found to their liking 
adjoining the new settlement. The next spring 
J. M. Bates removed from Omaha with all his 
effects, to his future home. A. G. Page and 
wife, from Vermont, also the parents of Mrs. 
J. M. Bates, arrived with the Bates family, and 
settled in section 19. Mr. Bates provided him- 
self with a large tent, sufficient to shelter the 
whole party. On their arrival it was pitched 
on the claim of Susie Bates and became the 
temporary home of the party, while more per- 
manent buildings were being erected on their 
respective claims. All went merrily enough 
in their Arab-like mode of existence until the 
latter part of May, when one day there came 
the most furious rain and wind storm ever 
yet seen in this locality, and when the storm 
was at its height the tent was lifted from 
over their heads and left them to the mercy 
of the raging elements. Bedding, pans of 
milk, wearing apparel, and sundry other un- 
mentionables suddenly sought wonderful af- 
finity for each other, and uniting, attempted to 
form a new compound. Bedrenched, be- 
draggled, and almost drowned, the occupants 
thus suddenly rendered homeless, dodged and 
cowered, and grasped at straws in the way of 
shelter until the brief deluge was over. Then, 
with more haste than grace, they sought shel- 
ter, bag and baggage, in the bachelor quarters 
of William Gwinn. a single room, about ten 
bv twelve feet. One end of the room was 



94 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



devoted to a range of trunks, boxes, and bed- 
ding from the ceiling to the floor, a stove in 
one corner, a table and some chairs, — and 
where could the eleven animated beings find 
a resting place for their wet feet ? Picture the 
inter-faniily dinner according to your imagina- 
tion. As for sleeping arrangements, they con- 
sisted of the airy apartments on wheels, ii: 
which the men folks sought niglitly repose. 

C. E. Bates, a young son, reached his ma- 
jority some time later, and filed on a pre-emp- 
tion in section 27 . 

Two young Englishmen, E. E. Bird and 
Arthur Clark, built their sod houses in the 
autumn of 1882. Clark soon tired of home- 
steading and returned to England. Bird also 
sold his claim and removed to another part 
of the neighborhood, a few miles distant. The 
purchaser of the claim was T. A. Leisure, who 
resided there for years, and if Clark should 
return he would hardly recognize the farm 
which has taken the place of the raw prairie 
he bartered away. 

Clark had, also, a tree claim which was pur- 
chased from Jabez Bowman, from Cass county, 
Nebraska, and Bird had one which was bought 
by A. G. Bowman. Jabez's father. Clark re- 
ceived a horse from this quarter, which is now 
valued at eight thousand dollars. Charles 
Bowman purchased E. E. Bird's homestead 
and converted it into a fine farm. 

Some of the settlers who did not prove to 
be permanent ones were Charles and Amos 
Meeker, David Daniels, and E. B. Bartlett. 
During 1884 came also Joseph Pickner. 

Thomas ^laupin, a worthy old gentleman 
from Iowa, came with his family the same 
spring and filed on a part of sections 27 and 
34. On the western extremity of the little 
settlement had happened a great event which 
must not be overlooked. 

In the spring of 1883 F. M. DuPray and 
wife made their appearance with a large family 
of grown-up daughters. It seemed like the 
advent of full civilization to the wilds of 
Lillian Park. Lonely bachelors hung up their 
flapjack pans, scraped the dough from their 
pantaloons, and hastened to see if Mr. Du- 
Pray was, as reputed, a blacksmith, and to con- 



sult him about breaking plows, other farming 
implements, etc. The result was that several 
of the bachelors were made happy and several 
new homes were founded instead of the mere 
staying places, as formerly. Among these 
were H. A. Goheen, on section 31, and Fred 
Frances, on section 30, where he began the 
task of redeeming 160 acres of land from the 
power of the "Great American Desert." 

Joseph Chrisman, the patriarch of another 
large family of sons and daugliters, and .Abra- 
ham-like, a keeper of a large herd of cattle, 
with complete gypsy outfit, began in the spring 
of 1883 a gradual progress toward the "Loup 
country" from Nemaha county. He found a 
large, fine stock location about the headwaters 
of Lillian creek, section 3 — 18 — 20. It is not 
likely that he or his family will ever forget 
the trials of their first winter here, a severe 
one, and, being inexperienced in the usages 
of Custer county blizzards, the shelter and 
feed provided for their stock were insufficient 
and many head perished, though since then 
prosperity has smeared itself all over the old 
pioneer in great dabs, and a large increase has 
blessed his eflforts. 

I\Iary E. Howard, a widow lady, with her 
daughter, settled in section 32, and bravely 
went to work to make a home. She succeeded 
in bringing thirty acres under cultivation, 
mostly her own labor. 

Rasmus Schritsmier located during 1884 and 
began industriously to con(|uer the prairie sod 
and fit the soil for crops. 

SICTTLINC IN" .MKR.\'.\ V.\LLI-:V 

Some time in the year of 1882 a prairie 
schooner camped for the night on the site 
where afterward the town of Merna was built. 
The travelers attached to the one-wagon cara- 
\-A\\ were a young lady by the name of Villa 
Ong and her cousin, a young man from some- 
where in the east. The next morning they 
hitched up the team and drove about six miles 
u]i the valley, where one of their horses lay 
down and died. This compelled the two 
travelers to proceed on foot to where Mr. Ira 
Ong. the young lady's father, had a cattle 
rancli. in what is now the Keota district. 



1 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



95 



W. G. Brotherton, who was destined to be 
one of the pioneer spirits of Custer county, 
had settled in Merna valley early in 1882, 
and in his sod house on the night referred to 
in the paragraph above, Gilbert Hogue and 
Joseph A. Kellenbarger were all-night guests. 
Kellenbarger and Brotherton had been ac- 
quaintances in Iowa previously to the exodus 
to Nebraska. Kellenbarger and Hogue were 
in quest of land, and the next morning Broth- 
erton and his team were at their disposal. 
Both were .young, with ambitious dreams of 
life, and the job of tackling raw prairie and 
transforming it into an improved farm and 
comfortable home meant little to them. They 
made their land se- 



lections and 
back to Iowa 
their families 
other friends. 



put 
for 
and 




\l'hoto by S. D. Butcher] 

C. p. Foote's Old Pioneer House at Merna 
Mr. Foot, at this time, was sheriff of Custer county 



A F.UNCH OF 
IOW.\XS .\RRIVE 

On the ninth day 
of April, 1883, late 
in the afternoon, a 
small train of prai- 
rie schooners pulled 
up at the old town 
of Merna, where 
W. G. Brotherton 
wasboth postmaster 
and merchant. D. 

O. Luce, who was a proprietor of a wood 
yard, was the rest of the town. The 
schooners were loaded with Iowa people 
who had come to stay. They were after land, 
and in that day there was land for everybody. 
The party consisted of O. G. Gordon, War- 
ren Gordon and his three small children, — 
Lelia, who is now Mrs. W. G. Brotherton, of 
Fora, Arthur county, where they are still 
pioneering and conducting a postoffice, and Lee 
and Arthur, who are now prominent citizens 
of the new town of Merna. — John Cosner, 
wife and one small child, a Mr. Graham, wife 
and three small children, Gilbert and Edward 
Hogue, Ben Kellenbarger and family, Joseph 
Kellenbarger and his family of four small chil- 



dren. They did not all hail from the same 
place, but they had arranged to come together, 
and when they reached Merna, which was to 
be their stopping place, they had been nine 
days on the trail. During that time they 
formed acquaintanceships that bind them to- 
gether still and will never be forgotten. 

.\N IMPROMPTU RECEPTION 

As soon as the wagons were sighted by the 
few settlers of the vicinity of the little village 
they began to come in from all directions upon 
some pretext or other. The principal object, 
of course, was a pardonable curiosity to find 
out who the newcomers were, and in open- 
hearted western 
fashion extend 
them a reception, 
which for simplic- 
ity and elegance of 
stage-setting could 
hardly be surpass- 
ed. Dick Strong 
and Mr. Morrison 
wanted to borrow 
flour to put them 
through until a 
fresh supply could 
be secured from 
Kearney. John 
Pollard came to in- 
vite the Graham 
family and the Ben 
Kellenbarger family to be his guests for 
the night in his new "soddy." Pollard was 
a little homesick at the time and he needed 
the company to cheer him up and replenish 
his "pep." The Thomas boys wished to see 
if any of their relatives were in the crowd. 
W. H. Reader, having no other excuse, catne 
after a barrel of water. "Paddy" Kilfoil, see- 
ing the wagons lined up by the postoffice 
thought possibly someone might have a plug 
of tobacco to spare, so he walked down from 
where the Dale church now stands. "Paddy's" 
habitation in those days was a dugout. It 
was early in the spring but "Paddy" rushed 
the season enough to appear in a straw hat 
and linen duster. His salutation to the new- 



96 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. XEBR.\SKA 



comers was. "Ye's have come to a moighty 
foine place.'' 

The ne.xt clay the settlers located on their 
respective homesteads and began active opera- 
tions. 
until thev could build sod houses. 



The most of them lived in their wagons 



SETTLIXC IX CUSTER CENTER 

On the 28th day of November two young 
men, Omer M. Kem and Martin F. Blanken- 
ship, boarded the train at East Lynn, \'ermil- 
ion county, Illinois, and came to the grand 
state of Nebraska for the purpose of home- 
steading land. On their arrival in Kearney 
they met with C. D. Pelham and John De- 
^lerritt, two freighters from Custer county, 
who spoke highly of this country. The young 
men came with them to Pelham's store, then 
located northeast of the present site of Broken 
Bow, about one mile from the public square. 
There was no Broken Bow at that time as 
far as the town is concerned, but Mr. Pelham 
was postmaster of a very small postoffice 
called Broken Bow. After a few days' pros- 
pecting they selected claims near the present 
Custer Center and went back to Illinois. They 
returned to Custer county early in March of 
1882 and located on their claims, — Mr. Kem 
three and one-half miles northwest of Broken 
Bow and Mr. Blankenship about five miles 
northwest. There were no churches or 
schools and their neighbors were few, but 
what they had were very friendly. H. C. 
Reyner, Charles S. Raymond, James D. Ream, 
and James Courtney with themselves consti- 
tuted the number. During the following fall 
and winter others located near them and by 
the spring of 1883 they had a lot of new neigh- 
bors, and good ones. 

DOWN- IN .\SH CREEK VALLEY 

In 1886 C. \V. Prettyman pre-empted land 
in the Ash creek valley down near where the 
Ash creek empties into the Loup. He tells 
that he was preceded in that neighborhood by 
several other pioneers, among whom was his 
father, G. F. .-\lmendinger. C. H. Landrcth, 
and James King. The Prettyman claim was 



only one-half mile from the King place, which 
made the King family his nearest neighbors. 
.Ash creek is to-day one of the best localities 
in the county and gives no indication of the 
dugouts, sod houses, and log shacks of the 
early day. 

HOW CUSTER COUXTV GOT BOP. HUXTER 

History of a country is made ofttimes by 
seemingly insignificant actions and experiences 
in the daily routine life of its inhabitants, 
which experiences are many an<l varied in the 
lives of its pioneers. Betimes a very trivial 
event leads to the location of a home. Some- 
times the very name of a city impresses those 
looking for a new location, as does the name 
Broken Bow, county seat of Custer county, 
wjiich at once implies romance and commands 
interest ; at least such was the case of the 
Hunter family — which consisted of father, 
mother, and two small daughters — who had 
moved from a rich agricultural country in 
Illinois to Buffalo county, Nebraska, in 1885. 
As the summer of 1887-8 wore on, long wagon 
trains of freighters on their way from Broken 
Bow and vicinity, in Custer county, to Kear- 
ney, in Buffalo county, passed and repassed 
the modest prairie home of Robert A. Hunter 
and family. 

Many stormy wintry nights the plain home, 
typical of western homes in hospitality, was 
filled to overflowing with the freighters, who 
alwavs before leaving their own homes, pro- 
vided themselves with sufficient food for them- 
selves and provender for their horses for the 
journey and return. Kearney, about seventy- 
five miles from Broken Bow, being the nearest 
railroad town, was the shipping point for all 
Custer county, and furnished an enormous 
supply of all building materials and provisions 
for the inhabitants of the north country, as 
it was called by the residents of Buffalo coun- 
ty. These materials and provisions all had to 
be delivered to Custer county by freighters, 
who formed long wagon trails, sometimes as 
many as fifty wagons being in ime trail, each 
wagon being mostly empty on the way to Kear- 
nev, as the settlers then had little to take to 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



97 



market but much to return with for them- 
selves and for the little inland town of Broken 
Bow. 

To these wagons were hitched from three 
to five horses, mules, or bronchos, sometimes 
abreast and ofttimes tandem. In pleasant 
weather the freighter camped by the roadside 
wlrerever the night found him, but in case of 
storms or sudden blizzards he sought the 
refuge of shelter in the sparsely settled homes 
along his route. These homes almost with- 
out exception were always hospitably open to 
them at any time, day or night. 

Thus it was that the Hunter home was often 
the shelter of many freighters, and many and 
interesting tales were told by them of, the 
north country, and of the many different draw- 
backs and advantages, which often sounded to 
their willing and interested listeners like tales 
of romance and adventure. Whether just or 
otherwise, all countries are to a certain de- 
gree judged by strangers according to the 
people representing them. 

So impressed was Mr. Hunter by these de- 
scriptions of Custer county advantages that 
he became convinced that it must be a splen- 
did stock country, and the summer (August 
9, 1889) found the family headed for Broken 
Bow^ where they at least hoped to be able 
to live six months in order to pay out and 
prove up on a homestead of 160 acres, for the 
right for which he had traded a broncho and 
sulky and harness. 

THEY FILL UP THE T.ABLE 

One of the first settlers on the west table- 
land was J. B. Klump, who took a homestead 
and timber claim in section 12, township 17, 
range 23, in March. 1883. D. W. Wediman 
and B. F. Cole were the first settlers on the 
northeast part of this table. Samuel High also 
located aliout the same time that Klump did, 
and dug a well 350 feet deep, but it was not 
a success. Within the same year there ar- 
rived three brothers by the name of Lang, 
with their father and mother, and John and 
-Moses Truesdale. In the spring of 1885 came 
Peter F. Forney, Charles Blakeman, Charles 



Zachary, Daniel Sweeney, and John Wehling. 
These settlers dug cisterns near the lagoons 
and cemented them, which held water from 
the melted snow and rains for some months. 
When the cisterns became dry the only re- 
course was to haul water in barrels from the 
valley two or three miles distant, and anyone 
who is acquainted with the steepness of the 
ascent up to the table-land can imagine what 
a task it was. In addition they often had to 
pay five cents per barrel for the water. As 
they not only had to haul water for their 
household use, but also for whatever stock 
they had, ^Ir. Forney started in to haul water 
in two barrels, but he soon found that process 
too slow. He had four horses, four head of 
cattle and some hogs, and as it took over half 
of his time hauling water, he almost begrudged 
the poor beasts what they wanted to drink. 

FIRST OF THE DEEP WEI.LS 

Peter Forney was the first man to put down 
a gravel well on the table. It was an iron- 
casing well, 444 feet deep and cost him six 
hundred dollars. For two years this well sup- 
plied the families of Wediman, Cox, Maupin, 
Hill, Blakeman, Taylor, Cooney, and Pike. Mr. 
Forney had to mortgage his farm in order to 
put down this well, and by the time it was 
paid for the interest, added to the principal, 
amounted to $1050. 

At this writing this table-land is thickly 
settled. It has won the reputation of being 
the best wheat-producing portion of Custer 
county, and contains some splendid farms. 
Most of the sod buildings have given way to 
fine residences of wood, and the commodious 
barns and outbuildings impart a most prosper- 
ous appearance to the table. \\'indniills are 
seen by the score and the water problem no 
longer troubles the people of the community. 
The table is fifteen miles long and has an 
average width of four miles. From its edges, 
which rise almost abruptly from the valleys 
below, a magnificent view of the surrounding 
country can be had. The soil is exceedingly 
rich and fertile, and in favorable seasons very 
large crops are raised. 



98 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



SETTLERS COME TO DALE 

J. J. Downey writes as follows concerning 
Dale settlements : 

"About the 10th day of June, 1889. in com- 
pany with R. D. McCarthy and family and 
two of his teamsters, we started for our future 
home in Custer county. We arrived at Seneca, 
where we found the beginning of a rising 
young town, it being one and a half miles up 
Clear creek from the present town of West- 
erville. We stayed over night at the house 
of George Copsey, one of the old pioneers of 
the place. We were now within one day's 
travel of our destination. We crossed over 
to the Muddy the 
ne.xt forenoon. We 
camped for dinner 
near the present 
site of Broken Bow. 
The only settlers 
we found close by 
were Wilson Hew- 
itt and Dan Lewis. 
Mr. Hewitt was the 
proprietor of a 
blacksmith s h o p, 
which we after- 
ward patronized. 
That evening we 
obtained our first 
view of the Muddy 
Flats, as it was calleil at that time. We 
paused on the brow of the table and the 
male portion of the company descended and 
threw up their hats with a "hurrah." for lo, 
and behold ! there it lay in full view — the 
promised land. Descending from the table we 
arrived at the first settler's cabin, which, by 
the way, was not of sod. but cedar logs, the 
only one of its kind on the flats as far as I 
know. There we got some water and a kindly 
greeting from the proprietor. Sam Dmuiing. 
On our way from Dunning's place to our 
present location we passed the dugout of A. 
Thomas, a genial young bachelor. There were 
several other young men staying with him 
who had not yet erected their future mansions. 
It was now about sundown and four miles 
to the end of our journev. At about dusk 




\ Photo by S. D. Butcher] 

Emigr.\nts He.xded 



we arrived at our claims ard found there, 
on land adjoining. \Mlliam Couhig, who had 
preceded us by ten days. He had made con- 
siderable progress with his work, having put 
down a well, which proved to be a great 
convenience. The well was dug by C. R. 
Krenz, an expert in that line of business, who 
still resides in Dale valley, and was the father 
of the first child born in Dale. 

"Among the settlers that came in that sum- 
mer were the following: \\'illiam Corcoran; 
Patrick Kilfoil. after whom Kilfoil precinct 
was named ; William Walsh and family ; 
Joseph Sitler, another young bachelor ; George 

W. Hartley, who 
was the first settler 
in Ortello valley ; 
Andy S o m m e r, 
Charles Foote, 
L e n n T h o m a s, 
Charles Johnson, 
and John Jacquot, 
all of whom built 
residences out of 
prairie sod, with 
some of U n c 1 e 
Sam's cedar for 
rafters, which at 
that time was com- 
paratively plentiful 
in the can\-ons from 
ten to thirty miles west of here. There was no 
corn raised close by. except a small amount 
down on Mctoria creek, in 1880, and that was 
held at fifty and sixty cents per bushel, and 
could be had for no price in the spring. Crops 
were good in 1881. and those who had ground 
broken out and raised corn were all right, 
having plenty for feed and a good home mar- 
ket for the balance, at a price ranging from 
fifty to seventy-five cents per bushel. 

LOHR RUNS SOME STORE 

"Several other settlers came during the year 
1880 and took up claims, but did not per- 
manently locate here until 1882. J. J. Joyner 
was the only settler that moved in during 1881, 
and he located in Ortello valley. In 1882 the 
following came : Conrad Fleischman, Christo- 



FoR Custer Colxty 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



99 



pher Nichols, James Daley, James Wood, G. 
N. Thompson, Charles Fodge, S. H. Reed, 
James Stanford, G. W. Land, Samuel Trout 
— all with their families. About this time the 
Dale postoffice was established, with James 
Daley as postmaster. Mr. Daley afterward 
resigfned in favor of D. S. Lohr, who went into 
the general merchandise business at Dale, 
getting cjuite a trade from fifty to seventy-five 
miles west and- north of here. In fact it was 
a tj-pical frontier store. The town of Dale 
was laid out the previous summer. Dale tried 
hard for the railroad, but the company could 
not see it in that way. Dale, however, is ad- 
mirably located in regard to railroad towns, 
]Merna being five or six miles southeast and 
Anselmo eight or nine miles northwest. 

"The next two or three years the following 
named settlers moved here : William i\Ioore, 
Charles Michele, Frank Michele, C. H. Cass, 
G. D. Grove, C. C. Grove, Henry Sweeney, 
Dan Foley, A. Glidewell, P. B. Riley, Jason 
Lucas, A. C. Towle. Henry Barratt. William 
Brookman, I. A. Coleman, Dr. L. L. Crawford, 
James Phillips, Thomas Kelley. Joseph ^'es- 
sels, and R. J. Kelley, the last named being a 
pioneer merchant — a member of the later firm 
of Kelley & Duncan, who in 1886 moved to 
Merna, where he has been in business ever 
since. Nick Jaquot came about the same time, 
or perhaps a little before. He is a man of 
great enterprise, being largely interested ■ in 
farming, stock-raising, and feeding, also pro- 
prietor of one of the ]\Ierna elevators, and a 
hog buyer. C. D. Pelham, the pioneer mer- 
chant of Broken Bow, afterward moved to 
Dale, where he did business for several years, 
finally moving to Anselmo." 

MORE .\BOUT LILLI.VX 

[The late E. X. Bishop tells the following- 
story about early settlements on the Middle 
Loup in the vicinity of Lillian creek] : 

In 1875 James L. Oxford made the first 
settlement in what is now Lillian township. 
He built log buildings and established a ranch 
on the east bank of Lillian creek, near where 
his frame buildings now stand. His father-in- 
law. John Henderson, and familv. came from 



Missouri and settled near him in 1878, until 
the spring of 1879, when the level and fertile 
plains ' became so attractive to those seeking 
homes that they began to wend their way up 
the south side of the Middle Loup river. Diu"- 
ing this season Perry Lyle, J. E. Ash, J. C. 
Hunter, J. M. Ash, S. Gates, with their fami- 
lies, and David McGuigan, A. C. Ash, and 
Ervin Ash, old bachelors, settled on the river 
bottom and J. O. Taylor, Ole Johnson, N. 
K. Lee. S. K. Lee, John Lee, and Nelson T. 
Lee, with their families, settled in Round val- 
ley. As if by magic the sod houses arose one 
by one, and dotted the valley and plain in 
every direction. In the spring of 1880 Jesse 
Gandy started a ranch at the place afterward 
known as the Hartley ranch, and the follow- 
ing named settlers, with their families, if they 
had any, and with good digestive organs, if 
they were bachelors, made their appearance 
on the scene of action and became permanent 
residents, or homesteaders as they were then 
called to distinguish them from ranchmen : 
Thomas Lampman, Frank Luse, E. N. Bishop, 
Frank Doty. Hugh M. Goheen. John Goheen, 
J. jNI. Goheen, Austin Goheen, James McGraw, 
D. O. Luse, Jarvis Kimes, A. W. Squires, O. 
S. Woodward, Charles Griffiths, J. E. Gwinn, 
J. N. Peale, A. N. Peale, and Samuel Oxford. 
The winter of 1880-81 was what has been since 
known as the "hard winter." To convey some 
idea of the difficulty of traveling where a 
track was not broken out, I will endeavor to 
give a short description of a trip I made one 
day of but two miles and back, which took me 
from early morning until after dark. The 
layers of sleet cut the horses' legs so that in- 
stead of wading through the snow they would 
jump upon it as if climbing on top of ice, 
which kept breaking and letting them through. 
In a few minutes they were so exhausted that 
I had to stop and let them rest. Their legs 
were cut and bleeding so badly that they left 
a crimson trail behind them in the snow. To 
make matters worse, the grass was very short 
and entirely covered by snow, so that one 
could not tell .what was under the drift ahead. 
The first thing I knew the horses dropped 
down into a draw about five feet deep, where 



100 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



they floundered about, unable to get out. I 
went to work with a scoop shovel I had brought 
along with me. and by nooif had the team 
out on the level ground. Although it was 
dinner time and I was somewhat hungry, yet 
I had no dinner to eat, as I was on my way 
with a sack each of wheat and corn to be 
ground in a feed grinder that was owned by 
one of our neighbors, T. J. Butcher, where I 
arrived about four o'clock, having had to dig 
my horses out of draws four times on the 
way. It took but a few minutes to grind my 
feed and as I had broken the road on my way 
over pretty thoroughly, the return trip was 
made with comparative ease and without inci- 
dent. 

During the winter of 1880-81 S". Gates and 
the writer circulated a petition tor the forma- 
tion of Lillian precinct, this territory at that 
time being a part of Victoria precinct, with 
the voting place at New Helena. As some of 
the citizens had to go twenty-four miles to 
vote, the county commissioners readily granted 
our request and established Lillian precinct, 
with nearly the same territory as the present 
township of Lillian embraces. From this time 
forth, public improvements were made as fast 
as the financial condition of the countv would 
permit. Among these were three bridges 
arross the Middle Loup river on the northern 
boundary of Lillian precinct. 

On February 16, 1880, Eri postofifice was 
established at the residence of J. E. Ash, with 
his wife, Alice Ash, as postmistress. It was 
named Eri, after Mr. Ash's brother, and was 
located on section 14. township 19, range 20. 
It was on the route to New Helena, and con- 
nected with the Kearney and New Helena 
mail at the latter point. The mail was carried 
twice a week, by way of WestenMlle and Round 
Valley, the latter office being established some 
time in 1880. Mrs. Ash resigned in favor of 
Frank Doty and recommended the removal of 
the office to his residence, three miles distant, 
which appeared to meet the approval of the 
authorities at Washington. The office was re- 
moved and remained there until it was discon- 
tinued, when the Walworth postoffice was re- 
moved to the bridge, by W. H. Predmore, 



1885. Mr. Gates sent in a petition for the 
establishment of Gates postoffice, with himself 
as postmaster, which was granted, and the 
first mail was delivered there July 4, 1884. 
Soon after this Mr. Gates put in a small stock 
of groceries, added hardware and dry goods, 
and in 1886 he built a good frame store build- 
ing. For several years, during the prosperous 
seasons, he kept a good store and did quite 
an extensive business. But in 1893 it had all 
evaporated except the postoffice. But like 
everything else in this western country, it 
could not be stopped entirely. Another small 
store was started by Joseph Beckwith, the new 
postmaster, who in about two years sold out 
to S. M. Hinkle. Mr. Hinkle kept the store 
and postoffice about a year and then sold out 
to Peter Fackley. When the railroad was built 
to Ord, the mail route was changed, and came 
from there to New Helena instead of from 
Loup City, and ran tri-weekly until the B. & 
M. Railroad was built through Anselmo, when 
the route was changed and ran from Anselmo 
to Sargent, daily, via New Helena. Lillian, 
Gates. Walworth, and West L'nion, giving to 
all this section, as at jiresent, a mail service 
that it may well be proud of. especially since 
the railroad was completed to Sargent. 

nOW.X ox THE REDFERX T.\BLE 

For the following statement of the settle- 
ment in Redfern Table we cull from the writ- 
ing of James A\'hitehead. 

L'p to 1880 cattle men had undisputed pos- 
session of thousands of acres of land that in 
the three years following its occupancy yielded 
an average of twenty bushels of wheat per 
acre. But the settler came, and he came to 
stay. Many were veterans of the Civil war, 
in the prime of vigorous manhood, and held life 
as cheap and could shoot as straight as the 
dare-devil cowboy, and not unfrequently "got 
the drop" on those who had heretofore boasted 
of having things pretty much their own way. 
Thus, in part, the problem of settlement had 
become adjusted and the way made easy for 
those who in 1883 and 1884 were pioneers in 
the settlement of the southwestern part of Cus- 
ter countv. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



101 



The way of approach in those days was froir. 
Kearney along the Wood river valley to its 
confluence with the South Loup, at a point 
near the present site of Callaway. Further 
west were Plum creek and Cozad. points on 
the line of the Union Pacific, — the former 
about thirty miles from the south line of Cus- 
ter, the latter fifteen miles nearer. At this 
point there was a gently undulating tract of 
country then known far and near as "Buffalo 
Table," located in townships 13 and 14, ranges 
22 and 23, being within the twenty-mile limit. 
Every odd-numbered section of this entire table 
land was included in the grant of the Union 
Pacific. Inviting as it was, with its deep, rich 
soil, none of its lands were appropriated until 
the latter part of 1883. The first entry made 
in this locality was by no less a personage than 
Patrick Egan, of Lincoln. It was on section 
34, township 14, range 23. No breaking being 
done the first year, by contest it passed into 
the hands of Ernest Schneider. The first 
homestead entries were made bv Harvey Stock- 
ham and Otto Jaster, November 14, 1883, and 
by Charles B. Drum, December 13th, which 
comprised all entries made during that year. 
February 11, 1884, James Whitehead made 
homestead entry for lands adjoining Charles 
Drum, and with the opening of spring, Ernest 
Schneider, John Helmuth, Charles W. Red- 
fern and his son Frank, with Henry, Chris, 
and John Miller, appeared upon the scene, se- 
lected and settled upon their lands and im- 
mediately begun improvements. 

PLENTY OF ROOM IX A SMALL HOUSK 

It was the purpose of the writer to secure 
by purchase a half-section of railroad land ad- 
joining or as near as possible to his home- 
stead ; this he supposed he had done, but on 
reaching his home in Wisconsin he was ap- 
. prised by Hon. J. H. ^lacColl, of Plum Creek, 
r agent for the railroad company, that the lands 
selected by him had passed into other hands. 
This necessitated his immediate return to 
' Nebraska. Accompanied by J. A. Mahafify 
and George Healy. we reached Plum Creek 
about the 10th of March. The morning fol- 
lowing our arrival we started for the table- 



lands accompanied by Mr. Huey, surveyor of 
Dawson count)'. It was after night when we 
reached the divide. The weather, which had 
been warm, had turned cold and snow began 
to fall. It had been our intention to pass the 
night upon the prairie and we had come pre- 
pared, bringing robes and blankets and a sup- 
ply of provisions to last us several days. The 
increasing cold and falling snow, which ^Ir. 
Huey, who was an "old timer," assured us 
might develop into a regular blizzard, made 
the outlook anything but encouraging. After 
traveling some distance in the darkness we saw 
a glimmering light and heard the barking of a 
dog; this led us to the claim of Ernest Schnei- 
der. Though he had arrived but a day or two 
before, he had a frame dwelling partly erected, 
which, with his own and other families, and be- 
lated travelers like ourselves, seemed full to ov- 
erflowing; notwithstanding this we received a 
hearty welcome. The building was but partly 
roofed and through the night the snow de- 
scended upon those who stretched themselves 
upon the floor and sought rest and forgetful- 
ness of discomforts in sleep. Beneath a pile 
of blankets, in one corner of the room that was 
better protected from the storm, lay the sick 
wife of our host. She never recovered, but 
died shortly afterward and was buried nearby, 
— the first death and burial that marked the 
early settlement of that vicinity. In addition 
to those I have named, William Greenfield. Joe 
Malson, Ezra Wright, R. E. Williams, J. W. 
Bissell, John Matz, William Gibson, Chris Hel- 
muth, the Wysharts. were pioneer settlers of 
the table or its environments, followed in time 
by John McGuigan and the Armours, also Joe 
Gilmore. A. P. Cox, Oliver Whitehead, Willis 
Hines. the Langes, David and William Bain, 
John Runcie, and John Berwick. The all-ab- 
sorbing question that presented itself to every 
settler was water, and how it might be ob- 
tained. Away to the east in Wood river val- 
ley, Van Antwerp and Thumian had well.s, 
but they were from six to ten miles distant; 
there were none nearer and the combined 
means of all was not sufficient to put one down. 
To meet this exigency cisterns were dug on 
the edge of draws or bordering lagoons, the 



102 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



supply dependins: upon the rainfall and their 
ability to secure and conserve it. All that was 
met, endured, and overcome, the difficulties and 
obstacles to success in the way of those early 
settlers will never be known or written. \\'ater 
there was in abundance,— the best, purest, and 
most wholesome that could slake the thirst 
and gladden the heart of man or beast, but it 
was from four to five hundred feet below the 
surface and the means of securing it an un- 
solved problem. 

AN .\CCOMMOD.\TING EN'GLISIWt.W 

Among those who had come into this locality 
were two men, Mr. Edward Crewdson, a 
wealthy Englishman who had purchased three 
section of railroad land and was engaged in 
stock-raising, and Mr. Gregory J. Campau, of 
Detroit, who had purchased a large tract of 
land and was also a man of considerable means. 
These men i)ut down hydraulic wells and se- 
cured a never-failing and abundant supply of 
water to which the settlers had free access. The 
last-named even put down a large cistern into 
which a stream of water was pumped con- 
tinuouslv for the use and accommodation of 
those who had no other means of securing the 
life-o-iving beverage. On several occasions ]\Ir. 
Crewdson deprived his cattle of the water they 
craved, in order that the wants of his neigh- 
bors might be satisfied. These men have 
passed away ; but monuments have been raised 
to perpetuate the deeds and memory of many 
whose claims to remembrance were not so well 
founded. But their names are cherished and 
their unselfish generosity remembered liy those 
whose gratitude could alone compensate for 
their kindness. 

TOO M.\.NV ROOSTICRS 1-UU KIC.V.M .\.M) .1 Kl'1-ORnS 

The first settlers in the vicinity northwest uf 
Broken Bow were J. D. Ream and C. H. Jef- 
fords. J. D. Ream settled in the neighborhood 
now known as Custer Center, in the spring of 
1880. To show the innocence of those two un- 
isophisticated bachelors, who had only just 
enough farm education to be able to drive a 
yoke of o.xen hitched to a farm wagon, which 
contained all of their possessions, the old 
settlers tell this story at their expen.se: 



As they began to leave the settlements on 
their journey west into the wilderness, they 
thought it would be a fine thing to have fresh 
eggs during the summer, in their new home, 
and in order to be able to enjoy this luxury 
they struck a bargain with a thrifty house- 
wife for a dozen fine young chickens, the flock 
being shortly afterward increased by the addi- 
tion of six hens which they got at an astonish- 
ing bargain from another housewife along the 
way. When they arrived near the present site 
of the city of Broken Bow they camped with 
Wilson Hewitt, and as that kind and accom- 
modating pioneer invited the wayfarers to 
make their headquarters there until they got 
their claims located, they turned their chickens 
loose, inviting Mrs. Hewitt out to inspect the 
flock. :Slrs. Hewitt looked them over with 
the eye of an experienced housewife and then 
fell into such a fit of laughter that the boys 
thought she had gone crazy. When she re- 
covered her composure she informed the young 
poultry fanciers that their flock consisted of 
eleven young roosters, one pullet, and six old 
hens that had probably come over in Noah's 
ark and that had long since passed the period 
of their usefulness as layers of eggs. The 
boys were of course very much crestfallen at 
their visions of fresh eggs were thus suddenly 
dashed to the ground, and also very indignant 
at the unfair advantage that had been taken of 
their ignorance by the women who had sold 
them the chickens. They promptly made Mrs. 
I lewitt a present of the whole flock and did not 
again attempt to embark in the poultry busi- 
ness until after they were married. 

The next settler to locate in the vicinity was 
H. C. Reyner, with his wife and one child. 
He also imiMrtcd two mules and one cow, and 
from the latter Mrs. Reyner supphed the whole 
settlement with butter during the following 
.summer, churning it in a half-gallon crock. 
The baby. I'aul, grew to manhood and served 
as a soldier in the First Nebraska Regiment in 
the Philippine Islands. These settlers cele- 
]>rated the Fourth of July. 1880. in a canyon 
south of the table-land which lies east of 
Merna, together with a number of others from 
the vicinitv of Broken Bow, among whom 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



103 



were Wilson Hewitt, C. D. Pelham, Closes 
Lewis, and others, with their famihes. 

I\Ir. Jeffords located just east of what is 
known in Broken Bow as the West Table, in 
a section of countr\- known at that time as 
South Muddy Flat. Among- the next settlers 
in the vicinity were R. M. Longfellow and Se- 
bastian Neth, the latter widely known for his 
energy and business capacity, having served 
the people ably several times as a member of 
the county board of supervisors. The neigh- 
borhood was also favored in the acquisition 
of a couple of school teachers from Ohio, 
named Mary E. and Agnes A. Price, but they 
soon ended their career as school teachers and 
formed partnerships with two bachelors, Jef- 
fords and Brown, and the result of these part- 
nerships is a number of young bug-eaters who 
will probably figfure in Custer county history 
long after their parents are forgotten. 

SETTI,EMEXT OF GEORGETOWN 

In June, 1872, W. A. George, then a boy of 
eleven summers, with his father, mother, broth- 
er, and four sisters, bade adieu to his New 
England home and friends near the old witch 
town of S'alem. Massachusetts, and started 
westward by rail. Their destination was 
Nebraska. The boys, of course, had to shrink 
considerably in size and age whenever the con- 
ductor came around, in order that they might 
get through on half-fare tickets, but it may be 
remarked right here that they took full ra- 
tions whenever the grub basket was passed 
around. At Omaha they saw their first In- 
dians, robed in their red blankets, as they sold 
their trinkets alongside the train and through 
the car windows. They arrived at Gibbon, 
their destination, tired and hungry, and being 
turned loose on a box of sweet crackers, W. 
A. George ate so many of them that he has 
never had an appetite for that form of bread 
since. Gibbon was at that time an ideal west- 
ern town, being the county seat of Buffalo 
county and surrounded by as fine land for 
homesteaders as the most exacting could wish. 
The sound of the hammer was heard from 
early morning until late at night. Many 



people were living in box cars and tents until 
they could erect something to call a home. 

W. A. George made his first trip to Custer 
county in 1875. They had some horses stolen 
and his father thought he had a clue to their 
whereabouts. He and his son started to hunt 
them up. They traveled about fifteen miles to 
the north the fir.st day and stayed all night with 
a settler whom the father hired to go with them 
the next day as a guide. They struck the 
South Loup river about where Pleasanton now 
stands. From there they worked up the river 
for several miles, seeing but a cowboy with a 
fine deer strung across his saddle, and a little 
further along they met another cowboy, who 
was carrying a saddle over his shoulder. He 
said that his horse had broken its leg and that 
he had to kill it and walk into camp. 

HELP YOURSELF 

In a short time they came to a lone dugout, 
but no one was at home. On the door was 
a card which read "help yourself but for God's 
.sake shut the door." The "shut the door" part 
was in a good deal bigger letters than the 
rest of the sentence. They had not yet been 
educated to the point of walking into a man's 
house and helping themselves to whatever they 
might find, so they passed the invitation up. 
They did, however, dig some potatoes, which 
came in very handy at the camp-fire that night. 

The next trip W. A. George made into Cus- 
ter county was in 1878, when he came to visit 
a sister living near where Berwyn now stands. 
He made the trip on horseback and was so 
pleased with the conditions in the county that 
he made a resolve to locate permanently. Ac- 
cordingly, he became a Custer county citizen 
some years later. In 1901 he wrote an account 
of his early experiences, mentioning some of 
his neighbors who were among the early-day 
landmarks, and from his writings of that day 
we gather the following: 

In 1887 W. A. George returned to Custer 
county and located f>ermanently. He leased 
land of his uncle, H. W. George, and launched 
into the stock and farming business very ex- 
tensively. Later he was able to buv the land 



104 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



and also additional territory, until at one time 
he owned 1550 acres of good deeded land and 
held a lease on 640 acres more of school land, 
all on the South Loup river. 

The ne.xt year he bought out the small store 
at Georgetown, then operated by a firm named 
Sterk & Means, and for the next five years 
George ran the store as a side proposition while 
still improving and developing his ranch. The 
ranch kept growing, quarter-section after quar- 
ter-section was added until when Mr. George 
sold the place he had in all nearly 5,000 acres, 
on which were more than forty miles of fence 
with all kinds of barns, sheds, and outbuildings 
which go to make up good farm equipment. 

"GEITIXG IX b.\d" 

It was in May, 1882, after the first pioneers 
had made a dim, shadowy trail over the border 
into Custer county. 

John M. Morrison and J. D. Strong left the 
main road leading from Kearney to this upper 
country at a point in Buflfalo county, in Pleas- 
ant valle)', and went north through the hills,, 
following a very dim trail which persisted in 
growing dimmer, and which, as darkness came 
on, disappeared altogether. Their hope was 
to reach McEndeflfer's, on the ^luddy, that 
night, so they pressed on, over high hills and 
down long, winding canyons, one of them 
walking in front of the team to figure out the 
trail, and the other driving as directed by the 
guide, 

A more gloomy and desolate prospect could 
hardly be imagined than that presented to them 
as the shades of night began to come down 
over the brown prairie, tumbled and piled 
about in the most haphazard manner, — high 
hills, long and terraced ridges, each line seem- 
ing higher than the other, — two "tenderfeet" 
alone amidst all this waste, was enough to 
make them wish they were back in civilization 
again. 

After some hours — or ages, they could 
hardly tell which — • they began to see cattle 
and horses on the range, which gave them hope. 
They soon struck a broader trail, made by the 
stock, leading to the ranch, and had less diffi- 
culty in keeping the way. After a time they 



saw, just ahead of them in the darkness, some- 
thing that they took for a post, and, believing 
they had come to a fence, Strong walked up 
to it and felt on both sides for the wires, but 
finding none, he put his hand on top of the 
supposed post and discovered to his conster- 
nation that it was a stovepipe, and still warm. 

By the time his investigations had resulted 
in this warm discovery, Morrison had driven 
the team up quite close to him and demanded 
a reason for his stop. He explained the nature 
of his find, and suggested a careful backing 
up of the team for fear of a tumble through 
the roof, which would be likely to disturb the 
sleepers below. He had seen enough of '"dug- 
outs" to know that they had discovered one, 
but just how to get inside they did not yet 
know. After getting the team out of all pos- 
sible danger. Strong started on a voyage of 
discovery. The problem of the lay of the 
dugout was soon solved to the satisfaction of 
all concerned. Of course it was dug out of a 
bank, but just where the bank ended and the 
house united with it he could not make out in 
the darkness ; but he soon discovered that there 
was a space of about four feet between the end 
of the dugout — ^ which had a wall of logs at 
the end — and the bank which sloped towards 
the house. The way he discovered this open- 
ing was by the happy one of falling into it ; 
the way he gained admittance into the house 
was b)' rolling down the sloping bank and in 
at the window, and the way he aroused the 
household was by alighting on a promiscuous 
collection of tinware, which made noise enough 
to stampede a bunch of plow horses. 

From the time he had started across the 
hills with the intention of asking the hospitality 
of Mr. McEndeffer's roof and board for the 
night, it had been with misgivings, if not with 
fear, as it will be remembered that he had been 
in some measure connected with the Olives in 
their fight with Mitchell and Kctchuni. He 
was a cattleman, and his interests were not 
enhanced by the settlers. What were Strong's 
feelings to find himself ])recipitated in that 
fashion into the house and finding himself 
clawing and kicking around among the dish 
pans and milk pails, while a gruff voice was 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



105 



demanding: "Who's there?" "Get out!" 
"Stat!" "Get a light!" "Get the gun!" and 
like exclamatory remarks, interspersed with 
more or less profanity and a chorus chiming in 
from other members of the family? 

Had a team fallen through the roof it would 
have raised no greater row than did Strong's 
plunge through the window. But he finally 
extricated himself from the tinware, kettles, 
and frying pans, and beat a hasty retreat under 
cover of the darkness and the excitement of 
the enemy out through the window and around 
to the door, where he gave a loud rap, more 
in accord with civilized ways. When a light 
was procured and explanations made, and an 
inventory taken of the kitchen utensils to find 
what actual damage was done, they were made 
welcome, and as the ceremony of "breaking 
the ice" was not necessary after breaking his 
head and a milk crock, McEndeffer's cob pipe, 
and several other articles of less importance, 
they were soon comfortable and quite at home. 

CUSTER COUXTV PIOXICER HONORED 

The next morning Strong and ^Morrison 
started for Merna, and at noon of that day 
they stood upon a hill that overlooked the 
beautiful valley that was to be their future 
home. ]\Ierna at that time consisted of one 
small sod house, with an annex of one room. 
The sod house was filled with sundry articles of 
merchandise, such as tobacco, soap, codfish, 
buttons, and thread. A cubby-hole in the wall 
served as the postoffice. which was kept by W. 
G. Brotherton. The annex was occupied by 
]\Ir. Brotherton and his wife as a living room, 
and was presided over by Lizzie, whose chief 
business seemed to be looking after the wants 
of new arrivals and making them comfortable 
and happy. 

One-half mile north of Brotherton's store, 
and the site of the future lively little railroad 
town of jMerna, they struck their tent on 
claims previously bought of Samuel N. Dunn- 
ing and Floyd Field. Mr. EKmning had lo- 
cated farther north, on the Dismal river, going 
into the cattle business. When the B. & M. 
Railroad was extended through the Black Hills, 
a town was located near his home and given 



the name of Dunning, which perpetuates the 
name of one of Custer county's pioneers. Floyd 
Field also located on the Dismal river, or on 
the Loup, and from a modest beginning in 
the cattle industry, he and his brother, Fred, 
have grown into two of the wealthiest ranch 
owners in this part of the state. The post- 
office of ]\Ierna was first kept by Mr. Dunning 
and the name of Merna was that of his young- 
est daughter. After the railroad had been 
built, and the town finally and for all time lo- 
cated by the Lincoln Townsite Company, it 
was quite natural that the infantile city, 
struggling for life and metropolitan honors, 
should be given the name of the original post- 
office, so that Merna became a fixed geographi- 
cal landmark. 

PELHAM STRETCHES THE QUILT 

The next day the journey of Mr. Strong and 
^Ir. Morrison was uneventful, and they put 
up for the night with C. D. Pelham, at or 
near where the present city of Broken Bow 
stands. Pelham kept the postoffice and a small 
stock of groceries, and the first hotel in Bro- 
ken Bow. They had often seen the puzzle 
of the innkeeper who could put thirteen men 
in twelve rooms, but Pelham could discount any 
such Cheap-John mathematical problem as 
that. He could easily stow away thirteen men 
in one small room. It is related of him on 
good authority that he had a most ingenious 
way of making six blankets suffice for a dozen 
or more guests. When late arrivals were ready 
to retire they were tucked snugly away under 
a blanket that was deftly removed from some 
guest who had gone to bed earlier, and who, 
being fast asleep, would never know the dif- 
ference. Of course if the weather was very 
cold the uncovered sleepers were liable to 
wake up after a time and make a roar, but 
before this stage was reached the other fellow 
was sound asleep and the covering was restored 
to the original sleeper. By shifting the cover- 
ing judiciously and systematically during the 
night, Pelham always succeeded in keeping all 
of his guests as warm as a pie in the coldest 
winter weather, although in cases of a rush 
of business everv one of them would be un- 



106 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



covered two-thircls or thret'-quarters of the 
time. 

A FLOCK OF BACHELORS 

Standing- at Brotherton's store in ^lay, 1882, 
and looking out over the valley spreading to 
the west and north, one could see a few marks 
that indicated the beginning of a small settle- 
ment. A group of "old bachelors" off to the 
northwest were holding various claims in vari- 
ous parts of the valley, but were mostly 
"batching" together in Al Thomas' dugout, 
where they discussed the future greatness of 
the country, and stu(hed the faces of the four 
queens they usually held in their hands, while 
they mentally cogitated upon an improbable 
consignment of femininity to be shipped out to 
supply wives for this miscellaneous assortment 
of masculinity. 

It is only justice to these men who cut such 
a sorry figure at stag housekeeping, to say 
that they were all men of liberal education 
and refined tastes, and to leave behind them 
the influence of eastern homes and the society 
of women were the worst hardships they had to 
endure in the wild west. Most of them in 
time found good wives, who have helped them 
to make comfortable and happy homes. In 
this bachelor dive were Al Thomas, Joe Sitler, 
A. Sommers. John Jacquot, Len Thomas, 
Charles Thomas, Scott, Hanna, McWorthy, 
and others whose names are not now recalled. 

At this time had one looked inside all of 
the houses within a radius of five miles from 
Brotherton's store, he would have found but 
three women within the entire circle — Mrs. C. 
P. Foote, Mrs. Brotherton, and Mrs. Dunning. 
\\'hat they lacked in quantity, however, they 
made up in quality, for no new settlement 
was ever blest with better women to mother 
the community than this trinity of maternal 
excellence. They have all gone on before to 
another country, but the blessings of all early 
settlers in this vicinity will follow them. 

• CIBBONITES OK THE LOUP 

[This volume is indebted to Miss Marguer- 
ite George, daughter of Mr. and ]\Irs. Xc 



George, for this account of the settlement on 
the East South Loup.] 

In the spring of 1875 many settlers left their 
homes at Gibbon, Nebraska, on account of the 
grasshoppers. Among the first to leave was 
Nc George and family. They took a little band 
of cattle and a lumber-wagon load of house- 
hold goods and started for the Lou]). \\ill 
Trew and Nc's sister Cora (the late Mrs. A. 
L. Morgan) helped to drive the cattle. They 
were three days on the road, making the jour- 
ney without any unusual event except a little 
trouble with one old cow. The men left Mrs. 
George in the wagon with her baby, seven 
months old, and went ahead to help Cora drive 
the cow. They were gone so long that Mrs. 
George became greatly worried, thinking that 
they had been made way with by desperate 
characters, perhaps. She made up her mind 
what she would do if they did not return 
soon. She climbed down from the wagon and 
went to the top of the hill to see if she could 
see anybody, and when she looked back to her 
team they had turned around and were headed 
towards Gibbon. Not daring to set her baby 
down she held him in her arms and ran as 
fast as she could to the team ; managing to 
reach one of the traces, she finally got to the 
bridle and stopped them. In a little while the 
men returned and the journey was resumed 
without further mishap. They reached their 
destination on Deer creek May 21, 1875. There 
was not another settler in that vast expense 
of prairie. Only a few transit cattlemen, with 
their small camps here and there, were their 
companions. 

FI.ND A.N OLD UrCOUT 

An old hunter's dugout was found in the 
bank along Deer creek and this became the 
home of the new settlers until another dug- 
out, with more room in it. could be made. 
The cattle were allowed to roam at will, graz- 
ing on the prairie but staying near the water. 

The country abounded in deer, elk. and 
other wild game. The men spent a great 
deal of their time in hunting and trapping. 
Often trappers spent much lime in this locality 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



107 



and when they had secured a good supply 
of skins they would come to Pkim Creek, now 
Lexington, wliere they received a good price 
for them. 

TWIN' FAWNS .^T THE CEN'TEN'N'IAL 

One day when Mr. George was out hunting 
he found two Httle fawns hidden in the cat- 
steps, while their mother was away feeding. 
He took them home and made pets of them. 
They were about a week old, he thought. They 
were red in color, like a calf, with white spots 
on their sides but were not as large as a calf. 
They lay in the brush until called to their 
lunch, when they 
would come bound- 
ing towards the 
house like two rab- 
bits. They drank 
milk from a pail, 
sticking- their noses 
clear to the bottora 
of the pail, even if 
the milk covered 
their eyes. Mr. 
George kept them 
until they were a 
year old, when he 
sold them to the 
Fairmont Park As- 
sociation, Philadel- 
phia, receiving fifty dollars for the two. They 
were one of the unique attractions at the Cen- 
tennial exposition at Philadelphia, in 1876. 

In the spring of 1877 a fierce storm came up 
which developed into a cloud-burst. The rain 
fell only twenty minutes but in that time, the 
level prairie was covered with water. A hole 
as big as a stove pipe was washed in the 
roof of the dugout where Mr. George lived, 
and the water swept in in torrents. Luckily 
the door was directly opposite the opening and 
the water had a straight course through the 
house. After this the dugout was abandoned 
and a small log-house built. Later Mr. George 
moved this house two miles further down the 
river to the place where he now resides. An 
election was held in 1878 in which this log 
cabin was used as a polling place. Josh 




[Photo by S. D. Butcher] 

A Typical Dugout 



Woods, Coe Kilgore, Frank Young, and L. D. 
George were the only ones present. 

WOULD NOT STAND FOR THE NAME 

A mail route from Plum Creek to Loup 
City passed near the George homestead. Nc 
George applied for the appointment of post- 
master but the officials demanded his full name 
and could not understand his explanation of a 
name consisting of two consonants so Nc 
failed to be appointed. Mr. Kilgore received 
the appointment and the postoffice was called 
Georgetown. 

In the meantime many settlers had come to 

the Loup. Most of 
them lived in hunt- 
ers' dugouts. Those 
arriving during the 
years 1875 and 
1876 were John E. 
Myers, John Ma- 
hon, and Christo- 
pher Hazelbaker. 

THE HAUMONTS 

Belgium gave 
Custer county a 
contribution in th(' 
early '70s when Ed. 
and Jules Haumoi't 
settled in the coun- 
ty and located claims northeast of Broken 
Bow. During the first winter they endured 
many hardships, but managed to look after a 
small flock of sheep. 

One of the unique achievements was the 
building of a two-story sod house with shingle 
roof, sod kitchen annex, and round-tower cor- 
ners. This was the most aristocratic building 
ever constructed of prairie marble in the coun- 
ty. Edward Haumont is now deceased. His 
widow still lives on the place and is very re- 
sourceful in reminiscences of early days. 

WHERE BROKEN BOW NOW STANDS 

The first settlers on the Muddy in the vicin- 
ity of where Broken Bow now stands were 
Wilson Hewitt, who liail moved up from the 
South Loup countrv, and Dan Lewis, who 



108 



HISTORY OF CL'STER CUL'XTV. NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



109 



came with a wife and two children. Mrs. 
Lewis' step-father, Henry Graham, came at 
the same time with Lewis. Lewis found a 
bachelor named Jesse Garringer holding by 
squatter's right a claim on which he had a 
dugout. Lewis bought the right and settled 
in the dugout. This place is now the Willis 
farm, just west of town. Graham filed on the 
Cornelius Tierney place, east of the present 
town. Later C. D. Pelham, !Moses Lewis, Ed 
and Alark King moved in. Mrs. Dan Lewis, 
who is now Mrs. Tuttle, had her experience in 
the dugout. It was a common experience for 
her to go out at night and wave a sheet 
to scare the 
cattle away. 
Her second 
daughter, Ida 
Lewis, born 
June 14, 1881, 
was the first 
child born in 
Broken Bow 
or vicinity. 

Mrs. Eliza 
Graliam. the 
mother of 
Mrs. Lewis 
and wife of 
Henry Gra- 
h a m, died 
August 1 0, 
1880, and was 

buried down on the Tierney place. This was 
the first death in this part of the county. 



Edward Haumont's Sod Palace — the Only Two-story Sod House in 

THE County 



county, which have not found their way in 
the published history of this county. Also 
what I have written is from direct dictations 
from some of these old settlers. Therefore 
they will vouch for its veracity. 

Thirty years ago, in the summer of 1873, 
my parents, Lewis and Sarah Dowse, with two 
little babies — Willis and Eliza — came to 
Loup City. There they made their acquain- 
tance with Mr. and Mrs. B. D. Allen. My 
mother stopped there while my father and 
Grandpa Wagner came on up into the Middle 
Loup valley in August. 1873. My father 
picked out his land and went back after his 

tools. He 
came back 
anil put up 
hay d u r i n g 
September 
and October. 
He left his 
tools and 
things and re- 
turned for his 
family, but 
lad to make 
two trips to 
(>and Island 
for provisions 
before he 
brought h i s 
family up. 
To his 
one claim taken 
that was what 




E.\RLY D.\YS • 



HARD TIMES 



[The following paper, read by Mrs. Alice 
Dowse Sims at the old settlers' picnic in Bro- 
ken Bow, 1903, contains enough of historical 
value to entitle it to a place in this chapter. 
While some statements are duplicated on other 
pages, the article, nevertheless, presents the 
viewpoint of the first white person born in 
Custer county and one who was reared to 
womanhood amid the scenes and in the Times 
she describes.] 

Much of what I have written for to-day is 
sketches of life among the early settlers of this 



knowledge there was only 
in all Custer county, and 
is known as Douglas Grove, taken by Ed Doug- 
las, an old soldier. Next Mr. Ohmes picked 
out his land and sent men up to begin build- 
ing. In January, 1874, my parents moved 
from Loup City to Douglas Grove. Father 
came first with a load. In those days the 
^liddle Loup had no bridges above the one 
they had just erected at Loup City. By the 
tiine he reached the banks of the river on the 
opposite side of the Grove it was very dark. 
He was uncertain as to the safety of the ice 
for crossing his team, so he unhitched and 
left it there. He then crawled across to Doug- 
las Grove on his hands and knees. Mr. Doug- 



110 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



las had not moved up on his claim yet, but a 
man by the name of Henry Snell had arranged 
a kind of a dugout, a little above the Grove, 
the way of entrance being a small hole at the 
top to slide down through. It was nicely ar- 
ranged, so as not to be easily discovered by 
Indians — my father thought by white people 
as well, before he was able to find it. He beat 
up and down the river, yelling and hallooing 
to awaken Mr. S'nell, but the resounding of 
his echo was the only response. Finally he 
gave it up. came back to the Grove, built a 
rousing fire to keep away any wild animals 
that might be lurking about, and rested as 
best he could till 
morning. 

He returned im- 
mediately for moth- 
er and the children. 
From oft re])eated 
stories I have form- 
ed a little picture. 
I see my mother. 
then only twenty 
years old. glance 
over that lonely 
valley and note the 
wild herds of deer 
and elk grazing on 
the hillside or rov- 
ing u]> and down 
the valley. I see 
her survey that insignificant little dugout, and 
imagine her heart beats wildly as she clasps 
those little ones close to her bosom, praying 
that God would protect them in that wild and 
lonely place. She has often told me of the 
lonely hours and days she spent in that solitarv 
hut. during the greater part of the next four 
months. Day after day she was alone with 
the babies and her little sister. Clara. 

In the month of February my father had 
gone to Louj) City after a load, leaving his 
family in the care of Henry Snell. The eve- 
ning they expected him home, supper was 
prepared and waiting. It was a very dark 
night and little Willie was fretful and began 
crying. Clara tried to think of something 
to say to keep him still. Jokingly, she said, 




[Photo by S. D. Butcher. lSS6] 

J. A. Woods, First Settler ix Woods' P.\rk, Middle 
Loup River 



"There's some Indians at the door: let's go 
antl see them." At this the little fellow hushed 
and started with Clara to see the Indians. A 
small door to this little dugout had been made 
since the arrival of the family. As Clara and 
the baby slipped outside, there stood four large 
Indians right in front of them. Poor, fright- 
ened Clara darted back into the dugout, leav- 
ing the baby to entertain the Indians as best 
he could. They pushed their way into the 
room. The scent of the cooking supper had 
guided them to the dugout. Mr. Snell was 
sitting reading. They demanded supper, by 
grunts and motions. Mother seated them at 

the little table and 
placed before them 
all the victuals she 
had prepared. 
While they were 
filling themselves 
niv father arrived. 
Mother had on the 
stove a very large 
tea-kettle, full of 
b o i 1 i n g water. 
When they had 
<lrunk all the coffee 
in a large coft'ee 
pot, they grunted 
for more. Father 
kept filling the cof- 
fee pot, from the 
kettle of boiling water and pouring it in the 
large coffee cups, until the water in the tea- 
kettle was exhausted, then they seemed satis- 
fied. They were not hostile Indians, however, 
but were some poor Pawnees whose ponies 
had been stolen by the S'iou.x Indians up on 
the North Loup river, .\fter they had eaten 
all they could get they wanted to pile down 
on the floor and go to sleeji. but father would 
not let them. 

Mr. Council was then living in the Grove in 
Ed Douglas' house. Henry Snell took the 
Indians down and left them with ^Ir. Connell. 
Before they would leave him the ne^t morn- 
ing, they grunted and motioned f(ir him to 
take them through the settlement down by 
Loup City. So he wrote a pass and gave 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



111 



them. The papers stated that they obtained 
fourteen square meals by presenting that pass, 
which read as follows : "These are four good 
Pawnees. Grease them and let them slide." 

The following March. 1874, Grandpa W'ag- 
ner came up again, accompanied by 'Sir. \\"i\\ 
Comstock. Air. Caswell, and Mr. Allen. They 
selected their land and returned for their 
families. ( Air. Comstock filed on his claim 
April 15, 1874.) A few days later Denio, Eu- 
bank, and Darnell come up, looked at land, 
and then they returned east for their families. 
About the latter part of April Grandpa Wag- 
ner, with Air. and Airs. Allen and their little 
baby, Jennie, came up and father boated them 
across the river. Then father hitched his 
team to the wagon and they all went just a 
short distance above the present site of Wes- 
cott, and began making garden. Grandpa 
Wagner said while they were making garden 
he would go and find something for dinner. 
He took his gun and strolled off across the 
hills. Shortly he returned with a piece of 
antelope, built a fire and soon had a roast pre- 
pared for dinner. Mr. and Airs. Allen went 
back and soon returned in time to tend to 
their garden, stopping with my parents at 
the time. In a few days Grandpa Wagner 
brought his family up. Father's little slab 
house couldn't hold them all, so Air. and Airs. 
Allen moved in with Ed Douglas for a few 
weeks. 

Soon following came other men with their 
families — Air. Ed Eubank, Darnell, and Ox- 
fords. About the last of Alay, Air. Allen and 
his family moved from the Grove into their 
new house, which was just one-quarter of a 
mile north of Captain Comstock's present 
dwelling place. Immediately Air. Comstock 
and wife came, and they stopped with Air. 
Allen till their little dugout was completed. 
Later other families came, but moved east 
again on account of the Indian scares. 

No new story is so fascinating as are the 
oft-repeated stories of the early events as 
given to me by these old settlers. Airs. Allen 
says she thought then, and she believes to this 
day. that the best bread she ever ate in her 
life time was made out of wheat "Tound in 



my mother's coft"ee mill. She verily declares 
she would gladly exchange her present lux- 
uries for the happy days she spent in those 
little dugouts, with her neighbors — Airs. 
Wagner, Airs. Comstock, and Airs. Dowse. 
One sweet little story is connected with Airs. 
Allen's little Number 7 cook stove. Grandma 
Wagner's and Airs. Comstock's stoves had no 
ovens to them, and they would carry their 
bread to Airs. Allen's little Number 7 to bake 
it. "And," says Airs. Allen, "many a nice 
loaf of bread did that little stove bake. I 
would look out the door and see Airs. Wagner 
and Airs. Comstock both coming, carrying their 
bread — then I'd think: 'Well, Airs. Comstock 
will have to bake her's first, for she makes salt- 
rising, then Airs. W^agner's turn.' And such 
a nice time we had." Air. Comstock declares 
yet that the best biscuit he ever ate were baked 
on top of their little stove, and he still likes 
them best baked that way. 

Air. Darnell and Grandpa Wagner ever kept 
broken the monotony of life, by their quaint 
lives among their old neighbors. Air. Dar- 
nell spent most of his time killing snipe and 
catching fish, and, says Mr. Comstock, "When 
the snipe all left, and the fish wouldn't bite, 
Air. Darnell left too." He also said he was 
going to start a town while he was here. He. 
sent his neighbors up the river to cut cedar 
trees and float them down the river. The}' 
tried it but tiie trees wouldn't float ; therefore 
Air. Darnell's town never got started. And the 
old neighbors all still express their deeply felt 
gratitude to Grandpa Wagner for his abundant 
supply of deer, elk, and antelope, which kept 
many families from starving. Air. Comstock 
tells of once when they crept up on four deer ; 
of course the deer ran as soon as they saw 
them, but by Air. Comstock handing him cart- 
ridges. Grandpa shot them before they were 
out of range. He never missed his game when 
it was in range of his old rifle, and his marks- 
manship was still remembered long after the 
large game had left the country. About the 
latter part of August, 1874, the sun began to 
darken, and within a few days the air and 
every nook and corner were alive with grass- 
hoppers. Alost of the settlers had some kintl 



112 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 




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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



113 



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114 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



of crops nicely started, and fair prospects, by 
close management, of raising enough to carry 
them through till the next summer. But now, 
what could those poor families, who had toiled 
so hard through the summer months, do to 
save their small crops, which were all they 
possessed? Must they stand, as it were, and 
see the food taken from the mouths of their 
little ones? My father thought he would save 
a little corn by shocking it up, but as soon as 
he would complete a shock it was covered with 
millions of grasshoppers. And thus every- 
thing was almost entirely annihilated. 

February 22, 1875, I was born, and as far 
as we know I was the first white child born 
in Custer county. The following summer was 
a little more pros- 
perous. The small 
crops that werc 
put in grew niceK' 
and unmolested. 
187() b r o u g h t 
again those dark 
and gloomy days. 
Innumerable mill- 
ion.> and millions 
of grasshoppers 
came. The hard- 
ships and priva- 
tions of the previ- 
ous years of 

drought in Custer county would 
seemed lu.xurious and plentiful to 
poor settlers during the following 
of 1876. 




RoiTNDUP OF .\ Coyote Hu.\t in J.\ni'.\rv, 1916 



have 
those 
winter 
Dear mothers and fathers who have 
come to Custer county in later years, feeling 
discontented because your children have not 
the luxuries and accommodations of life that 
you desire they should, let nic lead your 
minds back to Custer county's earlier days, 
and that gloomy winter of 1876. Drifts and 
drifts of snow blocked the roads between our 
little .settlement and Loup City. I should have 
mentioned before that Loup City consisted of 
a few small families living close together, and 
one little store in a little sod building. No 
provisions could be obtained short of there and 
Grand Island. 

\\'hen I hear mv mother tell of the cold 



winter nights that she placed the little ones 
in bed crying for something to eat, ( she had 
nothing in the house to give them, and her 
only consoling words were that papa would 
come soon with something to eat) it makes me 
feel that we are very ungrateful for the bless- 
ings that we enjoy at the present time. 

ONE Ol* THE OLD SETTLERS 

Before the buffalo was the coyote : before 
the Indian was the coyote ; before the white 
hunter and the trapper was the coyote ; be- 
fore the cattlemen was the coyote ; before the 
settlers was the coyote : before the yellow- 
haired scrub cur of former and latter days 
was the coyote ; before the deer-hound, fox- 

h () u n (1 , g r e y- 
hound, Russian 
wolf-hound, was 
the coyote. \Vhen 
the coyote first 
settled in the 
county. records 
fail to disclose. 
He was here be- 
fore the first and 
hangs to his loca- 
tion with a tenaci- 
ty that prophesies 
he will be the last. 
If he has been 
credited with priority, he deserves it. He 
is fleet-footed enough to maintain his ad- 
vance position when pursued by fastest" 
horse or hounds. Consequently it is per- 
fectly proi>er to describe him as being "be- 
fore" all the rank and file of his enemies. 
He has been the object of every pursuit — the 
jihantom of every chase. He is the fastest 
member of Custer county society and has but 
little difficulty in maintaining his lead, no mat- 
ter what is after him. \'elvet-footed, willowy- 
tDrmcd, Gibson-necked, keen-s:ented, he comes 
and goes without advance agent or press com- 
ment by the society editor. No matter where 
he goes or how he goes, he carries an appetite 
for chicken that outrivals the combination of 
a colored Methodist preacher. His habits have 
gotten him into ill-repute with the sheepmen 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



lis 



and cattlemen. His fondness for lamb for Sun- 
day dinner is in a measure offset by his fond- 
ness for small pigs during the week. He has al- 
ways possessed a latent propensity that entitles 
him to be called a "sport." If there is a circle 
hunt staged in any portion of the county, he is 
sure to be there and likely to be one of the 
leaders. 

Whether he deserves it or not, the versatile 




Ruins of Old Jefferson Postoffice, 1887 

quill of George B. Mair pays him the following 
tribute and prophesies his "nunc dimittis." 
It is far easier to subscribe to the Mair de- 
scription and tribute than to swallow his pro- 
phesy and hopefully await its fulfillment. 
Mair says : 

"The coyote is quite a large animal, although 
some of them are not so much so. They do 
most of their rustling nights, when honest 
folks are supposed to be in bed, and attend to 



their sleeping in the daytime. Once in a 
while he stays out until after daylight. On 
such occasions he may be seen making a 
sneak across the prairie in the direction of his 
hole, with his tail between his hind legs, look- 
ing about to see if he has been discovered, and 
trying to invent some story to tell his wife 
when he gets home. 

"What he lacks in beauty is more than made 
up in ugliness. The knowledge that he is no 
beauty has undoubtedly soured his originally 
sunny disposition and caused him to shun 
society and look out of the corners of his 
eyes. 

"The crowning glory of the coyote is his 
magnificent voice. We have heard the roar 
of the fierce Numidian lion in his den at Fore- 
paugh's circus and the melodious ya-hoo of the 
jackass, but we never realized the weird and 
sublime power of music until we attended a 
moonlight rehearsal given by a pack of coy- 
otes the first night we struck Custer county. 

"But civilization and poisoned meat are get- 
ting in their deadly work for him. Some day 
the last gray-headed patriarch will sit on the 
brow of yon beetling cliff, with his form sil- 
houetted against the rising moon, and then he 
will be seen no more. And a weatherbeaten 
pelt hanging on the end of an old corn crib 
will be the only remaining relic of a vanished 
race." 



CHAPTER Vl 
OLD SETTLERS' STORIES 

Entertains Bob Olive — A Wild Night For Hans — Bob Hunter has Close Call — 
Mrs. Hunter Learns the Way of the West — "A Wise Cow Tale" — Terrible Fall 
in a Deep Well — A Thousand Elk in One Herd — Made His Own Powder — Won 
BY A Nose — A Back-acting Wedding Fee — A Plucky Custer County Woman — 
Was a Justice All Right — God and Boblits — A Courtship in the Court's Office 

— Experiences of a "School Marm" — Life too Short for a Sod Roof — Entertained 
the Pawnees — All Ready- for Indians — Mysterious Death of Tr.^pper — A Fight 
for "Deer Life" — Saved One Bed — J. D. Haskell's Peronal Experience — Douglass 
Finds Relics — • Jess Gandy Joins the Elks — Mrs. Gandy Entertains a Stranger — 
Jess Gandy Rides a Buffalo ■ — The Masons Buried Him — The First Great Fl--\g Pole 

— The First County Seat Contest — A Hospitable Roof — A Little Sport with 
Guns — Lassoed an Elk — Lost in the Sand Hills — Hunters Find Game in the 
Bed — Had no Religion — One of the County "Dads" — A Prairie Fire — Twin 
Tragedies — A Watermelon Stampede — It Killed the Toad — Dan got the Logs — 

Indian Scares — The Grasshopper a Burden — A Land Quarrel — Grasshoppers 

Chewed Tobacco — The Sen.\tor was not Handsome — Burlin and Kellen- 

barger H.we Some Experience — A Rack Through the Storm • — So.me- 

thing of a "Mixup" — Nearly Ruined His Eye 



The sum total of all history is the recital 
of events just as they occurred, by those who 
were actors in the scenes, and had a chance 
to see and hear. First hand, or personal, 
knowledge is the authority of final appeal. 
Thou.sands of things happen in every country 
that by the very nature of conditions could not 
be recorded, in accessible files. If these things 
are ever unearthed and published the old 
settlers must recite them, blatters of personal 
experience, hand to hand struggles with 
early conditions, incidents both humorous and 
tragic, views of private life, and countless 
other things, told by the old settlers, have 
been collected and grouped in this chapter. 

Each story is complete in itself and has no 
relation to any other in the chapter. In each 
case the truth is vouched for by the one to 
whom the story is credited. In the aggregate 
they cover the entire range of county history 
and will give to any reader a realistic view of 



the conditions which have prevailed in the 
county during the developing years. Read 
the stories of the settlers and you will see the 
settlers, their homes, their farms, their 
schools, their churches, their difficulties, their 
defeats and triumphs, and with all you run 
the gamut of the years through which they 
have passed. The humorous vein which runs 
through the entire collection is a fine tribute 
to the heroic actors, who cultivated the spirit 
of cheerfulness under the most trying circum- 
stances. 

entertains bob olive 

[C. R. Mathews gives the following account 
of a visit paid him by Bob Olive and some 
of his cowboys. The judge was at home to 
his visitors and funnished plenty of corn and 
hay while the neighbors furnished plenty of 
camphor, as the narrative discloses.] 

T had been contemplating a trip to Douglas 



116 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



117 



Grove late in November, and had gathered ten 
or twelve bushels of corn to leave at the house 
to feed mv stock while I was gone. It was 
in sacks in a wagon, and I intended to start 
the next morning. That evening Bob Olive, 
alias Stevens, rode up with about a dozen of 
his cowboys and twenty-five or thirty ponies. 
He walked into the house without going 
through the formality of knocking at the door, 

and remarked that it was "awful d d 

cold." He kindly told me that if I would 
give him enough corn to feed his herd of 
ponies that he would not turn them out to 
help themselves. I told him that I hoped he 
would not turn the horses out, as they would 
tear down my stacks and that he could have 
all the corn he wanted if he would go out in 
the field and husk it. 

'"What is the matter with this corn in the 
wagon ?" he inquired. "That is corn I brought 
up for my hogs while I am gone to Douglas 
Grove," I explained. 

He made no further remark, but deliberate- 
ly emptied the corn out on the ground, where 
it was soon eaten up by the horses. The out- 
fit concluded to stay with me all night without 
asking my permission, helped themselves to 
my coffee and anything else they could find, 
wrapped themselves up in their blankets and 
went to sleep. Olive was taken sick during the 
night with cholera morbus and routed his men 
out to see if anything for his relief could 
be found in the settlement. There was no doc- 
tor within eighty miles, so they went to Mr. 
Boley's and came back with a bottle of cam- 
phor. I\Irs. Ross also let them have a bottle 
of camphor, and Mrs. Forsyth, for a change, 
sent another bottle of camphor. Airs. Lough- 
ran and Mrs. ^Merchant, having no other kind 
of medicine in their houses, also sent a bottle 
of camphor apiece. As the men came in one 
after the other with the camphor. Bob got as 
mad as a hornet and smashed the bottles on a 
saddle that hung in a corner of the room. 
During the same night our neighbor, Smith, 
had the honor of entertaining two or three of 
the cowboys. They piled into the bed along- 
side of him, with their clothes on, and enjoyed 
a good night's rest. 



\ WILD NIGHT FOR H.^NS 

Early in the '80's the pioneers on the Middle 
Loup put in most of their time in winter 
hauling wood from the canyons and getting 
out cedar for posts. They also went on the 
islands in the river and cut white willow for 
making corrals. There was a fine willow 
island about ten miles above the settlement, 
near the Rankin ranch, which the ranch people 
rather laid claim to, but for all this the settlers 
hauled a great portion of it away, especially 
a German, whom we will call Hans. He would 
go up and get his load, pull to the ranch for 
supper and lodging and breakfast. Of course, 
no charges were made by Mr. Rankin for 
such trifles. 

It finally became an old story. One night 
Hans came as usual and it happened on this 
particular night Billie Erickson (better known 
among the cowboys as "Bill America"), 
Charles Austin, and Wright Rankin were at 
the ranch, and all you have to do after twenty 
years have elapsed to get a hearty laugh out 
of the boys is to say "Hogs in the ranch." 
It seems it was a put-up job to have some 
fun at Hans' expense. Rankin was to play 
crazy, and after supper the boys very con- 
fidentially told Hans that Rankin was crazy, 
and no difference what he did he musn't make 
him mad. Presently Rankin took a fit, chew- 
ing soap to make foam run out of his mouth, 
grabbed Hans and danced him all over the 
room until he almost wore the poor man 
out. There was a red-hot cook stove in the 
room and Rankin in his grand right and left 
would try to force Hans on top of the stove, 
which he avoided by nimbly jumping over it, 
taking the whole thing as a huge joke rather 
than get the crazy man mad. Finally they 
unrolled their beds on the floor, and Austin 
and Rankin occupied one bed, while Bill and 
Hans took the other. In a little while Ran- 
kin took another fit and declared there were 
hogs in the ranch. "Listen, Charlie ; can't you 
hear 'em breathe?" "No, Wright," responds 
Austin, "that's Hans and Billie." "But I say 
it is not and, I am going to kill one and we 
will have some meat. Hand me my Winches- 
ter, easv, so as not to scare 'em." 



118 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



Charlie tries to reason with him, while poor 
Hans is scared till he daren't hardly move. At 
last Rankin makes a grab for his Winchester, 
while Charlie shouts to warn the boys to 
look out, Rankin has his gun. Bang! Bang! 
goes the gun, shooting just over their heads. 
Billie jumps u]) and yells like a Sioux and 
he and Charlie grapple with Rankin to get the 
gun. while Hans fairly splits the wind to get 
out at the door. The boys finally get Ran- 
kin back to bed and succeed in convincing 
him there are no hogs in the ranch. It is a 
bitter cold night and Hans did not stop in his 
flight even to secure his clothes. After a 
while he knocked timidly on the door, when 
Rankin jumped up and wanted to know who 
was there? "It's Hans." "Why, sure enough, 
Hans, it is you ; come right in ; have you fed 
your horses? Of course, you liaven't had 
any supper : the coffee is warm yet. and I 
will have you a bite in a jiffy." "Oh, no; 
Mr. Rankin." replied Hans, his teeth chatter- 
ing with the cold; "I will just go to bed." 

After a while Rankin again imagines there 
are hogs in the ranch — Bang ! Bang ! Bang ! 
goes the old Winchester in that direction. 
Another scuffle witli Rankin by Billie and 
Austin to get his gun. while poor Hans darts 
out into the chilly night very thinly clad, and 
after a while manages to slip in without dis- 
turbing the crazy man who sleeps quietly till 
morning. While Hans is out next morning 
caring for his team, Charles Austin bored a 
hole about six inches above Hans' pillow, 
blackening it so it would appear like a fresh 
bullet hole, and to this day Hans thinks his life 
was spared only by a miracle. 

BOB HUNTER HAS CLOSE C.\LL 

Bob Hunter was one of the early-day cattle 
buyers and went through the usual experi- 
ences of cattle buyers at that time. He says, 
"I have been in tlie saddle buving cattle, a 
head or two here and a few more at another 
place, for days and weeks at a time. We 
had to drive through heat and cold, fording 
frozen rivers and generally at night had to 
camp out on the prairie without very manv 
camping accommodations. Houses were very 



few and far between, and with a tired bunch 
of cattle you generally had to stop where 
night overtook you. 

"I remember one night especially, when 
my men and I were driving a bunch of white- 
faces which we were bringing to the lion^e 
ranch. We camped near a deserted sod liouse 
and as soon as we could round up everything, 
we turned in for the night. Toward morn- 
ing we were awakened by shots which we 
thought were altogether too close for comfort. 
On investigation we found the house sur- 
rounded by a posse who were after a ^Mexican 
and an Oklahoma white man who had been 
committing stock depredations and were want- 
ed down in Oklahoma for horse stealing. If 
I hadn't been a smooth talker they would 
probably have taken us along with them, but 
as it was, I succeeded in convincing them that 
they were mistaken." 

MRS. HUXTER LE.\RNS THE WAV OF THE WEST 

The present generation will never know 
the peculiar conditions and privations under 
which the pioneers began life in Custer county. 
These experiences were especially hard on the 
women. Mrs. Martha A. Hunter, who with 
her husband, pioneered in the vicinity of Bro- 
ken Bow, and who is a very versatile writer, 
gives us this glimpse of early sod house life: 

"Ere long the little sod abode was ready 
for occupancy and as the family brought little 
or no house furnishings, two beds were im- 
provised by nailing split saplings to the 
rafters above and to the floor below and the 
same across, upon which were placed bed ticks 
filled with dry hay and above all feather beds, 
making a very comfortable resting place. 

"Fuel was an object of much concern to the 
family as the winter drew near, but corn, 
which was the principal fuel used by the 
neighbors, could be obtained readily for eight 
cents per bushel, and the supply of buffalo and 
cow chips to be had for the gathering, added 
to the supply, which proved adequate for the 
winter. 

"In the summer of 1890 occurred the first 
of the only two complete drouths in the his- 
torv of Custer countv. The second followed 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



119 



four years later, in 1894. The first drouth 
was especially hard on the Hunter family and 
others who had stock. They had not been 
long enough in the country to know the rich 
food properties contained in the short, curly 
buffalo grass that covered the hills like a 
thick mat and which was abundantly rich in 
food properties, — • so much so that stock 
turned loose upon it during the winter time 
not only lived but also kept in good condi- 
tion. But this we did not find out until after 
this hard winter, because we had to drive the 
cattle up into Cherry county for the winter. 
"I worried much about the education of our 
two small daughters, and felt that it was not 
right or fair to them to keep them in the hills, 
but God opened the way not only in providing 
for their education, but in furnishing a sup- 
port for the family, which in those days was 
very welcome and much appreciated. I w-as 
appointed teacher in a school district seven 
miles from our home. We drove these seven 
miles to school each morning and returned in 
the evening, but thought that no hardship. 
Even though we faced many a storm and 
blizzard yet we always got through ; and in 
the end had the pleasure of seeing our daugh- 
ters graduate from the Broken Bow high 
school." 

"a wise cow tale" 

Al Wise of the South Loup country tells 
this one : 

"At the time of the Olive trial most of the 
men connected with that ranch were absent 
as witnesses, help was very scarce at the 
ranch, and the few that were left there were 
principally engaged in 'tailing up' cows that 
were so poor that they got stuck in the mud 
along the river and were not able to get 
up without assistance. Did you ever attempt 
to 'tail up' a spirited, ambitious cow? If not, 
you have missed, a whole lot of fun — and 
so has the cow. A little experience of mine in 
that direction may be entertaining — it was to 
me. I had been down at the corral attending 
to 'some horses when I noticed a cow on the 
bank of the river trying to get on her feet, 
but falling back after each attempt. Not 



wishing to take the trouble to saddle a horse, 
I went over to her on foot to assist her out 
of her difficulty. I soon saw that there was 
fight in her, but concluded she was too weak 
to make me any trouble. Grabbing her tail, 
I passed it over my shoulder and gave it 
several twists around my arm, getting as much 
of it in my hand as possible. The old cow 
puffed and shook her head in protest. I paid 
no attention to her objections, but bent my 
back and lifted. The cow did likewise, and 
the way that old heifer got on her feet took 
the breath out of me. I saw that she was on 
the warpath, and that my only hope of safety 
was to keep hold of her tail. With a bellow 
she turned her glaring eyes around on me and 
took after me, spinning around like a top. 
By keeping a firm hold on her tail I just man- 
aged to keep a few inches ahead of her long 
horns. After a few turns to the right she 
tried it a while to the left, but with no better 
success. The waltz was becoming awfully 
monotonous to me, and as we worked toward 
a bank about ten feet high, by the edge of the 
river, I dropped her tail and jumped over the 
bank with one bound. The cow was a little 
dazed by the performance, but as soon as she 
realized the situation she made for the bank, 
probably with the intention of following me, 
but gave it up when she came to the foot of 
it, pawed the ground and bellowed her de- 
fiance, and walked away shaking her head, 
probably hooking me in her mind. Two days 
after this, as I was riding along the bank of 
the river, I saw the old lady down again, but 
I concluded to leave her to her fate, and 
for all I know her bones are buried in the 
mud where I last saw her." 

TERRIBLE FALL IN A DEEP WELL 

The depth to water on the table-lands of 
Custer county entailed many hardships on the 
early settlers. None of them had the means 
to sink modern wells -to such a depth, and had 
consequently to resort to the laborious method 
of hauling water in barrels from the lower 
Irnds, often having to go as far as six miles 
for it. Some of the settlers on the tables dug 
wells from 200 to 300 feet in depth and hauled 



120 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



water out of them by horse power. The ex- 
istence of these fearful holes in the ground, 
mostly without curbing, resulted in many ao 
cidents, some of which will be found de- 
scribed in others parts of this work. In the fall 
of 1895 F. W. Carlin fell into a well 143 
feet deep, and in the Custer County Beacon 
of September 5th of that year, he thus de- 
scribes the manner in which he climbed out : 

"While driving through the country about 
fifteen miles northwest of Broken Bow on 
the evening of August 14th, it became quite 
dark and I found I had taken the wrong 
track and driven up to some old sod build- 
ing. I turned around and started down what 
looked to me like a good road into the draw, 
when one of my horses seemed to step down 
into a place. I got out of the wagon and 
started alongside of the team to be sure that 
the road was all right, when without a mo- 
ment's notice I became aware of the fact that 
I had stepped into an old well and was going 
down like a shot out of a gun. 

"I placed my feet close together, stretched 
my arms straight over my head and said, 
'Oh God, have mercy on me !' and I honestly 
believe that saved my life, but I went down, 
down, and it seemed to me I would never 
reach the bottom. The further I went, the 
faster I went and never seemed to touch the 
sides at all. 

"I supposed, of course, it would kill me when 
I struck bottom, but God had heard my prayer. 
I struck in the mud and water, which com- 
pletely covered me over. I was considerably 
stunned, but was able to straighten up and 
get my head above the water. I scrambled 
around, gradually extracting my legs from 
the mud. and finally stood on my feet in the 
water, which came just up to my anns. It 
was very cold, and I tried a number of times 
to get out of the water only to fall back. 
The curbing was somewhat slimy. 1 finally 
managed to break oflf a small piece from the 
curbing and found a crack in which I managed 
to fasten it and perched myself upon it 
until morning. While sitting there I heard 
my team running away. In them was my only 
hopes of rescue. For I was aware of the fact 



that I was at least a mile and a half from the 
nearest house, and that no one knew that 1 
was there. 

"There I sat till morning. It was about nine 
o'clock when I fell in, and I was drenched 
with water and plastered with mud. The 
only serious injury I received was a badly 
sprained ankle, which gave me great pain. I 
also had a sore place on my back, which I 
found a number of days afterward to be a 
broken rib. As soon as daylight appeared, 
I began to look around and take in the situa- 
tion. In looking up, it seemed to me at least 
100 feet to the top. But I learned afterward 
that it was exactly 143 feet deep. 

"The well was curbed in places with curb- 
ing about three feet square. There would be 
a place curbed for about six to sixteen feet 
and then there would be a ])lace that was 
not curbed at all. The curbing was per- 
fectly tight, not a crack between them 
that I could get my fingers into, and cov- 
ered with a slimy nuid. I at once con- 
cluded that my only chance for rescue was 
my knife, if it had not fallen out of my pocket 
while floundering in the mud, so thrusting my 
hand into my pocket, there it was, and a good 
one too. I took it and began cutting foot-holes 
in the sides of the curbing ; it was very slow 
but sure. I never went back a foot after I 
had gained it. When I would get to the top 
of the curbing. I took the boards that I had 
cut out and made me a seat in one corner, and 
in this way I think I got up about fifty feet 
the first day. Some time in the afternoon I 
came to a curbing which I thought I could not 
get through ; it was of solid one-by-six boards 
closely fitted together and not less than six- 
teen feet to the top of it. So I made my- 
self a good seat, fi.xing myself as comfortable 
as possible. I concluded that I must stay here 
and await assistance, or die there. 

"I stayed there all the next night and slept 
one-hall of the time, for the night did not 
seem very long. I would have been quite 
comt\)rtable had I not been so wet and cold, 
and my feet pained me terribly, which was the 
greatest drawback. I had to do most of my 
climbing on one foot. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



121 



"I remained at that point the greater part 
of the next forenoon, calling often for help. 
One thing was in my favor ; I was neither 
hungry nor thirsty. I began to give up all 
hopes. I thought of my wife and little boy, 
who were always so glad to see me when 
I came home from a trip. I thought how the 
little fellow would never see his papa or run 
to meet him when he returned home again. 
That was too great. I made up my mind that 
I would get out or 'die in the attempt. So 
I took a piece of board and put some sand on 
I it and got the point of my knife good and 
sharp and began cutting away the curbing and 
making one foot hole after another. I cut, 
climbing higher and higher, and was at last 
on top of the curbing. From there I would 
have been comfortable if my feet had not 
hurt me so badly. But I cut holes in the 
clay for my hands and feet with my knife 
and finally I got within about sixteen feet 
of the top. Right there I had the worst hind- 
rance I had met yet. It was a round curbing 
four feet high and perfectly smooth on the 
inside. It was washed out around it until it 
was only held from dropping by a little peg 
on one side. I knew if I tried to go up 
through it, it was pretty sure to break loose 
and go to the bottom with me. So my only 
chance was to go up between the curb and 
the wall. This I was fortunate in doing. By 
going to work and digging away the wall, 
in half an hour I had a hole large enough 
to let me pass through. After that it was 
but a short job to reach the top, which I did, 
and I lay for some time exhausted. 

"I then knelt down and thanked Almighty 
God for sparing my life, as I had prayed for 
him to do, time and again during the past 
two days and nights that I had been in the 
well. 

"But my trouble was not at an end yet. I 
was one and a half miles from a house, with 
a foot I could not step on. I cut some large 
weeds and made out to hobble and crawl to 
the road, about four rods distant, and there I 
lay until nearly sundown, looking for a team 
which never came. After getting out in the 
sun, I became very thirsty. At last I gave up 



Ico'king for any one and started to crawl on- 
my hands and knees to find a house, but I 
soon gave out and had to lie out another 
night. In the morning I felt somewhat better. 
Starting out again I finally arrived at the 
home of Charles Francis just at daylight, 
where I was given food and drink, after be- 
ing without for two days and three nights. 

"My team was found the next day after I 
fell in the well, by a man by the name of 
Green, with the doubletrees and neck yoke at- 
tached to them. To Mr. Green great credit 
is due. He took them to a justice of the 
peace, filed an estray notice and turned them 
into the pasture, thus complying with the law 
and taking away my last chance for being dis- 
covered." 

A THOUSAND ELK IN ONE HERD 

A thousand elk in one Custer county herd 
— -that sounds extravagant, yet State Surveyor 
Robert Harvey says he saw a herd that large 
on Victoria creek. He also notes a death 
battle between two elk bulls. The following 
is Mr. Harvey's story: 

"Custer county was a magnificent game 
country. Antelope on the hills and deer and 
elk in nearly every canyon, esj>ecially where 
there was brush. My party was not out 
of fresh meat for more than a day or two at 
the most. Returning from the completion of 
the work in Custer county, we crossed the 
county line and traveled down the old miH- 
tary trail made by Lieutenant G. K. Warren, 
in 1855 or 1856. We noticed small bands of 
elk moving from the bluffs to the south across 
the valley, in direction of the Victoria, and 
when we came opposite that stream we saw 
perhaps a thousand elk gathered on a plat of 
flat, clay ground, south of the river and just 
east of Victoria creek, visiting, grazing, and 
fighting. For miles we could hear the clear 
ring, like bars of metal, when the horns 
clashed together. That was the largest herd 
of elk I ever saw. 

"One evening while hunting in a large 
cedar canyon, now known as Cedar canyon, 
with numerous side pockets containing berries 
and plums, I came upon two pair of elk antlers. 



122 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



still attached to the skulls, securely locked to- 
gether around a small ash tree, perhaps five 
or six inches in diameter. They had become 
locked together in conflict around that tree. 
The sod had been worn away and was then 
overgrown with small weeds. They had fought 
up and down the tree until the bark was all 
peeled away as high as they could reach on 
their hind feet, down to the ground. Locked 
to the tree, they died there. I intended to 
have returned that day and cut the tree out 
at the roots, lop off the limbs and carry home 
the trunk with skulls and antlers still locked, 
as a trophy of a remarkably strange and rare 
occurrence. But I had lost so much time, I 
concluded that they could safely wait until 
winter, when 1 would be able to return. 1 
heard that a party of Iowa hunters had found 
them and carried them away. I have heard 
or read of only one other similar occurrence 
and that was of two deer that became en- 
tangled in each others' horns." 

M.XDE HIS OWN POWDER 

Prominent among the interesting relics 
shown to visitors when calling upon the hos- 
pitable old-timer, Judge Charles R. Mathews, 
of New Helena, is a bottle of gun powder that 
the Judge keeps as a relic of former days, 
when ammunition was scarce and good pow- 
der very hard to obtain. The powder is some 
that he manufactured himself. He gave to 
his visitors in this instance a very interesting 
description of how the powder was manufac- 
tured, together with its formula, effectiveness, 
etc. 

It is said to be a very powerful explosive. 
The granulation is rather coarse, and the ap- 
pearance almost white. It must not be imagined 
that because we are talking about white powder 
that we are giving a description of ladies" face 
powder, for Judge Mathews has been a bache- 
lor all his life and it is altogether probable that 
he knows nothing about the face powder in 
general use by the ladies. It is gun powder, 
pure and simple, and chickens, quail, rabbit, or 
any other denizen of the canyon that got in 
front of the Judge's gun loaded with this ex- 
plosive about the time he pulled the trigger, 



found out what the powder was for and could 
generally bear witness to its effectiveness. Ac- 
cordingly credit the Judge with being the only 
manufacturer of gim powder in Custer county. 

WON BY .\ XOSE 

James Lindly, who came to Custer county in 
the springtime of 1880, arrived at New Helena 
with twenty-five cents in money and with a 
cheerful disposition which enabled him to over- 
come all difficulties and remain in the country 
up to the present time. The first year after 
his settlement in \'ictoria precinct he was 
elected just-ice of the peace, in which capacity 
he served six years. He relates the following 
incidents which occurred while he was ad- 
ministering justice in these early days, and they 
may not be out of place here. Upon one oc- 
casion two Irishmen had some difficulty about 
the boundary line between their claims, and 
the result was a collision. The one who came 
out second best in the row came to Mr. Lind- 
ly to get justice, his face covered with blood 
and his nose in a very demoralized condition. 
The justice issued a warrant for the arrest of 
his antagonist, handed it to him and directed 
him to the home of the constable. In due 
time the constable appeared at the home of the 
justice with both of the men. After reading 
the complaint the defendant pleaded not giiilty, 
and a trial was had without counsel or wit- 
nesses, each man pleading his own case. The 
plaintiff' alleged that defendant had come to his 
place and commenced the row. The defendant 
promptly denied that he had commenced the 
row, but admitted that he had gone to the 
plaintiff's house, and said that the plaintiff had 
attacked him with a jjitchfork. The plaintiff 
then turned toward the defendant, laid his in- 
dex finger on his nose and asked: "How was 
that done?" "Ye did it yerself whin I was 
takin" the pitchfork away from ye," replied 
the defendant. 

The plaintiff then offered his nose in evi- 
dence by turning to the coitrt and saying: 
"The court knows very well that nose was 
chawed." And sure enough it had that ap- 
pearance — and well chewed at that. The 
plaintiff was fined one dollar and costs and the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



123 



two departed together, apparently satisfied 
with the result of the suit. 

A BACK-ACTING WEDDING FEE 

Upon another occasion Mr. Lindly had oc- 
casion to go to the sod house of three bache- 
lors, when one of them, in a joking mood, 
asked him how much he would charge him to 
] perform a marriage ceremony. Not being 
rushed with business of that sort. Mr. Lindly 
replied that he \\ould do it for half price. The 
second bachelor then spoke up and wanted to 
know how much the justice would charge to 
marry him. The accommodating justice said 
he would marry him free. Then the third 
bachelor was anxious to know what the charge 
for marrying him would be. "O, I'll marry you 
for nothing, and board you and your wife free 
for a week," laughingly replied Mr. Lindly. 
The first two never called upon Mr. Lindly to 
assist them into wedlock, but not very long 
afterward number three appeared with a fair 
maiden and insisted that the justice fulfill his 
agreement, which Mr. Lindly did, and the 
groom being of a generous disposition, the 
couple boarded with the justice two weeks in- 
stead of one. From the small capital with 
which Mr. Lindly commenced business in 
Custer county he has accumulated an inde- 
pendence. He is the owner of 1,580 acres of 
land. 600 under cultivation, twenty acres of 
trees and all free from incumbrance. 

A PLUCKY CUSTER COUNTY WOMAN 

In the crowd that assembled to witness the 
execution of Haunstine for the murder of 
Roten and Ashley. ]\Irs. Roten was in the 
crowd. When it became known that the gov- 
ernor had granted a reprieve which would stay 
the execution for thirty days, there was con- 
siderable commotion in the vast assemblage and 
a few leaders tried to incite the mob spirit. 
At this time, in an excellently written account 
of the exciting events that followed the an- 
nouncement of the governor's reprieve, the 
State Journal thus alludes to the presence of 
Mrs. Roten. wife of one of the men murdered 
by Haunstine: "She is a splendid-looking wo- 
man, but twenty-six years of age, and the 



mother of four children rendered fatherless by 
Haunstine's crime. She stood in the very 
midst of the thickest part of the struggle with 
a nerve that excited the wonder of all who 
witnessed the spectacle. The leaders of the 
mob circled around her, whispering to her for 
counsel, as if she were their queen, and if she 
had finally insisted on Haunstine's execution, 
no power at the command of the sheriflf could 
have prevented them fulfilling her command. 
The peacemakers besought her earnestly, with 
every assurance of the justice of the outcome, 
to ask the men to disperse, but she called 
attention to the fiendishness of the crime and 
to her fatherless children as an excuse for 
refusing to say a word in the culprit's be- 
half. Failing in this aim, the peacemakers 
turned their endeavors toward preventing her 
from giving encouragement to the mob, and 
succeeded.'' 

Old-timers say that the city reporters catered 
to the spectacular and gave their descriptions 
more of the thrill and red paint than the facts 
merited. 

WAS A JUSTICE ALL RIGHT 

In the olden days T. B. Buckner, of Oconto, 
was a justice of the peace. A case was brought 
before him, and Judge Sullivan and Judge 
Humphrey appeared as the attorneys. At the 
beginning of the case Sullivan questioned the 
jurisdiction of Justice Buckner. "Buck" 
listened to the argument on both sides until 
weary, then pulled out a big six-shooter and 
laid it on the table, and said. "Gentlemen, the 
decision of this court is that I am a justice of 
the peace and a hell of a good one." The 
case proceeded without further interruption. 

GOD AND BOBLITS 

Judge Boblits, who was the first judge of 
Custer county, married a couple of youngsters 
during the first day in his office and closed 
the ceremony with this remark, "Whom God 
and Boblits hath joined together, let no man 
put asunder." 

A COURTSHIP IN THE COURT'S OFEICE 

In the Xebraska Pioneer Reminiscences is 



124 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



found the authority for the following story: 
Dates seem to be lacking, but it was prob- 
ably some time in the year 1888 that an at- 
tractive young lady who had just finished a 
term of school in the Berwyn district accepted 
a position as assistant in the office of the clerk 
of the court, J- T- Douglass, who was the first 
clerk of court in Custer county. In speaking 
of her four years' experience in that office the 
authority relates that many famous cases were 
tried during that time, such as the Demerritt 
case and the Haunstine case, and many others. 
She had to work in an office from the window- 
of which she could watch the erection of the 
scaffold upon which Haunstine was to be exe- 
cuted. Relating the experience in her own 
words : 

"As the nails were being driven into the 
structure, how I shuddered when I thought that 
a human being was to be suspended from that 
beam. Early in the morning on the day of the 
execution people began to arrive from miles 
around to witness the only execution that ever 
occurred in Custer county. My heart ached 
and my soul was stirred to its very depths 
in sympathy for a fellow-being who was so 
soon to pass into eternity. Yet I was utterly 
helpless so far as extending any aid or con- 
solation. And now the thought comes to me, 
will the day ever dawn when there will be 
no law in Nebraska permitting men to take 
the life of another man to avenge a crime?" 
Notwithstanding the varied and exciting ex- 
periences in the clerk's office the young lady 
remained during the entire four years of the 
term, after which she and the ex-clerk were 
married, and tlicy have ever since been fore- 
most among the prominent citizens of Cus- 
ter county. They have a beautiful hopje m 
Callaway. 

KXPERIENCF.S OK -V "SCHCX)I. .M.\Rm" 

In luly, 1881, Mrs. J. J. Douglass arrived 
in Broken Bow. That village looked strange 
to her, with not a tree in sight excepting a 
few little cuttings of cottonwood and box- 
elder here and there upon the few lawns. Af- 
ter having lived all her life in a country where 
every home was surrounded by groves and or- 



namental shade trees, it seemed that she was 
in a desert. 

She had just completed a course of study in 
a normal school, prior to coming to Nebraska, 
and was worn out in mind and body, so natur- 
ally her first consideration was the climate of 
the countn,' and its corresponding effect upon 
life and health. Slie wondered how the peo- 
l)le stood the heat of the day, but soon dis- 
covered that a light breeze was blowing nearly 
all the time, so that the heat did not seem 
so intense as it did in her Iowa home. 

After she had been in Broken Bow about 
two weeks she was offered a position in the 
mortgage loan office of Trefren & Hewitt. The 
latter was the first county clerk of Custer 
county. She held this position a few weeks 
and then resigned to take charge of the Ber- 
wyn school, at the request of Charles Ran- 
dall, the county superintendent. Berwyn was 
a village situated ten miles east of Broken 
Bow. It consisted of one general merchandise 
store, a postoffice, depot, and a blacksmith 
shop. It was not daylight when the train 
stopped at the little depot and a feeling of 
loneliness came over her as she w'atched the 
train speed on its way behind the eastern 
hills. She found her way to the home of J. 
O. Taylor (who was then living in the back 
end of his store building), informed him that 
she was the teacher who had come to teach 
the school and asked him to direct her to her 
boarding place. Being a member of the school 
board, Mr. Taylor gave her the necessary in- 
formation and then sent his hired man with 
a team and buggy to take her farther east to 
the home of Ben Talbot, where she was to 
stay. 

The Talbot home was a little sod house con- 
sisting of two small rooms. On entering she 
found Mrs. Talbot preparing breakfast for 
the family. She was given a cordial welcome, 
and after breakfast, started in company with 
Mrs. Talbot's little girl to the schoolhouse. 
The sense of loneliness which had taken pos- 
session of her on her way to this place now 
began to be dispelled. She found Mrs. Tal- 
bot to be a woman of kind heart and generous 
impulses, the mother of two little girls, the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



125 



older one being of school age. She could see 
the schoolhouse up on the side of a hill. It 
was made of brush and weeds and some sod 
and was twelve by fifteen feet in dimensions. 
The roof was of brush and weeds and some 
sod. and she could see the blue sky by gazing 
up through the roof at almost any part of it. 
She looked out upon the hills and valleys and 
wondered where the pupils were to come from, 
as she saw no houses and no evidence of 
habitation anywhere excepting 'Sir. Talbot's 
home. By nine o'clock about twelve children 
had arrived from some place, she knew not 
where. 

She found in that little, obscure schoolhouse 
some of the brightest and best boys and girls 
it was ever her good fortune to meet. There 
soon sprang between them a bond of sym- 
pathy. She sympathized with them in their al- 
most total isolation from the world, and they 
in turn sympathized with her in her loneliness 
and homesickness. 

On opening her school that first morning, 
great was her surprise to learn how well those 
children could sing. She had never been in 
a school where there were so many sweet 
voices. Her attention was particularly directed 
to the voices of two little girls, as they seemed 
remarkable for children of their years. She 
often recalled one bright, sunny evening after 
she had dismissed school and stood watching 
the pupils starting out in various directions 
for their homes, her attention was called to 
a path that led down the valley through the 
long grass. She heard singing and at once 
recognized the voices of these two little girls. 
The song was a favorite of Mrs. Douglass 
and she could hear those sweet tones long 
after the children were out of sight in the tall 
grass. She will never forget how charmingly 
sweet that music seemed to her. 

LIFE TOO SHORT FOR .\ SOD ROOF 

The roofs on the early sod houses were 
made by putting up small logs for ridgepoles 
to support cross poles and upon these was 
placed a thatch of brush and hay and then 
over the hay, a layer of sod or clay. This kind 
of a roof was often open to both storm and 



criticism. Airs. H. C. Stuckey relates her 
ex[)erience : 

"From hardly any rain we soon had more 
than we needed. Our roof would not stand the 
heavy downpours that sometimes continued for 
days at a time, and it would leak from one 
end to the other. We could keep our beds 
comparatively dry by drawing them into the 
middle of the room directly under the peak 
of the roof. Sometimes the water would drip 
on the stove while I was cooking, and I would 
have to keep tight lids on the skillets to pre- 
vent the mud from the roof falling into the 
food. With my dress pinned up, and rubbers 
on my feet, I waded around until the clouds 
rolled by. Then we would clean house. Al- 
n'ost everything had to be moved outdoors to 
dry in the sun. But I never complained much. 
It has been said that a spirit was given us to 
stand all these trials — for they were indeed 
trials, and hard ones, too. Would I asfain eo 
through with \Vhat I then did? No, indeed! 
A thousand times, no! Life is too short to be 
spent under a sod roof." 

ENTERTAINED THE P.-WVNEES 

On one occasion the home of H. C. Stuckey 
and wife was visited by a band of Pawnee 
Indians. Mrs. Stuckey gives the following ac- 
count of the way they entertained them: 

"We had but one Indian scare. One day 
fourteen big, ugly fellows came in, squatted 
down on the floor, and, as usual, wanted some- 
thing to eat. We stirred up corn dodgers 
for them and gave them syrup. I can see 
them yet, licking and daubing their corn cakes 
with many grunts of satisfaction. They played 
with my baby and called him 'heap good 
papoose.' I was very much frightened and 
could stand their presence no longer, so I 
took my baby and went into the other room 
and got a large revolver and held it in my 
hand until they went away. I do not know 
what I intended to do with the revolver. The 
Indians were Pawnees and very peaceful. They 
were on a hunting trip, and before leaving 
showed my husband a piece of well worn, 
dirty paper, written at the reservation and 
signed by the agent, requesting settlers to 



126 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



give the Indians food. — dead dogs and chick- 
ens, or an\ihing else that would serve to fill 
up their capacious stomachs. These were the 
only Indians that ever came to our ranch." 

.\LL RE.\DV FOR IXD1.\XS 

In the fall of 1878, while Uncle Swain Finch 
and John Finch were at Brady Island, on the 
Platte, after supplies for their South Loup 
ranch, a dispatch came from the commander 
at Fort ]\IcPherson that three hundred well 
mounted Cheyenne Indians had broken away 
from the southern reservation and were headed 
north, aiid that having barely enough soldiers 
to protect the fort, the settlers would have to. 
look out for themselves. From the way the 
Indians were headed it was thought they would 
probably cross the Platte river at the old 
Indian crossing east of Brady Island. The 
boys had no arms with them except one rifle, 
which Uncle Swain generously left with the 
little settlement of four families at Brady Is- 
land with which to protect themselves in case 
the savages came upon tliem. Shortly after 
dark they started out for their home on the 
Loup, thirty-five miles across the prairie, with- 
out even a trail to go by. It was intensely 
dark, and raining a part of the time, but oc- 
casionally a little patch of blue sky. with a 
star or two shining through it, could be dis- 
cerned. When about eighteen miles out, the 
darkness increased and the rain also, until the 
travelers began to think they had lost their 
course. John asked Uncle Swain if he thought 
they were on the right track. 

"Well, I don't know, boy ; it"s so dog-goned 
dark I cain't tell if we are right or not; but 
if we are we ought to come to the water 
hole where old Sailor died, about half a mile 
ahead." 

Soon they stopped, and while John held the 
horses, L'ncle Swain felt around in the dark- 
ness and a few moments later returned with 
some of old Sailor's bones in his hand. Old 
Sailor was a dog belonging to Uncle Swain 
which had died there a year before, while 
chasing a deer, and this incident shows with 
what unerring accuracy an old frontiersman 
could find his way over these trackless plains, 



even in the darkness. They had proceeded 
about five miles further, and were on what 
is now known as Tallin Table, when they saw 
a flickering light some distance ahead of them. 
They halted, held a council, and decided to 
steer clear of the light, as there was no telling 
whether the makers of the fire were friends 
or enemies. The detour which they were 
obliged to make in order to avoid the light 
threw them oflf their bearings and bewildered 
them to such a degree that they thought it best 
to stop and wait until the morning began to 
dawn. As soon as it was light enough for 
them to get the direction they resumed their 
journe)^ and arrived at the ranch before any 
of the occupants were astir. The boys at the 
ranch were immediately routed out of bed and 
set to work molding bullets and loading cart- 
ridges, while Uncle Swain and John lay down 
to snatch a little sleep. A few minutes later 
John Woods, who had been outside of the 
ranch house trying to see if he could discern 
any Indians, came rushing in. his hair on 
end, and his face as white as a sheet, shout- 
ing: "The Indians are coming! The Indians 
are coming!" It is needless to say that L'ncle 
Swain and John were soon out of bed and 
that the whole ranch was in a commotion ; 
but as the moments passed away without any 
blood-curdling war whoop, they began to feel 
a little easier and sent a scout out to recon- 
noitre. He reported that it was a false alarm. 
Woods had seen a bunch of cattle coming out 
of the hills single file and his excited imagina- 
tion had formed them into Indians. The re- 
lief, however, was but temporary. The In- 
dians would no doubt be along sooner or later, 
and all went to work to prepare for the worst. 
The horses were rounded up in a log corral, 
and a rifle pit dug, in which John and his 
uncle David slept to watch the horses, while 
L'ncle Swain and Woods guarded the house. 
John was only eighteen years of age at that 
time and ver\' averse to having his hair cut 
bv the red devils, an operation which he felt, 
however, was likely to be performed at any 
time, ^^^^ile he and Woods were digging 
the rifle pit he remarked to the old man : "I 
wouldn't be surprised if we were diggin" our 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



127 



graves." The old man replied, "Well, John, 
I have been thinkin' the same thing." 

Fortunately no Indians troubled them. They 
leally experienced a sense of disapjiointment 
and were inclined to regret that the alTair had 
ended so tamely. 

MYSTERIOUS DE.\TH OF A TR.XPPER 

In 1875 a trapper by the name of BIy came 
over from North Platte into Custer county to 
ply his vocation. One day an Indian outfit 
of cattle came to his camp and he bought some 
animals that were sore-footed and not able 
to travel. After a while the cattle became 
rested and ran away, followed by a yoke of 
oxen belonging to the trapper. Ely took after 
them on foot, having no horse, but after pur- 
suing them over the prairie for a day he gave 
up the chase. He came over to the South 
Loup, striking the river at the Lovell and 
S'heety beef camp, near where Arnold now 
stands. This outfit had moved further down 
the river, and had sent John Finch and E. 
S. Slater, two boys, up to the old camp after 
a rawhide rope that had been left behind. 
While the boys were at the old camp they 
saw Ely approaching in the distance, and as 
he was dressed in moccasins and leggings and 
had a red blanket over his head they took him 
for an Indian. They hid their ponies, got 
behind an old dugout, and waited for him 
to come up. which he did, the boys discover- 
ing their mistake before he reached them. Bly 
cooked his breakfast and ate it. He then went 
on down to the new camp, where he bought 
a horse, after which he returned and rounded 
up his straying stock. He then worked for 
the Lovell and Sheety outfit until August, 
1876, when he left to go to North Platte to 
visit his family, driving his yoke' of oxen, 
which were hitched to a wagon. He stopped 
the first night at the ranch of Swain Finch. 
Among other things he told Mr. Finch that 
he had sold his rim-fire Winchester for twen- 
ty-three dollars in cash and that he was going 
to buy a new gun when he got to the Platte. 
He resumed his journey in the morning, but 
was never afterward seen alive. 

About a week afterward Sam Ritchie, of 



the firm of Ritchie & Arnold, was returning 
with his men from Pawnee Creek when they 
came across the wagon, with the dead body 
of Bly in it. The oxen had become detached 
from the wagon in some manner and were 
afterward found on the Loup river. Some 
thought that the trapper had been shot. His 
hat was found a few yards away, with one 
side badly torn. There were no marks upon 
the body except a small hole at the butt of 
the left ear and another at the back of the 
left heel. Word was sent to North Platte and 
the sherifif of Lincoln county came out and 
buried the body, wrapping it up in some tanned 
elk skins and putting it only about two feet 
deep in the ground, not wishing to be to any 
more trouble than actually necessary. The 
coyotes soon dug the body up, and for many 
years the bones lay bleaching in the sun. 

Twelve years afterward John Finch, while 
passing through, about twelve miles south- 
west of Arnold, picked up the skull by the 
shallow grave where the unfortunate man had 
been buried. The locality is known to this 
day as Bly's Flats. David Finch was present 
when Bly was buried, and knowing that the 
trapper had received twenty-three dollars for 
his gun, he searched the clothing, but could 
not find any money. Mr. Finch noticed that 
the clothes on the body were not the same 
as those worn by the trapper the night he had 
stopped at the ranch. The wagon was then 
searched and the money found in his old 
clothes. It was afterward sent to the trapper's 
widow by Mr. Finch. 

A very careful search was made to see if 
any indications of foul play could be found, 
and the conclusion was that the man had been 
struck by lightning. It was remembered that 
a dark cloud had been seen in the direction 
the trapper took on the day he left the ranch. 
The tracks left by the oxen and the marks of 
the wagon which had been dragged about 
when the animals were becoming detached 
from it, indicated that the ground was in a 
muddy condition at the time. Finally an ex- 
amination of the skull found by John Finch 
proved beyond a doubt that the man had not 
been shot, as no bullet hole was found in it. 



128 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



A FIGHT FOR "dEER LIFE." 

Uncle Swain Finch, a pioneer character 
whom all the early settlers remember, was 
somewhat of a deer hunter in the early days. 
The following incident is constructed from 
his own writing. 

One day in 1883 he started out on a deer 
hunt. He was not feeling very well that day. 
and was creeping along rather slowly until 
finally he discovered two deer just around a 
point of a hill a short distance ahead of him. 
He crept up to the top of the little hill be- 
hind which they were standing and blazed 
away at them, the distance being about 200 
yards as he thought, but he afterward found 
that it was 300 yards. 

As soon as he fired they jumped up and 
ran, followed by another shot from him. which 
apparently took no effect. A third shot was 
sent after the one he had picked out. and he 
thought he could see him stagger, but they 
ran about three-quarters of a mile, stopped for 
a few minutes on the top of a hill, and then 
went off on a lope about a quarter of a mile 
further. All this time he had been standing 
on the spot from which he had fired his first 
shot. After stopping again for a short time, 
the deer commenced feeding and walking 
down over the top of the little knoll on which 
they had been standing, disappearing from 
his sight. He followed, and when arriving at 
the place where they had disappeared he again 
saw them walking and feeding some distance 
ahead of him. As soon as they saw him 
one of them ran about 250 yards to his right, 
but the other was not to be seen. He pro- 
ceeded on down the hill, saw the other deer 
about seventy-five or eighty yards ahead of 
him, near the bottom of the hill. It was a 
big buck. He gave him a shot and he rolled 
over on his back. He threw in another cart- 
ridge, walked down to him, opened his knife, 
took him by the horns, and placed the knife 
at his neck to cut his throat. 

Before he could do it, however, the buck 
jumped up as if he had been shot out of a 
cannon, sent the knife whizzing through the 
air, and in order to .save himself and keep the 
deer he grabbed hold of the other horn. The 



buck doubled himself up and kicked Swain, 
and jerked him down the hill, and they had it 
hot and heavy for some time. Sometimes 
the deer was on top and sometimes Swain, but 
at every turn the deer gave a vicious kick, 
and Swain had to keep a death grip on him to 
save his life. Every little while the deer would 
stop to get his wind, then go at it again 
harder than ever. Swain's clothes were lit- 
erally torn to shreds, about the only whole 
thing on him being the collar of his shirt. 

The situation was serious, and he dared not 
let go. for the deer would have made a lunge 
at him. and there did not appear to be any 
way out of the difficulty except to hang on 
and worn,- him out. He looked over his shoul- 
der to see how far they were from the gun, 
and found that it was not less than twentj'- 
five yards away. The only hope he had was 
to get the gun before turning the buck loose. 
In their struggles they worked down the hill, 
of course, and Swain started in to pull the deer 
back in the direction of the gun. Whenever 
he made a lunge he would pull with all his 
might and move him up a little, every time 
he lunged getting a little nearer to where 
the gun was lying. It was a slow and la- 
borious job. but they were getting there by 
degrees, and at last Swain had the satisfaction 
of seeing the gun within six feet of him. 

The next question was could he let go 
of the deer, grab his gun, and shoot him 
before he came down on him with his sharp 
hoofs? It was a dangerous experiment, and 
the slightest hitch in the operation might cost 
him his life. At this particular moment he 
thought, for the first time during the whole 
adventure, of the Lord, and he is not sure but 
that he prayed just a litle bit as he suddenly 
let go of' those horns, grabbed his gim, and 
shot his antagonist dead before it had time to 
regain its feet. 

S.WED OXE BED 

The late Captain \\'. H. Comstock is the 
atuhority for this story. He says: 

"In company with D. J. Caswell I started 
from Moingona, Boone county. Iowa, in March, 
1874. In due course of time we arrived at 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



129 



Loup City, the metropolis of Sherman county, 
which consisted of a log liotel kept by C. Y. 
Rossiter, and a general store of which Frank 
Ingram was the owner and proprietor. About 
this time Frank had some friends who had 
come to make him a visit. His family con- 
sisted of liimself, wife, one child, and a hired 
man and hired girl. The house was small 
and sleeping rooms scarce. But Frank's mind 
was active, and he soon had a plan to help 
himself out of the difficulty and provide sleep- 
ing apartments for the visitors, without seri- 
ously inconveniencing the family. He went 
to the room of the hired man and told him that 
it would be necessary for him to vacate his 
bed, as he had company that would have to 
be taken care of. He then went to the room 
of the hired girl, woke her up and laid the 
situation before her. He said either her bed 
or the hired man's must be given up for the 
company. He didn't like to make one of them 
sit up all night, but he thought as the hired 
man and the hired girl had been keeping 
company, and intended to get married, any- 
way, they might just as well get married 
then and there and thus settle the whole diffi- 
culty about the beds. This seemed to meet 
with the approval of the two parties most 
interested, and Mr. Ingram, being the county 
judge, immediately issued a license and 
married them on the spot. 

J. D. h.'\skb;ll's persgn.^l experience 

"In Februar}', 1874, an acquaintance, who 
had just returned from an excursion trip to 
Nebraska, told me in glowing colors of that 
wonderful western country. He wanted me to 
go to Cozad and handle the butcher business. 
I was then twenty years old, and being full 
of a boy's love for adventure and fired by the 
glowing tales of the west, I did not ask 
many questions. In March, 1874, I was on 
my way west, having chartered a car for my 
one horse, two milch cows, four sows, butcher 
tools, and a bulldog — every real butcher had 
to have a bulldog. The freight on the car 
was $200. The different railroads passed me 
to Omaha, but there I was obliged to pay 
twelve dollars and fifty cents for a ticket to 



Cozad, a distance of 250 males. When I 
reached my destination I was a discouraged 
lad. My aircastles collapsed like a balloon. 
There was no depot, and only five buildings 
in the town. The first question was how to 
unload my property. I got some planks and 
the stock slid down them from the car to the 
ground. We had landed in Nebraska. In a 
short time things looked fairly prosperous. 
Excursion trains were coming in every month 
bringing new settlers, we were getting the 
spring rains, more houses were being built in 
the town and country, and the prairie was 
being plowed up and put in crops. People had 
to eat, and being the butcher, I commenced 
business. My business as a butcher lasted 
about sixty days. In July we had hot winds 
and grasshoppers, the latter in such number 
as to shade the sun when passing over the 
country. Everything was eaten by them. I 
bought flour to make slop for my pigs, and 
there being no mowing machine in the country 
I bought a scythe and cut grass in the sloughs 
to winter my horse. That ^vinter we had 
lots of snow, with the mercury thirty degrees 
below zero. The new settlers were short of 
fuel, clothing, and provisions. The latter part 
of that winter the government sent out a lot 
of army shoes and clothing that was out of 
date for the soldiers, and flour and beans were 
issued to the settlers. No clothing was issued 
for the women, but you would often see a 
woman wearing army shoes and a blue army 
overcoat. We had the grasshoppers and hot 
winds again the summer of 1875, and times 
were harder than ever that winter. The 
spring of 1875 I went to the Ozark mountains 
of Missouri, and an Ohio boy (Lew Will- 
iams) met me there. We bought 600 head of 
sheep, which we trailed across the country to 
Cozad. We had a good deal of trouble in 
crossing the numerous streams. At night we 
slept on the ground or in our wagon, and 
made a corral out of muslin to pen our sheep 
in. We sold the sheep soon after reaching 
Cozad. That same summer we made two 
trips to eastern Kansas, by wagon, and on each 
trip brought back milch cows, which we sold 
to settlers from Hastings to Cozad. The 



130 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



spring of 1876 I went to Ellis, Kansas, on 
horseback, and when the Texas cattle drive 
came in I bought 100 yearling heifers for 
$700. I put my cattle in with a herd that came 
to the Loup valley. We located about eight 
miles this side of Callaway. I worked for 
my board and furnished my own saddle horses 
and bed. We hauled our supplies from Cozad 
and Lexington (then Plum Creek). This 
county was not organized. There were no 
mail routes and we got our mail only when 
we went to the railroad. That fall I wanted 
to cast my first vote for president, conse- 
quently, I made a fifty-mile ride to Cozad and 
voted for R. B. Hayes. The spring of 1877 
I hired out to Gassman and Dufree, ranch- 
men, for thirty dollars per month. That fall 
(1877) I took charge of a ranch as foreman. 
The owners lived in Illinois. I had the whole 
responsibility of managing the ranch in all its 
details. I have ridden all night to get to 
the railroad to send out important mail to the 
ranch owners. The spring of 1878 I was aj)- 
pointed county commissioner, and I held the 
office continuously until township organiza- 
tion went into efTect. During 1881 I moved to 
my present home, in Arnold township, My 
first house was a log cabin. In 1882 I hauled 
lumber from Lexington (seventy miles) to 
build a hoi:se. In December of the same vear 
T went back to Ohio, my home state, and was 
married. When my wife and I reached Cozad, 
the sleeping room at the hotel' was a large 
room containing six beds, no stove. About 
luidniglit a drunken man came stumbling in, 
looking for a bed. The next day we started 
for our home on the Loup with a span of 
ponies and a buckboard. It was dead winter 
and deep snow covered the ground. That 
night we stopped with a farmer in the Platte 
valley, fifteen miles from Cozad. The house 
was not plastered and we could look out 
through the holes in the roof and see the stars 
shining. The second day we started bright 
and early. We had to break our road through 
the snow. There was no house between our 
own home and the Platte valley, a distance of 
thirty-five miles. When we reached home. 
Grandpa Hughey had supper ready, with some 



of his good hot biscuits, coflfee. and beefstead. 
-As we had gone without our dinner, we did 
full justice to that supper, and here we have 
been ever since, wrestling with the ups and 
downs of western life." 

DOUGL.ASS FINDS RELICS 

J. J. Douglass says: "Relics of unusual in- 
terest have at diflferent times been found in 
this country. In the summer of 1880, while 
riding on the Middle Loup, with others, we 
came to a bed of charred wood near where 
the Milburn bridge now crosses that stream. 
A number of beads were scattered about, and 
upon closer examination we found among the 
coals the under jaw of a man, and also a silver 
medal, two and a half inches in diameter, 
with a hole in it. On one side' was the bust 
of a man, with the name, 'Pierre Choteau,' 
under it, while on the other side were the 
words: "L'pper Missouri Outfit.' Our sup- 
position was that some. Indian trader had been 
in that country trading beads and other trink- 
ets to the Indians for furs, that they had gotten 
into a quarrel and that the savages had killed 
and burned the trader." 

JESS GANDY JOINS THE ELKS 

Once during the summer of 1881, while Jess 
Gaudy still lived near \\'est L'nion, he and his 
wife were out gathering wild fruit. Jess was 
a short distance from the wagon. He heard 
a shot, and rushing out, found his wife had 
shot a four-pronged buck. But he proved to 
be only stunned. What was to be done must 
be done quickly, as the buck was liable to 
jump up and get away at a second's notice. 
The suddenness of the thing rather rattled 
Jess. He had no more ammunition, and not 
even a jack knife to cut its throat. He was 
indeed in a dilemma. A dozen different plans 
flashed through his mind in a few seconds as 
to the best way to kill the buck, and he saw 
with alarm that it showed signs of reviving. 
Jess was so excited he forgot he could take 
oflf his neckyoke and dispatch him, but what 
he did do was about as funny as Judge Kil- 
gore is said to have done in the winter of 
1880. The judge packed water two miles for 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



131. 



several weeks through two feet of snow, till 
some one suggested that snow, when melted, 
made water. But we left Jess with the buck 
showing signs of returning life. All at once 
a bright idea occurred to Mr. Gandy, and 
quick as a flash he had acted on it, and had 
dumped Mr. Buck into the wagon and tied 
him with his halter ropes. Then, sitting 
astride its head and neck, he yelled, "Let 'em 
go," and Mrs. Gandy did "let 'em go," for 
Jarvis Kimes' farm, a distance of half a mile 
east across the prairie. They had gone but a 
short distance when the buck came to his 
senses, and finding Jess astride of him, a 
struggle for life ensued between the two. It 
was just about an equal match, and for some 
time it was a matter of doubt whi:h would 
come out on top. The buck had free use of 
his hind legs and when he brought them down 
on the sides of the wagon box it looked as if 
he would soon kick the wagon to pieces. The 
noise frightened the ponies and away they 
flew\ up hill and down hill, over the rough 
ground, Mrs. Gandy holding them straight 
ahead and letting them go. The sharp feet of 
the deer tore Jess' clothing into ribbons and 
bruised his body fearfully. He had a veritable 
white elephant on his hands, and when the 
ponies dashed up to the door of Mr. Kimes he 
was about exhausted, panting and gasping for 
breath, his face flushed and perspiration roll- 
ing down in big drops. Kimes helped him 
to let go the buck. 

MRS. G.\NDY ENTERTAINS A STRANGER 

In September, 1881, Mr. Gandy was mak- 
ing hay with a neighbor, Mr. Lyle, three miles 
west of the river, coming home only on Sat- 
urday nights, ]\Irs. Gandy being left at home 
to liiok after the cattle. One Saturday eve- 
ning a man came to the house and got his 
supper, telling Mrs. Gandy that he had eaten 
nothing for two days. He was a pitiful-look- 
ing object. He had a blanket rolled upon his 
back and carried a pair of shoes in his hand, 
his feet being so swollen that he could not 
wear them. After he had eaten his supper he 
requested of Mrs. Gandy the privilege of stay- 
ing all night. vShe told him that she was alone, 



and that he would have to seek accommodation 
elsewhere. As he had come down the river 
in a boat, and there was a settlement at West 
Union, two miles further on, he started off and 
Mrs. Gandy got her pony and proceeded to 
round up her cattle. She returned, attended 
to her milking and other duties, and went to 
the house, it being by this time quite dark. 
When she entered the house, what was her 
consternation to discover the stranger sitting 
upright in bed, with two huge revolvers lying 
by his side and a number of papers scattered 
about him. When she came in he remarked 
to her that he was making himself at home. 
She replied : "I should think you are," and 
left the room. As it was Saturday night, she 
knew that Jess would be home about eleven 
o'clock, so she took her horse and started for 
Mr. Lyle's, meeting her husband on the way. 
When they returned to the house they found 
the man still sitting up in the bed, groaning 
with the pain in his swollen limbs. He begged 
so piteously to be allowed to remain that they 
had not the heart to turn him out, and he was 
allowed to remain until morning, although 
they suspected that he was a criminal. The 
supposition proved to be correct, as it was af- 
terward learned that he had robbed a postofifice 
at Stem's ranch. 

JESS GANDY RIDES A BUFF.\LO 

A funny incident is related of the experi- 
ence of Jess Gandy in trying to ride a buf- 
falo. He had made his boast that he was 
going to ride the first buffalo he saw. Sliort- 
ly after that, while out hunting one day, he 
came across four or five of the beasts. He 
fired at short range and shot an old bull through 
the lungs, which dropped down on his haunch- 
es and dropped its head, the blood coming out 
of its nostrils. Jess thought this would be an 
excellent opportunity to mount and to make 
good his boast. He succeeded in getting on 
the back of' the dying buffalo, but soon found 
that he had mounted a very lively corpse, as 
the old fellow came to his feet with a bound 
and started off at a rapid pace. Dave Hick- 
man, who was an eye witness of the perform- 
ance, declares that at the second jump of the 



132 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



scared buffalo Jess was thrown about fifteen 
feet into the air. He came down on his feet 
and lost no time in making for a tree about a 
hundred yards distant, into which he climbed 
while the buffalo was flying in the opposite 
direction. 

THE MASONS BURIED HIM 

Eber Barber, who came to Custer county a 
little while before the buffaloes got out of it. 
has had some experiences that do not fall to 
the lot of every pioneer. He was here before 
he was married, and as a cowbov and an all- 
round utility chap was in niuch demand on 
the big ranches. He was here in time to kill 
a buffalo in the county. In speaking of his 
experiences he tells the following: 

A young Englishman by the name of Dan 
Todd died at the "White House," down on the 
South Loup, in the winter of 1882. It was 
very cold at the time and two feet of snow 
covered the ground. It was impossible to dig 
a grave and nobody seemed disposed to take 
the initiative in the obsequies. Barber says 
he knew that Todd was a Free Mason and ac- 
cordingly he resolved to take the body to Lex- 
ington and turn it over to the Masons there 
for burial. He loaded the body on to a sled 
and with a yoke of oxen hauled it down to the 
head of Wood river, where a man named 
Marve Henr>' hitched on his mules in the 
place of the oxen and accompanied lUubcr and 
the dead man the rest of the way. All day 
long they wallowed through the dcej) snow 
with their uncomplaining passenger. It was 
as gruesome as it was tiresome and hazard- 
ous. All day they bucked the snow and en- 
couraged the mules. Early in the morning, 
as they started out from Henry's place, they 
had a chance to send word to the Masons in 
Lexington, by the mail carrier, that they were 
coming. Along with this announcement went 
a description of their bill of lading. When 
within six or eight miles of Lexington, and 
nearly exhausted, they met two teams with 
eight men, all Masons, coming to meet them, 
and help them into town. Barber says. "Jim- 
miny crackey, but I was glad to see them." 



He aflds that the Masons took care of Henry 
and himself while they were in Lexington, gave 
them every comfort, besides holding funeral 
services over the remains of Todd and paying 
the entire bill for Christian burial. 

THE FIRST GRE.^T FL.XG POLE 

In the summer of 1880, as the Fourth of 
July drew near, the people of Westerville were 
desirous of celebrating the day. Mr. Wester- 
velt had a red-cedar log which he said he 
would give for a liberty pole, but it was not 
long enough, and Mr. Baker was patriotic 
enough to go to the cedar canyons and get 
another. The two were spliced together and 
raised, so that "Old Glory" waved above the 
people upon that eventful day. The pole stood 
in the middle of the main street, which was 
named Loraine, in honor of Mrs. Westervelt. 

For years afterv^'ard this pole stood proudly 
erect, ready to receive the old flag and float it 
upon the winds in full view of all the sur- 
rounding country upon the occasion of every 
natal day or time of every public celebration. 
The pole is gone now, but other poles have 
been erected all over the county to take its 
place, and in these war times the patriotism 
of Custer county people keeps the flag floating 
all the time. 

THE FIRST COUNTY SEAT CONTEST 

The first contest over the county seat in Cus- 
ter county, was over the removal of the county 
seat and ]>ostofficc from Custer, Nebraska, to 
Broken How. This was in 1881. Custer was 
on Frank ^'oung's ranch, near the mouth of 
Spring creek. 

The far-sighted ranchmen saw that the logi- 
cal place for the county seat was in the center 
of the county. Mr. Young and his neighbors 
were for keeping it at Custer antl argued that 
it might have to be brought l)ack if moved, 
and that would mean a big bill of expense. 
This argument prevailed with the board of 
county commissioners until Jolni E. Mvers, 
then chairman of the board, said if it had to 
come back he would pay the bill. Then it 
went through with a whoop. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



133 



A HOSPITABLE ROOF 

J. J. Douglass gives the following account of 
two early settlers, one famous for his hos- 
pitality and the other e(|ually as famous for 
his hostility. 

"One of the interesting characters of this 
region at that time was Louis Wambsgan, one 
of the very earliest settlers, who located near 
where Oconto now stands. His house was the 
only stopping place for a number of years be- 
tween Plum Creek and the South Loup, and 
there was hardly a night the year around 
that two or three cowboys could not be found 
at 'Louie's' as he was familiarly called. He 
could always furnish sport for the boys in 
some way, and his annual turkey shoots dur- 
ing the holidays became famous throughout 
this region. I have heard many a good story 
told under Louie's hospitable roof. Wambs- 
gan was the first county judge, being elected 
at a special election held July 31. 1877. 

A LITTLE SPORT WITH GUNS 

"Frederick Schreyer was another interest- 
ing character. He was the first homesteader 
on the South Loup between Callaway and 
Arnold. He was a very resolute German, 
about fifty years of age, and as eccentric as 
he was resolute. He constructed a dugout in 
which he imagined he would be secure from 
the depredations of the festive cowboy. As 
we have said before, there was a natural an- 
tipathy between the cowboys and the settlers, 
and the breach became wider and wider as 
time passed by and the settlers became more 
numerous. Armed encounters were frequent 
and bloodshed was often the result. Schreyer 
often had encounters with the cowboys and at 
one time was wounded in two places. He 
thought he was going to die, and had Charles 
Rockwood draw up his will. He had a ford 
near his house which he called his ford, and 
without his consent nobody was allowed to 
cross the river at that place if he could prevent 
it. He also surrounded his house with a high 
sod wall, which he called his fortifications. 
On the morning of April 1, 1878, J. D. Has- 
kell and the writer ]nit some tools in a wagon 



and went up the river to repair a corral. In 
going we crossed the river at Schreyer's ford. 
We saw nothing of him at that time, but dur- 
ing the day he sent us word that if we at- 
tempted to cross there in coming back he 
would shoot us. When we arrived at the 
ford on the way back, and while watering our 
horses, we saw Schreyer and his son running 
toward the house with gims. As soon as we 
got within range they raised up from behind 
their fortifications and began firing at us. We 
were unarmed, and, thinking discretion the 
better part of valor, put the whip to our team 
and got out of the way. In our flight we had 
to pass pretty close to the house, and one of 
the shots tore the step from the side of the 
wagon. From that time on there was trouble. 
Young Schreyer w-as arrested on the Platte, 
but escaped and went to Lincoln, where he 
remained a month. He came back to Kearney, 
was again arrested and was brought up into 
Custer county. He and his father were taken, 
handcuffed, to Custer for preliminary examin- 
ation, and were bound over to appear before 
the district court. Not giving bonds, they 
were lodged in the Lexington jail. In July 
they were tried and sentenced to serve a term 
in jail, by Judge Gaslin. They served out 
their time and got home the next winter. 

LASSOED AN ELK 

James Farley tells this elk story : "Toward 
the end of my cowboy career I worked for the 
Bar-7 ranch, of which David Rankin was prin- 
cipal owner. This ranch was located on the 
Middle Loup. 

"Large herds of elk roamed over the coun- 
try at that time. While on the round-up in 
1881 we sighted a large bunch, which had 
winded us. The boys ofif with their ropes and 
after them. C. W. Stern, John Carney, Bert 
Wilder, Charley Peterson (a green hand at the 
cattle business), and six or eight others were 
in the chase, and there was enacted one of the 
most thrilling incidents ever witnessed on the 
plains of Nebraska, Peterson singled out the 
biggest buck in the bunch, and as soon as 
Charley began to press him hard, he left the 



134 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COl'XTV, NEBRASKA 



bunch and ran in another direction, Peterson 
close at his heels. 1 knew that Charley would 
never let up until he had secured the buck, and 
I knew full as well that he would have trouble 
when he threw his rope over the powerful 
beast, as he never carried a gun. I followed 
him as fast as my horse could carry me. I 
lost sight of him for a while in the chop hills, 
but soon discoverefl him again as I rode up a 
little hill. He had the elk at the end of his 
rope about eighty rods from me. The first 
move I saw was the elk making a run on the 
rope, and when he came to the end of it he 
fell heavily to the ground. He then jumped 
lip and charged Peterson's horse. As he came 
on. head down, at the rate of about fifty miles 
an hour, Charley spurred his horse to one side 
and let the elk pass, and gave him another 
tumble as the rope tightened up. I waited to 
see no more but galloped as fast as my horse 
could carry me to his assistance, as I knew 
that it was only a question of time when the 
infuriated brute would catch the fearless boy 
in one of his charges. As I rode up, the elk 
was making his third charge, but Peterson 
evaded him again and gave him another tum- 
ble at the end of his rope. When about 300 
feet from Peterson the elk had again regained 
his feet, lowered his head for another charge, 
his eyes flashing fire, and with terrific bounds 
- made for the ])lucky boy. It seemed to me 
that it would be impossible for him to get out 
of the way of those terrible horns. But again 
he lei ihe elk pass by without touching him 
and again he brought the brute to the ground 
at the end of the rope, pulling him square 
over on his back. Quick as lightning Peter- 
son reined his horse backward, tightened the 
roi^e. jumped out of the saddle, whipped out a 
big jack knife, and slashed it across the throat 
of the prostrate beast. I shouted to him with 
all my might to desist, as I expected to see 
him killed every second, but he heard nothing 
and saw nothing but that elk and before I 
came up Peterson was back in his saddle. 
"What the devil did you do that for?' I shout- 
ed, as soon as I reached him. T did na want 
loossee ma rope — da boys da laugh at ma.' 
The other bovs followed the bunch and C. X. 



Stern succeeded in roping two of them at one 
throw, but one of them got away. None of 
the boys that saw the sport will ever forget it." 

LOST IX THE SAND HILLS 

"Once seventy-five men started from Ray- 
mond lake, fifteen miles west of the head of 
Middle Loup river to go to the Newman ranch 
on the Running Water. We were driving 
1..^00 head of cattle for the northern ranches. 
We missed our course and traveled for two 
days in a circle, among the sand hills. \\'e 
had water for neither horses nor cattle, and 
on the third day the poor brutes became frantic 
with thirst. It took the utmost efforts of the 
'men to keep them from breaking away, and 
their bellowing was something absolutely heart- 
rending, ^len could be seen on every hill 
around us trying to see if water could be dis- 
covered. At last I saw two men standing on a 
hill some distance oft' motioning in such a way 
that I knew they had found something. I 
rode u]j to them and found the nicest little 
lake of pure water I have ever seen among the 
sand hills. We all filled our kegs before let- 
ting the cattle into the water. After the re- 
joicing at our find had somewhat subsided we 
discovered that we were within half a mile of 
the pla:e from which we had started three days 
before. \\'e had a good compass, but all the 
men had declared the compass was no good. 
Stern had told them of an old trail which led 
to the Running Water, and they expected to 
follow that, but it was so dim they crossed it 
without noticing it. and kept traveling in a 
circle for three days. After a good breakfast 
and all the water we could drink. Jolni Darr. 
two other cowboys, and myself, were sent out 
to find the old trail, which we soon did. and 
led the ])arty out of the wilderness, reaching 
our destination safely in due time." 

HUNTERS riND G.\.\IK IN Till- I'.Kl) 

Jess Gandy tells the following: "In the 
fall of 1876. in company with Charles Penn, 
1 left York. Nebraska, and came up into Cus- 
ter county on a hunt. We arrived after dark 
at Mr. Murphy's place, on Clear creek. On 
our approach the dogs began a violent bark- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



135 



ing, and suddenly the lights went out. We 
thought this rather strange, but proceeded to 
knock on the door several times before we 
received any response. Finally a childish 
voice rang out on the night air with a deter- 
mined and rather angry accent : 'Who are you 
and what do you want?" 'We are hunters, 
and wish to stay all night." 'That's too thin. 
Leave or I will shoot through the door." 'Say, 
Sis, where is your pa?' 'That's no concern 
of yours. Leave or Fll shoot." 

"We thought discretion the better part of 
valor, got out of range of the door, and final- 
ly convinced the two plucky little girls within, 
who were only about ten and fourteen years 
old, that we were friends. They had heard 
the dogs bark, took us for Indians or horse 
thieves, and had turned out the light, got the 
gun and proceeded to 'hold the fort." We 
learned that Mr. Murphy and his wife had not 
yet returned from a cedar canyon near by, 
where they were loading cedar to take to 
Grand Island the following day. 

"There could be quite a romance written 
about this family. Mr. Murphy had a few 
cattle and the two children had to do the 
herding and have had to subsist for three 
weeks at a time on a small grass nut which 
they dug while herding their cattle. But to 
return to our story. Mr. Murphy and his 
wife came in presently and we were hospitably 
entertained. The next morning we were di- 
rected to Mr. McEndeffer's place, Mr. Mur- 
phy's closest neighbor, on the Muddy, about 
ten miles in a southwesterly direction. We 
had only proceeded a short distance when we 
sighted a band of elk, and everything else was 
forgotten in the exciting chase which ensued. 
We found ourselves at night over twenty miles 
out of our course, and in the midst of a gen- 
uine Nebraska blizzard. We selected a shel- 
tered place on the banks of the Muddy, where 
we could obtain fuel, and camped until morn- 
ing. We lost sight of the elk the previous 
evening among the hills, not having been 
able to get a single shot at them at less than 
700 yards. 

"In the morning it was still storming, and 
we retraced our steps and arrived at McEn- 



deffer"s the following evening. We hunted 
with "Sir. McEndeflfer about a week, and had 
splendid success, having killed several deer. 
I will say Charley Penn is the only man I 
ever saw who could shoot quicker than I. 

"While on this trip we camped all night in 
an old deserted sod house and found a large 
heap of tumble weeds and tickle grass blown 
up into one corner of the room. Being very 
tired, we did not stop to investigate what 
might be hidden under this immense stack of 
debris, but proceeded to spread our tarpaulins 
on it and make our bed. 

"After a little, Charley was snoring away 
at the rate of about three knots an hour. I 
felt our bed move, but thought it must be 
my imagination. After a little the movements 
beneath became so violent there could be no 
mistake that there was something underneath 
our bed. I remembered when a boy of hear- 
ing that circumstances sometimes make strange 
bedfellows, and I thought we 'had 'em sure." 
I nudged Charley quietly and whispered, 
'Charley, there's something under our bed.' 
But I might just as well have talked to the 
sod walls. He kept right on 'sawing wood.' 
The rolling and tumbling motion continued 
with still greater violence every minute, until 
I was beginning to get seasick. I got desper- 
ate, and, springing up in bed, fairly shouted 
in Charley's ear: 'Charley, there's something 
alive under our bed,' and Charley came back 
from dreamland with a snort and puff just as 
we began slowly sinking toward the ground 
and the heaving and surging motion ceased. 
Looking out toward the door we saw a long 
procession of little dark-looking objects, with 
white stripes on their backs, filing out of the 
door, and then realized that we had been sleep- 
ing on top of a family of skunks which had 
taken u[) their winter quarters in the place."" 

II.\D NO RULIGION 

.■\n amusing incident happened in Judge 
Ford"s court one day during a trial in which 

the Rev. Albert M (colored) and his wife 

were trying to enforce claims against an es- 
tate being probated at the time. Al. Johnson 
was conducting the cross examination. !Mrs. 



136 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COLXTV, NEBRASKA 



M- 



was upon the stand. It was revealed 
by the witnesses that the claims of the "Rev- 
run" and his wife were somewhat antagonistic 

and at the moment Al. said to Mrs. M , 

"Your husband is a preacher, is he not?" And 
to the consternation of all present, she answer- 
ed. "Xo. sir, he aint no preacher: dat man 
aint got no religum." How could he be a 
preacher? It is reported that the dignity of 
the court relaxed. 

ONIC OF THF, COUNTV "D.\DS" 

In the days when the old court house was 
in existence there was an antiquity in the dis- 
trict-court room in the shape of an old, smoky 
stove. At that time "Scotty" was the super- 
intendent of the court house and he alone knew 
how to regulate the stove so that it would not 
smoke. One day while the county "Dads" 
were in session in the district-court room the 
old stove began to "smoke 'em out." and about 
that time Colonel Cooper came into the room. 
He punched the fire until he had the room full 
of smoke and then he put this conundrum to 
the crowd. "Why is this old stove like the 
County Dads?" No one could answer it. 
"Because it smokes all day and is out all 
night," responded Cooper. 

A PR.MRIE I'IRE 

We have already mentioned the names of 
T. W. Dean, Leroy Leep and Gus Cosier. A 
peculiar incident happened to these parties on 
November 20. 1875. after the settlement in 
the precinct. About three o'clock in the morn- 
ing Air. Dean was awakened from a sound 
sleep, and discovered that his room was as 
light as day — • the whole heavens seemed to 
be on fire. He sprang out of bed, gathered 
his pants, and proceeded to put them on. At 
this moment (nis Cosier came dashing up 
shouting "fire! fire! fire!" It was a prairie 
fire coming from the northwest — a grand and 
awful sight, never to be forgotten. Property 
and life were at stake. The head fire was com- 
ing on in the west of them at the speed of a 
race horse. A stiff gale was blowing from the 
northwest. One hundred yards in advance 
of the main bodv of fire. Dean had turned his 



horses loose, and they proceeded south toward 
the river. A pony was lariated near the house 
and Lee Leep. then being present, quickly 
mounted the animal and followed the loose 
horses, the only hope being to find them and 
drive them east across a piece of breaking be- 
fore the fire reached them. He almost reached 
the place where he knew the horses were, after 
having left the strip of breaking which was 
just mentioned. Just as he came to a deep 
ravine, he saw the flames shoot twenty feet 
high and dash madly forward. Being too far 
from the river to make his escape in that di- 
rection, he wheeled his horse through the 
blinding smoke and madly lashed him toward 
the strip of breaking. Blinded with smoke, 
burned by fire, and almost sufifocated. he 
reached the breaking, hands and face burned, 
hair and eye-brows scorched, panting and ex- 
hausted. After the fire had passed, one of 
the horses was found on the river bank, so 
badly burned that it lived but a few days. The 
other ran into the river and made its way 
nearly to the opposite side, where it became 
mired in the quick sand and was found during 
the day by Air. Dean. The neighbors were 
summoned, and an effort was made to save the 
beast, but it was so bruised and burned that 
after trying to get it out for half a day it had 
to be killed. 

This left Air. Dean without a team, but 
this matter was adjusted, however. Gus Cos- 
ier had an ox team, but no wagon, so they 
formed a partnership. Dean furnished the 
wagon and Cosier the team, and thus they 
succeeded in getting along until they could 
devise means to do otherwise. 

TWIX TR.\GEDIES 

Ex-Judge H. J. Sbinn is to be credited with 
this recital of a double tragedy which occurred 
on the table land of Cummings Park in 1883 
and 188.T, by which two respected citizens of 
the |)ark met their death in a way so similar 
that the coincidence is remarkable. 

The ]iark is an elevated portion of the pre- 
cinct, and wells to the depth of 200 feet or 
more are the rule, while there are some wells 
that would exceed 250 feet. In the first settle- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



137 



meiit of this locality the well or water question 
was a very perplexing one. It was known that 
the whole country contained sheet water on a 
certain level, and of course on hill land it was 
farther to water than on low land. Settlers 
were poor and as a rule were unable to bear 
the expense of a hydraulic or a casting well, 
as they now have it. As a consequence they 
resorted to digging wells, even at that great 
depth, casing them with lumber through the 
sand and gravel, and drawing or elevating the 
water by means of a horse, or two horses, as 
the case might be, with a rope extending over 
pulleys, attached to a half barrel, with a valve 
in the bottom. Among those who had wells 
as above described were Samuel Abernathy 
and James Cummings, and by reason of that 
fact a sad coincidence happened. In the fall 
of 1883 Samuel Abernathy caused a well to be 
dug on his premises to the depth of 196 feet, 
having procured an inexhaustible supply of 
water. Soon after its construction, one morn- 
ing, while attempting to draw water, the 
bucket, or barrel, caught at the bottom of the 
well against the curb. Mr. Abernathy. think- 
ing that it would be necessary to go to the bot- 
tom of the well to unfasten the bucket, there 
being no rope convenient except the one that 
the bucket was fastened to, told his brother 
that he could fasten the rope at the top and 
twine it around his foot and slide to the bottom 
of the well. His brother protested against 
such a hazardous undertaking, but to no avail, 
and he at once attempted to make the descent. 
After having proceeded about six feet from 
the top of the well his hold gave way and he 
fell to the bottom of the well, 196 feet. To 
the surprise of his brother he was found to be 
alive and conscious. Help was summoned, 
and on investigation it was found that by his 
falling into the bucket or barrel he had jarred 
it loose, whereupon he gave orders that he 
was able to hold on to the bucket or rope until 
they could raise him from the well. They pro- 
ceeded to draw him up. and to the surprise 
of all they were successful in doing this, land- 
ing him at the top conscious, yet badly bruised 
and mangled, one arm broken in several places, 
his legs broken and his bodv badlv bruised. 



Although everything was done that could pos- 
sibly be done for his comfort, he only lived 
about four hours. 

Later on, in September. 1885, James Cum- 
mings, one of Cummings Park's respected citi- 
zens, met with a sad and similar fate to the 
one just narrated. Soon after his settlement 
he caused a well to be dug after the style of 
the one mentioned above, but to the depth of 
210 feet. This well had been dug for about 
three years, and Mr. Cummings. thinking that 
possibly the curb had become rotten to such 
an extent that it would be necessary to recurb, 
said to his wife one morning that he would 
hitch a team to the end of the rope and tie a 
stick to the other end, and she might let him 
down in the well for the purpose of examin- 
ing it. Thereupon the rope was drawn out its 
full length, laid upon the ground, one end ex- 
tending over the pulley and tied in the center 
of a stick about two feet long, and a team was 
hitched to the other end, face from the well. 

Mr. Cummings. taking a small stick in his 
hand, and sitting on the stick and astride the 
rope, directed his wife to back the team and 
let him down slowly. Slowly and slowly the 
team backed. The wife could hear the rap- 
ping of the stick on the curb until within 
about ten feet of the bottom of the well she 
heard the cry of "stop!" Then again she 
heard the rapping of the stick on the curb, 
then instantly came loud and clear a tremend- 
ous crash. The wife, well knowing the cause, in- 
stantly screamed at the team, but they could 
not raise the husband from the earth that had 
fallen upon him. She hastened to the well 
and called to her husband, but no response 
was heard. She called again and again, but 
everything was as still as death. Excited and 
terror-stricken, she called for help. Friends 
and neighbors, hearing her cry. hurried to the 
rescue. What could be done ? Buried alive 
two hundred feet below the surface of the 
earth! News of the disaster spread like wild 
fire. Stout men and sympathizing women hur- 
ried to the scene to lend such aid as might be 
necessary. On investigation it was found that 
the well had caved in for a distance of over 
twenty feet, leaving a large cavity above Mr. 



138 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



Cummings. After examining the situation, it 
was decided to send for one William Garlock, 
who was an experienced well man. During 
this time nothing was done, but upon his ar- 
rival he took charge of the rescuing, and said 
that it would be necessary to procure lumber 
to recurb the portion caved in : consequently 
teams were sent to West Union, and the work 
of rescuing proceeded as rapidly as possible. 
He first directed that it would be necessary 
to shovel dirt into the well for the purpose of 
filling up the cavity before proceeding with the 
digging. After this was done and the curb 
cut, ready to place in the well, ^Ir. Garlock, 
with the aid of helpers, proceeded to uncover 
the doomed man. At this time he was covered 
with dirt to the depth of about twenty feet. 
Soon after the digging began, Mr. Garlock 
reported that Mr. Cummings was alive, for he 
could hear him breathing. This was a great 
surprise to the frietids and neighbors who were 
so an.xiouslv waiting. The work proceeded 
with more rapidity than before, and report af- 
ter report came up from the well digger that 
Mr. Cummings was still alive. After about 
ten hours of constant work the head of the 
doomed man was uncovered, and to the sur- 
prise of all it was found that he was conscious 
and able to give instructions. Slowly, slowly 
and persistently, the noble well-digger pro- 
ceeded, until the entire body down below the 
knees was uncovered. 

At this time everybody was anxiously lis- 
tening for orders to pull the doomed man to 
the top. but instead a voice was heard from 
below: "Let the rope down ! I want to come 
uji!" The rope was quickl_\- let down and the 
well man taken from the well. Everyiiody 
wondered what was the matttr. and gathered 
about him for information. He told them that 
he could do no more ; that the man's feet were 
under the curb, and that he could not extend 
his curb on account of the dry ground — that 
if he undertook to dig below the curb, as he 
would have to do in order to get his feet out, 
the ground would run in and cause the well to 
cave, and that it could not possibly be done. 
I te further said that the only thing that could 
be done was to fasten a rope around him and 



])ull him loose by force : that there was one 
chance of saving his life in this way. but that 
he was entirely exhausted, and could do noth- 
ing more. Another man being jiresent who 
had some experience in well-making, volun- 
teered to go down and fasten the rope around 
him. After this was done, as many as twen- 
ty-five men took hold of the rope above, and 
at a command, began pulling gradually, pull- 
ing harder and harder until the rope broke. 

As quick as thought, some one present 
suggested that he had at his home a three- 
quarter rope that he thought was strong 
enough to pull him out. and accordingly some 
one was dispatched for the rope, and in a very 
short time returned with it. Again the well 
man descended and securely fastened the rope 
around the body, and again returned to the 
top of the well. On his arrival, as many men 
as could get hold of the rope did so, and at a 
command began pulling as before. Steady, 
stronger and stronger, they pulled until the 
body was released, every man falling to his 
knees, the rope having been drawn so tight 
that when he became loosened he was thrown 
up several feet. Orders were given to raise 
him fast, lest the well should again cave. Af- 
ter he was drawn out of danger, orders were 
given to go slow. This was done, and in a 
few seconds Mr. Cummings was at the top of 
the well, alive, rational, and able to tell his 
experience. He said that he did not realize 
that he had been in the well so long, although 
he was conscious all the time : that he knew 
when they were throwing dirt into the well, 
and knew when the well-man began digging ; 
he thought, however, that the falling of the 
dirt in the well was a heavy -thunder storm. 

Dr. W'amsley was present and took charge 
of the case, but found it a bad one. The 
body was liruised. and the bowels so badly 
torn that inflammation set in and in four davs 
the poor victim died. The accident happened 
about eight o'clock on Saturday morning, and 
it was two o'clock S'unday afternoon when Mr. 
Cummings was taken from the well. Thus 
he remained in the well about thirty hours, 
eighteen hours of this time being under 
ground a distance of about twciUv feet, and 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



139 



his having lived while in this condition was 
due, doubtless, to the fact that an iron pipe, 
used for pumping purposes, was hanging in 
the well and his face was against it, thus af- 
fording- him sufficient air to keep him alive. 

This sad accident will ever be remembered 
by the old settlers of Cumniings Park with 
sadness, as Mr. Cummings was one of our 
best citizens, and his untimely death cast a 
gloom of despair over the entire community. 

A WATER.MELOX STAMPEDE 

James E. Farley, who was in an early day 
one of Custer comity's cowboys, and later one 
of our substantial citizens, followed Texas cat- 
tle and the trail to Ogallala in the spring of 
1879 and from Ogallala shuffled into the South 
Loup country. He was employed for a time 
on the Finch-Hatton ranch and was familiar 
with all the famous characters who operated 
in the days of cattle. Aside from throwing 
side lights on the difficulty of handling wild 
cattle, he refers, in a worldly way, to water- 
melons : 

"Cattle generally follow some leader, string- 
ing out in single file, and they will follow the 
leader as long as he runs. If we were able 
to keep up with the leader or head him off 
we could get the cattle to going in a circle, 
and after a while to bunch them and get them 
stopped. Sometimes we were not able to get 
ahead of the cattle in a stampede, but had to 
follow alongside, catching glimjjses of them 
when the lightning trashed, strung out a long 
distance ahead of us. Many of these cattle 
were five or six years old, had never been near 
a man since they were branded, and were as 
wild as a herd of buffaloes. When we started 
out with them the first week they were on 
the constant lookout to get away. After suc- 
ceeding a few times, some of them became 
spoiled to such an extent that they had to be 
killed to keep them from demoralizing the rest 
of the herd. One time there were two cow 
camps of us holding cattle on the head of 
Cow creek. Jim Dalzell, a lone settler, had a 
fine watermelon patch and he told the cow- 
boys that they could have all the melons they 
wanted, but some of the boys in the other camp 



tbought it would be so mu:h nicer to steal 
Ihiem, and our camp, in connection with one 
of their men, put up a job on them that caused 
all of us to have three weeks' extra work. We 
found out the time set by the boys of the other 
camp to make a raid on the melons, and sta- 
tioned our men in the patch to welcome them 
when they entered. They soon made their 
appearance, tied their horses, and came over 
into the patch, Billy Kessler, the man in the 
plot, leading them right up to where we were 
hidden in a bunch of weeds, ^^'e had taken 
the balls out of our cartridges to prevent any 
accident in the darkness. "Come over this 
way, boys ; here's some fine ones,' shouted Bil- 
ly, as he led them toward us. We could hear 
them scrambling, through the melon vines, 
thumping the melons as they came. W^hen 
within a few feet of us, we sprang out with 
a yell and 'bang, bang, bang,' went the re- 
volvers. Billy bravely held his ground, re- 
turning our fire, but the other boys took to 
their heels, dashed through the creek, with 
us after them, and firing at every jump. In 
their fright they rushed through both herds 
of cattle. The cattle stampeded and scam- 
pered away over the prairie and it took us 
three weeks to get them together again after 
this adventure." 

IT KILLED THE TOAD 

Uncle Swain Finch, as he was familiarly 
called by those who knew him in his pioneer 
days, was one of the unique characters of the 
early times. Things seemed to happen at his 
place. He and his family have furnished the 
details of some very interesting stories. Some 
of the boys tell this one on him. 

A funny incident happened at one time 
while they were "keeping batch" for a short 
time at the new ranch they were opening up. 
One morning the cook had an extra fine brew 
of cofTee, and all showed their appreciation of ' 
it by drinking more than usual. Uncle 
Swain had passed his cup the third or fourth 
time, when he observed something white in 
the coffee pot. He remarked : 

"Say, Jim, where did you get the egg to 
clear ver cofifee with this morninaf?" 



140 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



"Didn't have any egg." grumbled Jim, wlio 
appeared to be a little out of sorts and not in 
a talkative mood. 

"What's the use of yer lyin about it. J-'m ; 
I seed it when you was pourin' out that last 
cup of coffee." 

"You didn't, nuther/' snapped Jim. 

The Finch boys had as a guest a stylish 
friend from Iowa, and he was called upon to 
examine the coflfee-pot to settle the dispute 
between Uncle Swain and the cook. The 
young man poured the grounds out in the 
yard and made a critical examination. He 
gave a sort of convulsive gasp, turned deathly 
pale, placed his hand near the region of hi< 
stomach, and disappeared around the house 
The antics of the young fellow caused ihc 
others to push their unfinished cups as'dc. 
L'ncle Swain alone excepted — and to make 
an investigation of the contents of the coffee 
pot. Among the grounds they discovered a 
large, warty toad, swollen to three times Iiis 
natural size. The old fellow had evidently 
climbed up between the logs of the cabin and 
fallen into the cofTee-jxJt, which sat close to 
the wall and had no lid. 

D.^N GOT THE LOGS 

Along in the '80s and early '90s, when crop 
failures were the regular order, it was a com- 
mon thing for homesteaders to prove up on their 
claims, mortgage them for the high dollar and 
then pack their belongings and start for wife's 
people back in God's country, as they used 
to call it. The settler was not decently out 
of sight before the neighbors would swarm 
in on that ranch and proceed to gather up all 
wood and jiosts, lumber, etc.. that could be 
found. They generally jjulled the roof oft' 
the sod house to get the jilanks or the cedar 
poles, as the case might be. which had been 
su])porting the roof sod. In this connection 
an amusing incident occurred in the sand hills 
uj) at the head of Ortello valley. There were 
two characters in that community whom the 
old settlers would recognize if they are merely 
called Tom Doe and Daniel Blank. Tom had 
rather a shady reputation — he had been a 
lawyer and several other things which Dan 



said were fully as bad. These men did not 
get along well. When they met in the road 
the conversation was generally not printable. 
Tom got into debt as deeply as possible and 
also became involved in several shady trans- 
actions. When he heard rumors of a warrant 
for his arrest he abandoned his claim. Un- 
fortunately he had been so busy during the 
day that he didn't get ready to leave until af- 
ter dark. 

A day or so later old Dan, riding past, ob- 
served that the place was abandoned and 
made up his mind that he would even up the 
scores as far as possible that night. He left 
his team and wagon some little distance from 
Tom's house and went on foot to see how the 
laud lay. He had not yet reached the house 
when he heard the rattle of an approaching 
wagon and two men drove up to the house 
and immediately climbed up on the roof and 
began to shovel off the clay and sod. Old 
Dan kept out of sight until the roof was 
cleared and the planks and poles pulled off 
and thrown on to the ground ready for load- 
ing into the wagon, then he jumped out of 
his hiding place, let out a howl that would 
have raised the dead and wanted to know what 
in blankety, blankety, blank was going on? 
The men sprang into their wagons and 
V hipped their horses aw^ay at a gallop. When 
they were well out of hearing old Dan loaded 
up the poles and planks and hauled them home. 

I.NDI.VX SC.\RES 

Captain \\'. H. Comstock is responsible for 
this one : 

"In the spring of 1875 a man by the name 
of Eberlin, with his wife and a companion by 
the name of Hancock, started on a hunting 
trip up the Middle Loup river. When about 
eight miles above our settlement their atten- 
tion was called to the peculiar antics of a 
horseman on the east side of the river. He 
was riding at a furious pace, coatless and hat- 
less, with his long hair streaming in the wind 
liehind him as he flew along. The hunting 
partv was badly frightened and immediately 
started back to the settlement, arriving there 
with their team covered with foam. As soon 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



141 



as they were able to tell a rational story, they 
reported that they had seen Indians on the 
east side of the river. Every settler was at 
once notified, a council held, and a decision 
reached to proceed at once to make prepara- 
tions for the protection of the settlement 
against an attack from the red men. Volun- 
teers were called for to go to Fort Hartsufif 
and notify Captain Munson, the commander, 
and ask him to send two or three regiments 
of soldiers down. D. B. Allen offered to per- 
form this duty, while four or five others vol- 
unteered to go up the river to investigate the 
story told by the hunters. All were instruct- 
ed to ride all night and report at eight o'clock 
the next morning. It was laughable to see 
Ben Allen as he started for the fort, and a 
photograph of him taken at that time would 
be a most valuable contribution to this history. 
His dress suit consisted of an old pair of blue 
overalls, with a heavy fringe around the bot- 
tom, he was barefooted, and had on no other 
clothing except a striped shirt and an old 
straw hat. He was mounted, bareback, upon 
an old horse belonging to Air. Higgins. About 
eight o'clock the next morning the people met 
to consult and to hear the report of the scouts 
when they should return. Soon a solitary 
horseman was seen coming from the direction 
of the river, and four or five others from the 
north. 

"The single horseman proved to be the val- 
iant Ben, and before he was fairly within 
speaking distance he shouted : 'It's all right. 
General Munson said if we were killed by In- 
dians to let him know and he would come over 

and give them h !' The other party now 

rode into camp and reported that they were 
unable to discover any Indians, but they had 
found out that the horseman who had fright- 
ened the hunters was a half -crazy fellow who 
lived on the east side of the river. The news 
was a great relief to the settlers, but they 
nevertheless decided to build a fort where all 
could congregate in case of any sudden attack 
from the savages. It was afterward named 
Fort Disappointment, for the reason that no 
Indians ever appeared. 



THE GRASSHOPPER A BURDEN 

The Scripture says that "the grasshopper 
shall be a burden," and its prophecy came 
true in Custer county. The following experi- 
ence of Swain Finch will illustrate the fulfil- 
ment. 

In the spring of 1870 the boys planted about 
sixty acres of sod corn, which was just begin- 
ning to make fine roasting ears, when one af- 
ternoon they discerned what appeared to be a 
prairie fire, a dense cloud of smoke arising in 
the northwest. They wondered at a prairie 
fire at that time of the year, when the grass 
was green. They watched it intently as it 
came nearer and nearer, until it obscured the 
sun and darkened the air like an eclipse. When 
it had come within a hundred yards of them 
they heard a continuous cracking and snapping 
sound, which increased to a perfect roar as it 
approached them, when they discovered to 
their horror that a cloud of grasshoppers was 
upon them. The insects alighted, and in a 
few seconds every green thing in sight was 
literally covered and hidden with a seething, 
crawling mass, several inches in depth. The 
beautiful field of corn melted down as if each 
leaf was a spray of hoar frost in the rays of 
the noonday sun. Uncle Swain was dumb- 
founded for a moment, but when he saw that 
corn fading he came to his senses, cut a large 
willow brush and went after those grasshop- 
pers with a vengeance. He proceeded down a 
corn row, threshing to right and left, killing 
his thousands'with every sweep, and mowing 
a swath of death in his track. When he had 
gone about a hundred yards he stopped to get 
his breath and discovered to his extreme dis- 
gust that there were as many grasshoppers 
behind him as there were ahead. This dis- 
heartened him and he gave it up as a hopeless 
task. The hoppers ate up everything in the 
shape of grain and garden stuf? on the place, 
leaving it as brown and bare as if it had been 
swept by fire. They would settle on a post 
the thickness of a man's arm, and in a few 
seconds it would appear to be as big as a log. 
When the hoppers left it it would look as if it 
had been scraped with a knife, every vestige 



142 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



of hark and fiber beins; eaten off. Aunt Sarah 
and her sister-in-law had a fine patch of cab- 
bages which they thought to save by covering 
the plants with hay : but the hay served only 
as a convenient shade for the hoppers, who 
crawled under it and dined off the juicy cab- 
bage heads at their leisure. They then laid 
the hay around the patch and burned it, think- 
ing to smoke the pests away, but to no avail. 
When they left that cabbage patch nothing 
remained but a few bare stalks, eaten almost 
to the ground. 

A LAND QUARREL 

\n all new countries in which men are 
homesteading there are bound to be quarrels 
over homesteads, lines, and entries. This 
county has been no exception. Hundreds of 
incidents, like or similar to the one follow- 
ing could be recited, but they are a minor 
part of actual history, and have still less to do 
with county development. 

One Oeorge Hartley located in section 23, 
township 18. range 23. in the summer of 1880, 
although he had not made a filing on the 
claim. He rented it to one Sipes and went 
away to work on the railroad. In the summer 
Hartley came back and wanted possession of 
the land. Sipes refused to vacate until his 
crop was harvested, but he allowed Hartley 
to go ahead and make such improvements as 
he saw fit. During the summer and fall the 
two men had a number of quarrels, and when 
it came time to gather the corn,* Sipes refused 
to gather Hartley's share. This resulted in a 
violent quarrel, and in the encounter that fol- 
lowed Hartley attacked Sii)es with a knife and 
cut him so badly that his liver was expo.sed. 
Hartley left the county, thinking that he had 
killed Sipes, but the latter recovered, followed 
Hartley, but up to date has never heard a word 
as to his whereabouts. 

GRASSHOPPERS CHEWED TOBACCO 

Captain Comstock takes the floor to tell this 
one: 

"At Loup City we became acquainted with 
B. D. Allen and Sherman Wagner. We all 
started in April, 1874, and drove to Douglas 



Grove, where we selected our homesteads and 
commenced to improve them, but just as the 
ears of corn began to fonu, the grasshoppers 
appeared, and in a few hours completely ate 
up every green thing. In the edge of a draw 
L'ncle Dave had some tobacco plants which 
were very choice, and he anticipated the pleas- 
ure of smoking the weed of his own raising 
the coming winter. But, alas! his hopes were 
blasted. He covered the plants with anything 
he could get, but the festive hoppers ate holes 
in the covering and chewed Uncle Dave's to- 
bacco as long as it lasted. 

"The settlers were left entirely destitute, 
not having produced a thing for the support 
of themselves and their families during the 
winter. The government at this time had 
troops stationed at a point about nine miles 
above Ord. the county seat of \'alley county, 
and it had been decided to erect more commo- 
dious quarters for the soldiers. There was 
plenty of sand and gravel, and work was com- 
menced on the garrison. The walls were con- 
structed of red cedar, of which there was an 
abundance in the canyons not far distant. A 
saw mill was put in operation and teams were 
hired to haul the logs and lumber, as well as 
all other material needed in constructing the 
fort. The settlers flocked in from all direc- 
tions and were given employment by the gov- 
ernment. Allen and mj'self and Caswell went 
over. Allen got a job working in the mill, 
while Caswell and I hauled gravel from the 
pit and assisted on the walls of the building." 

THE SENATOR WAS NOT H.\NDSOME 

A good story is told at the expense of Sen- 
ator Frank M. Currie, who is not noted for 
his chesterfieldian appearance. During Cur- 
rie's candidacy for state senator. Uncle Swain 
Finch was very energetic in his support of the 
senator, although he had never met him. La- 
ter, after the election was over, both met on the 
street and a friend introduced them. Currie 
was profuse in his thanks for the work that 
Uncle Swain hadclone for him. "Yes I voted 
fur you," responded Swain, "but if I had 

known that you were so d n homely I 

wouldn't have done it." They were the best 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



143 



of friends from that time until the death of 
Uncle Swain. 

BURLIN AND KELLEXBARGER HAVE SOME 
EXPERIENCE 

Concerning early daj's when all goods had 
to be freighted from railroad towns in the 
eastern part of the state, the late Bradford 
Iiurlin wrote an account of a trip he made to 
the eastern part of the state in the year 1883. 
On this trip he fell in with Joe Kellenbarger 
from whom this manuscript was obtained and 
who vouches for its authenticity. This is the 
way Burlin tells it : 

"Do any of these latter-day saints have any 
idea what a trip to the railroad meant in the 
early days, especially if one got caught in a 
storm? Now let me give you newcomers a 
correct account of one of these trips and if 
you should think that this picture is in any 
way overdrawn, just ask Mr. Joe Kellenbar- 
ger, who was there with me. In the latter 
part of July, 1883, I lived near New Helena. 
( )n the 11th of July a destructive hail storm 
destroyed sixty-five acres of corn, also the last 
vestige of our garden and all other crops. Be- 
ing nearly out of supplies at the time, I con- 
cluded to start for the railroad for a few 
months' supply. And here the troubles of that 
trip began ; my wife declared I was never go- 
ing to the road again unless I washed my feet 
and put on socks. So I went down and waded 
in the creek for a while and came in and called 
for the socks but she had already made the 
discovery that I was short on socks to the ex- 
tent that I lacked just one' pair of having any, 
but she also made the discovery that she had 
one pair of those then, up-to-date, stockings, 
in red. white and blue rings or stripes, and 
looked like barber poles. She said they were 
so long she couldn't quite touch the bottom of 
them when she stood up in them, but when I 
came back they would need washing, and that 
would shrink them up so they would be right 
for her. So I donned the stockings and start- 
ed. It rained almost continually until I got 
back. I went to our old home at Silver Creek, 
forty-four miles below Grand Island, and when 
I came back, left the railroad at Chapman and 



hit the trail eight miles further north. Here 
I fell in with another fellow who was not much 
more pleasantly situated than I. It was Joe 
Kellenbarger. He was trying to get back to 
Dale with lumber with which to make some 
show of building on his claim. As we were 
both going to practically the same place, we 
soon became quite chummy and between show- 
ers cussed and discussed matters in general, 
but a storm was on and it was slow traveling. 
"One day Joe said that if we could only 
make it to Gregory's that day, that Gregory 
had a roof that did not leak and we would 
have one night without being drowned. So 
we pushed our teams all day and got there 
just before sundown. There were six or sev- 
en covered wagons in the yard and a raft of 
women and children arovmd the house, so we 
figured that a dry bed was out of the question. 
We said we would water our teams and drive 
out on the prairie and camp. While we were 
watering the teams, a young lady, of perhaps 
eighteen or twenty, came down to the well to 
scrape acquaintance and she told us they were 
a colony from Missouri, twenty-nine of them. 
They were most all relatives to the Gregorys 
except two that sat out on a log, who were 
two old maids that had come along to look 
for land, but she thought they were looking 
for a man about as much as they were for land. 
All of the men had gone out in the hills liunt- 
ing to kill some elk or deer, for they were out 
of meat. 

A RACE THROUGH THE STORM 

''We drove about one hundred rods and 
camped on a side hill. There was a storm 
brewing in the north but as that could not be 
helped, we fed and staked our horses. We 
spread Joe's tent cloth over the wagon-pole, 
took off our coats and boots and crawled under 
and got a nice sleep until about twelve o'clock, 
when the worst thunder, lightning, and rain 
storm that I ever experienced came up. First 
we were drowned from the under side, then 
the wind blew the tent cloth away and we 
were drowned from the upper side, and there 
we were without coats, boots, or hats. We 
ran for the house. Joe had on just plain Ne- 



144 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



braska, three-for-a-quarter socks. The mud 
began to stick to our feet, making our socks 
so heavy that every time we took a step they 
would slip down a few inches. Joe's being 
short, he had not gone but a few rods until he 
got clear of them entirely, and in every flash 
of lightning I could see him going down the 
road, running like a jack rabbit ; sometimes he 
was up in the air and sometimes on the ground. 
Those long zebras of mine went to playing 
the same trick and pulled off until there was 
about a yard hanging to each foot, loaded with 
mud. They kept flopping in front of me. I 
could not run around them nor jump over 
them, nor get away from them. I had to stop 
there in the rain and climb on those rings and 
get out at the top. Then there was another 
jack rabbit show down the road, but I made 
time and caught up with Joe just as he got 
to the door. He did not wait to knock but 
pushed the door open and went in stumbling, 
and was in the middle of the room before he 
could stop. 

SOMETHING OF A ".MIX-UP" 

"Now talk about the thunder and lightning, 
here is where they both had to take a back 
seat. \\"e found that all the men and boys 
had come in from hunting and had made their 
colony bed on the floor. The bed was just 
as big as the floor and when they all got to 
bed it was just full and Joe was treading 
around right in the middle of it. The men 
were hollowing, 'Who is there?' and 'What is 
wanted?' and the two old maids that were 
way over in one corner were piping out "Man 
in the house. There's a man in the house.' 
We finally succeeded in getting them all c|uiet 
except two or three of the children whom Joe 
had been walking on. I called for a light so 
we could see something, then away went the 
old maids again. They said there was not 
going to be any light. It was a pretty mess 
and with strange men in the house they didn't 
want a light. They added that if that was the 
kind of carryings-on they had out west they 
would go straight back to Missouri. But some 
one got a light and I started to apologize for 
Joe's getting into the bed with his muddy feet, 



but the}' said never mind apologies, they were 
glad we came in and they wanted to talk with 
us about Nebraska. 

"We stayed an hour or more, until the worst 
of the storm was over, and told them plenty 
about Nebraska. Don't remember whether 
any of it was true or not. They insisted on 
our staying all night, but we said we would 
go back to the wagons and see if any of our 
horses were dead or loose, but might come back 
and stay until daylight. We started out, it 
was still raining some, and we got into that 
cold mud and Joe got into some cactus, so 
both said, 'Let's go back and stay until morn- 
ing.' Joe said there was one or two of those 
fellows that he did not like the looks of. and 
believed they would just as soon go through a 
fellow's pockets as not, but those two old maids 
were mighty nice people. He said, 'We will 
go back and lay down, if we can find room, 
and you go to sleep for a while and I will keep 
one eye open, then I will wake you up and I 
will take a nap.' We went back in and the 
boss of the colony hustled them around until 
they got a little room in one corner and told 
us we could get over there and lie down. The 
boss asked if we were all right and we said 
we were, so he said: 'Some one turn out the 
light,' and away went the old maids again. 
They said the light was not going to be put 
out. It was bad enough with strange men in 
the bed, and to put the light out would be 
worse. They talked some more about going 
back to Missouri. I'ut they fixed the matters 
up among themselves and. I believe, turned the 
light partly out. The last 1 remembered. Joe 
was telling me something about going to sleep 
with one eye open, and then waking me up, 
but I went to sleep with both eyes shut and 
the next thing I woke and it was broad day- 
light. I looked over at Joe and if I ever saw 
a man that I thought was dead it was he : and 
for a minute or two if ever any fellow wished 
he was in Custer county and had stayed in 
Custer county it was I. 

XKAKLV RUINED HIS EVE 

"Just then Joe gave a little snore and I saw 
that he 'was not dead but sleeping.' He had 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



145 



one eye open all the same and that was twisted 
around in the socket so that it was looking 
at right angles with his nose and was pointing 
straight over to that corner where the old 
maids were. Then the other side of the sit- 
uation presented itself to me and I got to 
laughing, and the more I tried to stop the 
more I couldn't stop. Finally Joe woke up 
and wanted to know what the matter was and 
seemed to be quite grouchy. He said if we 
could not behave ourselves we had better leave 
and not wake the whole house up, so we 



crawled out. Joe very quietly and I as much 
so as I could. I couldn't keep from looking 
at Joe and every time I looked at him I had 
to laugh. Finally he said, 'What is the matter 
with you, man, are you drunk or going crazy?' 
I said, 'Why, man, don't you know that one of 
your eyes is cross-legged?' He said it didn't 
feel altogether right and guessed he must have 
strained it keeping watch last night. We kept 
a sharp lookout for our socks on the way back 
to the wagons but the water had carried them 
away and we never found them." 



CHAPTER MI 
HARD WINTERS AXD HARD TBIES 

The Black Winter of 1880-81— A Tough Time ix 1880 — Heaw Losses — As Things 
Looked to Bishop — Accidents and Tragedies — Xo Christmas Presents — An Early 
Blizzard — Down Twice but Not Out — Frozen to Death in Powell Canyon — The 
Blizzard OF 1888 — A Hard Times Christmas — Christmas Entertainments in the 
\'arious Churches in Broken Bow — Filled up on Christmas — The Glovers Weath- 
er Ninety-four — Didn't Carry off the Mortgage — Fourth of July Hailstorm 
— Dry Ninety-four — He Won Out — Had to be Helped — Poor but Hap- 
py — A Home-grown Cyclone — Worst Blizzard in Thirty Years — 
S'HEEP Perish ix Transit 



During- the early years of any countrv hard 
winters and hard times are twin born. No 
way by wliich they can be divorced lias been 
invented by any genius yet born. Hard win- 
ters, when people are ill-prepared, insure hard- 
ships and privations. The brave pioneers of 
Custer county weathered their share of storrhs 
and endured their proper quota of hard times. 

The first houses were poorly constructed, 
fuel was exceedingly scarce, warm clothing 
was not over-abundant, the heating plant was 
often the kitchen stove, the country was open, 
without groves or wind brakes, and under 
these conditions weather that could hardly 
be reckoned as cold under present conditions, 
was considered then very severe and oppres- 
sive. Feed was scarce, stock unsheltered, or, 
at best, poorly sheltered, and all these things 
combined to entail hardships which none but 
the brave could endure and conquer. 

Hats off in the presence of tho.se men and 
women who stemmed the tide of early winters, 
who met. without grumbling or complaining, 
the conditions of early days, lived to enjoy the 
steam-heated, pla.stered house, and who ride 
through the winters of the present time 
wrajjped in flannels and furs .and snugly en- 
sconced in a stove-warmed auto, into which 



the northern blasts can bring no discomforts. 



It serves them right. Their pioneering years 
have earned all the comforts the present day 
can bring them. 

In presenting this chapter on hard winters 
and hard times the stories of old settlers have 
been compiled. The people who endured the 
storms and years tell their own stories. 

THE BLACK W INTER OF 1880-1 

The winter of 1880-81 will never be forgot- 
ten b\' those engaged in the cattle business in 
Custer county. Men who in the beginning of 
that winter were wealthy, found themselves 
bankrupt in the spring. 

Early in the winter a rain began falling. 
The grass became thoroughly saturated ; then 
it suddenly turned cold, and every stalk, spear 
and blade of grass at once became an icicle — 
all matted together in one sheet of solid ice. 
Immediately following this came a heavy snow, 
from ten to twelve inches deep, which was 
again followed by another rain, and this in 
turn b\- another sudden cold wave, the result 
of which was to cover the surface of the snow 
with a thick, strong crust. 

The country was covered with ice and snow 
until spring. The winter was very severe, the 
temperature ranging for days and weeks at 
from ten to twentv below zero. The condi- 



l-ki 



1 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



147 



tions were such that it was ahnoSt impossible 
for the cattle to get to the grass. The winds, 
which ordinarily blew the snow off the hills 
and left the grass thereon free to the cattle, 
could not affect this solid body of ice and snow. 

The legs of the cattle, traveling about in a 
famished condition seeking food, soon became 
bruised and bleeding from contact with the 
sharp crust on the snow. There was plenty 
of feed on the ground, but the cattle could not 
get at it. They died by the hundreds and 
thousands. It was estimated that from seven- 
ty-five to ninety per cent." of the cows and 
calves on the range perished that winter and 
sixty per cent, of the steers also perished. They 
lay in piles behind the hills where they had 
sought shelter. 

The following spring many who had en- 
gaged in the business in Custer county, and 
who until this winter had believed there was 
no g-razing country equal to it, quit the busi- 
ness in disgust and left the county. 

Nothing like this winter had preceded it in 
the history of the country, and nothing like it 
has been experienced since. 

A TOUGH TIME IN 1880 

H. Lomax, who at the present time is a resi- 
dent of Broken Bow and prominent in Custer 
county banking activities, has served his time 
as an early settler, and concerning his experi- 
ences makes the following statement : 

"My first introduction to the South Loup 
river occurred in April, 1880, at a point about 
half a mile above the mouth of Ash creek. 
Having made the journey from Plum Creek 
in a heavily loaded wagon, we struck the river 
just as the sun was sinking into the western 
prairie and tinging the tops of the eastern 
hills with a glow of red. The log shanty in 
which we intended to camp was on the other 
side of the stream, and we started across. Be- 
fore proceeding ten feet our team stopped and 
the wagon settled to the axles in quicksand, 
the water gently washing the bottom of the 
wagon box. A portage was necessary, and 
not only was the cargo all carried across, but 
we had to wade back and forth with the dif- 
ferent parts of the wagon, taking out a wheel 



at a time. Having at length arrived at our 
destination, cold, wet, and weary, we proceeded 
to prepare our supper. Our log shanty, in the 
middle of a dense grove of cottonwood and 
willow, had the river on one side and a bayou 
on the other. Before supper was ready a 
whirr of wings called me to the door. O, 
land of ducks ! Hundreds were there before 
me of all colors and sizes — flying, swimming, 
diving, in the security of their ignorance. Af- 
ter this, duck was too common a food to be 
mentioned in our cuisine. Our shanty had 
been shingled with cow-hides, thrown on the 
roof. During the night a cold north wind 
whistled through the crevices between the logs 
of our dwelling, which had not been chinked, 
and we arose, took off the roof covering and 
pinned the hides up against the wall to serve 
as siding. After this, whenever it rained we 
put the hides on the roof to keep out the 
water and when it blew we put them on the 
side of the house to keep out the wind — a 
very simple and effective device which fur- 
nished additional proof of the truth of the old 
saying that 'necessity is the mother of inven- 
tion.' One of the settlers in this part of the 
country was Saul Garringer. He was a per- 
fect architect in the construction of dugouts, 
and he evolved from the original trapper's 
hole in the ground a series of apartments which 
lacked only electric lights and steam heat to 
make them equal to any modern palatial resi- 
dence. Whenever he was not making a new 
dugout he was building some addition to the 
old one. He was also a lineal descendant of 
Nimrod of old, and hunted exclusively with 
the rifle. He it was who gave me the first 
clear conception of the possibilities of rifle- 
shooting. While hunting ducks with him one 
day he observed that I always aimed at the 
body of the bird ; he explained to me that this 
cut the flesh up too much, and that he always 
hit them in the head. 

"The spring of 1880 was extremely dry, so 
drv that the wheat in the Platte valley refused 
to sprout, and had to be plowed up and corn 
planted in its place. On the third day of July 
it began to rain and the rest of the summer 
was excessively wet. August 10th a cloud- 



148 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



burst occurred in the vicinity now occupied by 
the village of Callaway, which caused a serious 
flood in the South Loup and Wood river val- 
leys. The Loup bottoms were running with 
three or four feet of water for twelve hours, 
and the fringes of willows that lined the river 
banks were filled with cedar posts and rails 
that had been washed down from the corrals 
of ranches above. The rain, which fell during 
the greater portion of September, turned in 
October to snow, which continued to fall in 
enormous quantities all winter. During the 
fall, the work of the beaver, which was plenti- 
ful along the river, amounted to a veritable 
massacre of the timber which lined the banks. 
During the months of October and November 
they could be seen working in droves, prepar- 
ing for the long winter which their instinct 
warned them was coming on. 

"Thousands of sheep had been driven into 
the country during the summer of 1880, and 
the winter which followed left in many cases 
not more than twenty per cent, of the herds 
alive. After a severe snowstorm in October 
and cold weather in November, the ice on the 
river was strong enough to bear heavy loads. 
The real winter snow began to fall December 
16th. and from that time until March the 
ground had a covering of eighteen inches on 
the level, with drifts twenty feet deep. The 
wind was almost continuous and the cold at 
times intense. The cloudy days were unusual- 
ly numerous for Nebraska. In December the 
clear days amounted to seventeen, in January 
sixteen, in February eighteen. The average 
temperature at eight o'clock a.m. in December 
was 33; in January 25.9; in February 30.4. 
Cattle on the range stood day after day, week 
after week, chewing leaves, twigs, branches, 
and bank, until the trees were eaten bare as high 
as a cow could reach, and the branches were 
chewed so they looked like frayed ropes. 
Thousands of the poor animals died, and it 
has always been a mystery to me how any 
survived. In the spring many of them which 
survived lost their horns and hoofs, which 
had been frozen, and dropped oflf when the 
thaw came. When the ice broke up in the 
river it was a month before it could be crossed 



in safety. John McGinn was then located two 
miles up Ash creek, where the Plattsmouth 
ranch now is. He had purchased some corn 
in Wood river valley but was unable to haul 
it across the Loup river, and it had to be 
dragged across with a rope, one sack at a 
time. At that time there was not a bridge 
across the Loup in Custer county." 

HE.\\'\' LOSSES 

It is estimated that sixty to si.xty-five per 
cent, of range cattle perished during the win- 
ter of 1880-81, which until the present time is 
referred to by old settlers as "The Hard Win- 
ter." 

Blessings sometimes come in ill-shaped dis- 
guise. It was so in this case. The enormous 
loss of stock put the cattlemen out of busi- 
ness and delivered the range over to the settler 
and his breaking-plow. The growing feud 
between the rancher and the settler was over. 
This was to be an agricultural rather than a 
range country. This decree was written ir- 
revocably on the white banks of the drifted 
snow during the winter and fulfilled in the yel- 
low harvests that have succeeded each other 
since that winter. 

AS THINGS LOOKED TO BISHOP 

The following is taken from a July, 1918, 
issue of the Custer County Chief «nd describes 
the impression Custer county made on a vis- 
itor who came here in March. 1881 : 

"J. C. Bishop, brother of the late E. N. 
Bishop, of Gates, arrived in this city Friday 
of last week, from Boston. In a conversation 
he told of the first time he saw Custer county. 
He came to Nebraska from \'irginia, upon the 
solicitation of his brother, to enter the cattle 
business in the winter of 1881. March 1. 1881. 
he arrived in Broken Bow, coming overland 
from Grand Island. A big blizzard had just 
passed over the country. Cattle were dead 
by the thousands, frozen to death in the wil- 
lows along the streams. Mr. Bishop says he 
thought he saw at least 100,000 in all before 
he got to his brother's place. The cattle bus- 
iness did not look good to him, notwithstand- 
ing old settlers told him that every winter 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



149 



would not be like the last. But he contended 
that he might work for years and then lose all 
his increase in one storm, so accordingly he 
returned to \'irginia. He states now that he 
was never more surprised than by the pro- 
gress and development of this country. He 
declares that the climate is different entirely 
and he attributes the change to the number 
of trees which now are to be found every- 
where."' 

ACCIDENTS AND TRAGEDIES 

Trials and hardships are the common heri- 
tage of all pioneers. In March, 1878, J. F. 
Henderson, from Harrison county, Missouri, 
settled on Lillian creek. February 27, 1879, 
he went into Hunter's Shanty canyon to cut 
cedar for fuel and posts. He had nearly com- 
pleted his day's work when in felling a twenty- 
two inch tree it turned on its stump as it fell, 
in such a way as to strike Mr. Henderson, 
throwing him down the steep canyon side, 
where he struck on a pile of brush. His left 
arm was broken in two places, his left hip dis- 
located and the leg broken below the knee. 
In this condition, with snow, on the ground, 
he lay from sundown until after sunrise the 
next morning, when he was found by his wife. 
I'nable to move him in any way, she went for 
help to the nearest residence, that of her daugh- 
ter, ^Irs. James O.xford. It was noon when, 
with oxen and a wagon, they came back and 
the bruised and broken sufferer was taken a 
mile to the home of James Oxford. To get 
help was the next thing, and remembering that 
three trappers had been at the mouth of Lil- 
lian creek, j\Irs. Oxford started for the camp, 
two miles away. One man was there, and 
when she told him of the accident to her 
father and asked him to go for help to the 
nearest neighbor's place, on Victoria creek, 
eight miles distant, the trapper said: "I know 
how to sympathize with you, for I lost my 
wife and child in a blizzard." He started on 
his sixteen-mile run, and came back the next 
morning with Isaac and Temp Merchant. 
Temp was dispatched for the nearest doctor, 
having to go to Loup City, fifty miles down 



the river. Dr. Hawkins reached the CJxford 
home Sunday morning, the fourth day after 
the accident, under the influence of liquor, and 
incompetent to do the surgical work required. 
Running his hand hastily over the broken 
leg, he said : "Your leg is all right, but the 
arm will have to be amputated." With knife 
and saw he cut the arm square off, took two 
or three stitches from skin to skin across the 
freshly cut flesh, and said it was all that was 
necessary for him to do. Mr. Merchant in- 
sisted that the leg was broken and must be 
dressed. With reluctance, the doctor roughly 
tried to put the broken bones in place and 
bound them with splints, then left for his 
home. Seven months Mr. Henderson lay in 
that pioneer home, unable to get from his bed, 
when he was moved to Mrs. Comstock's home. 
Every settler from Loup City to Victoria creek 
vied with each other in rendering kindness to 
the sufferer. Connected with this incident is 
the pathetic death of little Daisy Oxford, the 
pet granddaughter of Mr. Henderson. A 
slender child of eighteen months, she sat at 
his bedside on the Saturday before the doctor 
came ; rocking forward, she, in some way, 
caught the bail of the tea kettle, sitting on 
the edge of the stove, and the contents of 
boiling water was poured over her head and 
hands. The little suft'erer, under the care of 
Mrs. Comstock, who had been sent for, lived 
nearly a week. Mr. Eubank preached her 
funeral sermon, and then remained four days, 
expecting to be called to preach the funeral of 
Mr. Henderson. ^Ir. Henderson did not die 
but lived to express his gratitude to the old 
settlers who filled the office of good Samaritan 
to him in those days. 

NO CHRISTMAS PRESENTS 

Another incident that speaks of the priva- 
tions of the pioneer's life and his love for his 
family, was the death of Arnett, on the Bayhof- 
fer place. Christmas was near, and there was 
no money to get the loved ones a present. The 
father took his gun, in which the breech pin 
was secured with a piece of wire, and went to 
the cornfield, thinking to get chickens to sell 



150 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



and buy Christmas presents. They found him 
next day with the breech pin blown through 
his head. 

.\X E-ARLY BLIZZARD 

\\'hen C. \\". Prettyman moved his family 
on to the new claim he had pre-empted in the 
Ash creek valley in November of 1886. he 
domiciled the family in an improvised shack 
while he was building a more substantial sod 
mansion. The shack was made by setting up 
two-by-fours on the ground in roof or \" shape 
and covering them with shiplap. The gable 
ends were closed up by nailing up the wagon- 
covers. 

On the 15th of November a snow storm 
set in, and before night it developed into one 
of the worst blizzards the country has ever 
known. He relates the experience of himself 
and family during the storm, as follows : 

"The snow fell into our roof house like 
meal through a sieve. The situation was very 
serious and I was actually afraid that my wife 
and little ones would be frozen to death. I 
had sent my oldest son over to Mr. King's to 
look after the horses before dark, and I hoped 
that he would remain there all night and that 
they would come and rescue us in the morning. 
In this I was not disappointed. Soon after 
daybreak we saw them coming, plowing their 
way through the snow. I had slid out of my 
bed under the eaves of my roof, where I had 
laid under a sprinkle of snow about eighteen 
inches deep, and after digging around in a 
snowbank piled up in a corner I unearthed a 
suit of clothes and a pair of boots, which I 
got into. I then waded through another drift 
to the stove, dug it out and started a tire. By 
this time the wagon of Mr. King had ar- 
rived and we dug the children out from under 
their covering of snow, steaming like pigs in a 
straw stack, piled them in the wagon and set 
off for Mr. King's, under whose hospitable 
roof we stayed until the storm was over. 
When we returned to our shanty it was full 
of snow, which I scooped out and got out dry 
goods. Soon afterward we finished our house, 
having to cut the frozen sod with an ax." 



DOWX TWICE BUT NOT OUT 

'SI. E. Brandenburg came from Saratoga, 
New York, in March, 1878, and started a cat- 
tle ranch at the mouth of Sand creek, on the 
south side of the Middle Loup river, two and 
one-half miles southeast of the present site of 
Sargent. 

He came ^t the beginning and has probably 
endured as many privations and hardships as 
the average pioneer. The hard winter of 
1880-81 took from him his all, as it did that of 
many others, and he was compelled to begin 
life anew. He went to work by the month to 
get a new start, and had succeeded very well 
— when, in the early '90s, a series of disas- 
ters — an unfortunate business venture, the 
loss of his hogs by cholera, and nearly all of 
his cattle through chronic abortion, together 
with the loss of his crops — again floored him 
and left him a bankrupt at the beginning of 
1895. A change in the tide of his affairs then 
turned the current into the channel of pros- 
perity, and in a few years he had one of the 
best stock farms in central Nebraska, the same 
comprising nearly 600 acres, valued at S8,000, 
and an equipment worth very nearly as much 
more, including one of the best herds of short- 
horns in the state, roadster, horses, a splendid 
drove of hogs and the necessary complement 
of farming implements, — all accumulated dur- 
ing the last eight years. \'erily, the resources 
of the average Nebraskan are almost bound- 
less. 

I-ROZEX TO DE.\TII IX POWELL C.VXVOX 

In speaking of hard winters and hard times 
J D. Haskell stands sponsor for the truth of 
the following account : 

Elisha W. Clark, a hunter and trapper, was 
frozen to death in Powell canyon, northeast 
of Arnold, in December, 1879. Clark had been 
a colonel in the war of the rebellion, was a 
widower, and had for a number of years fol- 
lowed hunting and trapping for a livelihood. 
He established his camp in Powell canyon on 
December 2d, his only companions being his 
team and a couple of large greyhounds. About 
a week afterward he was seen by a cedar 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



151 



hunter on his way to ]\Ir. Goodyear's hay 
stacks after some hay for his team, and said 
that he intended to carry the hay in his arms 
to his camp, which was three miles away. No 
more was thought of the trapper for some 
time by the few residents of the neighborhood, 
but one day the dead bodies of his two hounds 
were found near Air. Goodyear's haystacks. 
The weather was intensely cold, and the 
ground was covered with snow, and it was 
feared that Clark might have shared the fate 



of time. They had gnawed the bark off the 
tree to which they were tied and eaten every 
bush and twig within reach. One • of the 
horses had eaten of¥ the limb to which he was 
tied, thus saving his life. The party scoured 
the vicinity thoroughly, without result. The 
county commissioners offered a reward of fif- 
ty dollars to anyone finding the body of Clark. 
During the following spring, while hunting for 
some horses, C. W. Hughey, of Arnold, came 
across the dead body of the unfortunate trap- 




Powell Canyon, near Arnold, where some years ago a hunter and trapper lost his way and 
was frozen to death, his body not being found until the following spring 



that had apparently overtaken the dogs. A 
search was immediately instituted, but no 
trace of the missing man or his team could be 
found. On the 1st day of January a party of 
cedar haulers reported that they had found a 
wagon and two horses in one of the numerous 
pockets of Powell canyon, and a party went 
at once to the place, where they discovered 
the horses. One of the horses was dead and 
the other nearly so. As Clark had been miss- 
ing for three weeks, it is supposed that the 
poor animals had been there about that length 



per, at the head of a small pocket in the can- 
yon, his gun by his side. He had evidently died 
on his knees, apparently crawling into the nar- 
row place to get such protection from the cold 
as its walls afforded. 

It was nearly night when he had been seen 
at the stacks after hay, and it is the supposi- 
tion that in attempting to return to his cainp 
in the darkness he became bewildered in the 
maze of pockets that indent the canyon, until, 
overcome with weariness, he sank down and 
was frozen to death. The bodv was found five 



152 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



miles southwest of where his camp had been, 
and had he proceeded another mile in the di- 
rection, in which he was apparently traveling 
when he succumbed, he would have come into 
the South Loup valley within sight of Chapin's 
ranch. 

THE BLIZZARD OF 1888 

Old settlers shiver yet, when the famous 
blizzard of January 12, 1888, is mentioned. 
That was one of the fiercest storms that ever 
struck the country. Shortly before noon the 
wind veered to the north and west and with- 
out warning came the whirl and swirl of a 
blinding blizzard, such as the old settlers of 
that time had not seen before. The thermom- 
eter dropped twenty degrees in almost as 
many minutes. Hundreds of people were 
caught away from home and thousands of 
cattle and horses were out on the fields and 
ranges without shelter. The storm was so 
blinding that stock could not be driven against 
the wind. Accordingly they drifted with the 
storm and many perished. It was almost im- 
possible for a man to find his way through the 
blinding snow from the house to the barn, or 
from the barn back to the house. Teachers 
and children were caught in the school-houses 
and in many places stayed all night, and next 
day, in the school-house. If they happened 
to have fuel they were fortunate and suffered 
slight inconvenience. 

The storm was general throughout the mid- 
dle west. It raged, however, with greatest fury 
in the Dakotas and northern Nebraska. Many 
lives were lost and everywhere there was a 
great loss of stock. Custer county was for- 
tunate, however, and no loss of human life was 
credited to this blizzard in this county. Many 
blizzards have swept the open prairies of cen- 
tral Nebraska, but the Custerites who weath- 
ered the blizzard of 1888 are past masters in 
the lore of storm, winds, and snow. During 
this blizzard the temperature fell to thirty-two 
in this county, but throughout the storm region 
it ranged from twenty to fifty-two below, 
which made this blizzard match and over- 
match the great storm of 1882. 



A HARD TIMES CHRISTMAS 

The following is from the Christmas an- 
nouncements of the Custer Couiitx Chief. De- 
cember 21, the issue before the celebration: 

Christmas will be generally observed by the 
various churches of the city. The festivities 
will not, in all probability, be on as grand a 
scale as in years of greater prosperity, but 
will, nevertheless, be just as attractive and 
every bit as enjoyable. Instead of making a 
grand display there seems to be a tendency 
among all the churches to exert every effort 
in relieving the destitute and distressed, of 
which we have our full share. This, to say 
the least, is very commendable. 

The next week the same jjaper gives the fol- 
lowing account of the exercises as they were 
rendered in the various churches of Broken 
Bow : 

The Christian church gave a very nice en- 
tertainment on Christmas Eve, consisting of a 
musical and literary program. Santa Claus 
appeared and distributed nuts and candies to 
the little ones. On Christmas day a hand- 
some thing was done by the good people of 
this denomination. Instead of buying presents 
for the children, the money was used in pre- 
paring an excellent dinner, and over one hun- 
dred people were fed, including the children 
of the Sunday school and ten poor families 
who were invited in. The food which was 
left was then distributed among poor families. 

The Presbyterian church entertainment on 
Christmas Eve was a novel affair. An old- 
fashioned fire-place was erected on the pulpit 
and above that was built a brick chimney. The 
bricks, however, were pasteboard bo.xes filled 
with nuts and candies which old Santa Claus 
distributed to the children. A good program 
was carried out. At the close of the enter- 
tainment the children were marched into the 
lecture room, where tables were spread and 
sup])er was served to them. This program 
was a complete surprise to the little folks and 
was much enjoyed by them. 

The entertainment at the Episcopal church 
was held on Christmas night and was out of 
the usual order of Christmas doings. The pro- 
gram consisted of music and of short Christ- 
mas tales by Professor Currie. L. H. Jewett, 
Mrs. Chrisman, Rev. Robbins. and j\Irs. A. 
Morgan. The latter was particularly interest- 
ing, as I\Irs. Morgan related the story of her 
being stolen by cannibals on the Fiji Islands 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



153 



when a small child. Candy and nuts were 
distributed to the children of the Sabbath 
school. 

The Christmas p_vramid was the attraction 
at the Baptist church. It was laden with 
presents, which were distributed by old S'anta 
Claus. A splendid program was rendered. 

At the Methodist church a program of reci- 
tations, songs, etc., had been prepared and was 
successfully carried out. The little folks were 
nicely remembered with candies and nuts. 

FILLED UP ON CHRISTMAS 

Under the caption of "Christmas dinners" 
the Chief publishes the following list of din- 
ner parties which were given on the hard-win- 
ter Christmas day of 1894: 

Mrs. Belle Doxie entertained a lively crowd 
of young people at her home for dinner. 
Those present were Mr. and Mrs. F. W. Hayes, 
the Misses Flora Gould, Ora Spence, Grace 
Cox, Josie Sheppard, Lillie Snodgrass, and 
the Messrs. H. A. Thompson, Dr. Hallar, 
Harry Day, M. A. Sullivan, and E. R. Purcell. 

The dinner party at the home of Mr. and 
Mrs. F. M. Rublee was made up of Mr. and 
Mrs. S. B. Thompson, Mr. and Mrs. Ed. 
McComas, Mr. and Mrs. F. B. Bartlett, Mrs. 
Patterson, Miss !Mamie Thompson, and !Mr. 
Nine McComas. 

At the home of ]\lr. and Mrs. L. H. Jewett, 
there were gathered at a sumptuous feast, Mr. 
and Mrs. H. H. Wirt, Mr. and Mrs. O. P. 
Perley, Rev. Bailey, and Roy Wirf. 

Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Shepherd entertained 
a party at dinner, consisting of Mr. and i\Irs. 
J. A. Harris and family. Captain Burnham, 
and E. H. King. 

Mr. and Mrs. E. P. Campbell departed from 
the time-honored custom of a Christmas din- 
ner and gave a Christmas breakfast to a party 
of friends, with a Christmas tree well laden 
with presents for the little ones. It was a 
unique aiifair. Those present were Mr. and 
Mrs. Alpha Morgan, Mr. and Mrs. J. W. 
Haney, Mrs. Scruggs and daughter Belle, and 
Mr. and Mrs. Mosby and family. Alpha Mor- 
gan acted as Santa Claus. 

Mr. and Mrs. H. M. Sullivan shared an 
elegant dinner at their home with Mr. and 
Mrs. C. L. Gutterson and family, Mr. and 
Mrs. F. M. Currie and family, and Mrs. Kimel 
Barns. 

Mr. and ]\Irs. George Purcell entertained 
Mr. and Mrs. W. G. Purcell and family, and 
Mr. W. T. S'cherr at the Christmas dinner. 

At the home of i\Ir. and Mrs. Alpha Mor- 



gan a Christmas feast was served to Rev. and 
Airs. E. Robbins, and Mr. Con Gibson, of 
Ansley. 

Mr. and Mrs. E. C. House entertained J. H. 
Thompson and J. E. Mallett, of Ravenna, at 
their home on Christmas day. 

At the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. G. Maulick 
there were assembled at a Christmas feast, Mr. 
and Mrs. W. B. Eastham, Mr. and Mrs. J. C. 
Maulick, Miss Henderson, and Mrs. Bailar, 
of Strang, Nebraska. 

THB GLOVERS WEATHER NINETY-FOUR 

H. B. Glover writes his experience in get- 
ting through the hard winter : 

"In the late '80s homesteaders were prov- 
ing up on their claims and mortgaging them. 
A Custer county mortgage had a certain mar- 
ket value in the east. One could borrow from 
five hundred to eight hundred dollars on a 
quarter-section, at ten per cent interest, — 
making out the note and mortgage at seven 
per cent interest for five years, then figuring the 
other three per cent for five years, which on an 
$800 loan would amount to $120, making a sep- 
arate note of this secured by a second mortgage 
due in two and one-half years. This went to the 
agent as commission, and it was so attractive 
that agents traveled the countrs' soliciting the 
homesteaders to prove up and take a loan. 
The agent in some cases advanced the money 
for the expense of making pjoof and in case 
that the homesteader had not resided on his 
claim the requisite five years they would ad- 
vance two hundred dollars for the purpose of 
"paying out" or commuting the homestead. 
The loan business became so lucrative that ir- 
responsible parties went into the business; 
making out the papers on a piece of land, 
promising the money within sixty days, then 
placing the papers on the eastern market to 
sell before he could fulfill his part of the con- 
tract. 

"Thus the country practically all became 
mortgaged and in the case of the rough land 
mortgaged for more than it was then worth. 

didn't carry off the mortgage 

"Many a homesteader on a rough claim, 
considering his place well sold, as soon as the 
money was paid over loaded his family and 



154 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



goods into his wagon and went back to his 
wife's folks and when the "soddy" went down 
there was nothing left on the place but the 
mortgage. Others stayed and while the crops 
were good could make a living, but prices 
were so cheap that they couldn't raise the in- 
terest and taxes. Then came the crop failure 
of 1890, when we didn't raise enough to live 
on. More of them left their places to the 
mortgage. In 1890 and 1892 we raised good 
crops, but prices were low. yet we had just 
about recovered from the failure of 1890. The 
year 1893 came with a half of a crop and a 
general business stagnation. — labor out of 
employment and Coxey's army invading \\'ash- 
ington. Everybody was hard up, made their 
old clothes do another year, hoping for better 
times next year. Next year was dry. The 
ground was dry clear down. We had a rain 
and snow storm the last days of March that 
wet down about six inches. The grain came 
up, no more rain came and it died before it 
got big enough for a cow to feed on. \\"e 
then put in some more seed, hoping to get 
rain to make it' grow. A light shower came 
and brought it up so that we could see the 
drill rows across the field, and that is as far 
as it got, as the moisture was all gone. We 
planted and cultivated our corn. There was 
enough moisture, reta'ined by the cultivation to 
bring the corn up high enough to brush the 
axle of the cultivator and some tassels began 
to show, but there it stopped. \\'e went in 
with, a sled corn-cutter to save the fodder, cut 
about seventy acres of the best of it and got 
about fifteen loads of the fodder. \\"e had 
broken up eight acres of sod in 1893. This 
was included in a field of spring wheat, and 
from this eight acres of backsiting we harvest- 
ed and threshed sixty bushels of wheat. This, 
with our fifteen loads of fodder, was the entire 
crop from 360 acres under cultivation. 

"Stock lived in the pasture but didn't grow. 
How to get through the winter was the prob- 
lem. We sowed sixty bushels of rye in the 
corn field to make fall and winter feed. We 
never saw it again. W'e sold ten head of cows 
for eighty-five dollars, sent a bunch of heifers 
and horses up to Cherry county to winter, and 



kept at home just what stock we thought we 
needed to keep. Thus everybody got their 
fodder or whatever feed they had stacked up 
and we turned everything out before the first 
of September. And they fattened on the buf- 
falo grass. \\'e dressed a beef about Thanks- 
giving time and another between Christmas 
and New Year's. They were both in good 
shape and made good beef. 

"We went into the winter with feed enough 
on hand to feed about thirty days. We were 
favored with a mild, open winter and had to 
feed but two days, so had our fodder left to 
feed our teams while putting in our next cro". 

"Such was our personal e.xjjerience in our 
struggle with the drouth of the early '90s. 
Our farm, like the rest, was mortgaged, but 
being one of the better class of farms we 
thought it worth staying with. In fact, we 
didn't know where we could go to better our- 
selves. Our mortgage became due in 1893. 
\\'e were able to pay the interest. The year 
1894 came and went. In ^larch of 1895 we 
received a letter from the agent of the loan 
company, not demanding a settlement but ask- 
ing if we were in need of any assistance in the 
way of feed and seed to put in our crop. 

FOURTH OF JULY H.MI, STORM 

"In the sjiring and summer of 1879 the crops 
gave promise of an abundant harvest and the 
settlers looked forward to a good return for 
their labor. They were celebrating the Fourth 
of July at New Helena, in the most approved 
stvle, eating, drinking, and making merry, 
when a cloud no bigger than a man'^s hand was 
observed in the northwest, which grew with 
alarming rapidity until it overspread the whole 
heavens, and out of it came one of the most 
destructive hail-stonns this county ever expe- 
rienced. The crops were literally beaten into 
the earth. Not a bushel of grain was harvest- 
ed in 'Victoria valley that year. A few tur- 
nips sown after the hail storm were the only 
crop produced in that section. The log school- 
house where the settlers were gathered to 
celebrate the Fourth, had three windows on 
the north side. The glass was broken into 
fragments bv the hail, after which George Carr 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



155 



attempted the impossible feat of keeping out 
the storm by covering the three windows at one 
time with a blackboard long enough only to 
cover two. j\Ien, women, and children crowd- 
ed into the building, terror-stricken, some cry- 
ing, some praying, and, I am sorry to record 
it, a few swearing. The hail streak was about 
four miles wide and passed down Clear creek, 
completely cleaning out the crops in its course. 
The settlers had to haul their feed and seed 
for the next year from Grand Island and Cen- 
tral City, 120 and 130 miles distant. In 1880 
we had good crops, but the hardships and pri- 
vations of these pioneer days have been lived 
through, and while some have fallen by the 
wayside and still others gone to 'the land be- 
yond the river,' many of us remain to enjoy 
the fruits of our early trials, proud of our 
noble county and its splendid citizenship, and 
confident of its continued growth and develop- 
ment. 

DRY NINETY-FOUR 

"To the residents of Custer county the 
drouth of 1894 was a new experience. They 
had seen slight drouths before, even in Custer 
county, but never before had they seen a 
spring and summer with entire absence of 
rain. Even in the spring the ground was so 
dry as to make plowing difficult, and as the 
season advanced it was impossible. But the 
crop was put in and made a good struggle for 
life. Up to the 4th of July there was still a. 
chance for a crop. The corn was of fair size, 
and still green. On the 4th of July there was 
a slight shower, early in the day, but followed 
by blistering sunshine. By night the corn was 
flat on the ground, beyond help from any 
amount of rain. But the rain did not come, 
even after it was too late, and long before 
frost every green thing was dead, and the 
leaves had fallen from the trees. 

"This meant more than financial loss; it 
meant a year of privation and suffering to 
most of the people of the county. It meant 
that if they were to stay in the country they 
nnist support themselves and their children 
without help from the soil, and with little or 
no resources of any kind. There was little 



stock in the country, and it was worth little. 
Good cows sold for ten dollars, and good 
thrifty calves for two dollars and fifty cents, 
or even less. ]\Iany people sold every thing 
they had and left the country. It was all they 
could do, for the time, but in a year or two 
most of them came back and turned their ex- 
perience into profit. Some farmers were able 
to stick it out by hunting wild game all winter, 
and using brush and cow-chips for fuel. 

HE WON OUT 

"The determination of some of the people 
was almost beyond belief. I have in mind a 
little, bent, old man who had managed to 
gather up a little bunch of cattle. He had no 
land. Instead of selling his cattle he got 
some warm clothing and just lived in the hills 
with his cattle, moving them from place to 
place, wherever he could find old dry grass. 
It was his opportunity. In a few years he 
had a good half-section of land and many cat- 
tle, the increase of the little herd that he had 
nursed through that winter. 

HAD TO BE HELPED 

"It soon became clear that without help 
some of the people would perish, and before 
cold weather the county was organized to meet 
the situation. In each precinct, with the super- 
visor at the head, relief committees were or- 
ganized to care for the needy. The east was 
almost careless in its liberality. Help came 
from abroad, and those who could, helped 
their neighbors. Farmers who had it, sold 
seed wheat to their neighbors, and waited a 
year for their pay. Not a single instance is 
reported of any one trying to turn the people's 
needs to profit. Persons asking or accepting 
aid who did not need it were very few, while 
the needy who refused all aid, and even helped 
others, were many. Real need never asked in 
vain. In the winter following this drouth. Dr. 
A. I. ^IcArthur went to I^Iissouri and collect- 
ed enough money to buy a car load of seed 
corn, which he shipped to Custer county. Of 
the scores of business men asked to contribute 
to this car, only one refused, and strange as it 
may sound, he was the only one who asked to 



156 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



see the doctor's credentials. Not only did they 
give, but always with a word of encouragement 
and sympathy. The railroad shipped this car 
free of charge, which was their general cus- 
tom. 

POOR BUT HAPPY 

"One very noticeable thing about the people 
during this drouth was their cheerfulness. Not 
only did they refuse to be starved ; they re- 
fused to be discouraged. There was more so- 
cial intercourse among the people during this 
year than ever before, and I am ready to be- 
lieve that the habit has survived to the present 
time. Hunger only sharpened the sense of 
humor. When a straw hat or corset was 
found in a box of winter supplies the fun was 
for everybody. Sometimes the 'needy' played 
tricks on the relief committee. For a time, in 
W'esterv'ille. the relief committee had their 'of- 
fice" in the front of the bank. One day a very 
ragged man came slowly across the street to- 
ward the bank door, and the committee began 
estimating what all he would want. When he 
came in, he went to the cashier's window and 
asked for some change, pushing a fifty dollar 
bill through the window. .A. few people the 
drouth entirely crushed. For a few hundred 
dollars, farmers sold good farms that are now 
worth as many thousands. A few lost all com- 
mercial pride, and took advantage of the times 
to repudiate their debts, but to the country the 
drouth was a great benefit. It stopped reck- 
lessness in spending and in the making of debts. 
Men had homesteaded, and then mortgaged 
their farms. The money had come without 
effort, and they were spending it without judg- 
ment. The drouth .stopped their income and 
their credit. They could neither earn nor bor- 
row, and never again can a \car"s misfortune 
force them to beg. ^lore than any other one 
year, 1894 has contributed to the great pros- 
perity of Custer county." 

A HOME-GROWN" CYCLONE 

In ihc matter of weather and storms Custer 
county has always been rather independent and 
has insisted upon doing business for itself. It 
generally keeps abreast with current weather 



and puts on tap any article that seems to be 
fashionable and popular. Not to be outdone, 
the county put on a late fall cyclone of its own 
in October, 1913, which at the time was de- 
scribed by the Custer County Chief as follows: 
"At si.x o'clock Thursday evening, October 
3, 1913, Custer county was visited by a terrific 
cyclone, which went the full length of the 
county from southwest and northwest. It was 
• terrible in its fury and practically every build- 
ing in its path was wrecked or damaged. It 
passed Broken Bow on the southeast, just miss- 
ing the city. The fair-ground buildings were 
a total wreck, and all the buildings on the 
Brenizer ranch and John Squires' place, a few 
miles south of town, were completely blown 
away ; the M. K. Hagadorn and J. A. Hutch- 
inson homes, just southeast of the city, were 
wrecked. The cyclone formed near Lodi and 
went southeast to Burwell. its path being from 
one-quarter to one-half mile wide. Much dam- 
age was done to farm properties, and though no 
fatalities were reported, the following people 
were hurt : Flossie, the ten-year-old daughter 
of \\'ill McCaslin, who lives east of here, was 
badly crushed and was taken to the Ryerson 
hospital in a precarious condition. Mrs. Mc- 
Caslin was injured about the breast, another 
small daughter and the baby had their heads 
badly cut. while Mr. McCaslin sustained sev- 
eral bruises. In the Sargent district the fol- 
lowing people were injured : John Speer. col- 
.lar bone broken ; Mrs. Bevington, badly bruised 
but not serious ; Mrs. Frank Kidder, rib broken 
and badly bruised ; Melvil! York, badly bruised 
about the body (all of these injured, it is un- 
derstood, were taken to Sargent and placed 
in the hospital) ; George Hill, head bruised. 
The worst part of the storm in that vicinity 
passed about two miles east of Sargent. 

"The above account was written after the 
forms had been made up and the paper ready 
for press. A full descrii)ti(jn will ajipear next 
week." 

WORST III.IZZAUI) I.\" THIRTY VKAKS 

lieginning with a gently falling rain on 
Thursday, March 14. 1913. and during Thurs- 
day night turning into snow, with a high 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



157 



north wind prevailing-. Friday saw the most 
destructive blizzard this section of the state 
has known in the past decade. A record in a 
local newspaper gives the following data : 

"During the whole of Friday the storm raged 
to such an extent as to make it unsafe to leave 
shelter, and heavy losses were sustained by 
many of the stockmen and farmers of this and 
adjoining counties. At this point but little 
snow fell, but what did come was drifted so 
badly as to make the roads impassable for the 
next two or three days. Between this city 
and Alliance it was reported that from nine to 
eighteen inches of snow fell during Thursday 
and Friday, and at no time after the early af- 
ternoon of Thursday did the prevailing high 
wind show a cessation until late Friday night. 
The heaviest loss of live stock from reports 
coming to this city on Sunday and Monday 
was suffered by feeders and ranchers in the 
vicinity of Brewster, Dunning and Thedford, 
although local farmers and feeders suffered 
some heavy losses. Peter Erickson, who ranges 
cattle on the North Loup, was a heavy loser, 
over two hundred head of heavy stock suc- 
cumbing to the storm. A. McClain, of Dun- 
ning (father of Ira McClain of this city), had 
315 head of cattle he was carrying through the 
winter and out of that number lost 150 head 
of the heaviest stock. He had taken up and 
placed under shelter about one-half of his herd, 
consisting of young animals. The remainder 
were left on the open range and drifted into 
the Dismal river, where the heavy loss oc- 
curred. The loss of Mr. Erickson also oc- 
curred from the animals drifting into the river. 
L. H. Jewett of this city, who had ninety-five 
head of heavy stock on the Dismal, lost forty 
head in the same manner. Mr. Jewett reports 
that this snow had drifted over the river and 
the lighter and younger stuff were able to cross 
over the snow in drifting ahead of the storm, 
but that the heavier stock went through the 
snow and mired in the river. 

"R. B. Beauchamp, of Dunning, was another 
heavy loser of the same vicinity, having 180 
head of stock in the storm and losing ninety 
of them. His cattle, however, were in the open 
pasture, and drifted ahead of the storm into 



the fence corners, and it is supposed a good 
many of them dying in the storm, were 
tramped to death by the remainder of the 
herd. Most of the Beauchamp herd were 
young stock that was bought last fall at an 
average price of thirty dollars per head. 
Henry Andrews, of Anselmo, also was a heavy 
loser, the storm taking fifty-five head out of 
his herd. His cattle were partially sheltered. 
A. M. Cook of this city lost fifty head out of 
his herd of 235, near Linscott. Other losses 
in that neighborhood are: McConnell. twelve 
head of milk cows ; George Zutavern, 200 out 
of a herd of 575 ; and a man by the name of 
Whitney lost sixteen — his entire herd. 

"J. D. Gage, a lumber dealer at Dunning, 
had twelve head of horses perish from exposure 
to the storm. The loss in horses, however, 
was light as compared to cattle losses. ]\Iiller 
Heller, a Kinkaid homesteader of near Hal- 
sey, suffered the loss of sixteen head of milk 
cows. It is estimated that the loss to the Kin- 
kaiders was very extensive and as they are in 
the majority of cases unable to lose any stock, 
they will feel the loss to a greater extent than 
the heavier losers who deal extensively in the 
live-stock business. 

"I. N. Bovee, a former resident of this vi- 
cinity, but now of Halsey, in a letter to Mr. 
Jewett, states that while his live stock suffered 
from the storm he lost none and considered 
himself very fortunate, as the loss in his neigh- 
borhood was very heavy. 

SHEEP PERISH IN TR.\NSIT 

"A train of double-deck cars loaded with 
sheep was pulled into the Burlington yards at 
Whitman early Friday. On the train were 
about 11,000 head and during the day the 
larger part of the whole load perished. It was 
estimated on Monday that of the whole 11,000 
only about 2,000 had survived the storm. 

"Fred Wagner, of Wagner, was reported to 
have lost twelve head of cows and four horses 
in the feed lot. His loss on the range was 
supposed to have been heavy, but just how 
much has not been reported. 

"Near Mullen the storm was very severe. 
Following is a letter received by the RcpubH- 



158 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



can Tuesday morning from W. B. Adams : 
'Just a line to tell you of the terrible condition 
of the poor old sandhills after the blizzard. 
About forty per cent, of loss in cattle, and 
horses about ten. I lost nine head out of 
200; J. H. Lowe lost 700 head of cattle, and 
E. Crain lost eighty out of 153: W. W. Ma- 
hafify lost his whole herd and John Boyce lost 
about 100 head ; John Morrison, of Mullen, 
lost about seventy-five head, Joseph Heclan 
si.xty, and Richard S. Fox lost 100 out of 118. 
That is about the way it runs in the sandhills. 
No lives lost that I have heard of.' 

"The loss in the immediate vicinity of Bro- 
ken Bow was very light compared with the 
losses of the northwest part of the county, 
Blaine and Thomas counties. Tierney Broth- 
ers, who are operating a ranch at Wagner, 
report the loss of probably forty head of cattle. 
They also lost some hogs in the local feed 
yards, besides the loss of ninety head of pork- 
ers on the South Loup. Raid Skinner suffered 
a loss of seventeen head of cattle at his farm 
twelve miles north of the city. Judge Sullivan 
lost six head of cattle and Harve Andrews lost 
five head. Others losing cattle reported in this 
ofiice were George Bush, five head, and R. F. 



Burnett, two head. Tom Finlen lost five head 
of horses at his farm south of town, and John 
Price suffered the loss of a like number of 
horses at his farm. Other losses have been re- 
ported but no confirmation of the rumors had 
been reported at that time. 

"Robert E. Shaw and Thomas G. Butler, of 
^lilldale, were in the city Tuesday. They re- 
ported the loss of stock in their vicinity was 
very light, but the losses to the northwest of 
them was finite heavy. The heavier loser was 
Clarks Philpot, near Gandy, who lost several 
hundred head — thirty or forty per cent, of 
his herd. Dan Haskell's loss was small. Henry 
Andrews, of Anselmo, reported a loss of fifty- 
seven head of cattle out of 500. George Temp- 
lar, north of Broken Bow, reported to have but 
fourteen head of cattle. Charles Sanders, of 
Ortello valley, reported to have lost sixty head 
of cattle. Jewett & Andrews, JBroken Bow, 
four head of cattle. Harry Knapp, southwest 
of town, reported loss of twelve head of cattle. 
J. J. Boblits, South Loup, reported loss of five 
head of cattle. Vincent Steadry, west of town, 
reported loss of two head of cattle. Lon 
Davis, east of town, reported loss ofone 
mule." 



CHAPTER VIII 
A CHAPTER IN BLACK 

The Mitchell-Ketchum Tragedy — The Shooting — The Arrest — Escaped the 

Keraney Mob' — Judge Casein's Story — Deputizing a Posse — Turns State's Evidence 

— Judge Boblits Takes a Hand — The Haunstine Til^gedy : — Hamer and Others 

Quiet Crowd — The Execution Takes Place — The Only Execution — A Fatal 

Land Quarrel — War Breaks Out — Spilled the Booze — Making an 

Honest Mexican — Fatal Hilarity at Anselmo 



If there is a skeleton in every closet, there 
are tragedies in every life and dark pages in 
every history. The people of Custer county 
are neither better nor worse than other Ne- 
braskans or other people of the middle west. 
Their story is about the same, their experiences 
very similar. If crimes have been committed, 
if human life has been taken, and human 
blood shed, it is only incidental to the settle- 
ment of a country by hardy pioneers, no mat- 
ter what sterling traits of character the ma- 
jority of the people might possess. There are 
sheep of shaded wool in every flock and in 
every early contingent that settles upon a vir- 
gin soil there are desperate characters. This 
cannot be avoided. It is one of the handi- 
caps of humanity. Adventuresome spirits al- 
ways flock to the west and front. Men of tem- 
per and reckless disposition are apt to consort 
in the sparsely settled frontier, where disposi- 
tions have no governor and law is but slight 
control. A lawless character may make niore 
local history in the unbridled orgy of one 
night-hour than a dozen men of sterling worth 
in a lifetime of probity. The peaceful pur- 
suits of life are devoid of the spectacular and 
are generally too commonplace to be recorded 
in a country's annals. 

If recorded here are episodes that reflect 
small credit on law-abiding people it must be 
remembered that these are the crimes and deeds 
of the ill-starred few who are neither typical 



nor representative of the great mass of Custer 
county citizens. 

The early settlers of Custer county were on 
the whole as fine a group of men and women 
as American homes of the east and north could 
produce. Nowhere among the children of men 
could you find a better people, stronger in vir- 
tuous traits or more sensitive to honor and 
rectitude. They were intelligent, law-abid- 
ing, conscientious, and God-honoring. The 
marvelous development of Custer county, the 
establishment of its splendid homes, schools, 
and churches are due to this fact. No people 
could have wrought better, nor under the cir- 
cumstances accomplished more. 

When the size of the county is considered, 
the number of people who have moved in to 
tread awhile the maze of chance and rounds 
of fortune, Custer's record is exceptionally 
good. Blood and thunder do not run riot in 
the pages of its history, notwithstanding the 
fact that in an early day a witty brakeman on 
the Burlington Railroad used to shout to the 
passengers, "We have now crossed the line in- 
to Custer county. Prepare to meet your God." 
A faithful record of the past demands that 
crimes and felonies be chronicled, and the 
historian must obey. 

Butcher's History of Custer County devotes 
twelve pages to the lynching of "Kid Wade." 
It seems that Kid Wade, without over much 
ceremony, appropriated a fine race horse be- 



159 



160 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



longing to a man named PuUiam. who resid- 
ed in West Union township, and made his es- 
ca])e into the north counties. John Roth, a 
neighbor of Pnlliam. organized a posse and 
started in pursuit. The chase was long and 
lasted for months. Concerning it many e.x- 
citing and almost romantic incidents are re- 
corded, but as all happened outside of Custer 
county they are not germane to this history, 
other than to record that the horse was found 
and returned to Pulliam, that Wade was cap- 
tured and while lodged in the Bassett jail 
was taken out by a band of masked men and 
hanged to a telegraph pole. It was severe 



thousands of cattle that roamed over the val- 
ley of the South Loup river and adjoining 
country. In common with other men in the 
same line of business, he had suffered heavy 
losses from the depredations of cattle thieves. 
For this reason he became the prime mover 
in an attempt to drive the cattle thieves from 
the country. Olive resided in Lexington, Daw- 
.son county, but his ranch was on the South 
Loup river, about four miles east of the pres- 
ent town of Callaway. While in a general way 
he was a good sort of man, and very generous 
and courteous to those with whom he was on 
good terms, he was an implacable enemy and 




The Old 1. P. Ouve R.vxch 



treatment, but as a cure it is said to have had 
the desired eft'ect. 

THE MITCHELL-KETCHUM TR.\C.EnY 

During the year 1877 a number of settlers 
located on Clear creek, near the east line of the 
county, among the number being Luther 
Mitchell and .Ami Ketchum. Mitchell came 
from Merrick county, was a farmer about 
sixty-five years of age, and married. Ketchum 
was a blacksmith by trade, but had decided to 
become a farmer, although he still worked at 
his trade for the neighbors. He was unmar- 
ried and was living with Mitchell at the time 
of which we are writing. 

I. P. Olive was one of the wealthiest cattle 
men in Nebraska at that time, and owned many 



an adept in the use of firearms. His brother, 
Robert Olive, was a bad man when aroused. 
It was reported that Bob Olive had previously 
killed several men in Texas, and to conceal his 
identity had assumed the name of Stevens and 
skipped to Nebraska, where his brother I. P. 
had already established a ranch, and it was 
under the name of Stevens that he was known 
during his career in Custer county. 

A short time previously to the events which 
led up to the killing of Bob Olive, or Stevens, 
one Mauley Capel had been arrested on a 
charge of cattle-stealing in Custer county, and 
in his confession he seemed to implicate .\mi 
Ketchum in the nefarious business. This, 
with the information obtained from a man by 
the name of Mclndeffer. who was acting as a 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



161 



sort of spy for the cattlemen and who, by the 
way, was hanged as a cattle thief in No Man's 
Land, a few years afterward, so it is said, so 
impressed the OHves that they determined to 
arrest Ketchum. Notwithstanding the enmity 
that was known to exist between Bob Olive 
and Ketchum, Sheriff David Anderson, of Buf- 
falo county, made Olive a deputy to arrest 
Ketchum. 

In the company of two rough and reckless 
cowboys, named Barney Armstrong and Pete 
Beaton, Bob Olive started for the home of 
Mitchell and Ketchum on the 27th day of 
November, 1878, with Mclndeffer as a guide. 
When they arrived at the homestead of Mr. 
Mitchell, the latter and Ketchum were pre- 
paring to go to a neighbor's, by the name of 
Dowse, to return a borrowed animal. Mrs. 
Mitchell was preparing to go with them. Be- 
fore they started, a stranger rode up and asked 
if he could have his horse shod. Ketchum 
explained his plans for the day and asked the 
man to come the following day and he could 
shoe the horse. The stranger agreed to do 
so and rode away to rejoin Bob Olive and the 
other two men. who were hidden behind a 
small hill to the south of Mitchell's house. 
Having failed to get ]\litchell and Ketchum 
separated by the ruse of getting the horse shod, 
the men now rode boldly up toward the set- 
tlers, who paid no particular attention to them, 
as men on horseback were the rule and not 
the exception in those days. Mrs. Alitchell 
had already taken her seat in the wagon, and 
the men were tying the animal to the hind axle 
of the vehicle. 

THE SHOOTING 

When within a short distance the cowboys 
made a dash on their horses, four abreast, and 
Bob Olive shouted to Ketchum to throw up 
his hands, as he was an officer of the law, at 
the same time presenting his revolver. Ketch- 
um threw up his right hand with a forty- 
four Colt's revolver in it, and both men fired 
at the same instant. Several shots' were ex- 
changed, resulting in the breaking of Ketch- 
urn's left arm. As soon as the shooting 



commenced the older man, Mitchell, grabbed 
his Winchester and took deadly aim at Olive, 
who discovered him and shouted : "My God, 
old man, don't shoot!" but it was too late. 
Mitchell's finger had already pressed the trig- 
ger and the bullet sped forward to do its fatal 
work. Olive reeled in his saddle and the 
cowboys prevented him from falling. He 
gasped: "Boys, I am done for." Support- 
ing him on his horse, they turned and rode 
rapidly away, followed by bullets from Ketch- 
urn's Winchester, which was loaded by a 
girl named Tamar Snow, a step-daughter of 
Mitchell, Ketchum being unable to load the 
gun himself on account of his broken arm. 
He fired the last shot at a range of 200 yards, 
just as the cowboys dropped out of sight be- 
hind the rise of ground previously referred 
to. One of Ketchum's bullets cut a scarf 
around Beaton's neck in two, drawing blood, 
and another shaved off one side of the rim of 
his hat, close to the head. Another went 
through Armstrong's foot. Mclndeffer, who 
afterward described the encounter, declared 
that Ketchum came as near being the devil as 
any man he ever saw, and that he believed 
he would have killed every one of them, even 
with one broken arm, if they had not gotten 
out of the way. As soon as the cowboys got 
• out of reach of the flying bullets, Olive was 
laid on the ground and a consultation held. 
The wounded man was then taken to the dug- 
out of one Harrington, who lived about a 
quarter of a mile further down the creek, 
where Olive made his will and sent for his 
wife. He died three days afterward. 

As soon as the cowboys disappeared from 
sight Mitchell and Ketchum packed up their 
few movable belongings and started for their 
former home in Merrick county. As soon as 
the news of the shooting spread over the coun- 
try there was great excitement among the 
cattlemen and cowboys, and the same night a 
large force returned to the Mitchell house, 
undoubtedly to wreak vengeance on the two 
men, but finding them gone they set fire to 
the house and burned up the roof, that being 
the only part of it that was combustible. 



162 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



THE ARREST 

When they arrived in Merrick county 
Mitchell and Ketchuni went to the house of 
George Gagle, and a Dr. Barnes was sent for 
to attend to Ketcluim's broken arm. The next 
morning, acting upon the advice of friends, 
and having found a place of safety for Mitch- 
eirs family, the two men started back to Cus- 
ter county to give themselves up to the author- 
ities for the killing of Stevens. On their way 
they passed through Loup City and consulted 
with Attorney Aaron Wall, who advised them 
to proceed no farther, as the cowboys would 
certainly lynch them. They remained several 
days in Loup City and then went to the house 
of J. R. Baker, on Oak creek, in Howard coun- 
ty, where they were arrested by William Letch- 
er, sheriff of Merrick county, and E. W. 
Crew, sheriff of Howard county — giving 
themselves willingly into the custody of the 
ofiicers. 

I. P. Olive had offered a reward of S700 
for their arrest and several officers, among 
whom were Crew, of Howard county, Ander- 
son, of Buffalo county, Gillan, of Keith coun- 
ty, and Letcher, of ^Merrick county, were an.xi- 
ous to capture them in order to secure the re- 
ward. But after the capture. Crew and Letch- 
er were unwilling to assume the responsibility 
of taking the prisoners to Custer county and* 
£)f turning them over to the cowboys. They 
were finally taken to Buffalo county and lodged 
in the jail at Kearney, in charge of Sheriff 
Anderson, for safe keeping. The prisoners 
were at first held without legal authority, as 
Olive had given the warrant for their arrest, 
issued in Custer county, into the hands of Bar- 
ney Gillan, sheriff of Keith county, to serve. 

The prisoners had engaged Thomas Darnall. 
of St. Paul, and E. C. Calkins, of Kearney, as 
counsel. Their attorneys endeavored to have 
the prisoners retained in the jail at Kearney, 
having reasons for believing they would be 
lynched if taken to Custer county. The feel- 
ing at Kearney was against Mitchell and 
Ketchum. as the people had been led to believe 
that Olive had been shot while fulfilling his 
duty as an officer of the law. A dispute arose 
among the sheriffs as to a division of the re- 



ward oft'ered by I. P. Olive for the arrest, but 
Olive declined to pay the money until the 
prisoners were delivered in Custer county. A 
proposition was finally made to Sheriff Ander- 
son to take the men to Custer county, for 
which service the others agreed to pay him 
fifty dollars. This proposition was declined 
by Anderson, unless he were paid enough to 
enable him to employ a sufficient number of 
men to guard the prisoners. It was at last ar- 
ranged that Gillan should take the prisoners 
to Custer county, as he held the warrant for 
their arrest, and he promised to notify their 
attorneys, Darnell and Calkins, so that they 
could accompany their clients. As Gillan was 
a sheriff, and his desperate character was un- 
known to Darnell and Calkins, they thought 
everything was all right. Nevertheless they 
kept their eyes on the jail to prevent any at- 
tempt to remove the prisoners by stealth. 

ESC.VPED THE KEARNEY MOD 

On the forenoon of December 10th, Darnell, 
fearing that the prisoners were about to be 
taken away, kept close watch until the west- 
bound emigrant train came in. After its ar- 
rival at Kearney he waited at the depot until 
he thought it was about time for it to pull out, 
when he started to leave. In the meantime 
Gillan had taken the prisoners from the jail 
and hustled them into a car just as the train 
was pulling out. Darnell telegraphed to Gil- 
lan at Elm Creek, asking him if he would hold 
the prisoners at Lexington until the next train. 
Gillan replied that he would do so. Darnell 
also telegraphed to Captain r^lcXamar, an at- 
torney at Lexington, requesting him to see 
what was done with the prisoners when they 
got off the train at that city. Lexington was 
the home of I. P. (Jlive. and here he was 
surrounded by many friends and employes. 
The train pulled into Lexington about three 
o'clock in the afternoon, and Olive and his 
friends were waiting at the depot with wagons, 
into one of which the prisoners were immedi- 
ately loaded, and a start made for Custer 
county. Captain McXamar was unable to 
prevail on Gillan and (^live to wait for the 
arrival of Darnell from Kearnev, and believ- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



163 



ing it was the intention to mob Mitchell and 
Ketchum, he followed the wagon train for 
some distance. Seeing that they were being 
followed, the wagons separated, but McNamar 
kept after the one containing the prisoners un- 
til it became so dark that he lost the trail 
among the hills. The Olive party kept on all 
night, until they met Olive's men from the 
ranch on the South Loup, about five miles 
from the Olive ranch, where the transfer of 
the prisoners from Gillan to Olive took place. 
The names of the men who received the pris- 
oners were Dennis Gartrell, Pedro Dominicus, 
and Bion Brown. After the delivery of the 
prisoners to Olive's men, Sheriff Gillan and 
Phil Dufrand walked away a short distance 
while the Olive men started with the prisoners 
to a place known as the "Devil's Gap," in a 
wild canyon about half way between the Loup 
and Wood River valleys, some five miles south- 
east of where Callaway now stands. O'.ive 
and Gartrell drove the wagon containing the 
prisoners, and they stopped under a small elm 
tree. A couple of ropes were passed over a 
limb and Gartrell tied one of them around 
Ketchum's neck, while Pedro Dominicus fas- 
tened the other around the neck of Mitchell. 
Ketchum was first drawn up. Olive then took 
a rifle and shot ^Mitchell, after which the latter 
also was drawn up until he dangled beside 
his companion. 

The bodies of the two unfortunate men were 
found at about three o'clock in the afternoon 
of the following day, by a party of men, 
among whom were Captain McNamar, Anton 
Abel. Louis Wambsgan. George Sandford, AI 
Wise, County Judge Boblits, and perhaps oth- 
ers. When found the bodies were frightfully 
burned — that of Ketchum still hanging to 
the limb, while that of Mit:hell was resting on 
the ground. 

After hanging ^Mitchell and Ketchum. the 
Olive gang rode about one mile toward the 
Olive ranch, where two of the men were given 
fresh horses with which to return to Lexing- 
ton. It will probably never be known who 
did the burning of the bodies, or how the 
same was done, but it ■ is generally supposed 
that these two men, crazed with drink and 



fired with the thought of revenge for the kill- 
ing of one of their number, resolved to put the 
finishing touch on the terrible night's work by 
pouring the contents of their liquor flasks over 
the hanging bodies of their victims and setting 
them on fire, as they had to pass along that 
road to get back to Lexington. The evidence 
at the trial was convincing that the bodies had 
been burned, although an attempt was made 
to prove that Mitchell's clothing had caught 
fire from the powder of Olive's gun, and that 
although the fire had been put out, it caught 
again after the men departed from the spot. 
A careful examination of the spot disclosed 
the fact that the fire had been carefully 
whipped out for quite a circle around the bod- 
ies, thus proving that some one must have 
been present during the burning; otherwise 
the whole country would have been burned 
over, as the grass was as dry as tinder. It 
does not appear, however, that Olive was a 
party to, or had any knowledge of, this part 
of the crime. 

Steps were immediately taken to arrest the 
perpetrators of the crime and bring them to 
speedy justice. The whole state was aroused 
by the tragedy, but the well known desperate 
character of most of the men concerned in it 
made the question of apprehending them a 
very serious one. 

judge; gaslin's story 

Judge William Gaslin thus relates the meth- 
ods employed to arrest the criminals : 

"I first heard of the lynching of Mitchell 
and Ketchum while on a train on my way from 
Nebraska City to Sidney, where I was to open 
court the next morning. When I opened court 
there was such an excitement that there was 
no disposition or readiness to do business, and 
upon seeing an article in the newspaper pub- 
lished at Kearney by the Eatons, denouncing 
the governor for not taking active steps to 
bring about the arrest of the murderers, and 
complimenting me by saying that there was 
one man in Nebraska who would see that the 
perpetrators of the crime would be brought to 
justice, and the man was Gaslin, I called my 
reporter, F. M. Hallowell, who resided at 



164 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Kearney, and instructed him to proceed to that 
city on the first train and tell Eaton not to 
make further mention of my name in connec- 
tion with the matter, as I had a plan to cap- 
ture the desperadoes and did not want my 
name mentioned for fear of putting them on 
their guard. Late that afternoon I adjourned 
court and took the train east for Lexington, 
where quite a number of the Olive gang lived. 
I found assembled at the residence of Attorney 
General Dihvorth a number of the law-abiding 
citizens of the city, armed to protect them- 
selves against the outlaws who had threatened 
the lives of those who should attempt to bring 
them to justice. Among these I now recall 
Captain [McNamar, an attorney, and Jack Mac- 
Coll, clerk of the district court. I learned that 
the officials of Custer county, where the lynch- 
ing was done, could not be expected to render 
much assistance. I left on the first train for 
Kearney, to look up the law and see if L as an 
examining magistrate, could not issue warrants 
for their arrest, which plan I divulged to no 
one. I was in constant touch with General 
Dihvorth, soon satisfied myself that I had the 
authority, and set to work preparing com- 
plaints and warrants to have the outlaws ar- 
rested. After I had matured my plan I met 
J. P. Johnson (then residing in Kearney, three 
score and ten, hale and hearty), and in con- 
versation he remarlted that if the officers were 
afraid to arrest the criminals he would furnish 
men to do it if I would deputize them. I 
informed him that I had confidentially ar- 
ranged for a meeting of the sheriffs of Dawson 
and Buffalo counties, General Dihvorth and a 
sacred few others, and invited him to attend. 
There were present at this meeting, in Judge 
Savidge's office, the Judge, J. 1'. Johnson, Gen- 
eral Dihvorth, the two sheriff's, and myself. 
I told these men the conclusion I had come to, 
and the complaints having been filed before 
me, I made out the warrants for the arrest 
of the criminals and offered them to Sheriff' 
James of Dawson county, and Sheriff Ander- 
son of Buffalo county, both of whom declined 
to take or serve them, on account of a fear of 
their lives, as they said. 



DEPUTIZI.VG .\ POSSE 

"I then turned to Johnson and asked him 
to give me the names of the men he agreed to 
furnish, which he did, and I deputized them, 
there being, I think, five or six of them, and 
gave them to Johnson for delivery. One of 
the men deputized was Lawrence Ketchum, a 
brother of the man who was lynched, and an- 
other was a powerful young fellow by the 
name of Young, a deputy sheriff' of Clay coun- 
ty. A third was named Pingree, and the 
fourth was a man from Illinois. A plan was 
arranged, in strictest secrecy, for a part of the 
deputized men to go across the country to Cus- 
ter county to arrest part of the gang who were 
at the Olive ranch. Another party was to 
board a freight train at Kearney about mid- 
night, which arrived at Lexington a little be- 
fore daylight. The railroad people were in 
the secret and stopped the train a little before 
Lexington was reached, where the officers left 
the train and walked into town, where they 
eft'ected the arrest of all the gang who were 
ir the city. Lawrence Ketchum, Bob French, 
and others went from Kearney, and were as- 
sisted by some of the constables of Lexington. 
When the other party arrived at the Olive 
ran;h they found that the men they were after 
had fled the country. Among them was the 
delectable Barney Gillan, sheriff of Keith 
county, who had delivered Mitchell and Ketch- 
um over to the murderers, and who secured 
the $700 blood money paid by Olive. On the 
afternoon of Sunday the parties who arrested 
the desperadoes at Lexington landed them in 
Kearney on a freight train, where they were 
put in jail and a strong guard placed over 
them. Thousands of people were at the train 
when it arrived with the prisoners. Some of 
the prisoners, I think, were subsequently taken 
to the state prison for safe keeping until the 
.■\pril term of the district court in Adams coun- 
ty, where the trial had been set, the prisoners 
waiving preliminary examination before me. 

TURNS st.\te"s evide.nci-: 

■'.\11 kinds of lawyers ^ good, bad, and in- 
different — were employed by the defense, some 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



165 



for ability and legal lore, and some to insult 
and bulldoze tbe court — for which they occa- 
sionally got fined for contempt. The trial had 
not progressed long before the prosecuting at- 
torney secretly informed me that he had made 
a secret arrangement with one of the prisoners, 
Bion Brown, to turn state's evidence, and to 
testify on behalf of the prosecution. Brown 
was in jail with the other defendants, heard 
and knew all their plans, and daily communi- 
cated the same to General Dilworth, the pros- 
ecuting attorney. He said at one time that 
they talked of having their friends, who were 
in disguise in the town, shoot General Dil- 
worth and me and have horses ready for the 
prisoners, who would be enabled to escape in 
the excitement. I then gave orders for no 
one to occupy the gallery opposite where I 
sat, and I had a large number of bailiffs secret- 
ly heavily armed scattered over the court room, 
with nothing to indicate they were officers. 
One day it was reported that a number of the 
Texas friends of the prisoners were secreted 
in the hills near the Platte river, armed to the 
teeth and provided with good horses with 
which to swoop down on the court and liber- 
ate the prisoners. Other things came to the 
knowledge of Sheriff Lewis Martin of Adams 
county, a most excellent officer, which induced 
him to procure a company of regulars from 
Omaha, which was sent by the commanding 
officer as soon as possible. The soldiers were 
tented on the public square of Hastings, op- 
posite the hall where the court was being held. 
The legislature appropriated $20,000 to be ex- 
pended in the prosecution of the case, to be 
paid out on vouchers approved by me, a part 
of the money being paid for the subsistence 
of the soldiers. Bion Brown and Pedro, the 
Mexican, were used as witnesses for the pros- 
ecution, the latter testifying through an in- 
terpreter. A better witness I never heard tes- 
tify. On cross-examination he testified almost, 
if not exactly, to what he did in direct. 

"The trial commenced in Hastings in April 
and continued almost through the month. Some 
of the ablest lawyers of the state were en- 
gaged on the case, among them being General 
Dilworth, the prosecuting attorney; District 



Attorney Scofield and John M. Thurston, for 
the state ; and F. G. Hamer, General Connor, 
and Hon. James Laird for the defense. An 
indictment was found against Ira P. Olive and 
eleven others for the murder of Luther Mitch- 
ell, and I. P. Olive and Fred Fisher were 
placed on trial to answer for the crime. There 
were about 100 witnesses, among whom we 
find the names of Captain McNamar, Anton 
Abel, Louis Wambsgan, James Kelly, Phil Du- 
frand, George Sandford, A. C. Woodworth, 
David Blackman, George Arnold, Sheriff 
O'Brien, Dan Haskell, James Gray, H.' C. 
Stuckey, S. C. Stuckey, John Myers, Andrew 
Pancake, E. S. Finch, W. H. Kilgore, and S. 
R. Ritchie. Phil Dufrand and Bion Brown, 
two of the defendants, turned state's evidence 
and testified against their associates in the 
crime. The witnesses for the prosecution tes- 
tified to the facts substantially as heretofore 
related, while the witnesses for the defense 
confined themselves to testifying as to the 
good character and reputation of I. P. Olive." 
The arguments of the attorneys were lengthy, 
able, .and eloquent, and the case was given to 
the jury on the evening of April 16th. Be- 
fore morning the jury arrived at a verdict, to 
the effect that I. P. Olive and Fred Fisher 
were guilty of murder in the second degree, 
Judge Gaslin immediately sentenced the two 
men to the penitentiary for the rest of their 
natural lives, and they were taken to the pen- 
itentiary forthwith. 

JUDGE BOBLITS T.XKES A H.\ND 

Immediately after the sentence of Olive and 
Fisher their friends began proceedings for 
their release. The following year their ef- 
forts were successful, the supreme court hand- 
ing down a decision to the effect that the pris- 
oners had a right to trial in the county where 
the crime charged against them was committed. 
This not having been done, the prisoners were 
sent to Custer county for trial. Custer county 
had recently been organized from territory 
that had formerly been in two different judicial 
districts. The court held that the county was 
not now in any judicial district, and conse- 
quently the prisoners could not be tried before 



166 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



any district judge. This was the decision of 
two of the supreme judges, but Judge Samuel 
Maxwell, the third member of the court, dis- 
sented from this view, in what is said to be one 
of the ablest legal documents ever prepared in 
the supreme court of Nebraska. 

Under this decision the only court having 
jurisdiction over the case was the county court. 
Accordingly Olive and Fisher were brought 
before Judge E. J. Boblits, but from some 
mysterious cause no complaining witnesses put 
in an appearance and the prisoners were dis- 
charged. 

The county judge's docket at that time was 
kept in an account book, and the court pro- 
ceedings are mixed up with notes of sales and 
purchases of calves, steers, and cows, together 
with memoranda of expenses for hay. barbed 
wire, and other ranch requisites. The follow- 
ing, which we find on the same page with some 
items of expense incurred in the plastering of 
the judge's house, shows the disposition that 
was made of the celebrated Olive case : 

St.\te of Nebraska] gg 

Custer County ) 
In County Court Before E. J. Boblits, County 
Judge. 

1. P. Olive, W. F. Fisher, in custody of 
Sheriff O'Brien, the court finding no complaint 
on county docket and no complaining witness- 
es, the court orders that the prisoners be dis- 
charged till further proceedings can be had. 

This 17th day of December. 1880. 

E. J. Boblits, County Judge. 

The decision of the supreme court of course 
put an end to the proceedings against the other 
defendants, but in the meantime most of them 
had been allowed to escape from the various 
jails in which they had been confined, and as 
far as we know Olive and Fisher were the 
only ones that ever had to do any time in the 
penitentiary for ])articipating in the Alitchell 
and Ketchuni tragedy. 

THK IIAUNSTINK TRAGKDV 

The story of the Haunstine murder and ex- 
ecution, which occurred in the latter part of 
the '80s. is given by James Whitehead, uho 
was a resident of Grant precinct, where the 



murder was committed, and who had access to 
all the facts. 

"The murder of Hiram Roten and William 
Ashley by Albert E. Haunstine occurred No- 
vember 9, 1888. It was regarded, and time 
has failed to change the sentiment, as one of 
the most unprovoked homicides known in the 
history of this county. The murderer and his 
victims lived in the same neighborhood — Ro- 
ten valley. Toward the latter it was not shown 
that Haunstine had the slightest resentment 
or enmity. He had, in fact, for a time made 
his home with Hiram Roten, at whose hands 
and those of his young wife he had received 
the best of treatment. Mr. Ashley, who was a 
relative of Roten's, and lived close by, was 
not so well known to Haunstine, yet they were 
on friendly terms. The school-house of the 
district of whicli Roten and .Ashley were offi- 
cers, was located near their homes. A clock 
and some lumber had been taken from the 
school-house, and the fact of the missing goods 
was discovered while yet the tracks of the 
wagon and team of the supposed purloiner 
• were fresh and easy to trace. As this was 
but one instance in many of recent occurrence 
in the neighborhood, IMessrs. Roten and Ash- 
lev determined they would thoroughly investi- 
gate, and, if possible, detect the culprit. 

"We are not certain as to the length of time 
they were absent before their friends became 
uneasy and instituted a search. Some days, 
however, had elapsed, when a searching party 
visited Haunstine's home, which was back from 
the road and isolated, and found it unoccu- 
pied. In looking around they discovered the 
bodies of the missing men. near the house, 
partly covered by hay. Subsequent events dis- 
closed the fact that on reaching Haunstine's 
house and making their business known, he 
delivered to them the clock, which he con- 
fessed to having taken from the school-house ; 
that while they remained within no words or 
truulile occurred, but when they left the house 
and started for their wagon he took dciwn his 
rifle and shot them while their backs were 
turned, killing them instantly. He then 
searched them and secured about fortv dollars 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



167 



in money, their watches and a rifle and re- 
volver. Their team he tied in an old deserted 
sod house on an adjoining claim, and, gather- 
ing together a few household effects, he and 
his wife started to get out of the country. 
They went to Arnold, changed teams, and 
drove down the South Loup river to near 
Madison, where Haunstine hired out to husk 
corn. He worked three days, sold his team 
and then started for Columbus, where his wife 
had already gone. Just as the train was Hear- 
ing town it was flagged by officers who were 
on his track, and he was taken by surprise and 
captured while sitting in the smoker with his 
rifle across his lap. 

"He was tried at the ^larch term of the 
district court. H. AI. Sullivan, who was 
county attorney, had been consulted by the 
prisoner prior to his election, and had. there- 
fore, some scruples against acting as prosecu- 
tor. As a substitute, however, he employed 
Judge Wall, of Loup City, who, with the firm 
of Blair & Campbell, represented the state. 
The defense was conducted by C. L. Gutterson, 
A. R. Humphrey, both of Broken Bow, and 
X. \'. Harlen, of York. Haunstine was found 
guilty and was sentenced to be hanged on 
September 6th following. The case was ap- 
pealed to the supreme court, and he was again 
sentenced to be hanged, April 17, 1891. His 
defense was insanity, and before the date fLxed 
for his execution he acted so strangely that a 
jury was called to determine his mental condi- 
tion. The trial lasted three days. Public sen- 
timent against the prisoner was so strong that 
a good deal of trouble was experienced in se- 
lecting a jury. The following named persons 
were finally agreed upon : J. I. Dillenbeck, 
T. A. Thum, James Dinwiddie, Frank New- 
beck, J. C. Hunter, C. U. Richardson, John 
Curry, Nolan Webb, A. R. Huckleberry, A. 
Cross, T. H. ]\IcCarger, and J. L. Compton. 
The witnesses for the defense were Airs. Dr. 
Talbot, Miss Anna Crawford, Mrs. William 
Blair. O. M. Kem, William Blair, William 
Hartsell, John Miller, Charles Parkhurst, and 
Robert Norcutt. For the state were : Dr. 
Carter, physician at the state penitentiary ; Dr. 
Knapp, superintendent of the insane asvlum 



at Lincoln; Dr. C. Pickett; Dr. J. J. Pickett, 
county physician ; Dr. C. H. ^^lorris ; Sherifl:" 
Jones ; and Rev. O. R. Beebe, — all of whom 
with the exception of Dr. Knapp (Who said 
that without a more extended observation he 
was not prepared to state whether Haunstine 
was sane or insane), pronounced him sane, 
and believed that his condition was a feigned 
one. The prosecution was conducted by the 
attorneys who had managed the case from the 
beginning, while to the defense was added H, 
AI. Sullivan, whose term of office as county 
attorney had expired. It was one of the hard- 
est fought and most ably conducted legal bat- 
tles ever witnessed in Custer county. Air. 
Campbell (then county attorney) was a lawyer 
of long practice ; he was familiar with every 
turn and detail of the case, and his associates 
were men of exceptional ability. Judge Wall, 
especially, ranked high as a trial lawyer, was 
keen and resourceful, a good reasoner and an 
eloquent pleader. Gutterson, Humphrey, and 
Harlan were experienced and well informed 
practitioners, and the addition of Sullivan 
made a quartette that combined the qualities 
well nigh invulnerable. They were, however, 
placed in a most trying position. The preju- 
dice against the prisoner was marked and uni- 
versal. No circumstance connected with the 
killing of his victims could be urged in pallia- 
tion. It was a cold-blooded, unprovoked 
butchery of two respected and highly es- 
teemed citizens, and public sentiment demand- 
ed his execution. The date of hanging was 
fixed for the following day, and a vast multi- 
tude had assembled from all parts of the coun- 
try and from dift'erent portions of the state as 
well. The determined expression and sullen 
silence of the crowd was ominous. Represen- 
tatives of the press from Lincoln, Omaha, and 
elsewhere were present, awaiting the hour 
when the prisoner should atone for his crime. 
Adjoining the court house and facing its south 
door, the gallows was being erected and the 
din of the workmen's hammers was distinctly 
heard in the court room. None was more 
keenly alive to the situation and the odds 
against him than the prisoner's counsel. By 
mutual agreement the principal plea in his 



168 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



behalf was made l)y ]\Ir. Sullivan. He re- 
mained calmly in his seat until the proper 
moment arrived. \\'hen he arose to address 
the jury no sound save the breathing of the 
audience could be heard. With a few prelim- 
inary remarks, in which he avowed his belief, 
and that of his associates, in the irresponsibil- 
ity of the prisoner, he pushed eagerly forward 
into the very heart of the matter. The scene 
that followed was bewilderingly rapid in trans- 
formations : his appeal seemed absolutely to 
swell with indignation. Every look, word, and 
gesture showed the intensity of his feelings. 
Those who wure opposed to him in their be- 
lief as to the mental condition of the prisoner 
were forced to admire the determined and in- 
trepid courage manifested in the face of all 
opposition. As by the legerdemain of some 
skilled magician, that vast audience was 
swayed and moved by the passionate appeals 
of the orator and the dramatic episodes that 
marked its delivery. The prisoner alone sat 
unmoved. The veteran judge, who for years 
had sat upon the bench and listened to the most 
powerful pleadings of attorneys of note and 
orators of national renown, was visibly . affect- 
ed by the eloquence and earnestness of the 
young lawyer, and afterward, in conversation 
with the writer, paid high tribute to his splen- 
did eilfort. But no power on earth could save 
his client. The sword of justice, so long sus- 
pended, was about to descend. The judge de- 
livered his charge and the jury retired to their 
rooms for deliberation. They returned to the 
court room several times for further instruc- 
tions, and for the reading of different ])arts of 
the testimony. They also examined the cell, 
and appeared to be according the doomed man 
every chance. At two o'clock in the morning 
they came into court with a verdict of sanity. 
The prisoner received the verdict with the 
same stolid indifference that had character- 
ized his a])pearance during the wlmlc inquiry. 
When, however, the time arrived that had been 
designated by the court as the fatal morning, 
the doomed man seemed to have thrown off 
the mask and was, apparently, trying to fit 
himself for his impending fate. He requested 
Sheriff Jones to call in Father Haley to ad- 



minister the necessary consolation in the last 
moments of his earthly career. At half past 
ten o'clock the priest visited the jail and learned 
his wishes. He requested the priest to come 
early next morning and prepare him to die a 
sincere Catholic. At the appointed hour Fath- 
er Haley visited the jail, explained the doctrine 
of his church, and stated the necessary condi- 
tions for one who embraces the Catholic faith. 
Being satisfied as to the prisoner's sincerity 
and disposition to become a Catholic, he heard 
his confession, had him make the profession 
of faith, and administered the sacrament of 
baptism, according to the rites of the church. 
"In the meantime a rumor had been floating 
about that a telegram had been received by 
Sheriff Jones from Governor Boyd, grantiiig 
to the condemned a reprieve for thirty days, 
which, upon investigation, proved true. After 
the fact became generally known, great in- 
dignation was freely expressed. About three 
o'clock in the afternoon the immense throng 
became restless, and muttered threatenings be- 
gan to be heard on all sides. 

n.VilER -■VXD OTHERS QUIET CROWD 

"Just at this critical moment, before the 
thunder cloud of discontent and distrust of 
the law could burst forth, the calm, digtiified 
person of Judge Hamer appeared upon the 
stone steps at the front door of the court house, 
and he briefly, in a clear, ringing voice, ad- 
dressed the people as follows: 

"Fellow Citizens of Custer County: I have 
been trying to administer the law in this coun- 
ty, as I interpreted it, fairly, carefully, and 
candidly — so carefully that no decision hand- 
ed down by me upon this bench has been re- 
versed. Have patience ; the majesty of the 
law will be maintained. I have always found 
the people of this county law-abiding citizens ; 
I have always found them ready to defend the 
innocent and ])unish the guilty. If. as I have 
been informeci, there seems to be a disposition 
to murmur at the law's delay, arising among 
you, I pray you be patient. Pause ; make no 
mistake. This man whom you would have ex- 
piate his offense upon the gallows to-day was 
tried by a fair and impartial jury of his coun- 
trymen and found guilty. As he had a perfect 
right to do, lie apjtoaled his case to the supreme 
court, and there the verdict of vour jurv was 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



169 



sustained and he was again sentenced to be 
hanged. Where there is a question of the 
sanity of a prisoner under sentence of death, 
the law provides that upon notice from the 
sheriff of the county it becomes the duty of 
the district judge to cause a jury to be em- 
panelled to make inquiry as to the sanity or in- 
sanity of such prisoner. I received such a 
notice. Such a jury was called, and, after 
careful inquiry, pronounced him sane. I de- 
sire again to call the attention of the people 
to the fact that, as to the prisoner, he stands in 
this position : He was tried and convicted. 
He was again convicited and is now ready for 
execution. I therefore ask you to do your 
duty as law-abiding citizens. I want to say 
to you that the arm of the law is all powerful 
if it can have the support of honest men. [ 
know Governor Boyd, and I believe that he is 
an honest man. He must have had good rea- 
son for granting this reprieve. We do not 
know what showing may have been made to 
him. There are always two sides to a ques- 
tion, and I believe that we should have patience 
and trust the man that your ballots have placed 
in such a high position. You have yet no rea- 
son to complain. Wait. You will be protect- 
ed. Telegrams have been sent, but as yet wc 
have received no answer. You have no reason 
to doubt yet. I am aware of the fact that the 
burden of taxation upon you is already heavy 
— no one knows this better than I — but the 
expense has already been made. No further ex- 
pense is to be incurred. I therefore ask you, 
as honest men, as law-abiding citizens, that you 
do nothing rash. Let it be said that the law 
has triumphed in Custer county, and that jus- 
tice reigns. 

"James Whitehead, James S'tockham. and 
Judge Wahl each addressed the crowd and 
succeeded in quieting them. Judge Hamer, 
James Whitehead, and James Stockham later 
called upon the Governor, to obtain assurance 
tliat no further obstacle would be offered to 
the execution of the sentence, and they were 
informed that as far as any action of his 
might be concerned, their trip was utterly 
useless. He intimated that he proposed to of- 
fer no further delay than that provided for in 
liis order of respite, and should not have of- 
fered that had he been informed in time of 
the result of the investigation of Haunstine's 
alleged insanity. 

THE EXECUTIOX TAKES PL.XCE 

"Thirtv davs thereafter, at an earlv hour 



in the morning, the streets of Broken Bow 
began to fill with people from the surrounding 
country, to witness the closing ceremonies of 
the doomed man's career on earth. The cen- 
ter of attraction for the crowd appeared to be 
the enclosure of rough boards adjoining the 
south end of the court house, which hid from 
public gaze the scaffold from which the mur- 
derer was to be dropped into eternity. The 
doors of the court house were closed against 
the admission of all except those who had a 
permit from the sheriff, and a wire fence was 
placed about the shed containing the scaft'old, 
at a distance of about twenty feet. It had 
been decided to have the execution at one 
o'clock, but this was not known to the public 
generally. Accordingly as early as nine o'clock 
in the morning the crowd began to gather, in 
order to be on hand when the time came. The 
scaffold was fenced in by a high board wall. 
Time wore on slowly until noon ; the crowd 
gathered until fully 2,000 men, women, and 
children blocked the street on the south side 
of the court house. Noticeable among the num- 
ber were many women with babes in their 
arms. Prominent among those present were 
many relatives of the men murdered, all eager 
to witness the doomed man pay the death 
penalty. We would add here that the rela- 
tives of the doomed man were esteemed and 
highly respected citizens, well known to our 
people, who sympathized deeply with them in 
their great trouble, whi;h. through no fault of 
theirs, had come upon them. 

"About 12 :30 o'clock a thrill of excitement 
went through the crowd when Eli Roten ap- 
peared on the top beam of the scaft'old which 
projected above the fence, and threw a block 
of wood over into the yard. This was a signal 
which had, seemingly, been agreed upon, 
whereupon about fifty men sprang over the 
wire fence, shoved the guards aside, and in 
less time than it takes to tell it, the high fence 
was lying flat on the ground and the gruesome 
gibbet stood in plain view of everybody. It 
was a moment of intense excitement, but 
Sheriff Jones stepped upon the scaft'old and 
exacted of the crowd a solemn promise to re- 
main outside the fence and interfere no further 
with the proceedings. Haunstine. accompa- 



170 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



nied by Father Haley and Slieriff Jones, mount- 
ed the scaffold. He looked for a moment over 
the sea of upturned faces and in a full, steady 
voice, without a tremor, he said : 

"Ladies and Gentlemen — I desire to ask 
forgiveness from any one here whom I have 
offended. I also want you to forgive me for 
all the trouble and expense I have been to the 
county. I also ask all to take warning from 
me, and learn to do right before it is too late. 
Remember that little things grow into large 
tilings and the committing of little sins led me 
on to the commission of the crime which has 
brought me where I now stand. Again I ask 
all to forgive me, and hope you will not neg- 
lect to seek salvation. 

"Father Haley then whispered a few parting 
words of consolation, pressed the crucifix to 
the doomed man's lips, placed a cross and a 
string of beads around his neck, and exactly 
two minutes before one o'clock the trap was 
sprung. The strain of the shock was too much 
for the rope, which parted like a thread, letting 
the unfortunate man fall in a licaj) to tlie 
ground. The second fall broke his neck and 
in thirteen minutes he was pronounced dead, 
by the physicians in attendance. His body was 
taken into the sheriff's office, where it was 
prepared for burial by W. J- Woods, after 
which it was turned over to his brother, who, 
in the silence of the night, took the remains 
to his home in the southwest part of the coun- 
ty, where they were quietly interred. Thus 
ended the tragedy which opened that bright 
November morning in 1888. It was an impres- 
sive, a horrible scene, and one which few who 
witnessed it will ever care to see repeated. 

THE ONLY EXECUTION 

"In prcjiariiig the alx)ve account of the first 
and only legal execution that has ever taken 
place in Custer county, years after the com- 
mittal of the crime, we have had access to the 
records, and from the attorneys engaged have 
sought additional information ; but it is to the 
local papers that so faithfully chronicled the 
events and daily happenings in the community 
that we are principally indebted for the details 
given, prominent among which we mention the 
Custer Leader, the KepKblieaii. the Meriia Kee- 



ord. the CalUncay Courier, and the Stale Jour- 
nal" 

A F.\T.\L L.\XD QU.\RREL 

Some time in the early spring of 1885 Jo- 
seph Y. Province and his family, in which 
there were several boys, settled on the South 
Loup near the mouth of Spring creek. He 
had homesteaded a quarter-section in the 
Tirighton ranch and one upon which pre-emp- 
tion papers had been previously taken out. He 
had hardly established his residence before a 
man named Stephen Long claimed the place 
by right of relinquishment papers from the 
man who had made the former pre-emption 
entry and began building a house on the place, 
not far from the Province home. 

Concerning the feud that followed, and that 
later ended in a gun fight and the death of 
Province, an early writer tells the story as 
follows : 

"This man Long was a single man and an 
employe of the Brighton Ranch Company. 
The feud thus started between the rival claim- 
ants to this land ended later in the kilHng of 
old man Province. 

"It will be remembered that the land within 
this immense pasture, comprising some fifteen 
square miles of territory, was government land 
subject to entry by homesteaders, and was sim- 
ply appropriated by the cattle men without war- 
rant of law. As soon as settlers began to file 
on claims within its fence the ranch company 
had as many of its employes as possible file 
on claims, in order to retain for its use the 
claims thus taken. Long is said to have been 
one of these employes, and from this time on 
constant quarrels occurred between him and 
Province, pending the decision of the land 
office as to the rightful owner of the claim. 
There were charges and counter charges. At 
one time, we believe, the ranch company had 
the Province boys, George Sickler, and John 
McDermott, arrested on a charge of cattle 
stealing. John McDermott demanded a sep- 
arate trial, and the company proved that he 
helped to kill a 1,600-pound beef and carried 
one hind-quarter two miles in a two-bushel 
sack. Jcilin S. Kirkpatri:k (now a member of 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



171 



the Nebraska supreme court commission), then 
a young man. just starting in business in Cus- 
ter county, had John's case in hand. He took 
advantage of this evidence, made an eloquent 
plea, showing that his client was a man who 
weighed but 110 pounds, yet had been charged 
with carrying one-quarter of a 1,600-pound 
beef two miles in a two-bushel sack. The 
jury was out about fifteen minutes, and it is 
said they agreed among themselves that they 
believed the prisoner was not guilty, but if 
he had done as the testimony said he did, Mac 
had earned the beef. The cases against the 
Province boys and Sickler never came to trial.'' 

W.\R BREAKS OUT 

On Thursday morning. April 9, 1885, Mr. 
Province started to Broken Bow, leaving two 
sons, aged about twelve and fourteen respec- 
tively, to plow. Shortly after the departure 
of Province. Long appeared where the boys 
were at work, armed with a Wincliester, and 
ordered them to quit or he would shoot. The 
boys immediately quit work and started after 
their father, overtaking him before he ar- 
rived at Broken Bow. Mr. Province came on 
to town and contemplated getting out a war- 
rant, but being advised not to do so, returned 
home -during the evening. The next morning 
he went out and commenced plowing where 
the boys had left off. A few hours later John 
McDermott came galloping into Broken Bow 
with the news that Mr. Province had been shot 
down by Stephen Ijong or Charles Powell. 
Dr. Daum immediately started for the scene 
of the tragedy and found that Province was 
dead. 

On Saturday morning. Dr. Hull, county 
coroner, summoned a jury and, in company 
with a large number of citizens of Broken Bow 
and the surrounding country, visited the place 
where the murder had been committed. There 
all the available testimony was taken. The 
first witness examined was ^laria Powell, wife 
of Charles Powell, who lived in the house with 
Long. In her testimony Mrs. Powell said that 
she was in the house when the shooting oc- 
curred; Mr. Powell and Mr. Long had gone 
out of the house; Mr. Long had a Winchester 



and Mr. Powell a needle gun ; did not see the 
men when the shooting commenced, and did 
not see outside until after Mr. Province was 
shot; heard Province call for Mr. Long to 
come on. he was ready for him. She thought 
Province had fired five shots, Long two, and 
her man the last shot. When the shooting was 
over she saw Long and Powell in the dooryard, 
and Mrs. Province coming down to where 
her husband was lying. I asked Mr. Long: 
"Did you hit him?" He said: "I guess I did, 
for he fell." The men stayed about the house 
until after dinner and then went down to 
Allyn's lower ranch. 

Philip S. Province, a son of the deceased, 
said he was plowing with his father ; that Steve 
Long and Charley Powell came out of the 
house and shot two or three times, and that 
his father then shot at them several times with 
a revolver. The men were about seventy-five 
yards distant when the firing commenced, and 
he was sure his father did not commence shoot- 
ing first. After they had fired several shots 
he saw Long behind a wagon and Powell on 
the west side of the house. They kept on fir- 
ing and Province fired several shots at them 
with his revolver, and also with a shotgun 
which he had with him. He then started for 
the house and had gone about twenty feet 
when he fell. The shooting took place about 
eight o'clock in the morning. 

Joseph Y. Province, supposed to be on his 
death bed, but in sound mind and memory, 
doth depose and say : 

S'tephen D. Long, and, I think, the man 
living in the house with said Long, on the 10th 
day of April, 1885, about eight o'clock in the 
morning, came out and commenced shooting 
at me, with repeating rifles, as near as I could 
make out. I shot back at them. I was in my 
field plowing, about fifty yards from said 
Long's house, when the firing commenced. 
After they had shot once or twice I shot back. 
I shot five times, one with a single-barrel shot 
gun and balance with a revolver. Buck shot 
No. 3 was in the shot gun. They shot a dozen 
or more shots. After I had shot all in my 
weapons, as I thought. I called to them to 
stop shooting ; I would give up ; but they kept 
on shooting until one of them hit me. I do not 
know which one hit me. When said Long 



172 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



came out I said: "Xow draw your revolver 
on me if you want to." I was on my way to 
my liouse when I was shot. I was about 100 
yards from said Long"s house when I was shot. 
Joseph Y. Province 
(His (X) Mark) 
^Vitness to his mark. Jasper X'^ewlan. 

Sworn and subscribed to before me, in the 
town of Custer, countv of Custer, and state of 
Xebraska, this 10th day of April. A. D. 1885. 
Ben'Jamix L. Brisbane, 
Town Clerk for the Town of Custer. 

The following verdict was returned by the 
coroner's jury: 

State of Xebraska. 

Custer County. 

At an inquisition held at the late residence 
of Joseph Y. Province, in Custer county, Xe- 
braska, on the 11th day of April, 1885, before 
W'yman Hull, coroner of said county, upon the 
body of Joseph Y. Province, lying dead, by 
its jurors, whose names are hereunto sub- 
scribed, the said jurors, upon their oaths, do 
say that the deceased came to his death by 
means of a gun-shot wound, inflicted by a bul- 
let discharged from a gun in the hands of one 
Stephen Long or one Charles Powell, whom 
the jury find made a felonious assault upon 
the said deceased, on the morning of April 10, 
1885, with repeating rifles, each of said parties 
firing several shots at deceased, one of which 
shots struck and produced the death of said 
Joseph Y. Province. 

I. T. Merchant, Foreman. 
A. W. Gandv. 

M. CONLEV. 

H. A. Gr.xham. 
C. J. Elliott. 
Geo. Cudebec. 

Shortly after the shooting Long and Powell 
hid themselves in the hills. When the sheriff, 
C. P. Foote, arrived on the spot on Saturday 
he found about seventy-five armed men there 
in a state of great excitement, vowing venge- 
ance against the murderers. The sheriff 
tried to reason with them, but thev were not 
disposed to listen to him. He said they had a 
perfect right to be there if they were there to 
see the law carried out, but if they were there 
to commit another deed of violence he advised 
them to disband and go home. This enraged 
the mob the more, and a petition was gotten 
up on the spot, calling upon the sheriff to re- 
sign, which was signed by about fifty persons 



on the butt of a musket. A messenger came 
from the murderers that they would give 
themselves up if they were guaranteed pro- 
tection against violence at the hands of the 
citizens. This assurance was given and Long 
and Powell were arrested and taken before T. 
B. Buckner, a justice of the peace, where they 
waived examination. A mittimus was issued 
and the prisoners taken to the jal at Lexington. 
for safe keeping until their trial in the dis- 
trict court, a number of citizens having de- 
clared that the men would never be tried in 
Custer county, but that they would be hanged 
without a trial. 

As soon as the sheriff had left with the 
prisoners, the mob which was left behind, in- 
stead of returning to their homes, proceeded 
down the river to the \\'hite House, the head- 
quarters of the Brighton Ranch Company, 
where lived \ irgil Allyn, the foreman. Mr. 
Allyn was absent at Lexington at the time, and 
the citizens set about sacking and looting the 
place, from cellar to garret, helping themselves 
to everything in the shape of eatables and 
drinkables they could lay their hands on. As 
Mr. Allyn was one of the highest livers in the 
country, it is needless to say that the hungry 
mob had a feast the like of which few of them 
had enjoyed since they came to the county. 
Among his other supplies the foreman had a 
cask of rare old wine, which he kept for the 
especial entertainment of the guests at the 
numerous banquets that were held at the White 
House. The discovery of this treasure was 
hailed with a shout by many of the mob, and a 
goodly number of them began to load up on 
liquor. 

SPILLED THE booze 

At this stage of the proceedings an old, gray- 
headed man, who was among them. realizing the 
danger of adding intoxication to the already 
inflamed passions of the men, seized a hatchet 
and knocked in the head of the cask, letting 
the contents run out on the ground. This 
brave act probably saved Custer county from 
an added blot ujwn her already blackened 
record, and for his timely interference at this 
critical time the name of Isaac Merchant should 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



173 



be revered for all time to come. After having 
satisfied their appetites, the raiders loaded up 
all the canned goods and other provisions they 
could find about the place and carried them 
to the widow Province, the cooler heads only 
preventing the others from burning the house 
before they left. On their way back a log 
house belonging to the Brighton Ranch Com- 
pany was burned. The house was of cedar 
logs and was valued at $1,000. By this time 
Allyn had heard, in Lexington, of what was 
going on, and started at on:e for Iiome to pro- 
tect his property. Fortunately, before his ar- 
rival, the mob dispersed, else there would, in 
all probability, have been more trouble of a 
serious nature, as he brought a posse of armed 
cowboys with him. 

The session of the district court in which 
Long and Powell were tried convened on Mon- 
day, July 6, 1885, with Judge Francis G. Ha- 
mer on the bench. A special venire of 120 
were summoned to try the case. The em- 
paneling of the jury commenced before noon 
on Monday and was not completed until ten 
o'clock on Tuesday. The following jurors 
were chosen : L. Sutton, West Union ; John 
K. Cooper, Ortello ; S. H. Read, Merna ; Will- 
iam Hyatt, Myrtle; C. A. Wetherby and J. 
Snell, Keota; H. Gage, A. C. Blakeslee, W. H. 
Henderson, Wood River ; H. C. S'tuckey, 
Georgetown ; J. L. Oxford, Lillian. 

The attorneys for the state were H. ^I. Sin- 
clair (district attorney), Aaron Wall, and 
Thomas Darnell, while the defendants were 
represented by Attorneys McNamar, Greene, 
and Chapman. After a hard-fought battle the 
jury returned the following verdict : 

The State of Nebraska ] 

vs. j-ss. 

Stephen Long and Charles PowellJ 

We, the jury in this case, being dulv em- 
panelled and sworn, do find and say that we 
find the defendant, Stephen Long, is guilty 
of manslaughter, as charged in the indictment, 
and recommend him to the mercy of the court ; 
and we find the defendant, Charles Powell, not 
guilty. Louis Sutton, Foreman. 

In due time the following sentence was pro- 
nounced against Stephen Long by Judge 
Hamer : 



It is therefore considered and adjudged by 
the court that the said defendant, Stephen 
Long, be imprisoned and confined in the pen- 
itentiary of the state of Nebraska, at hard 
labor, for the period of four years and six 
months, and that he pay the costs of this pros- 
ecution, and that he stay committed in the 
hands of the sheriff of Custer county. Ne- 
braska, until the sentence of this court be 
complied with or he be otherwise legally dis- 
charged. 

After serving about two years of his time. 
Long was pardoned out, on account of ill 
health, and he died in about a month thereafter. 

MAKING AN HONEST MEXICAN 

[The following account of the shooting of a 
half-breed Alexican was published in the Cal- 
la'way Courier, in July, 1887] : 

For some time past numerous complaints 
have been made of robberies committed by 
unknown parties in unoccupied houses. Ev- 
erything seemed to be acceptable to the thieves. 
Monday afternoon Mr. Simon Landis came 
into town and swore out a warrant before 
Justice Deems for the arrest of two men, names 
unknown, who had robbed him of harness 
and other articles to the value of thirty-six 
dollars, and had also stolen some carpenter 
tools from the house of Henry Schuette. 

The warrant was placed in the hands of ^Ir. 
Fred Jephcott, constable of Noel, and L. ^I. 
Holman, constable of Callaway, for service. 
These gentlemen immediately started up the 
valley in pursuit, struck the trail at Finch- 
Hatton's ranch and followed it to Arnold, 
where they got a fresh team and were joined 
by the Arnold constable, Mr. Brown. The 
party followed the trail north to Hackberry 
canyon, and all along the road heard of the 
depredations committed by the robbers. They 
had at one place left their old wagon and taken 
a better one, but the trade was to their injury, 
for the wagon they stole had wire wrapped 
around a loose tire and left on the road a dis- 
tinct mark that was easily seen. They also 
stole a gT.m, four silk handkerchiefs, and a 
revolver. The Callaway constable held the 
trail while the Arnold contingent scouted 
around. After finding the search in the can- 
yon useless, the party went on up the road to 



174 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



Anselmo, where they again changed horses. 
From there the pursuers followed traces of the 
robbers to a point three miles north of Dale, 
when thej' found the robbers had doubled in 
their road and gone to Luce's canyon. When 
the constables got there they found that the 
robbers had gone to Merna the night before 
(Monday) and stopped there over night. 

By this time the constables were tired out, 
having traveled a day and a night without 
rest or food, so they went on to Broken Bow. 
having sent out scouts to scour the country 
around. 

Sheriff Penn being absent from Idwu. the 
con.stables. with some deputies, started out 
with two teams. The Callaway constable, L. 
M. Holman. the Noel constable, Fred Jeph- 
cott, and Joseph Trout, with a driver, were 
in one wagon, and the rest of the party were 
in the other. At about dusk they met a man 
on the main road at the mouth of the canyon, 
who told them that the robbers were coming. 
The officers then separated into two parties, 
the Callaway party taking to the riglit and the 
others to the left. 

This canyon is si.x miles north of Broken 
Bow, one-half mile north of Peter Mohat"s 
stock farm, on land belonging to the Hunter 
ranch, since known as Dead Man's canyon. 
At the edge of the canyon they met the rob- 
bers in a wagon with bows but no cover. Mr. 
Jephcott, who took command, immediatelv on 
seeing them shouted "Halt!" telling the rob- 
bers to surrender, as his party were officers 
come to arrest them. No attention was paid 
by the robbers, when Mr. Jephcott ordered 
them to halt three times more. 

.\t the fourth warning the officers saw a 
flash through the dusk, and could plainly see 
the men reaching for their Winchester rifles, 
which were hanging on the bows on each side 
of the wagon. The word to fire was then 
given and the Callaway party opened upon the 
robbers, being immediately followed by the 
Arnold party. At the first fire, one of the 
men who was sitting on the side of the wagon 
furthest away from the Callaway party, sprang 
from the wagon to the ground, dead. A rifle 
bullet had passed through his body, entering 



at his left side and passing out at the right. 
The other man fell to the bottom of the wagon 
box and the horses went tearing down the 
canyon. 

The officers at once followed and overtook 
the team a mile and a half away, but the other 
man had escaped, on a saddle horse that had 
been tied to the wagon. Half an hour after 
the slaying Sheriff Penn arrived on the scene. 
He at once took passession of the wagon, the 
team and the corpse of the dead man. and 
brought them to Broken Bow. 

The half-breed Mexican was about twenty- 
five years of age, si.x feet tall and well built. 
Inside his shirt, covered with clotted blood, 
was found a badge of the Cincinnati detective 
force. 

The wagon-box was half full of miscella- 
neous articles, which they had probably stolen. 
Among them were several guns, revolvers, 
saddles, clocks, carpenter tools, silk handker- 
chiefs, and other articles. A coroner's jury 
was empaneled and immediately brought in a 
verdict that the killing was justified and that 
the officers were blameless. 

FATAL HIL.\RITY AT AXSELMO 

It was April 1, 1887, "all fool's day," an 
appropriate date for the fool escapade pulled 
off by Billy Degan and Hugh Fitzpatrick at 
Anselmo. They boarded an early freight train 
out of Linscott. and. not being able to re- 
strain themselves until they reached Anselmo, 
commenced their gun play in the caboose. 
They pulled off a series of cowboy stunts cal- 
culated to terrorize the passengers. The late 
L. H. Jewett was on board that morning and 
afterward stated that the crowd was a little 
too rough for him. Wlien Anselmo was 
reached the two cowboys left the train and 
lost no time in ])reparing to give the town an 
exhibition of high life in the far west. 

The Anselmo people had been warned that a 
visit from the cowboys was on the program, 
and thus they were in a manner prepared to 
receive their expected guests. Billy Frischauf, 
a saloon-keeper, came to C. D. Pelhani and 
asked him what he should do. ^Ir. Pel ham 
advised him to close his saloon, and be it said 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



175 



to the credit of Frischauf, he fohowed the 
good counsel of his adviser, and not a drop of 
whisky was sold in his place during the whole 
of that fatal day. John Anderson, another 
saloon-keeper, also promised to shut up his 
place during the stay of the cowboys. Ander- 
son did close his saloon in the morning, but 
having some business out of town, he turned 
his keys over to his brother, Frank, who un- 
locked the door and ran the place wide open 
all day. Things soon began to assume a lively 
aspect in the little village, and A. F. Mc- 
Knight, the man who pumped water for the 
railroad company, using horse power, brought 
his team over to the livery stable, saying that 
he had told the company that their locomotives 
could get no water at Anselmo, as cowboys 
were painting the town and he did not propose 
to run the risk of getting shot. The boys were 
using the pump-house as a target. 

A noticeable feature of the occasion was that 
one of the cowboys appeared to be a gentle- 
manly sort of fellow and took no active part in 
the shooting, but apparently tried to keep his 
companion within bounds. The other, how- 
ever, crazy with bad whisky, determined to 
have all the fun he could get out of the spree. 
One of his antics was to place old tin cans on 
the tops of hitching posts in the street and then 
shoot them full of holes, regardless of the dan- 
ger to passers-by, who had to seek safety 
by getting behind buildings. When he got 
tired of this diversion he shot a hole through 
the stovepipe inside a furniture store, the bullet 
almost grazing the head of Mr. McDowell, 
who was managing the business for J. H. 
Brandebury, the proprietor. 

In the meantime some of the citizens had 
had a conference to discuss the advisability of 
sending for the sheriff, but they decided to wait 
a little while, hoping that the rowdies would 
cool off and behave themselves. The boys 
went to Anderson's saloon, where Degan, the 
tougher of the' pair, was having a fine time 
marching around in drunken gyrations and 
shooting holes in the floor and ceiling, when a 
bullet from his revolver accidentally penetrated 
the toe of a young man by the name of Mur- 
ray. The report immediately flew about town 



that the cowboys had shot a man. and the 
following telegram was immediately dispatched 
to Broken Bow: 

Anselmo, Nebraska, April 1. 1887. 
Sheriff' Custer County, Broken Bow, Nebr. : 

Cowboys are terrorizing the citizens of An- 
selmo, and one man has been shot through the 
foot. We ask your protection. 

(Signed) . Walter S'cott 

C. D. Pelh.\m 

Charlie Huntington let the cowboys have an 
old dray horse, and another was procured at 
a livery stable kept by one Bassey. Mounted 
on these steeds the two rode into Pelham's 
store, helped themselves to cigars, rode out 
and across the street to the store of Weander 
Brothers, where they got something else. By 
this time it was getting along in the afternoon, 
and the citizens were anxiously awaiting the 
arrival of the sheriff', who was expected every 
moment. After visiting all the stores in town, 
Fritzpatrick and Degan returned to the saloon, 
where they attempted the novel feat of play- 
ing a game of pool on horseback, Degan firing 
off his gun occasionally to emphasize his points. 
It was in the midst of this diversion that 
Sheriff Penn and his deputy arrived, pulling 
up at Pelham's barn. Tom Kimes and Charlie 
Murray rode out of the barn and Penn, mis- 
taking them for the cowboys, brought his Win- 
chester to his shoulder and commanded them 
to throw up their hands. Pelham apprised 
Penn of his mistake, much to the relief of the 
frightened young men. At this juncture an- 
other report from Degan's revolver rang out 
and Penn inquired ; "What shooting is that?" 
"Cowboys in the saloon," was the reply. 

The cowboys were soon given a tip that the 
sheriff was in town, when they immediately 
rode out of the saloon into the street, where 
they got a glimpse of the officer, surrounded 
by a crowd of citizens, in front of the livery 
barn. They fired a parting salute from their 
six-shooters and rode out of town to the 
northwest. Penn and his men followed them 
to a house situated on a triangular piece of 
ground on the outskirts of the village. From 
this house a road went directly north and an- 
other ran parallel with the railroad track in a 
northwesterlv direction. The latter road was 



176 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



taken by the cowboys, who proceeded as far 
as the hand-car house and then came to a 
standstill. Penn and his men halted at the 
dwelling house above referred to, where they 
waited to see what the boys were going to do. 
After about fifteen minutes Fitzpatrick and 
Degan turned the heads of their horses around 
and slowly approached the sheriff's party. 
Penn placed his deputy, Jones, and Humphrey 
Smith, who had volunteered to assist him, at 
the northeast corner of the house guarding 
the road from the north, which passed on the 
east side of the building. He gave them strict 
orders that in case the cowboys came their 
way to first demand them to halt ; then, if 
they did not stop, to shoot their horses ; and 
finally, if they still refused to surrender, to 
shoot them. Penn took his station near the 
southeast corner, that being the point to which 
the boys were apparently approaching. When 
within a short distance from the house they 
turned and rode directly east, striking the road 
running north and south, and were rapidly 
nearing the deputies. One of the men shouted 



out: "Here they come!" and Penn rushed 
over from his corner and commanded : "Throw 
up your hands ; I am the sheriff of Custer 
county !" The boys paid no attention to the 
command. Eye witnesses say that the horses 
were shot first, Fitzpatrick's animal becoming 
frantic. He held the bridle rein with his left 
hand and was reaching behind to grasp the 
saddle to keep from falling off, when Smith, 
thinking he was reaching for his revolver, 
fired and shot him through the heart. It was 
afterward learned that Fitzpatrick was un- 
armed, having thrown his revolver away be- 
fore he rode back to town, possibly thinking 
that in case he was arrested it would go easier 
with him if it was found that he did not carry 
a weapon. Degan"s horse was also shot, and 
refusing to surrender, the rider then and there 
met the same fate at the hands of Penn. An 
inquest was held and a verdict returned to the 
effect that the two cowboys had been killed 
while resisting arrest at the hands of officers 
of the law. 



CHAPTER IX 

TOWNS AND VILLAGES 

Westerville — Might Have Been County Seat — A New Town Laid Out — Lee's 
Park — Other Dead Ones — Comstock — The Beginning of Callaway — J. Woods 
Smith has a Dream — Town Christened — Smith was an Advertiser — A New 
Townsite — A Town Fight is On — "Podunk" News Items — ■ Acknowledges the 
"Corn" — More Improvement — Build a Mill — The Train Arrives — Moving Day 
at Night — Callaway up to Date ^ The County Seat — The Broken Bow — The 
Town Grows — Twenty-five Miles for Butter — The Town Still Grows — First 
Town Officials — Railroad Comes — Big Buildings Go Up — Gets to be a City — 
Modern Buildings Go Up — • Plenty of Good, Pure Water — Broken Bow to Date — 
The Public Service Club — Present Officers — The Town of Arnold — A Big Cel- 
ebration ■ — Village of Berwyn — The Hustling Town of Merna — Atkisson Speaks 
FOR Merna — ■ Mason City — Present-day Business Interests — Oldest Inhabitants 
— • Federal Officers — Sargent — Ansley — Ansley's Banks — Ansley's Mercantile 
Establishments — Ansley's Mills. Shops, Livery Stables, etc. — Ansley's Lumber 
and Coal Yards — Ansley's Shipping Association — Ansley's Drug Stores — Ans- 
ley's Professional Men — Ansley's Electric-light, Water, and Telephone Systems 
— Ansley's Newspapers — Ansley's Postoffice — Ansley's Patriotism — Ansley's 
Library — The Story of Anselmo — Postoffice History — Town Improvements 
— Anselmo Newspapers — Anselmo Fights the Kaiser — Anselmo 
Churches — Anselmo Fraternal Societies — The Story of Oconto 

Credit to Custer county eleven good towns. Merna. Wescott, Algernon, Lee's Park, first 
with a combined population of nine thousand and second Callaway, Dale. There is no re- 
one hundred souls. Eleven towns in which sponse. Only one of these places maintains a 
the people are progressive, wide-awake, and store and not one has a postoffice. The town 
prosperous. No other county in the state has is dead and the streets have been plowed and 
as many good towns. No other county has as are occupied by corn and wheat, alternately, 
many miles of railroad, nor does any other Some of these towns were so large and had 
county parade as many miles of river valleys, such a good start that they deserve extended 
This extent of fertile valleys and railroads is mention. One of these is Westerville, which, 
what makes so many towns in the county pos- by the failure of the railroad to build through 
sible. its valley, lost its opportunity. 

Notwithstanding there are eleven towns of 
the description given, there is a village grave- 
yard in which lie buried nine towns which once In 1886, thirty-two years ago, Westerville 
lived and thrived and were on the map, for a was the principal town in Custer county, as it 
few short years, before they ended their was situated in the eastern part, where most 
troubled careers. of the settlements were made, and it had a 

Call the roll : \\''esterville. \\^est Union, Old considerable trade. Clear creek flows along 

177 



178 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



the north and east sides, but why it was named 
"Clear" creek they never knew, for it has been 
muddy ever since they saw it, some forty 
years ago. On the north bank of Clear creek 
is the flouring mill, operated by water power. 
Several years ago, in the '80s, they had very 
heavy rain storms during the spring, danger- 
ously raising Clear creek. The water worked 
its way under the banks and caused great 
pieces of earth to cave into the water. The 
people feared that some of the buildings near- 
est the bank would be undermined. The 
flouring mill stood so close to the water, that 
men had to work night and day to save it. 
One man, standing on the bank, happened to 
look behind him 
and saw the ground 
cracking all around. 
He had scarcely 
time to escape when 
that portion upon 
which he had stood 
dropped into the 
water below. 



MIGHT HAXZ BEEN 
COUNTY SE-^T 

The reason Wes- 
terville is not the 
county seat of Cus- 
ter county, we are 
told, is because the 
first settlers were 




not willing to make a 
sacrifice of about one hundred dollars deemed 
necessary to secure this distinction, and while 
Westerville slumbered and felt secure. Broken 
Bow worked and soon won the prize. This 
was mistake number one for Westerville. 

Two county fairs were held here, one in 
1883 and the other in 1884. In the fair held 
in 1884 two things were of very much interest 
to the people, a turtle that had been taken from 
Clear creek and a fawn that was captured a 
few miles north of there. The turtle was 
nearly as large as a washtub, in which it wa.*; 
exhibited. A number of the people of Broken 
Bow attended the fair in 1884. The question. 
"Where shall the county fair be held next 
year?" was submitted to the people, and when 



the votes were counted it was found that Wes- 
terville had lost the privilege of having it. a 
privilege which she never regained. Mistake 
number two for Westerville. 

In Westerville's most prosperous days they 
had several dry-goods and grocery stores, a 
large hardware store, over which was a pub- 
lic hall, three hotels, a flouring mill, two black- 
smith shops, a cutlery store, a good public 
library, a bank that carried on quite an exten- 
sive business, printing offices, a drug store, 
and a good school and church. They could 
boast of two doctors, Waterbury and Morris. 
J. A. Armour, afterward county judge, was 
the town lawyer. 

.\ NEW TOWN LAID 

OUT 

In the spring of 
1883 Merna took a 
boom. D. S. Lohr 
put up a frame 
building, south of 
Brotherton's store, 
and hopes ran high 
as imagination pic- 
tured a growing 
city, but it proved 
a delusion, for Lohr 
soon moved his 
store, building and 
all, some five miles 
up the valley, where 
he founded the town of Dale. 

This led to the formation of a townsite com- 
pany at Merna, and a town was located and 
laid out in section 36, two miles northwest of 
Brotherton's store, and within three miles of 
Dale. Authority was granted by the post- 
office department at Washington to move the 
postoffice to the new site. Mr. Brotherton 
formed a partnership with Milton Casteel and 
J. D. Strong, and a great department store was 
opened. W. E. Warren built a shack and 
hung out a mortar and pestle, which indicated 
to all concerned that he had a fresh assortment 
of drugs and a limited supply of stomach bit- 
ters for sale. If the business side of these 
ventures is not a pleasant memory to the gen- 
tlemen concerned, the old croquet ground and 



Westerville Mill and Pond 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



179 



the old sod town-hall, which came into exis- 
tence through their untiring energy, will al- 
ways be an oasis in that desert of uncertain 
business prosperity. 

Later a blacksmith shop, a frame hotel, and 
another store made their appearance, but to- 
day the old townsite is plowed as a field and 
yields its store of grain to feed Custer county's 
helpless poor, as it is a part of the county poor 
farm. 

rXiring the summer and fall of 1886 the B. 
& M. Railroad was e.xtended from Grand 
Island to Alliance, and the Lincoln Townsite 
Company purchased Brotherton's old claim 
and relocated Merna on the site of its birth. 
This settled the townsite controversy and the 
future of IMerna was assured. 

The town grew rapidly into a respectable 
village, with many lines of trade and various 
industries represented. Brotherton and War- 
ren moved from the new Alerna back to the 
old site, and rush of population from the east 
caused houses to spring up like mushrooms 
after a rain. Mr. Wilson was a pioneer grain 
dealer, building the first elevator. The busi- 
ness has been widened under the management 
of his son, L. W. Wilson, until now they buy 
grain at three points in the county. 

lke's p.\rk 

In April, 1884, the town of Lee's Park was 
laid out in Custer county, oii the town line, 
and the same year, the Lilly & Houder addi- 
tion to Lee's Park was laid out, adjoining the 
original town, and in Valley county, with the 
postoffice in \^alley county. Then came quite 
a little boom for a new town. A general mer- 
chandise store was built by Lilly & Houder, to 
which the postoffice was removed ; then fol- 
lowed a blacksmith shop, a hotel, a wagon 
shop, and a feed stable. This little town was 
progressing finely when the B. & M. Railroad 
concluded to outdo the Union Pacific Rail- 
road, and so built past Loup City, the 
terminus of the L^nion Pa;:ific Railroad, 
and stopped at Arcadia, five miles from 
Lee's Park. The little town held out for a 
while, but the railroad town of Arcadia took 
away, its vitality, and after some struggles the 



town of Lee's Park was no more. All the 
buildings were torn down or removed, and an 
attempt was made to take away even the post- 
office. The attempt was nearly, or quite, suc- 
cessful, as the postofiice was actually removed 
to Arcadia, but prompt action was taken by 
patrons of the office, and an order came for 
its return, only a day after its removal. The 
postoffice was afterward removed from Valley 
county across the line into Custer county, 
where it remained until mail delivery made it 
unnecessary. The fact that originally the 
postoffice was in Valley county, and is now in 
Custer county, has caused some confusion as 
to the real location of Lee's Park, some think- 
ing it in Valley, and some in Custer county. 
The name of the town and postoffice has also 
been confused with the name of the valley. 
Originally the postoffice had the same name as 
the valley, but Jay Hamlin, while postmaster, 
had the name of the office changed to Lee 
Park, consequently the name of the postoffice 
is Lee Park, and the name of the valley is 
Lee's Park. 

At the time of the laying out of the town, a 
cemetery association was formed, and five 
acres of land were purchased from W. S. De- 
lano, and laid out as the Lee's Park cemetery. 
Trees were soon set out and cared for, and in 
consequence the cemetery is a fine one. The 
following year the Catholic cemetery was laid 
out, one-half mile north of Lee's Park ceme- 
tery. 

OTHER DEAD ONES 

When the railroad was built up the Middle 
Loup valley, Wescott was not in line. The 
road went on the other side of the river and 
the town of Comstock was located just north 
of the river. Wescott could not survive the 
sh6ck. 

Algernon, on the Muddy, was put ofif the 
map in much the same way. The railroad com- 
pany located its depot where Mason now 
stands, and Algernon surrendered. Merna, 
old I\Ierna, was three miles off the road when 
the Burlington located its line and depot at the 
present site of Merna, and the town had to 
move. There was a first Callaway and a sec- 



180 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



ond Callaway (see story of Callaway) before 
the arrival of the Union Pacific Railroad. 
Both of these towns are no more, both capitu- 
lated and helped to form the present town. 
The stroke that killed old Merna, killed Dale. 
Without a railroad it was left stranded. West 
Union was in the way of the river line of rail- 
road and if Sargent had not been made a ter- 
minus of the line West Union would have 
gotten a railroad and have been on the map 
as a good Custer county town. 

Towns, then, died and were buried, and 



new townsite, which was named in honor of 
him. Frank Lemon opened up a grocery 
store in this building. On September 25th 
James Hines began the blacksmithing busi- 
ness. On October 1st Frank and John Currie 
began buying grain, commencing at the same 
time the erection of an elevator. On October 
3d the railroad company opened its station for 
business, P. C. Croaker agent. On October 
4th Dierks Lumber & Coal Company, John 
Dierks, manager, unloaded its first shipment 
of coal at this point. On October 10th Robert 




1/7:. 



:ii herl 



Com STOCK 



their streets, that were once marked for the 
avenues of commerce, hear no sound save the 
rattle of the harvester and the chug of the 
passing autos. The story changes to live 
towns. 

COM STOCK 

The village of Comstock, the youngest town 
in Custer county, is located on the east bank 
of the Middle Loup river, on the Aurora and 
Sargent extension of the B. & M. Railroad. 
The town was located and surveyed in 1899. 
A store building was moved over from Wes- 
cott, bv W. H. Comstock. and located on the 



Stone began buying stock, with H. H. Wheeler 
as agent, followed in December by Mr. Parks, 
both building stock 3'ards. In October a gen- 
eral hardware and implement store was 
opened. The postoffice opened for business 
November 19th, with S. T. Stevens as post- 
master. The hotel was completed and opened 
to the public in November, but was soon found 
too small for the proper accommodation of 
the traveling public. A feed and sale stable 
was in operation in December. Walter Ham- 
mond opened a barber shop in December, and 
Albert Apperson commenced the draying busi- 
ness at the same time. In Januarv, 1900, M. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



181 









# 


Vg' g^^3 


^'^Sl^^mr^^^ 


^ 




ii[fj!!y^^yyjjg^^!^^' 






|***^PI^^W^3P^ 




Section of Residence District in Com stock 



Farmers & Merchants Bank, Comstock 




Main Street, Comstock 





Woodmen Fraternity Building, Comstock 



General Store of Wescott, Gibbons & Bragg, at 
Comstock 



182 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



I. Fried opened with a line of implements. 
Elias Cleveland finished his dwelling and 
moved into it in February. J. F. Westcott, 
contractor and builder, moved into town in 
February, but did not complete his dwelling 
until the following Alay. F. H. Kernohan 
had his brick store and residence read)' for 
occupancy in May. In September J. W. Com- 




Rf.sidence of Charles D. Bragg, at Comstock 

stock opened a harness store and repair shop. 
In December Wescott & Gibbons moved their 
general merchandise store from the west side 
of the river and began business in Comstock. 
In January, 1901, Frank Hammond began 
business in a new blacksmith and wagon re- 
pair shop. R. R. Bangs moved into the hotel 
in January. C. N. McWorthy built his house 
for a residence, millinery and dressmaking 
store in February. In March the ^Modern 
Woodmen commenced the erection of a two- 
story building, the ground floor to be used as 
a drug store, bank, and meat market, and the 
upper floor for a public hall. A commodious 
schoolhouse was built in the fall of 1900. The 
first child born in the village of Comstock 
was Helen Apperson, February 23, 1900. 
Concerning the town to-day, E. F. Skolil 
makes the following resume : 

Comstock is a thriving, growing and up-to- 
date town on the .\urora and Sargent branch 
of the Chicago, Burlington & Ouincy Rail- 
road, located in the Middle Loup valley on 
the east side of Custer county and about at 
the center of the state of Nebraska. It is an 
all-around good and prosperous little town of 



over five hundred inhabitants. It contains 
three churches, Congregational, Methodist, 
and Latter-Day Saints, three good and pros- 
pering general merchandise stores — ^Ves^ott 
Gibbons & Bragg, the leading store, estab- 
lished in 1886; F. C. Dworak, established in 
1900; J. C. Kiker. established 1917. Two 
good banks — the Citizens State Bank, the 
leading bank, established in 1906; and the 
Farmers' & ?klerchants' State Bank, estab- 
lished in 1909. The banking resources of this 
little town are over $600,000. which tends to 
show that it is a prosperous and growing town, 
as it is only about eighteen years old. Com- 
stock can well boast of the two most modem, 
up-to-date bank buildings in the county. Two 
good lumber j'ards — • Dierks Lumber & Coal 
Company, starting in business about the time 
the town was platted, and S. A. Foster and 
Company, in 1911. Two good hardware 
stores, and furniture store in conjunction with 
one of them — -J. T. Arthur, established in 
1907, succeeding S. T. Stevens — and C. E. 
Brandt, established in 1914, succeeding R. R 
Bangs, who conducted a hardware and furni- 
ture store for over ten years previously. One 




■mmm- ' 




Residence of Edvv.\rp F. Skolil, at Comstock 

blacksmith shop, one of the most up-to-date 
and neatest drug stores in the county, owned 
by E. C. Gibbons and operated by J. D. Rock- 
hold since 1912. One harness shop, estab- 
lished with the town by J. \\'. Comstock and 
still owned by him and operated by his son, 
A. L. Comstock. Two good implement stores, 
two automobile garages, one livery barn, one 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



183 



butcher shop, one barber shop, one pump and 
general-repair shop, one of the largest and 
best flouring mills in that part of the state, 
(owned and operated by C. F. EUer), one 
farmers' live-stock shipping association, two 
live-stock dealers, one hotel, one of the best 
and most up-to-date restaurants in th's sec- 




Residence of Robert S. Stone, Com stock 

tion, under the name of Woodman Cafe, 
owned by W. E. Gibbons, E. F. Skolil and 
Aley Shafer, established in 1918 in the Wood- 
man Fraternal building. One modern moving- 
picture theater, established in 1912 by Charles 
D. Bragg and E. C. Gibbons, along with an 
electric plant from which the people of Ccm- 
stock are deriving much good and comfort, as 
the service is as good as in large cities. One 
grain elevator, owned by W. T. Barstow al- 
most since the town originated. One printing 
office where the Comstock Kck's is edited and 
published and which deserves a great deal of 
credit for the prosperity and advancement of 
this town. One large and modern opera 
house, in the Woodmen Fraternal building, 
which was built in 1917, and contains also a 
large banquet hall and two large stores on the 
main floor. 

In Comstock there are the following lodges : 
Knights of Pythias. Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, and Modern Woodmen of America. 
One doctor, four cream stations, one city hall 
one telephone exchange (which has been un- 
der the good management of E. B Wait since 



1917 and is all rebuilt and giving good ser- 
vice), four coal yards, one good public 
school, with eleven grades. Comstock has 
some fine residences, a growing park, and the 
best sidewalks in the state. 

Following are the members of the town 
board in 1918: E. F. Skolil (chairman), John 
F. Westcott, Ed. B. Wait, J. C. Kiker, and S. 
T. Stevens. Comstock has had four success- 
ful Chautauquas and many elaborate Fourth 
of July celebrations. Chautauquas and lecture 
courses have been maintained for many years. 

THE BEGINXING OF C.\LL.\WAY 

One of the most enterprising towns of Cus- 
ter county is Callaway, located on the South 
Loup river, in the midst of a valley that is 
beautiful and fertile enough for an Eden. The 
town is on the Kearney branch of the Union 
Pacific Railroad. 




Citizens State B.\nk, at Comstock 

The following record of the early settle- 
ment and growth of the town was written by 
George B. Mair several years ago and is re- 
liably authentic. 

"The most of those who were here in the 
beginning and who took an active part in the 



184 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



organization of the town have removed to 
other parts. The birth of Callaway, in the 
minds of the citizens of to-day, is apparently 
in the dim, distant past — a dust-covered tradi- 
tion, and as an introduction to the historj' of 
Callaway a brief account of the settlement of 
the territory contiguous may not be out of 
place. 

"Probably the first settler to locate in the 
South Loup valley between the present towns 
of Callaway and Arnold was Frederick 
Schreyer, who came in June, 1875, with a 
large family, and located a claim about four 
miles above Callaway. Mr. Schreyer soon 
found himself in 
trouble with the 
cowboys, who at- 
tempted to drive 
him away. He was 
a shining mark for 
practical jokes at 
the hands of the 
cowboys, and ac- 
cepted in dead earn- 
est everything they 
did to torment him. 
When they attempt- 
ed to stampede a 
herd of cattle over 
the roof of his dug- 
out, or destroyed 
his watermelon patch, and such other innocent 
diversions, Mr. Schreyer positively refused to 
see the point of the joke. 

"The next settler to arrive in the valley was 
David E. Sprouse, who located two miles 
northwest of the present town of Callaway. 
In October of the same year came Ira Graves 
and George T. Ricker, in search of land, the 
former filing on a homestead and timber 
claim, adjoining the future town, and the lat- 
ter locating a mile north of the Sprouse claim. 
Charles C. Kingsbury and Mark Schneringer 
came about the same time. In 1880 came N. 
M. Morgan, M. N. Deems, H. B. Schnerin- 
ger, Noah Welch, Norman Brendle, Gabriel 
Payton. Ira McCnnncll. the ^^'llipples, and per- 
haps others. 

"A postoffice was establislied in .\ugust. 




1880, which was given the euphonious name of 
"Letup," with Ira Graves as postmaster. On 
petition of Ira Graves and Clara P. Graves 
the name of the office was changed to Delight 
in September of the same year. Mark Deems 
was installed as mail carrier, his route being 
from Custer to Arnold, and from Olax ( now 
Oconto) and Lexington to Delight, all of 
these offices being supplied from Plum Creek. 
"The county was organized into townships 
in 1883, and the territory embracing the entire 
southwestern part of the county was named 
Delight township, by N. M. Morgan, the first 
supervisor. Out of the origial township the 

towns of Grant, 
Elim. and Wayne 
have since been 
formed, leaving the 
township of De- 
light with seventy- 
eight square miles. 
At the time of the 
settlement here, 
there was no other 
settlement between 
the Platte valley 
and \'ictoria creek. 
During the few 
years that follow- 
ed, newcomers ar- 
rived almost week- 
ly, imtil there was quite a community. In 1885 
Mr. Graves induced John !Moran. a merchant 
of Olax. to build a store on his farm, which 
stood on the northeast corner of the property 
now owned by John Frederick. The question as 
to who is entitled to the credit of founding the 
town of Callaway has been often disputed, and 
will be perhaps never fully determined to the 
satisfaction of all. but from what we can learn, 
J. Woods Smith is fully entitled to whatever 
honor the distinction confers, as it was in his 
brain that the scheme originated which materi- 
alized in the laying out of the town a few 
months later. 

J. WOODS S.MITH H.\S .\ DRE.\M 

"As Mr. Smith tells it, Callaway was first 
conceived in the lobby of the Paxton hotel at 



[Photo by S. D. Butcher] 

The First Building in CAi.i.A\v.\y 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



185 




Laying Corner Stone of Callaway High School 



Callaway Hotel 




Masonic Temple at Callaway 





Residence of Hall B, Schneringes, Callaway 



Plant of Callaway Mill Company 



186 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Omaha, in the fall of 1885. While reading the 
morning paper, he chanced to come across an 
item stating that the Omaha & Republican 
Valley Railroad was going to survey a line 
up the South Loup river the next spring, to 
intersect with another road, which was to be 
surveyed up \^'ood River valley from Kearney. 
Mr. Smith went to a map which was hanging 
on the wall, and at once made up his mind 
that the point where these two roads came to- 
gether would be an ideal place for a town. 
With his usual decision, Mr. Smith had a town 
laid out and thickly pojjulated — in his mind 
— within five minutes. He immediately com- 
municated the scheme to Hon. A. B. Chard, a 
personal friend, and the two started for Cus- 
tur county to look over the situation. They 
foimd the location even more promising than 
they had anticipated, and made partial ar- 
rangements for the purchase of the Graves 
farm for a townsite, intending to return early 
in the spring to complete the deal. When 
spring came, Mr. Chard had other business 
and Mr. Smith proceeded alone. Upon his 
return to Delight he was unable to close the 
deal with Mr. Graves, and he succeeded in 
making an arrangement whereby the claims of 
Albert and M. H. Deems, comprising the east 
half of section 11, township 15. range 23, 
were secured for a townsite. the Deemes tak- 
ing shares in the syndicate in payment for 
their land. Mr. Smith also purchased of C. 
W. Gray the northwest quarter of section 11, 
on his own account, which is the land upon 
which the railroad addition to Callaway was 
afterward platted. E. B. Needham, capitalist 
from St. Paul, Nebraska, also took an interest 
in the townsite company, and the work of plat- 
ting was commenced at once. 

TOW.V CHRISTENED 

"The town was named in honor of S. R. 
Callaway, then general manager of the Union 
Pacific Railroad, and the streets were named 
after the general ofificers of that road and the 
members of the townsite company. The first 
to erect a building in the new town was Dr. L. 
Michael. The second building was erected by 
Harry E. O'Neill, for his brokerage business. 



which theretofore had been conducted on his 
claim half a mile west of town. The next 
building was a store by Albert Deems. Then 
John Moran moved his general store down 
from the corner of Mr. Graves' farm, Baker 
& Yates put up a store and put in a stock of 
groceries, Smith Brothers put up the opera- 
house building and put in a stock of hardware. 
These were followed in quick succession by 
W. B. Maze, hardware ; Smith & Needham, 
lumber and coal ; Maze & Burbank, flour and 
feed ; Rogers & Johnson, the Bank of Calla- 
way ; Theron E. Webb, drug store ; C. W. 
Root, drug store, moved from Arnold ; Hol- 
way & Schneringer. livery ; L. Palmer, feed 
stable; Lewis & Holman, meat market; ^L L. 
Savage, furniture store ; Clark & Owens, real 
estate, loans, anil insurance ; B. L. Brisbane, 
real estate; C. C. Hayes, James Suhr, black- 
smiths ; Alex ilallert, G. A. James, restaur- 
ants ; P. Wymore, John Calligan, McConnell 
& King, Tidey & Smea, carpenters; F. A. 
Clarke & Company, general store, moved from 
Arnold ; ]\L H. Deems, Hotel Excelsior, op- 
erated by A. L. Mathews ; J. C. Naylor, law- 
yer; George H. Lafleur, barber shop. On 
August 19th appeared the first issue of the 
Callazi'ay Standard, which was published and 
edited by Charles A. Sherwood, a first-class 
printer imported by the townsite syndicate. 
On Sunday, August 8th, a small hurricane 
swept down the valley and partially wrecked 
most of the buildings that were in the course 
of construction, among them being the opera 
house. Dean's hotel, and the Baker & Yates 
building, but the damages were soon repaired 
and work progressed rapidly. 

SMITH W.\S .\X ADVERTISER 

"The new town boomed all summer. J. 
\\'oods Smith, its founder and promoter, was 
well known all over the state. He also had 
the knack of getting himself interviewed in 
the Omaha papers every time he visited that 
city, and the result was that Callaway was 
soon the best advertised town in Nebraska. 
^^'hile to the ordinary individual Callaway ap- 
peared destined to become a prosperous vil- 
lage, in the Utopian vision of J. Woods Smith 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



187 



nothing less than the state capital awaited it. 

" During the summer of 1886 the Omaha 
Bee said : 'Callaway is six weeks old, with 
fifty houses ; a hotel, seventy by fifty-six feet ; 
an opera house, forty-eight by sixty feet; and 
a population of 200 inhabitants. Its repre- 
sentation in business houses is excellent, 
though at present it is in need of a watch- 
maker and jeweler and a harness man. A 
first-class outfit for a newspaper, to be called 
the Callau'ay Standard, together with an edi- 
tor, have already been shipped, and the first 
sheet of the new journal will appear next 
week. It will be followed by the issue of a 
rival paper one week later. The crops in the 
vicinity are said to be the finest in the state, 
and Mr. Smith says that he has never seen 
finer corn than they are now cutting down on 
the site upon which the town is built. 

A NEW TOWNSITE 

"The survey of the railroad was completed 
that summer and the grading done. The 
grade is still there, from Pleasanton to Calla- 
way, but no iron has ever been laid on it. The 
Wood river line was graded soon afterward, 
but it was not until four years later that the 
road was finished from Kearney to Callaway. 
This scheme materialized in the formation, of 
the New Callaway Townsite & Improvement 
Company, with C. W. H. Luebbert, president ; 
N. M. Morgan, vice-president ; Harry E. 
O'Neill, secretary; Ira Graves, treasurer; John 
Reese, solicitor. The land was purchased of 
Ira Graves, the site of New Callaway platted, 
and inducements oft'ered to old-town business 
men to move up. as it was expected that the 
New Callaway promoters had influence enough 
to secure the depot. The inducements, how- 
ever, did not draw any of the old-town people 
away, except Harry O'Neill. Upon the or- 
ganization of Callaway the postoffice had been 
moved from Mr. Graves' farm to town, and 
the name changed from Delight to Callaway. 
Harry O'Neill was postmaster when he moved 
up to the new town, but he had to leave the 
postoffice behind. 

A TOWN FIGHT IS ON 

"The old-town citizens patrolled the street> 



at night with shotguns, to prevent the post- 
office from being stolen. A newspaper plant 
was purchased by the New Callaway Syndi- 
cate, and on June 29, 1887, the A^ezv Callatvay 
Courier was born in a frame building which 
was then located near the present residence of 
John Frederick, with M. C. Miller as 
editor. Then commenced one of the biggest 
townsite fights in the history of central Ne- 
braska. The new town was derisively chris- 
tened 'Podunk' by the old-town people, and 
the new Callawayites were termed 'Mudhens.' 
The failure of the Wood river line to be built 
that fall, put somewhat of a damper on the 
New Callaway project. The few residents of 
the town, who had been induced to locate with 
the understanding that it was to have the 
railroad depot at once, became discouraged and 
moved away. In October, 1887, when the 
writer first arrived on the scene from Chicago, 
to assume charge of the Nc2v Callazi^ay Cour- 
ier, he found the two rival towns lying on 
their arms awaiting developments. Every 
business enterprise in New Callaway had gone 
away except the Courier, but it was doing a 
flourishing business. It was published in the 
frame building later occupied as a photograph 
gallery by Isaac Bryner. It was then located 
on the comer of Pearl street and Third ave- 
nue. New Callaway. On the corner diagonally 
across the street, was a gopher hole, and the 
two other corners were occupied by a bullfrog 
and another gopher. The Courier had a big 
circulation, and was well filled with advertise- 
ments from merchants of Broken Bow, Cozad, 
Lexington, and Arnold ; but it had none from 
Callaway, as that would have been considered 
high treason by the old-town people, and would 
have been sufficient reason for a boycott 
against the ofifender. The Courier, however, 
did a flourishing business, and became famous 
all over this part of the state, as the paper 
that was published in the town that had no 
other business. 

FODUXK NEWS ITEMS 

"Sometimes, when local news were scarce, 
the Courier was filled out with local items 
from Podunk. Here are a few samples : 



188 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



"One of our prominent quails made a Hying 
trip to Triumph yesterday. 

"One of J. Woods Smith's cows was over 
visiting friends in Podunk yesterday. 

"One of Morgan's brindle steers was taking 
in the sights of Podunk Tuesday. He is a 
rustler. 

"Several influential prairie dogs have inti- 
mated their intention to locate in Podunk early 
in the spring. Still the boom continues. 

"We acknowledge a pleasant visit one day 
this week from a black dog with one ear 
partly chewed off. Call again. You will al- 
ways find our latch string out. 

"One of our jack rabbits fell on a slippery 
sidewalk Monday and as a result he now walks 
with a limp. 

"The stake which marks the site of the First 
National Bank, at the corner of Hayfield 
square, was knocked over by a bay cow on 
Wednesday. It ought to be repaired at once. 

"One of our most respectable and highly 
esteemed coyotes was villainously assaulted by 
Graves' dog while out taking a walk Monday. 
Such rowdyism is a disgrace to Podunk. 

"Three coyotes from Sand Valley gave a 
concert in Jake Horn's corncrib Saturday 
night. 

"Three strange jack rabbits were in town 
all day Thursday, looking around our streets. 
Their business was not ascertained, but it is 
supposed they were locating a railroad depot. 

"Intense excitement was caused in our city 
Tuesday by the appearance of a man coming 
toward town from the east. Business was en- 
tirely suspended and the whole town turned 
out to see him, but he turned south at the cor- 
ner of Smith's cornfield and escaped. 

"Our friend McConnell says he is not much 
of a believer in signs, but he believes animals 
often know what is going to happen in the 
future. The other evening as he was going 
home wondering whether the railroad depot 
would be located at Callaway or Podunk, a 
big bullfrog jumped out of Wiggle creek and 
said 'Podunk! Podunk! Podunk!' On the 
strength of the tip Mr. ^McConnell has invested 
in several corner lots. 

ACKNOWLEDGES THE "cORN" 

"During the winter of 1887 the weather was 
very cold, and as coal had to be hauled from 
Cozad, there was sometimes a dearth of fuel. 
The office building was made of boards that 
were mostly knot holes, and unplastered, con- 
sequently not over warm, and the paper was 
not infrequently 'run off' when the temperature 



on the outside was below zero, and not much 
higher inside. It was frequently the duty of the 
editor to sally forth after dark, into a handy 
cornfield, with a two-bushel sack, to rustle 
enough fuel for the ne.xt day. One day a man 
whose field had been visited pretty often, came 
into the office and wanted to know how much 
it would cost to have a notice put in the paper. 
He said somebody was stealing his corn and 
he thought a piece in the paper would scare 
them off. We made a deal to publish a warn- 
ing against the offender for a dollar and a 
half, and no more corn was stolen from that 
field during the remainder of the winter. This 
shows the power of advertising. 

MORE IMPROVEMENT 

"During 1888 M. L. Savage built the pres- 
ent postoffice building. The Seven \'alleys 
Bank building was also built the same year, as 
was a new store, by F. A. Clark & Company. 
The S'even Valleys Bank had been established 
the year previously, by J. Woods Smith and 
others. The Union Bank was established in 
1888 by J. Woods Smith, J. E. Decker, and J. 
H. Decker. The spring of 1889 came, and 
still no railroad. The town was at a stand- 
still. The New Callaway project was practi- 
cally dead and the Xcii' Callaway Courier 
moved to the old town and became the Calla- 
way Courier. George B. Mair, the editor and 
publisher, was appointed postmaster, purchased 
the postoffice building and added another 
room, which has since been used as a printing 
office. R. E. Brega came to town during this 
year and established himself in the law busi- 
ness. Railroad rumors were rife and the 
Kearney & Black Hills Railroad Company 
was organized. 

BUILD .\ MILL 

"The magnificent water power afforded by 
the South Loup river had commended itself 
to the business men of Callaway, and many 
meetings were held to talk up the project of 
erecting a flouring mill, to be operated by 
water power. These meetings resulted in the 
formation of the Callaway Milling & ]Manufac- 
turing Company, which was composed of most 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



189 



of the business men. In the fall of 1889 work 
was commenced on the dam across the Loup 
river, and the wheels of an up-to-date, modern 
roller mill began to move in the spring of 1890. 
A proposition to vote $8,600 bonds for the 
purpose of assisting the Kearney & Black 
Hills Railroad to build from Kearney to Calla- 
way, was submitted to the township and car- 
ried almost unanimously. 

the; teaix arrives 

"Work on the old right of way commenced 



sand dollars. A number of business enter- 
prises located in the new town, and liberal in- 
ducements were held out to the old town to 
move up in a body. It was supposed that the 
location of the depot would cause everj-thing 
to rush to the Railroad addition at once, but 
such was not the case. Many of the old-town 
people were interested in old-town real estate, 
and if the town moved to the new addition it 
would become practically worthless. It was 
evident to a disinterested onlooker that the 
railroad addition was bound to win in the end, 




[Photo by S. D. Butcher] 



Street Scene in Callaw.ay in 1895 



at once, and on the 7th day of October, 1890, 
the first regular passenger train pulled into 
Callaway. The depot was located neither in 
the old town nor the new. but half way be- 
tween, on the farm of J. Woods Smith, which 
was purchased by the Callaway Improvement 
Company, on. which to lay out a new town of 
Callaway, now known as the Railroad addi- 
tion. Engineers of the railroad company laid 
out the town on a grand scale, large enough 
for a city of the first class, and some very good 
buildings were put up, among them being the 
Grand Pacific hotel, at a cost of over ten thou- 



but the old-town people made a bitter fight, 
J. Woods Smith, being interested in the new 
town, moved his opera-house building over and 
also established a store there, in what was 
known as the Improvement building. Van- 
green Brothers moved up to the new town. A 
new drug store was established, with Dr. F. J. 
Greer as manager ; Dierks Brothers and the 
Gilcrost Lumber Company put in yards ; a 
brick 3-ard was established ; and a large two- 
story building, known as the Grand Army 
building, was erected for store and lodge pur- 
poses. The newcomers who were attracted to 



190 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



the locality by the advent of the railroad were 
not, of course, interested in the townsite fight, 
and mostly located in the new town. 

MOVING DAY AT NIGHT 

"Being satisfied that there was but one way 
for the contest to end. and wishing to bring it 
to a close as soon as possible, the postofifice 
was moved to the new town at midnight, by 
G^^orge B. Mair, without previous notice. The 
following morning, when the people of the old 
town found out what had happened, their 
wrath knew no bounds and all sorts of threats 
were indulged. The Courier was moved to the 
new town at the same time. So incensed were 



master general. In a few months the depart- 
ment reinstated the postmaster, but the loca- 
tion of the office was fixed in the old town, 
whither it had been taken by the inspector at 
the time of his visit. Soon after this the en- 
tire old town capitulated and moved up to the 
new town, followed by the postoffice sorge 
months later. 

"The year 1891 was a season of big crops, 
and the new town enjoyed quite a boom. 
Money was plentiful and the business men had 
a fine trade. Many new buildings were erect- 
ed, among them being two large grain eleva- 
tors. The town was full of traveling men and 
strangers, and the townsite syndicate had suc- 




IPIwto by S. D. Butcher] 



A Mixed Tr.mx Comtxg ixto Callaw.w, Octorer 7, 1890 



they, that the peoi)le of the old town refused 
to mail their letters at the .postoffice, but sent 
them to the neighboring offices to be mailed. 
.\t the arrival of every mail they sent a mes- 
senger up to the postoffice with a sack, who 
collected all the mail for the old town business 
men and carried it down to tlie Bank of Calla- 
way, where it was redistributed. In the mean- 
time they were procuring signatures to a peti- 
tion and protest, wliich was forwarded to the 
postoffice department and which brought a 
postoffice ins]x-ctor to investigate. The in- 
spector concluded that the postmaster had act- 
ed without due authority in moving the office, 
and his resignation was asked for. The post- 
master declined to resign, and he was removed 
and a temporary postmaster appointed by the 
inspector, pending the final decision of the post- 



ceeded in interesting a number of eastern cap- 
italists in the town. Arrangements had been 
made for a big excursion at some future date, 
but in the meantime poor crops and partial 
failures followed, culminating in the drought 
period of 1894 and 1895. which drove away 
half the population of the county, and in which 
Callaway dwindled down from a hustling town 
of 600 people to a dead village of a little over 
200. The people became almost panic-strick- 
en, and a cry went out for help that was re- 
s]ionded to from ocean to ocean_ with a gen- 
erosity that has never been equaled. Grain, 
food, and goods of all kinds came into the 
country by the carloads, from almost every 
state in the Union, and serious sufifering was 
prevented. The railroads, which have been 
said to have no souls, disproved the assertion 



HISTORY OP CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



191 



at this time, and they gladly offered free trans- 
portation for solicitors and supplies during all 
that trying period. Since then this locality 
has enjoyed fair crops. On the night of 
March 15, 1901. the principal business block 
was completely destroyed, entailing a loss of 
about fifty thousand dollars. This has result- 
ed in the passage of a fire-limits ordinance by 
the village board, and preparations are al- 
ready being made to rebuild the burned dis- 
trict with fine modern brick buildings." 

C.-^LL.^WAY UP TO DATE 

The following firms, and* business and pro- 
fessional men lived in Callaway prior to 1900 
but were not mentioned in the foregoing article 
by George B. Mair : 

. Drugs: \\\ J. Bean, E. R. Vining, Charles 
Root ; F. J. Drum, well machinery ; A. Pearson, 
photographer ; attorneys : John Reese, J. C. 
Naylor, and James Yates ; hardware : Bennet 
Maze and Charles Whaley ; David Hopkins, 
grocery and confectionery ; Walter Wood, 
furniture, Charles Gaines, manager ; Holway 
& Schneringer, first livery man ; W. G. Gar- 
lock established a brick yard and made brick. 

The following are Callaway business en- 
terprises since 1900 not mentioned be- 
fore : \\'. I. Harrow, bakery ; J. E. Felk- 
er. jewelry; M. F. ^'erry and Emma \'an 
Eman. milliners ; K. C. Kim, photograph- 
er ; Farmers State Bank (John Frederick, 
Sr., president, and John Frederick, Jr., 
vice-president) ; live-stock dealers, John Fred- 
erick ; Farmers Shipping Association ; Farm- 
ers Elevator Company, William Reader, man- 
ager : Callaway Elevator Company, D. F. 
Burker, manager ; Kearney & Black Hills Rail- 
road. E. I\I. Wellman, agent ; Higbee & Keyes, 
hardware ; Charles Curtis & Company, hard- 
ware ; Frank Hagin, restaurant ; Claude Pierce, 
restaurant ; M. C. Schneringer, undertaker ; 
general merchants: Campbell & Tidd. Helton 
Roberts Company, \'angreen Brothers, W. L. 
Grimes: drugs: Robert Weiland, Walter 
Wright : variety store, Clara \'angreen ; post- 
master, John Moran ; barbers : Lewis Brothers, 
Dan Pearson, Tobe \'angreen ; physicians : J. 



F. Davies, Albert Johnson ; chiropractors, Lib- 
bie Leonard and Charles F. Nye. 

Callaway has a first-class water and electric- 
light system ; telephone exchange ; four good 
church buildings (Episcopal, Methodist Epis- 
copal, L'nited Evangelical, and Catholic) ; an 
up-to-date high-school building, of which W. 
A. Rosin is superintendent ; four large, brick 
garages, as good as there is in the county. 
The Ford garage has a floor space of 12,500 
square feet. They are represented by Walter 
Brittan, Charles Carothers, Henry Ridder,'and 
Sherrel & Lowe Brothers. Real estate: ^Ic- 
Grew & Brabham, J. D. Troyer, George H. 
LaFleur, H. H. Andrews, L C. Shupp. R. E. 
Brega, lawyer, real estate, and insurance. The 
Callazcay Queen, Thomas Roberts, A. W. Ros- 
in, James C. Naylor, owners, and James C. 
Naylor editor. 

The population of Callaway is about 900. 
The Callaway Milling Company has one of the 
best flouring mills in the state, operated with 
electricity. 

THE COUNTY SEAT 

The city of Broken Bow is located in town- 
ship 17, range 20, in the center of the county, 
near the head of the Muddy, a creek that runs 
through the town. The city enjoys the ad- 
vantage of fine schools and has seven churches, 
in whi:h religious services are maintained. It 
has had no saloons for years. Business is good 
and the population is gradually increasing. 
Broken Bow is the county seat of Custer coun- 
ty. It is known far and near on account of 
the oddity of its name. The name was sug- 
gested by a chain of circumstances, rather than 
romance. 

THE BROKEN' BOW 

In 1880 Wilson Hewitt, who was a home- 
steader near where the city is now located, on 
request of the few settlers in the vicinity, peti- 
tioned the government for a postoffice at his 
place and sent in a name he thought was ap- 
propriate. The postoffice department approv- 
ed the application for an office, but rejected 
the name, as a similar name had been granted 



192 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



on another petition. Two or three other names 
were sent in, but were rejected for the same 
reason. Mr. Hewitt was a blacksmith and a 
hunter, and while out hunting one day he 
found, on an old Indian camping ground, a 
broken bow and arrow, which he carried home 
with him. He put them in a box in his shop, 
with some old irons, and thought nothing more 
about them. Some time afterward he received 
notice that the third name he had sent to Wash- 
ington had been rejected, and, going to the 
box after a piece of iron, he picked up the 



nier owner of the bow. or any of the facts con- 
nected with it, is known. 

Air. Hewitt prized the broken bow as a 
relic and intended to keep it as a souvenir of 
the town's christening, ■ but one day the hired 
girl was cleaning up around the yard and put 
the bow into the fire, with other rubbish. It 
was discovered, however, in time to save a 
fragment of it. The part saved is now in 
possession of E. R. Purcell, editor of the 
Custer County Chief, and is highly valued. 

The townsite was located and plat filed in 




[I'hoto by S. D. Butcher] 

Old Marble Top Hotel, Broken Bow, in 1886, with Dr. Hull .^nd His Favorite Ponies 
IN Front. Location now Occupied by the Realty Block 



broken bow, and the name, "Broken Bow," 
came to his mind quickly. He determined to 
send it in as the name for his postoffice, sat- 
isfied that there was no other place of the 
same name in the state. He consulted his 
wife, and she being willing, the name was sent 
in and was accepted by the department. Just 
how the Indian bow came to be broken and 
left on the old camp ground, is only a matter 
of conjecture. i\Iany stories have been invent- 
ed to account for it, and one old settler, Mrs. 
M. A. B. Martin, has written an Indian legend 
concerning it, which is rojiroduccd on another 
page. Nothing whatever concerning the for- 



June, 1882, by Jess Gandy. The postoffice, 
which was then kept by C. D. Pelham, who 
had a small stock of goods half a mile from 
the townsite, was moved to the new city, and 
hence Mr. Pelham enjoys the distinction of 
being the first merchant of Broken Bow, as 
well as its first postmaster. Wilson Hewitt 
had been elected county clerk the ])revious fall, 
and near the proposed townsite had built a 
sod house, which he occupied as his oftice. The 
county treasurer. C. T. Crawford, and the 
county superintendent, D. M. Amsberry, oc- 
casionally held forth in the same building, in 
the discharge of their respective official duties. 



HISTORY OP CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



193 



Soon after the townsite was laid out, the town- 
site promoters provided temporary frame 
buildings for the county officers. County Clerk 
Hewitt and County Judge J. S. Benjamin oc- 
cupied a room on the west side of the public 
square, and the county treasurer and the coun- 
ty superintendent a building on the east side. 
This arrangement was continued until the fall 
of 1884, when the county built a frame building 
large enough to accommodate all four of the 
offices. The question of relocating the county 
seat was an issue during the summer and fall, 
and in this Broken Bow defeated Westerville, 
its rival. The county seat had been located 
previously near the South Loup, but the site 
had never been occupied, as the county records 
were always kept at the homes of the several 
county officers. The victory inspired courage, 
and many important battles have since been 
fought and won b}' a combined effort of the 
citizens. One of the first houses built was a 
sod building, by R. H. Miller, on the corner 
where the Broken Bow State Bank now stands. 
This was used for the family residence and 
also for a printing office. Mr. Miller estab- 
lished the first newspaper of the town, the 
Custer County Republican. The first issue of 
the Republican was June 29, 1882. The paper 
is still published in the city, and not only 
claims the distinction of being the first news- 
paper published at Broken Bow, but of being 
the oldest paper in the county. The present 
editor and publisher follows at the end of a 
long procession of former owners. 

THE TOWN GROWS 

During- the summer of 1882 the following 
families located in the new town and engaged 
in business : Jess, James P., and A. W. Gandy, 
J. S. Kirkpatrick, C. W. West, J. H. Fleming, 
T. E. Wheeler & Company, G. W. Trefren, 
C. T. Crawford, C. D. Pelham, J L. Oxford, 
and R. H. Miller. J. P. Gandy built a log 
house in which he kept a few goods and ac- 
commodated the traveling public with meals 
and lodging until a hotel was erected. J. H. 
Fleming built the first hotel, on the corner 
now occupied by the Grand Central. As the 
lumber and all building- material had to be 



freighted from Kearney by teams, it was a 
tedious task to build. By August Mr. Flem- 
ing had the Broken Bow hotel, a two-story 
structure, nearly completed to accommodate 
the public, and guests frequently had to put up 
with scanty fare, owing to lack of teams with 
which to freight the necessary provisions,- but 
as Mrs. Fleming was a most excellent cook 
she made the best of what she had, and all 
were satisfied. 

TWENTY-FIVE MILES FOR BUTTER 

Frequently a team would be sent twenty-five 
miles to purchase butter, and would return with 
only a few pounds. J. H. West was the pro- 
prietor of the first drug store, and G. W. Tre- 
fren established a law office, being followed 




Broken Bow St.^te Bank 

soon by J. S. Kirkpatrick, who was afterward 
a member of the Nebraska supreme-court com- 
mission. Mrs. T. E. Wheeler & Company put 
in the first stock of general merchandise, in 
October, 1882. Mrs. Wheeler had come from 
Aurora in August and contracted with the 
townsite company to build a store room in con- 
sideration of bringing in a stock of goods. 
She freighted the goods from Grand Island, 
by way of Loup City and Westerville. That 
winter Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler lived in the 
back part of the store room, with only a car- 
pet for a partition. C. T. Crawford built 
and occupied his house as a residence, restau- 
rant, and treasurer's office, the same fall. J. L. 
Oxford, one of the county commissioners, built 
the first feed barn, just east of the present site 
of the Grand Central hotel, near where ]\Ir. 
Lee's barn now stands. Jess Gandy put in the 



194 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



first butcher shop that summer, and bought his 
first beef from Judge Benjamin, who Hved on 
a homestead adjoining the town on the north. 
The first school was taught by !Mrs. M. E. 
Lewis, in a sod house. 

THE TOWN STILL GROWS 

With the spring of 1883 the population had 
more than trebled. Frank Crable added a lum- 
ber yard, a much-needed branch of business. 
H. G. Rogers, a silent partner of T. E. Wheeler 
& Company, located here, bringing with him 
an additional stock of dry goods, valued at 
$10,000. He built a new store building in 



publish it until June, 1888, when the plant 
was sold to the Central Nebraska Bank. R. 
H. Miller succeeded Mr. Beebe as editor. 

The first church was built by the Methodists, 
in 1883. It was the first bri:k building in 
town. During this year the townsite was en- 
larged by additions made by J. P. and A. \V. 
Gandy, and the sale of town lots to prospec- 
tive residents became brisk. The students of 
Blackstone were increased by two that winter, 
James Ledwich, who engaged in the law and 
real-estate business, and who later became one 
of the prominent men of the county, and C. J. 
Elliott, who came from Illinois, returning to 




[Plu'tc (iv i'. D. Dulchcr] 



First Printing House in Broken Bow 



which to accommodate his goods, and Mrs. T. 
E. ^^'heeler & Company added a line of hard- 
ware. -Miss Litta Mengle put in a stock of 
millinery and associated with her Miss Laura 
Morrison as dressmaker. Marcus Reyner add- 
ed the second drug store, and' in October of 
the same" year L. H. Jewett established the 
Custer County Bank, which was the first bank 
in town, with S. H. Burnham. of Lincoln, as 
president, and ^Ir. Jewett as cashier. Silas 
A. Holcomb, subsequently governor of the 
state and at present a member of the state 
board of control, located in the town that sea- 
son and engaged in the practice of law. S. C. 
Beebe, publisher of the Custer Cotiifty Leader, 
moved his paper from \\"esterville to Broken 
Bow in the spring of 1883. and continued to 



that state after a few years. Up to this time 
the town had been without a practising physi- 
cian. The only one in the vicinity was Dr. R. 
C. Talbot, who lived on a homestead some 
eight miles away, and who protested against 
practicing medicine. Dr. Wyman Hull ap- 
peared on the scene and Dr. Talbot proposed 
to him that if he would lo;ate in town he 
v.ould turn over all his practice to him. The 
inducement was sufficient, and Dr. Hull at once 
secured a sod house that J. P. Gandy had built, 
and moved his family to Broken Bow. The 
Doctor did not prove a drawing card as a 
physician, and soon fitted up rooms in his 
house and engaged in the hotel business. As 
rains were quite frequent in the early days, 
his guests were frequently disturbed in their 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



195 



slumbers by the roof leaking. To remedy this 
annoyance the Doctor covered the house with a 
heavy coating of cement, which gave his hos- 
telry the name of "The Marble Top." Mrs. 
Hull and daughter were fine cooks and good 
entertainers, while the Doctor was a happy 
hustler for business. They soon built up one 
of the best paying businesses in the town and 
the Marble Top became a celebrated name. 

In 1884 the population of Broken Bow large- 
ly increased, and the demand for both resi- 
dence and business houses caused a number of 
buildings to be built. L. Lavender and W. D. 
Garlock, brickmakers, put in two yards and 
manufactured enough brick to supply the de- 
mand. The Commercial hotel was built that 
season, by J. P. Gandy and A. W. Gandy. D. 
M. Amsberry and G. W. Runyon built the 
three brick store rooms on the north side of 
the public square. A brick schoolhouse, in the 
southeastern part of town, and two dwelling 
houses, by Isaac Merchant and Steve Chaple, 
were built in the fall, and the frame buildings 
put up were numerous. With the influx of 
1884 came Judge H. M. Sullivan, who has 
ever since been a leading citizen and closely 
identified with the development of the town, 
the county, and the state. A. R. Humphrey, 
who was subsequently commissioner of public 
lands and buildings, located here in 1884. 

This season County Treasurer Talbot and 
County Superintendent Amsberry moved their 
families to town and each put up a residence. 
Among the new enterprises started in 1884 the 
principal were : Holland & McDonald, hard- 
ware and implements ; the Broken Boiv Tunes, 
by Trefren and ]\Ieseraull ; Kloman & .\rnold, 
bank; Moore & Wright, real estate. 

FIRST TOWN OFFICI.^LS 

The village was incorporated that spring and 
the first officers appointed were: Isaac Mer- 
chant, president ; J. S. Kirkpatrick, Jess Gandy, 
and D. M. Amsberry, trustees; and E. P. 
Campbell, city attorney. The first officers 
elected were: Isaac Merchant, H. A. Graham, 
D. M. Amsberry, and J. S. Kirkpatrick, trus- 
tees; H. M. Sullivan, attorney; E. P. Campbell, 
clerk. 



In 1886 the town received another substan- 
tial boost, by the arrival of R. O. Phillips, pres- 
ident of the Lincoln Townsite Company. He 
bouglit a half-section of land adjoining the 
town on the north, at big figures, and it re- 
sulted in corner lots going sky high. This was 
soon followed by the B. & M. Railroad sur- 
veyors up the Muddy valley, who included 
Broken Bow in their line of survey. Not only 
townsite speculators and business men rushed 
in to secure desirable town property, but with- 
in' a few months homesteaders had filed on all 
the desirable farming land in the vicinity. 
Among those who preceded the locomotive, or 
came soon after its arrival in that year, were : 
Freisheimer & Haeberle, druggists; S. B. 
Thompson and House, and B. S. Lilly, real 
estate agents ; C. B. Hayes, boots and shoes ; 
J. C. Bowen, grocer; Hans Dierks, lumber; 
Bogue & Sherwood, lumber ; the Chicago Lum- 
ber Company; W, H. Cline, general merchan- 
dise ; W. J. Woods, furniture ; Wilde & Squires, 
hardware; S. B. Frost, restaurant; S. A. Bar- 
stow, contractor and builder ; Eklwards & Emil, 
blacksmiths and wagonmakers ; C. A. Thum, 
clothing; J. H. Inman, agent for the Lincoln 
Townsite Company. The railroad addition 
was surveyed and put on the market and a 
number of new buildings erected or commenced 
on the new addition, including a number of 
residences as well as business buildings. On 
the old townsite was built the Pacific hotel and 
Graham Brothers' store, which have since be- 
come the Grand Central hotel, one of the best 
equipped and best conducted hostelries in cen- 
tral Nebraska. 

THE R.\II,RO.-\D COMES 

The B. & M. Railroad let no time go to waste 
after the survey was made. On August 26, 
1886, the road was completed to Broken Bow 
and the first locomotive made its appearance 
in Custer county's rapidly growing capital. 
C. E. Wilkinson, of Lincoln, was the first sta- 
tion agent and telegraph operator, and after- 
ward served as mayor of the city. In the lat- 
ter part of this year O. P. Perley, a capitalist 
of Maine, located here and invested a large 
sum of money in the Custer County Bank. On 



196 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



the 15th of February, 1886, it was organized 
as the First National Bank, with S'. H. Burn- 
ham, president ; L. H. Jewett, cashier, and O. 
P. Perley, assistant cashier. The following 
year the Central Nebraska Bank was estab- 
lished, with O. J. Collman, president, and J. 
H. Inman, cashier. The North Side Opera 
House block, the Inman hotel, the bank build- 
ing, and a number of smaller buildings for both 
business and residence purposes, were erected 
on the Lincoln Townsite Company's addition. 
Also in 1887, G. W. Frey built the large flour- 



among which we may mention the Union 
block (by Taylor Flick, H. Walton, and M. 
Reyner), the Realty block, the Inman and 
Globe hotels, Walton's and Blackman's barns, 
Morrison & Candy's and W. C. Luce's feed 
mills, the Baptist. United Brethren, Presby- 
terian. Catholic, Christian, and Episcopal 
i.-luirclies. the court house, two brick school- 
houses, the postofifice. and the I. O. O. F. 
building. The waterworks plant was put in 
under the supervision of C. A. Weeks, by a 
local company. The Bank of Commerce was 




IPhoto by S. D. Butcher] 

First Tr.mn into Broken Bow, August 26, 1886 



ing mill later owned and operated by S. J. 
Lonergan. A large planing mill was built the 
same year, by S. A. Barstow. 

BIG BUILDINGS GO UP 

In this year were established the additional 
business enterprises of T. j\I. & J. W. Salis- 
bury, dry goods ; Thompson, Wilson & Drake, 
dry goods ; Ryerson & Leslie, books and sta- 
tionery ; H. Walton, drugs ; and the Custer 
County block was built by R. C. Talbot. G. W. 
Trefren, and D. M. Amsberry ; also an opera 
house by Trefren and Hewitt. The growth 
of the city continued gradually until 1894, 
many substantial buildings being erected. 



established in 1889, with C. J. Stevens, presi- 
dent, and F. M. Rublee, cashier. 

GETS TO BE .\ CITV 

In 1888 the town had outgrown the rank 
of a village, and it was organized as a city of 
the .second class. The first officers were : O. 
P. Perley. mayor: B. S. Lilly. J. L. Cobb. S. 
A. liarstow, Hans Dierks. councilmen ; E. P. 
Campbell, city clerk: H. Al. Sullivan, city at- 
torney. In 1894, owing to a severe drouth 
and a financial panic, the population of the 
city decreased fully one-third, and several of 
the business houses suspended in the year fol- 
lowing;. The number included Kloman & 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



197 



Arnold's bank, the Central Nebraska National 
Bank, Barstow's planing mill, William H. Cline, 
D. S. Lohr, Graham Brothers, and many oth- 
ers. Since 1895 the population has been grad- 
ually increasing, and several business tirms 
have been added. The population in 1890 had 
reached over 1,600, and in 1894 it was esti- 
mated at 1,800. In 1895 the number did not 
exceed 1,100. The census of 1900 gives the 
population as 1,375. The census of 1910 
boosts the population to 2,200, while the pop- 
ulation to-day will probably reach 3,000. 

In 1910 the' 
p o p u 1 a tion 
reached 2,260 
according to 
the govern- 
ment census. 
The business 
interests have 
kept pace with 
the population 
and to-day it 
is the largest 
trade center 
between Alli- 
a n c e and 
Grand Island. 

MODERN 

BUILDINGS 

GO UP 



Carnegie Library at Broken Bow 



In 1910 the 



new high-school building was erected, at a cost 
of $40,000. Building materials were cheap 
and an exceedingly fine building was erected 
at a remarkably low cost. In the same year a 
two-story, brick city hall was erected, on South 
Tenth avenue. It is the most commodious 
town hall west of Grand Island. It has base- 
ment, jail, with ground-floor apartments for 
the fire-fighting apparatus. In the upper story 
is the council chamber and an auditorium with 
chairs for seating about 500 people. 

On the corner of Broadway and Tenth 
avenue the Baptist congregation erected a 
$15,000 brick church, with basement and all 
modern fixtures. (See description in Chapter 
XI.) 



Three more good buildings went up in 1915. 
The Security State Bank built a white-tile 
building on the northwest corner of the square 
and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows 
built the Lyric theatre, with a fine lodge room, 
and offices over head. The front of the build- 
ing is of white, tile-faced brick. 

The third building to go up in 1915 was the 
Carnegie public library, a neat, tile-roofed 
building, costing over $10,000. The odd de- 
sign of this building makes it very noticeable. 
Both the I. O. G. T. building and the library 

are on the 
west side of 
Tenth ave- 
nue. 

PiENTV OF 

GOOD, PURE . 

WATER 

In the spring 
of 1888 a 
group of the 
citizens, see- 
ing the need 
of an a d e- 
quate water 
supply, and 
almost forced 
to take such 
action on ac- 
count of the 
p r o h i bitive 
rate for fire insurance, undertook the task 
of organizing a stock company and build- 
ing a waterworks system. The articles of 
incorporation are dated March 28, 1888, the 
capital stock was $50,000, and the names of 
the incorporators are : S. J. Lonergan, O. J. 
Collman, D. M. Amsberry, A. W. Gandy, Mar- 
cus Reyner, John Reese, S. A. Holcomb, L. H. 
Jewett, James Holland, Wilson Hewitt, G. N. 
Rawson, and George W. Sturdevant. 

After prospecting along the railroad, a lo- 
cation in block 3, F. Reyner's addition, in the 
southeastern part of the city, was selected for 
the pumping station, being the only place 
where a sufficient flow of water was found. 
In the latter part of the year 1903 the city 




198 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



purchased the waterworks system from Frank 
H. Young, who had become the owner of the 
controlling- interest in the stock and who had 
been managing the plant most of the time since 
it was constructed. 

In 1916 the old pumping station, which had 
supplied water for the city continuously for 
twenty-eight years, was abandoned and a new 
plant constructed, to do both the street light- 
ing and pumping. The plant is located on 
Eighth avenue, on the south side of the rail- 
road right of way. Here an abundant flow of 
water was secured at a depth of about 160 feet. 
Two wells were sunk, eight inches in diameter, 



BROKEN BOW TO DATE 

At the present time the city has a fine park, 
three large, brick school buildings, seven 
church buildings, city hall, court house, li- 
brary, four banks, six grocery stores, four dry- 
goods stores, four hardware stores, three meat 
markets, five garages, three lumber companies, 
two novelty stores, three millinery stores, one 
men's-furnishing store, three jewelry stores, 
three drug stores, one book store, two 
grain elevators, two furniture stores, three 
hotels, three restaurants, and numerous oth- 
er business places of miscellaneous na- 
ture. 




DiERKs Block, Broken Bow 



and from the top of each, when disconnected, 
there flows a good stream of pure water. The 
equipment for pumping consists of two elec- 
trically driven centrifugal pumps, each a com- 
plete imit, and either one of sufficient capacity 
to meet the present demand for water. 

The storage is provided by a concrete reser- 
voir, on the hill south of town, holding about 
160,000 gallons and affording a pressure of 
sixty pounds in the business part of town. 
The mains have been extended until the city 
now owns about six miles of cast-iron mains, 
all in good condition, and supplying about 530 
consumers. The city has been most fortunate 
in the abundance and purity of its water sup- 
ply, not a single case of disease ever having 
been traced to this source. 



THE PUBLIC SERVICE CLUB 

The commercial organization of Broken 
Bow^ is called tlie Public Service Club, as the 
above caption would indicate. It was organ- 
ized in ]\Iay. 1913. Its first president was E. 
R. Purcell. E. P. Steen being the first vice- 
president, with the following constituting the 
board of directors: A. E. Anderson, J. G. 
VanCott, A. H. S'ouders, E. P. Walter, J. S. 
Afolyneux, Emery F. Bush, James Lomax, 
Charles J. J. Masin, C. A. Currie. 

The following were the charter members : 
J. S. Molyncux, George Ayers, E. P. ^Valter, 
Carl P. Jeffords. J. G. \'anCott, C. L. Mullins, 
Alpha Morgan. J, C. Lomax. L. D. George, 
A. E. Anderson. E. R. Purcell, C. A. Currie, 
George A. Kiffin, Emery F. Bush, J. G. Leon- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



199 




Residence of N. T. Gadd, Broken Bow 




Residence of Judge James R. Dean, Broken Bow 




Residence of J. M. Kimberling, Broken Bow 



200 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



ard, D. M. Amsberry, Lewis E. Tanner, A. H. 
Souders, E. P. Steen, Charles J. J. Masin, A. 
J. Elliott, C. W. Bowman, R. S. Kuns, Horace 
F. Kennedy, W. F. Forest. 

The object of the organization is to bring 
together men of unquestioned character and 
intelligence who are desirous of promoting the 
welfare and prosperity of the city of Broken 
Bow and the vicinity. Its aim is to secure 
the co-operation of the people in the commu- 
nity representing the agricultural, real estate, 
banking, commercial, manufacturing, profes- 
sional, and educational interests. It is not to 
supersede or antagonize any existing business 
or social or- 
g a n i z ation, 
but, by con- 
sultation and 
united eflfort, 
to work to- 
gether for the 
common good, 
to aid and en- 
courage ex- 
periments for 
more produc- 
tive farminti": 
to secure loca- 
tion of factor- 
ies and other 
enterprises ; to 
promote com- 
mercial progress and disseminate valuable com- 
mercial and economic information ; to buy, sell, 
lease, and sub-lease real estate ; to increase so- 
cial activity, confidence, and harmony among 
all our people mutually engaged in useful occu- 
pation ; and finally to use all legitimate means to 
protect and foster the business and social wel- 
fare of the members of this corporation. 

In the Masonic Temple building the club has 
fitted up elegantly furnished rooms, which 
make luxuriant a])artments and accommodate 
every social feature for which the club exists. 

At the present time the following constitute 
the corps of officers and the personnel of the 
diiiferent committees. The names of the dif- 
ferent committees indicate the extent and char- 
acter of work carried on b\- the club. 




Public Squ.\re P.\rk, Broken Bow 



Present officers — N. T. Gadd, president; 
^I. S. Eddy, vice-president; E. P. Walter, sec- 
retary ; L. D. George, assistant secretary ; and 
J. C. Lomax, treasurer. 

Board of Directors — N. T. Gadd, Frank 
Kelly, A. R. Humphrey, J. S. Molyneux, J. G. 
\'anCott, A. E. Anderson, E. R. Purcell, C. S. 
Tooley, M. S. Eddy, N. D. Ford, and A. Mor- 
gan. 

War Board — N. T. Gadd, Frank Kelly, A. 
R. Humphrey, J. S. Molyneux, J. G. VanCott, 
A. E. Anderson, E. R. Purcell, C. S. Tooley, 
M. S. Eddy, N. D. Ford, A. Morgan, E. P. 
Walter, and L. D. George. 

New Indus- 
tries — W. C. 
Schaper, Wil- 
liam Darnell, 
S. W. Jacoby, 
and William 
Bruce. 

Municipal — 
A. R. Hum- 
phrey, Dan 
Kc])lar, L. A. 
McClain, J. 
K. Hewitt, 
and R. H. 
[•vuns. 

Educational 
— Dr. C. L. 
Mullins, H. 
O. \\'ittmayer, E. S. Holcomb, G. I. Sellon, 
and C. S. Tooley. 

Field Meet — Arthur Melville, E. F. :\Iyers, 
and J. K. Hewitt. 

Finance — E. S. Holcomb, A. E. Anderson, 
and E. P. Walter. 

Auditing- — Charles Luce, Tom Brown, and 
C. S. MaVtin. 

Public Improvement — George Aj'ers, John 
Tierney, W. G. Purcell, J. C. Lomax, and 
Emery Bush. 

Mercantile — .\. M. Drew, C. S. Tooley. 
Alvin Burke, A. H. Souders. and George 
Ayers. 

Bowling Alley — Father Cornelius, Foster 
Jackson, C. H. England. J. G. \'anCott, and 
C. A. Martin. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



201 



Booster — ?Iarrv Knapp, L. E. McWilliams, 
Joe Trevitt, J. F. Wilson, and J. G. Leonard. 

Chautauqua — A. E. Anderson, M. C. War- 
rington, W. Schneringer, J. S. Molyneux, 
Frank Kelly, L. W. Wilson, T. W. Bass, and 
A. ^Morgan. 

Agricultural — H. P. Gates, James Martin, 
John Squires, Homer Rupert, and C. W. Wil- 
Hs. 

Entertainment — T. \V. Bass, John P. Rob- 
ertson, H. D. Huntington, Clyde Wilson, 
Henrv Avers, H. Possehl. and L. E. Cole. 



established a store in his sod house, in 1882. 
The village was laid out in 1883, and a large 
building was erected by S. E. Edwards, the 
same being occupied by Blum Brothers, as 
a general store. In 1884 Ben Hardin estab- 
lished a general store, and William Ray 
launched out in the blacksmith business; R. 
E. Probert opened a hardware store, C. L. 
Long a drug store, and S. Leland & Sons 
erected a large water-power flouring mill. In 
1877 a postoffice had been established at the 
Arnold & Ritchie ranch, three-quarters of a 




Rooms of Broken Bow Service Club 



House — A. E. Anderson, A. H. Souders, 
and A. AI. Drew. 

Good Roads — Frank Kelly, James ^lartin, 
Ras Anderson, J. S. McGraw, and M. S. Eddy. 

THE TOWN OF ARXOLD 

Arnold was named in honor of George 
Arnold, who located in this vicinity in 1875, 
and who was a member of the ranch firm of 
Arnold & Ritchie. The original village site 
was located in section 28, township 17, range 
25, in the famous S'outh Loup valley, near the 
west line of Custer county. Nebraska, the land 
having been homesteaded by R. E. Allen, who 



mile from the present site of the village, but 
in 1881 it was moved to the residence of R. 
E. Allen. Dr. J. H. Murray located here in 
1884 and here he practiced his profession 
until 1890. In the year 1886 John Finch and 
A'irgil Cannon opened a drug store, Alex Rob- 
ertson a bank, and Miss Mary Robertson a 
millinery store. A large hotel and various 
other business enterprises soon followed. In 
1891 Arnold boasted of a population of about 
150, and the following lines of business were 
represented: A. G. & M. E. HofTman, gen- 
eral merchandise ; Allen & Son, hardware, im- 
plements, and livery; Frank Anson, hotel; C. 



202 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



C. Parsons, Ijarber shop ; Albert Hansberry, 
jeweler; F. E. Needham, grocery and meat 
market ; Joseph Pease, blacksmith shop ; Ben 
Hardin, general store, hardware, and under- 
taking; T. H. B. Beach, general merchandise 
and dealer in live stock ; David R. Parks, ice 
dealer; John Finch, druggist; R. E. Allen, 
dealer in live stock ; B. E. Robinson, physician ; 
W. ~Sl. ISeach, postmaster; Alvin Harris, mill- 
er. At that time the village supported an ex- 
cellent school, with Aliss Amv Robinson in 



of the center of section 27, township 17. range 
25 ; thence west along said half-section line 
to a point sixty rods east of the center of 
section 28. township 17, range 25; thence 
north to the place of beginning." 

The following named gentlemen were ap- 
pointed as first trustees of the village : John 
iMuch, B. E. Robinson, F. E. Needham, J. M. 
Samuelson, and F. M. Spegal. 

At the present time Arnold has a population 
of about 350; a ten-grade school, with Pro- 





07T 



.•*^ir .^ 



An Eaki.v I )av i\ arxold 



charge, and Christian. Methodist, and Baptist 
churches. 

On the 9th day of February, 1909, the coun- 
ty board of Cu.ster county passed favorably 
upon a petition praying that the following de- 
scribed tract of land be incorporated as a vil- 
lage, to be known as the village of Arnold : 
"Beginning at a ])oint on the half-section line 
sixty rods east of the center of section 21, 
township 17 north, range 25 west; thence run- 
ning east along said half-section line to a 
point sixty rods west of the center of section 
22. township 17. range 25; thence south to a 
point on the half-section line si.Kty rods west 



fessor E. C. Pickett at the head as principal, 
J. \". Reader as intermediate teacher, and Miss 
Eeora Hardin as primary teacher. The two- 
room school building, which afforded ample 
accommodation for several years, was much 
too small for the rapidly increasing school pop- 
ulation during the present school year, neces- 
sitating the use of another room for the lower 
grades. A large and modern school building 
will be erected this year and, possibly, anoth- 
er grade added. Three churches. Christian. 
Methodist, and Baptist, all supporting resident 
pastors, are ministering to the spiritual needs 
of the comnuinity. .\t this writing, (some 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



203 







t^m^'- 



Street Scene at Arnold 







Finch Drug Store, Arnold 




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Masonic Temple at Arnold 





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Residence of John Finch, at Arnold 



Residence of E. L. Cleveland, at Arnold 



204 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



time ago), the following lines of business are 
represented: Ben Hardin, general merchan- 
dise and hardware ; B. E. Robinson, physi- 
cian : W. H. Judkins. hardware and furniture ; 
the Farmers State Banl<, D. S. Bohrer, cash- 
ier; F. H. Gilcrest & Company, lumber, coal, 
and implements ; Dierks Lumber Company, 
lumber and coal ; John Finch & Son, druggists ; 
Arnold Mercantile Company, dry goods and 
groceries ; Parons Brothers, harness shop ; John 
Manara, barber; Ray & Reed, meat market; 
F. D. Reynolds, dentist; IMrs. J. Elsie Logan, 
physician ; Morrow & Backes. contractors and 
builders; H. J. Bedford, publisher Arnold Sen- 
tinel; Charles Beardsley, jeweler and opto- 
metrist; Mrs. Charles Beardsley, restaurant 
and bakery ; Duckett & Maddox, hardware and 
furniture: Helton & Roberts, general merchan- 
dise ; the Peoples State Bank, W. H. Jennings, 
Jr.. cashier ; Knox & Logan, real estate and 
insurance ; Mrs. H. R. Black, shoes and no- 
tions ; S. McCants, dry goods and groceries ; 
iSlcCants & Sauter, meat market; John P. 
Long, farm implements ; Confal Brothers, 
garage; S. Leland, roller mills; Grooms & 
Stewart, blacksmith shop; Phifer & Son, liv- 
ery, feed, and dray ; Nansel & Lohr, livery, 
feed, and dray; N. E. Paine, blacksmith shop; 
H. E. Bishop, cement-block factory and build- 
er; Arthur Down, lather; Mrs. Gertrude Par- 
sons, hotel ; Charles McGuire, postmaster ; 
John Samuelson, well-maker and plumber; 
Gus Morrow, painter; G. G. Gunter, plasterer 
and bricklayer: William Collins, restaurant; 
Wood & Smith, hotel ; Finch, Robinson & 
Meads, real estate; P. G. Houghton, real es- 
tate; Dr. M. A. Rown, chiropractic; T. S. 
Wood, contractor and builder; R. S. Wood, 
painter; F. J. Smith, cement-block maker and 
plasterer; Stevens & George, barbers; Mark 
S. Tapley, plumber; C. V. Rutner, auto livery. 
The Beatrice Creamery Company, David Cole 
Creamery Company, and the Farmers Co-oper- 
ative Creamery Company have stations here. 

A BIG CELEBR.VTIOX 

When the railroad was completed and the 
first train reached Arnold, a gala day was 
])lanned and six thousand people entered into 



one of the greatest celebrations ever held in 
Custer count}-. The following is a newspaper 
account of the event : 

"Tt seems hardly possible that a town of less 
than 1.000 inhabitants could entertain within 
its gates 6,000 guests at one time and do it in 
such a perfect and satisfactory manner that 
out of the vast throng not a single complaint 
was heard. And yet this is the record Arnold 
placed to its everlasting credit on Friday of 
last week, when it celebrated "Railroad Day.' 
It was a great occasion and a great gathering, 
the crowd being one of the largest that has 
ever assembled in any town in the county. 

"For many weeks this hustling and enter- 
prising business town was preparing for the 
celebration, and all credit is due to the loyalty 
of its citizens and residents of the neighboring 
country, who so promptly responded to the 
demands made upon them and worked together 
as a unit in successfully putting through an 
affair that will for all future be marked as a 
red-letter day in the history of Arnold. 

"From early morning, people commenced 
pouring into town from every point, and large 
numbers had arrived the night before. Bro- 
ken Bow contributed about 150 of its population 
to the occasion, aiid it took twenty-eight autos 
to convey them there. Callaway sent 400 dele- 
gates. Oconto 200. Merna and Anselmo about 
100, and Grand Island 150. Gandy, Stapleton, 
Gothenburg, and all towns located west of 
there sent large delegations. 

"But it was when the Kearney special ar- 
rived that the biggest bunch of humanity 
dropped into town. The train was composed 
of ten coaches and was crowded to the roof, 
there being between 1.500 and 2,000 people 
aboard. It was a great sight to see them 
scramble from the windows of the coaches in 
their haste to reach the scene of festivities. 

"Xo stranger's money was any good there, 
— everything was free, and then some ! Even 
the stores were closed, so as to preclude the pos- 
sibility of any dioughts of a 'rake-off.' Every 
detail had been looked after so minutely, by 
competent management, that the visitors had 
no trouble in getting just what they wanted 
at the right time and in the right place — and 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



205 



in a hurry, at that. That was tlie beauty of 
it. There were no delays, and the whole af- 
fair glided along like a well constructed piece 
of mechanism using the finest quality of lubri- 
cant. 

"There were four blocks of gaily decorated 
streets, the red, the white, and blue bunting 
being so arranged as to present a very at- 
tractive appearance. Another artistic feature 
was the placing of poles at about thirty foot 
intervals, the top of each being festooned with 
a flag of welcome. Every business place and 
residence sported some kind of decoration, and 
if ever a town presented a gala appearance, 
Arnold was certainly it. Five good bands were 
in attendance and there was music galore. 
Grand Island and Kearney both sent excellent 
bands, as also did Brady and Callaway. Ar- 
nold has a good organization of its own, which 
furnished pleasing music that was highly ap- 
preciated by the visitors. 

"The feeding of such a multitude of hun- 
gry people was by no means an easy task, and 
called forth no little ingenuity on the part of 
the management to properly manipulate it. 
But it was done as it should have been, and 
if any person left town carrying with him 
that 'gone feeling' about his stomach, it was 
strictly his own fault and could not be laid at 
the door of the hospitable hosts and hostesses. 

"And the food — there were mountains of it. 
Wagon-loads of buns, gallons and gallons of 
pickles, great mounds of juicy roast beef, 
oceans of coffee, so aromatic as to cause one 
to linger around in blissful ecstacy and just 
sniflf and sniff ; also pyramids of home-made 
pies and cakes, not bought ones, understand, 
but every one made by- the good housewives 
and daughters of that vicinity, who are well 
up in that sort of thing and thoroughly under- 
stood the art of preparing wholesome dainties 
for hungry people. No pure-food problem in 
the cooking they put up — it's the genuine 
article and plenty of it. 

"The dinner was served cafeteria style. 
There were two large tents and as one en- 
tered the first he was given a wood plate, then 
came a sandwich, next a pickle, further on 
great slices of roast beef and pork, then fol- 



lowed a big wedge of pie and a huge slice of 
cake, a tin cup containing coffee and then the 
knife and fork. About this time, your plate 
was so loaded down with good things that it 
was difficult for you to carry in that manner, 
so you passed into a second tent, seated your- 
self and proceeded to transfer the food to a 
place where it would do the most good. Then 
you passed out, deposited the cup among a 
heap of others, dropped the knife and fork 
into a receptacle placed there for that purpose, 
and threw the plate away. If your hunger 
was not satisfied, you were at perfect liberty 
to return to the first tent and repeat the per- 
formance. Talk about picnics. This had all 
the others of a like nature faded to an in- 
significant blur. And the best part of it was, 
the people were pleased. How could they help 
from feeling so, after the royal entertainment 
they had received? 

"Air. and Mrs. S. H. Reed, living in the 
oldest sod house in Arnold, issued invitation 
dinner-tickets to the railroad officials and heads 
of commercial clubs and their families. There 
are three large rooms in the house, and in 
each was a long table loaded with food and 
delicacies of all descriptions. Here the diners 
feasted to their hearts' content, and all voted 
Mr. and Mrs. Reed to be the very paragons, 
of what a model host and hostess should be. 

"The afternoon was devoted to speech-mak- 
ing, music, and sports. Judge C. L. Gutterson 
and County Attorney Beal, of Broken Bow, 
both made short talks, as also did Rev. Mr. 
Fagin, of the Arnold Methodist church. They 
all spoke along congratulatory lines and high- 
ly complimented the citizens of Arnold upon 
the splendid eft'ort they had made. 

"Although the citizens all worked so well 
together, it necessarily remained for some one 
to supervise, and no small amount of credit 
is due Messrs. John P. Long, J. !M. Samuelson, 
John Finch, and Rev. Mr. Fagin for the whole- 
hearted way in which they circulated among 
the people and made them feel at home. Bro- 
ken Bowites who were so fortunate as to be 
present, declare it to be the best arranged cele- 
bration they ever attended in this part of the 
countrv. 



206 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COrXTY. NEBRASKA 




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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



207 



"The Arnold Sentinel, edited by J. H. Bed- 
ford, got out a souvenir edition for the occa- 
sion, numbering twenty-four pages. These 
editions, which were given to the visitors free 
of charge, contain all kinds of useful informa- 
tion about Arnold, its pioneer days and rapid 
growth of late years. The pages are finely 
illustrated with local scenes and pictures of 
prominent residents. It is a handsome edition 
and well worthy of the energetic town it repre- 
sents." 

VILL.\GE OF BERWYN 

At the time of this writing the village of 
Berwyn is thirty-two years old, and if it is 
small for its age, let it be understood that the 
size in no way reflects on the enterprising 




BiuDsEVE View of Berwyn' 

spirit of the citizens. It is a convenient trad- 
ing point and community center for the people 
on the adjacent farms and makes no preten- 
sions to being anything else. 

It was laid out in 1886, by the Lincoln Town- 
site Company, on the north side of the rail- 
road grade that was then being extended up 
the Muddy valley. The location centers on the 
section line which runs east and west between 
sections 16 and 21, township 16 north, range 
19 west. The half-section line running north 
and south through these sections divides the 
town east and west and forms the principal 
business street. In the same summer, J. O. 
Taylor, a substantial pioneer farmer, erected 
on the new townsite the first store and 
put in a stock of dry goods and groceries. 
About the same time R. P. McKnight put up 
another store building and used it jointly for 



a store and restaurant. Later, McKnight made 
application for a postoffice and was himself 
commissioned the first postmaster of Berwyn. 
The following winter the Dierks Lumber Com- 
pany established a branch office and put in a 
fine stock of lumber and such other accessories 
as generally pertain to the lumber business. 
A little later the West elevator was erected and 
a blacksmith here located early the next spring. 
About this time W. H. Mauk and H. S. Wayse 
put in a general hardware store, and the town 
was well started if not full fledged. It is to- 
day a prosperous vilage of modest proportions, 
with a population of about 300. 

THE HUSTLING TOWN OE MERNA 

One of the best little towns in the central 
part of the county is Merna, located twelve 
miles northeast of the county seat, on the main 
line of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 
Railroad. For many years it enjoyed the dis- 




MeRNA EtEVATORS 

tinction of being the grain market of the coun- 
ty. Before the Union Pacific was extended to 
Arnold and much of the grain from the West 
table found an outlet through that town, Mer- 
na handled and shipped more grain than any 
other town or railroad point west of Lincoln. 
In the days when the West table grain came 
down the west hill, Merna kept three elevators 
working almost night and day. She developed 
then the energy and push which present to- 
day a neat, brick-built village w.ith modern 
homes and all municipal improvements. 

The citizens of Merna are patriotic to a de- 
gree and in every war-drive have far exceeded 
their allotments or quotas. One of the most 
remarkable public sales ever held in the county 



208 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



209 



was the Red Cross sale held on the streets of 
Merna in May, 1918, in which donated articles 
to the amount of $4,400 were sold and the pro- 
ceeds contributed to the American Red Cross 
war work. This sale far exceeded the one 
held in Broken Bow one week previously, and 
stimulated the people of Anselmo to make a 
$6,000 sale one week later. 

ATKISSON SPEAKS FOR MERNA 

H. K. Atkisson, one of the leading spirits 
of Merna, who has been long in the town, 
gives us the following concerning town his- 
tory: 

"In 1881 W. G. Brotherton took a claim 
where the town of Merna now stands, build- 
ing a small sod house, which he occupied with 
his wife, as a home, postofifice and store, he 
being the second postmaster. Mr. Sam Dun- 
ning had been the first postmaster and the 
town was named after his daughter. Other 
early settlers in the community were C. P. 
Foote, Scott Hanna, S. H. Read, Reuben Gor- 
don, Warren Gordon, William Reede, Andy 
Somner, Joe S'iltter, Samuel Dunning, Al. 
Thomas, Charles Thomas. Most of these men 
were unmarried, there being but three women 
in the settlement — Mrs. Brotherton, j\lrs. 
Foote and Mrs. Dunning. These people were 
all farmers and homesteaders. In 1883 the 
postofifice and store, which comprised the town, 
were moved two miles west and north, in sec- 
tion 36, and a townsite company formed. J. 
D. Strong, Milt Casteel and W. E. Warren 
were added to the community at this time. 
Warren built a little shack and sold drugs, 
and Strong and Casteel formed a partnership 
with Brotherton in the general store. In 1886 
the Lincoln Townsite Company purchased 
Brotherton's claim and relocated the town on 
its former site, and the 'town' moved back 
again. In the fall of 1886 the railroad was 
built through the place and on to Anselmo. 
The town has grown not rapidly, but steadily, 
and is now a prosperous village, with good 
farms surrounding it. and real estate sells at 
a figure that the pioneers would have consid- 
ered an impossible dream in the early days. 

"The postmasters have been as follows : 



Samuel Dunning, W. G. Brotherton, C. P. 
Foote, R. J. Kelly, J. S. Francis, and Joe Fen- 
nimore. 

"The first newspaper was published by E. 
R. Purcell. After his removal to Broken Bow 
the town was without a paper for some time. 
Then a young man named Miller started a 
paper. This was not very long-lived and again 
the town was without its local news. Then 
Albert Lazenby tried the field of journalism 
and found it barren. In 1906 F. E. Pinch 
came into the town and, being an old news- 
paper man, established a paying business, nam- 
ing his new paper the Merna Postal Card. Af- 
ter two years he disposed of his business to 
Claude Hall, who was the owner and pub- 



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Residence of Dr. J. H. Morrow, Mern.\ 

lisher for some four or five years, when he sold 
it to Mr. Dutton, who is the present owner 
and editor. The name has been changed to 
Merna Messenger and it is a live local paper, 
receiving a good support. 

"Merna at the present time is prospering 
very satisfactorily. During the last year the 
large, brick store building belonging to H. K. 
Atkisson and occupied by the firm of C. R. 
Atkisson & W. Davis has been built, also the 
fine garages of B. S. Wells, and W. Ferritor. 
Several fine dwelling houses have been erected, 
among them are the homes of Mrs. W. H. 
Reeder, John Hipsley, Mrs. J. S. Francis, 
Miss Anna Kloven, and H. K. Atkisson. The 
business of the town consists of two general 
stores, one grocery store, two banks, one drug 
store, four garages, two blacksmith shops, one 
collecting agency, one hotel, one restaurant, 
one exclusive auto agency, one real-estate 



210 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



agency, two hardware stores, two machinery 
agencies, one jewelry store, one furniture and 
undertaking establishment, one moving-picture 
theatre. 

J. C. Moore has arrangements made for a 
new brick garage to be erected as soon as the 
material can be secured. 

"The professional men are represented by 
two physicians, one dentist, three clerg>'men 
and a splendid corps of teachers in the public 
school. Merna has had fine Chautauquas for 
the past five years, and a lecture course every 



valley, is located on the Grand Island and Wy- 
oming branch of the B. & JNI. Railroad, fifty- 
seven miles northwest of Grand Island, twenty- 
three miles southeast of Broken Bow, and 
forty-five miles north of Kearney. The loca- 
tion of Mason City, situated, as it is, in almost 
the central part of the southeastern quarter of 
Custer county, is worthy of the attention of all 
who desire to locate in a town for which not 
only nature but also circumstances have pro- 
vided for so abundantly, and one which will 
undoubtedly make a busy, hustling town of 





fl^...in-Hft. . .._.—< - ■-■■:- .■•, 



'jjJaafejiAteyafc^i 







UliuiL, by S. D. Butcher] 



Mason City Twenty Ye.\rs Ago 



year, much longer than that. The Chautau- 
quas are well attended and self-supporting, the 
lecture course not quite so fortunate, as there 
are so many other attractions during the lec- 
ture course season. 

"Merna furnished one soldier to the Span- 
ish-American war, Roy Luce, who after the 
close of that unpleasantness returned safely 
and is at present living in Colorado. In all 
the contributions for the present war ^lerna 
and vicinity have done their part." 

MASON CITY 

Mason City, the "Queen City" of the ^luddy 



importance. The townsite was located by the 
Lincoln Land Company in April, 1886. The 
land on which the town now stands was pur- 
chased of Nels Anderson and Mrs. George W. 
Runyan, 160 acres being secured from each of 
these parties. About one-half of this 320 acres 
has been platted into lots, the other half being 
held by the company for the same purpose in 
case the growth of the town demands it. The 
slope from the hills to the valley is gradual, just 
sufficient for good drainage. Nearly all the dif- 
ferent branches of business, trades, and profes- 
sions are represented here by a live and ener- 
getic set of people. The following is a full li.st 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



211 



of the different branches of business, and those 
who represent them as recorded by j\I. C. 
Warrington in 1901 : 

The Mason Cit}^ Banking Company, with P. 
H. Marley, president, J. J. Marley, vice-presi- 
dent, and R. B. Walker, cashier. In addition 
to the banking business, Mr. Marley is exten- 
sively engaged in the real-estate business. The 
Mason City Transcript is the only newspaper 
published in Mason City. The paper was es- 
tablished by Martin & Dellinger in June, 1886. 
M. C. Warrington, the present proprietor and 
editor, has had active control of the paper 
since August. 1886, making him the oldest 
editor in point of service and continuous con- 
nection with one paper in Custer county. For 
some years past the editor has been ably as- 
sisted in the publication of the paper by Will- 
iam A. Anderson. The mercantile business 
of Mason City is represented by E. G. Bur- 
rows, general merchandise ; W. C. Elliott, gen- 
eral merchandise : T. J. Wood, general mer- 
chandise ; O. H. Moomey, general merchan- 
dise ; S. M. Chase, general merchandise ; A. 
O'Brien, hardware and groceries ; G. P. Meek, 
fruit and groceries ; Hurley & Warrington, 
hardware, harness, and farm machinery ; P. A. 
Carlson, veterinarian; John M. Browning, ho- 
tel; J. H. McAdams, furniture; H. C. Chase, 
Jr., successor to Chase Brothers, druggist: J. 
P. Nelson, harness and machinery ; I\Ioomey 
Brothers, butchers ; Deardorf & Duke, farm 
machinery. Miss Nannie Serven. millinery ; 
Mrs. O. H. Moomey, millinery; M. L. Lamb, 
collections and insurance ; L. S. Ellsworth, at- 
torney and solicitor ; John Meek, livery ; Dr. 
A. E. Robertson, physician and surgeon ; John 
Taylor & Son, blacksmiths; J. T. Castellaw, 
blacksmith. Grain dealers : Central Granaries 
Company, W. C. Rusmissel, agent; Tierney & 
Wirt, James Fairfield, agent. Dierks Lumber 
& Coal Company, E. Myers, agent ; M. B. 
Bunnell and James Fairfield, live stock ; H. L. 
Crowley, dray and express; M. E. Kellenbar- 
ger, agent for the B. & M. Railroad; J. H. 
Welch, miller ; G. F. Frasier, barber ; Weimer 
Brothers, painters and paper hangers ; Harvey 
Myers, photographer; H. W. Snook, optician 
and jeweler; Mason City ]\Iill, John Seeley, 



proprietor (former owner, J. W. Willis). The 
postoffice was established in 1886, George W. 
Runyan, postmaster, who was succeeded, in 
the spring of 1887, by W. C. Rusmissel. In 
April, 1889, L. B. Hill was appointed post- 
master. M. C. Warrington succeeded Mr. Hill 
in September, 1893, and served until January 
1, 189S, when he was succeeded by R. K. Mil- 
ler, who is still postmaster. 

The first merchant to do business in the vil- 
lage was A. Gates, who opened a store in July. 
1886, in a small shed building. R. B. Walker 
was Mr. Gates' clerk. Mr. Gates retired from 
business in 1900. The first railroad train to 



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Residence of John T. Wood, at Mason City 

enter the townsite was on July 27, 1886, and 
the then few residents of the town had a joy- 
ful celebration. Mason City was incorporated 
in 1887, and the school district, No. 169-, was 
also organized in 1887. The schools of the 
village have always been kept up to the high- 
est standard of excellence. 

There have been some exciting occurrences 
in the history of Mason City. In November. 
1886, a store building owned and occupied by 
Mack & McEndeflfer, was destroyed by fire, 
and three persons, J. J. Hoagland, Malcolm 
]\Iiller, and ^Malcolm McEndeffer. lost their 
lives. On July 2, 1892, a cyclone visited 
Mason Cit}' and vicinity, and damage to the 
amount of $20,000 was done in the village. 
The schoolhouse. two churches, and many 
other buildings were destroyed. A great deal 



212 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



of damage was done also in the country sur- 
rounding the town. 

The religious interests of the people of 
Mason City were well looked after. There 
were three church buildings — the Baptist, 
J. R. Woods, resident pastor ( this was the 
first church organized, and had a large 
membership) ; the Methodist Episcopal' people 
erected a handsome edifice in 1899; the Catho- 
lic church organization has a neat and com- 
modious place of worship, and services were 
supplied by Rev. Father Flannigan, of Dale. 

The valley of the Muddy, in which ^lason 
City is so favorably located, is from two to 
three miles wide and has been so often de- 
scribed by the enthusiastic tourist that to speak 
now of its superior advantages and adapta- 
bility- in the requirements of the farmer and 
stockman would be superfluous. It is tra- 
versed throughout its length by the ^luddy, 
a clear stream of pure, sjiring water, which 
at many places, and particularly at Alason 
City, has been utilized as water power of an 
almost unlimited capacity, by simply throwing 
a short dam across it. The valley at this point 
is about three miles broad. Going north 
across the valley we come to the hills, which 
at a glance seem rough, but a closer inspection 
discloses beautiful sequestered parks, broad 
terraces and level prairie land, very inviting 
to the eye of the agriculturist. Actual expe- 
rience has demonstrated the soil of these lands 
to be as rich and productive as the vallev land. 
Even the rougher hills and steeper declivities 
show the prolific nature of the soil by covering 
themselves to the very top with a luxuriant 
growth of grass that affords for stock a pas- 
turage second to none in the Union. Further 
north a few miles is Clear creek valley, from 
two to three miles in width, thickly dotted 
over with unmistakable signs of thrift and 
prosperity. Here is one of the oldest settle- 
ments in the county, and the farmers are com- 
fortably wealthy and happy. This valley ex- 
tends from the northwest to the southeast, and 
is almost parallel with the Muddy valley, with 
which it unites some distance below. Mason 
City is reached from this valley through can- 
yons which nature has provided as natural 



road-beds, with easy road grades over the sum- 
mit. An arm of this valley is called Elk val- 
ley and winds up. to the high lands and spreads 
out, forming Lee's Park, a broad expanse of 
level land of several thousand acres in extent, 
and containing a thriving settlement of well- 
to-do farmers. This country is all tributary to 
Mason City. For a distance of three or four 
miles south of the town the country is gently 
rolling, well adapted to cultivation and graz- 
ing, and answering well the description of the 
country on the north side, except instead of 
terminating in several valleys, it rises to a 
level valley called "The Basin," which contains 
some ten square miles of extraordinarily rich 
farming land and is occupied by a class of 
farmers that would do credit to any country. 
What we say of the people of the basin, how- 
ever, may equally apply to those of the whole 
country we are describing. They are Ameri- 
cans, as a rule, of education, and intelligence, 
with here and there one of the better class of 
Germans, Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians. 

From !Mason City, in every direction in the 
liighlands, we find, in addition to the valleys 
and tables mentioned, a system of narrow val- 
leys, small tables, high parks and terraces, 
separated by hills too steep and irregular for 
cultivation, but richly covered with a generous 
coat of native grass, which affords pasture 
much superior to the longer grasses upon the 
meadow of the valleys and tables. This pas- 
ture has a peculiarity which distingitishes it 
from all others. The grass is equally nutri- 
tious in winter and summer, and stock will 
fatten here in January, when there is nothing 
in a state of nature in the meadow to sustain 
life. The valley of Elk creek, one of the beau- 
tiful little valleys of Custer county, is almost 
wholly tributary to Mason City. This valley 
is settled by a good, thrifty class of farmers, 
who have fine homes and farms and are a 
prosperous and happy people. The shiftless. 
restless, migrating homesteader, who remained 
long enough to prove up and get a mortgage 
on his land, has given way to the more thrifty, 
more prudent, and more industrious farmer 
and stock-raiser. The business men and farm- 
ers of the southeastern quarter of Custer 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



213 



county welcome the on:oniing years with a 
feeling that there is still greater prosperity 
for all who apply business methods, honesty 
and industry to their transactions. 

PRBSENT-DAY BUSINESS INTERESTS 

In the last decade and a half. Mason City 
has not made pretentious growth, but her 
business interests have been solidified and es- 
tablished on a permanent and paying basis. It 
makes no pretensions to be a city and has small 
ambitions in that direction. It does claim, 
however, to be a thriving village, with every 
facility for home-making that could be ex- 
pected. 

Concerning its business status at the present 
time M. C. Warrington, to whom the public 
is indebted for this stor\' of Mason City, has 
this to say : 

"Nearly every line of business and industry 
is well represented in Mason City. The dififer- 
ent lines are represented as follows : The 
Mason City Banking Company is the oldest 
bank in Custer county, having been established 
in May, 1886, by Austin V. Hathaway. It is 
capitalized at $25,000. and is recognized as 
one of the solid financial institutions of Custer 
county. Its officers are : R. B. Walker, presi- 
dent : P. H. Marley, vice-president ; and Cor- 
nell Newman, cashier. Mr. Walker, under 
whose management it has been for the past 
fifteen years, has been connected with the bank 
for more than a quarter of a century. Mr. P. 
H. Marley, who is now a resident of Los An- 
geles, California, and who still retains large 
interests in Custer county lands, has been con- 
nected with the bank for thirty years, and it 
was his guiding hand which safely piloted the 
bank through the dangerous shoals and rough 
seas of panics and financial distresses, and 
drouth which overwhelmed the country in the 
'90s. The Mason City Banking Company has 
a large clientele of patrons and carries heavy 
deposits. 

"The Farmers State Bank is another insti- 
tution in which the people of Mason City take 
pride. This is comparatively a new concern, 
when its competitor is taken into considera- 
tion. The Farmers' State Bank w^as founded 



nine years ago and its officers are : C. B. 
Lauridsen, president ; E. W. Hiser, vice-presi- 
dent, and John T. Wood, cashier. The bank, 
which is capitalized at $25,000, has a list of 
customers and patrons and carries a line of 
deposits which make it the envy of many older 
institutions. . Since its establishment the Farm- 
ers' State Bank has been under the exclusive 
personal management of John T. Wood. Mr. 
Wood is a pioneer of Custer county, coming 
here at an early age, in 1884. He has had ex- 




F.AR.MERS StaTK Ii.\.NK, .\T AI.\SON CiTV 

perience as a farmer, merchant, and public 
official, serving four years as register of deeds, 
of Custer county. This bank erected for its 
own use, in 1916, a fine $12,000 building. 

"The Mason City Transcript, Mason City's 
only newspaper, so long owned and published 
by M. C. Warrington, is now owned and edit- 
ed by J. F. Peebles, who is ably assisted by his 
wife. The Transcript has a big circulation in 
the country surrounding the town and is a fac- 
tor for much good in the community. The 
paper is Democratic in politics. 

"W. C. Elliott, E. G. Burrows, S. M. Chase, 
and H. L. Crosley have large stocks of gen- 



214 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



eral merchandise. Mr. Elliott is the pioneer 
merchant of Mason City, commencing busi- 
ness in 1891. A. O'Brien, a resident of Cus- 
ter county since 1882, now carries on an ex- 
clusive hardware store, but until recently also 
carried groceries. C. E. Bass & Company, 
with J. G. Bass as manager, carry hardware, 
farm implements, automobiles, windmills, 
pumps, etc. George J. Anderson is proprietor 
of the only meat market. R. H. Duke has the 
exclusive drug store. J. C. Nelson & Com- 
pany have a harness and shoe-repairing store. 
Mrs. G. A\'. Whitehead has millinery and la- 
dies' furnishings. Chase Brothers and Charles 
O. Lamb are proprietors of automobile gar- 
ages. Mr. Lamb is completing a new cement- 
stone garage building, fifty by a hundred feet, 
for his business. !Meek & Hawkins are pro- 
prietors of the livery barn. W. N. Hurley 
and J. W. Taylor are the village blacksmiths. 
Schultz Brothers, L. L. Narrazon, and T. J. 
Wood are the carpenters. Hans G. Arp and 
the Farmers' Shipping Company handle live 
stock. G. F. Frasier and Cleir Chrisman are 
barbers. W. C. Taylor is proprietor of a flour 
and feed store. A. A. Coxon and son main- 
tain a restaurant. M. S. Fairfield has temper- 
ance drinking parlors. ~SL C. Carroll is resi- 
dent agent and distributor for the Standard Oil 
Company, which has a large plant here. \M11- 
iam F. Davis has the hydraulic-well and wind- 
mill business. E. W. Edwards and son have 
an automobile-repair shop. W. C. Elliott and 
F. S. ^loomey are proprietors of the fine opera 
house, which contains three large store rooms 
on the first floor and a splendid hall and office 
rooms on the second floor. This beautiful 
building was erected in 1912. Dr. Ralph M. 
McClaughan is our resident dentist. Dr. A. C. 
Rumery and Dr. P. H. J. Carothers are 
the physicians who administer to the ills of 
the people. Dr. Carothers also maintains 
a fine, large hospital in connection with his 
practice. The Mason City Flour Mills is 
another local institution of which the town 
is justly proud. It is a large four-story 
structure, equipped with model machinery 
and uses water power furnished by Muddy 
creek. A. A. Karinow is proprietor and 



enjoys a prosperous business. H. A. Doane 
owns and operates a cement plant in which 
a number of men find employment in the 
summer months. The Hotel Melvin is 
owned by Frank N. ^lossm'an, and is operated 
by Charles Kennedy, a popular landlord. The 
Farmers' Shipping Company, a co-operative 
association, owns the creamery and handles 
cream, poultry, and live stock. Frank G. Hall 
is manager. The Central Granaries Company 
runs the elevator, with J. ^^ ■ Fairfield as man- 
ager. Levi King and F. N. Mossman are land 
agents. The two banks also deal in lands. 
The pleasure and recreation of the people of 
the town are supplied by two motion-picture 
theatres, one owned by Lamb & Miller, the 
other by F. S'. Aloomey. There are two lum- 
ber and coal yards, Dierks Lumber & Coal 
Company, and the J. H. ^Melville Lumber 
Company, W. S. Moore, local manager." 

The fxistoffice at Mason Citj' was established 
in the month of October, 1886, with George 
\\'. Runyan as postmaster. For the first six 
months of the town's history the mail facili- 
ties were very poor and caused endless annoy- 
ance. The mail was brought across the coun- 
try on a Star route to Algernon and then 
brought to Mason City by some one who vol- 
unteered to go after it on mail days. The let- 
ter mail was taken care of by H. B. Austin, 
cashier of the bank, while the paper mail was 
thrown into a box, for each individual to help 
himself. After holding the postoffice a few 
months Mr. Runyan resigned and was suc- 
ceeded by W. C. Rusmissell. On the change 
of administrations in 1889, Captain L. B. Hill, 
an honored veteran of the Civil war, was ap- 
pointed postmaster. M. C. Warrington was 
postmaster from 1893 to 1898, when he was 
succeeded by R. K. Miller, who is also a Civil 
war veteran. J. W. Fairfield succeeded Mr. 
Miller, and was succeeded in turn by W. C. 
Rusmissell, who is now postmaster. The post- 
office has kept pace with the growth of the 
town and the surrounding country, and has 
two rural free-delivery routes and one Star 
route, supplying mail to a large territory. J. 
C. Spencer and Leo Spencer, father and son. 
are carriers on the free-deliverv routes, and 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



!15 



E. \y. Edwards on the Star route. It is rather 
an unusual incident that all the men who have 
been postmasters of ]\Iason City live here yet 
except Mr. Runyan, who resides at Broken 
Bow. 

OLDEST INHABITANTS 

Among the present citizens of Mason City 
u'ho were residents during the first year of the 
town's history are VV. N. Hurley, H. L. Cros- 
ley, M. C. Warrington, and W. C. Rusmissell. 
Those who have lived in the town twenty-five 
years or more are : Messrs. T. J. Wood, G. F. 
Frasier, J. P. Nelson, E. G. Burrows, and 
]\Iesdames W. N. Hurley, H. L. Crosley, M. 
C. Warrington, Belle ^'. Robertson, Martha 
Chase, J. P. Nelson. Niels Anderson, from 
whom the west half of the townsite was pur- 
chased, with his family, has been an honored 
citizen of the village since he sold his home- 
stead, in the spring of 1886, to the Lincoln 
Land Company. 

FEDERAL OFFICERS 

M. C. Warrington bears the distinction of 
being the only ]\Iason City man who has been 
honored by appointment to a federal office out- 
side of home. He is now register of the LTnit- 
ed States Land office at Broken Bow, having 
been appointed in Alay, 1916. ]\lr. Warring- 
ton was postmaster of Mason City under the 
second administration of Grover Cleveland. He 
has also been member and chairman of the vil- 
lage board, and has served as village clerk and 
treasurer, justice of the peace, chairman of the 
township board, besides serving ten years on 
the school board. 

SARGENT 

Sargent, a hustling village of over 800 in- 
habitants, is situated in the northeastern part 
of Custer count)', in the midst of a fine agri- 
cultural and stock-raising district. It is lo- 
cated on the north side of the Middle Loup 
river, about one mile from that stream. Sar- 
gent is one of the oldest towns in the county, 
having been laid out in 1883. The first bank 
in the county is located here. The first build- 
ing erected was the general store of J. K. 
Spacht. in the summer of 1883, and the loca- 



tion was the middle of a field of wheat. The 
town grew rapidly and was particularly lively 
in the summer of 1888, when the B. & AI. 
Railroad grade was built, and it was expected 
that the cars would be running into the town 
that fall. Owing to a big strike on the sys- 
tem, the road was not completed at that time. 
The drouth years of the early '90s caused the 
town to dwindle down to a mere shadow of its 
former proportions. In the fall of 1899, how- 
ever, the railroad was built from Arcadia to 
Sargent, making the latter the terminus, and 
since that time the town has had a very sub- 
stantial growth. The Independent Telephone 
Company, of Broken Bow, extended its line 
to Sargent in the fall of 1900. The same fall 
was erected a fine, two-storv frame school 




City Watkr Tower, Sargent 

building, which now houses one of the best 
schools in the county, under the charge of 
three teachers. Sargent has two churches, the 
Congregational and the ]\Iethodist. It has 
several fine business blocks, two newspapers, 
two banks, two grain elevators, and a cream- 
ery, with other lines of business well repre- 
sented. Following is a complete business di- 
rectory of the town, March 8, 1901 : 

Armstrong, D. E., windmills, pumps, and re- 
pairs; Austin, J. S., racket store, general mer- 
chandise ; Barstow & Perrin, hardware, paints, 
and harvesting goods ; Bridgiord, Ben, drug- 
gist, R. W. Hicks, manager (Mr. Bridgford 
is an old pioneer and came to IMason City in 
1886 with a drug store, which he ran seven 
vears, and he is now located at Ord, Nebras- 
ka) ; Brown, M. F., contractor and builder; 
Brumbausfh, G. W., Commercial hotel and 



216 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 




Residknce of James W. Luxdy, Sargent 



Maix Street, Sargent 





wMM-'J « ilM 



Residence of A. P. Smith, Sargent 



Residence of Dr. C. H. Fenstermacher, Sargent 





Residence of W. B. Kexyon, Sargent 



Main Street, Sargent 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



217 



livery; Brown, E. R., Windsor hotel; Seers, 
Robert, contractor and builder; Currie Grain 
Company, grain and coal ; Custer County 
Bank, James Haggerty president, Charles C. 
Gardner cashier, does a general banking busi- 
ness; (Charles C. Gardner is also postmaster 
and local agent for telephone line) ; Cropper, 
W. T., farm machinery ; creamery, Beatrice 
Creamery Company proprietor ; *Conhiser & 
Haggerty, general merchandise and groceries ; 
Davis & Company, furniture, carpets, and un- 
dertaking goods ; Dierks Lumber & Coal Com- 
pany, lumber, coal, and building material, 
Frank Phillips manager; Fenstermacher, C. 
H., physician and surgeon ; Freeman, Charles, 
liquors and cigars ; Farmers & Alerchants 
Bank. A. P. Cully, president. Charles Nicolai, 
cashier, does a general banking business ; 
Graham, E. J., dentist; Geiser & S\vanson, 
farm implements and hardware; Groff, Mrs. 
H., restaurant ; Hendrickson, Charles, billiard 
hall; Harris, C. L., contractor and builder; 
Jacques & Barstovv, grain and coal ; Leader, 
newspaper, A. H. Barks editor and proprietor ; 
Leininger, P. H., live stock ; Little & Company, 
Farmers' Meat Market; McGregor Brothers, 
blacksmiths; IMorris, Miss Gertrude, dress- 
maker; ]\Iitchell, R. J., groceries, successor to 
B. W. Sullivan; Nelson. W. H., painter and 
paperhanger; Olson. T.. restaurant; Perrin 
hotel, S. L. Perrin proprietor; Parks, C. W., 
live stock, successor to Parks & Cram ; Pizer, 
J. B.. New York Store; Savage. E. P.. real 
estate and insurance, agent Lincoln Land 
Company ; Savage Brothers, Star livery barn ; 
Saunders, Walter, shoe and harness shop, gen- 
eral merchandise ; S'pacht & Lakeman, grocer- 
ies and general merchandise ; Saville, F. N., 
barber shop; Scriber, L. A., liquors and ci- 
gars; Semler. J. D., meat market; Shaw. D. 
M., brick mason and plasterer ; the Nezv Era, 
newspaper and job office. J. C. L. Wisely ed- 
itor and proprietor ; Toliver, John, auctioneer 
and salesman, restaurant and bakery ; Tobias, 
A. A., jeweler and optician; Troxell & John- 
son, hardware ; Waynick. L W.. druggist, 
physician and surgeon ; Werber, Rudolph, har- 
ness shop; R. H. Monroe, agent for the B. & 
^^. Railroad and Adams Express Company; 



Rev. Leslie, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal 
church ; Rev. Jones, pastor of the Congrega- 
tional church; Professor H. H. Hiatt, princi- 
pal of the Sargent schools, his assistants being 
Miss Mamie Cooper and Miss Nightengale. 

ANSIvEY 

Ansley is an enterprising town of LOOO pop- 
ulation, located in the southeastern part of 
Custer county, on the main line of the Chicago, 
Burlington & Ouincy Railroad to the north- 
west. 

The county around it is adapted to farming 
and stock-raising and these are the chief occu- 
pations of the people. The first settlement was 
made in the year 1886, in whi:h year the Lin- 
coln Land Company purchased froiu Anthony 
Wilkinson, a ranchman, the land upon which 
the town now stands, and platted the town, 
naming it in honor of a lady by the name of 
Ansley who had invested considerable money 
in real estate here. The first frame building 
erected was occupied by a lawyer by the name 
of George Snell. The second building was 
the store building of Edgar Varney, which he 
moved over from Westerville. These struc- 
tures were soon followed by others, among 
them the Van Sant House, later known as the 
Commercial hotel, the drug store of Sam 
Royds, two bank buildings, the stores of E. H. 
Burrows and A. H. Shepard and the Eureka 
hotel. The private residences of E. H. Gaines 
and Dan Hagin were erected in 1887 and that 
of C. J. Stevens in 1888. Among the first 
citizens of Ansley may be mentioned A. H. 
Turpen, O. P. Allphin, Mrs. H. Stevenson, C. 
J. Stevens, Edgar Varney, Dan Hagin, E. H. 
Gaines, E. H. Burrows, D. A. Van Sant, Sam 
Royds, Thomas Blowers, A. H. Shepard, C. 
M. Dorr, James Davis, F. E. Gosselin, and A. 
L. and E. A. Butler, to whose enterprise and 
business judgment in those early times are 
largely due the later progress and prosperity 
of this community. Mr. E. H. Burrows, one 
of the old citizens, describes his first visit to 
Ansley in these words: 

"I first struck the town in the luiddle of 
May, 1886. At that time, there was a tent and 
a wagon-load of lumber to mark the spot where 



218 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 




0- 

1 


-^^^^ |n -J 


i 


yp^^i 


■ 


f^jHBI^PJ. 



Rf.sihence of Cr.ARr.NiT. Al ackf.v, Axsley 



Residence of J. T. McGowax, Axsi.ky 




Residence of C. H. I-. Stfixmeier, at Ansley 




First Xatioxai, Bank axd Stf.ixmeier Buh.dixg, 
Ansi,ev 



Moderx Woodmen Hau., Anseey 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



219 



the future metropolis of the southeastern part 
of Custer county was to be. I selected my lot 
for a building site at that time and went back 
east for a while, to await developments, re- 
turning about the 7th of July. On my return, 
I found more tents and more lumber on the 
ground, and a few shanties in the course of 
erection. We were compelled to haul our 
lumber for building purposes by wagon from 
Kearney, over si.xty miles, which brought the 
price of six-dollar-a-thousand knot-holes up to 
the price of 'B' select. While staying at An- 
sley this time, I boarded at the West End ho- 
tel, a fine structure built of 'B' select, with 
kitchen, dining room, office, parlor, bathroom, 
and bedroom combined. Everybody was good- 
natured and the landlord expected his guests 
to 'double up' every night with whoever he 
saw fit to assign us, and at the first peep o' 
day the clerk would come and shake us, say- 
ing, 'Time to roll off them tables ; the girls 
want to set the tables for breakfast,' with which 
request we cheerfully complied, pulling on 
our shoes as quickly as possible, going out of 
doors and leaning up against the knot-holes 
until the bell rang for breakfast, when we sat 
up to the table. The waiter then called out 
from the kitchen, 'Tea or coffee, which? you 
fellows on the north end.' Of course we said 
'coffee' because it had more body than tea, 
which prevented us from seeing what was 
floating about between the bottom and top of 
the cup. The waiter brought in a plate of hot 
biscuits and another with eggs and bacon, set 
them on the table and said. 'Now, boys, help 
vourselves.' We waited for some time, won- 
dering if we were expected to use our hands 
for plates and our fingers for knives and 
forks. We finally asked the waiter if that was 
the intention. He replied, 'Come off the dump! 
Shoo ! Shoo ! Shoo ! There is your tableware.' 
And sure enough there it was. We had failed 
to remove the cover of fat. saucy flies that had 
taken possession of our plates as if they had 
expected to be waited upon first. S'uch was 
my first experience with Ansley. When I ar- 
rived a third time, after an absence of four or 
five weeks, I found that a great change had 
been made — from a brown prairie to a busy 



village. I found about twenty buildings, in 
dift'erent stages of erection, my own among 
them, which was partly inclosed. I scraped a 
lot of shavings together, spread down my 
blankets and slept under my own vine and fig 
tree. But, alas ! not alone. After I fell asleep, 
I dreamed I was a boy again and went down 
to the creek to take a swim, and just as I was 
ready to take a plunge into the water, I fell 
backwards into a bunch of nettles. I awoke, 
and as soon as I got myself located, I realized 
that it was not nettles, but fleas." 

The railroad was put through Ansley in the 
fall of 1886. Mr. Fred Gosselin was the first 
operator. The putting of the railroad through 
not only brought Americans, but also folks 
from across the seas to share in the bounties 
of this western country. One of these, Mrs. 
Anna Thessen, in a letter from Mason City 
addressed to ]\Ir. E. P. Gaines and dated June 
16. 1918, tells of her first visit to Ansley: 

"As I read the question in your advertise- 
ment, I thought that I would send in a few 
items. It is thirty years ago. the 21st of this 
month, that I, a young girl of seventeen, fresh 
from Germany, came to Ansley. As I couldn't 
talk American, I did the next best thing and 
got an English-German dictionary, in which I 
looked up such words as 'hotel,' breakfast,' 
'how much,' 'coft'ee,' 'tea,' 'team.' 'livery barn,' 
and so on. and that way found the hotel, 
asked for breakfast, paid for it, Ifired a team 
and was taken to the farm of John Graf. The 
hotel was called the 'Cottage Hotel' and was 
kept by either Mrs. \'an Sant or Mrs. Alex 
Moore : anyhow it was one of the two. The 
livery barn was kept by Ed. Sloan and was 
standing west of Harry McNulty's restaurant. 
I also bought candy at Edgar Varney's store. 
The bank, I think, was run at that time by C. 
J. Stevens." 

The motto of .\nsley is: "Push, that's .\n- 
sley,'' and the enterprise and thrift of its busi- 
ness men have proved its proper applicability. 
They are, and have generally been, men of 
unselfish service, broad vision, and community 
pride — -men whose aim is, and has been, to 
serve the community as well as themselves. 
And whatever this town may become, it will 



220 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



owe much to those sturdy pioneers who, in 
defiance of hail, hot winds, and drouth, blazed 
the trail that others have followed to success 
and opulence. 

,\XSLEV"S BANKS 

The first bank in Ansley was established in 
the year 1888, by C. J. Stevens, F. M. Rublee, 
and B. F. Ilaeke, and was known as the 
Ansley Banking Company. In 1902 C. Mackey, 
Frank Young, and T. T. \'arney bought out 
the banking company and reorganized it as 
the First National Bank. It continued as 
such until 1916, when it was changed to the 
State Bank of Ansley. Its present officers 
are : President, C. Mackey; vice-president. B. 
J. Tierney; cashier, R. A. Studley; assistant 
cashier, E. O. Morris ; other stockholders and 
directors, Andrew Sherbeck and Anthony Wil- 
kinson. Its present capital and surplus aggre- 
gate $40,000 and its deposits $500,000. 

In the year 1887 Peter Fowlie and William 
West organized the Bank of Ansley, but this 
failed in the year 1890. 

The Farmers' State Bank was organized in 
1905. Its first president was Walter E. New- 
comb and its first cashier was George E. 
Ri:litmyer. Mr. Newcomb was succeeded by 
Frank Baker and he by George E. Ri:htnlyer, 
who continued as president up to the time of 
his death. October 1, 1917. The present offi- 
cers are : President, Frank Baker ; vice-pres- 
ident, Lewis S'. Newcomb ; cashier. Grover A. 
Holeman ; assistant cashier, A. C. Van Home. 
In the 1907 panic this bank never refused to 
cash a check. Its present authorized capital is 
$25,000 and its deposits amount to over 
$200,000. 

The Security State ISank was organized 
February 5, 1915. Its first president was A. 
P. Dobesh and its first cashier was F. N. 
Austin. Its present captial and surplus amount 
to $21,000 with deposits of $220,000. Its re- 
sources have increased from $57.8-K).97 in 
August, 1915. to $244,983.89 in August. 1918. 
Its present officers are: President. William 
Ihlow : vice-president, Henry Schmid : cashier, 
E. P. Gaines ; assistant cashier, D. C. Thomp- 
son. 



.\.\SLEV S MERCWTILK EST.\BLISHMENTS 

The first merchant in Ansley was Edgar 
\'arney, who moved his store over from Wes- 
terville and put it in charge of his son, T. T. 
Varney, in the early part of the year 1886. 
The same year, Thomas H. Blowers also 
moved from Westerville. About the same 
time, W. D. Fritz opened up the first hard- 
ware store, in the building with Edgar Varney. 
The following year saw the advent of E. H. 
Burrows, A. H. Shepard, Gaines & Hagin, and 
the Butler Brothers. Burrows continued in 
business up to the year 1912. when he disposed 
of his interests to E. L. Kellc}- and removed to 
Los Angeles, California. A. H. Shepard was 
in business up to 1916, when he disposed of his 
stock of goods to his son, Archie H., and his 
daughter, Myrtle C, and entered the post of- 
fice. Gaines & Hagin ran their business until 
1909, when they dissolved partnersliip, Hagin 
disposing of his interests to Gaines and. later, 
starting a new store, which he continued to 
run until 1913. Gaines continued at the old 
stand up to the time of his death, January 2, 
1915, when his sons disposed of his stock of 
goods. Thomas H. Blowers, in the early part 
of the '90s, traded his mercantile business for 
the milling interests of A. W. Hawk, who 
operated it with C. J. Stevens and I. Clark 
about ten years. Of the present merchants, 
C. J. Stevens started his present store in 1895, 
J. H. Kerr in 1899, F. P. Hawk in 1903, L. F. 
Landmesser in 1907, J. H. \'arney in 1914, and 
Shepard & Shepard in 1916. 

The first furniture and undertaking estab- 
lishment in An.sley was run by Fred Gosselin, 
who opened it in 188') or 18')0. The R. G. 
Applcgarth Furniture and Undertaking Com- 
pany have been in businesss since 1906. Mr. 
Applegarth died in the year 1916, since which 
time the manager, H. D. Reed, who has been 
with the company from the fir.st. has had sole 
charge. Mattley & Hoover and C. J. Stevens 
both carry a line of furniture, while the for- 
mer also do an undertaking business. 

The first hardware dealer was W. D. Fritz, 
but the Butler Brothers and Gaines & Hagin 
also carried a full line of hardware and farm 
machinery. In 1902 W. S. Mattley began sell- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



221 



ing hardware and farm machinery, disposing 
of his business to his brother, Charles E., in 
May, 1914. In April, 1916, the firm became 
Mattley & Hoover, through the. admission of 
C. B. Hoover. U. W. Thompson sold farm 
machinery from 1903 to 1913. The present 
dealers in farm machinery are J. D. Knapp 
and Hiser & Detwiler. Mr. Knapp has been 
in his present business since 1906 and Messrs. 
Hiser and Detwiler since 1914. 

From the start, all of the general mercantile 
stores carried lines of clothing. (Jur present 
clothier is Roscoe G. Secord, who keeps a full 
line of men's furnishing goods — hats, boots, 
shoes, rubbers, neckties, and collars. Our 
tailor. Otto Winter, who came in September. 
1916, also takes orders for suits, besides doing 
a cleaning and pressing business. 

The first milliner in Ansley was Miss \\'\\- 
helmina Alengel (now Mrs. M. C. Warrington, 
of Mason City), who opened a shop the year 
that the village was started. Then came Miss 
Nettie Worden (now Mrs. R. M. Hayslip). 
She was followed by Mrs. Mary Wakelin, and 
she by ]\Iiss Augusta Worden. Later the 
Worden sisters, then Mrs. Hoover and Mrs. 
Holman, entered the millinery business and 
conducted it for several years. The present 
milliner is Miss Mary Geeseman, who has 
been in the business since 1914. Others who 
have carried a line of millinery since the be- 
ginning of the town have been E. H. Bur- 
rows, A. H. Shepard, and C. J. S'tevens. 

ansley's mills, shops, li\'ERy st.\bles. etc. 

The first blacksmith was C. M. Dorr, who 
came at the founding of the town, or soon 
after. A few months later. William Davis 
entered into business with him. This part- 
nership continued for several years, when 
Davis sold out his interest to Dorr, who con- 
tinued to run it for a few months longer, 
when he finally dsposed of it to Joel F. Lan- 
num. Later William Burdett went into the 
carriage and wagon business in the same build- 
ing, hiring a blacksmith to do his iron work. 
Shortly after the location of Dorr, Charles 
Gessright opened up a wagon shop on the lot 
where the home of T. N. Southard now stands. 



Dana AI. Saville was also a blacksmith here, 
removing from Westerville in May, 1904, and 
continuing in business until October, 1914, 
when he was forced to quit, by reason of ill 
health. The present blacksmith is George 
Gravley, who came to this place in 1914. 

The first barber shop was run by A. H. 
Turpen. The present barbers are S. P. \'ar- 
ney and R. D. Breeden. 

In the fall of 1886, A. W. Hawk and his 
son, C. W.. bought from the Martin Brothers 
the Algernon flouring mill, which, in 1890, 
they moved to Ansley. This mill they later 
traded to Blowers & Clark. It finally came 
into the hands of C. J. Stevens, and it was 
burned in the year 1906. 

Ansley's first carpenters were O. ]\I. Geese- 
man, Sid. Harris, Ed. Harris, Racine \\'iget, 
Henry Klick, Jack Storey, Henry Hogg, and 
Al. Hoover. The first baker was J. A. Alauler. 
He came in 1903 or 1904. He was followed in 
1909 by J. F. Russell, who has been in the 
business ever since. 

Joe Moore opened the first garage, in 1908. 
In 1915 Templin & Wozney built their large 
garage, at a cost of $6,500. This garage is 
now run by the Marsh Auto Company, com- 
posed of H. Guy Marsh, G. H. Holeman, and 
A. C. \'an Home. The garage of E. A. But- 
ler & Son w^as erected in the fall of 1916, and, 
including stock and fixtures, represents the 
value of $20,000. E. A. Butler and his son, 
Harry, are salesmen for the Ford automobile 
company, of Detroit. The Hollenbeck garage, 
which makes a specialty of repairing cars, is 
run by the manager, C. R. Woolley. E. H. 
Xorden runs a machine shop and makes a 
specialty of automobile repairing. 

The first shoe repairer was Henry Abbey. 
Next came E. Clark, who sold his shop to 
Frank Mills, who in turn, in 1905, disposed 
of it to its present owner. Perry Foster. Mr. 
Foster also carries a full line of footwear. 

A. J. Hookum has just installed a new Sano 
mill, with the capacity of fifty barrels of flour 
per day. The first meat market was run by 
Anthony Wilkinson. Others who have en- 
gaged in the meat business are John Davis. 
William Zimmerman, Clerk Hanna, O. H. 



??9 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Mooniey, W'es. iNloomey, Jake Paine, Norton 
Amsberry, Fred Simpson, E. B. Hyatt, George 
Hatfield, Will Garten, and Al. Govier. The 
present markets are the Ansley market, con- 
ducted by Perry Lanum, and the Sanitary 
market, conducted by Fred Maulick. 

The first to engage in the well business was 
George Haines, about 1889. Henry Wakelin 
and Al. Harvell also were engaged in this 
business in the early years of Ansley. E. A. 
Butler sold windmills and well material from 
the commencement of the town. Hiram Cur- 
tis has been in the business since 1897, moving 
into his new building in 1917. 

In 1887, Joe Rambo opened the first livery 
barn, where Butler's garage now stands. 
This building was later removed to the Lan- 
um lots and is now one of the buildings be- 
longing to Grand and John Lanum, who use 
it for a feed and sale stable. Others who have 
been engaged in the livery business are Alex. 
Moore, At. Sloan, James McMannus. Wallace 
Busic, F. P. and C. W. Hawk, Russell & Lan- 
um, W. O. Phillips, and E. F. Hollenbeck. 

D. A. Van Sant opened the first hotel in 
Ansley, the Commercial House, in August, 
1886. It was afterward sold to Mrs. Eggle- 
ston, who ran it for a number of years. It is 
the building now occupied by Pat's Cafe. The 
Central hotel was opened by Fritz & Michael, 
on the lot that lies just east of the postoffice. 
The Cottage hotel stood where Harry Mc- 
Nulty's restaurant now stands and was con- 
ducted for a number of years by Mrs. Alex. 
Moore. Harry McNulty and ^Irs. Edna Gay- 
lord now conduct the two restaurants of the 
place, while our large rooming house is owned 
by Mrs. R. M. Hayslip. 

J. W. Comstock has been in the harness 
business continuously since the beginning of 
the town, in 1886 — first with a partner. Henry 
Abbey, and latterly, in 1907. with Fred Mills, 
since which the firm has been known as Com- 
stock & Mills. 

The jewelry business in Ansley was first 
represented by Henry Kirk, who came either 
in 1886 or 1887 and occupied a building near 
where the postoffice now stands. After three or 
four years, he disposed of his stock and left 



the town. He was followed by Elsa Harsin, 
who had his shop with Walter Theobald, drug- 
gist. When Charles Hare bought the Theo- 
bald drug store he also purchased Harsin's 
jewelrjf equipment, and he continued to mend 
watches up to the time of his death. In the 
meantime a jeweler by the name of Snook 
opened a shop in the little building formerly 
occupied by S. P. Vamey as a barber shop. 
He must have been a very good man, for, al- 
though we have consulted a score of tlie old 
citizens, we have been able to obtain but three 
facts in regard to his life : he was a jeweler, a 
Seventh-day Adventist, and his name was 
Snook. When Charles Hare died, in 1905, A. 
L. Butler purchased the jewelry business, 
which he has conducted ever since. 

D. A. \'an Sant was the first drayman and 
the first to make a business of moving build- 
ings. He moved the flouring mill of Hawk & 
Son from Algernon to Ansley, in 1890. The 
present draymen are Clyde Pinckley and .Vndy 
Case. 

The Star Theatre is owned by Mrs. Joyce 
Wellman and is operated by her manager, 
William Burdett. 

There are at present seven creamery agen- 
cies in Ansley. The David Cole Company, of 
Omaha, is represented by A. W. Kimball ; the 
Lincoln Pure Butter Company by Norton 
.\msberry ; the Beatrice Creamery Company 
by J. D. Knapp; the Kirschbaum & Sons 
Creamery Companj', of Omaha, by Fred 
Maulick : and the Farmers' Shipping .\ssocia- 
tion, and the Fairmont Creamery Company by 
A. J. Hookom and William Mannen. 

.WSLEV'S H.MBKU .\-ND CO.\L V.VRDS 

The first lumber company to do business in 
Ansley was the Chicago Lumber Company, 
which entered the field in June. 1886. Its 
representative was a young man by the name 
of Cox, and he. with a small pile of lumber, 
landed here i)efore any buildings were erected. 
In the fall of 188') the Stevenson Lumber 
Company was established. Its manager was 
Brome Stevenson. The father of the manager 
was the first man to die in Ansley — from the 
efifects of injuries received in being thrown 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



223 



from a buggy. In this same year E. A. "and 
A. L. Butler went into the coal business, re- 
maining in the same until 1894, when E. A. 
went to work for the International Harvester 
Company and A. L. engaged in the restaurant 
business, removing the fixtures from Seward. 
The Dierks Lumber Company, which has been 
on the ground for a number of years, is rep- 
resented in this place by its genial manager, 
O. D. Dean. Its investment here is $60,000. 
The J. H. Melville Lumber Company, succes- 
sor of the Turner Lumber Company, repre- 
sents an investment of $27,000. Its manager 
is Percy Reed. Both yards deal in coal and 
lumber. The Farmers' Shipping Association 
also deals in coal.' 

ANSLEV'S SHIPPING ASSOCIATION 

B. |. Tierne}- began in the grain and live- 
stock business in Ansley in the year 1887 and 
has been engaged in this line continuously ever 
since. In 1917, alone, he transacted business 
to the value of $100,000. The Farmers' Grain 
& Livestock Shipping Association was organ- 
ized in 1909. Its organic capital is $10,000. 
Its stockholders number 125 and it has paid-up 
capital of $21,000. Its president is A. P. 
Dobesh; secretary, James Allen; and manager, 
Sam. P. Negley. 

AXSLEV'S DRUG STORES 

The first druggist was Sam Royds, who 
was also postmaster. He came in 1886 and, 
upon his death, in 1888. his wife (now Mrs. B. 
J. Tierney), succeeded him. She conducted the 
business until it was sold to Charles H. F. 
Steinmeir, in 1906. Mr. Steinmeir now con- 
ducts a Rexall store and the value of his en- 
terprise is estimated at $40,000. The second 
drug store in Ansley was that of Rev. Walter 
Theobald, a Baptist minister, and it was opened 
shortly after that of Royds. This store was 
later disposed of to Charles B. Hare and was 
run by him for a number of years — until his 
death, in September, 1905, when the stock was 
sold to C. H. F. Steinmeir. Shortly after 
the death of Royds, his clerk, O. P. Allphin. 
opened a drug store, and he continued in busi- 
ness imtil 1912, when the stock was disposed 



of to Dr. E. A. Hanna. Hanna, in turn, dis- 
posed of it, October, 1917, to Charles Chand- 
ler, who now conducts one of the best pharma- 
cies in the state. The value of his investment 
is $15,000. 

ANSLEv's PROFESSIONAL MEN 

The first lawyer on the ground was George 
Snell. Shortly afterward J. A. Armour moved 
over from Westerville ; he later served two 
terms as county judge. In the spring of 1888. 
came Hugh McConelly. Judson C. Porter be- 
came an inhabitant of the village in 1898 but 
died in 1903. J. R. Rhodes hung out his 
shingle October 1, 1893, and has practiced his 
profession here ever since, with the excep- 
tion of four years (1894-8) which he spent 
in Broken Bow, as county judge. F. M. Bent- 
ley began the practice of law in Alarch, 1904, 
but died two years later, in December, 1906. 
N. Dwight Ford, the present county judge, 
was also a resident of Ansley for some time. 
Ansley's first physician was Dr. C. H. 'Slov- 
ris, who practiced here from 1886 to 1893. 
Part of the time contemporaneously with Dr. 
Alorris was Dr. Hawes, who left the town in 
1894. Other physicians who have practiced 
in Ansley are Drs. Thomas, Anderson, AIul- 
lins, Imah, and Jennings. Dr. Grace M. Lewis, 
a sister of ]\Irs. J. H. Kerr, also practiced 
medicine here, from 1898 to 1902. Of the 
present physicians. Dr. E. A. Hanna came 
here from Elmo, Alissouri, in 1895; Dr. W. R. 
Young came in 1897; Dr. C. L. Housel, in 
1907; Dr. R. P. Higgins, in 1913; and Dr. H. 
C. Stadden in 1916. Dr. Hanna is a graduate 
of the Ensworth Medical College, at St. Jo- 
seph, Missouri ; Dr. Young, of the State Uni- 
versity' of Iowa ; Dr. Housel, of the Lincoln 
Aledical College ; Dr. Higgins of the Univer- 
sity of Nebraska, and Dr. Stadden of the 
Creighton College of Medicine. Dr. House! 
and Dr. Higgins have been serving their coun- 
try in the medical corps, in connection with 
the world war. 

Ansley's first located dentist was Dr. Kra- 
mer, now of Hyannis, Nebraska. Dr. W. A. 
Housel opened his office in Ansley upon his 
graduation from the Lincoln Dental College, 



224 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



in 1905. His assistant is Dr. Curtis McCal- 
lister, also a graduate of the Lincoln Dental 
College. 

ANSLEV'S ELECTRIC-LIGHT, \V.\TER, AND TELE- 
PHOXE SYSTEMS 

Ansley was the first village of the state, west 
of Grand Island, to have both city water and 
electric lights. The Ansley Electric Light & 
Power Company's plant was built and owned by 
C. J. Stevens and was enfranchised by the vil- 
lage, September 20, 1892. The waterworks 
company was organized and the plant complet- 
ed in 1893. For this purpose, four thousand 
dollars' worth of bonds were voted and issued in 
1892. The light plant, however, was destroyed 
by fire in the fall of 1904. Peter W. McTag- 
gart & Company succeeded the Electric Light 
& Power Company, October 1, 1906. This 
plant, in turn, was also destroyed by fire, 
April 13, 1910. It was succeeded by the Mu- 
nicipal Light & Power System. June (>. 1910. 
This latter plant was completed the following 
year, at the approximate cost of $21,000. 

The first telephone company in .\nsley was 
known as the Central Telephone Company and 
the plant was installed in the year 1903. The 
first manager was A. L. liutler ami the first 
operator was Miss Grace Butler, now Mrs. 
Fred Maulick. The first 'phones in town were 
those of A. L. Butler, E. A. Butler, and J. H. 
Hiser. The present telephone company, known 
as the Ansley Telephone Company, had its 
origin in the year 1909, through the purchase 
of the plant of the Central Telephone Com- 
pany. Its present officers are: C. J. Stevens, 
president : John McCullough. vice-president ; 
Roy Patterson, secretary; R. A. Studley, 
treasurer. It has local and long-distance con- 
nections and 682 subscribers. 

.\NSLEV"S .\i;\\ SI'APERS 

The following facts relative to the ncws- 
pap)ers of Ansley have been furnished liy Mr. 
C. N. Harris, himself at one time a publisher 
in the village. .\ short time after .Vnsley was 
founded, James W'estervelt purchased the 
Jl'cstcni Echo of W'esterville and, removing it 
to Ansley, published it here. This name was 



later changed to the Ansley Chronicle, with 
two brothers. Will and Harve Chapman, as 
joint editors. In 1895 the plant was sold to 
Thomas Wright, who was its sole editor until 
about 1902. Alxiut the year 1900 A. H. Barks 
started the Citizen which, aljout 1902, was 
combined with the Chronicle and called the 
Chronicle-Cilicen, Wright and Barks being 
joint editors and publishers. About two years 
later Barks sold his interest in the paper to 
Wright, who continued to publish it until 

1907, Barks starting a new paper, the Xebras- 
kan, which was discontinued after a few issues. 
Then, in 1905, Barks purchased the An^osy 
of Dr. McArthur, of \\'esterville, moved it to 
Ansley and published it fierce In 1907 he pur- 
chased tlu' Clironicle-Citizen of Wright and 
combined the two papers under the name of 
the Argosy and Chronicle-Citizen. June 1, 

1908, this plant was sold to C. N. Harris, who 
continued to publish the paper as the Argosy 
until July 11. 1914. when the establishment 
was destroyed by fire. Thereafter the town 
was without a paper until the beginning of 
l')15, when Wright ])urchased the Beacon 
plant at Broken Bow, moved it to Ansley and 
began the publication of the Ansley Herald 
which he continued until June, 1918, when he 
sold it to J. A. Wallace, of Gilby, North Da- 
kota, its present editor and publisher. During 
the years 1894-6 James Amsberry published in 
.Vnsley a Populist paper, which was called the 
Adi'ocatc. 

ANSLEy's POSTOFFICE 

The first postmaster was Sam Royds, ap- 
pointed. He died before his term expired and 
his wife, now Mrs. B. J. Tierncy, filled out 
the term. In their order the postmasters, 
since Royds, have been Major E. S. Ellison, 
.•\. H. Turpen, T. T. Varney, Thomas Wright, 
E. P. Gaines, and .\. H. Shepard. The first 
rural route was established in 1904, with Joe 
Hyatt as the carrier. There are at present 
three regular and two Star routes. 

.WSLKV'S P.VTKTOTISM 

The sons of .-Xnsley have fought both in the 
Philippines and the world war. Those who 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



225 



fought in the first were E. A. Miller, C. C. 
Cooper, H. L. Kerr, C. V. Pinkley, William 
Lawson, Oliver Winch. Seymour Burton, Nat. 
S. Sims, F. C. Rucker, Lemuel Clay, Alvin 
Coxan, Parlie Busic, Fred Peterson, and Wal- 
ter Ashworth, the last named having- died of 
disease, in the Philippines. 

Up to August 15, 1918, Ansley had made 
the following contributions to the financial 
support of the government. She has pur- 
chased bonds to the amount of over $151,000; 
she has bought war savings stamps to the 
amount of $53,000 ; she has contributed to the 
Red Cross $4,441.75; to the Young Men's 
Christian Association, $1,100; and to the 
Knights of Columbus, seventy-five dollars. 
The town has stood ready to do all that was 
demanded of it in the giving of its sons and 
the contributing of its wealth to the cause of 
liberty. 

Up to August 15, 1918, ninety-nine of our 
boys have answered the call and were either in 
training camps or on the battlefields of 
Europe. They are ; Argyle Knapp, Art Dobesh, 
Paul Martin, Hermie Dewey, Dr. C. L. Hou- 
sel, Albert Thessen, Dr. R. P. Higgins, Claude 
Hoover. Orrie Amsberry, Walter Anderson, 
Raymond Dtwey, Glen McCollister, Perley 
Comer, Clyde Oglevive, Earl Harris, Earl 
Case, Clyde Geeseman, Edwin F. Lund, Lee 
McCollough, Wehland Hayslip, William Mc- 
Cormack, Harvey Porter, Roy Shepard, Will- 
iam Moore. Rosil Draper. Floyd Junk, Fred 
Grafif. George Martin, Arthur Stuckey, Nor- 
man Spalding, Leon Fowler, Art James, Will- 
iam Rigby, Clark Springman, Clyde Wills, 
Everett Carothers, Ray Lockhart, Richard 
Thessen, Otto Price, William Mackey, Arthur 
Hein, Lawrence Berry, Ernest Wilson, Glen 
Brisbane. Clififord Paine, Roy Burton, Law- 
rence Bristol, Earl Fox', Charles Armour, Fred 
James, Lawrence Lowery, Fenton McEwen, 
\'ernon Devine, Harry Zahn, Ralph Smith, 
Richard Thessen, H. R. Norden, Edwin Bur- 
rows, Harry Hilldebrant, Joseph W. Cassell. 
Roscoe Coleman. Ivo Dewey, Earl Watson, 
Levert Farrel, Emil ]\Ialm, Noel Ritenour, 
Fritz Baalhorn, Sam Hoblyn, Roscoe Rhodes, 
Edgar Haines, Frederick E. Butler, Clinton 



Applegarth, Bert Morrison, Clarence C. Ar- 
nold, Charles H. Munn, Wesley J. Anderson, 
John A. Crist, Alfred B. Mills, William Dud- 
ley Pester, Harry B. Duncan, Kresten Ray 
Jensen, Clyde Willis, Fayette Corlin, Henry 
Brown, James Rigby, William Ray Van Sant, 
Chester Harris, Wesley James Anderson, Hen- 
ry Wrasse, G. Herbert Evans, Lynn Payne, 
Walter -Smith, .\ldcn Draper, Glen Glover, 
Frank Bubak, Jesse Holeman, Harry Hicken- 
bottom, Leslie Nider. 

Ansley! Fairest city of the prairie ! May no 
portentous cloud arise to darken thy horizon ! 
May thy sons ever be strong and thy daugh- 
ters fair. And may the coming years behold 
naught but thy unfolding glory and increas- 
ing strength. 

ANSLEy's LIBR.ARY 

The Ansley public library was first started 
by the Woman's Federated Club, in the fall 
of 1916, with books donated by the members 
and with a small purchase of new books. In 
1917 the township elected a library board, 
consisting of Dr. W. R. Young, Mrs. D. W. 
Thomson, B. J. Tierney, F. B. Housel, and 
Lewis Newcomb. They also put a three-mill 
levy on the township for library purposes. At 
present we have on our shelves about 500 
books and have made quite an extensive pur- 
chase besides. A large number of masra- 
zines have also been donated. The books are 
free to all residents of the township, but non- 
residents are assessed twenty-five cents per 
quarter. The board has an application in 
with the Carnegie library people and is await- 
ing their decision. If the decision is not favor- 
able, a move will be made to build a building 
ourselves. The library is open Saturday 
afternoons and evenings. The weekly output 
of books is from thirty to fifty. ?\rrs. H. L. 
Fowler is the librarian. 

THE STORY OF .XNSELMO 

[The story of .-\nselmo is contributed by 
Mrs. J. C. Moore.] 

The village of Anselmo derived its name 
from Anselmo Smith, who was a civil engi- 
neer and who platted the towns along the Bur- 



2^6 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 










_^ \.-aiV J *""."■ 



1— Main Street, Ansei.mo. 2 — Street Sce.nm-; in Anselmo. S—Community Build- 
ing, Anselmo 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



227 



lington Railroad for the Lincoln Townsite 
Company. 

When he arrived on the ground where the 
town was to be platted, he was so impressed by 
the beautiful surrounding country, that he 
suggested this site would bear his given name, 
and to harmonize with this he named the 
streets and avenues after the men who settled 
on the land in the early '80s, namely, ~\[. R. 
Foster, Harvey Said, and Walter Scott. 

Anselmo Smith, being a man of vision, in 
looking through his field glass, probably fore- 
saw the future of the village that was to bear 
his name. Looking north and west, before 
him lay the virgin soil, which few thought it 
necessary to cultivate, and the great, dry, 
sandy plains which up until this time had been 
left to the hunter and his prey. 

To the south and east the engineer saw the 
beautiful agricultural valleys of Eureka, Or- 
tello. Dale, Victoria, and New Helena, over- 
shadowed by vast table land, together with 
Victoria creek, rising in the plains to the west, 
passing underground through Anselmo and 
coming to the surface again, in the form of 
mineral springs, in the New Helena valley. 

A pioneer with vision, once looked beyond 
what had been done and saw what might be 
done, then did it. H. B. Andrews, one of 
the pioneers of the early '70s, saw in these 
vast prairies an opportunity to make a fortune 
out of the cattle business, and how w-ell he 
succeeded, would be a history in itself. For 
the next quarter of a century, Mr. Andrews 
was a familiar figure in the saddle, looking 
after his vast interests. C. R. IMathews, an- 
other pioneer of the early 70s, who blazed the 
trail across the tortuous west, found ample 
compensation for the travail he endured, in 
the superb fruitfulness of his labors — coming 
as he did from far away Virginia. Only the 
pioneer can appreciate his early struggles. 

The common remark, that the world is now 
in the engineering age, is well borne out by 
the history of the years now under considera- 
tion, namely the spring and fall of 1886. It 
was signally manifest, in that it marked the 
entrance of the first train over the Chicago, 



Burlington & Ouincy Railroad into Anselmo 
— a line of railway having been surveyed from 
Grand Island to the Black Hills — and An- 
selmo was platted in the fall of 1886 (Novem- 
ber 20). 

Henry Kelley erected the first building in 
the village, to be used as a drug store ; C. F. 
Graves followed with a building to be used 
as a grocery store. Dorr Heffleman was al- 
ready on the ground, located in a tent, in 
which, while his building was in the course of 
construction, he conducted a bank, afterward 
known as the First Bank of Anselmo. 

While the town was being built, Harvey 
Said conducted a hotel in a sod house one- 
half mile from town. The first restaurant and 
short-order house was built liy Thomas Flood, 
followed by what were then called modern 
hotels — the Bowman House, built by Crate 
Bowman ; the Poor House, erected by Charles 
Poor ; and later the Ong House, which is now 
known as the City hotel. The Bowman 
House was transferred to a new location by 
Moore Brothers, in 19n, and named the Com- 
mercial hotel. The present owner of the 
property is Al. Willet. The Poor House has 
long since gone out of existence. Weander 
Brothers conducted the first general store, 
after these came E. C. Gibbs, C. D. Pelham, 
1 lumphrey Smith, T. R. Brayton, T. P. Riley, 
lames Phillips, William Fishroff, Fairchilds 
& Bodine, J. H. Brandenburg, Joe Michele, 
Hugh McKee, Pierce Cain, C. L. Tupper, Kel- 
ley Sisters, Doctors Stack, Hamilton, Kelley, 
and Gilligan, Thomas Russell, Otis Scovill, 
John Jessen, Kloman and Arnold, James Zane, 
William Stater, James McDermott, William 
Boyd, and others. 

These were the merchants and business 
men of Anselmo from its infancy until 1895, 
and all did a thriving business. Then An- 
selmo met with reverses, on account of the 
drouth of 1894, and time passed slowly for 
the next two or three years, when business 
revived again, with G. M. Williams, store and 
postoffice; Lee Gordon, general store; H. K. 
Atkisson, general store ; Wilson Brothers, ele- 
vator; W. E. Warren, elevator; Dierks Bro- 



228 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



thers, lumber ; H. B. Andrews, stock buyer ; 
Charles Smith, hardware ; Warren & Bass, 
general merchandise. 

The old corporation was revived, after a 
slumber of four years. A village election was 
held and gave to the village board the fol- 
lowing personnel : F. C. Wilson, chairman ; 
H. K. Atkisson, clerk; W. E. Warren, Henry 
Kelley, and Crate Bowman as village trustees. 
The little town once more began to show signs 
of life, and so went Anselmo until 1903, when 
come J. J. Tooley, with the Anselmo State 
Bank; jNIoore Brothers, general merchandise: 
B. C. Empfield, hardware, (succeeded by W. 
H. Danielson i ; Frank Taylor, meat market ; 
\\'illiams & Johnson, general merchandise. 

Among the prominent business firms and 
corporations now in the city are Moore Bro- 
thers, wholesale automobile dealers ; Anselmo 
State Bank, with Charles Sanders president 
and Dave Christen cashier; People's State 
Bank, with Henry Kelley president and R. E. 
Thompson cashier; Farmers' Mercantile Com- 
pany, Aloin Daily manager; ^loulton & Bass, 
general merchants ; Williams & Taylor, gen- 
eral merchants; W. W. Bass & Company, and 
Moore Brothers, hardware ; J. W. Crist, Frank 
Taylor, meat markets; Kelley & Wills, H. S. 
Mittonberger. drug stores; John Runner, 
jeweler; Mrs. Barr, hotel: Jay Barton, res- 
taurant ; Henry Doty, T. P. Alaroney, pool 
halls ; Harrington Brothers and George Tap- 
])an. dray lines; Henry Morrisey, Roy Par- 
sons, barbers : Jack Wells, blacksmith : H. L. 
Day, Frank Willson. wells and windmills; 
Dierks Lumber Company. Melville Lumber 
Company, Central Granaries Company, Far- 
mers' Elevator company ; J. R. Kalar. doctor ; 
Moore Brothers, Dennis & Mc^lurtry. Will- 
iam Knight, Thomas Mahar. garages; M. C. 
T^conard, R. H. Miller, real estate; C. G. Emp- 
fielfl, J. E. Fodge. contractors; Anselmo En- 
terprise. R. H. Miller editor: Mrs. ^lay 
Gibson, millinery. 

POSTOFFICE HISTORY 

The first postoffice in the vicinity of An- 
selmo was named Wirt, with W. E. Ross post- 



master; it was located two miles north of 
Anselmo. In the spring of 1886 Joe Michele 
was appointed postmaster at Anselmo and the 
Wirt postoffice was discontinued. 

With the different administrations of the 
government Anselmo's postmasters changed, 
and in the following order the local postal ser- 
vice was efficiently looked after by Hugh Mc- 
Kee, Harvey Said. Henr\' Kelley. Granville 
Adkins, George Williams, Henry Kelley, Roy 
Atkisson, B. C. Empfield. Fred Brechbuhl, and 
Patrick Leonard, the present postmaster. 

TOW.X I.MPROVEMEXTS 

From the early beginning of Anselmo the 
people of the community were optimistic and 
determined, as was well represented by men 
who made life a success. The buildings in the 
beginning were of frame construction, neatly 
planned and well taken care of. 

.Anselmo has always been blessed with real 
"boosters" — men who had enough faith in 
the town to put their money back of their 
ideas — ^ such men as Dorr Heffleman, William 
Moore, David Christen, Fred Brechbuhl. 

Confident progressiveness has been mani- 
fested by the organizations of the Workmen 
and Masonic orders. Moore Brothers, F. C. 
Wilson, the community (in building the Com- 
munity Hall) and others who had seen the 
bright side of an optimistic life. 

A municipal water system was established 
and a voluntary fire department was organ- 
ized in 1911. On April 21, 1913, Anselmo 
had its first electric lights installed, by Christen 
& Brechbuhl. 

It may not come amiss here to mention the 
beginning of the Ford motor car in Custer 
county. On May 17, 1910. the firm of Moore 
Brothers made a contract with the Ford 
Motor Company and estimated forty cars for 
the Custer county territory. On May 26, 1910, 
they received their first shipment, and on the 
following Sunday they delivered the first car. 
to E. Knoell. of New Helena, .\nselmo was 
also the beginning of the Dodge Brothers' 
production in Custer county, by Moore Bro- 
thers. This firm received the first Dodge car 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



229 



]\Iai-ch 11, 1915. This car was sold May 12, 
1915, to Jacob Geiser, of Sargent, who still 
owns it. 

ANSELMO NEWSP.\PERS 

Anselnio very early in its existence had a 
newspaper, called the Sun, which illuminated 
the darkness that then prevailed. The first 
issue was from a tent, with S. I. MeserauU as 
its editor. J. H. Zerung, Ben Sanders, J. J. 
Tooley, and others tried their hands at making 
the Sun shine, liut it eventually lost its lumi- 
nary power, in 1890, causing a total eclipse, 
and was finally gathered into the bosom of 
whomsoever represents Abraham in the news- 
jiaper heaven. 

The Enterprise was founded by B. C. Emp- 
field and H. G. Campbell, and the first number 
made its appearance May 11, 1906. A few 
months after the establishment of the paper 
Mr. Empfield sold his interest to his partner, 
Mr. Campbell, who conducted its affairs until 
within otie week of the close of the first 
volume, when he sold it to O. C. Anderson, 
who had been in the business of painting and 
paper-hanging in Anselmo for some time. He 
assumed charge with the issue of No. 52, 
volume 1, and conducted it for a little over 
two years, when he disposed of the plant and 
good will to Sherman Bly, of Hastings. Mr. 
Bly assumed charge with the issue of No. 10, 
volume 2, published July 10, 1908. 

During this year the paper was increased to 
its present size, and with No. 50, volume 3, E. 
E. Philpot became the editor. He continued in 
charge of the paper until the first number of 
volume 7 was issued, when the paper was pur- 
chased by K. K .Smith, who issued his first pa- 
per under No. 2, volume 7, on ]\Iay 10. 1912. 
After two and one-half years, C. ^I. Anderson 
became the owner and publisher. He remained 
in charge until August 1, 1917, when the busi- 
ness was sold to R. H. Miller, the present pub- 
lisher. 

In its initial number the editors announced 
the politics of the Enterprise as non-partisan, 
which, however, is not interpreted as being 
owned by a non-partisan league. The Enter- 
prise has filled its niche as a paper for Anselmo 



and vicinity, and is enjoying the liberal pat- 
ronage of the community. 

.\NSELMO FIGHTS THE K.VISER 

The American soldier and sailor of to-day 
stand in the public view as do no other indi- 
viduals. Anselmo has contributed her share 
to the conflict. All honor to them ! Men die 
for no better cause than theirs. 

Those who have responded to the call of 
their country from Anselmo and vicinity are : 
Adlai and Elwyn Johnson, Ed. Baird, Walter 
Smith, Ervin Miller, Hubert Wilson, Harry 
Frye. Albert Campfield, Harold Kepler, Oak 
Kepler, Ora Dennis, Joe Wanischke, Walter 
Spooner, Ray Ross, Ralph Lewis, Fred Carr, 
Scott Winchester, Ray Adams, Nay Dishman, 
Russell Lehmanowski, Frank Crist, Davis 
Crist, Henry Cain, Dr. C. L. Wills, Lawrence 
Ray, George Spelts, ^lartin Gallington, Willard 
Mayfield, Talmage Smith, Ivan Province, Fred 
Hodapp, Shirley Parkison, and Peter Muys. 

Few events in the history of Anselmo have 
been more inspiring than the zealous response 
to the appeal of the war fund, Red Cross, 
Young Men's Christian Association, and 
Knights of Columbus. 

Anselmo has risen to the occasion mag- 
nanimously, gloriously. She has given sterling 
evidence not only of her patriotism, but also 
of power of organization, power of pushing a 
big thing through. 

ANSELMO CHURCHES 

Religion, the great bulwark of our ideal 
democracy, providing ever for the betterment 
of the masses, is represented by three denomi- 
nations, namely : Methodist, Catholic, and 
Christian. 

The ]\Iethodist church- building was located 
in 1887, on a little knoll overlooking the town, 
with James Eads as pastor. The little build- 
ing in a few years outgrew its usefulness, and 
in 1902 a modern structure was erected, on 
the corner of Dorr street and Foster avenue. 

Long cherished hopes and ambitions were 
realized by the Catholic people of Anselmo 
and vicinity when, in 1905, St. Anselm's 
church was dedicated. Previously to this date 



?30 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



the mission was attended, from Dale, by 
Father Flanagan. Rev. M. L. Daley suc- 
ceeded Father Flanagan, and was successful 
in raising the money to build the church. Then 
came Rev. Father Donnelly, and during his 
administration the parsonage was built. He 
was succeeded by Rev. Thomas Minogue, the 
present pastor, who has built up the parish to 
one of the choicest in the Grand Island diocese 
and who enjoys the good will and esteem not 
only of his own congregation but also of the 
public at large. 

ANSELMO FR.\TERN-AL SOCIETIES 

Social and fraternal orders had their begin- 
ning in Anselmo in the year 1895, when the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen was or- 
ganized, on March 23, with Arthur P. Smith 
as master workman. Then followed Cedar 
Lodge, No. 185, Degree of Honor. The camp 
of Modem Woodmen of America was organ- 
ized February 20, 1900, with Frank Britton, 
venerable counsel. The Modem Brotherhood 
of America was organized March 5, 1900. The 
Odd Fellows were organized on March 20, 
1904, with M. J. Johnson as noble grand. The 
Masonic lodge was instituted June 7, 1905, 
with J. T- Tooley. master, and Chal Empfield. 
secretary. The Eastern Star was instituted 
May 8, 1907, Nettie Tooley, worthy matron. 
The Royal Neighbors was organized Febru- 
ary 8, 1909. Woodmen of the World was 
organized June 27, 1913, Joseph C. IMoore, 
counsel commander. 

THE STORY OF OCONTO 

Oconto is located on the Kearney & Black 
Hills branch of the Union Pacific Railroad, 
fifty-two miles from either end, thus making 
it the exact center of one of the most pros- 
perous and be.st paying branches of the Union 
Pacific system. It is situated in the Wood 
River valley, known over the central United 
States as one of the most prosperous and fer- 
tile valleys to be found. 

Oconto was located in the fall of 1887, by 
the Lincoln Townsite Company, which bought 
160 acres of land, of Wallace Highbee, for 
that purpose. R. G. Crossett and a ]\Ir. John- 



son built the first general store, hauling the 
material from Plum Creek, now the town of 
Lexington, and the same building is now oc- 
cupied by the Jones Drug Company. The next 
store building was moved from Lodi, being 
the pioneer building used as a store in this 
portion of Custer county, and having been 
built by John Moran, now postmaster of Cal- 
laway. This building was occupied by W. D. 
Cox as a general store. H. Bockman built 
the first hotel and Lewis Wambsgan built the 
first livery stable, which was run by Gottlieb 
Bensler. Mr. Crossett, at the same time, acted 
as first postmaster. 

On April 25, 1905, Oconto was honored 
with the first edition of the Oconto Register, a 
paper started and edited here by Bryner Broth- 
ers, Fred and Walter, who conducted the paper 
for a few years, when Fred bought the interest 
of his brother Walter, who moved to Eddyville, 
purchasing the paper there. Fred edited the 
Ijaper, and also acted as postmaster, until 1913, 
when he sold the newspaper plant and busi- 
ness to F. J. Dunn, of Callaway. Mr. Dunn 
manipulated the type for a couple of years, 
when he sold the paper to F. C. Ferguson, who 
was editor in chief until the fall' of 1917, when 
he sold to Ashton Henderson, of Callaway. 
Mr. Henderson conducted the paper but a 
short time, when it was again sold, to the 
Queen Publishing Company, making it one of 
a line of papers owned by this company, along 
the Kearney & Black Hills branch of the 
Union Pacific Railroad. U. A. Brown was 
temporarily placed in charge as manager, but 
at the present time Fred Bryner, the original 
editor, is conducting the news-gathering. 

Oconto has been given state-wide prom- 
inence by Orel Jones, of the Jones Drug Com- 
pany, who has just closed a five years' term 
of service for the state, as a member of the 
state examining board in pharmacy, and this 
past year he was state delegate to the National 
Association of Boards of Pharmacy as well as 
to the national meeting of the .\merican Phar- 
maceutical Association, whose meetings were 
held at Indianapolis, Indiana. 

In the world-war crisis, Oconto went over 
the top in everything asked of it. In the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



231 




f . 


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tatt 




m "i"^|g| 


:i'ti{iNt'. </■ [ UtOr^'olVebr " 



Street Scene at Oconto 



A Residence Street in Oconto 




BiRDSEVE View of Oconto 





Oconto Depot anu Eeevator 



A Business Section op Oconto 



232 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



stamp, bond. Red Cross, and other war activi- 
ties it was to be found near the head of the 
column. It has been well represented in the 
flighting' part, by about fifty of its best young 
men, and more were awaiting their call at the 
time when the historic armistice came. There 
has been maintained also a home guard organ- 
ization of seventy-seven members, wiih G. 
Campau as captain. 

Educationally, Oconto had one of the first 
schools in this part of Custer county. In 1909 
a nice, four-room building was erected, only 
three of the rooms being occupied until 1913, 
when the fourth teacher was added. At the 
present time there is an accredited eleventh- 
grade high school, with Miss Georgina Tolbert 
as principal ; Miss Helen Paine, grammar 
teacher; Miss Nellis O'Nele, intermediate; and 
^liss Allegra O'Nele, primary teacher. 

Oconto has three churches. The Catholic 
church was the first to be established, in 1889, 
and Rev. Father Pedlock, of Kearney, offi- 
ciated. At the present time Rev. Father 
Moynihan is pastor. The Episcopal church 



was organized in 1890, being supplied from 
Kearney. In April. 1901. a clnirch building 
was completed and dedicated by the United 
Evangelical church, with Rev. V>. Hillier, now 
presiding elder for this district, as one of the 
first pastors. The following pastors have 
served since then : Rev. J. H. Williams, four 
years : J. F. Hendricks, one year ; H. S. Tool, 
four years : J. A. Lemming, one year : Frank 
Majors, one year; J. X. ]\Ielton, three years: 
and W. H. Carries is completing his first year. 
At the present time Oconto is considered one 
of the best business towns in this part of the 
state, all classes of business being well repre- 
sented by hustlers in their respective lines. 
Oconto has a doctor, a weekly paper, two well 
stocked drug stores, two restaurants, two 
banks, two lumber yards (which also handle 
coal ) , three garages, three well stocked general 
stores, two cream stations, two blacksmith 
shops, two implement dealers, a harness shop, 
two barber shops, electric lights, two elevators, 
and one of the most up-to-the-minute opera 
houses to be found. 



CHAPTER X 
THE SCHOOL SYSTEM IN SOD AND BRICK 

The Beginning — Districts Organized — First County Institute — The Mason City 

Schools — Broken Bow — Ansley • — ANSiiEMO — Arnold — Callaway — Comstock — 

Sargent — Oconto — Merna — Jaynesv lle — Berwyn — Lower Lodi — District 

No. 97 — King — HoosiER Valley — Longwood — Sand Valley — In General 



The present-day school system of Custer 
county has long been heralded to the world 
as one of the best in the central west, and the 
fa;ts bear out the reputation. No county in 
the state has made greater development or 
achieved such a signal success in forty years. 
The initial years were largely handicapped by 
conditions which must always prevail in a new 
country. There was no money for school pur- 
poses and the first districts had to resort to 
all kinds of schemes to secure any kind of 
school privileges. 

The first school houses were built of sod, 
and from these the entire system has devel- 
oped until to-day there are to be found in 
every town in the county great brick structures 
into which all grade-schools granduate fine 
classes of young Custerites. The road from sod 
to brick has been long and the toil of develop- 
ment sometimes irksome but the tireless efforts 
of the teachers and the sacrifice of the patrons 
have banished the "soddy"' and ushered in the 
great, brick high school. 

For the data which follow the present coun- 
ty superintendent of public instruction, C. T. 
Grimes, is to be given credit. 

THE BEGINNING 

The people of Custer county have always 
held the education of children in high regard, 
and the very first settlers gave the matter 
considerable attention. In the spring of 1874 
Mr. and ]\lrs. E. D. Eubank settled in the un- 
organized territory which afterward became 
Custer county. 



At that time there was neither school dis- 
trict nor school, but during the fall Mrs. Eu- 
bank brought this important matter before the 
settlers and they were delighted to have her 
organize and conduct a private school for 
them. She gives the following account of her 
experiences : 

"We could not have a public school, because 
there were no funds. At last I concocted a 
plan. I would organize a neighborhood school. 
'But where is your salary to come from?' my 
husband asked. I replied, 'I will teach with- 
out any stinipulated salary. I will take what 
each feels he can give.' Accordingly I drew 
up a subscription paper and presented it to 
my neighbors. They were delighted. They 
had very little money, but there were vast 
herds of elk and many antelope and deer; the 
men were good marksmen, and killed many 
elk. So it came to pass that the most of my 
salary consisted of elk meat. This was in the 
winter of 1874-5. That fall, 1875, we built a 
kitchen of logs, and when it was completed 
I used it for a school-room. That was the 
first school in what is now Custer county." 

About the same time the cause of education 
was attracting considerable attention along 
Victoria creek, in the community of New 
Helena. During the summer of 1876 a private 
school was taught by Miss Callie Dryden. in 
the home of Mrs. Forsythe. In order to se- 
cure a certificate. Miss Dryden would have to 
make a long and unhappy journey over to 
North Loup, in Valley county, where the su- 
perintendent, having supervision over the 



233 



234 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




Eari,y-dav Schoolhouse at MiunuRN 









•1 



. .:• lO?;'--^ -^i«aI. 






Arnold Schcwuhulse anu ruHiLS 




First Schoolhouse in New Merna 
District and Probably the First 
One Built in the County. Orig- 
inally IT HAD A Son Roof 





South Side School, Broken Bow 



Oconto Public School 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



235 



schools of this section, then resided. This the 
young" lady refused to do. To overcome this 
inconvenience Judge Mathews, the sage of 
New Helena, evolved a new plan. He decid- 
ed to conduct the examination himself. Ac- 
cordingly he drew up his questions and sub- 
mitted them to the teacher. She wrote her 
answers in the best manner she could, con- 
sidering writing material to be had and other 
inconveniences. After she had completed her 
writing the Judge gathered up the answer pa- 
pers and carried them to North Loup. He 
laid the case before the county superintendent, 
Oscar Babcock, who, after due consideration, 
decided that the case was very unusual, but 
nevertheless, the exigencies of the occasion de- 
manded that the certificate should be issued, 
and it is altogether likely that no other Custer 
county certificate was ever issued in such 
manner. The next year the lady secured a 
regular certificate from S'uperintendent Eu- 
bank, and she was one of the first certificated 
teachers in Custer county. Dtiring the sum- 
mer of 1878 was erected a splendid cedar-log 
building which for several years served the 
people as an educational and social center. 
This building is still standing. 

DISTRICTS ORG.\NIZED 

In the fall of 1877 E. D. Eubank, the first 
superintendent of Custer county, was elected 
and for four years he was busy organizing 
new districts and re-arranging boundary lines 
to meet the rapidly changing centers of popu- 
lation. During his term of four years he 
formed twenty-seven school districts. 

Early in the administration, petitions were 
received from the people of what are now 
districts No. 1 and No. 2- No. 2 was the 
first preesnted, but a remonstrance was filed 
against the formation of the district and action 
on it was deferred. Later, the objections were 
finally withdrawn, but not until after another 
petition had been presented, and thus it came 
about that the first petiton presented resulted 
in the establishing of the second district by 
number, that is, No. 2. 

District No. 3 was organized in 1880, cov- 
ering the greater part of the southwest quarter 



of the county and comprising 900 square miles 
of territory, but before this organization was 
eft'ected Alfred Schreyer taught a term of 
school in an upstairs room in the home of 
David Sprouse. The next year a sod house 
was built, and for many years it was the seat 
of attraction for almost every kind of pubHc 
entertainment, from preaching" and Sunday 
school on down to political meetings and gen- 
eral elections. 

Before the close of the year 1881, districts 
Nos. 23, 26, 27, 34, and 42 were carved 
out of this territory, and within a short time 
thereafter Nos. 71, 88, 89, and 102 further 
reduced the size. Before the close of the year 
1885, Nos. 106 and 113 were cut otT, and so 
the territory of this district continued to be 
divided and subdivided until nearly a hundred 
schools are now being supported within the 
limits of what once was district No. 3. 

About the year 1882 settlers came into the 
county in great numbers, and educational 
affairs became very interesting. Schools were 
established in almost every part of the county. 
D. M. Amsberry, superintendent from 1882 to 
1888, organized more than 160 districts, and 
changed the boundaries in many places. 

The first teachers' examination ever held in 
Broken Bow was conducted by Superintendent 
Amsberry, on the third Saturday in January, 
1882. Miss Raymond was the only person tak- 
ing the test. 1 

FIRST COUNTY INSTITUTE • 

During the month of August, 1882, Mr. 
Amsberry organized and conducted the first 
county institute for the county. It was held 
in a wareroom of the lumber yard at Wester- 
ville. Only a few teachers were in attendance 
and the superintendent was his own general 
manager, instructor, and conductor of the 
whole affair. The next year he changed his 
place for holding the institute, called it for 
Broken Bow and held it in the room now oc- 
cupied by the Custer County Chief. He se- 
cured the assistance of several experienced 
instructors and laid the foundation of what has 
come to be one of the important factors in the 
educational system of Custer county — the 
teachers' institute. 



236 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 




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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



237 



THE MASOX CITY SCHOOLS 

The following description of the Mason City 
schools, written by M. M. Warrington, will 
give a suggestive idea of the varying scenes 
and changes through which most of our 
graded schools passed — from the little sod 
shanty to the splendidh' built and well equipped 
institutions of learning that adorn all of our 
towns. 

"The town of Alason City was started in 
April, 1886, and continued to grow in rather 
an apathetic manner until the arrival of the 
railroad, in July of that year, and then things 
went on with a boom. 

"Among the things to be provided were 
school facilities. The only building in the way 
of a schoolhouse in sight was one of sod, 
north of Muddy creek, near town, which w^as 
the schoolhouse of the district as it was then 
formed. 

"Henry M. Kidder, a young attorney who 
had cast his fortunes with the embryo city, 
was employed to teach the fall term of school, 
which was attended by the boys and girls 
from the town. The population of the town 
grew so rapidly in the fall months that the 
winter term of school was held in a sod house 
north of the railroad track, near where the 
railroad section-house now stands. Miss 
Lincoln Groat was the teacher, this term being 
under the old district arrangement. 

"School district No. 169, the Mason City 
district, was organized in March, 1887, by 
electing John A. Hall director, C. H. Coricks 
moderator, and Mrs. Ellen O. Gates treasurer. 
The lady finally refused to qualify, and Jud- 
son C. Porter was appointetd treasurer in her 
place. J. J. Tooley, now secretary of the state 
banking board, was elected teacher, which 
position he held for three years. The first 
term of school was held in a store building 
which had been moved from old Algernon. 
The second school vear another teacher for 
the primary department was added, in the per- 
son of Mrs. J. H. Kerr. 

"The red-brick schoolhouse. of two rooms, 
was built in the summer of 1888. This build- 
ing was partially destroyed by a cyclone on 



July 2, 1892. One story of it was rebuilt that 
year, and a vacant store-room rented for the 
primary department. This arrangement con- 
tiiuied for two years, when an additional frame 
structure of two rooms was built. The pres- 
ent two-story-and-basement school building 
was erected in 1905. The first high-school 
work done in the Mason City schools was 
under the superintendence of J. H: Hays, in 
1895 and 1896, when the first class was grad- 
uated. Now seven teachers are employed in 
the Mason City schools, and the schools oc- 
cupy a prominent place among the other good 
schools of Custer county." 

BRQKF.X BOW 

Broken Bow school district was the twenty- 
fifth district to be formed within the county. 
It came into existence during the last part of 
the closing years of Superintendent E. D. 
Eubank's term of office. The first school was 
taught in the spring of 1881, by Mrs. Martha 
E. Lewis, wife of Moses Lewis, who resided 
on his homestead a mile east of the north part 
of the city. Since her three boys, John, Amos, 
and George, constituted the greater part of 
her pupils, the school was taught in her sod 
house. In the fall the school was moved to a 
sod shanty located a block north of where the 
Grand Central hotel now stands. 

The school site had previously been located 
a mile or more from town, and to remedy this 
inconvenience, the director, C. D. Pelham, 
called a meeting of the district, at the post- 
ofifice in Broken Bow. The site was placed 
where the South Side school now stands and 
in the next year a new house was put up. In 
the meantime school was held in a frame store- 
room on the southw'est corner of block No. 2 
of the original townsite. In 1885 a new frame 
building was put up in the southeast part of 
town, but this w^as abandoned when the North 
ward school was formed. During the year 
1888 the present South w^ard building was 
erected, and it was not until January 1, 1911. 
that the full, complete system, including the 
high school was established. The Broken 
Bow high school represents an outlay of about 



238 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



$50,000 and is not only the best in the county, 
but also one of the modern and well equipped 
high schools in this part of the state. 

AXSLEY 

The Ansley district was organized during 
the year 1888, with Aliss Michael as teacher. 
Her school was composed of twelve pupils. 
The school population increased very rapidly, 
so that in 1890 a second, or primary, teacher 
was employed. It was not long until a larger 
building was required and this, after rapid 
succession, was supplanted by the present 
beautiful, brick structure, erected at a cost of 
$27,000. with an equipment valued at $8,000. 
The district employs ten teachers, carries a 
course of twelve grades, is accredited as a 
normal training high school, and has an en- 
rollment of about 300 pupils. The personnel 
of the present school board is as follows : A. 
F. Pinkley, president ; E. P. Gaines, secretary ; 
J. T. IMcGowan, treasurer; and H. D. Reed, 
n. P. Scott, and E. O. Morris. Professor 
Clem Wilder ha? been engaged as the super- 
intendent for the year 1918-19. 

ANSELMO 

The Anselmo district came with the busy 
times between 1884 and 1887, with J. A. Homis 
teaching the "young idea how to shoot." He 
carried on his work in the Methodist church. 
In 1888 a two-room building was put up and 
two teachers were employed. This number 
of teachers was found adequate to the needs 
of the district until 1905. when a third was 
found necessary. 

The present beautiful, brick schoolhouse 
was erected in 1916, at an expense of $11,000, 
four teachers being employed and eleven 
grades introduced. That same year the 
school was organized as a high-school district. 
The school equipment is valued at $7,000, five 
teachers arc employed, and more than 150 
pupils are enrolled. Already the building has 
come, to be too small for the accommodation 
of the rapidly increasing school population, 
rnul the people are beginning to plan for an 
addition to their educational plant. 



ARXOLD 

No community in the county has shown a 
greater interest in school affairs than that man- 
ifested at Arnold. The district was found 
necessary during the early '80s, but because of 
the lack of railroad communication with other 
points, the school population did not increase 
very rapidly. In 1911 two teachers were in- 
troduced and an attempt at high-school work 
was begun. Progress was made so rapidly 
that by the fall of 1915 it was found possible 
to open the school in a most beautiful, con- 
venient, and commodious brick structure that 
had cost, including equipment, the goodly sum 
of $25,000. 

The district is accredited for high-school 
purpo.ses, and eleventh-grade work is given. 
Six teachers are employed. Like many other 
school plants in Custer county, this one has 
become inadequate and before many years will 
have to be enlarged. 

CALLAWAY 

During the closing year of Mr. .\msberry's 
term of office, the Callaway high-school dis- 
trict was organized. It was one of the hun- 
dred or more to be carved out of the original 
and interesting district No. 3. The first build- 
ing was greatly impaired, and a second was 
erected in its stead. Not only was this struc- 
ture found to be too small, but the location 
proved unsatisfactory, hence, in 1906, the pres- 
ent site was secured and new building erected, 
at a cost of practically $30,000 for the entire 
plant. The school grounds are ample, and are 
well provided with trees and shrubbery, thus 
giving a very attractive appearance. 

The school maintains eleven grades, em- 
ploys seven teachers, and has enrolled as many 
as 325 students. 

COM STOCK 

District No. 28, including the village of 
Comstock, was the first to be organized by 
Superintendent Amshcrry in the early part of 
the year 1882, and Mrs. Ida Strop was in- 
stalled as teacher. Her school was made up 
of ten or twelve pupils, varying in age from 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



239 



five to twelve years. For some time the 
school did not grow very fast, and not until 
1907 or 1908 was any attempt made at organ- 
izing a high school. From 1911 to the pres- 
ent time a good eleven-grade school has been 
maintained. There are six teachers, with 155 
pupils. The present building was erected in 
1905 and with furniture, grounds, and fixtures 
represents an investment of $10,000. 

S.\RGENT. 

S'argent not only has a very progressive 
people, with enthusiasm for the education of 
the youth of the community, but also one of 
the most beautiful, convenient, and expensive 
school equipments in Custer county. The dis- 
trict was organized in 1884, with Mrs. A. R. 
Humphrey as teacher. Twenty-five pupils en- 
gaged her attention. 

In 1897 a second teacher was found to be 
necessary, and from that time the school has 
increased in enrollment and grown in impor- 
tance. In 1914 the school site was changed 
and a new house was erected, at a cost, in- 
cluding furnishings, of about $30,000. 

The school carries twelve grades and is 
fully accredited to the State University. It 
is also accredited for high-school purposes. 
The school requires. and employs ten teachers. 

OCONTO 

The Oconto district was one of the last 
graded schools to be established. Originally 
the territory of this district was a part of dis- 
trict No. 34, but in 1896 the people from the 
country turned out at the school meeting in a 
body and voted to move the schoolhouse out 
of the village and to locate it more than a mile 
in the country. This so much displeased the 
villagers that they immediately petitioned the 
county superintendent to detach a part of the 
territory and form the present district No. 256. 

One teacher was employed until 1908, when 
a second teacher was engaged. During the 
year 1909 the present building was erected 
and a third teacher was added to the corps of 
instructors. The school now employs four 
teachers, gives eleven grades of training and 
enrolls 120 pupils. 



MERNA 

The Alerna district seems to have been 
named after a previously discontinued district. 
In the early days cattlemen had a custom of 
organizing large tracts of land into school 
districts. They invariably chose territory on 
which very few, if any, settlers lived, so that 
a school would not be needed. Two purposes 
were accomplished by this plan. First, it 
avoided the school tax and, second, it pre- 
vented the annexation of unorganized terri- 
tory to other organized districts for school 
taxation. In the course of time the county 
superintendent would discover that the district 
existed only in name and he would give some 
new district that number. This, it seems was 
the case with district No. 15. However, in 
1884, there being a school population of more 
than twenty pupils within the community, the 
county superintendent granted the petition that 
added the Merna district to the list of schools. 
Miss Affie Gordon was the first teacher and 
twenty-five pupils were enrolled. 

In 1905, a high-school, with f(nir teachers, 
was supported. Three years later the present 
building was put up, at an expense of $25,000. 
Nine teachers are employed and 193 pupils are 
attending school. 

JAYNfiSVILLi; 

District No. 33 has been constantly in the 
lime light since the year 1914, and has been 
written and talked about a great deal. ]\Iany 
magazines, including the Ladies' Home Jour- 
nal and practically every farm paper in the 
United States, have written articles about this 
school. The picture of the building and a 
depicture of its floor plans have been printed 
in many publications. The plant was erected 
in 1915, at a cost of about $4,500. It has a 
teacherage, a barn, and a complete equipment. 
Two teachers are employed and ten grades 
are taught. 

BERWYN 

When the state rural-school inspector visited 
Berwin in 1916, he was quite generous in his 
commendations of the Berwyn school property, 
which he declared to be one of the best three- 



240 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



teacher buildings he had ever seen. When 
completed the entire plant cost about $7,000. 
It stands on an elevated plat of ground and 
faces down the main street of the village. 

Considering the fact that the school district 
is very small and the village itself has just 
recently begun to grow, the people deserve to 
be given great credit for their school. A good 
ten-grade course is given and the teachers 
have been unusually strong in their work. 

LOWER LODI 

Unfortunately the Lodi community has two 
schools where one could well supply all the 
needed school advantages, thus dividing the 
interest and needed success. District No. 7}i 
has for the past three years employed two 
teachers and maintained a good ten-grade 
school. The people are interested in such 
affairs and are looking forward to a better 
school condition. Ten grades are maintained 
and successful work is being done in eacli. 

DISTRICT NO. NINETV-SEVEN 

Nine miles northeast of Broken Bow an- 
other ten-grade, two-teacher school is main- 
tained. It was opened in September. 1917. is 
growing in popularity, and the number of at- 
tendants is increasing. Grades nine and eleven 
are open to students. 

KING 

District No. 32 is an interesting two-teacher 
school, organized in 1917. It is located in the 
valley of Muddy creek, about seven miles 
southeast of Broken Bow. The people are en- 
thusiastic over their new building and the re- 
sults of their efforts. The building is well 
equipped and the grounds contain numerous 
new playground devices. The ten-grade work 
usually done in such schools is being accom- 
plished. 

HOOSIER V.\LLEY 

In the sand-hill region of Custer county has 
lately been organized what is known as the 
"Hoosier Valley High School." It was formed 
by combining districts Nos. 210. 252, and 262. 
It is composed of fifty sections and has about 
ten miles of railroad to help defray the ex- 
pense of the school. \\'hen completed the 



plant will comprise a two-room school, with a 
teachers' residence, a good well, and a barn. 
This will be the first school of the kind in the 
county and its progress will be watched with 
interest. 

LONGWOOD 

The Longwood school is especially interest- 
ing because of its splendid building and 
grounds. It is the best equipped one-teacher 
school in the county and one of the best of its 
kind in the state. The building has a large 
school-room, a porch, a vestibule, a cloak- 
room, library, dinner room, and a full base- 
ment, which is reached either through the 
dinner room or from an outside entrance. This 
plant is standard as to light, heat, and ventila- 
tion. The entire plant is valued at $3,000. A 
good salary is paid the teacher and, of course, 
none but a good teacher is ever secured. 

S.\ND V,\LLEV 

.-\bout seven miles southwest of Callaway, 
in a beautiful community known as Sand 
\'alley, is found a very successfully conducted 
ten-grade school. It is district No. 95. It 
came into usefulness with the rush of school 
organizations between the years 1882 and 
1888. This school is well located and well 
equipped, with two pleasant rooms, so ar- 
ranged that they may be thrown together, thus 
forming a large assembly room. It is well 
lighted and heated. Trees have been planted 
and a splendid well, with a windmill, adds to 
the advantages. There is a barn for horses 
and a large yard for carriages. The course 
covers ten grades. 

IN GENER.VL 

For the last five or six years the school 
sentiment of the county has grown to a very 
high order. Nearly all of the schools have 
good, comfortable houses which are well kept. 
More than 150 room-furnaces are in use and 
a half hundred wells give good drinking 
water. The teachers are earnest, progressive, 
and thorough; the children are interested and 
happv. and the patrons are earnestly endeavor- 
ing to bring the Custer county schools up to 
the realization of what they should be — 
"Things of beauty and a joy forever.'" 



CHAPTER Xr 
CHURCHES AND SUNDAY SCHOOLS 

A Cowboy Preacher — A Storv of Early Church Work — And Now the Method- 
ists — The Ansley Church — The Broken Bow Methodists — Gates and Walworth 
— Arnold Methodist Church — S'argent Methodists — Merna Methodists — Wes- 
terville Methodist Church ■ — Methodist Church of Callaway — ■ Baptist Pioneer 
Work — The Baptist Churches that Live — • The Broken Bow Church — New Bap- 
tist Church at Broken Bow — AL-^son City Church — The Merna Baptist Church — 
The Ansley Baptist Church Organized — The Eudells — Lomax and Lodi — Bethel 
Union — Highland — The Free Methodist Church — The Presbyterians — Broken 
Bow Presbyterians — The Ansley Presbyterian Church — Episcopalian Work in 
THE County — Callaway Protestant Episcopal Church — The Broken Bow Episco- 
pal Church — The Church of God — Christian Church — Christian Churches of 
Arnold, Liberty, Broken Bow, Anselmo, White Pigeon, Ansley, Coburg, Mason 
City, Lillian, Sargent, Banner Schoolhouse, and Milburn — Custer County Cath- 
olics — Beginning of Catholic Work in Dale — The Broken Bow Catholic Church 
— -The Oconto Church and Mason City Church — Ansley Catholic Church — 
United Brethren in Christ — The United Brethren Begin at Custer Center — • 
Sunday Schools in Custer County — County Sunday School Association — 
The Reorganization Works Well ^~ State Sunday School Convention at 
Broken Bow — Comparison of Convention Attendance 



Governor Bradley once said that at the end 
of every buffalo's tail was a Alethodist preach- 
er going west. That was a fine tribute to the 
pioneer work of the Methodist people. It is 
a tribute, too, that they deserve in connection 
with Custer county, as subsequent history of 
Methodism in the county will disclose. 

But on the Middle Loup at least one buf- 
falo's tail was ornamented with a Christian 
preacher instead of a Methodist, and that ani- 
mal seems to have led the herd, for the preach- 
er referred to, the Rev. E. D. Eubanks, was 
probably the first preacher in the county and 
the one who preached the first sermon and 
performed the first marriage ceremony. 

In 1875 Rev. Eubanks held services in dif- 
ferent homes of the Douglas Grove commu- 
nity, and accordingly he was the first repre- 
sentative of his denomination, or of anv de- 



nomination, to pre-empt the field for Christian 
work. 

Also in the same year came a Methodist 
preacher, by the name of Lemin, and held the 
first Methodist services of which any record 
can be found. Rev. Lemin, like Rev. Eubanks, 
made the homes of the people the sanctuaries 
of worship. It was in the home of A. A. Hig- 
gins that the first Methodist quarterly meeting 
was held by the pioneer divine. Rev. Lemin 
is, therefore, credited with beginning Meth- 
odist work some time late in the fall of 187.5. 

.\s will be seen under the head of Baptist 
Pioneer Work, a Rev. J. P. Cook began the 
denominational work for the Baptists by hold- 
ing services and conducting Sunday schools in 
the settlers' homes of Lee's Park, in 1878. 

In 1880 a minister from West Virginia set- 
tled in the New Helena district and, like the 



241 



242 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



other pioneer preachers, began a series of 
house meetings. His denomination is not re- 
corded by the historian who chronicles his 
advent in the country, but as the work he be- 
gan was followed up by that of a Presbyterian 
minister, L. L. Burbank, who came afterward, 
the work of the Rev. Stevens is accredited to 
the Presbyterians. 

This puts the denominational work of the 
churches in Custer county in the following 
order: First. Christians or Disciples; second, 
Methodists; third, Baptists; fourth, Presby- 
terians. Other denominations early on the field 
were the United Brethren, the Lutherans, the 
Catholics, the Church of God, the Free Meth- 
odists, and perhaps others were among the 
pioneers, but their advent did not affect the 
order named above. 



viction that he was 'divinely called" to preach 
that he could find neither rest nor peace until 
he had consecrated himself to the ministrj-. 
Ordained by the Evangelical Association, he 
had been engaged in the work about three 
years when, in the fall of 1885, he preached 
his first sermon on Buffalo Table. It was the 
first religious service or meeting that some who 
were there had attended in two years. His 
efforts were well received and in due time he 
made fortnightly appointments, which, in con- 
nection with other points, he continued to fill 
for three years. As an evangelist and organ- 
izer this unlettered Bonarges had but few 
equals, and, measured by results, he attained 
a success denied to many whose entire lives 
had been devoted to the study of theology and 
rhetoric." 



A COWBOY PREACHER 

One of the pioneer preachers who seems to 
have been effective and practical in his work, 
even if he was lacking in theological training, 
is described by James Whitehead as a cowboy 
preacher, in the following paragraph, written 
twenty years ago. He is not credited with any 
denominational affiliation : 

"Although most of us had held membership 
in dift'erent churches in our former homes, no 
minister of any denomination had come among 
us, and no preaching services had been held in 
that vicinity. With the erection of a school- 
house we were anxious to make amends for 
this apparent neglect and begin life aright in 
our new home. Mr. Crewdson, who was an 
Episcopalian, assured us he had a man in mind 
that could be secured, and soon thereafter ser- 
vices were announced with Rev. L. G. Brooker, 
'The Cowboy Preacher,' officiating; owing to 
reports that had reached us relative to the 
man's past, great interest was attached to this 
first sermon. The Rev. Brooker, or 'Rrooker,' 
as he was commonly called, was a character as 
unique, and possessed a personality as striking 
as in their day did Lorenzo Dow or Peter 
Cartwright. He owned and lived upon a fann 
in Platte valley, twenty-two miles to the south, 
had been converted some four years before, 
and became so stronglv imbued with the con- 



A STORY OF EARLY CHURCH WORK 

The late E. N. Bishop leaves us this story, 
in which early church work is graphicallv pic- 
tured : 

"Early in the spring of 1880 a preacher 
from Harper's Fern,', West Virginia, named 
Stephenson, took the claim now owned by 
Robert Ross and commenced preaching at New 
Helena, but as he tired of keeping bach.' he 
returned east and left the people without a 
minister. Learning that a Presbyterian min- 
ister of the name of Burbank, living at George- 
town, on the South Loup, could be procured 
to preach once a month, the people of all de- 
nominations interested sent for him. He came, 
organized a Presbyterian church, and preached 
about two years, or until the Methodists made 
arrangements to start a class which included 
this appointment, on the Westcrville circuit, 
with preaching every two weeks. Some yea'rs 
later, I have forgotten the date, a preacher of 
the name of Ross, living in Indiana, offered 
to come to Broken Bow if the church there 
would pay his fare to Grand Island. As 
Broken Bow was not able to support a preach- 
er at that time, the class at Gates united with 
them and helped to pay the pas.sage of the 
Indiana preacher to Grand Island. He came, 
reorganized the class and preached in the old 
sod schoolhouse. near where the Gates school- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



243 



liouse stands at this time. Since that time this 
church has always maintained an organization 
and Sunday school, even keeping a minister 
during all the years of 'the drouth. About 
1888 the Christian church organized a society 
at the White Pigeon schoolhouse, and have 
maintained it ever since, as have also the Free 
]\Iethodists at the Oxford schoolhouse and the 
Lutherans at Round Valley. In the fall of 
1880 A. N. Peale taught a three months' 
school in district number 13, now generally 
known as the Oxford district. As this was 
the first and only school within fourteen miles, 
the children either went to it or went fishing. 
During the first years of our settlement the 
ranchmen and new settlers consumed every- 
thing the farmers could raise, but when farm- 
ing became more general and on a larger 
scale, and new settlers ceased to come in so 
fast, the farmers commenced to raise hogs to 
consume their produce ; consequently when the 
fall of 1890 came, the country was full of hogs. 
Having no corn to feed them, some of the 
farmers sold their stock hogs to eastern feed- 
ers, some knocked them in the head, while 
others let them stand around and squeal. 
Under these conditions church work had a 
hard beginning." 

AND NOW THE METHODISTS 

The ]\Iethodists now cover the county with 
ten circuits or stations, the headquarters of 
which are located in Ansley, Arnold, Anselmo, 
Berwyn, Broken Bow, Callaway, Mason City, 
Sargent, Merna, and Westerville. 

The denomination owns fifteen church 
buildings, valued at $60,000. Two of them, 
the Sargent and Arnold buildings, are modern 
brick edifices, of the latest type, and would do 
splendid credit to much older communities. 
There are ten parsonages now in the county, 
all for the most part modern cottages, which 
as many iNIethodist preachers with their fami- 
lies occupy. These parsonages are valued at 
$20,000. The ten pastors receive good salaries 
and the churches have a combined member- 
ship of 1,856, with a family constituency of 
approximately 3,600 persons. 



THE ANSEEV CHURCH 

Prior to the founding of Ansley, Methodist 
itinerants rode over the hills and valleys, 
preaching in schoolhouses and homes. One of 
these men was Rev. J. C. Dorris. In Sep- 
tember, 1886, Rev. William Esplin, who was 
homesteading seven miles southwest of Ansley, 
was appointed as the first regularly located 
pastor of the Methodist body of Ansley and 
vicinity, and preached alternately at Plea- 
sant Valley and at this point. At firsti 
services were held in the new Burlington 
depot, but when the Presbyterian church 
was built, the services were held there. The 
church was organized July 12. 1887, and 
in 1890, under the pastorate of Rev. D. M. 
Ellsworth, the present church building was 
erected. The pastors who have served this 
church up to 1918 are as follows : William 
Esplin (1886-7), Francis Brock (1887-8), D. 
M. Ellsworth (1888-90), H. H. York (1890- 
1891), B. F. Peck (1891-2), John P. Crane 
and D. W. Denny (1892-3), L. W. Chandler 
(1893-5), A. Gibson (1895-7), W. H. For- 
syth (1897-1900), M. S. Foutch (1900-1901), 
L. W. Chandler (1901-3), Selden Ewing 
(1903-5), Raymond Rush (1905-8), John 
Carton (1908-9), W. S. McCallester (1909- 
1914), R. H. Carr (1914-15), E. O. Johnson 
(1915-16), W. L. Hadsell (1916-18). Under 
the pastorate of Rev. O. E. Johnson, the 
church building was greatly improved, by the 
addition of a basement. The church now has 
a membership of 200, a Sunday-school en- 
rollment of 180, an Epworth League member- 
ship of thirty, and a Woman's Foreign ]\Iis- 
sionary Society of twenty members. The 
officers of the church are: Trustees, J. H. 
Hiser, T. F. Elliott, Albert Arnold, E. O. 
Morris, W. O. Phillips, Andrew Sherbeck, and 
A. J. Hockom ; stewards, L. S. Newcomb, 
Mrs. George Nelms. O. D. Dran, Mrs. Clem 
Wilder, Mrs. A. J. Hockom, and R. M. Hay- 
slip; Sunday-school superintendent, L. S'. 
Newcomb ; president of the Epworth League, 
Mrs. Curtis McCallister; president of the 



244 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



Woman's Foreign ^Missionary Society, Mrs. L. 
S. Newcomb. 

The first Methodist class was organized in 
the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy depot, July 
12, 1887, by the Rev. William Esplin. Nine- 
teen charter members formed the roll of this 
new class. The names of these members are 
as follows: ^Irs. D. A. \'ansant, C. J. 
Stevens. W. A. Cross, T. T. Daniels, James 
Davis. ^Irs. James Davis, William Hawk, 
Sarah Gilbert, Anna Hawk, May Hawk. J. 
Harson. Mrs. J. Harson. Mary McCarger, J- 
AI. Porter, Mrs. 
J. yi. Porter, and 
C. D. Munson and 
family. 

THE BROKEN' BOW 
METHODISTS 

Broken B o w 
has alwaj's been 
the county's 
stronghold of 
Methodism. The 
first Methodist 
church of tlie 
county-seat town 
is one of the 
strongest church- 
es in the county, 

of any denomination. It was organized in May, 
1883. In the same month of the class organiza- 
tion, the first sermon was preached by Rev. M. 
R. Pierce, in a store building. The following 
were the charter members of the class: W. A. 
Candy, A. M. Graham, Howard Graham, L. 
McCandless, J. S. Benjamin, John Roland, L. 
Trefren, Emma McCandless. Bertha Gandy. 
H. J, Reeder. \\'esley \"annicc. W. ^1. Her- 
bert, and L. H. Jewett. 

Since the organization of this class, ser- 
vices have been maintained without any inter- 
ruption, and in later years, with added strcngtli 
of numbers in the membership, came added 
influence and prominence in the community. 

The pastors of this church began life in a 
two-room sod parsonage and in this palace of 
"prairie marble" many couples were united in 
marriage and started on their careers 3s pio- 




Methodist Episcopai, Church .\t Broken Bow 



neer home-makers. !Many social functions 
held sway in the neat rooms of this sod bun- 
galow. 

In 1883. the same year of the organization, 
a small, brick church was erected in the south 
part of town, and this did duty as Alethodist 
sanctuary and community auditorium until 
1898, when the present structure, on the block 
west of the court house, was erected, under 
the direction of the Rev. W. H. D. Hornaday. 
This structure is still in good repair and its 
auditorium is the largest in the town. It was 

built at a cost of 
seven thousand 
dollars. 

The second par- 
sonage, and the 
one which sup- 
planted the pio- 
neer soddy, was 
erected in 1886, 
during the pas- 
torate of the Rev. 
F. H. Calder. 
This dwelling was 
afterward o u t- 
grown, and the 
third parsonage 
erected in 
during the 
George P. 
the second 
Two years 



was 
1902 
first pastorate of the Rev. 
Trites, who is to-day closing 
year of his second pastorate, 
ago (1916) the parsonage was again re- 
modeled, and was made thoroughly modern. 
The present membership of this church is be- 
tween three and four hundred. Thej- maintain 
a live Sunday-school, ladies' society, and all 
missionary societies working in connection 
with Methodist polity. 

In the roster of pastors who have served 
this church are many of the strongest Meth- 
odist preachers of the state, among whom are 
R. H. Thompson, A. A. Randall, and the pres- 
ent incumbent, the Rev. George P. Trites, 
who is a strong man in the pulpit, a faith- 
ful pastor, and who, withal, belongs to that 
class of genial spirits commonly called "good 
mixers." 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



245 



GATES AND WALWORTH 

Gates and Walworth are country churches. 
They were intended to be city churches, but 
the respective cities of Gates and Walworth 
have been slow to materialize ; consequently, 
the churches stand in country places, each 
beside a lone store and postoffice. 

The first Methodist service at Gates was 
held in the sod house of Stillman Gates, who 
was one of the river pioneers. This service 
was conducted by Rev. M. R. Pierce, in 1884. 
The class was organized the same year, with 
nine charter mem- 
bers : Mr. and 
Mrs. Stillman 
Gates, Mr. and 
Mrs. R. Young, 
]\Ir. and Mrs. Ed. 
Bishop, Mr. and 
Mrs. W. J\I. Her- 
bert, and Will 
Athey. 

The present 
church building 
was erected dur- 
ing the pastorate 
of the Rev. J. M. 
Eads, in 1905. 
The pastoral work 
at tliis point is 
supplied from An- 
selmo. 

John W. Cole, 
whether a rever- 
end or not, is not recorded, held the first Meth- 
odist service in Walworth, in 1881, in the home 
of John Wdlker. A Sunday school was organ- 
ized in the same year. There were but few 
charter members who constituted the first 
class. Only the names of Mr. and Mrs. John 
Predmore and Mr. and Mrs. John Walker are 
recorded. The present church building was 
erected in 1907. 

ARNOLD .METHODIST CHURCH 

One of the best Methodist churches in the 
county is the Arnold church, concerning which 
no data have been obtainable. It is the strong- 
est church of the community and has a corps 




Methodist Episcop.m, Church .-^t Arnold 



of stalwart supporters. They have a fine, new 
church, built in the year 1915, during the pas- 
torate of Rev. ]\Ir. Gettys. The church has 
been served in the past by such men as Rev. 
George B. Mayfield, Rev. Charles Bottom, and 
others. 

SARGENT METHODISTS 

The Methodists were among the first on the 
ground at Sargent, yet little data are obtain- 
able. They commenced with a very few mem- 
bers and have steadily grown until to-day 

they really have 
the best church 
property of any 
church of their 
denomination in 
the county. Here- 
with is submitted 
a splendid picture 
of the church, 
which was built 
a few years ago. 

MERNA METHO- 
DISTS 

A splendid lit- 
tle church has 
been maintained 
by the Methodists 
of Merna since 
1885. The first 
sermon of this de- 
nomination was 
preached by the Rev. John F. Haney, who is to- 
day a resident of Broken Bow. The first class 
was organized by Henry Reeder. The present 
church building was built in 1901, by the Rev. 
W. C. Swartz. It is a small, four-gabled 
building, with class-room attachments, and 
makes a very neat appearance, in its location 
on the principal street of Merna. The attrac- 
tive five-room parsonage was built in 1909. 

The phenomenal success of the Alethodists 
is largely due to their pioneer work. They 
never neglected the sparsely settled country. 
Wherever they could find a Methodist home, 
there they had a Methodist sanctuary. And if 
a "circuit-rider," a "local exhorter," or "class 



246 



HISTORY OF CUSTER CXDUNTY, NEBRASKA 



leader" could be procured, a Methodist ser- 
vice was held, a Methodist Sunday school or- 
ganized, and Christian work commenced in 
that community. 

WESTERVILLE -METHODIST CHURCH 

The date of the Westerville organization is 
not given in any record at hand, but it was 
efifected some time in the early "SOs and was 
one of the first churches in the county. Mrs. 
Floy Lee:h Cannon, who wrote the Wester- 
ville story in 1900, makes the statement that 
the Westerville Methodist church was the 
first frame church-building erected in the 
county. The church bell, which was placed in 
the belfry, was the first church bell that ever 
rang out upon Custer county air. It was 




First Methodist Episcopal Church at 
Sargent 



freighted from Kearney, and its Sunday morn- 
ing performances gave the Westerville church 
a citified air of unusual dignity. Mrs. Cannon 
also makes the statement that a Rev. Mr. 
Brooks was the first regular minister and that 
Rev. Mr. Hale, of the Orleans district in wes- 
tern Nebraska, was one of their early pastors. 
The church to-day is prosperous, and main- 
tains regular services, with Rev. Mr. Gettys 
in charge. 

METHODIST CHURCH OV C.\LLAW.\Y 

In the early winter of 1880-81 Rev. Asbury 
Collins, one of the bold pioneer preachers 
whose labors are known throughout the whole 
of western Nebraska, preached the first ser- 
mon in or near the settlement of Delight. This 
service was held in the sod schoolhouse, which 
stood at the foot of the hill, one mile west of 



the present site of Callaway. At. Mr. Collins' 
next appointment, which was probably in Jan- 
• uary, 1881, he organized a society of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal church, with nine members, 
four of whom lived in the immediate neighbor- 
hood, the remaining five coming as far as ten 
miles from their homes in W'ood River val- 
ley. Mark H. Deems was appoited class- 
leader, which office in the church he held until 
he moved away from Callaway. Mr. Collins' 
work was principally organizing new churches 
and forming new circuits, and he came to De- 
light only once a month during the spring and 
summer following the organization, of the 
church. In the summer of 1881 Rev. Charles 
H. Savidge, a local preacher from Wisconsin, 
came into the community and lived with his 
son at the Cottonwood ranch, about three 
miles from Delight postofitice. Because of his 
own heavy work, ]\Ir. Collins placed the church 
at Delight in the hands of Mr. Savidge, who 
preached regularly for over two years. 

In the fall of 1884 the church received, for 
the first time, a minister regularly appointed 
by the annual conference — Rev. D. M. Ells- 
worth, who had just come from Illinois. Mr. 
Ellsworth had shipped his goods to Kearney, 
where the conference was held that year. In 
order to have a home for his family, he filed 
a homestead on a quarter-section of land and 
put up a little house. The preaching places 
in the circuit were Delight, Roten \'alley, and 
Cliff. There had- been a gradual increase in 
the membership, and after a protracted meet- 
ing, held in a sod schoolhouse, in the winter 
of 1884-5, the membership was thirty-five. 
The salary paid this year was $3-K), to which 
was added $123 from the missionary society 
of the church. In the summer of 1885, the 
people united in building a neat sod church, 
on the timber claim of Ira Graves, not far 
from the sod schoolhouse where they had here- 
tofore worshipped. The trustees were Ira 
Graves, Mark H. Deems, I. F. Miller, O. C. 
Murphy, and W'illiam Engels, who were 
elected by the quarterly conference July 18th. 
The lumber for the roof and floor of the new 
church was hauled from Cozad, a distance of 
fortv miles, and the chairs for seating from 



I 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



247 



Plum Creek, now Lexington. The church 
was dedicated in November following, Rev. 
George W. Martin, presiding" elder. During 
this year Arnold was added to the Delight 
circuit. 

^Vhen the town of Callaway was laid out, in 
the summer of 1886, the services were moved 
from the church, which was nearly a mile out, 
to the dining room of the Deems hotel, then 
in course of erection. After the hotel was 
completed and occupied, the church services 
were held in Smith's hall, over a hardware 
store owned by Smith & Needham. This hall 
was commonly known as the "Callaway Opera 
House." For its use the church paid two dol- 
lars each Sunday and the same amount for 
each prayer meeting or extra service. 

Rev. Thomas H. Thurber was the next pas- 
tor, coming to the charge in the fall of 1886. 
His family made their home in a sod house 
belonging to Mark H. Deems and reserved by 
him when he sold his homestead for the town- 
site. Mr. Thurber himself was "holding 
down" a claim in Dawson county, and so 
moved his family back to the claim in the 
spring, where they remained until he made 
final proof, in the fall. Mr, Thurber was re- 
appointed for another year, and immediatelv 
after his return from conference, the people 
commenced the building of the first frame 
church in the town of Callaway, The build- 
ing cost $1,000 and was considered at that 
time quite an undertaking, but the trustees and 
members were determined in their efforts and 
the people of the community responded gener- 
ously. The church was dedicated December 
4, 1887, by Rev, I^eslie Stevens, at that time 
presiding elder. Only $300 yet remained un- 
paid, but to those who had already contributed 
all they felt able, it seemed like attempting the 
impossible to try to raise that amount. Un- 
willing to fail at the last moment, eight men 
agreed together to give each twenty-five dol- 
lars more, and when the call was made and 
these eight in succession subscribed so lib- 
erally, others also responded, and in a few 
minutes the whole amount was raised. After 
returning from their homestead, the pastor's 
family had occupied a single room over one of 



the stores in the town, for which they had to 
pay twelve dollars per month, and it was not 
difficult to see that a parsonage was an actual 
necessity. Accordingly, as soon as the church 
was completed, the trustees took shares in the 
building and loan association and immediately 
commenced work on the parsonage. It was 
completed in February, 1888, and from that 
time a good home — small, but cozy and com- 
fortable — has been ready for the Methodist 
minister and his family. The securing of a 
church building and parsonage may be con- 
sidered as closing the pioneer history of the 
Methodist church of Callaway, and, having 
laid aside its swaddling clothes, it has had only 
the ordinary experience of a church — hard- 
ships, opposition, and varying degrees of suc- 
cess — important in themselves but not of 
sufficient interest for a pioneer history, 

BAPTIST PIONEER WORK 

The following facts and data concerning the 
inception and progress of Baptist work in 
Custer county have been furnished by ]\Irs, J, 
H, Kerr, of Ansley, who for a number of 
years, has been the clerk of the Baptist Asso- 
ciation. 

The first work inaugurated by the Baptists 
in the early days, when pioneers were 
struggling with the conditions incident to all 
new countries, was the holding of intermittent 
services in Lee's Park, by Rev. J. P. Cook, an 
aged Baptist minister, familiarly called Father 
Cook. Father Cook was a scholarly man, with 
a theological training, and during his early 
ministry held some very important pulpits. He 
homesteaded on the Middle Loup in the spring 
of 1878, and, following his natural inclination 
for missionary work, gathered the settlers to- 
gether in some available home, and held 
preaching services and maintained Sunday 
school work. His work in Lee's Park re- 
sulted later in the organization of a small 
Baptist church, which held together for a few 
years, but in the process of western moving 
and shifting, the constituent members moved 
to other localities and the church was short- 
lived. 

The second Baptist minister to adopt Cus- 



248 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



ter county as a missionary field was the Rev. 
Amos Weaver, who preached his first Custer 
county sermon in the fall of 1880. in the home 
of Mr. and Mrs. D. M. .Amsberry, on the 
Muddy creek. Rev. Weaver, too, was a sem- 
inary man and was then engaged in western 
missionary work with his field of labor mostly 
in Valley county. During the last session of 
the Baptist Association, held June 28-30, 1918, 
at Mason City, the announcement of his death, 
which occurred only a few weeks before, was 
made. The association interrupted its busi- 
ness and caused a tribute to be paid to his life 
and character, besides ordering a fitting reso- 
lution of respect to be incorporated in the asso- 
ciational minutes. 

The Baptists were the third denomination 
to begin work in the county, and since the in- 
ception of church organization, in 1881. nine- 
teen Baptist churches liave been organized 
within the limits of the county. These have 
had a more or less checkered career. Out of 
the nineteen, only eleven survive until this 
present time. In the eight dead churches, like 
in the seven churches of Asia, there was much 
to commend. Their work is done, and the 
workers, for the most part, have transferred 
their Christian activities to other fields. Among 
the churches that were, and now are not. is 
the Baptist church of Clear Creek, which was 
organized some time late in 1881, by Rev. I. 
D. Fleming. This was the third church or- 
ganized in the county. It sun'ived but a few 
years. W. T. Powers, then of Westerville, 
was the church clerk. The second in this list 
of deceased churches was the Oconto Baptist 
church, organized in 1884, by Rev. J. E. 
Ingham, assisted by B. W. Southwell, of Gib- 
bon, and I\Iark King, of Broken Bow. I. H. 
Edmisten was the first clerk of the Oconto 
church. Rev. J. W. Osborn, a general mis- 
sionary, preached the first Baptist sermon in 
Oconto. The Oconto church lasted five vears. 
No building was ever erected, and since 1889 
no Baptist work has been maintained. 

Lee's Park church was organized probably 
in 1888, but we have no records or informa- 
tion conceming its organization. It was ad- 
mitted into the association in 1889, and prob- 



ably passed out of existence without ever hav- 
ing a settled pastor. 

Ash Grove Baptist church, Dale \'alley 
Baptist church, and Ortello Baptist church, 
have likewise a paucity of recorded history. 
We know but little conceming them. The 
Ortello church seems to have died the same 
year the Dale church was born, but removals 
soon disbanded the Dale church. Of the Ash 
Grove church there are absolutely no avail- 
able records concerning its work, other than 
it died in 1894. 

Some time in 1887 Rev. William Elliot 
organized a church known as the Union \'al- 
ley Baptist church, eight or nine miles south 
and west of the present site of Broken Bow. 
This church flourished for a little season. 
Within the year 1888 they built a sod meeting- 
house and they maintained for some time com- 
munity services. There is no record that they 
ever had a settled pastor. J. Q. Daggett, who 
was then a regularly ordained Baptist min- 
ister, preached for them and did considerable 
pastoral work. The following year, 1889, the 
little church encountered the difiiculties of a 
changing, shifting population, and after a few 
of the stalwart leaders moved away, the few 
remaining members disbanded. 

In 18*^4 a church was organized at Spring 
Creek, with Rev. D. S. Hulbert, pastor. That 
is all the record that is obtainable of the Spring 
Creek organization. 

THE B.\PT].ST CHURCHES TH.\T LIVE 

The Baptists of Custer county now main- 
tain eleven live and more or less prosperous 
churches. All of them, with one exception, 
have buildings adequate to their needs. They 
have seven parsonages, located as follows : Lo- 
max. Arnold, Merna, Broken Bow (two), Ans- 
ley, and Mason City. This parsonage property 
is worth approximately $12,000. 

Ever since 1884 an associational organiza- 
tion, made up of delegates from the various 
churches named, has been maintained. The 
first session was held in I'.roken Bow October 
24. 1884. Five churches were represented in 
that meeting, namely : Broken Bow, Oak 
Springs (now Ma.son City), Clear Creek, 



I 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



249 



Oconto, and ^lerna. The late Edmund King, 
of Broken Bow, was elected moderator and J. 
H. Edmisten of Oconto, was elected clerk. 
Since that time, without any iterruptions, the 
association meetings have been held at some 
place where the delegates have been the guests 
of the entertaining church. For the last 
eighteen or twenty years. D. M. Amsberry, of 
Broken Bow, has served as moderator and 
]\Irs. J. H. Kerr, of Ansley, has served as 
clerk. 

THE BROKEN BOW CHURCH 

The county seat being the metropolis, it 
naturally would be expected to have the 
strongest church, and in this expectations are 
realized. This was the first Baptist church 
organized in the county. The date of its or- 
ganization was July 5, 1881. Lucky or un- 
lucky, there were thirteen charter members — 
Edmund King, Emily King, Mark King, Mar- 
tha King, Cyrus King, Moses Lewis, Martha 
Lewis, Henry C. Reyner, Emma Reyner, Jacob 
Mauk, Catherine Mauk, S'amuel A. Miller, and 
Laura ]\Iiller. 

The church was organized by Rev. I. D. 
Fleming, who served as first pastor. In 1885 
they erected a small but commodious building 
that met the needs of the little congregation in 
those days. ' In 1897 thts building was re- 
modeled, enlarged, and made more attractive. 
In 1887 this church built the first Baptist par- 
sonage of the county, a building which still 
stands, on lower Broadway, and is owned by 
W. A. Tooley. A few years later, another 
parsonage was built, on the corner of Broad- 
way and Tenth avenue, beside the remodeled 
church. This building is a five-room cottage, 
modernized, and located, as it is, in close prox- 
imity to the church, it makes an ideal home for 
the janitor. Last year, 1917, the church bought 
a valuable property in the same block, fronting 
on Broadway, and converted it into a pastori- 
um, located in a beautiful grove of maple and 
mountain ash. It adds much to the appearance 
and value of the church property and equip- 
ment. Since the organization of the church 
the following pastors have served, in the order 
named : Rev. I. D. Fleming. Rev. J. E. Ingham, 
Rev. D. W. Hall. Rev. Charles Davis. Rev. 



James Sheppard, Rev. A. J. Fleming. Rev. E. 
G. Boyer, Rev. T. F. Schlosser, Rev. J. S. 
Hadden, Rev. J. W. Megan, Rev. W. S. Rich- 
ards, Rev. S. P. Morris, Rev. A. \V. Yale, 
Rev. A. AI. Lavack, Rev. J. D. Brady, Rev. A. 
T. Norwood, Rev. A. E. Rapp, Rev. W. L. 
Gaston, Rev. J. B. Taylor, and Rev. W. L. 
Gaston. 

In 1912, during the pastorate of Rev. A. E. 
Rapp, a new building enterprise was under- 
taken. The old church, on the corner of 
Broadway and Tenth avenues, directly south 
of the court-house, was sold and moved away, 
and preparations were made for the erection 
of a modern brick edifice in its place. 

At this time Rev. Rapp tendered his resig- 
nation, and the succeeding pastor. Rev. W. L. 
Gaston, who was a resident of the county, was 
called to the pastorate and assigned the task 
of building the church. Mr. Gaston is now 
(1919) serving Nebraska as assistant secretary 
of state. 

The membership of the church, however, 
were united, harmonious, and in working 
spirit, and the task was not a hard one. Gen- 
erous assistance was given by the members of 
other churches and the town people generally. 

NEW n.\PTIST CHURCH .\T BROKEN BOW' 

In striking contrast to the primitive sod 
sanctuary, or the private dugout, in which were 
set up the first altars before which Custer 
county pioneers worshiped, is the modern 
brick edifice standing on the corner of Broad- 
way and Tenth avenue in Broken Bow. Be- 
cause of the striking contrast, a description 
of the church, written five years ago, just 
before the church building was dedicated, is 
appended. 

The final dedicatory services of the hand- 
some new Baptist church, which is now fully 
completed, will be held the coming Sunday, 
both morning, afternoon, and evening. This 
splendid house of worship as it stands, cost 
approximately $15,000 and is thoroughly 
modern in every particular. The finely 
equipped basement, with its spacious Sunday- 
school room, is worth going some distance 
to see. 



250 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



This place can be turned into the finest 
banquet room in the city and is perfectly 
equipped ih the way of culinary paraphernalia. 
Up-to-date lavatories and toilets also are to 
be found here. This banquet room, by the 
way, served to splendid advantage during the 
land registration. The ladies of the church 
conducted a dining-room here at all hours of 
the day and night, and during the two weeks 
succeeded in taking in a magnificent sum of 
$1,200 or over. This will make a good show- 
ing in the church-debt fund. 

But it is up in the auditorium, where the 
beautiful colored windows of opalescent glass 



as the Good Shepherd, which was donated by 
the Junior and Busy Bees classes. 

The Talbot memorial is on the south side, 
and was given by the children of Dr. and Mrs. 
R. C. Talbot, while the children of Mr. and 
Mrs. Jacob F. ^Mauk have donated a like 
memorial. Then there are the windows given 
by the boys' and primary classes, the prevail- 
ing colors in them being delicate shades of 
green and yellow. 

On the west, immediately back of the choir 
gallery, is a very unusual window, there being 
no other like it in the United States. It is an 
original design by Rev. W. L. Gaston, pastor 




Baptist Church at Broken Bow 



are, that the visitor is really impressed. Tliese 
windows, of which there are sixteen, were man- 
ufactured in St. Joseph, Missouri, and are 
really works of art. In the large hall of the 
church is the American flag window, which 
was donated by the Ladies' Missionary So- 
ciety. 

On the east side of the auditorium are two 
column windows in green and amber, one 
presented by the Sunday school to Mr. and 
Mrs. D. M. Amsberry ; while the other is a 
King memorial, presented by the relatives of 
Edmund and ^lark King, who were promi- 
nently connected with the church in an early 
day. Between the column windows is a rich 
and beautiful piece of coloring, showing Christ 



of the church. Across the top of the window 
is a double bar of music with the words : 
"Praise God From Whom All Blessings 
Flow." This window was dbnated by the 
choir, in honor of Mrs. Willis Cadwell, who 
has been the church organist for many years. 
The color scheme of this window is about the 
same as the rest. 

Directly in the west is a square window, in 
the center of which, portrayed in rich color 
is Hoflfman's "Ecce Homo." which shows the 
agony of Christ, on whose head is the crown 
of thorns. This is the gift of Mrs. W. L. 
Gaston and children, Gladys and On^in. Next 
to this is a memorial window, donated by 
Frank Kelsev in honor of his mother. 



J 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



251 



In the pastor's study, the Ladies' Aid So- 
ciety has placed its window. Another window 
in the west is modest in design and is histori- 
cal, not to say vmiqiie. At the top is a picture 
of the old church and pastorium. Below the 
picture are names of all charter members and 
complete list of pastors up to the present time. 
There are also the names of the present offi- 
cers and the building committee. This is a 
gift of the young ladies of the church. There 
is only one other window like this in the world, 
and that is in the Baptist church at Creston, 
Iowa. 

On the north side of the lecture room is a 
Calvary window, showing the scene of Cal- 
varv in the distance, with three crosses. It is 
an elegant painting and is the gift of the young 
men. The Bible-class window is also shown 
on the north side. 

M.\SON CITV CHURCH 

Ten days after the organization of the Bro- 
ken Bow church, another Baptist church was 
organized, at Oak Springs, in the vicinity of 
old Algernon. This was called the Oak Springs 
Baptist church. John A. Hall was elected as 
first church clerk. This church seems to have 
been a strong, vigorous organization, com- 
posed of representative people who were alive 
to their opportunity and very willing to make 
sacrifices for the cause. Rev. I. D. Fleming 
was the organizer and first pastor of this 
church. 

With the building of the Chicago, Burling- 
ton, & Ouincy Railroad up to the Muddy, old 
.Algernon disbanded and the Oak Springs 
church removed to Mason City, where it is to- 
day a strong, prosperous organization. The 
church has passed through many trying times 
and has encountered many difficulties, but its 
members have hung together, weathered every 
storm, and are now out on the open sea of 
smoother sailing. The evolution of their 
church buildings would be hard to describe, 
other than to say that to-day they have a beau- 
tiful, commodious, not over-pretentious edi- 
fice, which will meet their -requirements for a 
few more years. 

In 1Q17 the church tore down the old pas- 



torium and erected a new one in its place. The 
new building is the finest pastorium owned by 
any denomination in the state, west of Grand 
Island. 

The membership represents a good deal of 
wealth, so that the church is able to secure 
the services of able preachers and maintain 
all branches of denominational work. The 
membership approximates two hundred. Dur- 
ing later years they have been served by strong 
men, among whom the present pastor. Rev. 
Paul Scheuk, rates high. 

THE ME:RN.\ B.\PTIST CHURCH 

The Merna Baptist church was organized 
in 1884, by J. E. Ingham, assisted by ]\Iark 
King. Rev. William Elliott was called as first 
pastor and F. M. Frazier was church clerk. 
Here was a handful of devoted spirits, who 
were never able to make much progress but 
who have maintained worship, erected an edi- 
fice and a pastorium, and who at the present 
time maintain a local pastor. 

This organization seems to have nearly col- 
lapsed, and later, in 1887, there was a reor- 
ganization, by Rev. Sterns, of Grand Island. 
He conducted revival meetings, which resulted 
in a number of conversions and increased the 
membership to thirty-five. 

About this time the Lincoln Townsite Com- 
pany promised a lot to the denomination that 
built the first church. The Merna Baptist 
church took advantage of this oflfer, and at once 
solicited a building fund, as a result of which 
the present building was dedicated in the fall 
of 1887. 

The charter members, with the exception of 
two, have either died or moved away. The 
exceptions are J. B. Smith and Mrs. Nona 
Filkins. .\mong the pastors who have served 
the church are Rev. W. M. Jewel. W. A. Far- 
rell, F. A. Reisner, J. D. Brady, W. L. Gaston. 
and the present incumbent, the Rev. C. C. \'an 
Gorkon. 

THE ANSEEY B.APTIST CHURCH ORr,.-\.NIZED 

The Baptist church of Ansley was organ- 
ized September 19, 1886, at the close of a 
sermon by the Rev. J. E. Ingham. There 



252 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



were thirteen charter members, as follows : A. 
B. Fleming- and wife, C. F. Davis and wife, 
JMrs. Jane Amsberry. ^I. S. CofTman. Walter 
W. Theobald and wife. Mrs. E. H. Burrows, 
Mrs. Cliarlotte A. Stevenson, James Wester- 
velt and wife, and J. G. Amsberry. It was 
first represented at the Custer Association, 
held at Broken Bow, September 24, 1886, by 
the following delegates: Mrs. Charlotte 
Stevenson. W. W. Theobald. James Wester- 
velt, and the pastor, J. E. Ingham. Meetings 
were first held in the town hall and afterward 
in the Presbyterian church. The church en- 
tertained the Custer Association in September, 
1887. Rev. Theobald came next as minister 
and preached until Rev. L. W. Gowen was 
called for part time. Rev. Mr. Gowen was 
pastor also at Mason City and continued to 
serve the two churches until November, 1889. 
Having no church building and losing by re- 
moval its efficient church clerk, W. W. Theo- 
bald, and by death one of its most faithful 
members, Mrs. E. H. Burrows, it had no reg- 
ular services from 1889 to 1899. On .\ugust 
8, 1899, Rev. S. C. Green, secretan,- of the 
Nebraska State Baptist Association, reorgan- 
ized the Baptist church, the meeting being 
held in the parlor of ]Mrs. C. R. Stevenson. 
Those going into the new organization were : 
Mrs. Charlotte Stevenson, J. H. Kerr and 
wife, N. Amsberry and wife, Arthur, Myrtle, 
and Minnie Meyers, A. H. Lewis and wife, 
E. J. Ov.'ens and wife, and \erla and Esty 
Lewis. The officers chosen were : Rev. J. 
R. Woods, pastor for part time ; deacon, N. 
Amsberry: clerk, A. IT. Lewis; trustees. J. H. 
Kerr, Henry Zimmerman, and E. J. Owens; 
treasurer. Mrs. J. II. Kerr. On August 20, 
1899, the church was given recognition and 
again received into the Custer Association as 
a Baptist church, regularly organized. In 
1901 J. H. Kerr was appointed to iiurclia?e 
three lots for the church building. These lots 
were located on Main street, and on October 
25, 1903, the church was dedicated. In Febru- 
ary, 1906. two more lots were purchased and 
a parsonage built. In 1917 a basement was 
built, at a cost of $2,000. Pastors who have 
served the church : J. E. Ingham, L. W. 



Gowen, J. R. Woods. D. J. Briggs. \\. K. 
Markland. J. M. F. Heuman. Frank C. Bar- 
rett. F. A. Conners. R. Richards. C. T. McKee, 
J. T. Brown, C. A. Spaulding, and the present 
pastor, R. Richards. The church has always 
been a missionary church and has contributed 
largely to all the denominational interests. In 
1911 a branch of the church was organized at 
Happy Hill schoolhouse. J. E. Staab. Lyman 
Amsberry, and Ray Zimmerman being the 
officers. The present membership is 165. The 
church property is valued at $8,000. The 
i:resent officers are: Pastor. R. Richards; 
deacons, N. Amsberry, William Ililow. and 
Chester Loyd; trustees, J. H. Kerr, William 
Price, and W. J. McCullough ; treasurer, Mrs. 
J. H. Kerr ; Sunday-school superintendent, J. 
B. Jones ; Sunday-school secretary, Elsie But- 
ler ; Sunday-school treasurer, Mrs. Mabel 
Lewis ; organist. Miss Crissie Southard ; cho- 
rister. Mrs. J. H. Holeman ; B. Y. P. U. presi- 
dent, Mrs. Fannie Austrand. At the reorgani- 
zation of the church in 18W, a Mission Circle 
was formed, of whicli Mrs. J. H. Kerr has 
always been the president. \lrs. E. W. Pester 
is at present the secretary-treasurer. 

In 1906 a new parsonage was built, which 
has since been improved and modernized, and 
it is to-day occupied by the incumbent pastor, 
Rev. R. Richards. 

THE EL'DELLS 

Rev. J. M. Maxwell, an able and educated 
minister, from Indiana, located at Cumro and 
in 1886 organized the first Eudell Baptist 
church, with Nc George as church clerk. 
Shortly after its organization, a sod church 
was built, and this served the purposes of the 
congregation and community for a number of 
years — until it was replaced by the frame 
building which is now in use. The work in 
this community has been steady, never large, 
but always the faithful resident members have 
sustained Sunday-school and, most of the time, 
]ireaching servicer. 

The church to-day is under tlie pastoral 
care of Rev. W. C. ^^'alcott. who serves this 
church in connection with the field at Sumner. 
In 18'il a Itranch of this church was organized, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



253 



by the Rev. J. M. I\Iax\vell, at a [xiint six 
or seven miles east of the first church, and 
this newer branch organization is now called 
the Second Eiidell Baptist church. 

The career of the second church has been 
much the same as that of the first. A few 
substantial Baptist families, such as those of 
William Eleo and B. F. Nicholas, have con- 
tributed both the life and support of the church 
for the last twenty years or more. At present 
the church employs a pastor for half time. 
Rev. W. E. Stilson serves this church and also 
that of Bethel Union, eight miles north of 
Broken Bow. 

LOMAX .\XD LODI 

Owing to the missionary work of O. A. 
Buzzell, two small churches were organized in 
the Wood river and South Loup country, at 
Lomax and Lodi. These organizations were 
effected some time in the early '90s. Both 
have secured frame buildings and a comfort- 
able parsonage has been built at Lomax. These 
are both rural churches and preaching ser- 
vices have been more or less intermittent. In 
each neighborhood, however, reside one or two 
staunch Baptist families, who have managed 
to keep church expenses paid and the church 
door open. At the present time both churches 
are without pastors. 

BETHEL UNION 

On January 20, 1901. the Bethel Union 
church, eight miles north of Broken Bow, was 
organized in the home of Mrs. Amanda Hol- 
comb. Seven persons were present, and only 
a few charter members were obtained, but 
meetings were held in a schoolhouse and the 
people of the community, generally, gave the 
church their support. Several additions were 
made to the church as the result of evangelistic 
meetings. 

In 1906 the church built the present build- 
ing and dedicated it. free of debt. The regu- 
lar services have been maintained most of the 
time since. The Rev. J. R- A\'oods served as 
pastor for a number of years next after the 
organization. 

Rev. W. L. Gaston, then of ]\lerna, com- 



menced afternoon services in August, 1909, 
and continued them every two weeks until the 
close of 1915. Since that time the church has 
been without services most of the time. Rev. 
W. E. Stilson is present pastor and is spend- 
ing much time upon the field. Only a few of 
the original members remain, removals and 
death having changed entirely the first church 
roll. 

HIGHL.^ND 

The Highland church is the baby church of 
the association, as the result of a meeting held 
on the extreme west and southern rim of the 
West Table, by the Rev. F. A. Reisner, in the 
fall of 1916. A few families were banded to- 
gether into a church organization, known as 
the Highland Baptist church. 

The work they have been doing, which con- 
sists mainly of maintaining a Sunday-school 
and an occasional preaching service, has been 
largely of a union character. Rev. C. C. Van 
Gorkon, pastor of the Merna church, is now 
serving the Highland church with afternoon 
appointments. The organization has no build- 
ing, but maintains services in a schoolhouse. 

THE EREE METHODIST CHURCH 

The Free Methodist church of Ansley has 
a membership of twenty-five, but they are hold- 
ing no services at present. They own a par- 
sonage, the value of which is $1,800. The 
trustees of the church are M. V. Hawk, J. H. 
Brand, and John Daniels. This denomination 
has a small following throughout the countv. 
but their work has been intermittent and con- 
fined to localities in the country pre:incts. They 
have no church buildings at the present time 
and no county organization. 

THE PRESBVTERI.'^NS 

The first Presbyterian services of which 
there is any record were held in the home of 
S. C. Stuckey, on Burr Oak creek, in 1879, by 
Rev. Air. Cornett, who was then located at 
Lexington. 

The first Presbyterian organization, as 
stated elsewhere, was in the New Helena 
district, in 1880, at which time a minister 
named Stevenson, from ^^'est \"irginia, lo- 



254 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



cated on a New Helena homestead. Steven- 
son stayed but a short time, perhaps less than 
one year, but during that time effected a local 
organization of some nature, which later was 
carried on by Rev. Lysander T. Burbank, who 
in the same year located in the vicinity of 
Burr Oak. Afterw^ard, however, this New 
Helena and Lillian work was taken over by the 
Methodists, who supplied the preaching sta- 
tions from Westerville. 

Some time in the spring of 1880 a Presby- 
terian church was organized at Burr Oak, by 
a Rev. Mr. Little, who was the first synodical 
missionary to do Presbyterian work in Custer 
county. Rev. 
Dr. Burbank, 
who arrived in 
Custer county 
October 1, 1880. 
came to assume 
the pastorate of 
this church, 
which he served 
for a number of 
years without 
salary. Aside 
from being a 
preacher, Dr. 
Burbank was a 
physician, and 
he practiced 

medicine up and down the South I^oup in the 
early days. The records show that he was a 
student under Mark Hopkins, the illustrious 
president of Williams College. President Gar- 
field and ex-Senator John J. Ingalls were both 
upper-class men in this institution while Dr. 
Burbank was an undergraduate. 

This Burr Oak church is maintained at the 
present time, but has no pastor. 

BROKEN' BOW PRESBYTERIANS 

The Presbyterian church of PIroken Bow 
was organized in 1885, by a Rev. Mr. Dore- 
mus, who at the time was serving the Ansley 
church. The charter members were E. A. 
Hemsworth, Mrs. Hemsworth, G. H. Tuttle. 
Mrs. Addie Tuttle, Mrs. Jennie Biggerstaff, 
Mrs. R. E. Martin, and Mrs. Kimel Barnes. 




Presbyteri.xn Church .\t Broken Bow 



For some time services were held in a public 
hall, the congregation awaiting the time when 
they felt they would be able to build the church 
home they required. This was done in 1893. 
A very commodious, beautiful structure, for the 
time, was erected on the north side of the rail- 
road, on Tenth avenue, at a cost of about $3,500. 
The Rev. George Bailey was pastor during the 
building and dedication of the church. This 
was at the time the best church building in the 
county. In 1904 the structure was destroyed 
by fire, and it was rebuilt in the fall of the 
same year. It was dedicated in April, 1906. 
The following account of the dedication is 

from a denomi- 
national paper 
published at the 
time : 

''More than a 
year ago this 
church lost its 
pleasant house 
of worship 
through a visita- 
tion of fire, and 
the people were 
forced to meet in 
a rented hall — 
as in the early 
days of their or- 
ganization. At 
once they began to plan for a new church 
which would be larger and more conven- 
ient than the one destroyed. As a re- 
sult of their energy' and liberality, a building 
costing about $6,000 was dedicated on April 
10, during the session of Kearney presbytery, 
which was being held at Broken Bow. 
Rev. George A. Ray, D. D., of St. Paul, 
preached the dedicatory sermon ; the pastor. 
Rev. A. A. ^Mitchell, conducted the formal ser- 
vice of dedication. Rev. Dr. Thomas C. Clark, 
of Grand Island, offering the prayers. During 
this same session of the presbytery a formal 
call was presented from the Broken Bow 
church to Rev. A. A. Mitchell, and he 
was installed as pastor, on the evening of 
April 11, 1906. Since that time the church 
has had renewed life, receiving on one Sab- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



255 



bath forty new members into its commu- 
nion." 

While Rev. A. A. Alitchell was not settled 
as pastor until the time of dedication, he had 
been acting as stated supply and it was due 
to his labor that the church was built. 

The church has a membership of approxi- 
mately 150 and is a very liberal contributor 
to every denominational and benevolent cause. 

The church erected a manse which is a 
splendid, two-story, modern structure, equal 
to all the needs of a minister's family. The 
present pastor. Rev. A. H. Frazer, has been 
eight years with the church, loved. by his peo- 
ple and respected by the community. 

THE ANSLEY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 

The Presbyterian building was the first 
church structure erected in Ansley. It was 
built in the spring of 1887 and was dedicated 
in July of the same year. Rev. Mr. Sexton, of 
Seward, officiating. The first pastor was Rev. 
Mr. Doremus. Being the only church in the 
town, it was used by all denominations until 
each was able to erect a church edifice of its 
own. Several ministers, whose names are not 
now remembered, served the church before 
1893. But in that year Rev. Mr. Alitchelmore 
became its pastor. He continued in that'capa- 
city up to 1894, and thereafter, on account of 
the drouth, the church stood vacant for sev- 
eral years. The next pastor was Rev. Paul 
Naylor, since whose pastorate the ministers 
whose names we have been able to secure, have 
been Rev. Mr. McCachran, Rev. Mr. Strick- 
ler, and Rev. Mr. Thomas. The church is now 
inactive. 

EPISCOPALIAN WORK IN THE COUNTY 

Although the people of the Protestant Epis- 
copal church were not among the early pio- 
neers, they have, nevertheless, been mission- 
aries of no mean dimensions. They have 
operated, in a small way, in most of the towns 
of the county. Their people were among the 
early settlers in most localities, although, in 
most instances, not numerous enough to war- 
rant the establishing of a church. 

.■\t the present time they maintain service at 



Broken Bow and Callaway, where they have 
strong churches and good equipment. 

CALLAWAY PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH 

While an occasional service was held in 
Callaway by the missionary resident of Broken 
Bow, under the direction of the Right Rev- 
erend George Worthington, bishop of the dio- 
cese of Nebraska, it was not until the conse- 
cration of Right Reverend Anson R. Graves, 
January 1, 1890, and the setting aside of the 
jurisdiction of the Platte, that any regular 
services were held in Callaway. Bishop 
Graves visited Callaway Alay 16, 1890, and 
arranged for regular services by Rev. W. S. 
Sayres, rector at Broken Bow. Under his 
active encouragement and help, Holy Trinity 
church was erected and the misison built up. 
The church building cost $1,500 and was 
erected in 1890. To the ceaseless energy of 
Mrs. Georgia Ingram, more than to any other 
one person, is due the credit for the erection 
of the largest church building in Callaway. 
Its corner-stone was laid, with due Masonic 
ceremonies, November 25, 1890, this beinsr the 
first instance in which this symbolic service was 
held in Custer county. The officers present 
were : M. W. Robert E. French, grand mas- 
ter ; and R. W. Lee P. Gillett, grand custodian. 
They were assisted by forty master Masons, 
local and visitors. Broken Bow sent twenty- 
six Masons. In the furnishing of the church 
many beautiful and useful articles were re- 
ceived from various liberal churchmen, among 
which were : Silver communion service, by 
the sons of O. M. Carter, Omaha ; Holy Bible, 
Church of the Heavenly Rest, New York; 
bell, John Taylor & Company, Laughborough, 
England; altar linen, altar hangings, and dos- 
sal curtain, beautiful white set, Mrs. Georgia 
Ingram, San Diego, California ; purple set, 
Mrs. Graves, wife of the bishop; green set, 
Ladies' Guild ; alms basin. Rev. R. G. Osborn, 
of Platte Collegiate Institute ; corner stone, 
cross, Mr. Osborn, of Kearney granite works ; 
candlesticks, gilt and silver, Arthur Bird ; 
vases, V. G. Gurinian. 

The year 1893 brought a financial panic 
and a failure of crops. A tornado, on June 4, 



256 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1894, threw the church off its foundation and 
injured everything in the building. In this 
year of misfortunes, the church was moved to 
a new location, was repaired, a furnace was put 
in, and a rectory built, necessitating an expend- 
iture of $950 in cash. By some strange co- 
incidtence, the greatest niaterial advance to 
Holy Trinuy church has seemed to come in 
times of greatest financial depressions. The 
church was consecrated, free of debt, January 
1, 1895, and organized as a mission, under the 
rules of the bishop of the Platte, July 7, 1895. 
The jurisdiction of the Platte was abolished 
and the jurisdiction of Laramie took its place 
in 1898. At first, services were held once a 
month, sometimes once in two months, but the 
church has so prospered that since 1900 regu- 
lar morning and evening services have been 
held every Sunday. The rector does mis- 
sionary work along the Kearney & Black 
Hills Railroad and around Callaway. The 
following rectors have had charge -of this 
mission under Rt. Rev. Anson R. Graves. S'. 
T. D.. bishop of Laramie: Rev. W. S. Sayres. 
Rev. S. A. Potter, Rev. H. E. Robbins, Rev. 
Austin F. ^Morgan, Rev. E. P. Chittenden, 
Ph.D., Rev. John Powers, Rev. A. E. Os- 
born. Rev. R. A. Russell. Rev. Charles Fer- 
guson, Rev. R. AI. Herdman. Rev. J. M. Bates. 
The number of communicants on ]\Iay 1. 1''01. 
was fifty. The, then, official members of the 
church were : Senior warden, H. H. An- 
drews ; junior warden, George O. Benger; 
clerk, !Mrs. Clara Benger : organist. Miss 
Emily Holloway; lay-reader. H. H. Andrews. 
To the chief shepherd of the flock. Bishop 
Graves, is due chief praise for his good work 
in his mission, giving it the best of his clergy 
and ever raising funds to improve its prop- 
erty. 

The Ladies' Guild of the Protestant Ejiis- 
copal church was organized by the Rt. Rev. 
Anson R. Graves at the time of his first visit 
to Callaway, on May, 16, 1890. This organi- 
zation was completed Alay 27, 1890, by the 
adoption of the by-laws and the election of the 
following officers. President, Mrs. Lydia F. 
Bird; vice-president. Mrs. Catherine E. Nixdn : 
secretary, Mrs. Georgia .\. Ingram ; treasurer. 



George S. Smith. The following mem- 
bers were first enroUetl : Mrs. Lydia F. Bird, 
Mrs. Anna Tyson, ]\Irs. Catherine E. Nixon, 
Mrs. Etta Bergman, Mrs. Georgia A. Ingram, 
Mrs. Fannie Sherwood, Mrs. Martha Pike, 
^liss Lucy J. Johnston. From this nucleus 
sprang not a large but a very active guild, 
which has been the mainstay of Holy Trinity 
church. The history of the guild is the history 
of the church. The guild really was the prime 
mover in building and furnishing the church. It 
purchased the historical organ — the organ 
which for years was the only one in town, one 
which was used to every occasion, and which 
finally, through the liberality of the guild, 
found a resting place within the church, where 
it now dispenses sacred music as sweetly as 
it did secular harmonies in its youth. The 
guild furnished the seats of the church, the 
communion rail, and the altar. It paid for 
half of the English bell and paid freight and 
custom duties on it. The bell was a half-gift 
from John Taylor & Company, Laughborough. 
England. So not only is the church in com- 
munion with the Church of England, but the 
congregation assembles every Sunday at the 
ring and call of its English bell. The guild 
has supported in ])art the rector's salar\-, paid 
incidental expenses, se.xton and organist, and 
made up deficiencies in general. During the 
drouth of 18<50. the guild disbursed needful 
articles to the indigent and worthy poor, and 
the same was true of the great drouth of 1894. 
It is the active, working organization of the 
church, rich in good deeds and worthy of the 
highest praise. The officers at that time were : 
President, Mrs. Hattie Andrews ; secretary, 
Mrs. Clara Benger; vice-president, Mrs. Jo- 
sephine Phillips: treasurer, Mr. H. H. An- 
drews. The membership is about twenty. 

Holy Trinity Sunday-school membership has 
remained about stationary. The superinten- 
dent, from the time of organization, has been 
H. H. Andrews. Teachers : Olive Phillips, 
Mabel Decker, Enima Conly. Emily Holloway, 
and Emily Brcga. 

TIIK BROKKN Bfnv EPISCOr.\L CHl'RCH 

The ministrations of the Episcopal church 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



257 



were first brought to Broken Bow during the 
days of the late Bishop Worthington, who, in 
1886, sent Rev. M. Fullforth out from Omaha 
to look over the field. There being but a small 
handful of Episcopalians in this community 
at that time, Rev. Mr. Fullforth called them 
together during his church ser^'ice in August, 
1886, in what was then the Opera House. 
This new church was organized as St. John's 
Protestant Episcopal church. Later that year, 
or in the early part of 1887, Rev. Dr. Zahner 
came to Broken Bow and obtained something 
like $800 in subscriptions for building a 
church, the land being given by the Lincoln 
Land Company for that purpose. In 1887, 
following a short 
stay by Dr. Zah- 
ner, came the 
Rev. Oliver J- 
Booth, who was 
the first settled 
rector. The 
church services 
were held in va- 
rious places, 
a m o n g which 
were the Bur- 
lington hotel and 
the homes of 
some of the 

members. It was during the Rev. Mr. Booth's 
pastorate that a church building was erected. 
Operations were begun in April, 1889, and 
finished in September of the same year. The 
first service held in the new edifice was a 
marriage ceremony. Bishop Worthington paid 
an episcopal visit to this new field in Septem- 
ber, 1888. 

During the time between Bishop Worthing- 
ton's visit and the completion of the church 
building, Bishop A. R. Graves was made 
bishop over this part of the state of Nebraska, 
and he made his first visitation to Broken Bow- 
January 9, 1890. At the time of this visit a 
subscription for supporting a clegyman was 
begfun, and also a fund for wiping out the in- 
debtedness created by building a church. 

The woman's guild, which was organized in 
Februarv. 1887, offered their services, took 




Broken Bow Episcop.al Church and Rectory 



over the indebtedness of the church and 
pledged themselves to pay it off at a rate of 
$200 each year for five years. 

Between the resignation of Rev. Mr. Booth, 
in October, 1889, and the arrival of the Rev. 
\V. S. Sayres, May 30, 1890, services were 
not held with any regularity. Upon Mr. 
Sayres taking charge of the work the services 
were held weekly, except for one Sunday each 
month, when he went to Callaway for service. 
This arrangement prevailed until January, 
1893, when the Callaway church obtained a 
rector for itself, thus releasing Mr. S'ayres 
for other work, in Ansley, where he managed 
to hold services every Sunday afternoon. In 

June. 1893, the 
church received 
its first coat of 
]) a i n t. V e r y 
shortly after this, 
July 4th, Mr. 
Sayres resigned 
to take up work 
in another field. 
During his stay 
here he held ser- 
vices at different 
times in Litch- 
field, Mason 
City, Ravenna, 
Ashley, Custer Center, Merna, Sargent, 
West LTnion, Hyannis, Sand X'alley, and Cal- 
laway. 

From July 12 to September 28, 1893, this 
work was taken charge of by Rev. F. M. 
Bacon, deacon, and Broken Bow was given 
weekly service. Throughout the following 
year the Rev. R. L. Knox had charge of the 
work. Mr. Knox, upon leaving Broken Bow, 
took charge of the church at Arapahoe. His 
place was filled in Broken Bow by the Rev. H. 
E. Robbins, deacon, who remained until July 
30, 1895. During a period of nearly two years 
only occasional services were held by ordained 
clergAnnen, the interim being supplied by lay- 
readers. The Rev. George Green was in 
charge of St. John's church from June, 1897, 
until the following August. In October, 1897, 
the Rev. J. B. VanFleet took charge of the 



258 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



work, and after remaining- one year, he re- 
moved to Norford, Nevada. 

From October, 1898, to September, 1899, 
the Rev. Charles Ferguson had charge, and 
during his pastorate he held a monthly service 
at Callaway, where he resided during his last 
month in the state, whence he went to Tucson, 
Arizona. While in charge of Broken Bow and 
Callaway, lie prepared for publication his book 
entitled "The Religion of Democracy." 

Then followed a period of more than two 
years during which the sacraments of the 
church were administered only occasionally, 
the most of the services being conducted by a 
lay-reader. 

From January, 1900. to May, 1902, the Rev. 
Walton H. Daggett held the pastorate in 
Broken Bow. It was during his charge here 
that many minor improvements were made in 
the church building and the rectory, which 
had been provided by the Woman's Guild. 
Among the improvements in the church were 
an altar, brass candle-sticks, brass cross, a 
hymn board, etc., besides vestments for the 
choir. 

The Rev. William H. Nanders then took up 
the work, and he remained from May. 1902, to 
Januarv, 1910. During his pastorate other 
improvements were added to the church and 
rectory, the rectory being enlarged. 

Mr. W. C. J. Dinnville, a lay-reader, had 
charge of the work from IMay, 1910, to No- 
vember, 1912. While in charge of this work 
he pursued his theological studies, and in 
March, 1911, he was made a deacon, by our 
present bishop, Rt. Rev. George Allen Beecher, 
D. D. 

From November, 1912, until 1914, the Rev. 
L. A. Arthur, of Grand Island, ministered 
occasionally to the jjeople of Broken Bow, and 
early in 1915 the Rev. F. A. Henry took up 
the work. He remained until ^larch, 1918. 

Sunday, June 9, 1918, Rev. T. W. Morgan, 
deacon, was advanced to the priesthood, in St. 
John's church, and he immediately took charge 
of the work of this parish, of which he has 
since continued the rector. 



THE CHURCH OF GOD 

The early work done by the pioneer preach- 
ers of the Church of God should be recorded 
along with the account of work done by de- 
voted men of other denominations. This body 
of devoted people have never lacked in en- 
thusiasm, and when it is considered that they 
have not been backed by a large denomination 
which could render outside support, and have 
l)een led by an unpaid ministn.-. they have 
made a creditable showing. Their pioneer 
work was done mostly at Weissert and Berwyn. 
The most prominent, and perhaps the ablest, 
of their preachers is the Rev. Richard Bellis, 
who during the years has conducted farming 
operations in connection with his ministry. 
The fertile fields of Custer county soil, if not 
the spiritual fields of Custer county churches, 
have rewarded Rev. Bellis and his good wife 
with a competency for their old age, so that 
they now live in comfortable retirement on 
their farm near Berwyn. 

This denomination maintains at the present 
time, two organizations, in Custer county, one 
at Weissert, where they have a frame church 
building, and the other at Berwyn, where they 
have a very neat, three-gabled building, nicely 
furnished, and adequate for the needs of the 
small town. These two churches are served 
by the Rev. John Armour, who, like his pre- 
decessor, depends upon the good soil of the 
realm for the staflf of life, and "eats his bread 
in the sweat of his brow." Rev. John Armour, 
preacher and farmer, is young and vigorous, 
and his Sabbath ministrations are carried on 
with a zeal and fervor unrestrained by the 
farm labor of the week. 

CHRISTI.VX CHCRCH 

Rev. \\'. .\. Baldwin, of Broken Bow, has 
furnished the following summary: 

To Elder E. D. Eubank, now a resident of 
Broken Bow, must be given the honor of open- 
ing Custer county to the plea of the Disciples 
of Christ, commonly known as the Christian 
church. He moved here in 1874, and settled 
on the Middle Loup river near Wescott. In 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



259 



common with all preachers of this communion, 
he was full of the desire to preach the gospel 
wheresoever he foinid himself, and it was not 
long until he began to gather the people togeth- 
er for worship. Mrs. Eubank led in forming a 
Sunday school, as well as gathering the few 
children of the neighborhood into her own 
home for a day school. As a result of this 
beginning, there was effected, in 1875, a small 
organization, with Mr. Guthrie as elder, and 
this continued to hold services for a time. The 
members thus drawn together in this early day 
mostly united with the church at Sargent, at 
the time of its organization. 

Elder Eubank had the experience that often 
met the pioneer preacher, and frequently had 
to w'alk to places of meeting. At one time he 
was called across the Loup for a funeral, and 
went o\-er in the morning on the ice. On his 
return, in the afternoon, he was taken to the 
river in a conveyance by one of the neighbors, 
who drove away at once and the preacher 
wended his way to the ice. A change had 
taken place during the day, and, before he was 
very far along, the ice was showing signs of 
breaking up. Finally he had to wade the 
water, "midst floating ice, because of a rift 
that separated him from the shore. He 
preached the first funeral sermon in the county 
and married the first couple — Edgar Denial 
and ]\Iiss Josephine Eubank. He served as 
the first county superintendent of schools. Two 
other men preached in those early days at 
Wescott — Elders Reuben [Manning and S. A. 
Kopp. Both of these have passed to their re- 
ward, Mr. Manning being buried at Sargent 
July 26, 1918. 

ARNOLD 

The next organization effected was at Ar- 
nold, or more correctly at Henry Brothers' 
cattle ranch, then occupied by ^Morgan S. 
Parks and William W. Frazier and family. 
Elder Landis J. Correll, a veteran pioneer 
preacher, held services April 1, 1883, with 
about twenty-five persons present. Regular 
preaching was had thereafter, and on July 
11. 1884. the church was formally organized. 



with the following charter members ; L. J. 
Correll, Martha Correll, Marcellus Sargent. 
Lena Sargent, William W. Frazier, Laura J. 
Frazier, Charles Tremmel, Mrs. Charles 
Tremmel, A. Mofifett, Mrs. A. Moflfett, Anna 
M. Saunders, Allen Holeman, and Amos S. 
Gamble. The record of the first officers is 
not available, but Elder Correll continued to 
minister to the congregation for a number of 
years and doubtless served as elder. 

Twelve members were added during the 
year of 1884 and as a result of a meeting held, 
in the fall of 1885, by Elder Henderson and 
L. J. Correll, nine others united with the 
church. During this year a frame building 
was erected, at a cost of $1200, and was dedi- 
cated by R. C. Barrow, state evangelist, De- 
cember 19, 1885. February 14, 1886, John T. 
Smith, of Nebraska City, conducted a series 
of revival meetings, lasting four weeks, and 
seven members were added. Again, in 1893, 
Evangelist Smith was called, and twenty-one 
additions resulted from the meetings held. 
"Father" Correll, as he was familiarly called, 
still served as pastor. 

All of this time a regular Bible s:hool was 
conducted by the church, but the names of 
officers cannot be given. D. A. Youtzy fol- 
lowed L. J. Correll as pastor. Owen J. Owens 
served six months in 1897 ; E. D. Eubank a 
like period in 1890; Ford A. Ellis, from April 
to September 1, 1906, during his vacation 
while attending Cotner University ; and E. J. 
Ratcliflfe in 1907; N. S. Carpenter in 1908; 
Ford A. Ellis again in 1911-12; J. G. Slick 
one year, 1913; G. W. Gentry, part of 1914; 
and F. H. Gerrett a part of 1916-17. School 
is held regularly every Lord's day, with an 
enrollment of fifty. John M. Saunders is the 
superintendent. The church now numbers 
eighty-three members, with the following of- 
ficers; Elders, Charles Sanderson, John 
Samuelson, Warren Copeland ; deacons, 
George Ransier, John Backes, Charles Backes, 
Oral Gunter, Harry Shaw, Arthur Scott; 
trustees. John Backes, Charles Sanderson, 
John Samuelson; deaconesses, Lydia Backes, 



260 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COrXTY. NEBRASKA 



\'erda Smith. Sis. Bassett ; clerl<. Etta Backes; 
treasurer, Martha A. Morrow; organist, Oma 
Brown. 

LIBERTY 

The church at Liberty was organized on 
Clear creek, about ten miles east of Ansley, 
following a meeting held by M. A. Sweeney 
in October, 1883. There were about twenty- 
five charter members, of whom John Sargent 
and A. W. Hyatt served as elders. About the 
year 1886 H. L. Burns held a meeting at the 
•Kimball schoolhouse. seven miles northwest of 
where the first church was organized, and a 
new organization was efifected. of which 
Bradford Rose. Cain Moody, Ernest House, 
and Joseph Hyatt were deacons. The two 
churches came together in 1887. midway be- 
tween the two locations, on the farm of J. W. 
Bryan. There they built a large sod meeting- 
house, in which they continued to worship. 
under the name Liberty Christian church, un- 
til the year 1903. when a neat and comfortable 
frame structure was built, the same having 
been dedicated the same autumn, by the state 
secretary, W. A. Baldwin. The following min- 
isters have served as pastors, begiiming with 
the first organization, in 1886: A. M. Sweeney, 
C. A. Miller, H. L. Burns. E. D. Eubank, S. 
A. Kopp. Jesse R. Teagarden. J. P. Waldron, 
Carl Knapp, Fred (lalliger, P. G. Dennis, and 
Charles A. Shook. At this writing the or- 
ganization is defunct, through death and re- 
moval of the members. A number of the 
remaining members are now identified with 
the Banner church, organized by Charles A. 
Shook, in December, 1917. 

BROKEN now 

The beginnings of the Christian church in 
Broken Bow date back to May, 1886, when the 
state evangelist, N. B. Alley, formed an or- 
ganization which met for a time in the Baptist 
church building and then, again for a brief 
period, in a hall. Among the charter member? 
were John \'an Horn, J. B. Farrell. J. J. 
Brown and wife, David Brinson and wife, W. 
S. Boyce and wife, ]\Irs. Xcllie Humphrey, 
W. R. Wiley, B. W. Blair. Xettie Atkinson, 
and E. E. Hastings. The evangelist appointed 



the following officers : Elders, J. J. Brown, 
W". R. Wiley, and B. W. Blair ; deacons. John 
\ an Horn and E. E. Hastings; deaconesses, 
M. Louisa Brown. Nettie Atkinson, and Mrs. 
Nellie Humphrey. The work did not flourish 
for a time, because of lack of pastoral care, 
and in December, 1886. Elder E. D. Eubank 
held a meeting of a month, in the Baptist 
church, thereafter serving the congregation as 
its pastor. During this meeting three trustees 
were elected, as follows : John \'an Horn, 
David Brinson, and J. J. Brown. This church 
has enjoyed the usual vicissitudes meeting 
those who would establish the Lord's work 
on the very frontiers of advancing settlements 
and civilization. Periods of growth and ex- 
altation were intermingled with times of -de- 
pression and discouragement. The common 
lot of a new organization in the midst of a 
moving and shifting population was theirs. 
But throughout the years the church has been 
able to maintain its organization and for the 
most part has had pastoral oversight. The 
loss of the original records makes it uncertain 
whether the following list of preachers is ex- 
actly correct, but it is substantially so. Follow- 
ing E. D. Eubank, they are as follows : D. A. 
^ outzy. Porter. Pace. Surgeson. Shields, 
Sherman Hill, J. R. Teagarden. T. L. Mc- 
Donald, George Boomer, L. R. Harman. C. \'. 
.\llison. A. J. Hargett. J. S. Early, N. T. 
Harmon. Z. O. Doward. W. C. Lessley. J. E. 
Ferguson, and the ])resent pastor. W. A. 
Baldwin. Several of these were supply men 
only and some were students, serving only 
through vacations. J. R. Teagarden served 
at several different periods, being called to 
the work in connection with other business. 
In 1S87 a frame building was erected, at 
the comer of Eleventh avenue and P street, 
and tliis housed the congregation during the 
years intervening until 1''07. when J. S. Early 
was serving the church. Mr. Early took up 
Viork begun in the summer by A. J. Hargett. 
who was filling llie pastorate in his vacation, 
lie had raised a part of the subscriptions to- 
ward a new building and a lot was secured 
on the corner ;it Tenth avenue and () street. 
I'nder the businesslike le;idershi]) of Mr. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



261 



Early the present house of worship was com- 
pleted, at a total cost of $6,000. It was dedi- 
cated by F. M. Rains, of Cincinnati, Ohio, 
secretary of the Foreign Christian Missionary 
Society. The old church building and site 
were sold to J. C. Moore, who converted the 
building into a comfortable residence, which 
is now occupied by the pastor, W. A. Baldwin. 
This church has always maintained a Bible 
school from the earliest days. The first list 
of oiificers was lost with the records. It now 
has an enrolment of 105 and the officers are 
as follows : Superintendent, Mrs. W. R. ]\Ior- 
gan ; assistant superintendent, G. Dillard 
Lesslev ( at this time serving his countrv and 




Christun Church at Broken Bow 

humanity "Somewhere in France") ; secretary, 
Miss Alice Francis; treasurer, Miss Bessie 
Latzke; pianist. Miss Atlanta Tuttle. The 
school is following modern methods in Liible- 
school work, using graded lessons in the pri- 
mary and intermediate departments. Two 
strong Bible classes among the seniors are 
taught by J. C. Aloore and Hon. C. W. Beal. 
In the matter of membership in the church, 
the earlier information is lacking, but it has 
grown with the passing of the years. At 
present the roll shows 231 members, including 
an absent list of more than forty. Alany re- 
vival meetings have been held and have always 
given additional names to the list of members. 
Alany students from other places have come 
in and then returned to their homes. This, in 



part, accounts for the large list of non-resident 
members. 

The present officers are as follows: Elders, 
J. M. Fodge, E. W. Morrison ; deacons, C. 
W. Beal, B. F. Williams, B. H. Headley, 
J. D. Lemmon ; deaconesses, Mrs. Belle Bar- 
ratt. Mrs. E. I. Irvin, Mrs..G. E. Pennington, 
Mrs. W. R. Morgan; church clerk, H. C. 
Kimball ; treasurer. Dr. G. E. Pennington ; 
trustees, J. C. Moore, B. E. Williams. B. H. 
Headley ; chorister, Mrs. E. I. Irvin ; pianists, 
Mrs. Mabel Darnell, Miss Ethel Roberts. 

Officers absent in the service of the United 
States at the time of this writing are : Elder 
G. Dillard Lessley, Hospital Train No. 39, 
American Expeditionary Force ; deacons 
Mauritz Malm, Company B, 342. 89th Divi- 
sion, Machine Gun Battalion, American Ex- 
jjedition Force ; Walter Ellis, Headquarters 
Company 339, Field Artillery, 88th Division, 
American Expeditionary Force. 

Two women's societies arc maintained, the 
Sisterhood doing a social and helpful work in 
the affairs of the church. President, Mrs. C. 
H. Holcomb ; secretary, Mrs. William Dar- 
nell ; treasurer, Mrs. G. B. Landis. The mis- 
sionary society known as the Christian 
Woman's Board of Alissions Auxiliary, with 
Miss Maude Baldwin president ; Mrs. J. H. 
Johnson, secretary; and Airs. H. C. Kimball, 
treasurer. Mrs. J. Beckwith is literary super- 
intendent. 

The Young People's Society of Christian 
Endeavor has a membership of fifteen. Jiliss 
Bessie Latzke is president; Miss Atlanta 
Tuttle, secretary and treasurer; Miss Ethel 
Roberts, corresponding secretary. 

ANSELMO 

In 1887. at the Grandview schoolhouse. a 
Sundav school was opened, with Charles Jones 
as superintendent. Preaching services were 
conducted by George Dixon. The work was 
continued until, in 1889, as the result of a 
meeting held by J. R. Teagarden. in which 
some twenty-five persons were converted, an 
organization was consummated at Windy 
Point schoolhouse. Practically the same group 
who were interested in the first work, went 



262 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



into the latter. This church met with varying 
degrees of success and failure as the years 
slipped by. In May, 1911, S. R. McClure, 
evangejist of the Nebraska Christian Mission- 
ary Society, who was in a meeting at Lillian, 
visited Anselmo and, finding there a desire 
for the work to be revived, he arranged to 
begin a meeting in the town the same month. 
The results were unexpecfedly gratifying, 
eighty-four persons coming out on the side 
of the Lord. Steps were immediately taken 
to build, and by the time the meeting closed 
the new house was well along toward com- 
pletion. It was fully fitted out that summer, at 
a cost of $2,000, and in the early fall it was 
dedicated, by W. A. Baldwin, state secretary 
of the missionary society that had supported 
the evangelist in the work. Of the eighty-four 
persons coming into the church during the 
meeting, fifty-three were received by confes- 
Kion and baptism. Twenty of the former 
members joined with the new material to 
form the new congregation. Frank Reeder 
served as pastor for a short time thereafter, 
as he had been preaching for them previously. 
A Bible school has been maintained regfularly, 
and William V. White is now the superin- 
tendent. 

The following preachers have served the 
congregations during the period from the be- 
ginning: George Dixon, E. D. Eubank. Frank 
J. Emerson, Ford A. Ellis, J. R. Teagarden, 
Frank Reeder, W. C. Lessley. Mr. Lessley 
has been serving, as his time would permit, 
for several years and is still looked to for 
preaching when he can give them time. Will- 
iam White is elder, and Mrs. William White 
is church clerk. There are about thirty 
members. 

WHITa PIGEON 

At White Pigeon schoolhouse, E. D. Eu- 
bank held services and organized a small 
congregation into a working church in 1888. 
Most of these members later became members 
of the Lillian church. It remained a preach- 
ing point for a number of years. 

ANSLEY 
The Christian church of Ansley was or- 



ganized in Alarch 1889, following a meeting 
held in a hall over C. J. Stevens" store, by the 
state evangelist, R. C. Barrow. The charter 
members were Dan Hagin, Mrs. Dovia Hagin, 
Frank Hagin, John Sargent, Laura A. Sar- 
gent, Simon Rigby, Alice Rigby, Mary Hagin, 
George Rich, Marie Rich, Fanny Gaines, ^Irs. 
Anthony, and Jeanette Stevenson (now Mrs. 
Frank Housel). The officiary consisted of two 
elders, John Sargent and George Rich, and 
two deacons, Dan Hagin and Simon Rigby. 
In 1892 the present house of worship was 
erected, at a cost of $3,000. and it was dedi- 
cated in Augvist of that year, by Dr. W. P. 
Aylsworth. dean of the sacred-literature de- 
partment of Cotner L'niversity. The succes- 




Christi.\n Church .\t Axsuey 

sion of pastors is here recorded: W. H. 
Hedges, Fred Hagin, J. Sherman Hill. J. \\'. 
Walker. George Bailey, Jesse R. Teagarden, 
C. \'. Allison, T. C. :McIntyre. D. G. \\'agner. 
F. D. Hobson, P. G. Dennis, and the present 
pastor, Charles A. Shook. The church now 
has an active membership of 153 and an out- 
lying membership of about thirty-five in th? 
church organized at the Banner schoolhouse 
in December, 1917, by the pastor, Charles A. 
Shook. It has a Bible school enrollment of 
about 150, with an average attendance of 
seventy-one. C. W. Hawk is the present sup- 
erintendent. The Chi'istian Endeavor Society 
has thirteen members and Miss Eva S'tuckey 
is president. There is a strong woman's mis- 
sionary society, known as the Christian 
Woman's Board of Missions .-Xuxiliarv, with 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



263 



thirty members. Airs. J. T. AIcGowan is its 
president. 

The present officers of the church are: 
Elders, Frank Housel, Charles W. Hawk, J. 
N. Trout, E. C. Moody, and Charles A. 
Shook; deacons, J- T. AIcGowan, William 
Housel, Roy Waters, B. F. Crouch, and Ed. 
Ming; clerk, J. T. McGowan ; treasurer, W. 
C. Housel. 

This church has sent out one preacher, Fred 
Hagin, son of Dan and Mrs. Dovia Hagin, 
and he has been for some years a missionary 
in the foreign field, at Tokio, Japan. This 
has been one of the strong churches of the 
Disciples of Christ in this county. It has 
maintained its vitality and has a prominent 
place in the village of Ansley and the com- 
munity round about. 

COBURG 

The church at Coburg began its work in a 
sod schoolhouse, about the year 1890, E. D. 
Eubank and Reuben Manning leading in the 
organization and afterward both of these men 
ministered to the congregation. The list of 
charter members is not available, but the offi- 
cers chosen were as follows : Elder, L. L. 
Wood : deacons, J- S. Amos, John Jorn ; clerk 
and treasurer, Richard Eubank. A Bible school 
was organized, with Richard Eubank as super- 
intendent. Regular services were maintained, 
with occasional vacancies in the pastorate. In 
1913 a meeting-house was constructed, and it 
is now the home of the congregation. 

The following preachers have serv^ed : S. A. 
Kopp, E. D. Eubank. R. D. McCance. H. L. 
Denton, A. O. Startwood. A. L. Field, N. C. 
Carpenter, and J. S. Reel, the last named be- 
ing the present minister, in co-operation with 
the Sargent church. The present inembership 
is forty-five and the officers are : Elders, J. 
Jorn, Emmet Bebout, Lester Thompson ; 
deacons, Elmer Galaher, Wayne Amos, J. L. 
Amos, Roy Durham, Charles Bedford, Henry 
Eggers; clerk, Mrs. J. L. Amos; treasurer, 
Lester Thompson : Bible-school superinten- 
dent, Wayne Amos. The enrollment of the 
Bible school is sixty-three. The value of the 
church property is $2,000. During the life of 



this congregation two of its young men have 
declared for the ministry. 

M.\SON CITY 

In October, 1906, O. A. Adams, pastor of 
the church at Ansley, with Louis Epler as 
singing evangelist, held a meeting in the opera 
hall at Mason City resulting in an organization 
with the following officers : Elders, Sherman 
Knox, Oren Dolen ; deacons, George Chipps, 
Vannie Reed, William Davis, Ross Rhodes; 
church clerk, Oren Dolen. 

The following named persons were charter 
members: Mrs. W. T. Whitehead, Mrs. Will- 
iam Russmisell, George Chipps, Ella Chipps, 
Blanche Weaver, Hannah Anderson, Ovidia 
Anderson, Iva Browning, Bessie Reed. Viola 
Gouley, Oren Dolen, Vannie Reed, William 
Davis, Rose Davis, Jennie Weaver, Lewis 
Weaver, Mabel Chipps, Howard Chipps, 
James Gouley, Ellen Gouley, Ross Rhodes, 
Sadie Thorne, Mary E. Shelton, Martha E. 
Dolan, Sherman Knox. Frances Knox, Marie 
Knox, Frank Knox, Feli.x Shelton, Elva 
Rhodes. 

The following preachers have ministered to 
the church : E. D. Eubank, J. R. Teagarden, 
William Sumpter, Fred Galiger, Carl Knapp, 
F. C. Wilson, George P. Brammel. Early in 
1907 the church began the erection of a house 
of worship, and it was- completed in June. It 
was dedicated June 16th, by State Secretary 
W. A. Baldwin. The church has maintained 
a Sunday school, which was for a time under 
the superintendency of W. T. Whitehead. At 
times the congregation was without preaching 
and suffered from removals and the inability 
to support a pastor. At the present time there 
are thirty names on the records, with Mrs. R. 
F. McCloughan, clerk and treasurer, and Mrs. 
W. T. Whitehead, superintendent of the Sun- 
day school. 

The beginnings of the church at Lillian are 
found in a meeting held by Elder S. A. Kopp 
in the Lillian schoolhouse. An organization 
v.as effected December 12, 1906, following the 
meeting. They called Elder Kopp as their 



264 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



pastor and he served them until his death, 
March 28, 1910. The officers elected were: 
Elders, W. W. Barnes. O. L. Swick, I. P. 
Bell; deacons. W. F. Myers, C. H. Leisure; 
clerk, Harry Swick. 

The following- named persons united to 
form the organization: Wm. W. Barnes. Mrs. 
Lorena Barnes, Lura Barnes. Mrs. Alice Bart- 
lett, Eva Bartlett. Ethel Bartlett, Isaac P. Bell, 
Mrs. ^lary Bell, Jabez Bowman, Mrs. Sarah 
Bowman, James Dare, Mrs. Mary Dare, S. 
A. Kopp, Charles H. Leisure. Robert Metzger, 
\\'illiam F. Myers. Mrs. Kittie Myers. Oliver 
L. Swick. Mrs. Hope Swick. Later, protracted 
meetings were held by the pastor and brought 
in a large number of the young people of the 
community, most of them young men. At one 
time the pastor baptized thirty at the Broken 
l)Ow church. A Piible school has been main- 
tained since the spring before the church was 
organized. W. W. Barnes serving as its first 
superintendent. 

.A. house of worship was planned and 
erected on a site adjoining the school grounds, 
in the fall of 1908, and was dedicated in Jan- 
uary following, by N. T. Harmon, pastor of 
the Broken Bow church. It is a most com- 
fortable building and has become a center of 
community interest in that portion of the 
county. Following the death of its pastor, the 
church was served by E. D. Eubank, Frank 
Reader, Joseph Lamm, and W. C. Lessley, 
who is still the [jastor, having served since 
September, 1914. L'nder his ministry the 
work has grown and prospered. The present 
officers are: Elders. W. F. Myers. O. L. 
Swick. ; deacons. E. H. Myers. S. D. Myers ; 
clerk and treasurer, D. E. Banning; superin- 
tendent of Bible school, William J. Books. 

This church has maintained its ]M-eaching 
service and worship, with the communion, 
since the beginning, without interruption. 
Pastorless at times, it yet went steadily for- 
ward in the support of worship, never for- 
getting to assemble on the Lord's day. The 
success of this work lies especially in its faith- 
ful leadership. Maintaining preaching service 
only on alternate Lord's days, it has neverthe- 
less demonstrated the power of the local rural 



church to do its work successfully. The 
country church need not die if its members are 
simply faithful. 

S.XRGEXT 

The Sargent church came into being as a 
result of a meeting held by State Evangelist 
Samuel Gregg in March, 1908. J. H. Currie. 
of Bradshaw. Nebraska, having business in- 
terests and large acquaintance in the Sargent 
district, asked the state missionary society to 
consider that field and send this evangelist, 
whom* he was supporting through the society, 
to organize a church in that town. The Con- 
gregational church was secured for the meet- 
ing and the organization resulted, following 
that meeting. The first officers were : Elders, 
L. L. Wood. C. C. Davis ; deaco;is. J. D. 
Crownover, Charles Howland. .\. B. Hartley, 
W. B. Kenyon; clerk. Zella M. Wood; treas- 
urer. A. C. Davis. Sixty-three persons joined 
in the new organization, as follows: Allona 
Wood. Lena Kaohn. Ernest Kaohn. Ross 
W'^ood. Irma Crownover. Harold Crownover, 
Kenneth Crownover. Sadie Hesselgesser. 
Jeannie Kenyon, !Mrs. W. B. Kenyon. A\'. F. 
Abbott, Mrs. Emma Wyckoff. Mrs. Livia 
Kaohn. Mrs. W. F. Abbott. O. W. Davis. Mrs. 
(X \\'. Davis. Florence Debusk. Rufus Mann- 
ing. Alfred Grim, Mrs. Inez Grim. Mrs Laura 
Core. James Debusk. Lucy Debusk. Grace De- 
forest, Mrs. Westopher, Mrs. Forest Abbott. 
Mrs. Sarah Evans, Elsie Chase, Paul Chase, 
C. H. Chase, Mrs. C. H. Chase. L. L. Wood. 
Minerva Wood. W. H. Wood. Zella M. Wood. 
E. M. Wood. Gustie Wood. Seth Austin. Mrs. 
J. D. Crownover, J. D. Crownover. A. C. 
Davis, R. J. Kennedy. A. B. Hartley, Mrs. A. 
B. Hartley. O. S. Pulliam. W. B. Kenyon, C. 
Howland. Eliza Brumbaugh. Mrs. C. .V. Lim- 
inger. Mrs. Alice Pulliam. Delia Sturm. Mrs. 
Ella Armstrong, Candace Lawson, Mrs. C. 
Howland. Robert Hesselgesser. Emma Hes- 
selgesser. J. D. Holt. Augusta Kaohn. Euniqe 
Kaohn. John Clifton. Sr., John Clifton, Jr., 
P)essie Hartley, Mabel Hartley. 

R. D. McCance liecame the pa.stor of the 
new church, and later called Z. O. Doward 
for a meeting, the same being held in a taber- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



265 



nacle structure on the main street. A move 
to build a new house of worship followed, and 
resulted finally in the purchase and remodeling 
of the Congregational church building, in 
which the church had been meeting, maintain- 
ing a vfnion Bible school with the Congrega- 
tionalists. The building purchased is still the 
home of the church. The membership at this 
time is 110, and the Bible school has an en- 
rolment of 120. Services are maintained reg- 
ularly, under the ministry of J. S. Reel, and 
in connection with the Coburg church, each 
taking half-time services. The ministers who 




Christian Church at Sargent 

have served the church are : R. D. ]\IcCance, 
W. Bailor, H. E. .Denton, Mr. Field, A. O. 
Swartwood, N. C. Carpenter, and J. S. Reel. 

BANNER SCHOOLHOUSE 

Rev. Charles A. Shook, pastor of the Ansley 
church, held a meeting in the Banner school- 
house in November, 1917. There were twelve 
conversions, and, on December 26th following, 
an organization was effected, with fifteen char- 
ter members. Regular services have been 
maintained, and Mr; Shook has preached for 
them in the afternoon. A good Bible school, 
now numbering forty-five members, has been 
kept up, with Frank Sadler as superintendent. 
The church now numbers twenty-seven and is 
known as the Banner Christian church. 



MILBURN 

In March, 1917, Rev. W. C. Lessley, of 
Broken Bow, and pastor of the churches at 
Lillian and Anselnio, held a meeting in the 
Community hall at ]\Iilburn. In spite of bad 
weather and worse roads, the meetings were 
well attended and a decided interest was mani- 
fested. There were twenty-si.\- conversions, 
and arrangements were made for the evangel- 
ist to visit them regularly on Sunday after- 
noon each alternate week during the summer 
and winter. A Bible school was organized, 
meeting every Lord's day. In February, 1918, 
Rev. W. C. Lessley held a second meeting, 
resulting in forty-five conversions. An or- 
ganization was asked for, and the new con- 
verts, with a number of the people of the 
community who were members of different re- 
ligious bodies, came together late in February, 
at which time the Milburn Church of Christ 
was organized by Rev. Mr. Lessley, with 100 
members. Officers were chosen as follows : 
Elders, Mr. Reynolds and G. W. Simmons; 
deacons, Bryan Holmes, Mr. Pike, Mrs. Hol- 
comb, and Mr. Daley; church clerk, Aliller 
Books ; treasurer, Robert Farley. Mr. Rey- 
nolds was made superintendent of the Bible 
school, numbering si.xty to seventy-five, and 
he still holds that office. Eight members have 
since been added to the organization and 
preaching is maintained every alternate Lord's 
day, morning and evening. Services are still 
held in the Community hall. The present offi- 
cers are the same as at the beginning, save 
that John Kramer is now the treasurer. The 
congregation looks forward to the erection of 
a house of worship as soon as war conditions 
will permit. 

In concluding this sketch of the work of 
the Christian churches — Disciples of Christ — 
in this county, it should be said that much of 
the record sources are meagerly kept and in 
some cases lost entirely. The early preachers 
were more interested in winning souls to 
Christ than in keeping accurate account of the 
history they were making. Many of the mat- 
ters that would be most interesting in this late 
account, are entirely omitted. There are a 
number of places where preaching, and for a 



266 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



time regular, services were held, that did not 
develop into a formal organization. Such a 
place is New Helena, where the work was 
maintained for a time. At this time there is 
no work there. 

In the county the total membership affiliated 
with the churches is 990. There are nine 
houses of worship, one of them unoccupied. 
These, at a moderate estimate of their value, 
in the light of cost and state of repair, is 
$27,800. There are nine Bible schools con- 



as best they could to their communicants. 
They have manifested, always, the spirit of 
strong conviction and extreme generosity. 
They have been responsive to all public appeals 
and been general contributors to the public 
welfare. They have been party to no de- 
nominational factions calculated to disrupt the 
general harmony of the religious status pre- 
vailing in the county. Custer county has had 
no exhibition of denominational animosity. 
Good will and harmony prevail to-day 




[Photo by S. D. Butcher] 



Dale C.\tholic Church and Parsonage 
The parsonage was later destroyed by fire 



ducted regularly, with an enrollment of 715. 
At this time there are five preachers resident 
in the county, namely: Elder E. D. Eubank, 
Broken Bow : Rev. W. C. Lessley, Broken 
Bow ; Rev. Charles A. Shook. Ansley ; Rev. 
W. A. Baldwin. Broken Bow : and Rev. J. S. 
Reel, Sargent. The church at Liberty is dis- 
banded and that at Mason City has no pastoral 
work. 

CUSTER COUNTY C.VTHOtlCS 

Among the pioneers of the county were 
many Catholics and in a very early day they 
began their church activities and administered 



throughout the county, and this statment is 
true of the years past. Credit is given to Frank 
Kelly for the following data concerning Cath- 
olic work in the county. 

BEGINXIXC. OF CATHOLIC WORK IX D.\LE 

Rev. T. P. Haley, writing in 1901 gives the 
following summary of Catholic work in the 
Dale vicinity : 

"The Dale mission was established some 
time in 1882, by Rev. Father Boyle. The first 
ones to ask for a ])riest. as far as the writer 
knows, were J. J- Downey and Robert Mc- 
Carthy. Father Boyle was the first priest, and 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



267 



visited Dale valley in 1882. to administer to 
the wants of the few families that first settled 
there. He made the Dale mission a regular 
station. Mass was said alternately at each 
house. During Father Hayes' administration 
the people made preparations to build a 
church. The building was to be of brick and 
for the purpose of obtaining the material with 
whi:h to build the church a brick yard was 
laid out on one of ]\Ir. ^McCarthy's claims. One 
hundred thousand bricks were made and 
burned for the church. Lumber was purchased 
and hauled from Grand Island, a distance of 
150 miles. About this time the people had 
spent over $800, but on account of the new. 
railroad which was to be built through this 
section to the Black Hills, the church was not 
built at that time, as difficulties arose as to 
where the church should be located. Some 
wanted it on their farms or near their homes, 
while others wanted it built at Merna or An- 
selmo. The old settlers advocated building it 
at Dale. Father Hayes' last visit to the mission 
found matters in a worse condition than ever. 
In June, 1886, Father Hayes was appointed 
pastor of the church at O'Connor, Greeley 
county, and his assistant. Father Haley, was 
made pastor of Kearney and its missions, 
which included Dale. To his surprise, when 
he visited Dale mission, he found a divided 
people, caused by the disputes as to the loca- 
tion of the church. After a consultation with 
the principal members of the missions, it was 
decided to lay the matter before Bishop 
O'Connor. This was some time in July, 1886. 
In about a week Bishop O'Connor ordered the 
church to be built at Dale. It is easy to im- 
agine the joy of the old settlers — J. J. Dow- 
ney, Robert McCarthy, William Couhig, Con 
Fleischman. William Walsh, Robert Kelley, 
George Grove, Chris. Grove, William Brook- 
man, and Charles Michael — when they learned 
of the bishop's decision. A subscription list 
was opened and the necessary preparations 
made to begin work as soon as possible. The 
bricks already burned were of poor quality 
and not sufficient in quantity for a brick 
building. Some were used for the foundation 
of the residence and church and for the chim- 



neys. The balance were sold, out of which 
was realized some $400. There was a loss of 
about the same amount. Nearly all the lum- 
ber that had been hauled from Grand Island 
had been made use of by some kind friends 
who thought it well to help themselves. A 
few pieces of dimension lumber, with the 
shingles, remained for the use for which they 
had been purchased. The lumber for the 
church and residence was purchased from 
Goodman, Bogue & Company, of Kearney, and 
shipped to Broken Bow, then hauled to Dale 
by team, the hauling being done by the mem- 
bers of the mission. On the sixth day of 
November, 1886, Father Haley was appointed 
the first resident pastor of Dale. He arrived 
on the above date, at the beginning of one of 
the worst blizzards 'the state has ever had. 
For three days he was snowbound at the home 
of J. J. Downey. When the storm was over, 
the foundation for the residence was begun. 
Many hands made light work. In a few weeks 
the residence was partly completed. Father 
Haley moved into and lived in it for nearly 
two years before it was properly plastered. 
Mass was said in the south half of the resi- 
dence until the church was built. One fine day 
in November' — the very last day of the month 
— several of the old settlers met to break 
ground for the church. While so doing, 
George Grove said to Father Haley : "Father, 
to-day is St. Andrew's day ; would it not be a 
good idea to name the church St. Andrew's 
church?' Father Haley paused, and said: 
'Men, what do you think?' They all assented, 
and hence the church of St. Andrew's at Dale 
received its name. The church was built, but 
was not completed for several years. Not- 
withstanding the difficulties under which the 
church and residence were built, sufficient 
notes were given by the members to pay the 
debt, and these were deposited with the lum- 
ber company to pay for the lumber. Father 
Haley governed the parish with success, and 
in October, 1888, a successful mission was 
given bv the famous Father Ramen, for which 
the people gave him $118.25 for one week's 
work. After this mission. Father Hocheisel 
was sent to Dale as an assistant to Father 



268 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Haley. January 8th, Father Hoeheisel was 
appointed pastor of Dale, under the super- 
vision and direction of Father Haley, who then 
moved to Broken Bow, to take charge of that 
church and the missions attached. Father 
Hoeheisel remained but a short time as pastor 
of Dale, and Father Donahue was sent to take 
his place. He in turn was succeeded by Father 
Flood, who was followed by Father Flanagan, 
the present pastor." 

THE BROKEN' BOW CATHOLIC CHURCH 

One of the missionary spirits who did much 
of the initial Catholic work in Custer county 
was Rev. Father Thomas B. Haley, who 
labored in the county from 1886 to 1897, at 
which time he was assigned to the work at 
North Platte. Father Haley was a very de- 




C.\Tnoi,ic Rectory at Broken Bow 

voted worker and exceedingly popular with his 
own people and the community in general. For 
some time the Dale mission was the center 
from which Father Haley did his church work. 
Later he removed to Broken Bow and made 
the mission at this place his residence and 
headquarters. S't. Joseph's church, of Broken 
Bow, was dedicated July 29, 1888. After the 
removal of Father Haley this charge was 
ser\'ed by Father Donnelly. Among priests 
also serving here were Father Moser and 
Father Minogue, the latter of whom is now 
in charge at Anselmo and Dale. Both served 
at Broken Bow church and rendered splendid 
service. 

In 1917 one of the best rectories to be found 
anywhere in the middle west was built and 
furnished, and it is at present occupied by 



Father James Hermese and his assistant. 
Father Cornelius, both very excellent young 
men, who are devoted to the parish work and 
generally popular with the people of the com- 
munity. The mission here consists of approx- 
iniatelv thirty families. 




Catholic Church at Oconto 

the oconto church -and mason city church 

During the regime of Father Haley a church 
was built at Oconto, in 1891, and in the pre- 
ceding year the church at Mason City was 
erected. The Oconto church is still main- 
tained, is a progressive body of devoted peo- 
Y>\e. and it constitutes one of the strongest 
missions, if not the strongest, that the Catho- 
lics have in Custer county. 

ANSLEY CATHOLIC CHURCH 

The Ansley congregation of the Catholic 
church had its origin in the early days of the 
town, mass first being said in the home of Mrs. 




Catholic Church at Sargent 

B. J. Tierney. Later, in the year 1911, a small 
but beautiful church structure was erected, at 
the cost of $3,800, under the labors of the Rev. 
Father Moser, of Broken Bow. On the night 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



269 



of October 21, 1917, this building was burned 
to the ground, since which time the congrega- 
tion has been worshiping in the old Presbyte- 
rian building. However, plans are already being 
laid for the erection of a larger church building 
in the near future. Among the priests who have 
been pastors of the church in recent years, may 
be mentioned Father Moser, Father Kavan- 
augh, Father Gleeson, Father Mathias, and the 
present incumbent. Father Cornelius. The par- 
ish comprises thirty-six families and the board 
of trustees is composed of Thomas EJcrry, B. J. 
Tiernev, and A. F. Dobesh. 



the drouth of 1894 the mission was disorganized 
bv removals. The second was served by S. 
Dean, J. E. Hawley, and B. E. Smith. The last 
was the only one that survived the drouth and 
the removals incident to the early history of 
our county. In 1883 and 1886 G. F. Deal or- 
ganized the church in Broken Bow, and the 
following year the Ortello circuit, comprising 
the Mount Hope, Ortello, Custer Center, and 
Union Valley appointments, was cut of?. It 
thus remained until 1894. Broken Bow church 
was built in 1887 and was served by G. F. Deal, 
D. W. Proffit, F. W. Brink, and C. D. Stro- 




Catholic Church and Rectory at Anselmo 



tTXITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST 

The United Brethren in Christ were among 
the pioneers in Custer county, coming in the 
late "70s. Rev. W. S. Sponner was the first 
preacher of this denomination to hold regular 
services in the county, preaching about the year 
1876, on the Muddy, near Mason City, and also 
on the Middle Loup, near where Sargent now 
is. Under his supervision. Rev. A. L. Pense 
organized a class near Algernon in 1880. and 
one in Lee's Park in 188L In 1882 J. F. Green 
preached at Algernon, Box Elder, Pilot. Lee's 
Park, Westerville, Lone Tree, Custer Center, 
and Ortello. From these were organized, in 
1884. Algernon, Westerville, and Custer mis- 
sions. The first was served by J. F. Green, 
T. Aikman. J. E. Hawley, S'. Dean. B. E. Smith, 
\V. C. Williams, and T- L. Brown, and during 



mire. From 1894, after losing almost the whole 
membership by removals, the church was 
closed until 1897, when F. M. Bell took charge, 
and the church slowly but surely regained its 
strength. L. L. Epley had charge in 1900. The 
people of Custer Center deserve much credit 
for their loyalty to the church through the 
years. In Hoosier valley a class was organ- 
ized in 1897, by C. W. Bohart. and in 1900, 
one was organized at the Marquis schoolhouse. 
This church has sufifered from removals more 
than any other church in the county. Among 
those who have been well known tliroughout 
the count}' and who were active in the early 
work of the church we would name J. S. Kirk- 
patrick, D. F. Weimer. G. R. Street, J. J. 
Pickett, J. C. Alaulick, W. M. Harrell, and M. 
F. Blankenship. 



270 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



For the compilation of the facts set forth 
above, this vokime is indebted to the Rev. L. 
L. Epley, for several years a presiding elder 
in the United Brethren denomination. 

THE UXITED BRETHREN BEGIN AT CUSTER 
CENTER 

M. F. Blankenship volunteers the following 
information concerning the inception of 
United Brethren denominational work in the 
county, a work which began at Custer Center. 

"Some time during the winter of 1882-3, 
Rev. Theodore Squires came to the home of 
M. F. Blanken- 
ship, preached 
the first sermon, 
and left an ap- 
pointment to re- 
t u r n in t w o 
weeks. At the 
appointed time a 
good-sized audi- 
e n c e greeted 
him, and the 
minister, at the 
close of the ser- 
vice, invited all 
who wished to 
unite with the 
United Brethren 

church to meet him on the following \\'ednes- 
day at the home of J. S. Kirkpatrick. in the new 
town of Broken Bow, which had been laid out 
in ^larch, 1882. At the time appointed, a class 
was organized, consisting of John S. Kirk- 
patrick and wife, James Courtney and wife, 
and M. F. Blankenship. who was chosen class- 
leader. James Courtney was chcsen class 
steward and the class was named the Custer 
Center Class. In a few weeks, Rev. John F. 
Green was sent to preach for the little church. 
For two years thereafter he served them faith- 
fully, and was loved and respected by all. Our 
number increased and religious interest was 
aroused until we began to feel that a church 
building was a necessity, but we were all so 
poor we did not feel able to build. The writer 
was led to speak to J. S. Kirkpatrick about it. 




United Brethren Church at Broken Bow 



but he thought it was a pretty big undertaking. 
We asked him to draw up a subscription paper 
and we would do the soliciting and give the 
ground for the building. J. S. Kirkpatrick 
did so, heading the paper with ten dollars op- 
posite his name. M. F. Blankenship placed 
his name next, with another ten dollars. Then 
came C. T. Crawford, with a ten-dollar pledge, 
and R. H. ^liller, with live dollars. This was 
encouraging, for now they had a fund of 
thirty-five dollars to start with, and they felt 
sure that the church would be built. In May 
they met and laid up the walls of sod. A few 
days later. M. F. Blankenship w^as plowing in 

his field east of 
the church, when 
a man drove up 
with a mule 
team and asked 
if he was the 
man who was 
building the 
church. He re- 
plied that he 
was as much in- 
terested in it as 
any one. The 
man told him 
his name was 
David Weymer, 
that he was on 
that, with M. F. 
on his return he 
him and give ■ 
on the church 
assured 



his way to Kearney, and 
Ijlankenship's permission, 
would stay all night WMth 
him ten dollars to apply 
building fund. Mr. Blankenship 
the man he would be quite welcome, in- 
deed, and true to his word, he did as he 
said he would do. In June two of their bach- 
elor neighbors (John R. Street and Elmer E. 
^lorris) volunteered to haul the lumber from 
Kearney for the roofing of the building, and 
by the last of the month, they had it inclosed 
but it was seatless. We had no money, so we 
built some sod pedestals, laid boards on them, 
scattered some hay on the ground floor, and 
we were ready for service. The next Sunday 
the whole neighborhood assembled in the new 
church, as much pleased as they would have 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



271 



been if they had been in the finest building in 
the state. We now had a place to worship, 
and with great pride we wrote our friends in 
the east that we had a church in our neigh- 
borhood. At the first meeting in this new 
building, we organized a Sunday school. S. 
S. Southmayd was the first superintendent. In 
December following, we floored our new 
church and put in a few seats. By Christmas 
eve we not only had a floor and seats but we 
also had a rostrum. They were homely, but 
good enough, and we felt proud of our success. 
We had a Christmas tree. The exercises were 
a success, and we have often thought that we 
never saw a happier man than was Judge W. 
W. Cowels on that night. In fact, everybody 
seemed happy. During the following summer 
we finished the seating and our church was 
completed and paid for. 

"In 1902 the old sod church was torn down, 
and in its place was erected a nice little frame 
building, which was finished and dedicated in 
the spring of 1903. This church building is 
twenty-six by thirty-six feet, is in a good state 
of preservation, and regular services are still 
kept up. At the present time Rev. G. B. 
Weaver of Broken Bow is the pastor in 
charge." 

SUND.W SCHOOLS IN CUSTER COUNTY 

The following comprehensive account of 
Sunday-school work in Custer county is given 
by J. ^I- Fodge. who is the veteran Sunday- 
school man of the county. He and his good 
wife have lived in Nebraska forty-seven years 
and in Custer county thirty-five years. For 
thirty-four years ]\Ir. Fodge has been actively 
engaged in Sunday-s:hool work — a Sunday- 
school superintendent for thirty-three years, 
and president of the county Sunday-school 
conventions for a number of years. 

"In assuming to give to the public a very 
brief history of the organization and growth 
of the Sunday schools of our county, I little 
thought of the obstacles and difficulties which 
would have to be overcome in order to gather 
data from which to give a true history. After 
much fruitless correspondence and begging for 
information from those who were, in many 



cases, participants in the organization of some 
of the first schools in the county, and after 
weary months of awaiting answers from living 
witnesses, I am forced to conclude that the 
Sunday schools, like very many other objects 
and enterprises which go to make up the his- 
tory of a people, state, or county, have failed 
to keep records of any kind, or at best very 
imperfect records, so that I shall not attempt 
to give a history of this, one of the greatest 
factors in the civilization and Christianization 
of our great comonwealth. 

"In the context to follow, I shall endeavor 
to give to the public in a general way some- 
thing of the development and growth of the 
Sunday-school cause since my residence in 
the county, from the information at my com- 
mand. Knowing that he who chronicles past 
events for the scrutiny of the public often re- 
ceives criticism and even ridicule, I shall at all 
times be governed by the truth as I vmderstand 
it. Suffice it to say that such a daring, heroic^ 
and God-fearing people as make up the citizen- 
ship of our county, would not live in any place 
long without raising to the God of our fathers 
some altar as a remembrance of His mercies 
to them since leaving the old home, which 
could be done in no more appropriate way 
than by meeting together to read His work 
and study His dealings with the children of 
men. Indeed, to such an extent were they per- 
meated by this spirit of reverence and thank- 
fulness, that in some cases where a little settle- 
ment was formed, even though there were 
none among them who prayed, they would 
meet and form an organization for the purpose 
of praising God and civilizing the community. 
In some cases this work was begun by mis- 
sionaries, and in others by some local minister, 
who, with his family, had come west to find a 
temporal home. 

"In this connection I am indebted to Elder 
E. D. Eubank for an account of the organiza- 
tion of the first Sunday-school in the county, 
in what is now Douglas Grove township. This 
school was organized in the spring of 1875, 
by Mrs. E. D. Eubank, who was elected super- 
intendent and secretary, with a membership of 
twelve, who met at the home of Elder Eubank. 



272 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



It bore the name of 'Christian Union Sunday 
School,' and uf)on appHcation to I. D. Gage, 
state missionary of the American Sunday 
School Union, was supplied with second-hand 
books. It was afterward moved to the home 
of Charles Hales and changed to a ^lethodist 
Episcopal school, and eventually it ceased to 
exist. Prior to the uprising of the Indians, a 
few men of adventurous and hardy spirit who 
had settled with their families here and there 
over parts of the country — on the South Loup. 
Clear creek. Middle Loup, and Victoria creek — 
abandoned their homes until the dangers were 
jjast. Not until about the year 1880 did the 
pioneers with families settle in numbers suffi- 
ciently strong to begin work for the purpose 
of bringing about a higher state of civilization 
and Christianity in their respective neighbor- 
hoods. We are informed that on the ^fiddle 
Loup, near where Walworth now stands, also 
on Clear creek near Westerville. schools were 
organized in the year 1881, but we can give 
no particulars. During the years 1881 and 

1882 the settlements in the county extended 
further west, chiefly along the streams, and in 

1883 schools were formed at Broken Bow, 
Custer Center, .Arnold, Delight, Rose Valley, 
and Ortello. 

"Elder F. M. Graham, a local minister of 
the M. P. denomination, gathered a few per- 
sons at the old sod schoolhouse just north of 
Merna, in May of that year, and the school has 
continued ever since, except, perhaps, the first 
winter, and now numbers a membership of 
more than one hundred. The Ortello school 
was organized by D. F. Weimer. in June, at 
his own home, with his family, A. L. Embree 
and J. H. Edwards — nine persons in all — as 
members. A year later the place of meeting 
was changed to the Ortello schoolhouse, where 
it continues to meet during the whole of each 
year. Rev. Savidge. a Methodist minister, 
having located near the present site of Calla- 
way, a Sunday-school was organized. This 
languished after a year or two, but was reor- 
ganized in 1886, after the town of Callaway 
was started. In 1883 or 1884 Elder Correll, 
of the Christian church at Arnold, gathered a 
few persons at his home and organized the 



first Sunday-school in that vicinity, and the 
year following both the Alethodist and Baptist 
people started at or near the same place. 

"During 1884 and 1885 schools were organ- 
ized on the South Loup at Burr Oak and Eu- 
dell : on Clear creek near Myrtle and Lee 
Park; on the Muddy near Algernon and 
Mason City ; on the Middle Loup at Sargent, 
West Union, Oxford schoolhouse near Mil- 
burn ; in 1885 on Wood river near Lodi, at 
Stop Table, Roten \'alley. Sand Creek, Cliff, 
Alaple Grove, Berwyn, and Keota. many of 
which have continued to flourish both summer 
and winter, wielding a most healthful influ- 
ence for good in the respective localities ; while 
others did 'run well for a season' and then, 
when the dark days of drouth and jianic came, 
succumbed. Up to 1886 the work was carried 
on in the county locally. Then, as my memory 
serves me, a movement was made toward or- 
ganizing a county association, for more per- 
fect work and for the purpose of organizing 
schools in every settlement, which had by this 
time spread over nearly the entire county. 
Among those who were prominent in this 
movement were Rev. E. A. Russell, a Baptist 
state Sunday-school missionary, located at 
Ord : Rev. English, of Arnold ; I. N. Atkisson, 
D. AI. Amsberry, Willis Cadwell, W. A. Gil- 
more, and Dr, J. J- Pickett, of Broken Bow ; 
J. H. Blair and D. S. Weimer. of Ortello. A 
call was made for a meeting of Sunday-school 
workers at Broken Bow, a program was 
prepared and a date fixed for holding a county 
convention. .A. temporary organization was 
efifected by electing as president, I, N. Atkis- 
son, and as secretary, Willis Cadwell. \\'hen 
the convention met. a permanent organization 
was made by adopting a constitution and by- 
laws. The county was divided into four dis- 
tricts, each part of the county to be under the 
supervision of a vice-president of the county 
association, elected by that body. It was the 
intention of the association to divide each of 
the districts into minor districts, to be known 
as township associations, with a vice-president 
for each of them, under whose supervision a 
Sunday-school would be organized in every 
comnnmitv. This outline of work succeeded 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



273 



admirably in the southeast and northwest 
quarters especially, to such an extent that in 
every settlement a school was organized, but 
in the northeast and southwest quarters there 
was not such perfect organization — in fact, 
the southwest district was practically unreore- 
sented in the county association until ten years 
later. In the years following, this association 
held annual conventions until the year 1891, 
when, for some unexplained reason, there was 
no call niade by the president for the executive 
committee to meet and prepare a program, so 
in 1892-3-4 the president, D. S'. Weimer, hav- 
ing removed from the county, leaving the as- 
sociation without a head, it ceased to exist. 
JMany schools in the county died, partly from 
lack of the fostering care of county and district 
associations, but perhaps more because of the 
discouragements incident to the excessive 
drouth of 1892-3-4, coupled with the panic 
which followed — many families removing from 
the county, leaving homes and all that had been 
gathered about them since their settlement. 
This languishing condition of the cause led 
some of the more zealous workers to take the 
initiative .steps in the resurrection of the county 
association, or the formation of a new one. 
Accordingly, in the fall of 1895. a call was 
made for those interested to meet in Broken 
Bow, for the purpose of taking action in the 
matter. The response thereto met fully the 
expectations of those who had taken the lead- 
ing steps, the different parts of the county be- 
ing represented. The records of the former 
association not being obtainable, it was voted 
to form a new county organization. This was 
done by electing L. W. F. Cole, of Sargent, 
as president, and Mr. Herring as secretary, 
and by appointing Airs. Herring, W. C- Elliott, 
of Mason City, and J- M. Fodge, of Ortello, as 
a committee on constitution. The county was 
again divided into districts, each with a vice- 
president, selected by the district association. 
Among those prominent in this organization 
were T. J. Strickler, W. H. Hornday, George 
Bailey, H. Lomax, E. J. Pittaway. Mrs. Daniel 
Hagin, W. C. Elliott, and others, whose names 
I do not recall. By means of this association 
new enersfv w-as sfiven to the schools over the 



county, new schools were organized, annual 
conventions were held, and a pledge of fifty 
dollars made by the old association to the 
state association was paid, followed by a more 
hopeful outlook for the future. The officers 
of the county association were : E. J. Pittaway, 
president; Rev. Mr. Burns, secretary; and 
David McGugin, P. Wymore, R. E. Allen, and 
W. C. Elliott, executive committee. 

"Many of the noble men and women who 
were active in the upbuilding of the Sunday- 
school work, have gone to other fields to labor ; 
others have been called to their reward beyond 
this life, and their works do follow them ; 
while yet others are still doing the Master's 
work, awaiting that call. Whatever else can 
be said of the eflforts and labors of these con- 
secrated ones, all must admit that a high state 
of civilization and Christianity pervades our 
society by reason of the upholding of the 
Master's standing in this line of work. 

"The result of this reorganization of the 
county association was to line up and get in 
touch with the schools of the county, establish 
new ones where it could be done, and to divide 
the county into four districts, with a president 
for each district, to be elected by and from 
the schools that comprised that district, the 
president of the district to be vice-president of 
the county, and a member of the executive 
committee of the Custer County Sunday- 
school Association. The duties of said district 
president were to establish sub-districts, hold 
convention, therein each year, and to make an- 
nual report to the county convention, as to 
number of schools, pupils, and officers, th2 
number of conventions held, and such other 
items as would give the county association 
complete information as to the Sunday-school 
interests of his district. 

"For example, the reports from the several 
districts, through their presidents, to the coun- 
ty convention in 1899, showed in the county 
fourteen district conventions held ; and 
seventy-six schools, with average enrollment of 
3,339 pupils. Is not this well worth the eflfort 
to organize and to encourage the people to 
put forth an effort in every community to 
studv God's Word, to band together as Chris- 



274 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



tian workers to counterbalance the work of 
the evil one? 

"Following are the names of persons who 
have been elected and served as president of 
the county association since its organization, 
in 1886, for one or more terms, up to and in- 
cluding 1918-19: I. N. Atkisson, J. J. Pickett, 
I. W. F. Cole, D. F. Weimer, T. A. Moss, 
E. J. Pittaway, Uriah Keeler. H. Lomax, J. R. 
Dean, and J. M. Fodge, the last named having 




J. M. Fodge 

For many years president of Custer County 

Sunday School Association 



been re-elected consecutively each year since 
May 27, 1905. 

"In giving this account of the work of the 
Sunday-schools and the association, with what 
has been accomplished by their efforts, we 
canot. if we would dare, give the credit for 
the success to any one, or to all of the presi- 
. dents above named, although all have enjoyed 
the esteem of their friends and some have held 
positions as law-makers, place on the supreme 
bench of our state, comity offices, and other 
places of trust and honor in the formation of 



our commonwealth, and some- only the humble 
public place. Yet to them is due only a share 
of the credit. 

"We recall with all of appreciation the 
faces and names of the many whom we have 
met so often in the almost third of a ct'ntury 
since the beginning of our labors in this county 
for the cause of the Alaster, and whom we 
learned to love and esteem. In the ministry 
we may mention the following names: Correll, 
Graham, Hagin, Stromire, Tubbs, English, 
Maze, Strickler, Brink, Stromire, Moss, Brad- 
ley, Richards, Wagner, Rasey, Smith, Sumner, 
Tool, Hall, Bell, Megan, Burns, Baress. and 
Cadwell. Of the laymen: Judson, Chumbley, 
Woody, Wymore, Hagin, Drums, Kerr, Da- 
mon, Cole, Barns, Chesley, Samuelson, San- 
derson, Burrows, Foster, Walburn. Hanley, 
Lucas, Moomey, Pierce, Eastman, McGregan, 
Mason, Nichols, Narragan, Franklin, Mills, 
Needham, Skillman, Amsbern,^ Conant, and 
Walton and Allen, with a host of others that 
space forbids to mention. All of these unself- 
ishly gave their influence, counsel, time, and 
voice to encourage the cause that was so dear 
to their hearts in those pioneer days. 

ST.\TE SUND.W SCHOOL COXVENTIOX .\T 
BROKEN BOW 

"In these days of large things, big jobs, 
collossal undertakings, we realize perhaps, 
more than ever, the benefit, encouragement, 
enthusiasm, inspiration, and determination we 
receive when we rub up against some one who 
has done things, has won, has overcome ob- 
stacles that seemed insurmountable, and we 
are more determined because that one has 
overcome some big task. 

"It was because we had come in contact 
with such persons in the Sunday-school work, 
met them in our county and state conventions, 
and realized that they had become specialists 
in their work; it was because of this encour- 
agement that your county officers were em- 
boldened to think that 'Big Custer' might 
entertain the state Sunday School Association 
convention. It was with trepidation that wc 
dared to speak to our most progressive and 
staunch workers, because of the magnitude 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



275 



of the undertaking, the possibility that we 
could not make a win of it. 

"Then it was that we remembered that 
others had been able to do it, and so, as we 
went over the county with the state secretaries, 
meeting the workers of our county in district 
conventions in the year 1914, we suggested 
to them the idea, asking their help, and re- 
ceiving some encouragement, we determined 
to put the matter up to the county convention, 
which was done and their approval secured. 
We immediately set in motion, plans to get 
the co-operation of Broken Bow, and the back- 
ing of the business men was soon obtained. 

"It was then that the work was begim, by 
the appointment of the necessary committee 
to arrange the details, to carry the Broken 
Bow proposition and invitation to the board 
of managers of the state association, which 
would meet, at Aurora, in June, 1914. 

"When the convention assembled, Custer 
county Sunday-schools and association were 
greatly in evidence. With a large delegation 
from the county, with badges, banners, and 
}"ells, with Scripture mottos. Big Custer was 
put on the map. Result, the 1915 State Sun- 
day School Association convention was coming 
to Broken Bow. 

"To many of our people this was their first 
opportunity to meet the lecture-speakers and 
specialists in Sunday-school methods and 
modern equipment, and all this would surely 
leave some ideals and aspiration in the minds 
and hearts of some young workers, the im- 
press of noble, spiritual men and women. But 
the greatness, and magnitude of the job was 
yet before us. Would we be equal to the 
occasion? Could we do what we had promised 
the workers of the year ago? The task was 
yet before us. 



"In the meantime every phase of the work 
necessary to meet, greet, and welcome the 
great host that would surely come to us, had 
been looked after, so that every one was en- 
tertained and cared for in the homes and pub- 
lic houses. The spirit of doing great things 
had caught our people to a degree that 
brought praise and compliments from our 
guests, from the first to the closing day of 
the convention." 

What was the Broken Bow state convention, 
as to numbers and enthusiasm, as compared 
to former conventions ? We will let State 
Secretary W. H. Kimberly tell: "I want to 
say, friends, to the people of Broken Bow, and 
to the Custer county association, that this is 
the record-breaker convention ; the registra- 
tion has gone nearly 600 above the high mark 
of former conventions. We never before 
spoke to such large audiences. We never saw 
so much enthusiasm in the convention work: 
entertainment and management have been of 
the highest order. We have never had 
smoother working machinery. The officers of 
the state association thank the committees, the 
people of Broken Bow. and the officers of 
Custer County Sunday School Association for 
our great convention." 

The enrollment of the state convention was 
thirty per cent, greater than any previous con- 
vention. 

CO.MP.\RISON CONVENTION ATTEND.\NCE 

Year 1914 Year 1915 

Total attendance 796 1646 

In convention town 390 813 

In state outside 406 833 

Mileage delegates ■ 2394 6983 
Number counties 
represented 56 61 



CHAPTER XII 

LODGES AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS 

Ax Earlv-Day Feed — A Stag Party Performance — Fux with a Meek-eyed Bron- 
cho — A Pioneer Picnic — An Old Settlers' Association — 1883 was the Boom Year 
— Old Settlers' Association of S'outh Loup — Ancient Free & Accepted Masons — 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows — !Modern Woodmen of Custer County — Ans- 
ley's Lodges — Mason City Lodges — Royal Neighbors of Arnold — The Grange — 
Woman's Clubs in Custer County — Shakespeare Club — Callaway Sorosis Club — 
History of Browning Club — The Book Lovers' Organization — Broken Bow Art 
Club — Arnold Women's Improvement Club — The Broken Bow Woman's 
Club — Sargent Woman's Cli'b — Woman's Club. of Axsley 



Nowhere on the planet can he found a 
more sociable people than the Custerites have 
always been. In pioneer times they were not 
given to overmuch formality, but possessed 
that free and easy sociability and hospitality 
that always mark the western people. They vis- 
ited in each other's homes, they congregated in 
the schoolhouses, they held public celebrations, 
a picnic was a favorite way of spending the 
day, informal dinner parties were served as of- 
ten in the society of forty years ago as in that 
of to-day, according to population. Many of 
the prominent settlers had, before their migra- 
tion, belonged to lodges of the east, and. with a 
lodgeman's nose for smelling out fraternal kin- 
ship, they formed their cliques and clans, 
which ripened into warm friendship before 
enough kindred spirits had arrived to form 
the lodge. 

To illustrate some of the gatherings of pio- 
neer days, elsewhere in this chapter will be 
found an account of a stag party and broncho 
entertainment which gives a very vivid por- 
trayal of early society, before the advent of 
' women. Reference is made to Mrs. Stuckey's 
dinner-party story, to show the improvement 
in society after the advent of women. 

AN early-d.\y feed 
Mrs. H. C. Stuckey gives this glimpse of 



early-day society "pulling oft" a dinner party : 
"We would arrange to get together, as 
many as possible, on some set day, and go all 
together to the ranch of some neighbor. We 
never sent any warning when we might be ex- 
pected, but we were always welcome, always 
had a good dinner, and the cook was never 
put out. Let me describe a ranch dinner of 
the olden time. This, of course, is an invited 
dinner. There were no menu cards, but there 
were turkey, chicken, quail stuffed with 
oysters, chicken salad, all kinds of vegetables, 
jellies and preserves made from wild fruit 
which grew in abundance in the canyons, 
cakes and dainty desserts of various kinds, 
cofTee, tea, or chocolate. The table was al- 
ways beautiful, no matter how plain the sur- 
roundings. No fine paintings adorned the 
walls, but many pretty things for the table had 
been brought from eastern homes. Sometimes 
there was a knife short, but the butcher knife 
was drafted into service and proved an excel- 
lent substitute. Perhaps there were not enough 
chairs to accommodate all of the guests, but 
several molasses kegs, with which tlie ranch 
always abounded, were l')rought into requisi- 
tion : a long board was laid on them and cov- 
ered over with robes, which made a seat good 
enough for a king — a cattle king, at least. 
The hospitality of ranch days was unlioundcd 



276 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



-'// 



— ■ not the chilly and what-did-you-cnme-for 
hospitality of to-day." 

A STAG PARTY PERFORMAN'CE 

Anent the hilarious times of early days, 
when whole-hearted hospitality was extended 
by every ranch to anybody that might pull the 
latch-string, and where neighbors were always 
welcome to shove their feet under the table or 
crawl into a bunk, R. E. Brega, of Callaway, 
gives an interesting account of an early-day 
stag party that took place on the Benger & 
Brown ranch, which was then located in 
Brown valley, about five miles southwest of 
the present Callaway. Brega describes it some- 
what like this : 

"On that memorable occasion there w-ere 
present: Charles Thornburg, M. E. Schnerin- 
ger, Fred Brown, George O. Benger, J. J. 
Douglass, R. E. Brega, and others, now for- 
gotten. The first act on the program was to 
kill a sheep, the next to elect a cook, and by 
the way, in those days, the men were all pretty 
good cooks. The balance of the programme 
went round in circles. In turn, each told a 
story, sang a song, danced a jig, or played a 
tune on an old accordeon which Fred Brown 
brought from England, and the awful 
screeches of which told stories of neuralgia, 
rheumatism, and gout — and made the screech 
owls green with envy. 

"At the end of each round, there was served, 
lamb, ram, sheep-meat, or mutton, together 
with pancakes and cofifee. This continued 
through the night, until the lamb had entirely 
disappeared, and the pancakes ceased to be 
made, for lack of flour. 

"That you may better determine the degree 
of enjoyment experienced by the participants, 
it is added that forty-eight hours later, George 
and Fred were located under a hay-staok, 
sound asleep — while the sheep wandered on 
the hills far aw'ay." 

FUN WITH .\ MEEK-EVED BRONCHO 

A diverting record is that which follows : 

"In early days they enjoyed life in various 

ways and one of the great factors of our early 

life, were the antics of the playful broncho. 



To get an innocent tender-foot on 'Sky- 
scraper,' 'Starjumper,' "Dynamite," 'Thunder- 
bolt,' or some other 'cowboy-buster,' afforded 
much amusement, and I recall now, how 
mean we were, for the higher he went, and 
the harder he fell, the better we liked it. \[y 
sides ache wdien, I think of one instance. Finch- 
Hatton Brothers had just received a friend 
from England, who was making a short stay, 
and who was afterward known as Frank Ban- 
nister. Frank was a very humane and kind- 
hearted fellow. He thought it was wrong — 
very wrong — to put a heavy saddle on a little 
broncho, and, in addition, he thought it v>'as 
unnecessary. To be brief, he presented a very 
forcible lecture along this line, and insisted 
that we should use light saddles or ride our 
horses bare-back. Still further, to back up his 
assertions, he longed for an opportunity to 
demonstrate the correctness of his idea, re- 
marking, 'If I only had what you term a mean 
horse, I would be glad to show you how nice 
he would act.' Well, this was something 'soft.' 
We had been looking for him for a long time, 
and before he concluded his sermon on the 
pony, Frank Brega slipped into the barn and 
brought forth a very pretty black mare called 
'Deceiver.' By way of introduction, I will say 
that Al Wise, a noted broncho man of those 
days, had given her up as a bad job, and sent 
her further west. This pony was quiet and 
verv' gentle about the barn, which fact had 
given rise to her name, 'Deceiver.' 

"Air. Bannister's nerve was with him ; he 
threw a blanket on the pony, and was on her 
back in a jifify. Round and round he went! 
Not a pitch : not a buck. The crowd felt like 
— the boy the hen ran over, but our time was 
yet to come. "All things come to those who 
wait.' Yet the crowd was imjiatient. Finally 
the pony was called to a halt just in front of 
the cabin door. Then it was that our punish- 
ment commenced, for how he did boast ! "I 
will now,' he said, 'be able to go back to Eng- 
land and tell the people how the pony will be 
spared in the future.' In this manner he con- 
tinued for a time that seemed like ages, when 
a gentle wind came to our relief. A small 
whirlwind turned over a paper near the pony. 



278 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Ii would take an eye-witness with a circus ed- 
ucation to tell the rest. "He didn't know it 
was loaded,' but it went off just the same. 
He struck the building like a thousand bricks. 
How the crowd did double up and howl. They 
had laughing-stock enough to last six months. 
Frank has been in this country now manv 
years, and no one has ever heard him talk of 
light saddles since, and if you see him riding, 
take notice that he rides a forty-pounder." 

A PIOXEER PICXIC 

Twenty-six years after the organization of 
the county, the old settlers organized an Old 
Settlers" Association and arranged for the first 
annual picnic, to be held at Broken Bow, 
August 5, 1903. The account of the picnic, 
as it appeared in a local paper at the time, is 
inserted here, to show the spirit of the pio- 
neers at that time and also because, it contains 
\aluable data: 

"The first annual picnic of the Old Settlers' 
Association of Custer county, held in the pub- 
lic park at Broken Bow, August 5th. was a 
far greater success than was anticipated by 
any one. The crowd commenced to gather 
early, and by eleven o'clcKk quite a represent- 
ative number of people had assembled. In the 
forenoon a business session was held, at which 
time officers were elected for the ensuing year. 
The officers are as follows: President. L. H. 
Jewett; first vice-president, J. E. Cavanee ; 
second vice-president, J. R. Land ; secretary- 
treasurer. E. R. Purcell ; historian, George B. 
Main \\'ith the exception of Mr. Lang the 
officers were the same as for the preceding 
year. 

"At twelve o'clock, dinner was spread in the 
park, and a very large number of picnic parties 
were scattered about the grassy plots in the 
splendid shade. It is estimated that about 500 
people occupied the park during the noon 
hour. At 1 :30 o'clock the Broken Bow band 
gave a half-hour concert, while the people 
were assembling. At two o'clock the gather- 
ing was called to order and the program com- 
menced. By this time the crowd had swelled 
to immense proportions, and upward of 1,500 
people congregated around the speaker's 



stand. President Jewett called the meeting to 
order, and made a very appropriate speech. 
The address of welcome on behalf of the city 
was then delivered by Mayor E. R. Purcell. 
Harr}- O'Neill, of Omaha, speaker of the day, 
was introduced, and entertained the audience 
for half an hour with a splendid talk. Mr. 
O'Neill is one of the old-time residents of 
Custer county, and his speech, as well as his 
presence here, was enjoyed by all. The Ryer- 
son quartette then favored the audience with a 
choice selection, after which Daniel Sage, the 
long-haired poet, read one of his popular 
poems. Mrs. Stuckey, Broken Bow's popular 
singer, also favored the audience with a se- 
lection, which was heartily applauded. An- 
other number on the program, which was ap- 
preciated, was a poem written by Tommy 
Burlin, and it was read by Mrs. G. O. Joyner, 
of Ortello. Mrs. Alice Dowse Sims read a 
paper descriptive of the first settlers of the 
northeast corner of Custer county, which was 
very entertaining. 

"The balance of the program was given over 
to reminiscent talks from quite a number of 
old-time residents of Custer county, and this 
part of the program was a genuine treat to 
everyone. Among those who spoke were J. 
I\L Fodge, Jess Gandy. H. M. Sullivan, Mrs. 
Moses Lewis, Alpha Morgan. Jud Kay, C. H. 
Jeffords, J. D. Ream, and G. R. Russom. 

"The award of medals was an interesting 
feature of the day. The following are the 
winners : The earliest male settler of Custer 
county in attendance at the picnic, L. R. 
Dowse, of Comstock, who dates his residence 
from August, 1873. ^Irs. L. R. Dowse won 
the medal for the earliest female settler of 
Custer county in attendance at the picnic. She 
came here in January, 1874. The earliest male 
child born in Custer count)', in attendance at 
the picnic, was John F. Bell, of New Helena. 
Mr. Bell was born in New Helena, in March, 
1876. The oldest female child born in Custer 
county, in attendance at the picnic, was found 
to be Mrs. Alice Dowse Sims, daughter of 
Mr. and ^Irs. Dowse, who won the medal for 
the oldest settlers. ^Irs. Sims was born Feb- 
ruary 22. 1875. The four winners were called 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



279 



to the platform, where the medals were pre- 
sented by Mr. Fodge. The committee on 
these awards consisted of J. M- Fodge, John 
Reese, and J. J. Douglass. 

"The unsuccessful contestants for these 
medals were as follows : For oldest male settler 
Florian Jabobs, New Helena, November, 1875. 
For the oldest female settler, Mrs. Nc George, 
May 20, 1875. For the first-born boy, Lilburn 
Oxford, born July 22, 1876 ; and C. O. Taylor, 
born January 26, 1880. For the first-born 
girl, Mrs. Hattie Carr Osborne, born Septem- 
ber 6, 1878; Mrs. Maude Noble Gliem, born 
September 11, 1878; Miss Myrtle Allen, born 
February 28, 1881 ; Miss :\Iadge Potts, born 
May 25, 1881. 

"Mr. Dowse, who up to the present time 
holds the record of being the oldest member 
of the association in attendance at the picnic, 
has been a resident of Custer county for al- 
most thirty years. Whether he will be able to 
retain this, we cannot say. It is the intention 
of the association to award these medals each 
year, to the oldest settlers and the earliest 
born who are in attendance at each picnic. 
The program continued until nearly five 
o'clock, but the visiting and intermingling 
continued in the park for several hours later. 
The day was a decided success from every 
standpoint. The weather was all that could be 
desired, the program was replete with splend- 
did things and the sociability of the crowd was 
a feature that was noticeable on every hand. 
It is a foregone conclusion that the old settlers' 
picnic of this county will be a great event 
every year. The membership of this organ- 
ization at this time numbers something like 
300 people, and it will no doubt continue to 
grow until the membership reaches into the 
thousands. Next week we expect to publish 
the papers that were read at this meeting. 

"Among the very old settlers who were in 
attendance at the pi:nic in this city on Wed- 
nesday, we note the following: 1873: Mr. 
and Mrs. L. R. Dowse, of Comstock. 1874; 
J. R. Forsythe, New Helena ; Mr. and Mrs. 
J. R. Lang. Algernon : \\'. H. Comstock. Corn- 
stock.* 1875: William O. Boley, New Helena; 
Mr. and Airs. H. C. Stuckey, Tuckerville; Mrs. 



Nc George, Cumro ; Florian Jacobs, New He- 
lena ; J. J. Douglass, Callaway. 1876 : John E. 
Myers, Georgetown ; John F. Bell, New He- 
lena. 1877: R. E. Glass, Broken Bow. 1878; 
Mr. and Mrs. D. M. Amsberry, Broken Bow; 
J. E. Cavenee, Georgetown. 1879: J. O. Tay- 
lor, Berwyn ; J. G. W. Lewis, Broken Bow ; 
Jules Haumont, Elton. 1880; E. Taylor, 
Broken Bow ; J. D. Ream, Broken Bow ; Jacob 
Mauk, Broken Bow ; Mrs. M. E. Lewis, Bro- 
ken Bow; C. S. Elison. Ansley; W. P. Trew, 
Georgetown; P. F. Campbell, Georgetown; 
Mr. and Mrs. Jess Gandy, Broken Bow ; James 
Lindly, Anselmo; A. L. Morgan, Cumro; C. 
W. Hoagland, Gates; J. H. Price. Broken 
Bow ; Mr. and Mrs. James Daly, Merna ; Mr. 
and Mrs. James Wood, Merna ; R. R. Robin- 
son, New Helena ; John Snyder, New Helena ; 
W. T. Powers, Broken Bow ; J. H. Alolvaney, 
Georgetown; Mrs. I. A. Reneau, Broken 
Bow." 

AN OLD settlers' .\SS0CL\TI0X 

The first old settlers' association ever or- 
ganized in the county, so far as obtainable 
records show, was the old settlers' association 
■ of the northwest quarter of Custer county, 
which was organized in 1890. At this time 
the oldest settlers in the district would have 
been residents only nineteen years. The meet- 
ing for the organization of this association 
was held in the home of J. J. Joyner. seven or 
eight miles west of the present town of Merna. 

At this time temporary officers were elected. 
J. J. Joyner was made temporary chairman 
and D. V. Joyner temporary secretary. A 
committee, consisting of J. M. Fodge, S. H. 
Read, and S. K. Redman, was appointed to 
report on form of organization. The commit- 
tee made an informal report, and after its 
adoption the permanent officers were elected, 
as follows; J. J. Joyner, president; J. M. 
Fodge, first vice-president ; S. H. Read, second 
vice-president ; W. M. McCandless. third vice- 
president ; G. O. Joyner. secretary. The pro- 
gram committee of that year's ])icnic consist- 
ed of J. K. Cooper, Joe Kellenbarger, and 
Mrs. H. C. Fodge. 

From this time on until the present time. 



280 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



the associalion has not failed to hold its an- 
nual picnic. These occasions have always been 
of a very enjoyable nature. The minutes of 
the association have been well kept and the 
organization is to be congratulated upon the 
data they have compiled. The minute book, 
whi:h contains the membership roll, gives the 
names of 231 old settlers, with the respective 
years of their settlement. 

1883 \\ AS THE BOOM VE.XR 

The dates of settlement show that of the 
first one hundred, two came in 1874. one in 
1875, one in 1876. two in 1878, two in 1879, 
eleven in 1880. three in 1881, twenty-one in 
1882, thirtv-four in 1883. eighteen in 1884. 



Association of the South Loup was organized. 
Then was held our first picni-. The thought 
of organizing and holding an annual picnic 
was first suggested by Mr. William lirown, 
who now resides, I believe, in Buffalo county. 
The grounds were located by Mr. Brown, Mr. 
Sammie Robinson, and Nc George. Tlie 
s])eaker at our first celebration was Rev. .\lex. 
Boyd, who recently moved to Illinois. 

"Speakers, distinguished for their ability, 
from diflferent parts of the country, have en- 
tertained us year by year. .Among them we 
remember Rev. Crist, N. Dwight Ford, J. J. 
Douglass, Rev. W. L. Gaston, and Judge Sut- 
ton, of Omaha. Judge Sullivan, of Broken 
Bow, addressed us last vear. His address was 




[Photo by S. D. Bulclier} 



F.\RMERS' PiCXIC NEAR .AnSLEY, IN JULV, 1917 



four in 1885, and one in 188(). Thirty-three 
present of this hundred came in the years 1882, 
1883, and 1884. Those were the influx years, 
not only of the northwest quarter of the coun- 
ty but also in all parts. 

OLD settlers' .\SS0C1.\TI0.\ OF SOfTH LOl'P 

One of the most successful and aggressive 
old-settlers' organizations of the county is the 
South Loup association, which has been in ex- 
istence for ten years, and holds annually a 
picnic, the atendance and entertainment of 
which are famous throughout the county. 

Mrs. Xc George, in a brief paper written not 
long since, outlines the inception and details 
the history of this organization. Because of 
its historic value the paper is here submitted : 

"Ten years ago, in 1908. the Old Settlers" 



replete with patriotism and stirred the red 
blood of every patriotic citizen. 

"We elect officers annually. Mr. James E. 
Jones was our first president and has served 
in this capacity a number of times since, which 
proves that some officers at least, 'are bom, not 
made.' Mr. William Shoemaker is our ]ires- 
ent president, and I am sure you will concur 
with me in the dictum that he has done splen- 
didly in giving us a pleasant and happy time 
together to-day. We have always been helped 
with the programmes rendered, and amused 
with various sports, but best of all is the greet- 
ing from old friends. The spoken word, the 
hearty handshake, and the forming of new 
acquaintances year by year, is a wonderful 
ins])iration. « 

"Roughly speaking, at our first gathering 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



281 



there were 500 people in attendance. At that 
time we were made happy at the prospect of 
the association being a success, by there being 
two automobiles on the grounds, one owned 
by Mr. Lambert Johnson, of Sumner, and the 
other owned by Mr. \'enus Goodwin, of the 
same place. Now all have noted the difference 
in this respect to-day. 

"Since the first year or two, the increase in 
attendance has been plainly manifest, and a 
thousand people would not be an exaggeration. 
Last year was a record-breaker and there were 
probably L500 people on the grounds. To-day 
we miss some familiar faces, — those of per- 
sons who have left us in recent years and 
months, among them being Air. George Lash, 
Mrs. Ezra Wright. Airs. Whitman Robinson, 
Mrs. Walter Brown, J\Irs. George \\^illiams, 
Mr. Eulie Brown, Mr. Joseph Cherry, Mr. 
Adelbert Mason, Mr. David Downey, Mrs. A. 
L. Downey. Most of these, if living, would 
be here to-day. Alany of our younger men 
are in our national cantonments, training for 
service. Two boys from this immediate local- 
ity who were with us one short year ago are 
now in France. One, Arthur Stuckey, born 
and reared partly in a nearby neighborhood, 
sleeps the last, long sleep in France to-day. 

"It has been the endeavor of the association 
to keep the morale high and to make the an- 
imal picnic a day in which all can find enjoy- 
ment of a high order." 

.\XCIENT FREE .\N'n .\CCEPTED MASONS 

The annals of Alasonry in Custer county 
date back to the coming of the settlers. .Al- 
though no lodge was organized until 1885, 
eight years after the organization of the coun- 
ty, a number of the settlers were Masons and 
connected with lodges in their former homes. 
The late Frank H. Young, who during the 
last forty years had been the first apostle of 
Alasonrv in the county, if not in the state, 
joined the Alasons in 1874, and in 1877, the 
year that the county was organized, he attend- 
ed for the first time the grand lodge of the 
state. Thereafter he attended every session 
of the grand lodge up to and including the ses- 



sion of 1917. This remarkable record made 
him an attending delegate for forty consecu- 
tive annual sessions. With the record of such 
a man, and those of other kindred spirits, the 
work of Masonry had place in the county be- 
fore the organization of the first lodge. 

Credit is due to Alpha Morgan for the fol- 
lowing epitome of Free Masonry history in 
the county : 

The records of the Grand Lodge, Ancient 
Free and Accepted Masons of Nebraska, show 
that on July 13, 1885, a dispensation was grant- 
ed by the then grand master, Monoah B. Reese, 
late supreme judge of the supreme court of 
Nebraska, to fifteen Alaster Masons to open 
a lodge at Broken Bow, under the name of 
Custer Lodge, L'. D., with Frank H. Young, 
as worshipful master ; James M. Kelsey. senior 
warden ; and Hollis G. Rogers, junior warden 
of the new lodge. In addition to the above 
named brethren, the fifteen named included 
Isaac Merchant, Robert H. Miller, Leander H. 
Jewett, Michael Conley,' James Lindly, Har- 
vey Said, William H. Russell, Thomas T. 
Williams. Cornelius R. Tratt, Albert G. B;- 
mis, Charles Kloman, and Ira AI. Foster. 

Brother Edward F. AlcClure informs us 
that during the previous spring he inter- 
viewed Robert H. Aliller, the then editor and 
proprietor of the Custer County Republican, 
and suggested the calling together of the Free 
Alasons of the county for the purpose of tak- 
ing steps to organize a lodge. This undertak- 
ing may be judged when we consider that 
above named gentlemen lived from Lee's Park, 
on the east, to where now Callaway is, on the 
west ; from New Helena, on the north, to near 
where Oconto is, on the south — a varying 
distance of sixty miles apart. 

Brother McClure took it on himself to write 
each of these brethren a letter setting ^orth 
the object of the meeting, and fixed the time 
at the convening of the spring term of the dis- 
trict court, which was presided over by Judge 
Savage. The place of meeting was the Com- 
munity building, which is now a part of the 
Burlington hotel, and the upstairs of which 
w'as a hall for all manner of meetings, as well 



282 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



as for holding court. At that meeting steps 
were taken that resulted later in the granting 
of the disp)ensation. 

The records available show that Milo F, 
Young, the father of the first worshipful mas- 
ter, was the first initiate, and James D. Ream 
the second to be inducted into the mysteries. 
During the first year the degrees were con- 
ferred on Charles Penn. Robert P. McKnight, 
Emerson H. Potts ( from near where Lomax 
now stands), Edmund King, Harvey B. An- 
drews. Walter C. Hedwell. Diah \\"oodruff, 
George E. Carr. Osborne P. Perley, William 
G. Brotherton. and James G. Brenizer. Bro- 
ther Brenizer had already received the first two 
degrees, in Keystone Lodge, Number 2, lo- 
cated at Phillips, Nebraska, but by request 
was "raised" in the new lodge. All of above 
named were more or less active in the develop- 
ment and advancement of the new county, and 
one frequently meets with their names among 
the county records, in some capacitv or an- 
other. 

When we realize that the scope of territory 
covered by these different brothers and the 
amount of work accomplished during the year, 
as well as the conditions under which the 
work was done, we cannot but help compare 
our present surroundings and wonder what 
we would have done under the same condi- 
tions. Brother McClure tells us that the ante- 
room had cracks through which "a cat could 
be thrown." and when the cold, chilling bla.';ts 
of the north wind would swoop down upon 
them during work, the candidate, as well 'as 
the brethren, would hug the stove in real earn- 
estness. 

At the annual meeting of the grand lodge 
in June. 188(1. a charter was granted the nev.- 
lodge, under the name of Emmet Crawford 
Lodge, Number 148. The selection of this 
name was due to the fact that in January. 
1886. Captain Emmet Crawford, of the Regu- 
lar Army, was murdered by a company of 
Mexican soldiers just across the border. lie 
was buried at Kearney. Nebraska, April 11, 
1886, having a military and Masonic funeral 
— one of the largest funerals ever held i'.i 
the state. Regular .Army officers came from 



Colorado, ^lissouri. and other places, as de- 
tailed, while numerous members of the craft 
were present, not only from Nebraska, but 
also Kansas, Colorado. Iowa, and Missouri. 
Captain Crawford was a member of Richmond 
Lodge. Number 230, Philadelphia, and the 
manner of his death not only excited the in- 
terest of army and fraternal circles but caused 
governmental inquiry and action. The burial 
having occurred a few weeks prior to the 
meeting of tlie grand lodge of Masons in 
Omaha, and the grand secretary. Brother 
William R. Bowen. being an ex-officer of the 
United States army, suggested the name for 
the new lodge, and it was adopted and ac- 
cepted. 

At the time Emmet Crawford Lodge was 
instituted, the nearest lodge to the east was at 
Grand Island, while to the west there was none 
in Nebraska. Its jurisdictional territory was 
much larger than many of our ea.stern states, 
but in population it was "few and far be- 
tween." As the distance to travel in going to 
and from lodge was great, and the roads led 
across the treeless prairie, regular meeting- 
night was fixed on Saturday night on or be- 
fore the full of the moon, so that the weary 
sojourner would have the light of that lumi- 
nary to cheer him on his way. 

While the surroundings, furnishings, and 
buildings were primitive as compared with 
those of to-day. yet to hear those old-timers 
tell it. they had many an enjoyable evening in 
concourse with their brethren, interspersed 
with an occasional banquet and dance, typical 
of the whole-heartedness of the times. 

The first Alasonic funeral, that of Edmund 
King, who was shot and killed by a dwarf, 
Ed. Demerrit, was held on December 16. 1888, 
a goodly number of brethren from adjoining 
towns being present to assist. 

As the settlement of the county increased, 
new centers sprang up, so it was not long 
until other lodges were formed, and in August, 
1887, Mason City received a dispensation, on 
the petition of eight Master Masons ; also 
Merna Lodge was formed, on the petition of 
nine Master Masons; while in February. 1888, 
Gladstone Lodge, of Ansley, was established. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



283 



on the petition of sixteen Master Masons, the 
last two being recommended by Emmet Craw- 
ford Lodge. 

On November 24, 1890. the members of 
Merna and Emmet Crawford Lodges, were 
invited by the most worshipful grand master. 
Robert E. French, to assist in the laying of 
the corner-stone of the Protestant Episcopal 
church at Callaway. This was the first cor- 
ner-stone laid in the county under the auspices 
of the Masons. At this meeting, steps were 



by John Finch, wlio was re-elected and served 
for fifteen consecutive years — the longest 
record of all in the county. 

December 10, 1904, on petition of eleven 
brethren, a dispensation was granted to form 
Anselmo Lodge, with Brother John J. Tooley 
as master; George E. Carr, senior warden; 
and L-a M. Foster, junior warden. 

October 18, 1912, twenty-two Master Ma- 
sons petitioned for a dispensation, which was 
granted, to form Swastika Lodge, at Sargent, 




Laying Corner Stone of Masonic Temple at Anselmo 



tatccn for the formation of a lodge of Free 
Masons, so that on January 31, 1891, a dis- 
pensation was granted, on the petition of nine 
Master Masons, for Parian Lodge, at Calla- 
way, with Brother Frank H. Young as its 
master; Michael Conley. senior warden; and 
Andrew J. ^McMurtry. junior warden. This 
was recommended by ]\Ierna Lodge. 

On November 17, 1893, on the petition of 
fourteen Master Masons, a dispensation was 
granted to open a lodge at Arnold, under the 
name of Cable Lodge. Albert G. HofTman 
was named as its first master, in which office 
he continued two vears, and he was succeeded 



with Brother Fred F. Cram as its master ; E. 
Miller, senior warden ; and Andrew F. Phil- 
lips, junior warden. 

To the parent lodge, Emmet Crawford, each 
of these lodges looked for assistance, which 
it received, either in contribution of members 
at the time of formation, hcl]) in conferring 
the degrees, or such other aid as was needed. 
In their turn each of these have contributed 
to the parent by furnishing members for the 
"higher" degrees, such as chapter, council, 
and commandery, for Broken Bow has each of 
these bodies and is prepared to confer all the 
degrees of Ancient York Rite Masonry. 



284 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



The total membership of the lodges of the 
county, as furnished by report to the last 
grand lodge, is 662. Add to this 138 Royal 
Arch Masons, 100 Royal and Select :Masters, 
eighty-five Knights Templars, and some 300 
that belong to the Scottish Rite, one can have 
a fair idea of the interest taken in the myste- 
ries of Masonr_\- by the inhabitants of the 
county. 

Several of the lodges own their own homes, 
and many thousands of dollars have thus been 
expended in the upbuilding of their respective 
communities, by the erection of handsome 
buildings, used for lodge halls and business 
blocks. Perhaps those of Ansley. Anselmo. and 
Callaway are more worthy of special mention, 
as the buildings of the fraternity in those towns 
are splendid monuments to the zeal, industry, 
and self-sacrifice of the brethren. Each of 
these buildings has fine appointments and is 
beautifully furnished, tending to make one feel 
that true f'ratcrnalism prevails. 

The grand lodge has at different times rec- 
ognized the spirit prevailing, and has never 
hesitated to come when called upon for special 
ceremonies, such as the laying of comer-stones 
for public buildings, as well as lodge halls, 
the dedication of these halls, the holding of 
funerals of distinguished members, and other 
work of similar order. 

Then, too, there are in the county, many of 
the members of the order who have received 
the highest honors that can be bestowed. 
Bi other Reuben B. Mullins is now the only 
thirty-third-degree Mason in the county, and, 
indeed, it is an honor to be thus recognized 
for some meritorious act. The late Julius J- 
Wilson served the craft as grand high priest 
of Royal Arch Masonry in the state, duriiig 
the year 1909. AI])ha Morgan served as grand 
master of Masons during 1913 and 1914, and 
later as grand patron of the Order of Eastern 
Star. Judge X. Dwight Ford is the retiring 
grand patron of the Eastern Star, and Henry 
H. .Andrews is now grand sentinel of the same 
order. 

The late lamented Frank H. Young served 
the craft well, having held all the grand lodge 
offices of An:ient ^'o^k Masonrv that it was 



within the power of the craft to bestow, as 
well as that of grand patron of the Eastern 
Star. Reference has been made, elsewhere, 
to the record made by Brother Young in at- 
tending every consecutive session of the Grand 
Lodge for full forty years without break or 
interruption. In this connection it should be 
stated that during that time all the money 
allowed by the grand lodge for mileage and 
expenses was turned back into a charity fund 
for a children's home which he had planned 
and hoped to establish. The fund so started, 
e:rew until it reached $100,000. then its incre- 




Frank H. Youxg 

ment became available for use. lentil this 
l)rin:ipal amount was reached not a dollar was 
ever used, so in a very large sense Frank II. 
Young was the founder of the cottage home 
for children, located in Fremont, and owned 
and maintained by the Masons. This home 
was built in 1915. For nine years Brother 
Young was the president of the Nebraska Ma- 
sonic Home, at Plattsmouth, Nebraska, whicii 
institution has furnished home and comfort for 
a great many aged peojjle. In jjoint of attend- 
ance at grand lodge Mr. Ynung ranked sec- 
ond in the state. To augment his record of 
forty consecutive sessions at grand lodge he 
has a record of thirty-six consecutive sessions 
of the grand chapter and twenty-nine consecu- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



285 



five sessions of the grand commandery of the 
state. 

In the general statement concerning the 
work of Masons in the county ^Ir. Morgan 
has given a skeleton outline, and very modest- 
ly has refrained from mentioning any of the 
service rendered the order by himself. I\[;". 
Alpha Morgan is one of the prominent Ala- 
sons of the state. He has passed through all 
the chairs of the grand lodge, and while grand 




Alpha Morg.vn 
Grand Master, Masonic Grand Lodge 

master made a record of which his fellow 
craftsmen are proud. At the present time he 
occupies the exalted capitular position of 
grand king and in two years more will pass 
to the higher honors of grand priest. 

Outside of fraternal circles Mr. Morgan is 
one of the first citizens of the county. An 
attorney of note and prominence in the county 
bar, he is a graduate of the law department 
of the Iowa State University, and he has been 
a resident of the county since 1887. 



John J. Tooley is now deputy grand master 
of the state, and the brethren feel confident 
that he will be advanced to the higher position, 
that of grand master. 

IXDEPENDENT ORDER OF ODD FELLOWS 

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows 
comes in for its share of importance, in the 
part it played in the early history of Custer 
county. It came with the pioneers, more than 
forty years ago, but no organized effort was 
made among the Odd Fellows of the county 
until the citizens of Broken Bow applied for a 
charter and Broken Bow Lodge, No. 119, was 
formed, June 21, 1884, with eleven charter 
members. Dr. R. C. Talbot, of Broken Bow, 
whose name appears on the charter, is the only 
one of that number still living-. 

The first meeting was held in the old city 
hall, — • a building which now forms a part of 
the Burlington hotel, — the officers at that 
time being: N. H. Hopkins, noble grand; A. 
W. Gandy, vice-grand ; L. H. Jewett, secre- 
tary. In decided contrast to the old meeting 
place is their present home, a beautiful white 
glazed-brick, fire-proof structure, which was 
erected and dedicated in 1916, at a cost of about 
$20,000. They now have one of the best halls 
m the state and a membership of 179. 

In point of membership, W. G. Purcell is 
the oldest member in Custer county, having, 
joined the order in 1882, and he has served a 
major part of that time as secretary of Broken 
Bow Lodge, No. 119. 

The different branches of the order in this 
city have been highly complimented, by reason 
of the fact that each has been represented at 
the grand bodies in the jurisdiction of Ne- 
braska. Mrs. Margaret Holcomb, of Re- 
bekah Lodge, No. 110, was president of the 
Rebekah assembly the year 1911-2. W. G. 
Purcell was grand patriarch at the session of 
the grand encampment October, 1906; Octo- 
ber, 1907. Dr. T. W. Bass was grand master 
of the 1912-13 session of the grand lodge, Ne- 
braska jurisdiction, and in point of member- 
ship was the youngest grand master to serve, 
having come into the order April 23, 1900. 
During his administration the membership of 



286 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



the state made a healthy growth. He was 
representative from the Nebraska jurisdiction 
at three sessions of the sovereign grand lodge 
— at Minneapolis. Minnesota; Atlantic City, 
New Jersey ; and San Francisco, California. 

Since the organization of the Broken Bow 
Lodge, have been organized in the county, 
lodges at Arnold, Callaway. Oconto, Anselmo, 
Merna, Berwyn, Ansley, Mason City, Sargent, 
Comstock. and Westerville. with a total mem- 
bership in the county of 1,139. The lodges 
in Custer county are in a flourishing condi- 
tion, many of them owning their own homes. 

ilOUERX WOODMEN' OF CUSTER COCNTY 

Custer Camp, No. 4477. was organized at 
Broken Bow in 1897, with a very small mem- 
bership. The Modern Woodmen of America 
is probably the strongest fraternal-insurance 
organization in this country, and the local 
camp at once became a popular one. It has 
grown rapidly in numbers, until at the present 
time it has a membership of 330 and is second 
in size of all the camps in this part of the state. 

Custer Camp holds its meetings the second 
and fourth Tuesday evenings of each month, 
in the new I. O. O. F. building. The present 
officers are : N. Dwight Ford, venerable con- 
sul ; Thomas H. Brown, adviser ; E. H. Hol- 
comb, banker; G. T. Robinson, clerk; and M. 
M. Runyan. escort. 

AXSLEV'S LODGES 

Ansley Lodge, No. 156. Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, was organized December 8, 
1887. Charter members : George W. Baugh, 
Daniel Hagin. E. H. Gaines. Robert J. Mills, 
Thomas J. Wood. O. M. Geeseman. Dana M. 
Saville, A. R. Humphrey, Edgar .V. Hains- 
worth, J. J. Brown, and D. M. Amsberry. 
The present membership is 119, and the oldest 
member is C. S. Ellison. The present officers 
are: Noble grand. William Price; vice-grand, 
.\. L. Real; treasurer, S. G. McCoUistcr; sec- 
retary. L. D. Russell. Meetings are held ev- 
ery Wednesday evening. 

The Ansley Rebekah Lodge was organized 
October 17, 1908, with the following charter 
members: Hcnrv Schmid. A. Tina Hare, 



Agnes Carothers, John Thornton, A. H. Tur- 
pen. R. J. Holeman. E. G. Taylor. C. C. Ta- 
bor. C. E. Lawson, J. H. Carothers, Laura 
Turpen. Minnie Taylor, Mary Carothers. Eliz- 
abeth Geeseman, Hattie Thornton, Emilie 
Schmid, Hernia Lawson, Jennie Geeseman, 
and Ogle Varney. The lodge is at present in 
good working order. During the ten years 
of its life, it has lost but one member by 
death. Sister Anna Harris, who answered to 
the last call on June 20, 1918. During the 
past year, the lodge has received by initiation, 
transfer, and reinstatement, twenty-one mem- 
bers. Our present membership is sixty-two 
Present officers: Noble grand, Agula Spring- 
man : vice-grand, Emily Real ; secretary. Ad- 
die Fowler; treasurer. Marv Nelms. "Our 
motto is friendship, love and tnith ; our aim 
is peace, harmony, and prosperity." 

The charter for Gladstone Lodge No. 176, 
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, was is- 
sued February 18. 1888. to Francis M. Rublee, 
Brougham Stevenson, \\'illiam O. Chapman. 
William D. Fritz, James F. Sharpless, Hiram 
H. Wirt, E. R. Burrows. Philip M. Evans, 
James W. Fairfield. Marion G. Hayes. John 
W. Russell, C. J. Stevens. Thomas T. Williams, 
Thomas A. White. James M. Scott, and Isaac 
Clark. The first meeting was held Febniary 
20, 1888. with the following officers: F. M. 
Rublee, worshipful master ; Brougham Steven- 
son, senior warden ; William O. Chapman, 
junior warden ; Clark J. Stevens, treasurer ; 
Edwin H. Burrows, secretary ; William D. 
Fritz, senior deacon; Alex. Grierson, junior 
deacon ; I'hilip M. Evans, tyler. Lodge was 
opened in entered-apprentice degree. The first 
petition was received from Josiah .\. .\rmour, 
and he was the first to be initiated in the en- 
tered-apprentice degree, March 19, 1888. The 
first meeting was held in Stevens' hall, and the 
entered-apprentice degree was conferred the 
same evening on Samuel Royds, Isaac A. 
Reneau. George E. Snell, and J. A. Armour. 
On April 2. 1888, Lee P. Gillette, grand cus- 
todian, was present. The present Masonic 
temple was built al a cost of $10.72.i.08, and 
was dedicated November 19. 1914. the dedi- 
catory service being in charge of Brother 



I 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



287 



Robert E. French. The building committee 
consisted of C. J. Stevens. A. F. Pinkley, John 
Davis. John W. Scott, and J. H. Kerr. Tlie 
lodge now has a membership of 133, of whom 
108 are ]\Iaster Masons and twenty-five in ihe 
other degrees. The past masters up to the 
present time are: F. M. Rublee (1888), W. 
O. Chapman (1889), E. H. Burrows (1890), 
C. J. Stevens ( 1891), E. L. Cleveland, 1892), 
J. A. Armour ( 1893-6), J. S. Fairfield (1897), 
E. L. Cleveland (1898), C. R. Hare (1899- 
1901), John Davis (1902-3), A. F. Pinkley 
( 1904-5 ). J. W. Scott ( 1906-7). W. R. Young 
(1908-9), Levi Pringle ( 1910-11). J. H. Kerr 
(1912). N. D. Ford ( 1913-4), C. H. F. Stein- 
meir ( 1915), T. T. Varney ( 1916), R. J. Mills 
(1917). and E. P. Gaines, the present incum- 
bent, 1918. 

Ansley Chapter, No. 203, Order of the East- • 
ern Star, was organized April 10, 1906, with 
the following charter members: A. F. Pink- 
ley, W. R. Young, William Burdett, J. W. 
Scott, D. A. VanSant, John Davis, ]\Irs. L. ^1. 
VanSant, Mrs. Jemima Scott. Delia Stott, 
Florence Stevens, Mrs. Jennie Stevens, Mrs. 
Eliza Pinkley, Mrs. Lottie Shepard, Mrs. Fan- 
nie Gaines, Carrie VanSant, C. J. Stevens, E. 
H. Gaines. C. E. Mattley. J. H. \'arney. Ed- 
gar Varney, and Mrs. Isabella Burrows. Its 
first officers were: Worthy matron, Mrs. Je- 
mima Scott ; worthy patron, John Davis ; A.M., 
Mrs. Fannie B. Gaines ; secretary, ^Nlrs. Lizzie 
M. \'anSant: treasurer, Mrs. Isabella Bur- 
rows : conductress, ]Mrs. Eliza Pinkley ; asso- 
ciate conductress. ]\Iiss Delia Scott. The 
present membership is ninety-six ; the oldest 
member is Mrs. Amelia \'arney. and the young- 
est member is Miss Ellen Boyden. Present 
officers : Worthy matron. Ogle \^arney ; 
worthy patron, E. W. Rayson ; A.^I.. Mrs. 
Delia Lockhart ; secretary, Mrs. Grace Maul- 
ick; treasurer, Mrs. May Morris; conductress, 
Mrs. Clara Gaines, associate conductress. Mrs. 
Elsie Mackey. 

The ?^Iorning Star Camp, Royal Neighbors 
of America, was organized May 25, 1898, with 
the following officers: Oracle, Miss Jeane 
Wright ; secretary. Miss Ethel Burns. The 
following were the charter members: Mary 



Carlin, Marcus Richtmyer, Mrs. M. Richtni}-- 
er, Charles Hare, F. E. Wolford, E. H. Bur- 
rows, John Thornton, C. J. Cummings. Thom- 
as Harris, E. L. Cleveland, James Davis, W. 
Burdett, F. W. Carlin, A. H. Turpin. W. B. 
Young. L. H. Hoover, John Scott, Charles 
Cummings, Eugene Haines, Sarah Beach, Jen- 
nie Pixley, C. W. Hamilton, Alice Hamilton, 
Laura Wigent, F. A. Wigent, Frank Watson, 
Day Watson, G. A. Allen, Charles Mitten, 
C. E. Lawson, Elizabeth Boyd, Hannah AT. 
Scott, Debbie Boyd, James Hiser, Josephine 
Hiser, Hattie Thornton, Emma Wolford. Hes- 
ter House, Emma Hare, Dora Weath, T. C. 
Berry, Dr. E. A. Hanna, Clara Wakeley. Delia 
McGowan, Jemima Scott. William Smith, Mrs. 
William Smith, Mollie ^'arney, J. W. Corn- 
stock, Mrs. J. W. Comstock. Mrs. William 
Burdett. Mrs. James Davies, E. B. Pinkley, 
A. F. Pinkley, and Emma Fox. At the pres- 
ent time, there are 121 members — eighty-nine 
beneficiary and thirty-two social. The present 
officers are: Oracle, Lilly Wilkinson; vice- 
oracle, Mary Lawson ; treasurer, Amelia 
Schmid ; chancellor. Anna Pester ; physicians, 
Drs. Young and Hanna ; secretary, Mrs. E. A. 
Butler; managers, J. W. Scott, Grace Maulick, 
and Gertie Horton. 

Ansley Camp. No. 1234. Modern \\'oodmen 
of America, was organized October 24, 1889, 
with eleven charter members, as follows: J. 
S. Thomas. H. A. Goodrich, Ed. Fowler, A. 
H. Shepard. H. W. Comstock, G. W. Baugh, 
O. F. Smith. J. H. Chapman. I. F. Secrist. 
Peter Fowler, and C. R. Hare. The first of- 
ficers were: ^'.C.. J. S. Thomas; W..A.., ?I. 
A. Croodrich ; banker. Ed. Fowler ; clerk, A. 
H. Shepard; escort. J. W. Comstock; watch- 
man, G. W. Baugh ; sentry, O. F. Smith ; phy- 
sician, J. S. Thomas ; managers, J. H. Chap- 
man. I. F. Secrist. and C. R. Hare ; delegate, 
J. S. Thomas: alternate. G. W. Baugh. The 
camp was organized by the deputy head con- 
sul, N. W. Noble. The only two remaining 
charter members are A. H. Shepard and J. W. 
Comstock, and the present membership' is 340. 
The oldest member is Dan Hagin. who was 
born February 12, 1842, and who was adopted 
March 27, 1891. The youngest member. C. 



288 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



L. Morton, was born January 1. 1900, and 
adopted June 1, 1918. The present officers 
are: P.C, J. H. Gonge : consul, J. B. Jone- ; 
adviser, John Springman ; banker. E. I'. 
Gaines: clerk. Perry Foster; escort, Roy Pat- 
terson : watchman, D. P. Scott : sentry. W. K. 
Kimball; physicians. E. A. Hanna and W. K. 
Young: managers. J. H. Gonge, H. F. Spring- 
man, and J. 11. Jones. 

M.\S(JN CITY LODGES 

IM. C. Warrington gives the following data 
concerning the lodges of Mason City : 

"The first lodge organized in Mason Cit}' 
was Alason City Lodge No. 100. Ancient Or- 
der of United Workmen, which was accom- 
plished in December, 1886, and for many years 
this was a prominent fraternal society. 

"Mason City Lodge, No. 170, Ancient Free 
and .-\ccepted Masons was granted a dispensa- 
tion in the year 1887, with Judson C. Porter, 
worshipful master ; A. B. Johnston, senior 
warden; W. .A. Runyan, junior warden: Rob- 
ert Walker, secretary : Dr. Hiram C. Chase, 
treasurer ; AI. C. Warrington, senior deacon ; 
James Gouley, junior deacon. A charter was 
granted the following year. This lodge is 
still in a flourishing condition, and is proud of 
the fact that its Service Flag has seven stars. 
The fraternity owns and occupies its own prop- 
erty and expects to erect a handsome temple 
after the termination of the war. 

"The Independent Order of Odd Fellows is 
represented in Alason City by a live working 
lodge, which was instituted in November, 1890. 
This lodge has a large and enthusiastic mem- 
bership, owns its own property, and has in 
contemplation the erection, at a not distant 
date, of a substantial new home. 

"A thriving organization of the Modern 
Wodmen of .America — Custer Camp. No. 
1157 — has long been a fixed institution in 
Ma.son City. The membership of this camp 
is large and 'log-rolling" meetings, to keep the 
members interested and to add new ones, are 
of frequent occurrence. 

"Last, but not least, save one only, in mem- 
bership, of Alason City's fraternal and benefi- 
ciarv orsjanizations is that of the old soldiers. 



Stone River Post, No. 247, Grand Army of 
the Republic. Few. indeed, are the old veterans 
of the Civil war who make up the membership 
of this post, but with that degree of duty and 
loyalty which marked the period of their lives 
which they so gallantly devoted to the cause 
of their country, with unfaltering devotion to 
the tlag, they maintain their organization and 
have occasional meetings, to delve in days that 
are passed." 

ROV.VL NEIGHBORS ()E .\RX0LD 

The .\rnold Camp of the Roval Neighbors 
of America was organizetl Alarch 31. 189S, 
with twenty-one charter members. The follow- 
ing were the first officers: Oracle. Mrs. Alay 
Finch : vice-oracle. Airs. Eliza Daily : chan- 
cellor. Airs. Carrie Ewing ; recorder, Aliss 
Dessie Chambers; receiver. Airs. Clara Alills; 
marshal. Airs. Edna Harden : inner sentinel, 
Airs. Alary Hansbury; outer sentinel. Airs. 
Ada Pierce. Within the period of the history 
of this interesting camp. Airs. Alay Finch was 
oracle twelve years: Airs. Alary Backes, vice- 
oracle, fourteen years : Airs. Gertrude AlcCant, 
recorder fifteen years ; Airs. Harriett Coufal, 
marshal, fifteen years. At the present time the 
camp has forty-seven members, besides a num- 
ber have moved away. In the life of the camp 
it has lost only two members by death. — one 
social and one beneficiary. 

The Arnold Lodge of the Daughters of Re- 
bekah was instituted Alarch 6, 1916, and at the 
time of this writing is two years and rive 
ir.onths old. It has a total of seventy-four 
members, of whom forty-eight wqre charter 
members. 

Alarch 13. 1917. the members organized a 
Rebekah kensington, which has taken up work 
for the Independent Order of Odd Fellows' 
home, and also Red Cross work, besides donat- 
ing money to the Red Cross. 

This lodge has bought fifty dollars' worth of 
war-savings stamjis and has done all it could 
to help win the great world war. "Three of 
our members are in service now and more are 
to go soon." is the statement made for this 
lodge ]irior to jhe close of war hostilities. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



289 



THE GRANGE 

During January, 1911, a National Grange 
organizer was surveying Nebraska with a view 
of organizing Granges in tlie state. On being- 
invited by J. D. Ream to come to Custer 
county, and assured that he would find an au- 
dience that would be interested in listening to 
a discussion of the Grange organization and 
its work, he came early in February and found 
a fair audience awaiting him. Although this 
community had been noted from its earliest 
settlement for the progressive tendencies of its 
people and for the organized efforts it had 
made along social and educational lines, yet 
there were present only seven who had faith 
enough in the community push and energy to 
feel sure they could maintain a successfid 
grange. 

A temporary organization was effected and 
arrangements made for the organizer to re- 
turn later. By the time the organizer returned, 
a sufficient interest had been aroused to make 
possible a permanent organization. A canvass 
was made of the surrounding territory, anrl 
Granges were organized in Tappan \'alley, Lill- 
ian, East Table. Union, Dutchman. Fairview, 
New Helena, Highland, etc., and a State 
Grange was organizeed at Broken Bow No- 
vember 1st. The Central Nebraska Pomona 
Grange was organized at the same time and 
of the same C. P. Jeff'ords was elected master 
and secretary. 

The organization spread steadily until over 
fifty .subordinate and four Pomona Granges 
had been organized in the county and a won- 
derfully increased interest in rural conimunitv- 
life conditions had been created. The rural- 
school problem was one of the first things the 
Grange grappled with, in real earnest, because 
the little, inefficient schoolhouses were recog- 
nized by the Grange workers as being very 
detrimental to the good work and growth of 
the Grange, and also very detrimental to the 
development of ideal rural-life conditions in 
general. The work of the Granges in this line 
bids fair to bring splendid results in the near 
future to the state at large. 

These Grange organizations have done much 
good by bringing the people of the rural con;- 



munity together, getting them acquainted and 
giving them a chance to clasp hands with each 
other in their social, educational, and co-oper- 
ative work, thus helping break the monotony 
and isolation of rural life and broadening their 
field of labor. Especially has this been true 
with the vounger members. 

In the co-operative line, scores of carloads 
of coal, lumber, fruits, salt, sugar, flour, and 
livestock have been handled, and two large, 
successful co-operative stores have been estab- 
lished in the county as a direct result of the 
work of the Grange. And there is no way of 
measuring the number of lives it has bright- 
ened and cheered or the number of those to 
whom it has brought a broader vision of the 
opportunities of life and their duties to those 
around them. 

Among the many faithful workers in [he 
good work of the Grange in Custer county 
may be mentioned J. A. Dietz and wife. S. A. 
Dean and wife, W. W. Bishop and wife. Ralph 
Johnson and wife, T. A. Ely and wife. L. O. 
\\'elch and wife, John Staab and wife. W. 
Miller and wife, Alvin Daily and wife. H. 
Jacobsen and wife, W. D. Holden and wife, 
George Pelkey and wife, and a great host of 
others who have done what they could to help 
make the rural communities of Custer county 
better places in which to live and to give to the 
younger members of the communities broader 
conceptions of the opportunities and responsi- 
bilities of life in general. 

woman's clubs in CUSTER COUNTY 

The women of Custer county have always 
been the peers of their stronger consorts, not 
to say their lords and masters. A fitting trib- 
ute can never be paid those brave wives and 
mothers who endured the hardships incident 
to the time in which they lived. They did their 
work and laid the foundations of home culture 
and refined ideals in such a manner that the 
present womanhood of Custer county stands 
high in the estimation of all intelligent classes. 
To-day the women of the county have more 
time for self-culture and elevating pursuits 
than in the pioneer days of the past ; for that 
reason, the following list of improvement, so- 



290 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



cial, and literary clubs, organized and main- 
tained by women, can be presented. 

SHAKESPEARE CLUB 

The Shakespeare Club, the oldest study club 
of Broken Bow. was organized January 11. 
1895, with a membership of four, and was 
known as the Four Leaf Clover Club for sev- 
eral -years. For the past twenty-three years, 
the Shakespeare Club has held weekly meet- 
ings, and its programs have consisted of the 
study and discussion of the great dramatic writ- 
ings, research work in history, art, and litera- 
ture, and interpretations of the music of the 
Shakespeare plays. During the later years, the 
personnel of the club has been increased to a 
membership of twelve. In January, 1918, it 
•decided to suspend meetings until after period 
of war, in order to devote more time to Red 
Cross work. 

CALLAW.W SOROSIS CI.L'B 

The Callaway Sorosis Club was organized 
April 2, 1909. It was the first club organized 
in Callaway. The organization was effected at 
the home of Mrs. A. L. Matthews. The first 
year's officers were: President. Mrs. J. D. 
Caupsey; vice-presidents, Mrs. T. C. Grimes 
and Mrs. F. M. McGrew ; secretary, Mrs. J. 
D. Laughlin ; treasurer. Mrs. R. E. Brega. 
Other charter members were Mrs. John Fel- 
ken, Mrs. Riggle. Mrs. Ray Bennett. Mrs. Ira 
Shupp. Mrs. Roy Grimes. 'Sirs. Arthur Higlec, ■ 
Mrs. Walter \\'right, Mrs. O. C. ^Murphy, 
and Mrs. Allen. The work has been along 
the literary line and has included P.ay \"icw 
work, with some miscellaneous programs. 
This club joined the state federation in 1910 
and was the first Custer county club to join 
that -federation. 

lIISTdKV OF llRdWXIXr, CLUl! 

In the fall of 1910 a group of ladies gath- 
ered at the home of Mrs. .\. R. Humphrey, cl 
Broken Bow, and.organized a club, the purpose 
of which was to study the works of Robert 
Browning. Mrs. H. T. Bruce was elected pres- 
ident, and the work began with enthusiasin 
under her efiicient leadership. The ISniwning 



Club has always been strictly a study club and 
has studied some of Browning's most difficult 
works. The first two years the club studied 
"The Ring and the Book" with shorter poems. 
In the spring of 1912 the club, with a number 
of other Broken Bow ladies, had the pleasure 
of listening to a lecture on "Rabbi Ben Ezra" 
by Professor O. H. Venner, of the literature 
department of the Wesleyan University. 

In the spring of 1914. occurred the death of 
one of the charter members, Mrs. A. R. 
Humphrey, who had always been a very loyal 
worker and who has been greatly missed by 
the members of the club. In the fall of lOl-j 
the club decided to take up the study of Brown- 
ing on a university basis, and accordingly be- 
gan the study of the dramatic poems, as 
outlined by Professor Frederick Ames Struff, 
of the University of Nebraska. The poems 
studieil were "Count Gismond." "Rabbi Ben 
Ezra." "My Last Duchess." "Saul." "Andrea 
Del Sarto." "A Death in the Desert." "Childe 
Roland to the Dark Tower Came." "Cleon." 
and ".\n Epistle." 

In the summer of 1916 the club was again 
bereaved, by the death of Mrs. H. M. Sullivan, 
who had endeared herself to all the members. 
In 1916 the chib studied "Paracelsus" and 
"Pippa Passes." In 1917 the poems studied 
were "Strafford." "Parleying with Charles Ari- 
sen," "Old Pictures in Florence." "Sordello." 
"Christmas Eve," and "Easter Day." 

The members of the club patriotically de- 
cided that for the duration of the war they 
would devote their time to Red Cross work 
as well as study. 

THE BOOKLn\ERS ORGANIZ.XTIOX 

In the summer of 1'>11 a Chaulau(]ua class 
of Broken Bow decided that they preferred to 
study the history and literature of the different 
countries. A meeting was held, officers elected, 
and i^lans rather indefinitely made for the 
1 "11-12 year. 

A book committee. Mrs. J. G. Leonard and 
R. G. Moore, outlined the work for the first 
year — the French year. The French history 
was taken as the basis for the study, with his- 
torical novels, by the greatest French authors. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



291 



ill their chronological order, interspersing the 
history lessons. 

The officers for this year were: Mrs. J. G. 
Leonard, president; ]\Irs. Leo Dean, vice-pres- 
ident ; Mrs. R. G. Aloore, secretary-treasurer. 
The members for this year were Mrs. R. G. 
Moore, Mrs. Leo Dean, Mrs. Charles Luce, 
Mrs. Emery Bush, Mrs. Will Osborn, Mrs. 
James Leonard, Mrs. William Lovelace, Mrs. 
[ohn Turner, Miss Martha Fodge, and Miss 
Eva Cad well. 

The course was successful and passed all 
expectations of the club members. Each year 
they have improved in their methods of study. 
They were pioneers in club circles of the city 
and introduced such features as the use of wall 
maps, Perry pictures, printed yearly programs, 
and study of the music and art of the countries 
under consideration. 

The 1912-13 year was German year, with 
Bayard Taylor's German history, and German 
novels and poems. The 1913-14 year was the 
English year, with Greene's English history, 
and, for the most part, the great English po- 
etical classics, such as Milton's "Paradise 
Lost," Spencer's "Faerie Queen," and others. 

In 1914-15 they studied the home country, 
taking John Fiske's L^nited States history, and 
\-arious novels describing different parts of the 
country, such as Cooper's "Last of the Mohi- 
cans," telling of the Indians ; S. Weir Mitchell's 
"Hugh Wynne," depicting the Quakers; Irv- 
ing's "Knickerbocker History of New York," 
showing the life of the early Dutch in New 
York. 

In 1915-16 they used the general history and 
the greatest literary work of some of the coun- 
tries, taking "The Divine Comedy" for Italy 
"Don Quixote" for Spain, the "Iliad" for 
Greece. In 1916-17 the work was the plays of 
Shakespeare. In 1917-18 they studied Old Tes- 
tament history, using for text-books four vol- 
umes of Professor Kent's "Historical Bible." 

The officers for the year 1917-18 are: ^Mrs. 
A. A. Alden, president; Mrs. Ralph Thomp- 
son, vice-president ; Mrs. Horace Kennedy, 
secretary-treasurer; ^Irs. James Leonard, 
chairman ; and ]\Iiss Eva Cadwell and Mrs. 
Alden, book committee. 



The present members are Mrs. A. A. Alden, 
Mrs. Ralph Thompson, Mrs. Horace Kennedy, 
Mrs. Emery Bush, Mrs. James Leonard, Mrs. 
Charles Luce. Mrs. Gains Cadwell, and Miss 
Eva Cadwell. The club meets every Monday 
afternoon from the last Monday in September 
to the first Monday in June of each year. 

BROKEN BOW .\RT CLUI! 

January 5, 1915, Mrs. H. T. Bruce and the 
active members of her china-painting class or- 
ganized the Broken Bow Art Club. The pur- 
pose of this club was to engage in a syste- 
matic study of pictorial art in all its forms ; to 
attain some knowledge of the use of oils and 
water colors, while specializing in mineral 
paints ; to become acquainted with the best 
paintings; and to learn to judge values in ail 
pictures. 

The club has been very successful in the 
pursuit of these objects and met regularly at 
fortnightly intervals until the early spring of 
1918, when it disbanded temporarily, to take 
up war work. 

In addition to the activities described above, 
the Art Club has placed framed copies of good 
pictures in the public library of Broken Bow, 
and in both ward-school buildings. 

ARNOLD women's IMPROVEMENT CLUB 

It would be hard to find a more wide-awake, 
energetic club than the Women's Improvement 
Club of Arnold. They were organized in 1913 
and in the same year federated with the state 
federation. Mrs. Charles Beardsley and Mrs. 
Will Jennings were the prime movers in the 
matters of organization. 

The first officers were as follows: Presi- 
dent, Mrs. Fred Britten; vice-president, Mrs. 
William Jennings ; treasurer, Mrs. Tom 
Backes ; secretary, Mrs. E. L. Cleveland ; and 
corresponding secretary, Mrs. Charles Beards- 
ley. 

The federated clubs' bulletin published in 
June, 1918, an extended article on the activi- 
ties of this club, under the ca]5tion of "A Live 
Club." The club gave in 1917, "The Nebras- 
ka Institution Entertainment," for the benefit 
of the public ; they also held a schoolhouse 



292 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



meeting and did much work to secure the co- 
operation of parents in school work. By the 
request of the school authorities the Shake- 
spearean department gave the court scene 
from "The Merchant of \'enice" at the school- 
house, for the benefit and instruction of the 
pupils and school patrons generally. 

Arnold has the distinction of giving more 
money to the Young Women's Christian As- 
sociation than any other town in the county. 
This was made possible by the leadership of 
this club. 

The ladies of the club have been instru- 
mental in establishing a public library and n 
public drinking fountain, and have purchased 
two centrally located lots for the erection of a 
club building. This fine record has been made 
while all kinds of war work have been car- 
ried on. At the present time the club has 
forty-seven members, and the officers are: 
President, Essie Haskell ; vice-president. Lil- 
lian Anson; recording secretary. May Conrad; 
corresponding secretary, Jessie Brunt ; treas- 
urer, Jennie Backes ; and reporter. Maude 
Meads. 

WOM.NX'S PUBLIC SERVICE CLUB 

The Woman's Public Service Club of Bro- 
ken Bow was organized in 1914. for the pur- 
pose of co-operating with the Public Service 
Club and doing what they could along civic 
lines. The officers for the first year were : 
Mrs. A. Morgan, president; Mrs. E. P. Walter, 
vice-president ; ^Irs. C. W. Bowman, treasur- 
er; Mrs. A. E. Anderson, secretary. During 
this year, prizes were given for children's gar- 
dens : the club assisted also in putting on the 
Chautauqua and keeping up the social life of 
both clubs. 

In 1915. at the County Fair, prizes were 
awarded for bird-houses, needlework, and 
cookery. .At Cliristmas time a donation was 
given to the .Associated Charities of Broken 
Bow, fruit sent to both county and city jails, 
and flowers to the hos])ital. In 1916 they again 
assisted in Chaittaucjua work, made arrange- 
ments for short courses in domestic science, 
and donated ten dollars to the state peniten- 



tiary, to be used to purchase music for the 
prison orchestra. 

In October, 1916, they joined the State 
Federation and drafted the Nebraska nurse 
bill that same month. At Thanksgiving time 
they gave a donation to the Associated Char- 
ities and sent magazines and books to state 
jjcnitentiary. In April the Nebraska nurse 
bill was passed, the federated clubs of the 
state having endorsed and supported this bill. 
In March the first year's course in domestic 
science was conducted by the State Extension 
Bureau, with an enrollment of sixty-five. The 
club gave garden prizes and held a two days' 
canning school. In August it co-operated 
with the Chautauqua. It bought a fifty-dollar 
Liberty Bond in October and started to work 
for the Woman County Agent. The club held 
an art exhibit in November, and presented a 
picture to the high school and each ward 
school. The officers for 1918 are: Mrs. M. 
S. Eddy, president ; I\Irs. L. W. Wilson, vice- 
president ; Mrs. A. E. Anderson, treasurer; 
and Mrs. Will Darnell, secretary. 

THE BROKEN' BOW WOM.VX's CLUB 

A few ladies met in the month of June, 
1915, for the purpose of organizing a ^loth- 
ers' Club in connection with the Maccabee 
lodge. At this meeting ^Irs. George Mair 
was elected president, and Mrs. L. D. George, 
vice-president. The ladies forming the or- 
ganization were Mrs. George ^lair. Mrs. L. 
D. George. Mrs. Edwin Myers, Mrs. Dr. 
Hurst, Mrs. Lillie King, and Mrs. Delia M. 
Hall. 

No special work was taken up until Septem- 
ber of the same year, when Mrs. Edwin Myers 
was made chairman of the programme com- 
mittee. At this time the membership had 
grown from six to nineteen. A constitution 
was drawn up and adojited. From this time 
on the club studied, in full, the program 
mapped out in the ironuiii's Home Companion 
for that year, on "Cliild Training" and "The 
1 lome." 

The club was admitted to membershi]) in 
the Nebraska Federation of Woman's Clubs 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



293 



in September. 1916. changing its name at that 
time from the Mothers" Ckib to The Broken 
Bow Woman's Club. 

Since its affiliation with the state federa- 
tion, the \\'oman's Club has been very active 
in various lines of philanthropic work. The 
field of its endeavor is broad and comprehen- 
sive. It is a means of personal instruction 
and intellectual development, as well as a dili- 
gent, energetic, and efficient agent of civic im- 
provement. 

The work for the club year of 1918-19 is de- 
])artmental. The work of each department in 
the state federation will be correspondingly 
represented by a department chairman. Chie 
program will be given by each department 
during the year. 

The officers of the club for the ensuing- 
year are: I\lrs. J- H. ]\lelville, president; 
Airs. J. F. Bahr, vice-president : Mrs. Jules 
Haumont, secretary; and Airs. T. C. Grimes, 
treasurer. 

S.\RGEXT woman's CLUB 

This club was organized in January, 1915, 
under the name of Sargent Emanon Club, and 
the naine was changed to Sargent Woman's 
Club in July, 1918. It was organized by Mrs. 
Leota Hartley. The first officers were: Pres- 
ident, Airs. Leota Hartley ; vice-president. Airs. 
Lizzie Alorris. 

The object has been to secure a wider in- 



formation, with a view to improving intellec- 
tual and social conditions, and work is thor- 
oughly planned for the present club year. Of- 
ficers at the present time are: Airs. Etta 
Reier, president ; Airs. Xellie Phillips, vice- 
president; Airs. Flora Cropper, recording sec- 
retary ; Airs. Lizzie Morris, corresponding 
secretary : and Airs. Lulu Hicks, treasurer. 

wom.\n's club of .\NSLEY 

The Woman's Club of Ansley was organized 
in 1916 and has been actively engaged in pub- 
lic improvements. The members established a 
public rest-room and have maintained it since 
the first year of their organization. In this 
room they have the nucleus of a public library, 
in which are some 400 volumes. They are now 
working to secure a Carnegie library building. 
The course of study for the regular club meet- 
ings includes a course in parliamentary law, 
conducted by Airs. J. H. Ford. The club was 
federated in 1917. Airs. S. W. Thompson is 
president, and Mrs. L. H. Fowler is librarian. 

The club was first organized under the name 
of The Woman's Improvement Club, but this 
name was changed to the Woman's Club at the 
time of its becoming identified with the Ne- 
braska Federation of Woman's Clubs. Airs. 
C. H. England, of Broken Bow, assisted in its 
organization. The first president was Airs. 
Earl Cooper, and the first secretary was Airs. 
C. S'teinmier. 



CHAPTER XIII 
POLITICAL AXD PARTISAN ACTIVITIES 

The First Election — Had Some "Pep," However — Ix Scrappy Days — A Joixt 
Debate — The Populist Version — Through Republican Goggles — The "Populist" 
Movement in Custer County — First County Ticket — The Cat Creek Cluc — Like 
A Lamb to the Swallowing — The Republican Party Organizes — The Repub- 
licans Split — The Democratic Party — \'ery Prominent Politically — 
The Primaries of 1918 — The Election of 1918 

The political solidarity of Custer county has county. Later this territory became a part of 

always been a source of comment on the part Custer county. 

of careful observers. Political lines have nev- The election was held on the seventh day of 

er been closely drawn. In the early days, local Xovember. 1876. at which time Edward Xeil- 

politics had small place. In his candidacy for son. J. L. Banker, and D. J. Caswell were 

any office the man, if he were competent and judges and W. H. Comstock and James ^^ ag- 

popular, was not handicapped by a political oner were clerks of election, 

creed. Nor was there any political creed to In all, fourteen votes were cost as follows : 



which he must subs;ribe in order to be elected. 
Personal characteristics and qualities were the 
only things that counted. In the early Re- 
publican conventions, many who are now 
wheel-horses of the Democratic party affil- 
iated heartily and served on many important 
committees. This indicates the lack of acid 
tests, and shows that the early conventions 
were a free-for-all, in which a man was pitted 
against a man and not a partisan against a 
partisan. 

THE FIRST election 

The first election ever held in the territory 
which now comprises Custer county was held 
at Douglas Grove, before the county was or- 
ganized. A few years ago, among the papers 
of the late Captain W. H. Comstock, was found 
the poll-book of this election, which was held 
in Xovember, 1876. 

At tiiat time the territory west of \'alley 
county was attached to \'alley for judicial 
purposes, and a corner, twenty-four miles 
square, was cut off and known as Garber 



Isaac ]\Ierchant, Xew Helena : Edward Xeii- 
son, Xew Helena ; Lewis Dowse. Douglas 
Grove ; J. P. Dowse. Douglas Grove : James 
Lee, Lee Park ; J. L. Banker, Douglas Grove : 
W". H. Comstock, Douglas Grove: D. J. Cas- 
well. Douglas Grove : Frank Ingram. Douglas 
Grove ; Frank Ohme. Lee Park ; Samuel \\ ag- 
oner. Douglas Grove ; James \\'agoncr. Doug- 
las Grove; James O.xford, Douglas Grove: A. 
A. Higgins, Douglas Grove. 

At that time the precinct was overwhelm- 
ingly Republican, as out of the fourteen votes 
cast, only one saw fit to vote the Democratic 
ticket. Thomas J. Majors, who was then run- 
ning for congress, received twelve votes. Si- 
las Garber was running for governor, Othman 
A. .\bbott for lieutenant governor, and eacii 
received twelve votes. At this election Will- 
iam H. Comstock and Isaac Merchant were 
elected justices of the peace, each receiving 
fourteen votes. Lewis Dowse received one 
vote for constable. I. T. Merchant fourteen, 
and Tames Wagoner twelve. W. H. Com- 



294 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



295 



stock received one vote for road overseer, and 
D. J. Casvi'ell fourteen. 

In those days Nebraska had onl}' six elec- 
toral votes, and this part of the world was 
known as the forty-fifth representative dis- 
trict, instead of the fifty-sixth, as now. It 
was entitled to only one representative, in- 
stead of two ; Daniel D. Grow was running 
for that office and received the magnificent 
total of thirteen votes. 

HAD SOME "pep" however 

\\'ith the passing of the first years, the set- 
tling up of the country, the coming of leaders 
from the more politic counties of the east, 
political lines were more sharply drawn. Three 
prominent parties have for part of the time 
held the lime light. These are the Republican, 
Democrati:, and Populist parties. 

In the days of the '90s, when the Populists 
formed a merger with the Democrats and made 
the Republicans their common foe, there were 
lively times, and spirited contests were staged 
for several years. The newspapers during this 
time were exceedingly partisan and injected 
a good deal of life into the political cam- 
paigns. 

IN SCR.\PPY DAYS 

As an indication of how the papers lam- 
basted each other and lambasted their politi- 
cal enemies, we quote the following from an 
editorial which appeared in the Custer County 
Chief, issue of October 14, 1898: 

"We are at a loss to know just what is the 
political faith of our much esteemed contem- 
porary, the Callazcay Indcf'cndcut. In the last 
few issues, C. W. Beal has been roasted to a 
turn. L. E. Kirkpatrick has been scored reg- 
ularly, Eastman and Taylor have received sid^ 
swipes, Holcomb has been touched up, Jim 
Amsberry has got a clip under the chin and a 
dip over the ear, the Chief has been given its 
choice between a political grave or bolt, 
Hughes Brown has received a few punches, 
and Judge Shinn, after a breathing spell, has 
again been poked in the short ribs. It is there- 
fore eminentlv proper that the Ausley Chroni- 
cle and the Broken Bozt.' Republican should 



compliment the Independent's bold stand and 
pass bouquets back and forth. Brother Webb 
is a scrapper from Scrapville and if his pluck 
holds out he will no doubt be able to scrap the 
whole state ticket before the campaign closes." 

.\ JOINT debate 

In the fall campaign of 1898 Norris Brown 
was the Republican candidate for congress, 
while W. L. Greene was the independent or 
"Populist" candidate. Great interest centered 
in a joint debate between the candidates. They 
met in the arena at Broken Bow, and we give 
below the accounts of the meeting as they 
appeared in the Chief and the Republican at 
that time. 

The Chief, which championed the Populists, 
gave the following account : 

the populist X'EKSION 

"It is not only customary, but natural, in 
disc-ussing the merits and demerits of a joint 
political debate that each party should stand 
up for its candidate, and in this connection 
we have already heard many times about the 
terrible drubbing Brown gave Greene, and also 
how Greene mopped the earth with Brown 
at the joint debate held in this city yesterday 
between the two candidates for congress in the 
sixth district. We have no desire to be un- 
fair in mention of this debate and will give 
the facts as we saw them, and as we believe 
they were. The meeting was called to order 
at about 2 :30 o'clock and the audience, which 
was about equally divided between Republi- 
cans and Populists, was decidedly small for 
an event of this kind. However, the people 
kept dropping in until the crowd reached about 
250 to 300 people. James Stockham presided 
as chairman and Simon Cameron and E. R. 
Purcell acted as time-keepers. Mr. Brown 
opened the debate with one hour. Mr. Greene 
then followed with one hour, Mr. Brown then 
followed with twenty minutes and Mr. Greene 
with thirty minutes, and Mr. Brown closed 
with ten minutes, making the time one hour 
and a half each. Brown, in his opening, made 
a very good address and established himself 
as a good speaker. He attacked Greene's 



296 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



record in congress, charged Greene with false 
statements in a circular issued to the people 
of the sixth district two years ago. relative to 
the jjrice of cereals, and cjuoted a lo:al paper 
at Kearney as proof, and attacked his state- 
ment regarding the per capita circulation of 
the country. Had the meeting closed at the 
conclusion of this speech, the people would 
have given Air. P.rown credit for a good hour's 
talk. Mr. Greene then took the platform, and 
as he warmed up to his subject, the attitude 
of the audience changed, and in less than ten 
minutes he had established himself as master 
of the situation, and his eloquen;e and good 
natural arguments carried conviction to the 
heart of every fair-minded man. He took up 
the statements and charges of Air. Brown in 
their order and literally tore them to pieces. 
Instead of quoting from local papers, Mr. 
Greene took the official reports of the govern- 
ment and clinched every argument in the most 
convincing manner. Mr. Brown, on his sec- 
ond appearance, plainly showed the hot fire 
he was under, and made but few points that 
required answering. Mr. Greene then made 
his closing speech of thirty minutes, and Mr. 
Brown only occupied about one-third of the 
ten minutes allotted to him to close. The 
audience had become restless, and fifty or more 
people got up to leave when Mr. Brown took 
the platform for the last time. Xorris Brown 
makes a good address, but as a debater he is 
not in it with W. L. Greene, and those who 
lieard the debate from beginning to end do 
not wonder that the Republicans have en- 
deavored to pull him off from the joint meet- 
ings. These debates will without question 
increase Greene's majority in every county in 
the sixth district." 

THROUr.II RliPUHLIC.\.\' GOGGLES 

The current issue of the Republican has a 
report of the same affair, but everything seems 
to have looked quite dift'erent through Repub- 
lican goggles. Of course, political bias had 
nothing to do with these dift'erent versions. 
The difference was all due to different styles 
of literarv taste. The "(jreene" style appealed 



to the one party but "Brown" was the favorite 
color of the other, so we are to presume that 
the divergent accounts were due to color pref- 
erence. 

"The Greene-Brown debate this afternoon, 
held in the North Side opera house, was a 
great disappointment to the 'Pops.' They had 
not only advertised the debate well in their 
papers, but had billed the county with large 
posters to induce the Pop brethren to give 
Tonsilitis Bill an old-time crowd. After all 
their eft'orts, not more than 300 people, men, 
women, and children, were present. There 
were not, all told, seventy-five Pop voters 
present, and one of them, instead of worship- 
ing their idol, at the conclusion of the debate 
mounted the rostrum and congratulated Xorris 
iirown. Judge Greene made a strong and 
pathetic appeal, with tears in his eyes, for the 
Pops to lay aside personal differences and 
vote for none but Pop nominees. His whole 
<lemeanor and speech only impressed his audi- 
ence more forcibly, that of demagogues he is 
the chief. He claimed to be the original Poj), 
and stated he advocated the principles now 
held 1)\' the Populist ]3arty when he was a 
beardless }outh. He maintained, with all his 
force at his command, that times are worse 
and |)rices of farm products lower than they 
were in the worst days of Cleveland's admin- 
istration. He asserted that if Brown would 
prove that a single prophecy he made two years 
ago in his circular, which stated that "prices 
of all products would decrease, farmers could 
not ])ay their taxes and would lose their 
homes,' in the event of McKinley's election "he 
would withdraw from the ticket.' Brown 
showed from the quoted prices in the Kearney 
EraStaiidard, a Pop paper, giving the prices 
in August, 1806, and 1898, that every article 
there c|uoted was selling for more in .\ugust, 
1898, than in 1896. He also read from the 
World-Herald, showing an increase of exports 
of twelve per cent, and decrease of imports of 
twenty-five ])er cent, the last year, over the 
year jirevious. Greene's only rei)ly was to 
burlesque the reports of local papers and deny 
the facts." 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



297 



THE "POPULIST MOVEMENT IN CUSTER COUNTY 

The People's Independent party, by which 
name it was officially known, or the "Populist" 
party, by which name it was usually known, 
was an outgrowth of an organization known 
in the west as the Farmers' Alliance and in 
the south as the Farmers' Union. In the fall 
of 1888, soon after the presidential election of 
that year, there was much discontent among 
the farmers on account of the low market 
prices of all products of the farm and garden. 
The organization of the Farmers' Alliance, 
and kindred organizations among farmers, be- 
gan as a protest against the prevalence of low 
prices and continued during the ensuing win- 
ter with great vigor in Custer county, in many 
other counties of the state, and in other wes- 
tern and southern states. 

The Farmers' Alliance was a secret organ- 
ization and was composed exclusively of farm- 
ers. It had its grips and passwords, and all 
its discussions of questions of interest to farm- 
ers were held behind closed doors. Farmers' 
.Alliance stores and other mercantile enter- 
prises were started and maintained in the 
cities and towns, efforts to bring producer 
and consumer more closely together were 
made, anrl methods for producing the maxi- 
mum amount per acre, with the minimum of 
effort, were di-^^cussed in their meetings with 
profit. But there were many in alliance circles 
who openly declared that the farmers of the 
country would never be relieved from oppres- 
sive conditions until they entered politics and 
took care that the farming interests should be 
jiroperly represented in all legislative bodies. 

This was the condition of mind among the 
farmers of Custer county in the spring of 1889, 
when the annual meeting of the county alli- 
ance met in the city of Broken Bow. There 
was much talk among the delegates, from the 
various local alliances, of independent political 
action, and after electing officers for the en- 
suing year, a resolution was introduced in 
favor of putting a full ticket in the field in 
Custer county. The introduction of this reso- 
lution gave rise to much discussion as to the 
proprietv of the action. The opinion cjuite 
generally prevailed that such action must 



come sooner or later, but at that time its 
expediency was doubtful, owing to the well 
known prejudice existing against the organi- 
zation of a new party. But after a full dis- 
cussion, the resolution was adopted and many 
who had opposed its adoption, then pledged 
their support to the ticket. 

FIRST COUNTY TICKET 

Accordingly, later in the summer of 1889, a 
delegate convention assembled in Broken Bow, 
adopted a platform embracing the well known 
tenets of the Farmers' Alliance and nominated 
a full ticket, as follows : County judge. H. J- 
Shinn ; sheriff, J. B. Jones ; treasurer, D. M. 
Weimer; county superintendent, W. N. Hen- 
drickson ; count}' clerk. J. G. Painter : county 
surveyor, E. W. Dodson ; representative, W. 
II. Predmore. 

From that time on, the Farmers' Alliance of 
Custer county assumed and retained the form 
and substance of a distinctive and separate 
political party. The campaign which follow- 
ed was indeed a unique campaign for Custer 
county. .\11 the men nominated on the alli- 
ance ticket were farmers, none of whom had 
ever given any considerable study to politics 
or political questions, and they were pitted 
against a ticket of veteran politicians, nominat- 
ed, and supported by a party that had never 
known defeat since the organization of the 
county. 

Although the alliance had developed into a 
political party, it still maintained its organi- 
zation throughout the county, and the ticket 
nominated was called the "Alliance ticket." 
Meetings were held in all parts of the county, 
under the auspices of the local alliances, the 
principles of the order were discussed at 
schoolhouses and picnics, and the argimients of 
the oppo.sition, as to why the ticket shoyld be 
defeated, were answered. The new doctrines, 
promulgated by the alliance, proved to be very 
popular and as a result of the campaign the 
entire ticket was elected, except the candidate 
for representative, who was defeated by J. D. 
Haskell, by a small majority. 

The successful experience of the alliance 
movement in Custer countv. and in other conn- 



298 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



ties of the state and other western states where 
similar political action was taken, revealed to 
fanners some idea of the political power they 
could wield when united, and the general un- 
rest in farming circles crystallized into a gen- 
eral demand for the formation of a new party, 
whose purpose should be to promote the wel- 
fare of all men and women who get their live- 
lihood by labor. Accordingly, on the 14th day 
of May, 1891, a convention of delegates favor- 
able to such a movement, met in Cincinnati, 
Ohio, and in its platform declared for the 
issuing of all money directly from the federal 
government to the people, without the inter- 
vention of national banks ; the government 
ownership of railroads and other public utili- 
ties ; and the preservation of the public domain 
for homes for the people. This convention 
christened the new party "The People's Inde- 
pendent Party," and arranged for another con- 
vention, to be held in St. Louis, on February 
22, 1892. The delegates attending this con- 
vention from Custer county were O. M. Kem 
and C. W. Beal. 

In accordance with arrangements made at 
this convention, a delegate convention was 
held in St. Louis on the date above named. 
Delegates were in attendance from twenty- 
three labor organizations, including the Farm- 
ers' Alliance. The movement, at this junc- 
ture, had aroused much opposition, and there 
were those present who were there to prevent, 
if possible, any further organization or amal- 
gamation of the elements represented. Crim- 
inations and recriminations were rather freely 
indulged in, and a number, who were proved 
to be present from sinister motives, were forc- 
ibly ejected from the hall. A platform was 
adopted, along the lines of the Cincinnati con- 
vention, and arrangements were made to hold 
a nominating convention in Omaha, Nebraska, 
on the 4th day of July, 1892. 

THE C.\T CKKICK CLUB 

Accordingly, the first national nominating 
convention of the People's Independent Party 
was held in Omaha on the above-named date. 
There was a full delegation present from Cus- 
ter countv, and the famous "Cat Creek Glee 



Club. " of Custer county, Nebraska, composed 
of J. T. Emerick, S. E. and J. H. Brown, and 
Harry Emerick, was in attendance and re- 
galed the convention with a number of songs 
that aroused the delegates to a high pitch of 
enthusiasm. Among the songs were those 
entitled. "Coming in the Life Boat," "We'll 
Meet You Bye and Bye," and "Coming for to 
Carry Me Home." This convention adopted 
the far-famed Omaha platform, which began 
with : "We have met in the midst of a nation 
lirought to the verge of moral, material, and 
financial ruin," and, among other things, de- 
clared for reform in finance, land, and trans- 
portation. The convention nominated Gen- 
eral James B. Weaver for president, and Gen- 
eral Field for vice-president. In the cam- 
paign that followed, the new party carried six 
states and secured twenty-two votes in the 
electoral college. In Custer county, Nebraska, 
it elected S. M. Dorris, clerk of the district 
court: Ebenezer Miller, county attorney; D. 
W. Lanterman, register of deeds, and W. P. 
Higgins and C. W. Beal, representatives to 
the lower house of the legislature. O. M. 
Kem, who lived in Custer county, was elected 
to congress, and Silas A. Holcomb, also a 
resident of Custer county, was elected judge 
of the twelfth judicial district. Mr. Kem 
served three successive terms in congress and 
Mr. Holcomb, after serving the state two 
terms as governor, was elected judge of the 
supreme court, in which capacity he served 
six years. He was then elected chief justice 
of the supreme court, in which office he served 
six years. 

For ten years, beginning in 1889. the Pop- 
ulist ]«rty carried Custer county, and through- 
out the country it had become a power so 
formidable that leading men in all parties 
came to understand fully that, unless some- 
thing were done to curb its growth, it was 
destined to become one of the leading parties, 
if not the dominant party, of the country. 

LIKF. .\ L.\MI! TO THK SW.\LLO\VINC 

As the presidential cam])aign of 1896 ap- 
proached, leading members of the new party 
felt that it held the kev to the situation. It 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



299 



was arranged to hold its national convention 
after the two old parties had held theirs, the 
idea being that the conventions of both old 
parties would declare for the gold standard 
and bid for the vote of special interests. They 
were not mistaken as to what the Republican 
party would do, but the Democratic convention 
adopted a platform which included the prin- 
cipal demands of the Populist party, declaring 
among other things, for the abolition of the 
national banking system and the issuance and 
control of all money directly from the govern- 
ment. This was the beginning of the end of 
the Populist party in the nation, as it was 
evident that if the Populist party nominated 
a separate ticket it meant success for the Re- 
publican ticket. So, when the Populist con- 
vention was held in St. Louis, on July 22. 1896, 
after a vigorous canvass of the situation and 
many stormy scenes, the convention nomi- 
nated William J. Bryan, the nominee of the 
Democratic party for president, but aimed to 
preserve its identity by refusing to nominate 
Arthur Sewall, the nominee of the Democrats 
for vice-president, and nominated Thomas E. 
Watson, of Georgia, for that position. 

After the memorable campaign of 1896, the 
Populist party rapidly disintegrated. The 
party, however, maintained its identity in the 
county for many years thereafter, by preserv- 
ing its separate organization and nominating 
and supporting tickets made up of Populists, 
but its numbers gradually decreased until 1915, 
when the party officially went out of business. 
Its last central committee chairman was 
Charles T. Orr and its last secretary was 
Charles H. Jeffords, who stayed by the ship 
to the last and with genuine regret saw her 
sink. 

Though the People's Independent Party has 
passed into history, this generation willingly 
gives it the full credit which was withheld by 
the last generation. It was the first political 
party to declare for the postal-savings banks, 
the initiative and referendum, the election of 
United States senators by direct vote, govern- 
ment ownership of public utilities and the issu- 
ance of all money without the agency of banks 
of issue. The majority of these policies have 



been enacted into law, and the wisdom and 
beneficence of these laws are universally con- 
ceded. 

THE REPUBLICAN P.\RTY ORG.ANIZES 

The Republican party was the first organ- 
ized political party in Custer county. From 
the records of its first meeting it is evident that 
political lines were not tightly drawn, and 
members of other political organizations were 
freely admitted to its party caucuses and 
county conventions. The first record of the 
meeting of a Republican county convention is 
that of the year 1877. This convention was 
held at the temporary county seat of Custer 
county, on the 2Sth day of July, 1877. Henry 
Goodyear was elected chairman of this con- 
vention and Frank H. Young, secretary. 

Custer county had previously been organ- 
ized and, by an order of Governor Garber, 
county commissioners had been appointed. 
This first convention was called to nominate 
the temporary county officers to hold office un- 
til the November election, when the full county 
ticket would be elected. The minutes of that 
convention reads as follows : 

"Convention came to order by electing 
Henry Goodyear chairman and Frank H. 
Young secretary. 

"It was moved and carried that the candi- 
dates be nominated by acclamation. Louis 
Wambsgan was nominated for county judge. 
Frank H. Young was nominated for county 
clerk. Anton Abel was nominated for county 
commissioner. William Kilgore was nominated 
for county commissioner. James Gasmann was 
nominated for county commissioner. Joshua 
Wood was nominated for sheriff. S. C. 
S'tuckey and John Myers were put in nomina- 
tion for county treasurer and, on voting, S. C. 
Stuckey was nominated. H. C. Morton was 
nominated for county surveyor. George San- 
ford was nominated for coroner. J. J. Doug- 
lass, L. D. George, and Charles R. Mathews 
were elected as the county central committee. 

"On motion the convention adjourned sine 
die. Fr.\nk H. Young, Secretary." 

The second convention was held on the 1st 
day of November, 1877. At this convention 



300 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



a full set of county officers were nominated. 
The nominees were duly elected, and the ticket 
thus elected became the first regiilarly elected 
set of county officers for Custer county. The 
most of the officers elected at the election in 
1877 served the entire term of the election. 
Others resigned, and their places were filled 
by appointment. The minutes of tiiis second 
Republican county convention read as follows : 

"Convention came to order by electing R. 
Tucker temporary chairman and F. H. Young" 
temporary secretary. James Gasmann put in 
nomination as commissioner for commissioner 
precinct No. 5. Anton Abel put in nomination 
as commissioner for commissioner precinct 
No. 2. William Kilgore put in nomination as 
commissioner for commissioner precinct No. 
1. Wilson Hewitt, county judge; S. C. Stuck- 
ey. county treasurer ; R. Tucker, county 
clerk: Josh Wood, sheriff: Al. Wise, coroner; 
J. W. Benedict, surveyor ; Mr. Eubank, super- 
intendent. Central committeemen, Tom 
Ritche. No. 5 ; Wilson Hewitt, No. 2 : James 
Paxton, No. 1 ; W. R. Matthews, No. .^ : Will- 
iam Comstock, No. 4. 

"Louis Wambsgan. county judge. ( W'ambs- 
gan, four points, Hewitt, ten points.) Wilson 
Hewitt nominated for county judge." 

The settlement of Custer county is nicely 
illustrated by tlie maimer in which attendance 
at the various early county conventions com- 
menced to increase. In 1897 the third Repub- 
lican count)- convention was held. It is notice- 
able that while the old names are retained in 
the minutes of the early conventions, new 
names begin to appear and the names of these 
men, as they appear from time to time in the 
early records of these conventions, are the men 
who are largely credited with early settlement 
and development of the county. The minutes 
of the convention for 1879 are not full or very 
complete. They read as follows: 

"Meeting called to order by Frank H. 
Young. V. Allyn, chairman : Frank H. Young, 
secretary. 

"County commissioner, J. 1). Haskell, 
county commissioner. District No. 1. Count v 
judge, Millard Miles: county clerk, Frank 11. 
Young: county treasurer. James A. Pike: 



county sheriff, P. W. Bruin : county coroner, 
John George; superintendent, J. J. Douglass; 
surveyor. L. S. Perrin. W'illiam Kilgore, 
George .\rnold, and \ . All\n elected county 
central committee." 

On October 8, 1880. the Republican county 
convention was held at flyers' ranch. A com- 
plete record of the proceedings of that conven- 
tion is disclosed by the minutes and returns as 
follows : 

Republican county convention called to order 
by N. H. Hopkins, chairman of the county 
central committee. N. H. Hopkins elected 
liermanent chairman and Frank H. \'oung 
elected permanent secretary. 

The following committee on credentials was 
elected : C. C. Kint^sbury, precinct No. 2 : W. 
H. Comstock, precinct No. 3 ; C. R. Mathews, 
precinct No. 5 ; J. L. Goodrich, precinct No. 
6; C. S. Ellison, precinct No. 9. 

Recess of half an hour. After recess the 
committee on credentials made the following 
report. Report accepted and connnittee dis- 
charged. Moved ancl seconded that one dele- 
gate be allowed each precinct for each one 
hundred jrapulation or fraction thereof, taking 
as a basis of the state census of 1880 and add- 
ing one-third, so as to approximate the United 
States census. Carried. Whereupon the con- 
vention found that the precincts were entitled 
to the number of votes set opposite their num- 
bers, to-wit : 

Precinct No. 1, no delegates; precinct No. 
2, four delegates ; precinct No. 3, two dele- 
gates ; precinct No. 4, none present ; precinct 
No. 5. three delegates : precinct No. 6, five 
delegates ; precinct No. 7, four delegates ; pre- 
cinct No. 8, three delegates: precinct No. 9, 
three delegates: precinct No. 10, one delegate. 

Moved and recorded the delegates present be 
allowed to cast the full vote of their precinct. 

The next business in order being the nom- 
ination of count}' commissioners in District 
No. 1. the following named gentlemen were 
unanimously nominated : L. W. F. Cole, from 
precinct Xo. 6; C. F. Crawford, precinct No. 
7, unanimously nominated county treasurer; 
C. R. Matthews, of precinct No. 5, unanimous- 
ly nominated county judge. 

The following named gentlemen were elected 
a county central committee for the ensuing 
year, to-wit : 

Nc George, precinct Xo . 1 : Frank H. 
'S'oung. precinct Xo. 2; W. H. Comstock, ])re- 
cinct Xo. 3: W. H. Henderson, precinct No. 
4 : I.. W. Sherman, precinct Xo. 5 ; J, L. Good- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



301 



rich, precinct Xo. 6; N. H. Hopkins, precinct 
No. 7; George Brooks, precinct No. 8: A. J. 
Snowden, precinct No. 9; J. D. Ream, precinct 
No. 10; R. C. TalJDot, precinct No. 11; Ira 
Graves, precinct No. 12. 

The convention adjourned sine die. 

Frank H. Young, Secretary. 

From 1880 to 1884 there is no record obtain- 
able of Republican county conventions in the 
county. On August 12, 1884, the Republican 
county convention was held at Broken Bow. A 
full history of the proceedings of this conven- 
tion has been retained in the well known hand- 
writing of Frank Young and reads as follows : 

Republican county convention met pursuant 
to call of central committee and was called to 
order by C. H. Savidge, chairman central com- 
mittee. 

C. S. Elison elected temporary chairman anil 
Frank H. Young temporary secretary. Com- 
mittee of three on credentials appointed by the 
chair, as follows: J. S. Kirkpatrick, J. W. 
Thomas, W. H. Russell. On motion a com- 
mittee of three on order of business was ap- 
|iointed by the chair, as follows : F. D. Mills, 
George O. Waters, Ed King. On motion a 
committee of three on permanent organization 
was appointed, as follows: J. S. Squires, J. 
[Merchant, M. Schneringer. 

Moved to adjourn to one p. m. Lost. [Moved 
to adjourn to two p. ji. Carried. 

TWO p. ir. 

Convention called to order by chairman. 

Report of committee on credentials read and 
accepted. 

Report of committee on permanent organi- 
zation read and accepted. 

Report of committee on order of business 
read and accepted. 

Moved by J. S. Kirkpatrick that we elect 
four delegates to state convention, one at a 
time. Seconded and carried. 

[Moved that delegates present be empowered 
to cast the full vote of their township. Carried. 

Nominations for delegates to state conven- 
tion : James Thomas, of Sargent; C. S. Elison, 
of Algernon, by G. O. Waters : T. P. Gandy. 
of Broken Bow, by S. A. Miller; J. L. H. 
Knight, of Myrtle; F. Zinmierer. of Custer, 
by Knight; F. H. Young, of Custer, by Zim- 
merer. Knight declined. 

Moved and caried that townships cast their 
votes by chairman of delegates after this. 

First ballot — -Thomas, 23; Elison, 1; 
Gandy, 7; Zimmerer, 4. Total, 33. James 
Thomas elected. 



Second ballot — Gandy, 23; Elison, 8; 
Zimmerer, 4. Total, 35. J. P. Gandy elected. 

Third ballot — Elison, 19; Zimmerer, 18. 
Total. 3i7. C. S. Elison elected. 

Fourth ballot — Rules suspended and F. 
Zimmerer elected by acclamation. 

Nominations for congressional delegates — • 
Isaac Merchant, withdrawn ; Lefter, with- 
drawn ; A. W. Squires ; W. II. Predmore ; 
Bedwin. 

Moved by Kirkpatrick that delegates be 
nominated and elected one at a time. Moved 
to amend by Graves that four be elected at 
one ballot. Amendment last motion carried. 

First ballot — Squires, 4 ; Predmore, 32. 
W. H. Predmore elected. 

Second ballot — Squires. 28 ; Bidwell, 6. A. 
W. Squires elected. 

Rules suspended and Frank H. Young and 
W. Bidwell elected by acclamation. 

JUDICI.XL CONVENTIONS 

Nominations : J. S. Kirkpatrick, Edgar Var- 
ney, C. S. Elison, C. P. Foot, J. A. Armour, 
J. W. Thomas. J. S. Kirkpatrick, J. A. Ar- 
mour, J. W. Thomas, and C. P. Foot elected 
by acclamation. 

SENATORI.VL CONVENTION DELEGATES 

Nominations : M. S'chneringer, W. H. Hen- 
derson, E. King, John Morrison, C. S. Elison, 
Jess Gandy, C. H. Savidge. 

First ballot — Henderson. 11; Schneringer, 
2; King. 3; M. F. Young. 6; Elison, 8; Sav- 
idge, 3; Gandy, 3. Total, 36. 

Second ballot — Henderson, 20 ; Elison. 5 ; 
Savidge, 5 ; Gandy, 8. Total, 38. W. H. Hen- 
derson elected. 

Third ballot— Elison, 9; Savidge, 15; 
Schneringer, 3; King. 4; Gandy, 5. Total, 36. 

Fourth ballot — Savidge, 12; Elison, 16; 
King", 5 ; Schneringer, 2 ; Gandy, 3. Total, 38. 
Rules suspended and M. Schneringer, C. S. 
Elison, and E. King elected by acclamation. 

REPRESENTATIVE CONVENTION 

Nominations: W. H. Russell, A. Crouch, C. 
H. Teffords. T. D. Ream (declined), George 
Sherman, W." D. Lefter, J. L. H. Knight, D. 
M. Amsberry, S. A. Miller, A. W. Squires, 
J. S. Benjamin. 

[Moved that the rules be suspended and first 
eight be declared elected. Amended to vote 
for one at a time. Motion as amended car- 
ried. 

First ballot — Amsberry, 3: [Miller, 11; 
Lefter, 15; Russell, 5; Ream, 1; Crouch. 1. 
Total, 36. 

Second ballot — Amsberry. 1: [Miller. 11; 
Lefter, 22 ( elected ) : Sherman, 2. Total, 36. 



302 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



Third ballot — Miller. 14: Knisrht. 20 
(elected) ; Benjamin, 2; Russell. 2. Total, 38. 

Fourth ballot — Miller, 13: Crouch, 23 
(elected) ; Amsberry, 3. Total, 39. 

The convention of August 24, 1884. was 
called for the purpose of electing delegates to 
the various conventions of the party for that 
year. No county candidates were nominated 
at this convention. The committee on creden- 
tials reported as follows : 

The committee on credentials respectfully 
reports the following named gentlemen entitled 
to seats in this convention : Algernon : D. M. 
Amsberry. C. S. Elison, and J. M. Bartlett, 
precinct No. 3. Kilfoil : William Walsh, \\'. 
BidwcU. and Charles Foote. Township No. 3. 
Delight : Ira Graves. M. Schneringer. Town- 
ship No. 2. Sargent : J. W. Thomas. C. R. 
Jewett. and George Sherman. Township No. 
3. Douglas : George O. Waters, A. B. Crouch, 
and H. M. Henderson. Grove. No. 3. Wood 
River: W. H. Henderson. H. Blakeslee (not 
signed). Township No. 2. Lillian: H. H. 
Russell and \'. James Dares. Township No. 
2. Custer: F. Zimmerer, J. W. Benedict, and 
Frank H. Young. Township No. 3. M. F. 
Young, proxy for J. W. Benedict. Myrtle : 
J. L. H. Knight. George E. Richtmcyer, and 
D. C. Goodrich. Numbers S. 3. Broken Bow : 
A. Miller. J. S. Kirkpatrick. O. M-. Kern, and 
Ed King. Township No. 4. Westerville : 
P. D. Mills, F. C. M. Knox. J. J. Brown. H. D. 
Lefter. and H. S. Waterbury. Precinct No. 
5. New Helena : I. Merchant and J. H. Bath- 
erick. Township No. 2. West Union : \\'. 
Predmore, J. S. Squires, and Thomas Deane. 
Precinct No. 3. 

J. S. KiRKP.\TRiCK. Chairman. 

We, the committee on permanent organiza- 
tion, respectfulh- recommend that the tempo- 
rary organization be made permanent. 

T. S. Squires, Chairman of Committee. • 

.\t that time apparently Custer county liad 
no candidate for any office outside of the 
boundaries of the county. Custer county was 
embraced in the legislative district along with 
the unorganized territory to the west and 
other counties along the line of the Union Pa- 
cific Railroad, but the delegates to this con- 
vention, having in mind the needs of the 
county from a legislative standpoint, adopted 
the following resolution : "Resolved, That the 
representative delegation be instructed to use 



every honorable eflfort to secure the nomina- 
tion of a Custer county man." 

A county central committee was named by 
this convention. The ])recinct nominations 
had been dropped and the voting precincts 
were given names. At this time there were 
thirteen voting precincts in the county. The 
name of the precinct and the committeemen 
selected by this convention were as follows : 
Algernon. C. S. Bedwell : Kilfoil. W. Bidwell ; 
Delight. M. H. Deams : Sargent. George Sher- 
man ; Douglas Grove, G. O. Waters : \\'ood 
River, T. B. Buckner; Lillian. W. H. Russell; 
Custer, F. Zimmerer; Myrtle, G. E. Richt- 
meyer; Broken Bow, J. S. Kirkpatrick; Wes- 
terville. F. C. :M. Knox; 

Moved that the first ballot be informal. 
Carried. On motion. R. R. Chess. \\'. W. 
Thornton. William Osborne, were appointed 
tellers. Moved that the chairman of each del- 
egation cast the vote of his precinct. Lost. 

Nomination for county treasurer, informal 
ballot — Knight, 16: Brown. 10; Squires. 8; 
Hemsworth.'2: Schreyer. 2. Total. 38. 

First ballot — Knight. 17; Brown. 15; 
Squires. 10. Total. 42. A. W. Squires" name 
withdrawn. 

Second ballot — Knight. 16: Brown. 26 
(elected). Total. 42. 

Rules suspended and R. C. Tallx)t nomi- 
nated for county treasurer by acclamation. 

Nominations for sheriff. ( informal ballot) 
— Charles Rockwood, 13: Charles Penn. 15: 
Charles Foote. 14. 

Moved that the convention take a recess of 
fifteen minutes. Carried. 

Convention called to order bv chairman. 

First ballot — Rockwood, 13: Penn. 12: 
Foote. 16. Total, 41. 

Second ballot — Rockwood. 13: I'cnn. 13: 
Foote. 15. Total. 41. 

Third ballot — Rockwood. 8; Penn. 13: 
Foote. 21. Total. 42. 

Fourth ballot — Penn. 17; Foote. 24. Total. 
41. 

Nominations for superintendent of public 
instruction ( informal ballot ) — W. W. Thorn- 
ton. 5; W. C. Elliott. 4; A. R. Samson. 8; 
D. M. Amsbern-. 25. Total. 42. New Helena, 
I. J. Dings: West I'nion. J. L. Cobb. 

On the 14th day of October. 1884. the con- 
vention proper was held at Broken Bow for 
the nomination of a county ticket. At this 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



303 



convention the following county ticket was 
nominated : 

Pursuant to notice, the Republican county 
convention was called to order by the chair- 
.man of the county central committee. 

Nathan English was elected temporary 
chairman and Frank H. Young temporary 
•secretary. On motion, E. King and \\'. H.' 
Russell were appointed committee on creden- 
tials. D. C. Goodrich, W. H. Russell, and 
M. H. Deems were appointed a committee on 
order of business. Edgar \'arnev, W. F. 
Slingsby, R. R. Chess, and W. D. Meeker 
were appointed committee on permanent or- 
ganization. On motion adjourned till one 
o'clock p. M. 

oxE o'clock p. m. 

Convention called to order by chairman. 
Committee on credentials made their report 
which was adopted. Committee on order of 
business made their report, which was read 
and accepted. Committee on permanent or- 
ganization recommended that temporary or- 
ganization be made permanent. Adopted. 

Nominations for county clerk — J. L. H. 
Knox, J. J. Brown, Alfred Schreyer, ^\^ W. 
Si|uires, James H. Ledwich (declined), E. A. 
Hemsworth. 

Moved that the convention vote by ballot. 
Carried. Moved to make the informal ballot 
formal. Carried. 

Nominations for surveyor (informal ballot) 

— E. N. Bishop. 22; L. E. Koon, 20. Total, 
42. Moved that the informal ballot be made 
formal. Lost. 

First ballot — Bishop, 21; Koon, 21. Total, 
42. 

Second ballot — Bishop, 29; Koon, 13; 
Total, 42. 

Nominations for coroner (informal ballot) 

— J. H. Murray. 13; W. D. Sleeker. 24: 
Crawford, 1 ; Wamsley, 1 ; Goodrich, 3. Total 
42. Moved that W. D. Meeker be nominated 
liy acclamation. Carried. Moved that this 
convention endorse the present county judge, 
J. S. Benjamin. 

Moved that townships that were not repre- 
sented in the previous convention now present 
the names of their central committeemen. 
Carried. A. Booton nominated central com- 
mitteeman from Arnold township ; George 
Ricker, 17; John \'an Horn, from Cliff. 18. 

On motion adjourned sine die. 

Fr.\xk H. Young, Secretary. 

The convention of 1885 was held at Broken 
Bow on September 30. In the deliberations 
of this convention, many men participated, 



whose names have become household words in 
the development of the county. To illustrate, 
John S. Kirkpatrick, and Frank H. Young, 
secretary of the convention. The committee 
on credentials was composed of S. L. Cannon. 
Mark Schreninger. J. D. Ream. F. Zimmerer. 
and S. B. Harris. The committee on perma- 
nent organization was composed of John 
Myers. Arthur Kilgore, Ed. King, Sam High, 
and John Hall. The committee on resolutions 
was composed of J. D. Ream, \\\ W. Thorn- 
ton, John Hall, L. B. Brisbane, and J. D. 
Trover. 

Custer county has always been noted for its 
convention oratory, but at this convention a 
motion was carried limiting a iiominating 
speech to five minutes and a speech of a can- 
didate to ten minutes. With this brake on the 
talking power of the candidates, the conven- 
tion proceeded to nominate the ticket. 

From the beginning of party organizations 
in Custer county down to the year 1889, the 
nomination of a Republican convention was 
equivalent to election of the nominee. No 
person other than the nominee of a Republican 
convention was elected to any county office 
during this period. The Democrats maintained 
an organization and some glorious campaign 
fights were conducted in the county, in an 
effort to elect certain Democrats, but when the 
vote was counted their effort was always 
found to be futile. The resolutions adopted 
from time to time by the early Republican 
conventions expressed the thought of the party 
in its representative capacity. Some of these 
resolutions are entitled to a place in history. 
The following resolution was adopted by the 
convention of 1884: 

W'hereas. The circumstances under which 
the Republican party was organized, demanded 
that the party be one of progression, and the 
party owes its successes to its willingness to 
grapple with the issues of the day : 

Therefore. Be it Resolved. That we, as 
representatives of that party in convention as- 
sembled, do demand that the party in the 
county shall faithfully engage in every ques- 
tion of importance wherein the rights of the 
manv are made subservient to the will of the 
few. 

Early in its party history, the Republican 



304 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



party took a stand against the sale of intoxi- 
cating liquors. The following resolution was 
adopted in 1884, apparently after a bitter fight 
in the convention and after the resolution, as 
it had been originally written, was amended 
to read as follows: 

Whereas, the license of the sale of intoxi- 
cants in any form, especially as patent medi- 
cine, is contrary to morality and the best 
interests of our county : 

Be it Resolved, That the Republican ]jartv 
of Custer county is morally, socially and i)o- 
litically opposed to the liquor traffic, will not 
give countenance to the sale of intoxicating 
beverages in the county and will support only 
temperance men for state, county, and town- 
ship officers. 

The anti-monopoly ])rocIivities of the Re- 
publican party of the county early cropped out 
in its conventions. Up to and including the 
convention of 1885, no railroad had crossed 
the county line and the nearest trading point 
where railroad facilities could be had was along 
the line of the Union Pacific to the south, so 
the convention of 1885 adopted the following 
resolution concerning railroad regulations: 

"Resolved. That the railroad commission of 
our state is a step in the right direction but. 
as at present empowered and constituted, is 
wholly inadequate to meet the required needs 
and demands of the ])eople." 

This anti-monopoly sentiment is expressed 
also in a resolution which was oft'ered and 
adopted in the convention of 1885 and which 
reads as follows : 

"Resolved. That the course of C. H. \ an 
Wyck in the national senate has been fearless 
and honorable in the interest of the whole 
l^eoiile, regardless of the abuses of the ijarti- 
sans, politicians, and nionied cor])orations, and 
meets with our hearty approval. (J. D. Ri:am. 
Chairman )." 

At the time of the adoption of this resolu- 
tion, C. II. \'an\Vyck was United States sena- 
tor from Nebraska. He was regarded as a 
thorough anti-monopolist, and the resolution 
offered by Mr. Ream above set out is an in- 
dorsement of the very belligerent career of 
Senator VanWyck in the United States senate. 
The resolution was oft'ered and adojited by a 
rising vote. 



During the year 1888 and sjiring of 1889 
a Farmers' Alliance organization was com- 
pleted throughout the county. In 1889 the 
Farmers' Alliance entered politics. In a county 
convention of their own. a full county ticket 
was nominated from their own membership. 
The Democratic party leaders, having Ijeen 
unsuccessful in their attempt to elect any reg- 
ular nominee of a Democratic county conven- 
tion, cast in their lot with the nominees of the 
Farmers' .Alliance and at the November elec- 
tion in 1889 the entire Re])ublican county 
ticket was defeated and the Farmers' Alliance 
candidates, by the aid of the Democratic party 
organization, were all elected. For a period of 
ten years, from 1889, the Republican organiza- 
tion was submerged, and no nominee of a Re- 
l)ublican convention had any more chance of an 
election than a Democrat had had prior to that 
year. In time the Alliance party organization 
was taken over and its management and con- 
trol passed to the Democratic leaders of the 
county. The first break that the Republicans 
were able to make in this water-tight organiza- 
tion came in the year 1897. when, by a split 
in the party organization of the remnants of 
the old Farmers' .Alliance movement, known 
at that time as the Populist party, the Repub- 
licans succeeded in electing J. A. .Arninur 
county judge. 

The dismemberment of the Populist ])arty 
consisted of its alliance with the Democratic 
party, gradually leading to many of its mem- 
bers returning to Republicans, and in the vear 
1905. in a straight party fight between the Re- 
publican candidates and the Democratic can- 
didates, the Republicans elected their entire 
county ticket. They continued to elect the 
nominees of the Republican party until the 
year 1909, when a set of comity officials partlv 
Republican and partly Democratic was elected, 
and from that day to this there has been a 
mixed ticket elected at each election. 

THE RI-PUIILIC.VXS SPLIT 

During the cami)aign of 1912, when the na- 
tional Republican convention split, and the 
Progressives nominated a second Republican 
ticket, the Progressive wing of the party 
waged a strenuous local campaign in the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



305 



county for the national Progressive ticket. As 
a result of this campaign, two years later, the 
f'rogressives organized for the state and 
county campaign, and put a Progressive 
county ticket into the field. Because of the 
Republican vote being divided, the county of- 
fices, with two exceptions, were captured by 
the Democrats. 

Since the establishment of the so-called Aus- 
tralian ballot system, the partisan spirit has 
to a great extent, subsided, and to-day it is 
exceedingly hard to maintain a political or- 
ganization, whether Republican or Democratic. 

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY 

To M. C. Warrington who has been one of 
the wheelhorses of the Democratic party since 
its inception in Custer county, belongs the 
credit for the compilation of the following 
data concerning Democratic activities : 

"In giving a history of the activities of the 
Democratic party in Custer county much data 
are necessarily omitted, for the reason that no 
authentic account of many accomplishments 
of that organization is available. 

"During a period of the first several years 
following the organization of Custer county, 
party affiliation was not taken seriously into 
consideration when it came to selecting offi- 
cials, availability being considered of greater 
importance than politics. However, a number 
of the early-day officials of the county were 
Democrats. 

"There seems to have been no Democratic 
organization within the county at the time of 
the presidential campaign in 1880. However, 
there were some Democratic voters in the 
county at that time. It is related by Robert 
Farley, one of the pioneer Democratic settlers 
in the county, that he made on horseback a 
trip of about twenty miles to the nearest voting 
place to cast his ballot that year. This being 
in the days before the Australian voting sys- 
tem had been adopted and when the ballots 
were furnished by part}' leaders rather than 
by the county, as now, Mr. Farley could find 
no Democratic tickets, and was informed by 
the election officers that there were none at 
the polls. Determined to cast his vote for 



General Hancock for president, Air. Farley 
tore a Democratic ticket out of a newspaper, 
voted that and returned home, conscious of 
having performed a sacred duty of citizenship. 

"A full county ticket was placed in the field 
in 1884 and met with overwhelming defeat at 
the polls. That apparently was the first real 
organization effected by the Democrats in Cus- 
ter county. During the years from 1880 for a 
period of ten years there was a heavy influx 
of settlers to Custer county, being drawn here 
first by the free-homestead lands and later by 
the advent of the railroad and the springing 
up of a number of new towns. 

"The Democrats made a very aggressive ef- 
fort to win the county election in 1887. An 
enthusiastic county convention was held in 
Broken Bow in September of that year, every 
preceinct being represented, and a ticket, made 
up of the then well known Custer county citi- 
zens, was placed in the field as follows : County 
treasurer, James Holland ; county clerk, J. R. 
Forsythe ; sheriff, Michael Conley ; clerk dis- 
trict court, Harry E. O'Neill: county judge, 
E. P. Campbell ; county superintendent, F. W. 
Taylor ; coroner. Dr. J. W. Saunders. 

"The election of that year, despite the fact 
that the Democrats made a strenuous eiifort for 
success, was won by the Republicans, some of 
the candidates winning by majorities around a 
thousand. This crushing defeat was disheart- 
ening to the Democrats and was, in a measure, 
largely responsible for paving the way for the 
success of the Farmers' Alliance ticket in 1889, 
when the Republicans in turn were wiped off 
the political map by large majorities. Tliat 
vear the Democratic organization, manipulated 
largely bv those who saw a chance to work 
through the farmers' organization and bring 
defeat to the Republicans, ably assisted and 
urged by a number of Democrats anxious for 
political perferment and the spoils of office, 
withdrew the Democratic ticket from the field 
and joined their political fortunes with tlie 
farmers. The Farmers' Alliance organization, 
after their national convention in Omaha in 
1890. became the People's Independent party, 
popularly and generally known as the 'Pops,' 
and they held almost full and complete sway 



306 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, XEBR.ASKA 



in political affairs in Custer county after their 
victory in 1889 for twelve years, and partially 
for a longer period, when the party began to 
disintegrate and gradually merge with the 
Democrats. 

"Covering the period when the Populists 
were at the zenith of their power, the Demo- 
cratic organization was not abandoned, but was 
held together by a few of the old guard, ever 
faithful to the trust of party fidelity and loyal- 
ty. County conventions were regularly held, 
delegates to state and district conventions se- 
lected, and county tickets nominated, made up 
generally of men of affairs and prominence 
who neither sought nor expected political 
honors. This organization, so honorably and 
loyally maintained, extended a welcome hand 
to those who had affiliated with the Populist 
party when that political bubble burst, and the 
party of the fathers was soon again to come in- 
to popular favor with Custer county voters. 

"It would be unfair not to mention in this 
article some of the stalwart men who were 
numbered among the Democrats of Custer 
county during these early days, and who con- 
tributed of their time and means to perpetuate 
the party organization at a time and under cir- 
cumstances which were, to say the least, dis- 
couraging. With everything in a political way 
to lose and nothing to gain ; urged on, only by 
motives of good citizenship and the righteous- 
ness of the principles they stood for, these men 
unfalteringly met the issues squarely. In con- 
nection with this it is to be taken into consid- 
eration the fact that the Populist party not only 
carried everything in Custer county but gaineil 
strength enough in Nebraska to elect stale and 
judicial officers, members of congress, and a 
United States senator, and besides becoming 
an important political factor in the nation as 
well. In the tlays of the Populists' greatest 
activities, Custer county men were classed 
among the leaders of the party in both state 
and nation, and many men who were former 
Democrats were high in its councils and were 
elected to positions of trust and honor. When 
the Populist organization ceased to be a factor 
in political affairs, many of these men returned 
to their old party afifiliation with the Demo- 



crats. There has been no feel--.g of resentment 
or any desire on the part of the party leaders 
to question the motives of any man who 
worked with the Populists in those days, nor 
not to fully appreciate the energy and activity 
of other men who later became residents of 
the county and cast their fortune with the 
Democrats. 

"Among the men who were always to be de- 
pended upon to lend a hand to the cause of De- 
mocracy in those politically 'dry' years and try- 
ing times were W. B. Eastham, S. B. Thomp- 
son, A. J. Robertson, Dr. C. L. Mullins, C. H. 
HolcoiTib, C. T. Tierney, E. M. Thompson, 
the late J. J. Wilson, and J. G. Leonard, all of 
Broken Bow ; B. J. Tierney, John Scott, C. 
Mackey. A. H. Turpin, of .\nsley ; W. C. 
Rusmisell, A. O'Brien, G. F. Frasier. W. N. 
Murley. M. C. Warrington, of Mason City; 
John Moran, the late J. H. Decker, Virgil Al- 
len, Harry E. O'Neill, of Callaway : Thomas 
and Charles Finlen. Joe. Berry, Diah Wood- 
ruff', Judge E. J. Boblits, Dan I'.uckley, J. T. 
Bridges, Charles AI. Bowers, of the South 
Loup country: Judge Charles E. Mathews, 
Harve Andrews, Charley Smith, of .\nselnio : 
Robert J. Kelly, Frank Kelly, M. S. Eddy, of 
Merna. 

"The Democratic press of Custer county has 
had a great many ups-and-downs. The first 
real organ of Democracy launched on the 
troubled sea of journalism in the county was 
the Statesman, a paper established in Broken 
Bow early in the year 1886, by Martin & Del- 
linger. These same meii established the Mason 
City Transcript in June of the same year, and 
a few months later the Art; us at .Anselmo. A 
fight over land-office patronage caused a sec- 
ond Democratic paper to be started in Broken 
Bow, by George Trefren and Sam Meseraul 
in 1886, but it did not long survive. Frank 
W. Conley published the Democratic Hcad- 
!i,^lit at Callaway for some years. Sam Mes- 
eraul also published a small, two-page sheet for 
a few months at Nonpareil ]X)stoffice, near 
where Merna is now located. There was also 
published a Democratic paper at -\nsley in the 
early days of that town. In 1914 C. E. Shei 
]inrchased the Cnstcr Conjily Republican of 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



307 



D. M. Amsberry and turned it into a Demo- 
cratic paper. The venture did not prove a bus- 
iness success and ]\Ir. Shea sold the paper tn 
the present owner, who turned it back into a 
Republican journal. 

"Of the different Democratic papers estab- 
lished in Custer county but one weathered the 
storms of adversity. The Mason City Tran- 
script, owned, published, and edited by AI. C. 
Warring'ton for more than a quarter of a ceii- 
tury, was always uncompromisingly Demo- 
cratic and for many years was the only paper 
in the county to espouse the cause of Democ- 
racy. The Transcript was sold to the present 
owner, J. F. Peebles, in 1917, and is still tru:? 
to the faith. 

"During the last ten years political honors 
in Custer county have been pretty evenly di- 
\'ided, but rather more favorable to the Demo- 
crats. All the county officers at this time, with 
two exceptions, are Democrats. It can be said 
truthfully that in the long list of officers who 
have been elected by the Democrats in Custer 
county they have been men of probity and 
honor, ever mindful of the trust imposed in 
them by the voters of the party. The Demo- 
crats are justly proud of this record, and look 
upon the future with complacent hope for fur- 
ther successes." 

VERY PROMINENT POLITICALLY 

Not only the size and population of the 
county, but also the progressive spirit and the 
ability of its citizens, have helped to make the 
county prominent, and one to be reckoned with 
in all matters at the state capital. Custer en- 
rolls the names of many men who have been 
prominent in state circles. In 1891 Omer M. 
Kem was elected to congress, and he served 
for two terms, or until 1895. So far Kem is 
the only congressman the county has produced. 
It has the honor, however, of having produced 
several candidates. One candidate, a distin- 
guished citizen of Merna, W. J. Taylor, con- 
tested the position of Hon. AI. P. Kinkaid, 
present congressman from the Sixth congres- 
sional district in two successive elections. 

In 1891, A. R. Humphrey, of Broken 



Bow, was appointed commissioner of publi; 
lands and buildings, in which capacity he 
served for four years. Beginning with Mr. 
Humphrey's term of office on the 1st day of 
January, 1891, it can be said that since that 
date there has not been a day in which some 
Custer county man was not filling a prominent 
state office. 

In 1895 Hon. S. A. Holcomb, of Broken 
Bow, was elected governor, and he served as 
chief e.xe:utive of the state until 1899. In 
l'X)0 E. P. Savage, of Sargent, was elected 
lieutenant governor, and by the resignation 
of Governor Charles H. Dietrich, who was 
elected to the United States senate, Air. Savage 
succeeded to the executive chair in April, 
1901 ; he served as governor until the end of 
the term in 1903. This makes two Custer 
county men who have filled the gubernatorial 
chair at Lincoln. 

In November of 1900 ex-Governor S. A. 
Holcomb was elected judge of the supreme 
court, and he served in that capacity with 
honor to himself and credit to the county until 
1906. 

In 1909 J. R. Dean was appointed to the 
supreme bench, to fill a vacancy. In 1916 the 
judge was elected to the supreme bench for a 
six-year term, and he is now serving in the 
second year of the term. 

In 1911 Waker A. George, of Broken Bow, 
was elected state treasurer, and he served fotn- 
years. 

Edward Royce, another Broken Bow man, 
was appointed secretary of the banking board 
in 1901 and he served until his death, in 1917. 

In 1894 James Holland was made superin- 
tendent of the boys' industrial school at 
Kearney, and he held the office for five years. 

In 1901 Charles Penn was made command- 
ant of the soldiers' home at Milford and he 
filled the office until 1905. 

For the last four years W. B. Eastman has 
been the state insurance commissioner, which 
position took him and his family from Broken 
Bow to Lincoln. Mr. Eastman is still in office 
and is serving under a second administration. 

J. J. Tooley, of Anselmo, was appointed 



308 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



secretary of the state banking board in 1917. 
to fill the vacancy made by the death of the 
late Edward Royce, and he is still in office. 
In the primaries of August 20, 1918, Hon. 

D. ^I. Amsberry. for many years receiver of 
United States land offi:e at Broken Bow, was 
nominated on the Republican ticket for secre- 
tary of state. 

THE PRIMARIES OF 1918 

During the fall of 1918, political activities 
were centered in the two parties. Both the 
Democratic and Republican parties were active. 
On August 20th the primaries were held and 
the Democrats placed the following nominees 
on their county ticket: State senator, W. J. 
Taylor ; representative, Emerson R. Purcell ; 
representative, W. S. Wells ; county clerk, R. 

E. Waters ; register of deeds. Perry Foster ; 
county treasurer, Mrs. M. Osbourn ; sheriff, 
Joe Wilson ; county attorney, William C. 
Schaper; surveyor, M. L. Lamb; District No. 
1, R. J. Mills; District No. 3, S'cott Cooper; 
District No. 5, J. P. Long; District No. 6, 
George W. Headley ; District No. 7, John 
Walker. 

The Republicans made an extra effort to 
secure representative men as nominees on their 
ticket and as a result of their primaries the 
following men were nominated as candidates 
on the Republican ticket : State senator, I. A. 
Reneau ; representative, W. J. Rice ; represen- 
tative, Florian Jacobs ; county clerk, Harry 
Knapp ; register of deeds. George E. Porter; 
county treasurer, W. L. McCandless ; sheriff', 
V. C. Talbot; county attorney. H. L. Wilson; 
county surveyor, .\. J- \ a.n Antwerp ; District 
No. 1, Joseph Leui ; District No. 3, Ralph 
Johnson; District No. 5. Harrison Pease: Dis- 
trict No. 6, Ira E. Blakeslee. 

THE ELECTION OF 1918 

The campaign was conducted in a very 
strenuous way and as days progressed and the 



time of election approached, considerable ex- 
citement prevailed. Especially was this notice- 
able because it had been prophesied that it 
would be impossible to arouse any political 
enthusiasm. 

C. S. Tooley was elected chairman of the 
Democratic county committee and Horace F. 
Kennedy chairman of the Republican county 
committee. Both were excellent men and or- 
ganized their various committeemen in a very 
creditable manner. The fortunes of the day 
favored the Republicans. The entire state 
ticket as nominated by the Republicans was 
elected, and with this vote nearly all of the 
Republican candidates for county office were 
elected. The following is the official roster 
as it will stand in Custer county after January 
1, 1919: State senator. J. W. Taylor, Demo- 
crat ; representative, Emerson R. Purcell, 
Democrat ; representative, Florian Jacobs, Re- 
publican ; sheriff, \*. C. Talbot. Republican ; 
county clerk, Harry Knapp, Republican ; reg- 
ister of deeds. George Porter. Republican ; 
county treasurer, William L. McCandless, Re- 
publican : county surveyor, A. J. ^'an Antwerp, 
Republican ; county attorney, \\'illiam C. 
Schaper. Democrat. 

On the non-partisan ticket Judge N. Dwight 
Ford was elected without opposition, to suc- 
ceed himself. T. C. Grimes, the present in- 
cumbent was re-elected superintendent of pub- 
lic instruction for the fourth term, defeating, 
by a small margin, his opponent, W. A. Ro- 
sene. of Callaway. 

Custer county is represented on the state 
ticket by D. M. Amsberry, of Broken Bow, 
who was elected secretary of state and who 
will continue the Custer county representation 
in the state house for the next two years. As 
his deputy he has a]ipointed W. L. Gaston, of 
Broken Bow, and this makes at least two rep- 
resentatives from this county in the state cap- 
ital during the term next ensuing. 



CHAPTER XIV 
LEGAL AND OTHER PROFESSIONS 

The History of Custer County's Bar — First Grand Jury — A Hog in the First 
Case — A Lawyer Engaged in Useful Work — Two Custer County Judges — An- 
other Class — The Younger Bloods — Didn't Know Anything — Was Criminal 
Enough — No Spread-eagle Stuff — Had to be Shown — Had Two Chances to Es- 
cape — Summoned THE Dead Man — Confused the W-itness — All Lawyers on 
THE Same Side — Too Old for the Pen — Ten was a Plenty — Trials by Day 
and Night — A Square Lawyer — Custer County Medical Men 



The people of Custer county are loyal to 
their own. They are proud of their county 
and its resources. They are equally proud 
of their social and professional achievements. 
Proud of their farms, proud of their fanners, 
they are proud, too, of their professional men. 
They possess a wealth of professional men 
which marks them throughout the state. 

No other county of like population has 
brainier lawyers, more efficient physicians, or 
more competent dentists. No county has a 
brighter corps of newspaper men, or more elo- 
quent or fluent clergymen. The professional 
men and women in the high schools and the 
grade schools are likewise the peers of any 
teachers in the land. All these professions 
are well and strongly represented. Every 
profession is headed by men who have state- 
wide reputation, and in any professional con- 
clave they play the role of leaders. 

Her professional sons have served in con- 
gress, and on the supreme bench of the state. 
In high positions of public trust they have 
captured the highest honors the state has 
power to bestowj In educational circles and 
on the public platform, Custer county has 
furnished her quota of peers and masters. Her 
physicians and dentists occupy high places in 
the annals of their state organizations. Cus- 
ter county, which began its career over forty 
years ago, has graduated from the university 



of actual experience a class of professional 
men and women who to-day contribute to the 
county rank and honor throughout the middle 
west. 

A full account of the professional activities 
of the men of Custer county cannot be given. 
Data are not procurable. All that can be done 
is to detail a few brief facts concerning the 
professions that have organization records. 

THE history of CUSTER COUNTY'S B.\R 

Shortly after the organization of Custer 
county, in 1877, and the opening of the courts, 
in the early '80s, came an influx of bright and 
energetic young men to practice as attorneys 
and establish themselves in law. Several of 
these early lawyers found Custer county so 
attractive that they have never left it. They 
early established themselves as among the 
most active and influential members of the 
community and are to-day, with hardly an 
exception, among the most substantial men in 
the county. 

The early bar of Custer county consisted of 
John S. Kirkpatrick, J. A. .Armour, Silas A. 
Holcomb, George W. Trefren, A. Kilgore, J. 
W. Hutchinson, James Ledwich, Homer ^I, 
Sullivan, Augustus R. Humphrey, R. E. 
Brega, Emil Gschwind, Fred G. Waite, E. P. 
Campbell, and Charles L. Gutterson. 

The call for the first terms of district court 



309 



310 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



in Custer county was issued on January 1. 
1883, by Judge William Gaslin, to be held on 
May 10 and October 9 of the same year. The 
first term was a two-day aflfair, opened by Jess 
Gandy, sheriflf, with Samuel L. Savage presid- 
ing as district judge, J. W. Bixler serving as 
district attorney, and Wilson Hewitt clerk of 
the court. 

FIRST GR.\XD JURY 

The grand jury which was empaneled, re- 
turned true bills indicting a total of twelve 
persons. — -three for setting fire to the prairie, 
three for imlawfully practicing medicine, two 




HOX. \\'lLLI.\M Gasi.ix 

First judge to hold district court in 

Custer county 

for selling liquor without license, two for 
shooting with intent to kill, one for felonious 
assault, and one for stabbing with intent to 
kill. 

At this term J. S. Kirkpatrick. J. .\. Ar- 
mour, and the late Francis G. Hamer were 
appointed an examining committee to pass on 
the qualifications for admission to the bar of 
Klorentus Al. Hallowell and Thomas Young. 
They reported favorably and both candidates 
were admitted to practice law in the courts of 
the state. 

There were eight civil cases and one crim- 
inal case on the docket, but no attorney was 
ready for trial. It is said that the young at- 
torneys had a severe attack of stage fright. 



No trial developed. Four cases were dis- 
missed, "as per stipulation on file." The court 
dismissed tliree more, on motion. This left 
but two cases on the do:ket, on both of which 
the attorneys were given additional time to 
plead. 

The October term began (October 9th, with 
the same officers, except that Jess Gandy, 
sherifl', had gone on a deer and elk hunt into 
the sand-hills, and L. S. Trefren was acting 
in his stead. 

A Hoc I.V THE FIRST C.\SE 

\\'hile more important cases were getting 
ready for trial, the first case tried in the dis- 
trict court, Custer county, Nebraska, was given 
to the jury. This was the case of J. A. Per- 
kins, plaintift', vs. Jackson Dye. defendant. It 
was an action in replevin for "one black and 
white hog fourteen months of age." 

The jury did not take many days and nights 
to settle the case, but returned their verdict 
very promptly, finding that plaintiff was en- 
titled to possession of the hog, that the hog's 
value was nine dollars, and plaintiff's damages 
for its wrongful detention by the defendant, 
one dollar. But let no one suppose the de- 
fendant got off by paying any trifling sum. 
Every witness, both in justice and district 
court, was served with his "subpoena" and 
awarded his "mileage." W'iien Mr. Dye came 
to pay the bill, it was one dollar for the judg- 
ment and $161.63 for the "court costs,'' which 
made the hog he entertained for a short time, 
"some hog'' after all. 

Such was the beginning made in the terms 
of court holden in Custer county, Nebraska, 
in the year 1883. The early litigation in the 
county centered largely around land and cat- 
tle. At the time the county was organized, 
cattle-grazing was its only industry. The va- 
rious ranchmen had acquired or were acquir- 
ing title to the land bordering the rivers and 
creeks of the county, and all the hills lying 
back from these water fronts were recognized 
as the range of the man who owned the water 
front. 

With the coming of the homesteaders, by 
thousands, in the middle '80s came the short- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



311 



ening and breaking up of all these ranges and 
ranches. While most of the homesteaders 
were honest and honorable, some few shady 
characters filtered into the settlements, who, 
when they became hnngry for beef, found it 
easier to kill some ranchman's calf, heifer, 
steer, or cow, than to stalk a deer or elk by 
following the fast disappearing sup[)ly of such 
wild game into the sand-hills. 

Indeed, some of the bolder of these ma- 
rauders were not satisfied with poaching suf- 
ficient beef from the ranchmen to supply their 
scanty table with the choicest of grass-fatted 
steaks but, the ranchmen allege, did a regular 
business of killing ranch cattle, burying or 
burning the hides and taking the beef by 
wagon to Kearney and other towns. This, of 
course, led to all kinds of endeavors on the 
part of the ranchmen to be rid of these par- 
ticular offenders, and this, together with the 
encroachments on their range, created a strong 
antagonism between the ranchmen and early 
homesteaders. 

In working out these difficulties numerous 
criminal cases arose, involving almost every- 
thing from "claim jumping'' and cattle steal- 
ing to the first degree of murder. In the 
prosecution and defense of cases of this kind, 
H. I\I. Sinclair, of Kearney, H. M. Sullivan, 
of Broken Bow, and others, early won their 
reputations as criminal lawyers. 

Custer county has produced rather more 
than its share of lawyers who have received 
high political honor. Perhaps the most con- 
spicuous of these is Silas A. Holcomb, here- 
tofore mentioned as one of the pioneer attor- 
neys of the county. Mr. Holcomb first came 
into political prominence by winning the dis- 
trict judgeship, as a candidate of the Populist 
and Democratic parties. While still a district 
judge he received the Populist nomination for 
governor, was endorsed by the Democrats, and 
was elected, being the only successful member 
of his ticket. Judge Holcomb was then re- 
elected as governor. Following, a few months 
after his retirement as governor, came his 
election to a six years' term as judge of the 
supreme court. At the present time Judge 



Holcomb is serving his second term as a mem- 
ber of the state board of control. 

When asked to write something for this 
chapter, Judge Holcomb submitted the fol- 
lowing, which gives a good picture of con- 
ditions in legal circles in the days of the pio- 
neer ; 

"I was admitted to the bar in March, 1882, 
and removed to Broken Bow in the early 
spring of 1883, about March 1st. The town 
was then rather small, but the outlook prom- 
ising. There were two lawyers there. One 
was George W. Trefren, who was in the land- 
office business, with Wilson Hewitt, who was 
county clerk, the two doing a 'land-ofifice' bus- 
iness, sure enough, at the time, as the country 
was just beginning to settle up rapidly. I also 
found that my old partner, John S. Kirkpatrick, 
had 'beat me to it," he having removed to 
Broken Bow in the fall of 1882 and located 
himself and family in a little building, about 
twelve by twenty-four, on the east side of the 
square, about the center of the block. After 
looking around, taking in the town, and get- 
ting acquainted I became more interested in 
my competitors in the law business and began 
to. as best I could, size up Trefren and "Kirk' 
as possible opponents in hard-fought legal bat- 
tles in which I was to be employed as one of 
the lawyers. 

.\ LAWYER EN'GAGEn IN USEFUL W^ORK 

"When I first saw 'Kirk,' and he was then 
a great, big, fat fellow, he was in his shirt- 
sleeves, with rubber boots on, and with a 
spade was digging a trench to let the water 
run away from his building. Strange as it 
may seem, there was rainfall enough to make 
it necessary for him to lead the water away 
from his building in order to make it more 
accessible. I concluded, after looking at 
'Kirk' for a while, and then introducing my- 
self and having a brief talk with him, that I 
could hold my own in a lawsuit where he was 
on the other side, but after a few contests with 
'Kirk' in the legal arena, I became convinced 
that I had underestimated his strength as an 
adversary in legal proceedings. I soon learned 



312 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



to respect him as a young man of considerable 
ability and one who was both plausible and 
convincing in his arguments to both court and 
jury, and especially was I impressed with the 
conviction that he won the confidence of the 
court and jury, who seemed to believe in his 
earnestness and sincerity as to the right of the 
matter he was advocating. Later on. Judge 
Sullivan and Judge Humphrey showed up, and 
with this accession in numbers and talent we 
had some real litigation and began to look up- 
on ourselves as a bar of some pretensions, be- 
sides which we began to work together, when 
necessary, to crowd out the lawyers who had 
been coming to Custer county from Dawson, 
Buffalo, Sherman, and other counties and do- 
ing a good share of the business which we felt 
belonged to us by right of our residence in the 
county; in this we succeeded and it was not 
very long until a large percentage of the legal 
business in the county was done by the local 
members of the bar. 

"The bar continued to grow in numbers and 
strength until it was, in a few years, recog- 
nized as one of the strong bars of the state. 
The county settled up rapidly, and, being a 
large county, with a large population, the law 
business was all the more important, thus 
bringing together members of the legal fra- 
ternity in larger numbers than would be found 
in the smaller county-seats. 

'Tn 1891 I was elected district judge of the 
then twelfth judicial district, since which I 
have not been permitted to be closelv asso- 
ciated with the members of the bar in active 
practice, except for but a brief period from 
1908 to 1912. There are so many incidents, 
interesting, humorous, ludicrous, and other- 
wise, in connection with the early years of my 
practice, that I can hardly select any of them, 
and as we have a number of old-time lawyers 
who are good story tellers, I am inclined to 
leave this phase of the history of the bar to 
them as being in more capable hands." 

Another attorney to rise to the judicial 
ermine from old Custer is Judge J. R. Dean. 
Judge Dean was elevated to the Nebraska su- 
preme bench by appointment, but is now ser- 



ving .as a regularly elected member of that 
judicial body. 

TWO CUSTER COUXTV JUDGES 

Judge Homer M. Sullivan and Judge 
Charles L. Gutterson have both served as 
judges of our district court, the former ob- 
taining the office at a popular election, the 
latter by appointment. John S. Kirkpatrick, 
heretofore mentioned as one of the very earli- 
est pioneer attorneys of Custer county, was 
appointed a member of the supreme-court com- 
mission and served several years in that posi- 
tion. He still appears frequently in Custer 
county courts, as private counsel of the Dierks 
Lumber & Coal Company, but his office is now 
in Kansas City, Missouri. 

The Custer county bar at the present time, 
consists of the following attorneys who have 
seen many years of practice in this location : 
Judge Homer M. Sullivan, Judge A. R. Hum- 
phrey, Judge J. A. Armour, Judge C. L. Gut- 
terson, R. E. Brega, and Alpha Morgan. All 
of these men were among the early pioneers of 
Custer county and all are still in active prac- 
tice, with one exception, maintaining offices at 
the county seat. It would be hard to find the 
same number of professional men who repre- 
sent greater ability or more force of char- 
acter. They have met all the emergencies of 
a new and developing county and have rung 
true in every test. Their competency and in- 
tegrity would do fine credit to the bar of any 
community. All of them have accumulated 
enough to make them comfortable, and are 
not obliged to lie in wait for clients as in 
former days. 

.\ NOT HER CL.VSS 

The county bar roster contains the follow- 
ing names of veteran leaders who have been 
in active practice for many years, yet in point 
of time stand on the next terrace below the 
pioneer practitioners : Judge John Reese, 
Judge C. H. Holcomb. lion. Charles W. Beal, 
Nathan T. Gadd. A. P. Johnson, and Edwin 
E. Squires. These men are just coming to the 
zenith of their power and already have a rep- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



313 



utation throughout the state as able and trust- 
worthy exponents of law. With the exception 
of one who has retired to his ranch, all have 
good and lucrative practice, which pays the 
best possible tribute to their standing and char- 
acter. Emil Gschwind, heretofore mentioned 
as a member of Custer county's early bar, has 
for many years been police judge of Broken 
Bow. 

THE YOUNGER BLOODS 

The bar has still another class, of younger 
members, with a standing of ten years or less 
at the Custer county bar. All of these are law- 
school products or college-bred, or both. This 
class roll contains the names of Judge X. 
Dwight Ford, Frank Kelley, H. L. Wilson, J. 
A. Brunt, William C. Schaper, and Edwin F. 
Myers. These young men are already well 
established and are gaining rapidly in both ex- 
perience and clientage. In the realm of law, 
they are already bridle-wise and harness- 
broke ; they may well be depended upon to 
maintain the dignity of the Custer county bar, 
and sustain the reputation of their predeces- 
sors of the former generation. 

didn't know .wvthing 

Judge Gaslin was a good judge and he was 
impatient of delay. Sometimes he held court 
in Custer county. One cold winter night just 
before adjournment, and it was then about 
eleven o'clock, the judge announced to the bar 
that in order to speed up, court would open in 
the morning promptly at half-past seven o'clock 
and any lawyers having cases might take notice 
and be on hand. At the appointed hour, court, 
counsel, litigants, and witnesses were all there. 
The thermometer then registered several de- 
grees below zero, which added to the solemnity 
and inconvenience of the occasion. William 
Blair, who had been janitor of the court house 
ever since it was built, was called as the first 
witness when court opened, and among other 
things remarked that he "didn't know any- 
thing about the case, anyway." The judge re- 
marked: "What's that, Billy? Don't know 
anything about this case? Then what are you 
doing on the witness stand? Get out of there 



and let some witness come to the front who 
knows something about this case. There are 
too many people in this case now that don't 
seem to know very much about it, lawyers in- 
cluded." 

WAS CRIMIN.\L ENOUGH 

Judge J. C. Xaylor was a pioneer lawyer. 
When asked why criminal cases were not dis- 
posed of before civil cases, as is the usual 
practice, he replied that the disposal of the 
farm-mortgage cases was not a departure from 
the rule, because there seemed to be as much 
criminality in the prosecution of the foreclos- 
ures as there was in the criminal cases. 

NO SPRE.XD-EAGLE STUFF 

Judge Naylor was an attorney in a case that 
originally involved a trifling sum of money, 
but later on much feeling was engendered, in 
part because the costs were large and became 
the main feature. Judge Gaslin presided and, 
knowing Judge Naylor's proneness to make 
long and eloquent speeches to the jury on 
slight provocation, just before the argument 
he began to admonish the lawyers in this 
fashion : "Gentlemen, you are limited to ten 
minutes on each side. I want you to under- 
stand that in a case involving only $8.30 you 
can't go before the jury with a long-winded 
history of the universe nor a 4th of July 
speech." But the lawyers on both sides got 
their views to the jury, in their arguments to 
the court, on the importance of the case to the 
public and the profession because of the prin- 
ciples of law involved and to the litigants be- 
cause of the large amount of costs. 

H.\D TO BE SHQWN 

A lawyer, from another district, in an argu- 
ment before Judge William L. Greene, read 
from a Nebraska report, a proposition of law 
that did not appeal to the judge, and he re- 
marked that if he were shown that our su- 
preme court said it twice he would have more 
respect for the proposition than he was then 
able to entertain. On investigation, the judge 
found the lawyer had read from the brief of 
counsel that is sometimes inserted in the re- 
ported decisions. 



314 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



HAD TWO CHAXCES TO ESCAPE 

A lawyer for defendant in a criminal case 
took earnest- exception to the fact that his 
client had two preliminary examinations. 
Judge Greene overruled the exception and re- 
marked that he ought not to complain, because 
his client had been generously treated, in that 
he was given two chances to escape before the 
trial, when lie was only entitled to one. 

SU.MMONED THE DEAD M.\N 

When Judge H. M. Sinclair, of Kearney, 
was on the bench, a foreclosure case was pend- 
ing in which the principal defendant died after 
the case was begun. Apparently the plaintiff 
was not aware of this, and the usual summons 
was issued. The return by the special deputy 
appointed to serve the summons, was the tirst 
intimation to any person connected with the 
case that the defendant was dead. His return 
recited in substance that : "John Doe is dead. 
I served this summons on him by leaving a 
true copy thereof at his last usual place of 
residence." Upon reading the return. Judge 
Sinclair remarked: "Custer county has many 
remarkable and efficient citizens, but here is 
a man who has surpassed them all. This is 
the first time in my experience as lawyer and 
judge that a man has been found who can ob- 
tain service of summons on a dead man." The 
record shows that the Judge continued the 
case. 

CONFUSED THE WIT.XESS 

.\ lawyer from some remote region was tes- 
tifying as a witness in his client's case. The 
attorney for the other party insisted that, in 
order to keep the record straight, he submit 
his testimony in the form of questions and 
answers. All proceeded well until an objec- 
tion was interposed on the groi.nd that a cer- 
tain question that the lawyer propounded to 
himself "tended to confu.se the witness." That 
was too much for Judge H. M. Sullivan, who 
presided at the trial, and he ruled thit tlie 
narrative form of submitting testimonv be 
resumed. 

ALL LAWYERS 0\ THE S.\ME SIDE 

Two members of the same familv were ac- 



quitted of an assault to commit great bodily 
injury. There were two attorneys for the 
state and two for defendants. The case was 
warmly contested for two or three days. There 
was not a dull moment from the opening to 
the close. \\'hen the verdict of acquittal was 
returned, one of the defendants took one of 
the attorneys for the prosecution by the hand, 
remarking that as they had been friends before 
he hoped their friendship would continue. The 
other defendant, a boy of about eighteen, as- 
sured the same attorney that he had nothing 
against him nor his associate "because both of 
you did as much for us in this trial as our 
own lawyers did." 

TOO OLD FOR THE PEX 

Judge Aaron Wall, of Loup City, and a local 
lawyer successfully defended a client wrong- 
fully accused of taking mortgaged chattels out 
of the county. The defendant's lawyers ar- 
gued that if their aged client was convicted he 
would only hear the prison doors clank when 
he entered ; that he would not hear them when 
he came out in his casket. A Norwegian juror 
said after the trial was over : "Das man too alt 
to send to pan. Send him to poor farm ; das 
better." The prosecutor said the next crimi- 
nal case he prosecuted, the first fact he would 
establish after the venue would 1)e the age of 
the defendant. 

TEX WAS A PLEXTV 

Robert E. Moore was a rapid-fire cross-ex- 
aminer. On the cross-examination of a Swed- 
ish witness on character, after having him tell 
the names of about ten men who had spoken 
ill of the subject of inquiry, the witness began 
to run low on names. After' being pressed to 
give just one more name he refu.'^ed. When 
asked why he replied : "Well, ay bane over 
my township and ay live on county line and 
Gothenburg man bane no good in Custer : any- 
how, ten names bane plenty." When order was 
restored in the crowded court room the witness 
was excused. 

TRIALS CV DAY AND NIGHT 

Night came on while a preliminary exami- 
nation in a criminal case was being conducted 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



315 



before Justice ^laze, at Lodi, in 1892. But 
niglit had no terrors for the vahant counsel, 
and when the shades of evening" fell and the 
country-side came out to witness the usual 
forensic efforts, the justice adjourned court 
from his residence to a convenient schoolhouse, 
where the hearing ended a little before day- 
break, and the lawyers arrived in Callaway 
just in time for breakfast. The same thing- 
happened in a civil case tried before a justice 
at Callaway in 1902. After a trial lasting all 
day and all night the case was finally sub- 
mitted in time for all parties to get breakfast. 

A SOU.\RE LAWYER 

Judge John S. Kirkpatrick was a square 
lawyer and dependable. A beginner in the 
practice undertook to get a large sum of dam- 
ages for the condemnation of land for a rail- 
road switch. The costs began to pile up. 
"Kirk," who represented the railroad, warned 
the opposing lawyer to "be careful about mak- 
ing costs, because your client is going to have 
to pay all of them." And so it turned out. 
In speaking of the incident afterwards the 
lawyer whose client "paid the costs" remarked 
that he often heard that "Kirk" could be de- 
pended on, and now he was sure of it. 

CUSTER COUNTY MEDICAL MEN' 

Call the doctor. It doesn't make any dif- 
ference which one, they are all good. They 
are all trained school men, educated in the 
best schools to be found anywhere in the 
country. They are adepts in the latest meth- 
ofls, they are skillful combatants of all diseases 
and human ailments. In the quality of her 
medical men, Custer county ranks with any 
like portion of the earth. Alany of them have 
made reputations outside of the county and are 
known throughout the state, and have frequent 
calls for consultation far from their respective 
homes. 

In the early days the practice of medicine 
was followed under many difficulties. At that 
time, the medical science was not so far ad- 
vanced. Not so many methods of resisting 
disease encroachments were known. Not so 
many appliances and commodities were to be 



obtained. Sanitary conditions could not be 
so well maintained. Yet, the practitioners of 
that early day were heroes. They mercifully 
responded to every call. No night was too 
dark, no road too long, no storm too fierce. 
They shielded themselves from no e.xposure 
— pay or not pay. It made no difference ; their 
services were rendered for the sake of God 
and humanity. 

One of the old time practitioners. Dr. R. C. 
Talbot, who is himself well deserving of every 
encomium recorded in the paragraph above, 
has contributed the following concerning the 
medical profession of Custer county : 

"The members of the medical profession 
were pioneers in the early settlement of Custer 
county, the same as those representing other 
professions and industries. Those who first 
came here early, were more often lured by 
wanderlust for change of environment than 
for improvement in their professional sur- 
roundings. The first man to make a perma- 
nent home in the county, who made any pre- 
tensions to medical knowledge, was L. T. Bur- 
bank, a returned foreign missionary who, prior 
to his foreign work, had taken a course in 
medical lectures, to better prepare him for 
work among the heathen. Dr. Burbank settled 
on a homestead not far from the present loca- 
tion of Georgetown postofiice. about 1875 or 
1876. As he went from one settlement to an- 
other, preaching and encouraging the pioneers 
spiritually, he also administered to their physi- 
cal needs as well. 

"In September, 1889, Dr. R. C. Talbot, a 
graduate of Miami ]\Iedical College, Cincin- 
nati, Ohio, located on a homestead in the valley 
of the Muddy creek, near where the town of 
Berwyn is now located. .Although desiring to 
relinquish the practice of medicine, he found 
it almost an actual necessity to continue to at- 
tend the sick among the sparsely settled home- 
steaders. The hardy pioneers of those days 
did not call a doctor for every little ache or 
pain, for to so do it would often necessitate 
a journey of ten to twenty-five or more miles 
before a doctor could be found, and the neces- 
sary further delay of a return trip threw them 
on their own resources. Consequently, a doctor 



316 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



was called only when there was something 
serious or alarming affecting the ailing one. 

'•In July, 1880, T. N. Waterbury located a 
homestead north of where the town of Wester- 
ville is now situated, and he practiced his pro- 
fession as an undergraduate until the winter 
of 1882, when he went to St. Louis, ^lissouri, 
and attended the American Medical College. 
He returned a graduate, in the spring of 1888, 
and continued in the work of his profession 
until liis final sickness and <leath, in September, 
1884. 

"During the early '80s Benjamin L. Brisbane 
homesteaded near Custer postoffice and he 
preached the gospel and practiced medicine 
for several years. He did not make the prac- 
tice of medicine a business, although he was 
a graduate of Ohio Medical College, Cincin- 
nati, believing he could be of more benefit to 
the people in the capacity of a preacher. 

"Dr. Wyman Hull located in Broken Bow 
in the early establishment of the town and 
practiced medicine part of the time, but de- 
voted most of his time to the management of 
the famous Marble Top hotel 

"In the fall of 1883, John J. Daum, a grad- 
uate of Rush Medical College, Chicago, estab- 
lished an office in Broken Bow. and he prac- 
ticed his profession until his death, which 
occurred in the early '90s at Palmer Lake, 
Colorado, where he had gone in the hope of 
regaining his health. He had been associated 
with Dr. R. C. Talbot, in Broken Bow. from 
1888 until the time of his death. 

"In the year 1883 Dr. Lawrence L. Craw- 
ford, a graduate of Cincinnati College of Med- 
icine and Surgery, located in Merna, where he 
continued iia business until in the late "90s, 
when he located in Colorado. 

"In 1884 Clarence \V. Mesceran located in 
Broken Bow, being a graduate of Bennett 
Medical College, Chicago, Illinois. He con- 
tinued in business here for several years, being 
associated part of that time with Rufus K. 
Langson, who was a graduate of the Chicago 
Homeopathic ]\Iedical College, Chicago, Illi- 
nois. 

"In 1884 C. II. -Morris located in Wester- 



ville, taking up the work of Dr. Waterbury. 
A few years afterward he lo:ated in Broken 
Bow. 

"J. W. Miller, of Rush Medical College, 
Chicago. Illinois, located in Mason City in 
1885 and remained there until the late '90s, 
at which time he went to Gibbon. Nebraska. 

"In 1883 J. M. Chaplin, of Dulano :\Iedical 
College, came to Callaway, and he was there 
for a few years. 

"J. H. Murry, Iowa College of Physicians 
and Surgeons. Des Moin'ts. Iowa, located in 
-Arnold in 1885. remained there for several 
years and then moved to Idaho. Thomas E. 
Stack located at or near Oconto in 1885. .Af- 
terward he moved to Broken Bow and in a 
short time he located at .-\nselmo. William 
Robert Renwick, of L'niversity City Medical 
College of New York, located at Sargent in 
1883 and remained there for a few years. 
During the year 1885 F. \insonhaler located 
in Westerville. Dr. \'insonhaler was a grad- 
uate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
Xew York city, and remained in W'esterville 
for several years. In 1885 Luther Michael, 
of the Ohio Medical College, of Cincinnati. 
Ohio, located in Callaway and remained for 
a few years. 

"In 1886. the year the B. & M. Railroad 
was built through the county, the following 
named doctors located in the county : J. J. 
Pickett, Charles M. Luckey, J. \\'. Sanders, 
Franklin Reyner. and James W. Caldwell at 
Broken Bow; Hiram Chase. Mason City; E. 
E. Hamilton, -\nselmo ; -Alexander L. Ma- 
thews. William H. Charlesworth. at Callaway. 
Dr. J. J. Pickett was at Broken Bow, except a 
short time at C7reeley Center, up to the time 
of his death, in l')12. The others remained in 
Broken Bow only a short time. Of those who 
located outside of Broken Bow all but A. L. 
Mathews remained only a short time. Dr. 
Mathews is still at Callaway, but has retired 
from active practice. In the years 1887 and 
1888 H. H. Wist. Cyrus Pickett, and J. J. 
Carpenter came to Broken Bow, but none of 
them is here now. Dr. Wist devoted little of 
his time to the practice of medicine. In other 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



317 



parts of the county during this time Dr. Wam- 
holey came to West Union and Dr. Barton to 
\\'escott. 

"From this time on doctors came and went 
in such numbers that it would take up too 
much time and space to mention each one. 
Taking Brokeri Bow as an instance of the 
doctors who have located there, Dr. J. J. 
Pickett is the only one who has died there. 
The profession of this county has been and 
still remains quite a factor in the improve- 
ment of sanitary conditions, in the way of pre- 
venting and controlling infectious and con- 
tagious diseases. The Custer County Medical 
Society has been a large factor through united 
team work, placing the upbuilding of both the 
profession and society at the front of its ef- 
forts. This society was organized in the late 
'80s, was reorganized in the early 'QOs, and 
during this time its membership list has con- 



tained the names of a large percentage of the 
doctors of the county. The frequent and har- 
monious meetings have been of mutual bene- 
fit, and its influence has been extended until 
it has reached the profession of the state 
through the State Medical Society. 

"Last, and by no means least, the medical 
profession stands one hundred per cent, patri- 
otic in the great world-war, as every resident 
member has voluntarily enlisted his services 
to the government to be used wherever and 
when called upon. The county has already furn- 
ished more than its quota for active service, 
represented by the following named: Dr. O. L. 
Housell, first lieutenant ; Dr. R. P. Higgins, 
captain, of Ansley ; Dr. R. D. Bryson, captain, 
of Callaway; Dr. W. E. Talbot, captain, of 
Broken Bow ; Dr. J. C, Wade, lieutenant, 
of Oconto; Dr. C. L. Wills, captain, of An- 
selmo." 



CHAPTER X\' 
:\riLITARY AND PATRIOTIC COXTRinUTIOXS 

The Grand Army of the RErri;Lic — Broken" Bow Organizes a Post — Berwvn 
Post — Post at ^Iasox City — Post at Ansley — Post at Arnold — The Post at 
Sargent — Post at Comstock — Post at Callaway — Post at Merna — Ix the 
Spanish-American War — The Missing — The Company Personnel — The World 
War — Clyde G. Seiver — Joseph Elwood Palmer — Raymond Ross Killed — Paul 
CoFFMAN — Lewis H. Robertson — Gustav Roerick — Claris A. Tucker — Orrie 
Amsberry — Henry E. Cain — Arthur Bergman — Glen Buckner — Lovd Clow — 
Sam Miller — Gage Sauter — Roscoe Rhodes — ^John M. Rudge — Jeff Andrews — 
Clyde O. Thomas — Chester Webb — James X. Burdick — Roy Imboden — Homer M. 
Yates — Harvey M. Sloggett — Ralph C. Leui — \anner A. Gustus — Joseph Ber- 
NERT — Custer's Military Roster — World War Activities — The Exemption Board 
— Bond Drives — The War Savings Stamp Drive — The Young Men's Christian 
Association — The Four Mixute Men — War Savings Societies — The Amer- 
ican Red Cross — Woman's Council of Defense — Public Meetings 
and Celebrations — Gexeral Pershixg's Birthday Celebration 



In cverv national emertjency Custer county struction in patriotism anil was taught al- 
has done its part. It has contrilnited to the man legiancc to the Hag. In fact, the presence of 
power of the national army whenever a call so many defenders of the republic in every 
has been made. To every apjieal for money community, engendered an atmosphere of pa- 
made by anv department of war work, it has triotism which, no doubt, bad a very salutary 
contributed lavishly. In all these matters it effect upon the country, 
has a record in which every citizen can delight. In 1898, during the Spanish-American war. 

The county had no fwpulation in the days of Custer county furnished her quota, as will be 
the Civil war and, consequently, was not called seen in a further perusal of this chapter. In 
upon for recruits to the federal army. Imme- the great war of the world, Custer county has 
diatelv after the war, vast tracts of the piiblic responded to every call. It has contributed 
domain were thrown open to free homestead to Y. M. C. A. war work. Red Cross work, 
entry. The liberal policy of the government in Knights of Columbus war work, bond sub- 
allowing the ex-soldier to apply his army time scriptions, savings-stamps subscriptions, and 
on his homestead time, brought a great influx Red Cross war work. The people have made 
of northern soldiers into the middle west, and every sacrifice asked of them. They have 
Custer county got its share. Owing to this heartily entered into every proposition of con- 
fact, the Grand Army of the Republic, or the servation of either food or fuel, more detailed 
G. A. R. as it was more commonly called, be- mention of which will follow, 
came a very noteworthy organization. In the 
hcydcy of its power, nine G. .A. R. posts 
flourished in the countv. It was due to these 



ex-soldiers that the rising generation had in- 



TIIE GRAND .\RMY OF THE REPUBLIC 

J. M. Fodge, of Broken Bow. a veteran of 
the Grand .\rmy of the Republic, has assem- 



318 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



319 



>'*^^'^ 




Custer Cou.vty \'eter.\n Memuers of the Gr,\xu Army of the Republic 



320 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



bled the following data relative to the G. A. R. 
posts in the county. Much credit is due Mr. 
Fodge for the painstaking manner in which 
he has furnished details. Through his kind- 
ness we are enabled to present a brief de- 
scription of each post in the county. 

The old soldier is mustering out very 
rapidlv. In a few more \ears the veteran in 
blue will be gone, and his place w^ill be taken 
by his sons of the second generation, who 
to-day are wearing the khaki and serving in 
the great army of the United States, either in 
the home cantonments or in the battle fields 



of France and Belgium. 



BROKEN' BOW ORG.\NIZES A POST 

C. C. Washlnirn Post No. 98, Grand Army 
of the Republic, was organized August 12, 
1882, with fifteen charter members as follows : 
R. H. Miller, H. C. Reyner. Irving Stockcr, 
Peter Dinger, Mark King, Moses Lewis, Wal- 
lace Raymond, C. F. Graves, J. S. Benjamin, 
Albert Kemp, George Bishop. John ^^■est, I. 
J. Shaul, R. P. McKnight, and Charles P. 
Fost. 

The mustering of and the first meetings of 
the post were held in a large sod house, situ- 
ed on the corner now occupied by the Broken 
Bow State Bank. This sod building was 
erected by R. H. Miller, and served as his resi- 
dence. Later it became the home of the Cus- 
ter County Republican, with Mr. Aliller as 
editor and manager, as well as the meeting 
place for the post. 

Of the above mentioned charter members, 
so far as we can learn, only Judge J. S. Ben- 
jamin survives. He. with his wife, continues 
to live upon his homestead, adjoining the city 
upon the north. Although in feeble health, 
the Judge enjoys the esteem and good will of 
his many friends, is always more than glad to 
recall with them the many thrilling and he- 
roic events of the early days, and to fight 
over again with his old comrades the battles 
of the '60s. 

Because this post has made a number of 

removals, having no place in which to meet 

and keep its papers and records, we cannot 

' give tlie names and terms of the several com- 



manders, accuratclw For correctness of names 
of those that follow, we are indebted to the 
memories of several comrades consulted, in 
addition to such records as can be used. 

R. H. Miller was the first commander, then 
J. S. Benjamin. G. \\'. Frye. John C. Maulick. 
J. \V. Bruce, M. K. Hagadorn. R. E. Glass, 
M. M. Parkhurst, John Reese, James White- 
head, A. W. Gandy, W. W. Cowles, W. S. 
Boyce. G. W. Rawson, Ner Hartley. R. R. 
Bangs. H. W. George. A. ^^•. Drake, \\\ II. 
.\ndrews, J. AI. Fodge, J. B. Klump. and 
Henry H. Myers. Eleven of them are dead. 

The roster and descriptive list shows there 
have been mustered into this post, up to and 
including August 7. 1918. in all 198 members. 
( )f this great number, only eighteen remain 
on said roster, as shown by the last official 
report, on June ^0, 1918. There are, however, 
that many more yet living within easy reach, 
who from the infirmities of age and other 
causes do not have membership with the post. 

When one remembers that it is more than 
half a century since the men who compose the 
Grand Army of the Republic put aside the 
weapons of w'ar and assumed the duties and 
responsibilities of the civilian, many of them 
already shattered in health because of service, 
exposures and hardslii]is of camp life, then can 
we find the reason for the thimiing ranks, and 
can only wonder that as many as above re- 
ported now live. 

It is due to these, and to their posterity, 
that some recognition, at least, be given to a 
few of those noble men who so unselfishly 
sacrificed their time and comfort, that sufifering 
be relieved, that civil laws and authority be 
established — in short, in leaving as a heritage 
an enlightened, patriotic, peace-loving, and 
Christian community in which to live. 

Of this great number of men you have 
known, we can only mention a few that have 
contributed to this end, as follows : W. D. 
Hall, John Ingham, R. C. Talbott. W. W. 
Cowles, Isaac Merchant, Milo Young, James 
\\'hitehead. Charles T. Crawford. James L. 
Oxford. A. W. Gaudy. M. H. Deem, who with 
a host of others, in their various positions, and 
capacities, contributed so much to the social, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



321 



economic, and religious condition of our pres- 
ent society. 

We cannot refrain from mentioning the 
ladies of the Woman's Relief Corps, an auxil- 
iary of the Grand Army — the wives, daugh- 
ters, and other loyal women of the community 
who have aided so grandly in ministering to 
the sick and the needy of these comrades and 
the widows through all the years the post 
has existed. 

BERWYN POST 

Berwyn Post, No. 307, was mustered and 
held its first meeting in the schoolhouse in 
the village of Berwyn, July 12, 18^0. with 
eight members. John Low was chosen com- 
mander, with I. McAllister adjutant, and R. 
W. Buckner as quartermaster. The date for 
meeting was the second Saturday. 

In point of numbers, this w^as perhaps the 
weakest post organized in the county, and yet 
it was organized at a time when the patriotic 
fervor in the county was at its highest, be- 
cause of the district reunions that were being 
held annually under the management of the 
Central Nebraska \'eteran Association, com- 
prising the counties of Custer, Dawson, Sher- 
man, Valley, Loup, Blaine, and Logan. These 
reunions lasted two and three days, with tents 
for camping, sham battles with artillery, cav- 
alry, and infantry, with programs and camp- 
fires for the evenings, and conspired to fire the 
"old war spirit in old soldiers." The last one of 
these reunions was held at Ansley, in which 
a novel engagement took place. Others had 
been held at Broken Bow and at Ord, in 
\'alley county. 

Hundreds of the comrades with their fam- 
ilies enjoyed these camping and educational 
gatherings. S'o it was under such influence 
this post was instituted and lived. We do not 
have the date on which they were suspended 
or surrendered charter, more than they re- 
ported in the annual report of December, 1894, 
and it must necessarily have been later. De- 
partment headquarters have no account of it. 

POST AT M.\SOX CITY 

Stone River Post, No. 339, was mustered 



April 20, 1893. with fifteen names on the 
charter. The first commander was H. J. Davis, 
with T. S. Crossley. adjutant, and Jacob 
Cover, quartermaster. The meetings were held 
the first and third Saturday evening of each 
month. 

We have no authentic account of how many 
members have been mustered into this post 
since the primary muster. The last annual 
report to the department headquarters was 
made December 31. l'U7, and gave at that 




Members of Stone River Post, G. A. R., oe Mason 
City 
Standing (from left to right) : lohn Mulvanev, 
R. K. Miller, D. F. Weimer. Sitting: T. S. Croslev, 
L. B. Hill. 



date seven members still on the roll — John 
Mulvaney, commander; H. J. Davis, adjutant; 
and R. K. Miller, quartermaster. 

The comrades who have belonged to this 
post, as in every other Grand Army post in 
our order throughout the nation, exerted an 
influence for good upon society, in that the 
young have been taught patriotism and love of 
home and native land. 

POST AT ANSLEY 

Steadman Post, No. 180, located now at 
Ansley, was originally mustered at Wester- 
ville, February 20, 1884. There were 108 
names on the charter at organization. The 



322 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



first commander was M. Richtmyer, the name 
of an adjutant is not given, but .M. M. J^am- 
phear was quartermaster. 

The last semi-annual report to department 
headquarters, made June 30, 1918, gave the 
membership as eleven, with George William 
as commander, and O. B. Foster, adjutant. 
The post meets the last Thursday in each 
month. 

The ladies of the Woman's Relief Corps, a 
patriotic organization that is composed only 
of the wives and daughters of veterans of the 
Civil war, and is an auxiliary to the Grand 
Army of the Republic, have greatly aided in 
keeping the patriotic spirit that dominates the 
whole people of the community. 

Of the many comrades who have in the past 
comprised this post, we recall Isaac Clark, M. 
Johnson, J. F. Sharpless, T. T. Varney, C. S. 
Ellison, Tip Daniels, Daniel Hagiili, S. B. 
Harris, H. Alberts, T. T. Williams, with 
others whose names we have not space to 
mention, but who have by their sterling vir- 
tues and patiotic lives, aided so materially in 
the making of one of the best and most desir- 
able communities in which to live. 

The spirit of liberty inculated, is evidenced 
by the ready response to the country's call by 
the many young men who went "over there," 
or have been in training to aid in the over- 
throw of autocracy and tyranny. 

POST AT .ARNOLD 

Excelsior Post, No. 196, was organized at 
Arnold August 25, 1884. The officers reported 
at organization were: R. C. Callahan, com- 
mander: A. H. Needham, adjutant: and M. S. 
Pasko, (|uartermaster. We cannot give names 
or number of members of nuister, as the post 
never filed descriptive list or report at sus- 
pension. The post was suspended in 1910, as 
shown by department records. It was rein- 
stated May 22, 1911, and suspended again 
November 19, 1913, at which time T. C. Bab- 
cock was the commander and A. H. Needham 
was the adjutant. 

There were reported six members at this 
time, but their names were not returned to 
the adjutant general at date of sus]')cnsion. 



This post had more ups and downs than fall 
to the lot of many, perhaps for two reasons — 
first, because of the long distance from the 
railroad, which has proven such a factor in the 
civilization of our great state, and partly, it 
may be, because the spirit of war that per- 
meated the "boys" in the ■60s, was still so 
strong upon their lives that it was the domi- 
nating passion. Whatever the causes for the 
post's lapses and suspensions, we can say for 
the members of this post, and the citizens of 
Arnold and community, that there are no finer 
citizens and people, or more progressive, than 
settled upon the homesteads surrounding that 
village. 

\\'e are sure that her citizens of the past and 
the present can point with a just pride to the 
lives and example of such men as B. F. Mar- 
row, C. T. Robinson, Thomas Halliday, Com- 
rades Brown, Blowers, H. M. Graham, 
Needham, and Babcock, and others whose 
names we do not recall. The fact that no au- 
thentic account of the members and the several 
jmrts that each played in those days, as officers, 
and who of them have answered to the last 
roll call, or those who remain in the vicinity, 
is due to their not having a permanent meet- 
ing place, in which the papers and records 
could be kept. This reason also applies to 
many other Grand Army posts in Nebraska. 

THE POST .\T S.\RGEN'T 

G. W. Sweet Post, No. 19.\ Grand Army of 
the Republic, was chartered and organized, in 
the village of West L'nion, on the 27th day of 
August, 1884, where it met in the schoolhouse 
for awhile. Later it was removed to the town 
of Sargent. The charter shows there were eigh- 
teen members at the muster of the post. J. H. 
Russell was the first commander, A. W. 
S(|uires the first adjutant, and Louis Sutton 
the quartermaster. 

We are unable to state how many members 
have joined this post since, or what has be- 
come of those that were in the first meeting. 
However, there are a host of true men and 
women in and around the splendid little town 
of Sargent w'ho are the offspring of such men 
as George and William Sherman. F. S. ^lor- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



323 



ris, I. C. Tobias. L. W. F. Cole, Dr. Wams- 
ley, R. W. Fulton, R. W. Nutter, James L. 
Twigg, H. C. Orvis. and others, who proved 
their loyalty by their courage and fidelity to 
duty, not only as soldiers, when their country 
was threatened by dissolution, but also when 
they faced the task of subduing the wild and 
virgin soil, braving the elements and dangers 
incident to the early settlement of that part 
of our great commonwealth, combining with 
duties and virtues the spirit of morality, 
Christianity, and good citizenship, thus leav- 
ing to their posterity a noble heritage. 

December 30. 1917. the annual report of this 
post to the department showed only four mem- 
bers, with David McGugan as commander, and 
R. W. Fulton, adjutant. Three of this rem- 
nant have recently made the trip to Portland, 
Oregon, to attend the fifty-second national 
encampment of the Grand Army of the Repub- 
lic, which met August 19, 1918. 

POST .\T COM STOCK 

Crittenden Post. No. 274. was originally 
mustered at the village of Wescott, July 19, 
1888. Who the charter members or the first 
officers were, we do not know. However, from 
the annual report made December 31, 1888, 
we have W. H. Comstock commander for the 
year 1889, but no other officers or names of 
members. The annual report made in 1894 
gives fifteen members, with I. M. Beck, com- 
mander : F. Shanks, adjutant : and W. H. 
Comstock. quartermaster. The post met the 
second Saturday in each month. The post is 
still in existence, meeting on call, as shown by 
last report to department headquarters. W. 
P. Hamond is commander : G. W. Shiphard is 
adjutant ; and only four members are left. 

This post was one of the largest in the 
county. The first place settled in the county 
was in the neighborhood of Wescott and Com- 
stock. The years 1874-7 saw a colony or, 
if not exactly a colony, a number, of W'iscon- 
siti soldiers come to this section, where they 
were among the first to make settlement. 

The Indian uprising among the Sioux in 
the Niobrara country caused alarm, and Cap- 
tain Comstock was among the number to raise 



a company of these men who had known war, 
to arm for protection of their families. This 
part of the history is recorded in another place, 
however. 

Of the many comrades who have helped to 
make this a community of loyal and progres- 
sive people, many have passed on, having an- 
swered to the Great Commander at the last 
roll call. We mention \V. H. Comstock, J. L. 
Peter. E. Bartholomew, Captain Wescott, W. 
D. Hall, and Mr. Beck, and while others have 
gone and are missed by families and comrades, 
their influence is with us yet, as evidenced by 
the many boys who have donned the "khaki," 
and oflFered their lives for freedom and justice, 
so unselfishly as to astonish the Old World 
and, by this spirit of freedom, emulate the 
"Man of Galilee." 

POST .\T CALLAW.W 

William Hayes Post, No. 264. Grand Army 
of the Republic, was mustered the 31st day of 
March. 1888. As no descriptive list is on file 
with the department adjutant in the state 
house, we cannot give names of charter mem- 
bers or officers installed at that time. The an- 
nual report made December 31st of that year 
shows that J. H. Evans was elected commander 
for 1889, with J. B. Farrell as adjutant and 
C. W. H. Lubert as quartermaster. No report 
of membership. The annual report of De- 
cember 31. 1890, gave a membership of thirty- 
four. 

In December. 1894. there were twenty-one 
members, and December 31, 1916, were re- 
ported thirty-one members. December 31. 
1917. the annual report showed the number to 
be only six. with W. W. S'allins as commander 
and J. B. Farrell as adjutant. 

This is the only Grand Army post in the 
county that ever owned a hall of their own. In 
fact, this hall was the only place for public 
gathering, and the secret orders of the village 
for a number of years used the G. A. R. hall. 
Perhaps the one factor in keeping up the mem- 
bership, as shown above, was that the post had 
a place of their own in which to keep their 
paraphernalia, records, etc. Also they contin- 
ued to meet twice a month. 



324 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



However, in recent years we realize that 
our step is tottering and halt, sight and hear- 
ing have failed us. so that many cannot attend 
these meetings longer. \\'ith the many whom 
kindly hands have lain away in the soldier's 
last resting place, the ranks have thinned until 
just a remnant are left. It has been my pleas- 
ure to know many of the "boys'" of this post, 
who in the drama of life played such a noble 
part in ])reserving and developing for their 
posterity this great commonwealth. 

Among the names that I recall are those of 
J. D. Thurman. Uncle Joe Dickson, two of 
the Whipples. John Douglass. Graves, Henry 
Striers, Dunn. N. M. ^lorgan, R. R. Dickson, 
and Jim Webster. Webster, with his old fife, 
played in a way that made the "old boys" 
straighten up, and step quicker, until they 
were dreaming they were again engaged in 
that great struggle which made America a free 
nation and developed a spirit that to-day is 
thrilling the world by the heroic acts of the 
boys "over there" in "khaki." The greatest 
number of those volunteering from this county 
were from the Callaway community. 

POST AT MERX.A 

Samuel Rice Post, No. 256. was organized in 
the village of Merna, October 22. 1887, the 
descriptive list showing fourteen names on the 
charter. From the comrades of the post we 
have tried to get the names of the first mem- 
bers, but are disappointed. However, they are 
sure that J. J. Joyner was the commander and 
A. Sommer the adjutant. December 30. 1917, 
the annual rejiort to department headquarters 
gave J. P). Smith, commander ; A. Sommer, ad- 
jutant, and only seven members. The jxist 
meets on call, at the home of some member. 
It is claimed for Adjutant Sommer that he is 
the only adjutant the post has had in thirty- 
one consecutive years. The "boys" are hang- 
ing together by the obsers'ance of, Memorial 
Day, and by urging that "Old Glory" be kept 
floating over every schoolhouse, that by this 
means they may impart to the young the spirit 
of patriotism and freedom. Following are the 
names of some that have in the past contrib- 
uted to the success of the post but who have 



dropped one by one when the call came for 
each : J. J. Joyner. S. H. Read. Adam Hanna- 
v.-ald. Madison Brown. Wells. N. Jacquot. J. 
M. Lucas. Lewis and H. H. Myers. Although 
their lives have been humble, their virtues 
have left upon the community an impress that 
stamps loyalty ; patriotism that has shown it- 
self in the eagerness of the boys of this day 
to help to overthrow autocracy, tyranny, and 
oppression. 

The following were the charter members, 
only four of whom are now living : J. J. 
Joyner (post commander), Andy Sommer 
(adjutant), Abner C. Towle (quartermaster), 
Charles Foote, I. A. Coleman, Nicholas 
Jacquot. S. H. Read. Charles Fessenden, Madi- 
son Brown. J. B. Smith. Francis Graham, 
Adam Hannawald. Joseph Thomas. 

In closing this somewhat lengthy historv of 
our Grand Army, I have taken pains to obtain 
in all cases, a true and correct account of every 
statement made, either from the post records, 
from someone in possession of same, or, fail- 
ing in that, by writing to persons known to 
have been connected with them : from personal 
conversation with those who have belonged; 
and, last, I have applied to the department 
adjutant general's records, at the state cai)i- 
tol and to Comrade H. Bross, department ad- 
jutant. I am thus greatly indebted for much 
that is authentic. To the post adjutant and 
to the other comrades who have aided me in 
this, I wish to extend my thanks. 

I.V THE SP.\XISH-.\MERICAX WAR 

And now we record the organization of 
Custer county's first war unit, and the service 
it rendered. 

Company yi. First Nebraska National 
Guard, was organized at Broken Bow, on June 
2, 1896, and was called the Holcomb Guards, 
in honor of the contemporary governor of 
Nebraska, Hon. Silas A. Holcomb. who was 
elected from Broken Bow. The company's 
first officers were: Captain. John G. Painter; 
first lieutenant, \'. Claris Talbot ; second lieu- 
tenant, S. M. Doris. When the call was made 
for volunteers on the 25th day of April, 1898, 
by President McKinley. for the Spanish- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



325 



American war, the company was immediately 
mobilized with the regiment, at Lincoln, Ne- 
braska, and nearly every member volunteered. 
The company of eighty-two enlisted men and 
three officers was mustered into the United 
States service on j\Iay 10, 1898, with John G. 
Painter, ^". Claris Talbot, and Charles T. Orr 
as officers in the order named. On Monday, 
May 16th, the company, with the regiment, 
started for California, preparatory to embar- 
kation for l^Ianila, Philippine Islands. The 
command arrived at San Francisco May 20th, 
and went into camp on an old race-track, af- 
terward named Camp Merritt, near the Golden 
Gate Park. At two o'clock on June 14th, the 
company, with the regiment, the First Nebras- 
ka Infantry, went aboard the steamship 
"Senator," in charge of Lieutenant \'. C. 
Talbot ; on account of sickness Captain Painter 
had previously resigned. 

At one o'clock on June 15th the "Senator" 
steamed out of the harbor, bound for Manila, 
• Philippine Islands, with the Custer county 
company aboard — every member in fine fettle 
and all bent upon rendering the country a mil- 
itary service in western style. After approx- 
imately a thirty-day voyage, they landed in 
Manila Bay on July 17, 1898. The next day 
the work of disembarking commenced, and in 
connection with the regiment the company 
established themselves at Camp Dewey, a few 
miles out of the city of Manila. From this 
time forth the movements of the company in 
connection with the regiment are of record in 
other volumes that have been written and in 
niilitarv reports on file in the war department 
at Washington. D. C. 

\\'hile Custer county is proud of her sol- 
diers and the record they made, their activities 
in the Manila campaign are not germane to 
the historical task in hand, other than to record 
their principal achievements. They partici- 
pated in the capture of Manila and later helped 
to put down the Filipino insurrection or re- 
volt. They participated in the battles of Ca- 
loocan, Calunipit. San Fernando, Quingua, 
Malolos, Santa ]\Iesa, and Xovaliches, and 
many others. 

After a campaign consisting of eleven 



months and two weeks, the company shipped 
for the home land on the transport, "Han- 
cock," and landed in S'an Francisco, August 1, 
1899. It immediately went into encampment 
at the Presidio, San Francisco's famous mili- 
tary reserve. The company was mustered out 
of service, at the Presidio, August 23rd of the 
same year. After being mustered out of gen- 
eral service the company did not disband but, 
under the charge of Lieutenant Horace F. 
Kennedy, was brought to Cu.ster county. When 
the boys reached Broken Bow, a magnificent 
reception was tendered them by Broken Bow 
and Custer county in general. The program 
consisted of addresses by prominent citizens, 
band music, all kinds of gala-day stunts, and 
the genuine Custer county "feed." The com- 
pany was held together for two or three days, 
during which time they were entertained in the 
homes of Broken Bow citizens, and later they 
were given another reception, by the people 
of Ansley. 

THE MISSING 

Two of the boys, Guy C. Livingston and Nat 
E. Simms, were not with the boys when the 
company returned. They were killed in bat- 
tle at Santa Mesa and Novaliches road, re- 
spectively. The following were severely 
wounded : Lieutenant Horace F. Kennedy, 
Corporal Arden R. Chapman, Corporal Hugh 
Kenoyer, Corporal Mero C. Shippard, Perle 
L. Busic, Orson O. Humphreys, Howard L. 
Kerr, Jack L. Beach, and George L. Sears. 

Drs. C. L. Mullins and Willis E. Talbot 
were with the company and served in a medical 
capacity, both in the hospital and on the firing 
line. Both were given commissions as cap- 
tains in the medical corps. 

THE COMPANY PERSONNEL 

Captain. Lincoln Wilson ; first lieutenant. 
Burton Fisher; second lieutenant, Horace F. 
Kennedy; first sergeant, George R. Frey; 
quartermaster sergeant, Carey W. Layton; 
sergeants. Walter S. Flick, John Wood, Mon- 
roe W. Spence, Hugh Kenoyer ; corporals, Ray 
Skelton, S. N. Criss, Frank H. Johnson, Ed- 
ward A. Miller, Arden R. Chapman; cook, 



326 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Seymour llurtoii; musicians, John S. Benja- 
min. Clinton E. Gandy ; artificer, Charles E. 
Green ; wao-oner, Lemuel M. Clay : general 
roster — Luther J. Abbott, Jacob G. Albright, 
Rasmus Anderson, Millard Auxier. Jack L. 
Beach, Frank G. Bedford, Thomas Birtwell, 
George E. Boggs, Stephen D. Bolles. Oliver 
H. Browning. Henry N. Burke. Perle L. 
Busic, Oscar S. Carpenter, James Coakley, 
Charles C. Cooper, John S. Cover. Earl Da- 
harsh. Charles O. Dahistecl. Charles Densmore, 
.\1 De \'oe. James A. Fishburn, James F. Fitz- 
gerald, John J. Flanagan, John W. Forsythe, 
Charles Frye, Elisha Hall, Orson E. Hum- 
phrey, George D. Johnston, Howard L. Kerr, 
George F. Kinghorn, Hardy B. Klump, Stew- 
art E. Lanterman, Williani L. Lawson, Joseph 
^labey, George E. Marquis, Elsworth H. Mun- 
ford, Emil Oberst, Lilliburn F. Oxford, Will- 
iam G. Parker, Claude Perkins. Fred W. 
Peters, Clyde \'. Pinkley. Fred H. Reeder, 
Paul A. Reyner, Francis G. Ryan, Guy A. 
Salsbury, Arthur H. Shultz, Charles H. Searle, 
George L. Sears, Maro E. Shipherd, Bennett 

B. Sloan, John C. Smith, Joseph Smith, Harry 

C. Steers, Henry O. Thompson. Thomas J. 
Williams. Roy M. Wiltamuth. Alden S. Winch. 
George \\'. Work. Arthur H. Youmans. J. G. 
Painter (cajitain), C. T. Orr (second lieuten- 
ant). John L. Perrin (sergeant). W. T^. Ruck- 
er (corporal). I'.rent C. Hatton i artificer). Nel- 
son N. Barber, J. A. Bebb, Elwood H. Bomar, 
Jacob Bierbower, Charles S. Busev, Charles 
J. Coons, Alvin A. Coxson, B. Cecil Jack, 
Amos P. Kellogg, Philip S. Kennedv, Alvin 
Long, Henry G. Martin. Aba M. McCoy. Per- 
ry G. Metcaif. Frank A. Mitchell. W. w' Potts. 
John W. Southard. William F. Stultz, Joseph 
L. TifT. Robert E. Waters. James C. Wood- 
ward. William D. Grant. Stephen D. Bolles. 

TIIK WllKI.I) WAR 

We are not at liberty to go beyond the con- 
fines of Custer county and attempt to write the 
history of any other portion of the globe. It 
is, however, germane to the conditions in Cus- 
ter county to state that in .August. 1914, 
Germany and .\ustria-Hungary declared war 
on Servia and Russia, that almost before the 



world knew it the German army crossed the 
Belgian border and, before a twenty-four hour 
ultimatum to France had expired, their army 
was headed for Paris. England came to the 
rescue of Belgium and a world-wide war was 
jjrecipitated — very far-reaching in its conse- 
quences. Complications continually arose in- 
volving the neutrality and rights of the L'nited 
States of .Amerira. One event led to another, 
until April, 1917, when we found ourselves 
in war with Germany, and on the 6th dav of 
April of the year mentioned, congress declared 
that a state of war existed between the United 
States and the central powers of Europe, which 
at that time had come to embrace Germany, 
Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey, al- 
though literally and technically, war was not 
declared against Turkey or Bulgaria. They 
were actually drawn into the embroilment, and 
conditions of war ])revailed, regardless of 
declaration. 

It is here that the war touched Custer coun- 
ty. The raising of an army in the L'nited 
States presaged the draft bill, and the draft 
bill levied a quota upon every county in every 
state of the L'nion. Up to date. Custer coun- 
ty has been called upon to furnish more than 
five hundred soldiers, and jirobaijly one-half 
the number are at this date in France. 

Throughout the county the response was 
patriotic and indicative of a spirit of loyalty 
very commendable to any people. While tlv's 
cha])ter is being written, two millions of men, 
composing the army of the United States of 
America, are in France and Belgium. Many 
Custer county boys are among them. Several 
of them have given their lives, and we' regret 
that at this time there is no public record irom 
which can be ascertained the fn!l number i-f 
Custer boys who have made the su])reme sacri- 
fice and i)aid in blood for the redemption of 
the weaker nations of the world. 

Recorded here are the names and the obit- 
uary notices that appeared in the local papers 
of the county at the time the boys of our 
contingent succumbed to death, either by dis- 
ease in the camp or on the battle-field of a 
foreign land. It is known to all that Custer 
countv has given its share of men. life, and 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



327 



blood, and the entire county does homage to 
those whose names here follow. 

CLYDE G. SEIVER 

The first Custer county boy to give his life 
for his country, so far as we are able to learn, 
is the one named above, concerning whom the 
Custer Coiiuly Chief of December 27. 1917, 
gives the following: 

This community was deeply shocked on last 
Sunday by a dispatch from Fort Worden, 
Washington, announcing the death of Clyde 
G. Seiver. Clvde enlisted in his countrv's ser- 




Clyde G. Seiver 

vice November 10. 1917, and chose the wire- 
less-telegraphy branch. He was sent to Fort 
Logan. Colorado, and made the trip there 
with Roy Holcomb and Harold Predmore. 
Later on. the boys became separated and Clyde 
was sent to Fort Worden. Washington. His 
father. Guy Seiver. knew nothing of his seri- 
ous illness until the death telegram came and 
the shock was therefore a severe one. Just 
what was the cause of his death is not definite- 
ly known, owing to the fact that mail advices 
now on the wav had not reached Broken Bow 



up to to-day. But pneumonia is thought to 
be the cause. Later telegrams announce that 
the body will arrive here Saturday morning 
and the funeral will be held on Sunday at 2 :30 
p. M., at the Methodist church. 

Clyde G. Seiver was born December 21, 
1895. at Geneva, Nebraska, and was twenty- 
two years and two days old at the time of his 
death. He came to Custer county with his 
parents when he was two years old. His 
mother died in July. 1902. Clyde grew to 
manhood in this city. He graduated from 
the Broken Bow high school in 1913, after 
which he taught one year and then took a 
course in shorthand and typewriting, in the 
high school. 

RAYMOND ROSS KILLED 

An official report from the adjutant general's 
headquarters at Washington early Saturday 
morning announced that Private Raymond L. 
Ross, son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Ross, of 
New Helena, had been killed in action July 
21. Private Ross was nearly twenty-four 
vears old. He was purely a Custer county 
j/jroduct, having been born at New Helena, 
October 16. 1894. He was called to service 
October 5, 1917, and left here, with the second 
contingent, for Camp Funston, where he was 
assigned to Company D. Three Hundred and 
Fifty-fifth Infantry.' On February 26, 1918, 
Private Ross was called for overseas duty, and 
three weeks later sailed from Camp Stewart, 
Newport News, ^'irginia. with Company F, 
Fourth Infantry. 

Private Ross was the only boy in a family 
of three children, and up to the time of enter- 
ing the United States service had always re- 
mained at home with his parents. Generally 
liked bv all who knew him. the news of his 
death was received with genuine regret. Dur- 
ing last Christmas he was home on furlough, 
and spent the time with his parents, at New 
Helena. This was his last visit home, and he 
left two months later for France. The de- 
parted soldier is survived by his parents. Mr. 
and Mrs. Edward Ross, of New Helena, and 
two sisters, ^Irs. Thelma Sargent, of ^^'al- 
worth. and Miss Leona Ross, who is employed 
by the Dierks Company in Broken Bow. 

Memorial services were held Sunday after- 
noon of this week at Anselmo. Rev. George 
P. Trites. of the Broken Bow Methodist 
church, preaching the sermon. The services 
were held in the new community building, 
which was hardly large enough to accommo- 
date the great crowd present. Both the audi- 
torium and balcony were filled to capacity and 
many had to stand. People from all over the 



328 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



county were there, and it is estimated that no 
less than one thousand did honor to the dead 
boy's memory. A mixed quartette from Bro- 
ken Bow, comprising Mrs. A. E. Anderson, 
ilrs. Ralph Thompson, Karl Abbott, and Roy 
Thompson, with 5lrs. E. P. Walter, accom- 
panist, rendered the music for the occasion. 

The stage was beautifully decorated with 
flowers and the national colors, the community 
serv^ice-flag occupying the center position. 
Editor R. II. ]\liller, of the Enterprise, made 
an appropriate introductory talk, in which he 
extolled the merits of the deceased soldier 
and feelingly referred to the blue star that 
had now turned to gold. 

JOSEPH liLWOOD P.\LMER 

The first Custer county boy to be killed in 
battle was Jo.seph Elwood Palmer, a modest, 
unassuming youth who possessed all the quali- 
ties of heroism and sacrifice. He was in the 
second quota of the Custer county draft, and 
with the local contingent entrained at Broken 



1 




1 








H 


Wm^ "' 


H 


^K^KK^m.i^i^^::J^^ 



Joseph Elwood P.\i.mf.r 

Bow, September 2, 1917, He was born in 
Custer county October 29, 1891. His parents, 
at that time, were residing on a homestead in 
the vicinity of IJrokcn Bow. His home had 
always been on the homestead, with the excep- 



tion of four years spent in Broken Bow, while 
pursuing his studies at the Broken Bow high 
school. He was a graduate of the class of 
1912, He landed overseas in April, 1918, was 
wounded by shrapnel June 13th, while on a 
night raid, and died Tune 16, 1918. 
CUT 516 

But little data concerning the raid in which 
he met his death can be obtained. His brother 
was with him in the same excursion, but it 
seems that they became separated, and the 
brother did not know until later that Elwood 
had lieen hurt. 

PAUL COFFM.AN 

I^aul Coffman lies dead in France. Out on 
the front line with the American troops in 
France, Paul Coflfman, a Mason City boy, a 
soldier of America, lost his life in the line of 
duty, 

Paul Coffman was born on his home farm 
north of Mason City, September 21, 1886, 
voungest son of H. T. and Beatrice Coffman. 
He came to hfs death while on the front battle 
lines with the American forces in France, on 
September 8, 1918. His body was tenderly 
laid away in a village churchyard near where 
he died, by his comrades in arms, some of 
whom were Custer county boys. 

This paper has never been called upon to 
chronicle a death where its announcement has 
caused more expressions of grief than this. 
When the telegram from the war department 
brought the sad news to the widowed mother 
of the death of her son, a feeling of sadness 
never before experienced by the people of this 
community swept over it ; it was as if each 
one had met with the loss of a loved member 
of the family. All felt a personal bereave- 
ment. Paul Coft'man was born and reared 
here ; everybody knew and liked him. Genial 
and agreeable among his associates, honorable 
in his dealings, upright in conduct, a clean 
lovable voung man has gone from us, never to 
return. 

Paul Coffman did not have to go to war. 
Avenues for refusing to accept service in the 
armv, honorable and legitimate, were open to 
him. He donned the uniform of the soldier 
and sought to perform, willingly, gladly, that 
exalted duty he felt he owed to his country. 
There was no hesitancy, no holding back on 
his part : when his country called he was ready. 
He went with a smile on his face, and there is 
not the least doubt in the mind of any one who 
knew this splendid young man but that he 
performed his duties as a soldier with that 
.same spirit of willingness which characterized 
his actions in home affairs. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



329 



Entombed on a foreign soil, in a far-distant 
land, it is probable that the eyes of a relative 
or a friend, other than his comrades in arms, 
will never see his burial place, but so long as 
France lives and the deeds of valor of the 
American soldiers who fought for liberty and 
freedom on that foreign shore are sung, against 
the hordes of hell, Paul Coffman's memory will 
never perish. He made the supreme sacrifice ; 
no man could do more. 

To attempt to beguile the widowed mother 
of this brave soldier son from the 'poignant 
grief of such an overwhelming loss, would in- 
deed be vain and futile, did she not have the 
sweet consolation that may be found in the 
gratitude of the people of that countr\- he 
died to save and the plaudits of honor which 
our grateful people shower on real heroes. 
Slie. too. has made a great sacrifice. The 
widow of an honored soldier of the Civil war 
for freedom, and the mother of a slain soldier 
in the great war for freedom and liberty to the 
crushed people across the seas, the hearts of 
our people go out to her in the anguish of her 
bereavement. 

LEWIS H. ROBERTSON 

Lewis H. Robertson was born at Davey, 
Lancastijr county, Nebraska. January 24. 1888. 
When he reached the tender age of three' years, 
in the fall of 1891. he came with the family 
to the Black Hills Basin. Custer county. Ne- 
braska, where he resided until seven years 
ago. after which he spent part of his time at 
Hazard, in partnership with his brother. Matt. 
His father died three years after the family 
arrived on the Basin. August 5. 1894. 

Corporal Robertson's premature departure 
is mourned by his mother. ]Mrs. Anna C. Sor- 
ensen. and bv five brothers and two sisters — 
Charles E.. William C, Fred G., Matt P., 
Hans A., Mrs. Lydia Stender, and Mrs. Mary 
C. Arp. He will also be missed by a host of 
friends and many army comrades. 

The following comrades from Hazard who 
entered the army the same time as Corporal 
Robertson are : Ray Hennis. Lawrence Lar- 
son. Henry Rasmussen. William Rasmussen. 
Ernest Jacobsen. Chris H. Pierson. Earl Eck- 
lev. Joe Horak. Walter Cadwalden, Henrv 
Pillen. 

Corporal Robertson entered the army, as an 
alternate from Hazard. October 5. 1917. He 
served at Camp Funston in Company K. Three 
Hundred and Fifty-fifth Infantry, where he 
distinguished himself as a promising soldier 
and was transferred to the United States reg- 
ular army. Company G. Fourth Infantry, at 
Camp Stewart, Newport News, Virginia. Five 



weeks later he sailed for France, and he ar- 
rived there April 15, 1918. He was well 
thought of by his officers at Camp Funston — 
Captain Moore. First Sergeant Melville, Mc- 
Clullen, Schooks. L)rchand. He was also 
prized by his officers in France — Colonel 
Harvey, Second Lieutenant R. C. Erwin. Ser- 
geant Case, First Lieutenant J. A. Crawford. 
The Fourth Infantry, United States Regu- 
lars, was in the thick of the recent drive of the 
allies in which they were crowned with high 
honors. It was in this conflict that Corporal 
Lewis H. Robertson died in action, July 26, 
1918, at the hopeful age of thirty years, one 
month and twenty days. More detailed ac- 
counts are lacking at this time. All we know 
is that he slumbers amidst vast armies of fallen 
heroes on the sacred soil of France. [A por- 
trait of and memorial tribute to Corporal Rob- 
ertson appear in the biographical department 
of this volume.] 

GUSTAV ROERICK 

It is with deep sorrow that we mourn the 
death of Private Gustav Roerick in this gold- 
en-star service. He was born at Amherst. Ne- 
braska, March 9, 1892. When a child he 
moved with his mother to the present home, 
on section 26, township 13. range 17. Custer 
county. His father died years ago ; his moth- 
er, Mrs. Anna Roerick. remarried and is now 
known as Mrs. Hartman. His brother Alfred 
enlisted last !March at Broken Bow and en- 
tered the Coast artillery, at Camp Nickols, \"ir- 
ginia. When last heard from he was at Camp 
Upton, New York. A young brother, Arnold, 
works the farm. He also leaves two sisters 
to mourn his death, Ida and Anna. 

Private Roerick was drafted last September 
and entered Camp Funston. From there he 
was transferred to Camp Dick and finally he 
crossed the ocean to participate in the struggle 
on French soil, where he was killed during an 
attack by the enemy June 17, 1918. His com- 
pany had been subjected to a severe artillery 
bombardment. NevertJieless he heroically re- 
mained at his post, aiding in the protection of 
the Lmited States machine guns. .As a soldier 
he was respected and genuinely liked by his 
comrades and highly thought of by his officers. 
His loss to them is a source of deep sorrow. 
His natural witticisms made him many friends, 
both in private and army life. At home he 
proved himself an obedient and thoughtful son 
and brother. Those who were akin to him 
were always uppermost in his life's plans, even 
to the very end. He gladly sacrificed himself 
on the sacred altar of his country, at the hope- 
ful age of twenty-six years, three months, and 



330 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



eight days. His remains rest somewhere across 
the sea, on the blood-drenched soil of our sis- 
ter republic. France. God comfort and bless 
the dear ones who willingly gave him to his 
country. It has become our sorrowful duty to 
place on our service flag a golden star, the 
first one in our section of Custer county, to 
commemorate our fallen hero. A star is a 
universal symbol of glory. For countless cen- 
turies it has stood for the highest achievements 
and ideals. To the minds of America to-day, 
that star is the most sacred which represent a 
soldier boy in khaki on some service flag. That 
fair, five-pointed emblem proclaims to all who 
behold it that its living representative fights 
for the world's freedom. And if that star of 
blue has changed to one of gold, the observer 
realizes that he treads on sacred ground which 
death has visited. It means a life that served 
faithfully under the true blue, has culminated 
in the golden act of sacrificing its all. For 
one to offer his life for the cause of liberty 
under the Stars and Stripes is a golden deed 
worthv of commemoration. Thus we change 
Private Roerick's star of blue into one of gold. 

CL.\RIS .\. TUCKER 

Private Claris A. Tucker, of the Merna 
neighborhood, died at Camp Dodge, Iowa, 
Wednesday, the 9th, of Spanish influenza. 
Private Tucker has been in the service since 
July 22. 1918. and was in one of the contin- 
gents that left Arnold about that time. He 
was born in Broken Bow, July 9, 1895. and 
was raised in this county. He attended school 
here and later was a student at College \'iew. 
He was also a member of the Highland Lodge. 
The body was shipped to Broken Bow Satur- 
day night of that week and taken in charge 
by W. S. Schneringer. Funeral services were 
held at the grave Sunday afternoon at four 
o'clock and conducted by Rev. W. L. Gaston, 
of the Baptist church. Interment was made 
in the Broken Bow cemetery. The deceased 
soldier was a most exemplary young man and 
had many friends in the county who will 
mourn his early demise. He is survived by 
his parents. Mr. and Mrs. A. A. Tucker, one 
sister, Jennie Louise Tucker, and a brother, 
Perly Ayers Tucker, all of whom were at the 
funeral. 

ORRIE .\MSBERRY 

^Ir. and Mrs, M. L. Amsbcrry. of .\nsley, 
received an official communication Thursday, 
October 10, stating that their son. Sergeant 
Orrie Amsberry. had died in a hospital in 
France, September 22. 1918, the cause of death 
being pneumonia. From previous information 



received, it was known that Sergeant Ams- 
berry had been gassed some time during the 
fore part of August and has been confined to 
the hospital since then. He was in one of the 
earlier contingents that left here for Camp 
Funston in September, 1917, and was sent 
overseas the following June. He was a mem- 
ber of Company D. Three Hundred and Fifty- 
fifth Infantry, Eighty-ninth Division. Private 
Amsberry was born in Mason City, in Febru- 
ary, 1893, and made that place his home up to 
the time bi joining the colors. He is survived 
by his parents, three sisters and two brothers. 
Deceased was one of the popular young men 
in the community and his death is keenly felt 
by all who knew him. He was a cousin of 
Paul Coffman, who was recently killed in 
France, by the accidental explosion of a shell. 
Memorial services for the deceased soldier will 
be held in the near future. 

HENRV E. C.\IX 

Mr. and Mrs. Pierce Cain, of Anselmo. have 
received an official notification that their son, 
Private Henry E. Cain, was killed in action 
September 15. Private Cain was called to the 
service during last April and left Ijroken Bow 
with the contingent that entrained for Camp 
Funston on the 27th day of that niomh. His 
stay at Camp Funston was of short duration 
and two months from the day he left Custer 
county he was on French soil. Several letters 
have been received from him by his family, and 
the last letter was written one month before 
he met death on the battlefield. Private Henry 
E. Cain was born at Litchfield, Nebraska. May 
7. 1893. He is survived by his parents, one 
sister and one brother. 

SAM MILLER 

Death came to Private Sam Miller at Camp 
(jrant. Rockford, Illinois, from Spanish in- 
fluenza, on October 5. He was a resident of 
Grant township in the southern part of the 
county and was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Albert 
Miller. The remains were returned to his 
home for burial and the funeral took place 
on October 9th, at Platte Grove cemetery, in 
Dawson county. 

ARTinK r.ERC..\rAX 

Arthur Bergman, of Arnold, died at the 
naval training station of marines at Ports- 
mouth, New Hampshire, Sunday of last week. 
The deceased marine was the son of Mr. and 
Mrs. Sam Bergman, and he enlisted last 
spring, along with his younger brother. Ralph. 
He contracted influenza a short time ago and 
grew steadily worse. His father was notified 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



331 



and hastened to his bedside, but arrived after 
he had passed away. Deceased was well 
known among; the young people of Broken 
Bow, he at one time having been a high-school 
student here. Funeral services and burial 
were at Arnold, the body being shipped there 
the latter part of the week. 

GLEN BUCKNER 

The first of Oconto's boys to give his life in 
the service of his country is Glen Buckner, 
who died of influenza, Friday of last week, at 
Camp Dodge, Iowa. His mother and brother, 
\Mlliam, were with him when he died. De- 
ceased was a volunteer and left for Camp 
Dodge with last summer's contingent. The 
body was brought back to Oconto for burial 
and funeral services were held there Tuesday 
morning of this week, at ten o'clock. Rev. 
Mr. Di.xon, of Callaway, who is in the service 
and at present located at Camp Dodge, accom- 
panied the remains back home and preached 
the funeral sermon. 

LOYD CLOW 

Private Loyd Clow, of Company A, Division 
B, One Hundred and Sixty-third D. B., is 
another Custer county boy, who gave up his 
life in the service of his country. He was a 
son of ]\Irs. Belle Clow, of Halsey, and a 
nephew of Mr. and Mrs. Press Booknau, of 
this city. He entered the service last June, 
from Halsey, and was sent to Camp Dodge, at 
which place he died from S'panish influenza, 
on October 16, 1918. Burial took place at 
W'esterville, in this county, on last Sunday, 
services being held at the grave only, conduct- 
ed bv the Methodist minister of Berwyn. The 
deceased was a former resident of Westerville 
and moved to Halsey with his parents a num- 
ber of years ago. 

G.\GE S.\UTER 

W^ord was officially received by relatives at 
Arnold November 15th. that Private Gage 
Sauter had died in France, at Base Hospital 
Xo. 30, on October 24th, death resulting from 
a severe attack of pneumonia. He was the 
first Arnold soldier to make the supreme sac- 
rifice on foreign soil. The deceased was a 
member of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows and also a beneficiary member of the 
Modern Woodmen of America, holding his 
membership in both orders at .\rnold. Private 
Sauter was a member of the contingent that 
left Broken Bow March 4, 1918, "for Fort 
Riley, Kansas. He arrived overseas June 24, 
1918, and died exactly four months later, aged 
twenty-six years and two days. His last let- 



ter sent home was received less than a week 
before the message came announcing his death 
and in it he stated that there was no cause for 
worry, as ever\-thing was all right and he 
never felt better in his life. His death is keen- 
ly felt in his home community, as he was of a 
bright disposition and made friends wherever 
he went. His mother, Mrs. Lydia Sauter, a 
brother, W. E. Sauter, and sister, Airs. S. Mc- 
Cants. who survive him, all reside at Arnold. 

ROSCOE RHODES 

An official report from the government 
states that Sergeant Roscoe Rhodes, son of 
former County Judge J. R. Rhodes, of Ansley, 
was killed in action C)ctober 25. A letter to 
Judge Rhodes from one of his son's compan- 
ions at the front says that Roscoe was killed 
instantly by bursting shrapnel, a piece of the 
shell piercing his heart. Sergeant Rhodes was 
called from Custer county April 28th of this 
year and went from here to Camp Funston. 
Twenty-two days later he was transferred to 
Camp Mills, Long Island, and on the 16th day 
of June he landed in England. He reached the 
firing line in France exactly a month later. 
In one of the letters he wrote to his father, 
Sergeant Rhodes said he had been on the front 
line for fifty days without having his clothes 
ofif. The deceased soldier entered the army as 
a private, was promoted to corporal and was 
later made a sergeant. Roscoe Rhodes had a 
state-wide reputation as a football star. He 
was a student at the State University and cap- 
tain-elect of the 1918 Nebraska Cornhuskers. 
This would have been his senior year. Rhodes 
entered the university in 1915. playing football 
on the Cornhusker freshman team. He was 
guard and end on the varsity team of 1916 and 
played right end on the 1917 team, which won 
the Missouri Valley conference championship. 
Elected to the 1918 captaincy by his team- 
mates, Rhodes was called by the draft last 
April. In his letters home the sergeant pre- 
dicted the early termination of the war and 
mentioned his plans to return home during the 
winter and of his intention to turn out for 
spring football practice. Sergeant Rhodes 
was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity and had 
the warm, personal friendship of practically 
the entire student body of the university. He 
was a member of the Presbyterian church in 
Lincoln. 

JOHN M. RUDGE 

T. A. Rudge, of Broken Bow, has received 
ofiicial notice from Washington, D.C.. that his 
youngest son, John M. Rudge, had died of 
wounds received in action in France, October 



332 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



26. 1918. Private Rudge was twenty-four 
years old and a member of the contingent that 
left Broken Bow for Camp Dodge during the 
last part of May. He was assigned to the 
field artillery and sent overseas the latter part 
of August. He wrote home regularly and the 
last letter received by his father was dated Oc- 
tober 16. Private Rudge was born at Palmyra, 
r)ctober 11, 1894, and came to Custer county 
with his father in 1902. Two of his brothers, 
Joseph and James, are now in France with the 
American army. The dead soldier is survived 
by his parents, two brothers, and four sisters. 

JEFF ANDREWS 

ilrs. Al Owen, of Broken Bow, received a 
telegram November 22d, officially announcing 
the death of her brother. Jeff Andrews, who 
was killed in action in France, October 12, 
1918. Private Andrews was a former Custer 
county boy and resided south of Broken Bow 
until five years ago, when he went to South 
Dakota to make his home. He enlisted at 
Lelette, South Dakota, in February, 1918. and 
was sent to France early in August. His sis- 
ter had had no word from him until she re- 
ceived the official notice of his death. 

CLYDE O. THOM.\S 

Official notice was received by Charles W. 
Thomas, of near Ansley, that his son. Private 
Clyde O. Thomas, had been killed in action 
October 23, 1918. Private Thomas was with 
the first contingent of the draft that left here 
for Camp Funston, September 22, 1917, and 
he has been at the front in France since last 
April. He had just passed his twentieth year 
at the time of his death. A father, two sisters, 
and four brothers survive. 

CHESTER WEBB 

Private Chester Webb, son of \\'illiam 
Webb, of the East Table, died in France of 
pneumonia, October 22. He went with one 
of the contingents from this county to Camp 
Funston last Alarch and during the following 
June was sent to France. He was twentv-six 
years of age. Private Webb was a young man 
of sterling worth and well thought of in his 
community. A short time previous to his de- 
parture for camp he met with a serious acci- 
dent in one of the elevators at ^lerna, and he 
had barely recovered when called into service. 

J.\^rES X. BURDICK 

Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Burdick. of Westerville, 
have received official notification that their 
oldest son. Private James N. Burdick, had died 
at a hosjiital in France, of lobar pneumonia. 



October 1, 1918. Private Burdick was twen- 
ty-five years old and was born in Custer coun- 
ty. He was with the contingent that left Bro- 
ken Bow for Camp Funston, September 22. 

1917, and he sailed overseas 'Sla.y 18, 1918. 
He went into action at the crossing of the 
Marne and was recommended at that battle 
for citations for coolness under fire. He is 
survived by his wife and parents, one brother, 
Arthur Burdick, of Westerville, and two sis- 
ters. INfrs. C. C. Milks, of Fairview. Pennsyl- 
vania, and Mrs. M. G. Crist, of Kimball. Mon- 
tana. 

ROY IMBODEX 

Private Roy Imboden, a former Custer coun- 
ty boy and son of Mr. and Mrs. Cass Imboden, 
of Gandy. died at Fort Omaha, December 2, 

1918, of influenza. The body was taken to 
Arnold for burial. 'The funeral was a military 
one and was under the auspices of the Arnold 
Home Guards. The deceased soldier left for 
Camp Dodge last July and was transferred to 
Fort Crook, thence to Fort Omaha, where he 
became a member of the Sixty-first balloon 
company. Mr. and Mrs. Imboden were with 
their son when he passed away, but were later 
taken ill themselves with influenza and were 
unable to attend the funeral. The deceased 
is survived by his father and mother, four sis- 
ters, and two brothers. 

HOMER M. YATES 

Private Homer M. Yates, of Whitman, was 
killed in France during the latter days of fight- 
ing. Private Yates was a former resident of 
Broken Bow and a son of Al Yates, who was 
for a long time connected with the water plant 
of this city. He has resided at \\'hitman for a 
number of years. 

HARVEY M. SLOGGETT 

The following official telegram was received 
Tuesday night l)y Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Slog- 
gett, who live east of town : 

"Washington, D.C., Dec. 17. 1918. 

"Mr. Alfred Sloggett : — Deeply regret to 
inform you that Private Harvey M. Sloggett, 
infantry, previously reported missing in action 
since Octol)er 22, now reported killed in action, 
October 18. Harris. Adj. Gen." 

Private Harvey M. Sloggett, son of Mr. and 
Mrs. Alfred Sloggett, was born June 6. 1893. 
on the old homestead north of this city. He 
left Broken Bow with one of the contingents 
that entrained for Camp Funston during Sep- 
tember. 1917. He sailed overseas for France 
last .April and saw considerable service in the 
front line trenches. The last letter from him 
received liy his parents was dated September 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



333 



28, and in it he stated he had been in action 
and over the top, one of the engagements last- 
ing nine days and nights. Private Sloggett 
was well liked by everyone with whom he 
came in contact and his death will be mourned 
by a host of friends. The sympathy of the 
community goes out to the bereaved parents. 
The deceased soldier was a member of Com- 
pany F, Fourth Infantry, Eighty-ninth Divi- 
sion. 

RALPH C. LEUI 

Lieutenant Ralph C. Leui, son of Mr. and 
Mrs. Joseph Leui, of Comstock, was reported 
in last week's casualty list as killed in action. 
The young man's parents, up to the latter part 
of the week, had received no official notice of 
their son's death, and it is thought that the 
notice must have gone to Comstock. South Da- 
kota, as the young man enlisted into the ser- 
vice from that state. Lieutenant Leui enlisted 
as a first-class private in machine battalion No. 
34L and was trained at Camp Funston. He 
was made corporal before his battalion went 
to France last Alay. Further promotions fol- 
lowed until he was finally made a commissioned 
officer. A letter received from him by his par- 
ents dated October 26, stated that he was do- 
ing well. This was his last letter. 

V.\NNER A. GUSTUS 

Official notice has been received that Private 
\'anner A. Gustus. of Callaway, is dead in 
France, after suffering an attack of pneumonia. 
Private Gustus was an enlisted man and went 
through the training camp at Ashland, later 
being transferred to Camp Cody. When he 
arrived in France he was assigned to Company 
L of the Fifty-ninth Infantry, Fourth Division. 
He was in many of the battles that mark the 
campaigns of last svnnmer and was in con- 
tinuous active service until a short time before 
his death. He developed pneumonia and was 
taken to a base hospital. His death occurred 
October 5. 1918. 

JOSEPH BERNERT 

Another of the fine young patriots of Custer 
county to fall to an heroic death on the battle- 
fields of France was Joseph Bernert, whose 
death occurred October 6. 1918. He enlisted 
Cktober 5, 1917, at the age of twenty-six years, 
and his name and memory shall be held in en- 
during honor in his home state and nation. 
He was a son of Feli.x Bernert, a represen- 
tative citizen who is individually mentioned in 
the biographical department of this publication. 

As this review of Custer county necrology 
in the great war has been prepared prior to the 



close of military service on the part of many 
of the Custer county boys, it is evident that 
the list here given is not to be considered com- 
plete. The record must needs be supplemented 
by data to be given in later publications. 

Custer's military record 

It has been impossible to secure a list of all 
who have gone in the service of the country 
from Custer county. The boys of the county 
have been exceedingly prompt to respond to 
the call to the colors, and there has been no 
way by which the volunteers can be named. 
We have been able to procure a partial list of 
the names, but it is known to be incomplete 
and does not contain the names of all those 
who have gone. Accordingly the appended 
list gives the names of only those of whom we 
have some record, and it is to be regretted that 
we cannot give the list in full. It must also 
be borne in mind that this list closed before 
the last contingents left. In some instances 
the going of the men has been anticipated and 
their names recorded : 

Ira D. Blanchfill, Richard L. Brill, William 
S. Nicholas, Ray J. McMullen, Charles J. Mc- 
Kinger, William A. Street, John W. Kelley, 
Elmer C. Wait. Harold Predmore, Leonard 
H. Gilbert, Frank O. Oman, Lloyd Hopkins, 
Meredith T. Reneau, Ross J. Standley, Fred 
Grof. Charles S. Allen, Alex B. Stoker, Ray 
Dinwiddle, Commodore W. Kellogg, Albuk 
Huska, Ernest Fellows, Harry E. Kitch, Ger- 
nett ^'anDeneen, Edwin T. Lund, Ira C. 
Chadd, Thurston R. Givens, Alfred. G. Cleve- 
land, George L. Jackson, James W. Cassell, 
Talmage Smith, James W. Booker, \ler\ S'. 
Ritenour, Fred Hodapp, Dan F. Hoover, 
Charles Ochtman, Glenn H. Gibford, John F. 
Myers, Robert W. Newman, David C. Burgis, 
Willis F. Haycock, Fred A. Humphrey, 
Thomas A. Stuckey. Bernard ?klain. Dale Haw- 
lette. James C. Overgard, Paul \'. Bekne, Les- 
ter R. Kister, Cecil A. Freel, WHlliam E. 
Faith, William H. ^"oth, Ernest H. Wilson, 
Andrew N. Gandy, Alfred B. Mills, Henry E. 
Cain, Linn Paine, John Swick, Orville Farmer, 
William R. McCormick, Lawrence Ray, Anton 
Christensen, Irvin J. Haeberle, William D. 



334 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Pester, Henry O. Engelsgjerd, Recde R. Fox, 
Nels C. Mohr, Charles J. Redfern, Peter Peter- 
son, Edmund P. King. Jesse B. Mbssman, 
Harvey B. Ehincan, Wesley J. Anderson, Mer- 
vin A. Shadel. Willie Klatt, Albert E. Hutt, 
John Rudge. Walter Brown, Harvey Porter, 
Branson J. Dull, Willie L. Wolfe, Olaf E. 
•Olson, Charles Spencer, Henry Crable. John 
H. Olson, Vergil C. Home, Clarence E. An- 
derson, Thomas E. Huff. Harrison B. Liver- 
more. Harry Huffman. Carl Xelson. Roy E. 
Fox, Andrew A. Hall, George \\". Calvert. 
Xirrus D. Baldwin, Meredith T. Reneau. Troy 
J. Fonda, Archie C. Higgins, William F, 
Moody. James H. Rigby, James H. Bryan, 
Roscoe B. Rhodes, Clarence H. Byler. George 
A. Spelts. Cleo Durnell, Herbert F. Manning. 
Earl L. Widaman. Flavious McRae. Frank A. 
Tappan. Charles W. Haefele, Xorman E. B. 
Spalding, Fred Palmer. Claude H. Hiker, 
James C. Johnson, Frank J. Haumont. Charles 
O. Lohr. William Moore. Andrew J. Backes. 
Horace P. Isaacs. George G. Riley, Leo R. 
Conroy. John L. Rickell. Sylvanus A. Brum- 
mett, Henry C. Wrasse, \Mlliam R. Hill, Ar- 
chie M. Russell, George Yeoman, Arthur C. 
Tickel. John H. Jacobson, Buel F. Porter. 
Earl X. Barcus, George C. Hill. Roy H. Lewis. 
Clarence F. Swope. Albert Smith. Ray L. 
Lockhart. Roy C. Dale. John T. Taylor. Vin- 
cent Dewey, Raymond R. Robinson, Clarence 
E, Carothers. Enoc F. Vitter, Guy Dady. 
Charlie Stockham. Earl H. Sharp, Edward F. 
Shea. Floyd E. Junk. Edgar M. \\'hitehead, 
I'aul Coffnian, J. H. Rudge, George Mary, Jr.. 
Ralph Willis. David L. Applegarth, Lonnie 
A. Smith. Ralph Cald.well, John D. Leonard. 
Chester R. Cox. Charles H. Yehh. Paul J. 
Lash. John Scott. Channing K. Boyle. Loyd 
M. Chrisman. John M. Mery. Clarence E. 
Fuller. Thomas H. Powers. John J. Pirne, 
Xeville L. Radcliff. \\'illiam R. Dean. Herman 
Dillavou, Francis L. Arthur, August Devish, 
James W. Ankney. Otto L. Drexell, Alfred 
E. Gresse, Lynn Grisamer. Clari A, Tucker, 
William E. Ash. Henry F. Koch. Paul H. 
Shew. William (7. McCreath. Charles F. 
Reams, John W. McGinnis. Harold E. John- 
son, Orien H. Daggett, Roy C. Rinker, Clar- 



ence A, Arnold. Walter M. Ellis. Jefferson D. 
Crist. Clifford S. Lomax. Henry G, \'ik. Will- 
iam T. Poor, Emil AN'olsleben. Jesse A. Chase, 
Way Dishman, Howard S. Dietz, Earl L. 
Smith, H. E. Redfern. Jess E. Simpson, Leslie 

D. Miner, Rufus K. Hill, Sam Moore. Walter 

E. Moran. Roscoe R. Ross. Robert Baldwin, 
Paul H. Palmer. William 'M. Ross, Minor J. 
Ta\'lor. George T. Robinson. Murl E. Bryant, 
Ernest P. Haumont, Jennings B. Stockham. 
Joseph P. Martin, \\"ilbur J. Henderson. Sid- 
ney \'anDyke. Lyle Cornish. Major W. E. 
Talbot. Arthur E. Stoddard. Ira V. Stewart. 
Hiram 11 Rosenbaum. Paul R. Sellers. Allen 
M. Scott. August ^'andervene. Arthur C. Xor- 
cutt. Mark A. Miley. Hollis E. King, James 
W. Runyan. CMiver Baker. Floyd Alton Fur- 
row. Robert P. Water?. Claude Horton. Orvil 
J. Walter, Edward Baker, Charley Spencer, 
Harold England, Gains Cadwell. Walter F. 
^IcGuigan, Glen Buckner, William E. Hough. 
Frank D. Mills, Stacy F. Dietz, Dan Thomas, 
Willis W. Wilson, Francis G. Holden. Boyd 
P. Hill, Charles L. Williams, John C. Francis. 
Clarence E. Rapp, Henry Eeal. Jesse Riley. 
James L. Lowder. James Cornish. Loren Hays. 
James Stevens, R, B. McCandless, Charles C. 
Robertson. Roy C. Holcomb. Glenn X. Whit- 
man. Thomas J. Dalrymple. Charley L. Boyle, 
Richard Claris Talbot, William D. Grant. Ray 

E. Martin. George R. Caldwell. Garrett \"an- 
derveen, Guy X. Furrow, Earl C. Martin. Ar- 
thur Glen Reyner, Glen Runyan. Claude Spen- 
cer. Guy Carlson, Gordon Beck. Calvin Rem- 
ington. Roy Daggett. Adli Robertson. Patrick 

F. Lynch. Carl L. Wagoner. Richard R. Stock- 
ham. Ben H. Bramer, Charles B. Monnell. 
Leroy Ash. George W. Marsh. Ray Wilson, 
William E. McGinn. Cornelius C. Delosh. 
Jake Schmid. Glenn I. Jacquot. James Ingram, 
Harry D. McCaslin. John Xeve, Charles ^^'. 
Mytton. Martin A. X'oilson. John E. Swenson, 
Frank Peterson, Cecil Swick, Floyd E. Hor- 
ton, Earnest Miller. Julius C. Hastings. Char^ 
ley A. Morrison. Henry L. Harbert. Francis 
W. Brock, Charles W. Porter. George C. 
Paine. Charles Beshaler. Lowell Bryan Patter- 
son, Forest E. West, Fred Knight. Lewis ^^'. 
J. Campbell, Frank L. Hemphill, Edward Ov- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



335 



erbard, John Henry Fleischer, IMichael C. John, 
Rav Robertson, Earl R. Byers, Gunner Z. An- 
derson, Rudolph P. Schmidt, Charlie Olsen, 
Lewis L. Zachary, Clarence E. Bramer, Har- 
lan W. Miller, Ray Adams, Melvin L. Elling- 
son, James N. Jacobson, George A. Miller. Au- 
gust C. Krager, Guy Glover, Allie J. Watkins, 
James Gier, Hugh C. Newman, William J. 
Skelton, Frank \\'alter Olson, Harlan O. Crist, 
Rov Switzer, Lewis D. Richtmyer, George C. 
Helmuth, Melvin Horn, George W. Beaver, 
Adrian ^L Ohlson, Anton Ruzicka, Pat. A. 
Dickson, Ora Deal, Reuben V. Shaw, Alfred 
C. .Anderson. Carl Herbert Case, Edgar Cecil 
Ransley. Bryan Ibach, Raphael Chartrow, Ed- 
ward R. Holms, Otis Earl Daugherty. John 
Lester Real. Harold Joseph Hubbard. Walton 
T. Huff, Otto C. Blakenjan, Glen W. McAl- 
lister. James Oral Henry, Bertram Lee Zeigler, 
Ralph .\. Bennington, Harry B. Yates, Frank 
Klapal. Loren D. Galloway, Carl W. Schmidt, 
Ralph E. Ash, Orville J. Waters. Walter E. 
Spooner, Owen H. Cox. Leslie W. Nider, 
Clyde O. Thomas, George H. Evans, Frank 
Cooksley. Harvey ]\L Sloggett, Eddie L. Cor- 
der. Gustav Roerick. Raymond T. McCarty, 
Mark R. Murray. Robert P. Waters, Michael 
F. Newhouse. Charlie F. Wantz, Albert P. 
Larson. William E. Paxton, Clarence E. Pal- 
mer. Fred R. Fessenden. Earl C. Shirey. Ray- 
mond L. Ross. Emil E. Malm. George C. 
Roeder. Clarence Bruner, John Ostrand, Ellis 
S. Owen, Ora B. Amsberry, DAvight C. Elliott, 
Chester A. Chrisman, Albert E. Allee. Ray- 
mond Clouse. Joe Bernert. Ralph Lewis, Paul 
H... Chase. Jess L. Willenberg, C. Floyd Brab- 
ham, Nazare Catanzani, George O. Leibert, 
Raymond W. Dewey, George C. Lowe, Harry 
Frey, Floyd B. Landreth. Clarence E. Mills, 
William Mekkers, Fred Divish, Edward H. 
S'olt. Charles S. Simms. Ivan A. Weaver. Max 
Fountain. Samuel B. Hoblyn. Lewis D. Gibson, 
Lee Wagner, William G. Armstrong, Hans 
Nielsen, Clarence L. Dunn. Thomas A. Deal, 
Lloyd D. Elliott. \\'illiam L. Wolsleben. Linus 
H. Work, Olof Albers, Fenton E. McEwen, 
Oscar P. Tallin, Gust A. Anderson. Charles 
Beach, Herman Henry Franzen, William An- 
drew Rush, Mvron M. Miller. Henrv R. Reed, 



\'incent Gourley, Ambrose B. McCarty, Le- 
roy Otis Todd, Fred Leroy Huston, Grant L. 
Turpening. Bert Sanford Amos. Bruno S'trie- 
der. Miles Andrew Priel. Jesse Grant Barrett. 
Bert Hall. Claud B. Hoover, Floyd Pulliam. 
Levert House Farrell, Robert P. Leep, Frank 
H. Rohde, \'ernon O. Tubbs. LeRoy, Farmer. 
Jacob Henry Brock. Chester Lee Hugo, Wal- 
ter Lincoln Anderson. Roy Marion S'cott. Clar- 
ence Howard Crawford. Edward E. Cornell, 
Flovd E. Furrow. Joe Wanitschke. Ted Terry 
Skinner. Tom B. Adams, Roland Samp, Will- 
iam George Ohmberger, James David Prov- 
ince. Hugh Raymond Downey. George Ed- 
mond Thompson. Victor Post, Emmett John 
Ford, Warren Alexander, John Skinner. An- 
drew Guy Lash. Mitchell A. Thigpen. Olvin 
H. Knudson. Ira T. Cool. Clarence I. Province, 
Asa R. Ryan, Ira Mason Henry, Lawrence 
Dayton Young, Alithony James Rock. Samuel 
Simon Strecker, Fred J. Province, John Pat- 
rick Fagan, Peter Muys, James Newton Bur- 
dick, Joseph Ellwood Palmer, George William 
Wadsworth, Vernon Devine, James Marion 
Myers, Jerome Joseph Grieble, Bernard Roelle, 
William Thomas Tompkins, William George 
Gates, Archie Alexander Murish, Roy Johnnie 
Stum, Frank Joseph McGuire, Carl Frederick 
Jackson, Joel L. Carr, Thornton Romine, 
Henry Ellwood Dye, Harold Arthur Grint, 
Harold C. Kepler. George Edward Forbes, 
Charles ]McCoy, George E. Pendleton. Joseph 
T. Graves, William R. Lord. Samuel T. i\Iur- 
ray. Edward Sittler, Roy E. S'heppard. Maurits 
B. Malm, John D. Newman, John L. Frayne. 
Louis J. Juker, Walter F. Draper, William 
John Carter. Charlie Klussman, Wingate ^l. 
Foster, Alfred Roerick, Charles M. Frederick, 
Fred E. Moore, George L. Martin, William 
B. Skinner, Charlie Fielder, Elgie J. Bohringer, 
Roy H. Smith, Archie C. Duf. Charles ^^ 
Streeton, Royden J. Banning. John A; Crist. 
Leroy A. Osserkop, Rudolph H. Grabert, 
George R. Carr, James T. Garland. Orson D. 
Hemphill. Captain L. Dietz. Fred Brandenberg, 
Carl B. Lind, August C. Vaught. John E. 
Olafson, Ralph S. Cawthra, Bert D. :\Iorrison, 
Hale H. Deidel. William Streitwieser, Scott 
P. Tietgen, ^^■alte^ F. Matz, William A. Rob- 



336 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



inson, Charles A. Shrike. Henry H. Brown, 
Carl H. Swanson, John R. Longfellow, Roy 
L. Cnlbertson, Frank Crist, Howard J. Face- 
mi re, Lawrence L. Gregory, Emanuel Nordin, 
Richard H. Hoblyn, Guy Gooch, Lee L An- 
derson, Henry L. Bailey, John Wilbur, Chris- 
tian B. .Nelson. Frank Powell. Charles H. 
Munn, Robert M. Ervin, Ralph E. Lanter- 
man, Joseph J. Dixon, Harry Hilderbrant, Al- 
via W. Grisham, Ivan Lewis, William C. Har- 
ris, Rudolph M. Kolbo, Roy D. Fonda, Loyd 
S. Beltz, Leo Main, Weland I. Hayslip, Will- 
iam Ingraham, William H. Null, Walter W. 
Thornton, Jesse N. Edmisten, Bert Green, Fe- 
lix T. Alolkey, Guy N. Furrow. Guy Deal, 
Ray Marsh, Noel L. Amos, Olin F. Jacquot, 
Henry F. Hunt. Peter Hansen. Frank J. Kou- 
bek. John G. Helmuth. George Duclos Prairie, 
Sylvester J. Rourke, Lambert J. Nelson. Law- 
rence A. Manning, Earl D. Watson, Alexis 
Olson. James Wimmer, Perry J. Martin, James 
W. Thompson. Edward R. Weaver, Gage C. 
Sauter, Roy Crouch, Earl Case, Chester H. 
Webb, Fred Carr, Edwin E. Dunlap. William 
F. Gladson, George G. ]\IcCaslin. Gedion Nel- 
son. Leroy E. Smith, Henry H. Schotman, 
Earl Brumbaugh. Lester O. Reynolds. Joe 
Jelinek, James C. Naylor, Albert L. Canfield, 
Chester Fisher, William Rosentrater, Floyd L. 
Spencer. Terry C. Boyce, Nelvin N. Whipple, 
Fred L. Shields, Jesse A. Cantrell, Forrest R. 
Smith, Ezra T. Walker. Clifford C. Johnson, 
William T. Redford. Walter H. Mathis. Ho- 
mer Dishman, Lee Rash, Adolph E. Malm, 
Bertrand W. Cassel, Brohumil Malec, John 
Rosentrater, Otto Drum, Fred E. Govier, 
George D. Lessley, John T. Courtier, Clarence 
Morris. Edward Baker, Jesse F. McKnight. 
Ray V. Verley, W^alter P. Sargent. James G. 
Rookstool, William R. VanSant, Glen Glover, 
Fred Whitney, Donald R. James, Farquar C. 
Aydelotte, Edwin Henry Ransley, Albert John- 
son, Clyde Mori Kissell. W. Obie Bonar. Er- 
nest H. Weeth, John T. Nicholas. Bert B. 
Marsh, Addison Zone Street, A. Carl Chase. 
Lewis Rudd Wolf, Claud M. Cooley, Robert 
Walker Brandt, ]\Iiner Pinkston. Ollie In- 
gram, Keith E. Templar, Benjamin Oastrand, 
Avalo Cox, James Leroy Cudaback. James F. 



Predmore, Cecil E. Caldwell, Edmond M. 
Smith, Roy Herbert Brakeman, \'erne Mc- 
Ininch. Orville Deal. Scott W. Winchester, 
Bennie L. Hatch, George J. Pointer, Roy W. 
Lichtenberger, Miltie J. Willard, B. Leonard 
Stephenson, Bortel Pagard, Charley Kriz. Del- 
bert L. Burton, Robert Lewis Walker, Ernest 
E. Luther, Harold Ellsworth Young. Earl L. 
Null, Chester Henry Miller, Oscar Frank Nel- 
son, Henry Ira Moriarty, Lawrence B. Carrol, 
Hans C. Johnson, Rollie W. Williams, Walter 
Elwood Howell, Phillip Carl Hutchens, Irvin 
Jerome Loffer, Otto B. Dunning, Clarence 
Philipsen. 

WORLD WAR ACTIVITIES 

Immediately upon the entrance of America 
into the world war. Custer county organized 
for practical co-Of)etation. with a determina- 
tion to meet every demand and to lend the 
government every possible assistance. The 
governor appointed IMarshal Eddy, of Broken 
Bow, chairman of the Custer county council 
of defense, and he proceeded to the organiza- 
tion of a strong body or council, which has 
been active and aggressive in the prosecution 
of all war work. Emerson Purcell, editor of 
Custer County Chief, has been secretary of 
the council, and aside from helping other war 
organizations and leading oft" in patriotic dem- 
onstrations, war meetings, etc.. the council has 
looked after the loyalty, or rather the disloyal- 
ty, of all parties who were reported as being 
in any way lax in regard to the supjiort they 
were rendering the government. 

THE EXEMPTIOX BOAKD ^ 

The governor of Nebraska appointed Shcrift' 
Joseph F. Wilson. County Clerk Robert G. 
Waters, and Dr. C. L. Mullins as members of 
a local exemption board, and they have been 
charged with the operation of all the draft ma- 
chinery. Through them the (juestionaires were 
sent out and all registrations conducted. They 
attended also to the physical examination and 
made out the first classifications of all regis- 
trants. It was a mammoth job, but they have 
been diligent and tireless. Many citizens vol- 
unteered their service and rendered valuable 
help under the direction of the board. The 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



337 



members of the board should be given much 
credit for the manner in which they handled 
the affairs entrusted to them and also for the 
way they provided every possible comfort for 
the boys while mobilizing. 

BOND DRIVES 

Four different bond drives to the present 
time have been organized and successfully 
prosecuted in the county. The work of rais- 
ing the quota of bonds supposed to be sold in 
Custer county has been largely conducted by 
the banks, the different bankers organizing for 
the work and seeing to it that the amount al- 
lotted is subscribed. There is no way by 
which the amount subscribed can be ascer- 
tained, and all that can be recorded is that 
every quota has been met, and that the respon- 
sive spirit of the people reduced the work to 
the minimum. 

THE WAR SAVINGS STAMP DRIVE 

A governmental arrangement was perfected 
by which the government sold stamps of twen- 
ty-five-cent denominations and in a series by 
which sixteen stamps and an additional pay- 
ment of a few cents purchased a five-dollar, 
interest-bearing goverment bond. These 
bonds could be later exchanged for hundred- 
dollar bonds, and it was arranged that no one 
could invest in a stamp beyond the sum of one 
thousand dollars. 

Custer county was asked to subscribe for 
over six hundred thousand dollars' worth of 
stamp bonds. H. Lomax, president of the 
Custer State Bank, was appointed county 
chairman, and organized for the task of raising 
the money. There was a state arrangement 
by which the 22d day of March, 1918. was des- 
ignated as the day for raising the stamp quota. 
In no county in the state did it work out more 
perfectly in all the details of the plan than in 
Custer county. In every school district in the 
county the director assembled the freeholders, 
stated the object of the meeting, explained the 
operation of investment and announced the 
quota for that respective district. During the 
afternoon, over $800,000 was subscribed, and 
Nebraska became the first state in the Union 
to raise its quota for this drive. 



THE YOUNG MEN S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 

Early in the beginning of the war Custer 
county was asked for $125 for Y. M. C. A. 
war work. The amount was so insignificant, 
and the war work of the Y. JM. C. A. then so 
little known, that little attention was paid to 
the demand. A few benevolent spirits made 
small contributions, and altogether $119 was 
contributed. Six months later, conditions had 
changed. The Y. M. C. A. again asked Custer 
county for a contribution, and this time placed 
the quota at $3,000. Alpha Morgan was made 
county chairman of an organization charged 
with raising the amount. It was assigned in 
different quotas to various localities of the 
county, and in one afternoon a little over 
$6,000 was contributed. 

PUBLIC MEETINGS AND CELEBRATIONS 

All kinds of public meetings to arouse pa- 
triotism and vmusual observance of all national 
holidays have been the order throughout the 
county. The people of every community have 
assembled in their halls, churches, or school- 
houses, and the interest manifested by the 
people in every phase of the war has been very 
remarkable. In later paragraphs is a descrip- 
tion of a celebration of General Pershing's 
birthday, observed Friday, the 13th day of 
September. 1918. The. day was observed in 
like and appropriate manner in every town in 
the county. 

THE FOUR MINUTE MEN 

Custer was second to no county in the state 
in the service rendered by her four-minute 
men. It was the duty of these four-minute 
men to appear, when appointed, in any public 
assembly, and make bright, breezy, four- 
minute talks on some phase of the war situa- 
tion. This amounted to an education propa- 
ganda. N. T. Gadd was appointed chairman 
of the four-minute men and he organized his 
speakers and covered the entire county with 
an army of four-minute men who continually 
kept current conditions before the people and 
rendered a great service. Mr. Gadd also had 
charge of the general speakers' bureau, and 
through his office speakers were sent to any 



338 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



place, day or night, when demands were made. 
He himself was in great demand and did an 
unusual amount of work in this direction. 

W.\R S.-\VI.\GS SOCIETIES 

In connection with the stamp drive and in 
order to continue it throughout the duration 
of the war, and also for the purpose of form- 
ing habits of thrift and economy among the 
American people, war-savings societies were 
organized throughout the county, under the 
direction of N. T. Gadd. To this work Mr. 
Gadd gave unremitting energy- and carried on 
the organization until at the present time he 
has over three hundred organizations of war- 
savings societies in the county. They are in 
every town and village and almost without ex- 
ception in every school district in the county. 

THE .^MERIC-VX RED CROSS 

During the last forty years, the Red Cross 
organization, known the world over as an 
organization that has standardized mercy and 
reduced to science and system the allieviation 
of suffering by ministering to the sick, caring 
for the wounded, feeding the hungry, and other 
like work, received during the present war 
time an almost incredible impetus. Its or- 
ganization and operations have been extended 
throughout the world and it has given true 
angels of mercy in camps, in hospitals, and on 
battlefields of the present day. 

In common with other counties and commu- 
nities in the United States, Custer county en- 
listed in the great work of the Red Cross, just 
before the declaration of a state of war be- 
tween the United States and Germany was 
made. Nobody knew very much about it. and 
the initiative was taken by the women, as is 
usual when there are no definite landmarks 
immediately available to guide a forward 
movement. .\s the women were first to under- 
take the impossible task of embalming the body 
of the crucified Nazarene. without counting the 
cost or knowing how or by whom the great 
stone of difficulty would be moved, so in this 
great undertaking they were ready and willing 
to begin a task of the details and magnitude of 
which they had only small conception. They 



only knew that the young men of the nation, 
of the state, of Custer county, of our homes, 
were about to be put into jeopardy of body and 
soul and would be in desperate need of the 
ministrations of womankind. So they took 
counsel only of their courage and the neces- 
sities that had arisen, and launched the be- 
ginnings of what is now the Custer County 
Chapter of the American Red Cross. 

On March 22, 1917, a meeting was called 
at the office of Mr. Alpha Morgan. The fol- 
lowing ladies are recorded as present : Mes- 
dames L. D. George, M. S. Eddy, C. H. 
England, Alpha Morgan, and H. B. Landis. 
Mrs. Landis was chosen secretary of the meet- 
ing. It was agreed that steps should be taken 
to form in Broken Bow an auxiliary of the 
.\merican Red Cross, and another meeting was 
]ilanned. for April 7th. to be held at the city 
hall. .\ general invitation was extended to the 
women of Broken Bow and vicinity and they 
were asked to bring certain materials to be 
made up for the Red Cross. Mrs. Landis, !\Irs. 
Derr. Mrs. Mevis. and Mrs. Ford were made 
an executive committee to push the work ad 
interim. 

The meeting of .-Kpril 7th brought the fol- 
lowing ladies together: Mesdames Apple. 
Clevis. Henry, H. Lomax. G. O. Joyner, Rob- 
inson. Clute. Skillman. Adaline Johnson. Joe 
Wilson, Stapleton, A. Morgan, Thostesen, 
Stockham. Floyd, and Hickenbottom. ^lem- 
bership lists were opened and the payment of 
dues made, thus making a definite member- 
ship. Weekly meetings were held for such 
work as was at hand. On May 14th a motion 
was carried to call a meeting at the court 
house for the purpose of organizing a chapter 
with the county as the unit. Committees on 
publicity, program, and advertising were 
named. This meeting was held May 22. 1917, 
and Judge N. Dwight Ford was chosen chair- 
man. 

Mrs. Alpha Morgan outlined the plan of 
work for an organized chapter, and the organ- 
ization was immediately effected, with the fol- 
lowing officers: President. Mr. Jules Hau- 
mont: vice-president. Mrs. .\lpha Morgan; 
secretary, Mrs. H. B. Landis ; treasurer, Rev. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



339 



George P. Trites. Forty-nine memberships and 
sixty dollars were received. 

At a meeting on May 23d, the officers named 
the following executive coinmittee : J. M. Kim- 
berling, P. A. Black, W. VV. Waters, Mrs. O. 
H. Mevis, Judge N. Dwight Ford, Dr. C. L. 
Mullins, Mrs. Derr, Mrs. A. Morgan, Mrs. 
H. B. Landis, Jules Haumont, Rev. George P. 
Trites, and M. S. Eddy. 

At a later meeting a publicity committee was 
named, consisting of Judge N. Dwight Ford, 
Rev. George P. Trites, and Dr. C. L. Mullins, 
to bring before the people of the county the 
matter of organizing branches of the chapter. 
•A. committee of five — M. S. Eddy ( chair- 
man), ;\Irs. C. H. England, Mrs. H. Lomax, 
J\Irs. L. D. George. Rev. James Hermes — 
were named to have charge of the membership 
campaign. To accelerate the movement of ex- 
tending the work out into the county, a com- 
mittee on extension was named, as follows: 
Alpha Morgan, assigned to Sargent and 
Comstock; H. Lomax, to Oconto: Dr. C. L. 
?*Iullins. to Arnold; M. S. Eddy, to Merna : 
^lac Warrington, to Mason City ; Judge N. D. 
Ford, to Ansley ; Mrs. Alpha Morgan, to An- 
selmo : Rev. George P. Trites, to Berwyn : 
Jules Haumont, to Westerville. The efifect of 
the comjuittee's vigorous work was immediate 
— branches sprang up in every part of the 
county and the membership increased rapidly. 
The treasurer's receipts from June 2i to June 
30 were $780.90. January 1," 1918, the "total 
reached $3,685.75. On October 1st the total 
receipts from all funds passing through the 
treasurer's hands amounted to $19,652.75. This 
does not include tlie money sent directly to 
Washington as the major part of the two Red 
Cross war-fund drives in the county, nor does 
it include the moneys raised by the several 
branches for the purchase of materials, with 
the exception of fifty per cent, of the member- 
ship dues in those auxiliaries. The second war- 
fund drive alone totaled $34,968.07, of which 
amount $28,655.09 was deposited for the credit 
of the treasurer of the national society, W. G. 
McAdoo. 

Communities entered into the spirit of the 



work with marvelous zeal. There was an 
abandon of giving such had never been seen in 
this county for any purpose. Donated articles 
were offered in auction sales in every town and 
community. Fabulous prices were paid for 
articles and the buyer would at once donate 
them again, and separate items often sold again 
and again. In this way thousands of dollars 
were put into the hands of the workers to buy 
goods to be made up for hospitals, soldiers, 
and refugees. The women met every week to 
sew and knit, and in many localities three 
afternoons were willingly given for the service. 
Competent women were put over the work, 
generally divided under separate heads, such 
as surgical dressings, knitted goods, and sew- 
ing. Under the parent branch in Broken Bow 
the knitting work was under the oversight of 
Mrs. F. W. Henry, and upon her departure 
Mrs. C. L. Gutterson was appointed. Mrs. 
Gutterson has been chairman for the county 
work with the duty of distributing the yarn 
and censoring the work. Mrs. H. Lomax was 
given immediate oversight of the Broken Bow 
workers aside from knitting, with the compe- 
tent aid of Mrs. C. H. England and Mrs. H. 
D. Huntington as cutters. Mrs. Joseph Moly- 
neux was made chairman of the county work 
and censor of sewing. In each of the branches, 
was made such division of labor as would best 
further the work and produce the best results. 
For faithful and sacrificing labors, the names 
of scores of women would rightly find a place 
in this list of workers. The following list of 
materials made and shipped will give some- 
thing of an idea of the scope of the work ac- 
complished. The figures given cover only the 
year beginning October 1. 1917, and ending- 
October 1, 1918. 

Total number of different articles shipped, 
35.305. Some of the principal items are : 7,468 
surgical dressings, 1,799 suits of pajamas, 
4,225 pillow cases, 906 bed sheets, 5,995 hand 
towels, 575 bath towels, L215 bed shirts, 1.321 
.sweaters, 2,258 pairs socks. 

Shipments of used and new clothing have 
been gathered by the Red Cross in the county 
for relief of the suffering Belgian and French 



340 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY. NEBRASKA 



people remaining behind the German lines. 
More tlian a ton gross weight of this material 
has been shipped. 

In the spring of 1918 the territory aronnd 
Callaway, in part, was made into a separate 
chapter, known as Callaway Chapter, with H. 
H. Andrews chairman. The reports here given 
do not include that done therein after that 
chapter was constituted. 

Changes in the official corps of the society 
were made necessary in the late winter of 1918, 
and \\'. -A. Baldwin was chosen chairman, Mrs. 
Charles Luce, secretary, and W. L. Gaston, 
vice-chairman. 'Sirs. Luce opened an office and 
sacrificingly gave her time to the increasing 
duties of the office until June 1st, when the 
management of the office was placed in the 
care of the chairman, and John P. Robertson 
was chosen secretary. A well located office 
is donated by the Broken Bow Abstract Com- 
pany, Messrs. Hansen and Luce. Furniture 
was borrowed, including a fine desk, from F. 
M. Currie, and the Custer County Red Cross 
is doing a splendid and creditable work in the 
great war for humanity. All the varied inter- 
ests of the organization within the limits of 
the Custer County Chapter center in the office. 

The executive committee at this writing is 
as here noted : Chairman, W. A. Baldwin ; 
vice-chairman, W. L. Gaston ; secretary. John 
P. Robertson ; treasurer. George P. Trites ; and 
M. S. Eddy, P. A. Black, and Dr. C. L. 
-Mullins. 

WO.M.\.\'s COUNCIL OF DEFENSE 

In war as well as peace, the activity and 
patriotism of the w^otnen have always equalled, 
if not excelled, those of the men. If the men 
have had their organizations and prosecuted 
any special division of work, the women have 
had their corresponding organizations and have 
made a like prosecution, only perhaps display- 
ing a little more energy. This is true in the 
matter of the Woman's Council of Defense. 

The woman's committee was organized, at 
the request of the government, to co-ordinate 
the' activities and the resources of the organ- 
ized and unorganized women of the country, 
that their power might be immediately utilized 



in time of need, and to supply a new and direct 
cliannel of communication and co-operation 
between men and women and governmental 
departments. 

The Custer county branch has not been idle, 
but has successfully managed the registration 
of women, the baby registration, three Liberty- 
bond drives. The branch has raised most of 
its quota for the state work ; has assisted and 
entertained speakers who came to the county 
for educational purposes : has helped with the 
Red Cross work and drives ; has furthered 
Americanization ; has sold flag pictures : has, 
with the assistance of the county superinten- 
dent, distributed liberty and patriotic programs 
to the rural schools ; has sent in to Camp 
Dodge antl Camp Funston about thirty-five 
gallons of wild-grape juice for the convales- 
cent soldiers : has kept "open house" and dis- 
tributed a vast amount of literature at the 
county fair ; has staged a patriotic pageant in 
the park during fair week, for two nights : has 
held community singing in the park for six 
weeks, until it was turned over to the Four- 
minute men. The members took up with proper 
authorities the matter of sending home the 
body of one of the deceased soldier boys with- 
out proper embalming, and had the ones in 
charge reprimanded. They took charge of a 
tubercular soldier, saw that lie was outfitted 
properly, and sent to a sanitarium for treat- 
ment ; took up with the health officers, school 
board, and physicians, the matter of compul- 
sory medical inspection in our schools, and had 
it carried through ; and are now on a cam- 
paign for nurses and for the civilian and army 
schools — and all done gratuitously, of course. 
The only money paid out was for necessary 
postage, for this committee are not allowed 
any "franking" privileges, such as are accorded 
the men for their work. 

The woman's connnittee of the Council of 
Defense for Custer county is composed of the 
following named members: Chairman, Mrs. 
Alpha Morgan ; vice-chairman, Mrs. C. H. 
England; secretary. Miss Dorothy Maulick; 
treasurer. Mrs. Hazel Sidwell : Red Cross and 
allied relief. ^Irs. C. H. England ; food con- 
servation, Mrs. .\ddie Hall ; child welfare, Mrs. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



341 



Clyde \\'ilson ; Liberty loan. ^Nliss Keo Carrie 
and Airs. J. G. Leonard ; maintenance of ex- 
isting social agencies, Miss Eva Cadwell ; 
educational propaganda. Miss Nellie Taylor ; 
health and recreation, Miss Dorothy Maulick ; 
Americanization. Mrs. John Reese ; publicity. 
Mrs. J. H. Melville; registration. Mrs. Hazel 
Sidwell. District chairmen: Mrs. J. H. Kerr, 
Ansley ; Mrs. Rose Dailey, Anselmo ; Mrs. 
Lizzie Morris, Sargent ; Mrs. F. AI. AIcGrew, 
Callaway ; Mrs. J. T. Woods. Mason City ; 
Miss Essie Haskell. Arnold. 

GENER.^L Pershing's birthday celebr.xtiox 

On Friday, the 13th of October. 1918, 
Broken Bow and all surrounding vicinity cele- 
brated General Pershing's birthday. It was no 
mean occasion, and the celebration was on a 
par with any other celebration ever before 
"pulled off" in the town. Nothing elaborate 
had been planned — everything was to be on 
a simple scale — yet everything was exceed- 
ingly appropriate and fitting. The parade of 
the school children and citizens was one of the 
finest street demonstrations ever seen in the 
city. The enthusiasm of war time, the local 
patriotism of the people, the allegiance to the 
leaders of the armies and nation — all gave 
to the occasion a spontaneity and spirit rarely 
ever seen before. At two o'clock p. m. the 
pupils of the North Side grade school and the 
high school marched from their respective 
buildings, under the direction of their teachers, 
to the court-house lawn, where it was arranged 
that the parade should form. The scholars 
carried flags and marched in double columns. 
The boy scouts had a prominent place in the 
North Side parade. One of the features to 
attract much attention was the High School 
Cadets, who made a fine exhibition of the 
training the)' had received from S'uperinten- 
dent Hewitt. Professor Hewitt had the cadets 
in charge and they marched with the erectness 
and precision of a squad that had had long 
military training. The North Side pupils lined 
up on the north side of the square and awaited 
the coming of the South Side children, who, 
with their flags and banners, marched in 
double column and lined up on the south side 



of the square. The band assembled in front 
of the court house and played one or two pa- 
triotic selections, after which was formed the 
parade to the park where the speaking was 
to take place. The high-school flag, carried 
by the Council of Defense, led off, followed 
by the Broken Bow band ; then came the South 
Side schools, followed by the fife and drum 
corps ; next the North Side schools, with the 
cadets in the rear of the school procession. 
.\fter the cadets came citizens generally. The 
procession marched down Broadway to Eigth 
avenue, then north along the east side of the 
square to Eighth avenue, thence west along 
the north side of the square to the north side 
entrance to the park, where they entered the 
park and marched round and round the band 
stand until the procession wound itself up into 
a solid mass of American humanity, gay and 
resplendent with all the national colors. 

The scene was one long to be remembered. 
Hundreds of flags fluttered in the breeze. The 
children and older pupils looked the part of 
young Americans, which role they are playing 
in the great world-drama of the present time. 

At this juncture M. S. Eddy, chairman of 
the Council of Defense, put in an appearance 
on the band stand, called f^he people to order 
and asked all, old and young, to join in singing 
"America," which was done with a loyal good 
will that could not but have been pleasing to 
General Pershing if he could have seen and 
heard the enthusiasm with which the national 
anthem was sung, and his natal day celebrated 
in Broken Bow. Rev. \V. A. Baldwin, pastor 
of the Christian church, invoked a divine bless- 
ing which appealed to the great God for pro- 
tection of our brave leader and the brave boys 
who are serving under him. The speaker of 
the day. Judge Morning, of Lincoln, was in- 
troduced and he delighted the people with an 
eloquent and patriotic address. Judge Morn- 
ing is a personal friend of General Pershing 
and out of a full, warm heart he spoke of his 
acquaintance, of the General's magnificent 
leadership, and paid the American hero a splen- 
did tribute. 

His tribute to the American soldier and 
sailor, given in rounded f)eriods, was loudly 



342 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



applauded. His denunciation of Prussian 
tyranny was bitter and withering. Withal, the 
Judge is a pleasing speaker and the people of 
Broken Bow were glad to meet him and hear 
him. The entire celebration did honor to the 
occasion and reflected credit upon its promo- 
ters. The school procession alone was over 
four blocks long. The music was all that could 
be desired. The enthusiasm of the people 
passed all former bounds. It was a fitting cel- 
ebration in honor of the modest leader of the 
American forces in France. 

With that celebration, its procession radiant 
with flags and flag colors as a backgrountl, the 
news of the evening dispatches telling of the 
offensive made by our boys as a birthday cele- 
bration in France, in which 12.000 Germans 
were captured and the St. Mihiel sector 
squeezed ofif in such a way as to shorten the 
battle line twenty miles, made a fitting close 
to a "perfect day." 

THE W.\R EXDS 

Since the foregoing paragraphs were writ- 
ten, great events have happened. The World 
War has come to an end. In the eleventh 
hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, 
hostilities ceased between the allied armies and 
the armies of the central kingdoms of Europe. 
Great rejoicing and magnificent demonstra- 
tions resulted. Peace bonfires blazed in every 
town in Custer county. And the people are 



exceedingly glad to be able to resume pre- 
war occupations. 

A POST-W.\R DRIVE 

Before the cessation of hostilities a call for 
8170.000,000 had been made by the following 
Societies : Young Men's Christian Association, 
Yoimg \N"omen's Christian Association, Catho- 
lic War Board Council. Jewish \\'elfare So- 
ciety, Community Camp Service, National 
Library Association, and Salvation Army. 
Custer county's proportion of this amount was 
$36,809. Organization to collect the same was 
efifected and the following were elected as the 
executive committee: Alpha Morgan, chair- 
man, representing the Young Men's Christian 
Association : Mrs. A'. H. England. Young 
Women's Christian Association ; Father James 
Hermese, Catholic War Board Council ; \\'. L. 
Gaston, Communitj- Camp Service ; Mrs. J. H. 
Melville, Library Association ; Simon Pizer. 
Jewish Welfare Board: Judge N. Dwight 
Ford, Salvation Army : N. T. Gadd, \'ictory 
Boys. 

The county was subdivided by school dis- 
tricts, and allotments made to each district. The 
raising of the respective allotments was made 
the duty of the school directors. With mar- 
velous unanimity, the directors responded, and 
the districts, with very few execptions, met 
their quotas. The amount raised for this work 
in Custer county amounted to $50,597.50. 



CHAPTER XVI 
CUSTER COUNTY LITERATURE 

Newspapers of Custer County — Westerville — Broken Bow's First Paper — More 
Papers for Westerville — Now Comes Ansley — Algernon — A Daily Paper — Pol- 
itics Didn't Pay — PuRCELL Starts AT Merna — "Sun" Shines at Anselmo — The 
"Chief" Shows Up at Broken Bow — Arnold — Callaway — The Callaway Courier 
— • Berwyn — Sargent — West Union — Comstock — Oconto — S. D. Butcher. His- 
torian — A State Contribution — "Farewell Homestead Shanty" — Elmer E. Dowse 
— A Picture of Early Days — ]\Irs. M. B. A. Martin — "The Broken Bow" — A. J. 
McArthur, M.D. — Prize Article — Custer County — George B. Mair — "The South 
Loup River" — Harry B. Iszard — Tabulated Knocks — Mrs. G. W. Dewey — "The 
Blizzard"- — Court House Corner Stone — Corner-stone Poem — A Custer County 
Poet — "Little Bohemian Girl" — "Early Days in Custer" — Sol. J. Cook — "The 
Poet" — Mrs. Martha A. Hunter — Mrs. A. H. Stuckey — "The Lark's Return- 
ing"— "The Goldenrod" — "The Service Flag" — Mrs. Sabina Penrod — 
"Dawn in the Custer County Hills" — Gaston's Rhymes for Padding 
— "Home in Broken Bow" — "Walking the Waters" 



Custer county, given over to agricultural and 
domestic pursuits, is not expected to pose as 
a producer of literary men and women, yet 
it may be said that here can be found an intelli- 
gence and a literary genius not outranked else- 
where in the middle west. 

We may not have produced prodigies but 
we have produced a corp of literary athletes 
who are vigorous in style, strong in expression, 
and in the realm of constructive English might 
be called trapeze performers on the King's 
English. We enroll a few, with a product of 
their pens in either prose or verse, but would 
not have anyone suppose that this short list 
exhausts the supply. 

The newspapers of Custer county are, and 
have been, for the most part manned by liter- 
ary men who have shaped the county's jour- 
nalism into creditable literary contributions. 
Some of these editors have been geniuses in 
the field of their operation and have distin- 
guished themselves among the writers of tiie 
state. In this class we might call the names 



of E. R. Purcell, George B. Mair, D. M. Ams- 
berry, Mac Warrington, and many others. Now 
follows the story of Custer county journalism. 

NEWSPAPERS OF CUSTER COUNTY 

There has been no agency employed that is 
entitled to more credit for the rapid develop- 
ment and advancement of Custer county from 
its organization than its newspapers. During 
the first five years of the county's history there 
was not a newspaper published in the county. 
The following is a list of the various papers 
that have been published in the county up to 
the present time, as far as the writer can pro- 
cure data from the records at his command. 
While there may be some mistakes, and pos- 
sibly a few unimportant omissions, we think 
it is in the main correct : 

WESTERVILLE 

In the fall of 1880 James Westervelt estab- 
lished a store on Clear creek, the location be- 
ing at that time called Elm Bridge. The name 



343 



344 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



was given the place because of a near-by 
bridge which the settlers had built across the 
creek and which was constructed of elm logs 
taken from the canyons. Other business men 
located there that winter and the following 
spring, and in honor of the first resident, 
James Westerv-elt. the new town was chris- 
tened Westerville. It was here that Custer 
county's first newspaper, the Custer County 
Leader, was born, on. June 13. 1881, with 
George Trefren, publisher, and Samuel G. 
Beebe. editor. The Leader continued at Wes- 
terville until 1883, when Mr. Beebe moved 
with it to Broken Bow, where the county seat 
had been located the previous fall. Mr. Beebe 
continued to edit the Leader until 1888, when 
he was appointed postmaster of Broken Bow, 
by President Harrison. The Leader fell into 
tlie hands of the Central Nebraska Bank on 
( )ctober 26th of that year. It was for a short 
time edited by J. H. Inman, then by R. H. 
]\Iiller, after which the plant was leased to 
Jake Horn, of Callaway, and W. O. Chapman, 
of .Ansley. Fred S'hafifer succeeded Horn and 
Chapman, as editor. Mr. Shaffer, after a few 
months' experience, discontinued the publica- 
tion and moved to Denver, where he continued 
in the newspaper business. He invested in 
mining stock that in a few years made him rich. 
The frequent changes in management went 
against the Leader and the material was sold 
to other offices. 

BROKEN bow's First p.\per 

The first newsi)a]>er published in Broken 
Bow was founded, by Robert H. Miller. June 
29, 1882. Mr. Miller had been in the news- 
paper business at Wood River, Hall county, 
Nebraska. In transferring his plant from Wood 
River it was freighted across the country, 
nearly 100 miles, by wagon. The town of Bro- 
ken Bow had been platted only a few weeks 
previously. For lack of lumber or railroad 
facilities, and the great distance from any ])oint 
that lumber could be procured, the first office 
Iniilding for the h'epiil'lieai} was built of sod. 
on the corner now occupied by the Broken 
Bow State Bank, northwest of the Public 
Square. Tlie building was occupied by the 



editor and liis famih', as well as by the Kepnb- 
lieait office. 

The Repuhliean continued luider the man- 
agement and control of its founder until March 
3, 1887. On that day the plant was purchased 
by D. M. Amsberry. who at that time was 
serving his third term as county superintendent 
of schools of Custer county. The office was 
continued in the sod building until July of 
that year, when it was moved to its new quar- 
ters in the Custer Block, which was built by 
Trefren, Talbot, and Amsberry. In later years 
the Republican, under its new management, 
was owned by a stock company, and its equip- 
ment was enlarged by the purchase of the 
type and machinery of the Broken Bozi' Times, 
a Democrat paper established by George Tre- 
fren and Sam INIeserauli. The stock company 
was finally discontinued and the stock taken 
over by Mr. Amsberry. who continued as edi- 
tor and publisher of the paper until 1''14. It 
was under his management of the Repi(blican 
that a campaign against the licensed saloon 
was inaugurated, in the spring election of 1888, 
and continued from year to year until the open 
saloon was voted out of Broken Bow. During 
the years of the saloon agitation, the Republi- 
can was strongly opposed to the saloon busi- 
ness. In 1914 the ownership of the Republican 
jjassed into the hands of a young man by the 
name of Norman Parks, who after a few 
months turned the plant back to Mr. Ams- 
berry. A few months thereafter the plant was 
sold to E. C. Shea, who continued its publi- 
cation until the spring of 1916, when he sold 
the plant to James K. Hewitt, of Alliance, who 
is the editor and publisher of the paper at this 
time. It is now the oldest newspaper in the 
county. 

MORK I'APERS FOR WESTICRVII.LE 

Tlie H'estcr-iille Times was started at Wes- 
terville in 1883, by C. II. Dalrymple. The 
jiajier was of short life and after a few months 
the ]ilant was moved to Nonpareil, a town in 
the northwestern part of the state. The third 
jiaper. and fourth in Custer county, to be pub- 
lished at Westerville. was the Jl'esterrillc 
Echo, whi.-h was started in 1884. by a young 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



345 



Englishman named Knox. Air. Knox soon be- 
came tired of journalism, and disposed of the 
Echo to James Westervelt, who put his son 
Eugene in charge. In 1886, on the occasion of 
the building of the B. & AI. Railroad up the 
Muddy valley, the village of Ansley was plat- 
ted and established by the railroad company, 
and the Echo was one of the institutions moved 
to the new town, where Eugene Westervelt 
had full charge of it. 

NOW COMES AXSLEV 

In April, 1887, the paper was sold to J. H. 
and W. O. Chapman, two practical young 
newspaper men, who came from Cambridge, 
Illinois. The name of the paper was changed 
to the Ansley Chronicle, and it was published 
by the Chapmans until 1895, when it passed 
into the hands of Tom Wright, a young 
Scotchman who was then but eighteen years 
of age. Mr. Wright continued to publish the 
Chronicle until 1912, when he was appointed 
postmaster at Ansley. by President Roosevelt. 
He then disposed of the paper, to A. H. Barks, 
who consolidated it with the Argosy, which 
had been founded by C. H. Hargrave. 

Later on the Ansley Argosy was purchased 
from Barks by Harris & Maltman. In a few 
months Maltman retired from the business, and 
the publication was continued by N. A. Harris 
until 1914, when the plant was destroyed by 
fire. As Tom Wright had established the Ans- 
ley Herald about this time, no efifort was made 
to rebuild the Argosx plant, thus leaving the 
town, as it had been for several years, with 
but one newspaper. Mr. Wright continued its 
publication until June, 1918, when he sold the 
plant to James Wallace, who is editor and 
publisher of the paper at this writing. 

ALGERNON 

Upon the advent of the B. & ]\I. Railroad 
up the ]\Iuddy valley, in 1886, the Chainpio)i 
was started at Algernon, by a Mr. Watkins. 
who, after the village failed to secure a depot, 
removed the paper to Mason City and changed 
its name to the Mason City Advocate. He dis- 
posed of the plant to J. M. Amsberry, who 
continued it until 1895, when he suspended it 



for a year, subsequently, in 1896, resuming its 
]niblication at Ansley, under the name of the 
Peotle's Ad-eocate. In the fall of 1900 Mr. 
Amsberry disposed of the paper to W. F. 
Greenlee, an inexperienced young man in the 
newspaper business, under whose management 
it was suspended in March, 1901, the type and 
other equipment being shipped to York, where 
they are used in a job office by the former 
owner. 

The third paper published in Broken Bow 
was the Broken Boie Times, established in 
1885, by G. W. Trefren and S. I. MeserauU. 
Financially, the Times was for a short time a 
great success, as land notices were plentiful, 
but, owing to some misunderstanding between 
the proprietors of the Times and Mr. Higgins, 
register of the land office at Grand Island, 
where most of the land notices came from, the 
latter induced R. E. Martin, an ex-Confeder- 
ate soldier and forcible writer, to establish an- 
other Democratic paper at Broken Bow. The 
paper was launched in March, 1886, by R. E. 
Martin and J. S. Bellinger, and was christened 
the Statesman. To it Mr. Higgins transferred 
his land-office patronage, and the Statesman 
prospered immensely. It established a branch 
paper at Mason City, named the Mason City 
Transcript. 

.\ DAILV P.\PER 

The Times, not to be outdone, started a 
daily edition and christened it the Broken Boie 
Dailv Times. Messrs. Martin and Dellinger 
disposed of the Mason City Transcript to 
James Whittaker, and two or three weeks later 
Mr. Whittaker sold it to M. C. Warrington, 
who continued with the paper until 1917, 
when he disposed of it to James Pebles, the 
present owner. Martin and Dellinger dissolved 
partnership. Martin retained the Statesnian, 
while Dellinger and Walters established the 
sixth paper for Broken Bow, known as the 
Broken Bozv Jl'orld. The Daily Times and 
the Dailv World were soon consolidated, Mr. 
Walters becoming editor-in-chief and the me- 
chanical work being done in the Times office. 
In 1888 Trefren and MeserauU disposed of the 
trood will of the Times to R. E. Martin, and 



346 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



about the same time the Jl'orld suspended. R. 
H. Miller then started the Dailv Reporter, and 
had the mechanical work done at the Repub- 
lican office. In the course of three months the 
Reporter suspended and was succeeded by the 
Daily Republican, published by D. M. Ams- 
berry, in connection with his weekly edition. 
The Daily Republican was continued until Oc- 
tober, 1895, when the plant was leased to J. H. 
Chapman for one year and the daily edition 
was discontinued. In the fall of 1888 E. M. 
Webb and George S. Tappan established the 
Xebraska Citizen in Broken Bow. The paper 
continued until the following spring, when its 
publication was suspended. It was largely due 
to this paper that the .Alliance or People's In- 
dependent ticket was elected in the fall of 1889. 

POLITICS did.x't pay 

A few of the leaders of the Farmers' Alli- 
ance resurrected the Citizen and established 
the Alliance Motor, with .A. J. Evans, of Thed- 
ford, as editor. The Motor was not a financial 
success and soon suspended. In April. 1890, 
the Motor material was gotten together by the 
stockholders, and the paper was re-established, 
C. W. Beal. president of the Farmers' Alli- 
ance, being elected president and manager. 
The paper was called the Custer County Bea- 
con. In 1890 E. M. Webb became associated 
with Mr. Beal in the publication of this paper. 
The Beacon was soon recognized as the leading 
Populist paper of central Nebraska. In the 
course of three years E. L. Beal, of Anslev, was 
induced to leave his farm and join his Ijrother, 
C. W. Beal, in promoting the Alliance doc- 
trine. The Beal brothers eventually jjurchased 
a majority of the stock of the other members 
of the coni])any. and assumed full control of 
the plant. Except during the year 1898, when 
C. W. Beal served one term in the state senate, 
the two brothers did all the editorial and me- 
chanical work of the office. During C.W. Beal's 
absence, F. A. Amsberry, of Mason City, was 
employed as assistant editor. The Beal bro- 
thers continued to publish the Beacon until 
1907. when Elgin I. Beal retired to the 
farm, with his family, and left the entire 
charge of the paper to his brother. Charles W. 



Beal, who later leased the plant to a man from 
Ord, Nebraska. The publication of the Beacon 
was soon afterward discontinued and the mate- 
rial sold. 

PURCELL ST.JlRTS AT MERN'A 

In November, 1886, Purcell Brothers estab- 
lished the Memo Record, which was edited 
by E. R. Purcell. Under his management the 
Record flourished. It subsequently changed 
ownership and was moved to Callaway, the 
name being changed to the Custer County In- 
dependent. In the latter part of 1891, A. Z. 
Lazenby started another paper in Merna, which 
he christened the Merna Reporter, but it had 
a short life. It was resurrected in 1893, by 
Captain Gatchell, and continued until the fall 
of 1894, when he moved it to Sheridan, Wyo- 
ming, continuing in the newspaper business 
there until his appointment as register of the 
land office in that state. In 1899 Rev. :Mr. 
Clifton commenced the publication of the 
Merna Sun. which, in the spring of 1900, he 
sold to Theodore .\. Miller, who abandoned 
the paper in January following, and returned 
to his home in Omaha. Most of the material 
was shipped back to York, whence it had been 
leased. This left Merna without a newspaper 
for several years — until the Merna Postal 
Card was started by Claude Hall, who contin- 
ued its publication until 1916. It was then sold 
to W. R. Button, who rechristened it the 
Merna Messenger and who is owner and pub- 
lisher at the present time. 

"SU.\ " SHI.NES AT AXSELMO 

Dale for a short time had a newspaper, 
which was started by Trefren & Meseraull in 
1886, in anticipation of the railroad being 
built through that valley. But when they failed 
to realize their anticipation, the plant was 
moved to Anselmo and named the Anschno 
Sun. 

The first issue of the Sun was from a tent, 
and S. I. Meseraull was its editor. J. II. Zeh- 
rung. Ben Sanders, and others tried their hands 
at making the Sun sliine, but with inditYerent 
success, until it finally fell into the hands of 
J. J. Tooley, present secretary of the state 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



347 



banking board, who. in connection with teach- 
ing the Anselmo school, succeeded, with the 
assistance of his wife, in causing the Sun to 
cast weekly rays of light and glory over the 
[leople of the little village. Becoming tired of 
his double duty, the professor sold his interest 
in the paper to Al Hummel, of Gandy, in 1890, 
and it was finally sold to E. R. Purcell, who 
added it to the outfit of his Meriia Record. 
For several years the people of Anselmo were 
without a newspaper, but for the past few 
years they have been able to obtain a good one, 
the Enterprise, which is published at the pres- 
ent time, by R. H. Aliller. 

THE CHIEF SHOWS UP AT BROKEN liOW 

In April. 1892, the Custer County Chief was 
established by W. G. and E. R. Purcell. under 
the firm name of Purcell Brothers, and they 
published the paper in connection with the 
job ofifice that had prior to that time been run 
by W. G. Purcell. The Chief espoused the 
Populist cause, which at that time was very 
popidar in the county and state. The Chief 
prospered greatly under the public patronage 
that was thus afforded. Since the death of the 
Populist party the Chief has been neutral in 
politics. Some years ago the newspaper and 
jol) departments were separated, and each op- 
erated independently of the other. The job 
department was taken over by W. G. Purcell 
and the newspaper l^y E. R. Purcell. who is 
still sole manager and editor of the Chief. The 
Chief is recognized by the newspapers of the 
i state as having a larger circulation than any 
! other weekly newspaper in Nebraska. 

.\RXOLD 

The first paper published in Arnold was the 
Tribune, which was established in the year 
188(). by Francis Ainsworth, and which had 
an existence of about a year. The Bus^'le Call. 
state organ of the Independent Order of Good 
Templars, also was published at Arnold for a 
time, about 1887, but the mechanical work was 
not done there. Miss Anna M. Saunders was 
its editor and publisher. After the suspension 
of the Tribune. Arnold was without a news- 



paper until February. 1888. when the A'czi-.? 
was established there, by S. L. Carlyle, who 
continued to publish it until 1894, when he 
moved the plant to Xehawka. Nebraska. Ar- 
nold now has a newspaper published by J- B. 
]iIcCoy, and called the Arnold Sentinel. 

C.\LI-AWAV 

Callaway"s first newspaper was the Standard, 
which made its first bow to the public August 
19, 1886, the town being at that time just 
seven weeks old. The Standard was a newsy 
paper, published and edited by C. A. Sher- 
wood. The Standard grew and prospered with 
the town, and was finally sold by Mr. Sher- 
wood to S. L. Carlyle. Mr. Carlyle continued 
its publication until 1888, when he moved the 
plant to Arnold and established the Xezcs. In 
the fall of 1887 J. Woods Smith, head of the 
Callaway townsite syndicate, purchased a 
newspaper outfit and. on October 15th of that 
year, established the Callazcay Headliglit. with 
C). H. Barber as editor and F. \\'. Conly as 
manager. The paper was named Headlight 
in anticipation of the early completion of the 
railroad. The paper was purchased, on Feb- 
ruary 24. 1888. by H. M. Baley. and on Octo- 
ber 20th following, by F. W. Conly, who 
eventually sold it to the Independent, April 
30. 1892. Shortly after the beginning of the 
People's Independent party movement, the po- 
litical managers of that organization concluded 
that they needed a newspaper to spread their 
gospel at Callaway, and E. M. Webb was sent 
over from Alerna with the old Merna Record 
outfit. Thus the Custer County Independent 
was founded, and for several years the Inde- 
pendent enjoyed a good patronage. In the fall 
of 1896 E. M. Webb was elected a member of 
the Nebraska legislature, and in 1898 he re- 
tired from the newspaper business, being suc- 
ceeded by W. A. Overman, who conducted 
the Independent until 1901, when the paper 
was discontinued. Shortly after selling the 
Headlight. F. W. Conly established the JVeek- 
!y Tribune, on July 2, 1892. which he contin- 
uously published, with the exception of fifteen 
months during which it was consolidated with 



348 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



the Independent, until 1908, wlicn it was con- 
solidated with tlie Loup J 'alley Queen, which 
was edited by Ray Barnard. 

THE CALLAWAY COURIER 

The Callmi'ay Courier, a newspaper that for 
a number of years was one of the leading 
papers of Custer county, was established in 
1888. and was, as the records show, the out- 
growth of a local town-fight between some of 
the citizens of Callaway and J. Woods Smith. 
The publication of the Courier was presided 
over by George B. Mair. who bore the reputa- 
tion of being one of the best editorial writers 
in the county. In 1910 Mr. Mair was elected 
clerk of the district court of the county and 
disposed of his interests in the Courier, which 
was later consolidated w'ith the Queen. 

While Callaway for a time supported three 
newspai>ers, it now has but one, which is 
owned and published by Professor W. A. 
Rosene. with J. C. Nailer as editor. 

BERWVX 

For a few months, in 1890-91, the village 
of Berkyn sported a newspaper, called the 
Berzi'yn Times. It was published by Dr. Nick- 
erson, and died a natural death, after a short 
and not overly brilliant career. 

S.\RGEXT 

The Loup J 'alley Ea<;le was the first publi- 
cation to lierald the rise and growth of the 
village of Sargent. It was established by E. 
P. Savage, owner of the townsite. and was 
edited by C. D. Kelly. The Eagle was suc- 
ceeded by the Sargoit Times, owned by F. M. 
Currie and edited by J. E. McCray. The paper 
was discontinued in 1894, and the material sold 
to The Grip, of Alliance. From that time until 
1897. Sargent was without a newspaper. In 
the latter year J. C. L. Wisely started the 
Commoner, afterward changing the name of 
the paper to the Sargent Era. In 1900 C. S. 
Osborne established the Sargent Leader. In 
the course of a few months he sold it to How- 
ard Savage, who shortly afterward sold it to 
A. H. Barks, who. after a short time disposed 
of the pa])er. It has changed ownership several 



times in the past few years, but is being pub- 
lished at the present writing by Guy Liver- 
more, a native son of the vicinity, and it is 
fairly prosperous. 

WEST rxioN 

West Union for a number of years enjoyed 
the luxury of a newspaper, which was known 
as the West Union Gazette. Among the edi- 
tors of this paper we recall Ham Kautzman, 
Jud Woods, and W. H. Predmore. The Gaaette 
was suspended during the drouth period in the 
"90s and since that time West Union has been 
newspaperless. 

In 1893 W. H. Predmore and E. M. \Vebb 
started the Custer County Citizen, which was 
run during the campaign, in opposition to some 
of the Populist candidates, .-\fter a few weeks 
Mr. Webb returned to his claim near Calla- 
way, and Mr. Predmore continued the paper 
for some time. He then leased it to Mrs. Louise 
Raymond, who ran it for a short time, in con- 
nection with the job-printing business. Charles 
A. Cook succeeded Mrs. Raymond, and contin- 
ued the paper for some months longer, w'hen 
it was discontinued, in 1894. For a time Rev. 
George Bailey, pastor of the Presbyterian 
church from 1893 to 1899, published a church 
paper in connection with his work, as also did 
Rev. Mr. Epley, pastor of the L'nited Brethren 
church. The Populist, a paper started in op- 
position to fusion, was published in Broken 
Bow from September 1, 1900, to February, 
1901. by James Stockham and J. G. Painter. 

COM STOCK 

One of the later villages established in Cus- 
ter county has been favored with a newspaper 
since soon after its birth. The Index was pub- 
lished by Harold Cooley. This paper passed 
to the ownership of Elmer E.'Wimmer. who 
continued to publish it until the month of July, 
1918, when he was called from his labors by 
death. 'Mr. Wimmer was one of the honorable 
and worthy citizens of Custer county, of which 
he had been a resident for more than thirty 
years. 

OCOXTO 

( )conto's newspaper career has been some- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



349 



what varied, but for several years it has main- 
tained a good weekly paper, called the Regis- 
ter, which is now published by F. M. Bryner. 

S. D. BUTCHER, HISTORIAN 

Custer county owes to Mr. and Mrs. S. D. 
Butcher more than it can ever pay. They have 
been valuable pioneers. With incessant toil 
they gathered historical data for the last two 
score years, and they have assembled the larg- 



of western history — a history that would treat 
generally the middle west and especially cen- 
tral Nebraska. 

On June 1, 1886, he made the first picture 
for his book, and by 1892 he had made 1,500 
pictures and had written that many biogra- 
phies. The intention was to reproduce these 
old sod houses and dugouts with a short bio- 
graphical sketch under each picture, making a 
picture album of early days in Custer county. 




S. D. BuTCHIiR .\ND F.\M1LY 



est aggregation of pictures of Custer county 
scenes and Custer county pioneers ever com- 
piled, perhaps, by any county. This history of 
the county is deeply indebted to Mr. liutcher's 
collection, not only for illustrations but also 
for much of the historical data it contains. 
Names, dates, and events have been culled pro- 
fusely from the Butcher compilation. These 
names and dates could have been obtained from 
no other source. liack in the early "SOs ^Ir. 
Butcher began his work, with the intention, 
then, of becoming a publisher and an illustrator 



on the largest scale that had ever been at- 
tempted by any county. The drouth period 
stopped the enterprise for several years. On 
the morning of March 12, 189*3, a fire de- 
stroyed ]\Ir. Butcher's home and its contents, 
including the biographical manuscri])t of the 
proposed history, thus making it impossible 
ever to replace the sketches of the early pio- 
neers, as many had left the country. Fortu- 
nately the negatives were stored in bo.xes, in 
an out-building, and were saved. In a few 
weeks after the fire Mr. Butcher commenced 



350 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



taking orders for his Pioneer History of Cus- 
ter County, with short sketches of early days 
in Nebraska, and in eighteen months he had 
completed this work, of 400 pages. He sold 
one thousand books. 

A STATE CONTRIBUTION' 

A June issue of the Xebraska State Journal 
in 1916 devotes an entire page to the historical 
pictures Air. Butcher had contributed to the 
historical collection of Nebraska, and from the 
accompanying context tlie following is an ex- 
cerpt : 

"A picture gallery of Nebraska frontier life! 
The old sod houses, dugouts, log cabins, and 
shacks : the 'family gathering." — the whole 
family as we knew it in the frontier days. — 
father, mother, the babies, the faithful old 
horses, the little bunch of cattle, the pigs, the 
poultn,-, and, not least, the family dog. The 
familiar farm and ranch operations in the old 
style — breaking prairie with a yoke of oxen, 
threshing the first wheat crop with the old 
horse-power machine, planting sod corn with 
a one-hand "Punch" planter. The old frontier 
gatherings — the "big feed' at the sod house 
when the friends from a dozen claims gathered 
to eat at a long table; where the children 
romped together, and the "old folks" ( who were 
generally young) looked out into the future 
and cheered each other with the prospects. The 
other neighborhood gatherings — the Sunday 
school picnic, the frontier wedding, the round- 
up on the cattle range, the circle hunt, the 
Farmers' Alliance, and that most tender and 
never-to-be-forgotten incident of frontier 
childhood — the "last day' of district school. 

"There are three thousand two hundred of 
these pictures in one collection. It is called 
the 'Butcher collection." It is the work of Mr. 
and Mrs. Butcher, who settled in Custer county 
in 1882. anil combined homesteading with pho- 
tography for the next twenty years, traveling 
part of the lime in a photographic wagon over 
the vast and thinly settled region of northwest 
Nebraska, taking pictures of the people and 
places just as they found them. A history of 
Custer countv grew out of these travels and 



these thousands of negatives, slowly accumu- 
lated through the years. 

"'The legislature of 1913 appropriated $600 
for the purchase of the Butcher collection for 
the Nebraska legislative reference bureau and 
the Nebraska history work of the state uni- 
versity. rXiring the past winter the collection 
has been carefully gone over, with the assist- 
ance of Mr. Butcher, classified, catalogued, and 
prints made from a large part of the negatives. 

"These pictures tell the story of life in wes- 
tern Nebraska thirty years ago more effectively 
than any other descriptive matter. The almost 
infinite variety of sod-house architecture and 
farm-yard arrangement is in them set forth. 
The clothing, the furniture, the hopes, the pur- 
poses, of these pioneers are eloquently told in 
the family groups and neighborhood gather- 
ings. The way in which the Nebraska frontier 
built its houses, planted its crops, dug its wells, 
gathered its harvest, went to school, received 
religion, played its games, and gathered for 
social and civic purposes, finds expression in 
these negatives, where the sunlight and silver 
nitrate have fixed for all future time the shad- 
ows of the people and the events whose origi- 
nals are fast fading from sight and memory. 

"What would not the American world give 
to-day for such a collection of New England 
life from the year 1620? What would not 
some of the older people of to-day give for the 
pioneer pictures of New York. Ohio. Indiana, 
Illinois, and Wisconsin? Long before the end 
of the present century this collection will be 
held beyond price and its material used over 
and over in publications upon western art. lit- 
erature, and history. 

"Most of the negatives are six by eight 
inches in size, taken with an old-fashioned 
camera which looked like a six-pounder brass 
cannon, and required special genius and pains 
to secure results. Their preservation through 
all the vicissitudes of frontier life, fires, wash- 
outs, niovings. cyclones, seems providential. 

"Mrs. Butcher, to whose faithful serv'ices as 
a frontier wife, mother, and photographic 
helper, is due a large part of 'the honor for 
preservation of this collection, passed away 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



351 



December 29, 1915. Her husband, after some 
years of absence, is once more back in Custer 
county, in the field of local history." 

Aside from photography, Mr. Butcher has 
been a prolific writer of descriptive articles. On 
a few very rare occasions the poetical streak 
in his nature has broken out and got beyond 
control. One such an occasion was when, aft- 
er proving up on his homestead, he left his old 
shanty by addressing to it the following senti- 
ment : 

F.-\REWELL, HOMKSTE.\D SH.\NTY 

(By S. D. Butcher) 

Farewell to the homestead shanty ; 

I have my final proof ; 
The cattle will hook down the walls. 

And someone will haul off the roof. 

Farewell to my sheet-iron stove 
That stands in the corner, all cold ; 

The good things all baked in the oven 
In language can never be told. 

Farewell to the crackerbox cupboard. 
With gunny-sack hung for a door ; 

Farewell to my store of good things 
That I shall never want any more. 

Farewell to the little pine bedstead. 

'Tis on thee I slumbered and slept : 
Farewell to the dreams that I dreamt, 

\\'hile the fleas all over me crept. 

Farewell to the down-bolstered chair, 

With the bottom sagg'd down to the ground ; 

Farewell to the socks, shirts and breeches 
That fill it again to the round. 

Farewell to the nice little, table. 

Under whi:h I have oft put my feet. 

Then chose from the bounty of good things 
The substantial things to eat. 

Farewell to the sour dough pancakes 
That none but myself could endure ; 

If they did not taste good to a stranger 
They were sure the dyspepsia to cure. 

Farewell to the tea and the crackers ; 

Farewell to the water and soap; 
Farewell to the sorghum and buckwheat ; 

Farewell to the lallacadope. 

ELMER E. DDWSE 
Elmer E. Dowse was born in Custer countv. 



a genuine Custer county product, and lives 
near Comstock, this county, at the present day. 
This prose article, written by Mr. Dowse, was 
read at one of the old settlers' picnics several 
years ago and was awarded a prize for merit 
and historical value : 

A PICTURE OF E.\RLV DAYS 

"Imagine yourself standing with me, about 
the middle of July, on one of the bluffs which 
commands a view for several miles up and 
down the Middle Loup valley. There is pre- 
sented to us a panorama of singular and varied 
beauty. Dark green fields of corn alternate 
with fields of rapidly ripening wheat and oats. 
The ^Middle Loup, wii^ding like a serpent up 
the valley, until finally hidden by a bend in 
the hills, its banks lined with willows- in a 
manner so truly artistic as to challenge the 
possibility of reproduction, and dotted here and 
there with exquisite little islands, completes an 
unsurpassable picture of peace and beauty. 

"Let us close our eyes and drift backward 
over a space of time covering thirty-three 
years. We open our eyes and — O wondrous 
change ! Where are those prosperous farm 
dwellings, those magnificent fields and that 
little village resting at the foot of a bluff' sev- 
eral miles up the river? The stream flows on 
with the same majesty, the grandeur of the 
valley is undiminished, but now all we see is 
a long, level sea of waving grass. Here and 
there herds of deer and antelope are feeding 
and several miles to the north a long line of 
elk wind their way to the stream of water. 
Apparently the wild animals and the Indians 
have full and free possession. But what is 
that we see at a distance of about two miles? 
The upward curling smoke which has attracted 
our attention, indicates that a human .habitation 
is near. We conclude that it cannot be Indians, 
because of the absence of the typical tepee, 
although the willow poles scattered about in 
various places show that the tepee was much 
in evidence before the last prairie fire. A walk 
of forty minutes brings us to the place from 
which the smoke is eminating. It is the abode 
of Henry Snell, one of Custer county's first 
settlers, and merits a brief description. It is 



352 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. XEBR.ASKA 



simply a dugout close to the bank of a swamp, 
and is about nine feet long, three feet wide, 
and six feet deep. In one corner is a fireplace 
and in another a hole in the top of the roof 
serves as a door. Sumptuous wall decorations 
and gorgeous carpets are conspicuous only by 
their absence. The roof is on a level with the 
ground and all is well arranged to afford con- 
cealment from the Indians, who are known 
to be in large numbers a little farther north- 
west. Henry Snell. the lord of this castle, is 
a well proportioned man, six feet in height. 
with a pleasant, kindly countenance, and about 
thirty years of age. He has been a school- 
teacher and possesses intelligence and refine- 
ment to an unusual degree. 

"The first white settler of Custer county was 
my father, L. R. Dowse. He came up to 
Douglas Grove in August of 1873. put up hay 
and selected a homestead. Returning to Loup 
Citv, he came back, bringing his wife and 
cliildren. They occupied the dwelling place 
of Henry Snell. which I have just described, 
until my father, with Henry's help, had time 
to construct a house of cottonwood slabs. Soon 
Frank Ohme. E. D. Allen. \V. H. Comstock. 
and others came up with their fannlies. and 
Douglas Grove began to be a settlement of 
considerable size. 

"At this time Custer county was truly a 
hunter's paradise. Elk. deer, and antelope 
could be found in abundance almost anywhere. 
Grandpa Wagner, one of the first to come to 
Douglas Grove, might well be called the 
"Leather Stocking of the Middle Loup.' He 
was endowed with a magnificent physique, 
marvelous physical strength and endurance, 
a cool head, clear eye. and steady hands. Pas- 
sionately fond of hunting and trapping, he 
found here abundant opportunities to exercise 
his skill. Many men have won fame and re- 
nown whose exploits did not equal his. 

"During the first few years, when the rav- 
ages of the grasshoppers threatened to cause 
a famine in the little settlement. Grandpa's un- 
erring rifle kept his own family and many other 
families in meat. Many long winter evenings 
I have sat for hours and listened to his tales, 
made doubly entrancing by his quaint, original 



manner of relating them. When he was unable 
to bring his game home with him, the empty 
cartridge placed on the body of the carcasses 
served to keep away the hungry coyotes. But 
his stories of long tramps, of being caught in 
blinding blizzards, and battling home against 
wind and driving snow — these stories were 
told me when quite young and my recollection 
of most of them is rather indistinct. One simple 
little incident, however, which I remember with 
considerable distinctness, will serve as an il- 
lustration. 

"It is an afternoon in February; the patches 
of bare ground visible in many places give 
promises of returning spring. Grandpa is sit- 
ting at the door of my father's house, which 
gives an excellent view of deer, led by an im- 
mense buck, coming down the eastern hills and 
toward the river. Waiting until the buck, which 
is a good distance ahead, has covered about 
half the distance to the river, he procures his 
long-barreled rifle and crosses the stream. 
When he reaches the other side, he perceives 
that in order to get within range he must keep 
to the north of the buck, on account of a slight 
wind which is blowing from the south. By 
taking advantage of a slight rise in the inter- 
vening ground and creeping a coui)le of hun- 
dred yards, then following a little draw south- 
ward for a short distance, he can come within 
easy rifle shot. 

"Accustomed as he is to stalking deer, this 
is for him an easy task. The buck feeds quietly 
for the most part, waiting for the rest of the 
herd to come up, and pausing occasionally to 
raise his lofty antlers and sniff the air for evi- 
dences of possible enemy. In a half-hour 
Grandpa has gained the coveted position. As 
he raises himself slightly, to draw a careful 
bead, some intimation of danger seems to strike 
this king of the prairies, and, raising his noble 
head, with his sensitive nostrils quivering, he 
starts to bound away. There's a pufT of smoke 
and a sharp report which seems only to in- 
crease the deer's momentum. It seems that 
for once the old hunter's steady hand has failed 
him. r>ut the buck covers less than a hundred 
yards when he stumbles and falls. Another 
trophy has been added to Grandpa's long list. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



353 



"Another time he was not so successful, 
though through no fault of his. For some rea- 
son, instead of using his own trusty rifle, he 
borrowed a gun of a man namt-d Ross and set 
out toward the head of a little creek commonly 
known as Spring creek. Coming up over a large 
blufif, he saw below him, and in easy range, 
twenty-four elk feeding on the tender grass 
near the edge of the creek. What must have 
been his chagrin when his gun refused to do its 
work ! After snapping it repeatedly he was 
obliged to return empty-handed, leaving the 
elk stamping and snorting on the creek below. 

"An Irishman living on \'ictoria creek 
should be mentioned in connection with hunt- 
ing in the early days, on account of his unique 
method of pursuing the game. He had a large, 
gray horse which was somewhat of a runner 
and was accustomed to chase the elk in vain 
attempts to run them down. Once he chased 
a large herd up into the head of a canyon. Here 
the elk found it impossible to scale the steep 
sides and collected in a bunch, stamping and 
snorting. The Irishman, in great glee, think- 
ing that now he would have the laugh on his 
neighbors, who had watched his former at- 
tempts with so much amusement, dismounted 
and began to take pot-shots at the elk. When 
he began his fusillade, the elk began again to 
make frantic attempts to scale the sides. .At 
every shot is seemed that an elk rolled back. 
But when this son of Ireland thought that he 
must have most of them killed, those which 
had escaped his furious bombardment got to- 
gether and, making a precipitate rush down 
the canyon, almost overturned him and his 
horse. When he went to see the extent of the 
carnage he had wrought, nothing but torn and 
beaten earth greeted his astonished gaze. His 
bullets had all flown wild and the elk which he 
had seen falling were merely submitting to the 
laws of gravitation and not to his marksman- 
ship. 

■'In the summer of 1876 occurred the mas- 
sacre of Custer and his little band, and a gen- 
eral condition of unrest prevailed among the 
Indians in Montana and the Black Hills. This 
state of affairs created much uneasiness among 
the settlers, because thev knew that there was 



nothing to prevent the warriors from swoop- 
ing down the Middle Loup, if they should hap- 
pen to get started in that direction. Indian 
massacres on the Republican also added to their 
alarm. As a means of providing against such 
a possibility, a company, known as the 'Custer 
County Rangers.' was formed and W. H. Com- 
stock was elected captain. A fort about forty 
feet square was constructed of sod and logs. 
But these precautionary measures, although 
wise enough, were entirely unnecessary, as the 
Indians never came, and Douglas Grove was 
never seriously endangered by the red skins. 
"One could write almost indefinitely upon 
the early incidents of this settlement alone. 
Many quaint and peculiar, as well as good and 
noble, characters of that time and place, have 
not been mentioned, but are worthy of a full 
description and history. But people of Custer 
county, as you view with pride your excellent 
educational facilities, the wonderful industrial 
development of the county, and the general 
peace and prosperity, remember that it is large- 
ly due to the daring and industry of pioneers 
such as I have mentioned. Let us pause oc- 
casionally in the scramble and rush to attend 
our daily duties and pleasure, to glance back 
to that period in Custer county's history when 
all was as it had been for hundreds of years 
and nothing was in abundance except that pro- 
vided by the kindly hand of God and nature. 
Then let us regard with a greater degree of 
respect and admiration those noble men and 
women who. dedicating their lives to the 
county's welfare, in spite of perils and hard- 
ships, kept on with unwavering perseverance. 

"As I let my thoughts turn backward 
Through the misty haze of years. 
Filled with joys and fraught with fears; 

To those early days so hopeful. 

As I think of the hopes and efforts 

Of those pioneers so bold. 
Of the deer and elk and Indians. 

Of strange adventures never told ; 

Emotions strangely impressive 

Come stealing over me. 
And my tho'ts I cannot utter. 

Xor can I pen such reverie." 



354 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



MRS. M. B. A. -MARTIX 

Mrs. M. B. A. Martin was an old-time 
Custer resident who came to Broken Bow from 
Creston. Iowa. Slie was an intelligent, well 
educated lady, and after the death of her hus- 
band she devoted several years to teaching here 
in the county. She was a talented writer and 
possessed a keen imagination which readily 
lent itself to romance and poetry. The most 
notable of her rhymed productions was an In- 
dian romauL-e and tragedy woven about the 
"Broken Bow" for which the town is supposed 
to have been named. It is written in the metre 
and style of Longfellow's "Hiawatha." As a 
work of imagination, the story, plot, romance, 
and descriptions are more remarkable than the 
language. 

THE BROKEN BOW 

(By Mrs. :\I. B. A. ^lartin) 

Slow the moon rose o"er the valley. 
The valley of the Big Sioux river. 
Shining down ui>on the wigwams ; 
They, die red men of the Sioux tribe, 
They had camped to hold a council 
With the chief of the Dakotas, 
Known among them as War Eagle, 
For the scalp hung from his girdle : 
He had slain among the canons. 
To the southward, to the westward. 
He had fought and butchered many ; 
But his brother, Navasota. 
Had been slain among the canons ; 
He fell fighting the Paducahs 
For the fair lands of Nebraska. 

Each tribe claimed the elk and bison, 
Claimed the deer among the cedars. 
That roamed among the tallest cedars, 
Fed upon the grass that grew there. 
The Paducahs gained the battle. 
Drove the Sioux from ofif the valley. 
Far beyond the Niobrara, 
To the valley of the Big Sioux, 
Where dwelt the tribe of the Dakotas, 
Dwelt the Indian maid, Winneta, 
The daughter of brave Navasota. 
In the council Eagle Feather 
Sat and smoked beside his father. 
Sat and smoked the pipe among them. 
Listened to the great War Eagle. 

As he ])lanned the coming marriage 
Of the Indian maid. Winneta. 
To his son, the Eagle Feather. 



Was not her mother of the Sioux tribe 

Rich in wealth of lands and ponies. 

When the father of Winneta 

Claimed her for his Indian bride? 

And the union of the two tribes 

Made them richer, made them stronger. 

Now the union of Winneta 

To my son, the Eagle Feather, 

Will more united make the friendship 

Of the Sioux and the Dakotas. 

Then they called the Indian maiden. 
Told her bid the Eagle Feather 
To do some daring deed of prowess 
To prove his great love for Winneta — 
He shall do Winneta's bidding. 
With her eyes downcast and thoughtful. 
With her voice so clear and mournful. 
Spoke she then to Eagle Feather: 
"Go to the land of the Xebraskas, 
Far beyond the Niobrara, 
Where the Sioux and the Dakotas 
Hunted, fished, and roamed the prairies. 
The deep canons far beyond them. 

To the eastward flows the North Lou]i. 
To the southward flows the South Louji. 
Where the foes of my dead father 
Dwell and hunt among the canons. 
Kill the bulYalo by hundreds. 
Kill the dark friends of Winneta, 
Killed the brave chief, Navasota, 
Will you go and bring a token 
From the spot where sleeps my father? 
Bring his bow and bring his quiver. 
Bring his quiver full of arrows. 
That the Paducahs may not use them 
To slay more friends of poor Winneta : 
Ere another moon grows darkened 
You may return and wed \\'inneta." 

Then arose the Eagle Feather, 

Cast his eyes upon the maiden, 

"I will go and do your bidding." 

Seized his tomahawk and scalp-knife. 

Fastened them into his girdle. 

Fastened then his bow and quiver, 

.\ new quiver full of arrows. 

Strode he out into the moonlight, 

'Mid the war whoop of the red men. 

Walked away adown the valley. 

\\'alked he on until the sunrise 

Found him hurrying southward, westward, 

To the Niobrara valle}'. 

StopiJed at night beneath the cedars. 
Made a fire of withered branches. 
Slept beside the campfire soundly. 
Slept until the wild liirds called him. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



355 



Called him to pursue his journey 
By their sweet songs in the morning. 
Welcoming the pleasant sunrise. 
Southward, westward. Eagle Feather 
Hurried on to do the bidding • 
Of the dark-eyed Indian maiden. 
For five days the Eagle Feather 
Journeyed on toward the South Loup, 
Slept at night beside the streamlet ; 
Tired, weary, on the last night 
]\Iade his fire beside the Muddy ; 
Laid him down to rest and slumber, 
Heeding not the howling coyote 
Warning him of coming danger, 
Warning him his foes were near him : 
Slept and dreamed of home and kindred. 

Dreamed he saw the dark-eyed maiden 
Coming down the path to meet him. 
Coming down to greet her lover. 
To receive the bow and quiver : 
Dreamed he on till almost sunrise. 
When the war whoop echoed wildly 
Through the canons on the prairies, 
Echoed up and down the Muddy. 
Waked he then among their yelling. 
For his foes had found him sleeping. 
Then they scalped the Eagle Feather, 
For thev numbered near a hundred : 
Forced him then to tell his errand. 
Then they took his bow and quiver. 
Took his bow and broke it rudely, 
Threw it down to warn the Sioux tribe 
That they'd slain their Eagle Feather. 

Then they look their suifering prisoner 

With them far beyond the South Loup, 

Let him die and soon forgot him. 

Many moons grew bright and darkened, 

Yet the Eagle Feather came not. 

Never came to claim his promise. 

Never more returned to meet her. 

"He must be dead," she murmured lowly, 

"Or he would come to poor Winneta. 

Farewell, .Eagle Feather, farewell. 

Your Winneta's heart is breaking. 

Breaking for her Indian lover. 

I will go away in sadness 

To the wigwam of my mother. 

Lay me down, and sleep the death sleep. 

"In the spirit land FU meet him. 
Meet him and my brave old father : 
In the hunting grounds of the red men. 
Happy land of the Great Spirit. 
Will commune with Eagle Feather 
In the land beyond the sunset." 
Years have passed and left the traces 



Of the Siou.x and the Dakotas, 

Westward the}' have journeyed farther, 

And their tribes are growing smaller, 

Their hunting grounds are now rich corn-fields 

For the white man's plow and reaper ; 

And their cabins dot the prairie. 

And they cut away the cedars. 

Frighten all the elk and bison 

From Nebraska's fair prairies. 

Years swept by, the pale-faced settlers 
On the prairies of Nebraska. 
On the swiftly flowing South Loup. 
Built their cabins on the North Loup, 
'Hunted on the Niobrara. 
Built their cabins on the Aluddy. 
Near the place where Eagle Feather, 
The young chief of the Dakotas, 
Met his fate by the Paducahs. 
Came the pale-face, walking slowly. 
Thinking of the growing city 
They were building on the Muddy. 
For many men had come together. 
Brought their wives and children with them, 
To populate fair Custer county. 

And the people of the Muddy 
Now must name this fair young city. 
For a new name searched they often. 
Oft rejected, half discouraged. 
While out walking on the Muddy 
Came he where the bow lay broken; 
Pondered he of how it came there. 
All alone beside the Muddy. 
Pondered he, this pale-faced Hewitt, 
As he homeward walked more quickly, 
"I have found a bow that's broken." 
Said he to his fair wife waiting, 
"An Indian bow that has been broken 
And left beside the Muddy river. 
Let us name our city for it. 

Name our city Broken Bow ; 
Sent the name, it was accepted. 
Never was a name just like it. 
Never one half so romantic. 
Full of wonder came each stranger. 
"Such a strange name for a city." 
Said each stranger when they heard it. 
Broken Bow, in Custer county. 
Built beside the !\Iuddy river. 
Near beside those wondrous canons 
Where the Indian tribes had waged war. 
Where the coyote warned the red chief. 
While he dreamed of dark Winneta: 
Where he suffered death by torture. 
Left to us his Broken Bow. 



356 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



A. J. MC ARTHUR, IM. D. 

A. J. .McArtlnir was born in Hocking county, 
Ohio. May 6. 1862. He was educated in the 
pubHc schools of Ohio, in the high school at 
^laryville. ^Missouri, and in the Northwestern 
Normal at Stanberr\', Missouri. He gradu- 
ated from the Missouri Aledical College, St. 
Louis, Misouri. in Marcli. 1891. He located 
first at Maryville, but moved later to Wester- 
ville, Nebraska. He practiced there and at 
Weissert for many years — till bad health 
forced him to discontinue. 

Dr. McArthur came to Broken Bow in Au- 
gust, 1916, in order to put his children in the 
high school. Aside from the practice of medi- 
cine, he has given considerable attention to 
literature, and he has been a contributor to 
eastern magazines. A few years ago he was 
party to a joint debate with a Catholic priest, 
in the columns of the Jl'orld-Hcrald. which at- 
tracted state wide attention. For the last few 
years he has been a regular contributor to the 
Truth Seeker, of New York. 

When the war first began there appeared in 
that publication a series of articles of unusual 
literary ability, signed "George Sibel." They 
were powerfully pro-German, but so skillfully 
prepared that their object was not at once ap- 
parent. As soon as the United States had de- 
clared war Dr. McArthur wrote an article for 
the Truth Seeker calling attention to the char- 
acter of these articles. This brought a replv, 
and he finally charged Mr. Sibel openly with 
not being a loyal citizen, reviewed the articles 
as they appeared, and quoted his previous work 
to such purpose, that the articles soon ceased 
to appear. 

The Doctor's Custer county jirize article 
follows : 

PRIZE ARTICLE 

During the early part of 190.'') the Custer 
Couuty Chief offered a prize for the best Cus- 
ter county article in which the advantages and 
resources of the county should be exploited. 
F. M. Currie. .Mjiha Morgan, and George Mair 
were selected as awarding judges, and by their 
decision the following article, written by Dr. 
A. J. Mc.Xrthur. was given first place. 



CUSTER COUNTY 

"J. Proctor Knott once humorously stated 
that the city of Duluth is exactly in the center 
of the universe, and for proof adduced the fact 
that the horizon came down to meet the earth 
at exactly the same distance, in all directions. 
This is equally true of Custer county, but it 
is further true that Custer county is the center 
of the most central state in the Union, which, 
in its turn, is the most central country in the 
first continent on the globe. To the unsophis- 
ticated eastern tenderfoot, who, in a lifetime, 
never ventures beyond the purlieus of his town- 
ship, central Nebraska is only a barren, windy 
waste, scorned by the flocks of cranes and 
geese as they hasten over, and peopled only by 
rattlesnakes and skulking coyotes. 

■■ 'Happy is the country that has no history,' 
for it means peace and prosperity. What a 
sight it would be to one of these men. who 
every morning of his life has taken his little 
basket and gone out to feed his dozen shoats. 
if he could visit an average Custer countv farm, 
to see the farmer hitch a stout team to a big 
wagon, scoop in fifty bushels of corn and drive 
into the feed yard with the morning rations 
of a quarter-acre of hogs. Then to realize that 
this is only the commencement of the morning 
chores — that there are more hogs and per- 
haps hundreds of cattle still to be fed. When 
he looks at the alfalfa meadow, dotted with 
scores of stacks, looking in the distance like 
the tented bivouac of an army, he will remem- 
ber how, for years, he has carefully fed old 
Dobbin a little timothy sprinkled with water to 
guard against the heaves, and pitied "those 
who dwelt in desert places." 

"The name of Custer county and the name 
of her metropolis. Broken Bow. conjure visions 
of clashing interest and border strife, but the 
strife has long since ceased. The Indian, in 
token of defeat, has cast down his broken bow 
and passed on to the west, and where once 
roamed the majestic herds of buft'alo are now 
found the matchless herds of fine cattle. 

"We have often womlered if the residents of 
Custer county ever think upon her stupenduous 
[lossibilities or speculate uiJon her future. W'e 
have an empire within our borders. Custer 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



357 



county contains more than one and one-half 
millions acres of land. Larger than some of 
the states, larger than some of the monarchies 
of antiquity, the history of whose people and 
their deeds of valor is now taught in our pub- 
lic schools. Indefinitely larger, if measured by 
the lavish ensemblage of natural resources of 
this, 'The Great American Desert.' 

"Many farmers can remember with what 
misgivings they first ventured into Custer coun- 
ty, twenty-five years ago ! Timidly, tentatively, 
looking back, but dreading the derision that 
awaited them there, they found the Eldorado 
of their dreams: soil which, 'tickled with a hoe, 
laughed with a bounteous harvest," and which, 
after a quarter of a century of cultivation, is 
the same soil still. Expecting to find man wan- 
dering, insane from thirst, they found a water 
course every ten miles, a climate that gave new 
life and strength, cool nights that snatched the 
languor from the most wearied limbs, and — 
and fleas. Some turned back, of course. Nature 
would furnish the grist, but Nature would not 
grind it, so they went back to their wives' folks' 
to gather hickory-nuts and persimmons. 

"And now Custer county is about to realize 
her hopes, to stand free from the calumny of 
her traducers. When it takes half a train to haul 
a man's stock to market, he is past the place 
where you can argue with him about his pros- 
perity or raise the ghost of his long-forgotten 
doubts as to his country. Long misunderstood 
and reviled, farmers are coming to understand 
that Custer county is mighty, but benign, if her 
moods and peculiarities are respected. She has 
shown her contempt for long-haired prophets 
and rain-makers, and has settled down to cer- 
tain crops, equal to any produced in the Missis- 
sippi valley. 

"The great activity in real estate and the 
rapid advance in value of land, shows that 
farmers are beginning to appreciate the coun- 
try, but Custer county land is still ridiculously 
cheap. Eastern men who come here are made 
suspicious by the mean prices that farmers put 
on their land. We simply have not the nerve 
or the sense to ask for it what it is worth. Real- 
estate men are growing rich buying from the 
unwary and in a few days selling again, often 



for nearly double the purchase price. Think 
how rapidly the country is developing, all be- 
cause of a better understanding of the climate 
and soil. Only a few years ago it was com- 
monly believed that winter wheat could not be 
grown here. Now it is a staple crop and the 
yield equal to that of the northern wheat belt. 
How long since every farmer believed that the 
native grass was the only forage or pasture 
that would grow here ? Now there are num- 
bers of grasses that only need a start to thrive 
here and outyield the native grass five to one. 
In annual grasses we have never in any other 
country seen such profusion of varieties or 
such rank growth. 

"A few years ago farmers were raising little 
patches of alfalfa in their gardens, indiliferent, 
without confidence, saving a little seed to sow 
the next year. Now it is the staff of the coun- 
try, ranking right with corn in all around util- 
ity. The yield of alfalfa is almost past belief. 
One acre will feed twenty hogs through the 
entire summer, and it defies the frost till late 
in the fall. If mowed and carefully saved, an 
acre of alfalfa will make from eight to twelve 
tons of hay. Brome grass is proving itself 
to be a close second, with the added advantage 
that it may be pastured at any time with im- 
punity. 

"With the coming of these things is come 
the honey bee. With ordinary care bees in- 
crease very rapidly and produce honey in 
plenty, and of fine quality. They care nothing 
for wire fences and will garner from your 
neighbor's fields as well as from your own — 
and will go a long way to do it. In a short 
time this country will outclass all others in bee 
culture, and the production of honey. 

"Nearly all kinds of fruits are now grown 
here, not only 'successfully.' but with profit. A 
'lick and a promise' will not grow corn, nor 
will it grow fruit trees. Neither do fruit trees, 
especially when young, make good pastures 
for cows. But the right varieties, properly 
planted and properly cared for, will produce 
fruit of any kind, ^^'ho thought of strawberries 
some years ago? Now farmers raise them by 
the bushel. 

"The whole secret, in Custer countv, is in 



358 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



knowing the climate and soil, and a reasonable 
care of the crop. It would not be fair to omit 
the most important crop of all — the babies. 
For no other crop is the soil so productive. 
Families of ten or a dozen are found on every 
section, and upon no other crop does the future 
greatness of this county so much depend. 

"Nothing else so completes a man's satisfac- 
tion with Custer county, as a visit to the home 
of his ho\'hoocl. There will come the home- 
sickness — the longing to go back — 'back to 
Grigsby's Station, back where we used to be 
so happy and so pore.' He will go and come 
again, entirely disillusioned of the sylvan and 
elysian memories that he has cherished, and 
wondering how people there manage to make 
a living. They don't. The New England states 
are dotted with hundreds of deserted farms, so 
worthless and so numerous that they are be- 
coming a huge problem to be solved by the 
people of these states. 

"Great as Custer county has come to be, 
she is still in tlic early morning of her life, a 
toddling infant just quitting the threshold of 
her nursery for a life of strenuous endeavor 
and great achievement. With the accumulated 
wealth of ages in her soil, a matchless climate, 
skies as blue as Italy's, stars as bright as any 
that ever looked down upon ancient Egypt, 
peopled by men an<l women whose restless en- 
ergy- would not brook the sterile parsimony of 
other lands, she is like the block of fine marble 
that only awaits the hand of the sculptor to 
release the angel imprisoned within." 

GEORGE B. M.MR 

George 15. Mair, descriptive writer, editor, 
and poet, deserves a prominent place in the 
literary aimals of this western county. He 
was a resident of long years in the Cal'.awav 
district, where he made a newspaper record 
that might well be envied by most any quill 
pusher. .V few years ago he was elected clerk 
of the district court, and from that time he 
made his home in the county seat until the fall 
of 1917, when he removed with his family to 
Oakland, California, where he now resides. 

In his irrational moments Geors;e induleed 



in poetry, and the following song of the river 
is a rare contribution to Custer literature. 

THE SOUTH LOfP RI\ER 

[By George B. Mair| 

In the heart of Niobrara, 
Rushing onward like an arrow 

Speeding from the bow, 
Flows the laughing South Loup river, 
While its rippling waters ever 

Murmur soft and low. 

How I love to sit and ponder 
On its bank, just over yonder, 

When the setting sun 
Throws a sort of dreamy sadness 
O'er the stream which danced with gladness. 

Ere the day was done. 

Then to me it tells the story 

Of a long departed glory. 

In the days gone by ; 
Of the valley flower-scented. 
Where the painted savage tented 

'.Xeath the autumn sky; 

( 'f the dusky Indian maideii, 
.And her lover, coming laden 

Homeward from the chase. 
Laying at her feet his treasure 
While her smile reflects the pleasure 

Reaming in her face. 

Far adown the sloping valley 
I can see the warriors rally. 

.\nd the council fire. 
Where the wise men of the nation 
Meet in solemn consultation. 

While the squaws retire. 

Then the war whoop of the savage, 

.As he sallies forth to ravage 

The village of his foe ; 
Followed by the noise of battle 
.And the ever-;hanging rattle 

( )f the twanging bow. 

Then I see the braves returning; 
And the ruddy camp-fire burning 

By the river side. 
Lights their wild and savage dancing. 
.As it flickers in the glancing 

Waters of the tide. 

Then again the ceaseless chatter 
Of the dancing, eddying water. 

Ever faint and low. 
Strikes my fancy like the rushing. 
Rumbling war-tread of the crushing 

Herds of buffalo. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



359 



And I see their dark brown masses, 
Surging through the canyon passes, 

As I almost dream : 
When they rush with noisy clatter, 
Deep into the cooling water 

Of the grateful stream. 

And a thousand fancies hover 
'Round the hazy hills, and over 

Every landscape scene. 
And the laughing South Loup river. 
Floweth on and on forever 

Thro' its valleys green. 

But I wake from out my dreaming. 
And I find the waters gleaming. 

Ever, as of yore : 
But the council fire has vanished. 
And the savage has been banished 

Hence, forever more. 

.And the dusky Indian maiden 
From the banks with flowers laden. 

Long ago has gone. 
.And upon the far horizon 
I no longer see the bison 

Coming swiftly on. 

Gone the wigwams and the dances 
And the olden time romances 

Of the hunting grounds, 
\\'here the white man's lowing cattle 
And the harvester's fierce rattle 

Make discordant sounds. 

Fields of waving corn are growing. 
And the south-land breeze is blowing 

O'er wheat fields of gold ; 
But the laughing South Loup river 
Floweth on and on forever 

.\s it did of old. 

H.-\RRV F.. ISZ.VRD 

Harry B. Iszard is entitled to be styled one 
of the literary persons of Custer county. He 
lias been a resident of the county for the last 
fourteen years and during that time has been 
a very prolific writer. The story and news 
pages of the Custer County Chief attest the 
versatility of his pencil and the fascinat'on of 
his style. 

Mr. Iszard began as a newspaper nrm on 
the Leadville Democrat-Herald, under the tu- 
torage of the locally famous "Cad" Davis. 
Later he worked on the Denver papers, where 
his writings attracted both notice and comment 
throughout the mountain state. His Denver 



work was responsible for a staff position on 
one of the Omaha papers, where he did two or 
three years' work. Aside from newspaper 
work he has been a contributor to magazines, 
and in the field of short stories has distin- 
guished himself to the extent of putting a Cus- 
ter county name into the list of literary pro- 
ducers. From his desk in the Chief office the 
local county stories come forth with a pungent 
flavor that makes them remarkably readable. 
Harry, as he is familiarly called by his friends, 
has the faculty of infusing into an otherwise 
dry article a rich vein of subtle humor. He 
tells his story differently and contrasts his style 
in such a way that both are called unique. 

A year or so ago he ran in the Chief a series 
of attractive articles which he styled "Tabu- 
lated Knocks" and which attracted the atten- 
tion of state writers and newspaper men. 

T.-\BUL.\TED KNOCKS 

In the articles entitled "Tabulated Knocks" 
he introduces the different members of the 
"Hammer-Fan Family." Ea:h member of the 
family figures, in his or her respective comic 
role, to the hilarity and delight of the reader. 

Below is given Mr. Iszard's introduction of 
"Miss Hammer-Fan." who. with "Bosom 
Friend," puts in an hour at the picture-show. 

Scene : Either of the picture theatres. Time : 
Any old night between eight and ten o'clock. 
( Miss Hammer-Fan and Bosom Friend ap- 
proach the box-office window. ) 

Miss H. F. ( frantically pawing her purse 
for small coins) — "Wait a minute, Beulah. 
this is my treat — that is, it will be if I can 
ever find those two dimes. ( Still pawing. ) 
What on earth has become of them ? ( )h, here 
they are under this sample of silk. ( Produces 
two dimes and pushes them in at the window. 
The two girls enter the theatre and block up 
the aisle while surveying the house.) \\'e've 
missed the first of this reel and our regular 
seats are occupied, as usual. It would be an 
act of common courtesy for them to keep our 
seats all the time, considering the amount of 
money we spend in the house every week." 

Bosom Friend (indicating seats I — "Let's 
sit here and maybe we can keep on our hats. 
(As they seat themselves there is a 'sharp ca- 
nine yelp and the bosom friend screams.) 
-Mercy! What was that?" 

Miss H. F. (wearilv) — "You've onlv 



360 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



kicked a dog, that's all. They come in here 
and chase themselves all over the place. It"s 
a wonder the house wouldn't furnish pillows 
for them to sleep on. ( Two school boys enter, 
drop into seats back of them and commence 
making comments.) Now we'll have some 
music." 

First boy ( in a stage whisper I — "Lani]) the 
head dresses in front, ain't they giddy?" 

Second boy (in a squeaky voice) — "Ilats 
off. please." 

]\Iiss H. F. (turning half around) — "Mind 
your own business, you little animals." ( Both 
boys giggle.) 

First boy (solemnly) — "What kind of an 
animal are you, Chink?" 

Second boy — "I'm a cat. I am: meow, 
phist !" 

First boy — "Do cats wear hats?" 
Bosom Friend (resignedly) — "Oh. we 
might as well ; they'll give us no peace until 
wedo." ( Takes her hat off. i 

Miss H. F. (viciously) — "I hate to humor 
the little beasts. (Also removes her hat.) Now 
you two shut up or I'll have you fired." I Boys 
giggle and subside. ) 

Bosom Friend — "What's the name of this 
reel?" 

Miss TI. F. — "Dunno. but I'm sure I saw 
it in Omaha three months ago. We never get 
anything until late here. Honest to goodness, 
they ran some stuff this month that I saw in 
Chicago nearly two years ago. Oh. there's 
the name : "The Pink Puppy.' Yep. it's the 
same thing I saw in Omaha." 

Bosom Friend — "That isn't 'Pink Puppy.' 
it's 'Pink Poppy.' " 

Miss H. F. — "Well, it's wrong, anyway: 
jioppies are red, at least so I have always un- 
derstood. Now wat:h this hateful old thing 
what he is doing. He's jealous of the young 
hotel clerk and in order to put him in bad with 
the plumber's daughter, he steals an artificial 
rtower from — liingo ! To be sure, the film 
would have to part just at the critical moment. 
Now we can sit back and twiddle our thumbs 
for five or ten minutes while they are gluing it 
together. That's the trouble up here, every- 
thing is so ancient that it drops to pieces al- 
most before they can get it on the machine. 
Say. kid. you should have seen the 'Tango 
Tangle' : they had it in Oand Island last week. 
Kerry Worrigan does the leading part and 
he's just the sweetest thing — " 

Bosom Friend (disdainfully) — "Kerry 
Worrigaii isn't in the same class at all with 
Marsh Cocopello." 

Miss H. F. (with careful sarcasm) — "If he 
was he would sure be a 'dead one.' " 



Bosom Friend (with heat) — "Worrigan is 
a joke." 

Miss H. F. (putting on more pressure) — 
"And Cocopello is an 'also ran.' " 

Bosom Friend (with a sniff) — "Looks like 
it when the University people have been on 
their knees for years begging him to come 
over to them." 

Miss H. F. — "Nothing doing. The Linseed 
outfit would have tlropped him long ago if he 
hadn't been tied to them by an iron-clad con- 
tract. ( Spitefully ) I wish I hadn't paid your 
way in here." 

Bosom Friend (calmly) — "You didn't. 
That dime was coming to me ; it's one you 
borrowed two weeks ago." 

First boy (from behind) — "Sic 'em. Bow- 
ser." 

Second boy — "I'll bet on the 'catty' one." 

Second boy (quoting at random) — " 'Tis 
the friend of my childhood's days." 

Miss H. F. (as the photoplay is resumed) 
— "They've got it fixed — and it's about time. 
Maybe the chorus back of us will now take a 
rest. See those two big rummys down there 
with their heads together. Wonder how they 
expect us to see anything? Must think we 
belong to the X-ray family. Look, here is 
where the hotel clerk pushes him off of the 
cliff into the water. Zowie. what a splash. I'll 
bet those people who do the water stunts 
have colds in their heads all the time. I met 
a moving picture actor in Denver last year and 
he told me that the managers made them do 
all sorts of horrible things and some of the 
men in his company almost drank themselves 
to death, in order to keep up their courage. 
One actor had a bottle of booze behind a rock 
and when he went to get a drink there was 
a rattlesnake coiled up. The poor fellow 
thought he was seeing things and ran screech- 
ing to camp and they had to put him in a 
hospital. ( Suddenly sto])s and sniffs the air.) 
I smell somebody's feet. ( .\ young man sitting 
next to the girls turns a jiainful red and tries 
to ]nish himself through the wall. ) Don't you, 
Beulah ?" 

First boy (nudging his friend) — "Put on 
your shoes. Chink, you're attracting the atten- 
tion of the nobility. Gee. it's fortunate I took 
my annual bath this morning." 

Second boy — ".After this I'm going to carry 
a piece of cashniere-l)ou(|uet soap in my 
])o;ket." 

Miss H. F. (getting up) — "Oh. come on, 
let's go to the other side. I'm going to speak 
to my father and see if this sort of thing can't 
be stop]ied." ( Both start for the other side of 
the house. ) 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



361 



First boy ( cheerfull_v ) — "Come again, girls; 
you're always welcome to our little city." 

MRS. G. W. DEWEY 

]\Irs. G. W. Dewey, who with her husband 
resides in the fertile valley of the ]\Iiddle Loup, 
near Gates, is one of Custer county's literary 
women. Both she and her husband have been 
pioneers and actively identified with the growth 
and development of the county. 

Airs. Dewey has been one of the prominent 
teachers of the county, and probably her 
teaching extends over a longer period than 
that of any other person now teaching in Cus- 
ter county. Public-spirited, she has been in 
the fore and front of all edu;ational mov.e- 
ments and has always been a welcome and in- 
teresting contributor to all public-school 
programs. So prominent has been her par- 
ticipation in county school affairs that her ser- 
vices are still secured for county institutes, 
summer schools, and educational conventions 
held in the county. 

Her rich imagination, combined with the 
genius of expression, has enabled her to pro- 
duce several poems which have received favor- 
able notice and some of which are entitled to 
be enrolled as classics. S'pecial reference is 
made to her poem entitled "The Blizzard." 
which is not only vividly descriptive but also 
presents a style dramatically weird and fas- 
cinating. 

THE BI.IZZARD 

(By Mrs. G. W. Dewey) 

There's a threatening calm, and a lowering 
mist 
On the northwest hills, and a thrill of fear 

Is running through earth and air and kine. 
For the chase of the Great White Bison is 
near ! 

No longer the bison shaggy and dark. 
Moves like a cloud from mountain to lea. 

Gone like his wild bronze master of old, 
•And only their phantoms we hear and see. 

Here they come with thunder of hoofs ! 
A wild \'alkyrie. zenith high. 

Their ghostly forms go billowing past. 
For the Great \\'hite Bison Chase is nigh ! 

Pressed in the rear by the Arctic wolves 
Of the cruel North Wind, past they go. 



Stopping for nothing, human or beast, 
Bison and wolves are white as snow. 

All day they press with flight and moan. 
And the settler cowers by his scanty fire. 

Or helpless thinks of those in their track, 
Or his cowering stock in their wind-lashed 
byre. 

Night falls pallidly, lit by their flighty 
Thousands they press and trample by ; 

Man and beast have surrendered the path, 
And the wild White liison rules earth and sky. 

All night long in mad stampede, 
Alcirning dawns and the herd is past. 

Feeding in peace in some sky-known mead, 
Ghostly fugitives safe at last ! 

But woe to the living thing that fared 
Across its path when flight was on ; 

For the silence of death broods stark and 
grim 
On the hills where the wild, white chase has 
gone. 

COURT HOUSE CORNER STONE 

In 1912, when the corner-stone of the pres- 
ent Custer county court house was laid, by 
a public ceremony held on the court-house 
lawn, Mrs. Dewey contributed the following 
poem to the program. The poem is descriptive 
of the building, the county, and the occasion, 
and brings into the rhyme and lines every pre- 
cinct in the county. 

CORNER-STONE POEM 

( By Airs. G. W. Dewey) 

When Israel's king beneath the orient skies, 

Prepared to build a temple to his God, 

To Zion's height they brought abundant store 

Of costlv stones ; the Alediterranean's flood 

Bore from the land of Hiram, cedars tall 

Of Lebanon, and fir on many floats. 

"So they prepared timber and stones, the 

house 
Of God to build." The old recorder notes. 
Grandly it rose on Alount Moriah's height, 
A statelv pile without, of costly stone ; 
Fragrant with cedar carved and o'erlaid with 

gold. 
Within altar and Cherubim in beauty shone, 
Yet not in beauty did that temple old 
Excel the ancient shrines of Pagan skill. 
But in the great truth it shone, avowed. 
One God, Jehovah ! Israel's message still. 
Unity of mankind, oneness of God ! 
Proclaimed that ancient shrine to every land ; 



362 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



And thus began the upward trend to light, 
Peace, progress, liberty, on every hand. 
To-day we lay upon the blackened site 
Of what was once our pride and honest boast. 
Foundation of the new^ that shall proclaim 
Once more our oneness and the gathered host 
From Hayes to Elk Creek, Sargent clear to 

W'ayne ! 
Repeat in unison we meet again 
Foundation here to lay of this our house 
Of civic progress, justice, liberty. 
United stands our empire, that this house 
In size and beauty shall show fittingly. 
In wealth and standing, Custer, gracious queen 
Of mid-state counties ; may no ruthless hand 
Dissect one member from thy body fair. 
But whole in strength and oneness may we 

stand. 
Zoned by the silver Loups in triple flood. 
Seamed by green canyons, dark with ash and 

plum. 
Thy tables la\' in wide unbroken sweep. 
Thy busy towns with vim and progress hum. 
West Union. Lillian, and \'ictoria hold 
Upon the north our farthest border line : 
Grant, Loup, Elk Creek, Wood River, W'ayne 
L'pon our south in constellation shine. 
Hayes, Arnold, Elim, mark our farthest west. 
Douglas Grove, Myrtle, and fair Algernon 
.\s eastward rolls the planet are the first 
To greet the golden arrows of the sun. 
Cliff. Kilfoil. Triumph. Custer. Broken Bow. 
Lillian, and Garfield, smiling W'esterville. 
Delight and Custer, Ansley and Berwyn, too. 
The glorious roll call of our precincts fill. 
And as our fathers on this natal day 
Proclaimed their purpose and confederacy. 
And the foundation laid of unity : 
So in like hope and loyalty may we. 
Long may this edifice, whose corner-stone 
W'e lay, stand record to our hopes and aim. 
Temple of justice, pride of our commonwealth, 
L'nbroken be our boundaries and fame. 

A CUSTER ecu N TV POET 

TiJin H. lUirlin. or Tommy Burlin. as he 
was known to the people of Merna. where he 
spent the last days of his life, was a real Cus- 
ter county poet. He w-as the son of Mr. and 
Mrs. Bradford Rurlin. Unfortunately some 
disease that rendered him helpless fastened 
itself upon him in early life, so that for years 
he was not only confined to his room but to 
his bed as well. Thus he lay. year after vear. 
with ossification of his joints slowly creeping 
on, so that he had l)ut little use of his limbs. 



Without complaint or murmur, he lay upon 
his couch and communed with the Muses. He 
was the author of several very popular songs, 
which received merited recognition and wide 
sale. 

Perhaps the most popular of his songs w'as 
the "Little Bohemian Girl." which was publish- 
ed by a St. Louis house and had a very popular 
run. W'e also reproduce here a poem written 
by "Tommy," descriptive of early days in Cus- 
ter county, which was produced for a special 
occasion and made a decided hit when read 
at the old settlers" picnic, at which it was the 
feature of the program. 

LITTLE BOHEML\N" GIRL 

Far beyond the deep, blue Danube 

And the castles by the Rhine, 
O'er the snow-clad Gemian mountains, 

T^ives that little girl of mine. 
Like its gleam on golden r)phir 

Falls the sunbeam on her hair. 
And her face, like the Madonna, 

Is as pure as it is fair. 

CHORUS 

Little Bohemian Girl, 

Fair and as bright as a pearl : 

My hope ever lies 

In your smile and your eyes ; 

Dear little, sweet little girl. 

Little Bohemian Girl. 

From the plains of fair Nebraska, 

In the new land of the west ; 
Soon my heart will send its message 

To the one I love the best. 
She will brave the storms of ocean. 

Cross the Danube and the Rhine. 
.And will traxerse plain and mountain. 

For her heart is bound with mine. 

E-XRLY D.WS IN CUSTER 

( Written by Tom H. Burlin. Merna, Nebras- 
ka, and read by Mrs. G. O. Joyner at the old 
settlers' picnic at Broken Bow, August 5. 1903) 

I'right shines the sun on Custer's hills. 

Or softly falls the gloaming. 
Where once by all its living rills 

The buffalo herds were roaming. 

Still glows the moon, her calcium light 
I'alls now on field and meadow : 

The myriad st^rs are shining bright 
Beside the Oueen of Shadow. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



363 



But where are all the buffalo now 

And where the Texas cattle? 
Where fields of grain abundant grow, 
Rode cowboys in the saddle. 

When ranchers curbed in wild career 

Their mustangs' wild vagaries, 
And grazed their herds, both far and near 

Across the broad prairies. 

How changed the face of nature seems, 

By field and fences broken; 
Almost as if it were in dreams 

We hear the old names spoken. 

Flow strange, if now the Seven Bar 

Ranged twenty-thousand cattle ! 
Or Robert Olive's rising star 

Waned in a rustler battle ! 

Or that his blood had been avenged. 
The rustlers hanged and burning, 

By chance the public mind was changed. 
And "to the thieves was turning. 

Unscared, the elk no longer dwells 
Where once he loved to wander 

Through brakes and braes and sunny dells ; 
Its home is here no longer. 

No more the deer ungalled lies 
The shade of plum brush under. 

The antelope no longer flies 
Before the mounted hunter. 

The canyons deep and silent lie. 

But sad indeed their story. 
No more the cedars pierce the sky, 

That lent them all their glory. 

No more the elm tree's spreading shade 

Makes glad the weary toiler. 
The keen axe at its root has laid. 

It fell before the spoiler. 

The romance of the former years — 

A saddened vein comes o'er us, 
And oft as through a mist of tears 

The old scenes rise before us. 
The spirit of adventure, then. 

Spurred all to grand endeavor ; 
Recurring, thrills our hearts again. 

Its memory lasts forever. 

SOL. J. COOK 

The following poem was written, in Merna, 
some time in the year 1903, by Sol. J. Cook, 
who was probably an intimate friend of Tom- 
my Burlin's. No one seems tt> remember the 
writer, but his work possesses merit, and we 
submit it because this especial verse was dedi- 



cated to his friend, the late Tommy Burlin, 
of Alerna. 

THE POET 

(By Sol. J. Cook) 

Remote from mercenary tlirongs. 
In childlike faith and love absorb'd. 
.V s]5irit wash'd of social wrongs, 
And eyes profound with wonder orb'd, 

The poet kneels ; — his holy shrine, 
A Universe. What magic strains 
His reverent touch with divine 
Skill wakes, descends as summer rains, 

On souls that wilt in the world's heat, 

.\wakening the tender bloom 

Of sentiment — that flower sweet. 

Which brightens life's else cheerless gloom. 

Child of the seeing eye, and hand, 
Immers'd in seas of harmonies. 
Immensity thy cradle grand, 
Thy limits the eternities. 

Close-clinging to dear Nature's breast. 
Whose lullaby soothes thy repose ; 
What dreams fold thine enchanted rest? 
What mysteries to thee disclose ? 

Hark! what diffus'd delight doth thrall 
Responsive souls! The poet-child, 
Midst his sweet dreams, again lets fall 
A jewel'd note undefiled. 

Of sparkle rare, revealing 'gain 
Some hidden mine of Nature's realm. — 
A gem for man's eternal gain 
Wrought to enrich Love's diadem. 

Aye ! The world richer grows, when sings 
The bard ; and tamer grows the beast. 
As from his lyre music springs. 
All things assume a golden cast. 

MRS. M.\RTH.\ .\. HUNTER 

The Blue Book of Nebraska women, edited 
and compiled by Winona Evans Reeves in 
1916, contained the following biographical 
sketch of .Mrs. Martha A. Hunter: 

"Martha Angeline I'eck Hunter was born 
on a farm near Walshville, Illinois, in 1858. 
She is the daughter of Aloses and Emily Car- 
oline ( Barlow ) Beck. Her parents were both 
of a high type of Cbristian character. Of Mr. 
Beck, his pastor said. "He as fully meets God's 
description of a good man (Isaiah 33:15-17), 
as any one I ever knew," Her mother was the 



364 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



daughter of a pioneer Presbyterian minister. 
In this Christian home, where the Bhie Laws 
of the Presbyterian church were indeed law. 
-Mrs. Hunter grew to womanhood. In 1877 
she was married to Roljert A. Hunter, and two 
daughters were born to them, \"ioIet Pearl 
(Mrs. O. H. X'enner, of University Place), 
and Ivy Maud (Mrs. Thad Farnsworth. of 
(Jrand Island). In 1889 the family moved to 
Custer county, to a homestead which is now 
a part of the Hunter ranch. Sunny Dell Cattle 
Ranch, near Broken Bow. The family lived 
here until 1894, when they became residents of 
Broken Bow. Mrs. Hunter is a member of 
the Presbyterian church and is an exemplary 
church woman. For many years she has taught 
a young men's Bible class in the Sunday school. 
She was the first president of Custer County 
Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and 
has spoken at many jniblic meetings in behalf 
of temperance. She was a charter member of 
Chapter S, P. E. O., and has served as vice- 
president of the Nebraska Grand Chapter. She 
was a member of the woman's board of the 
Trans-Mississippi exposition, held in Omaha in 
1898. For a number of years she taught in 
the grammar school. In 1915 she published 
'The Story of the Four Gospels, for Boys and 
Girls,' and a temperance drama, 'Weighed in 
the Balance.' She is a woman of the greatest 
sincerity and wishes only to serve her day and 
generation and to merit the 'well done'." 

MRS. .\. H. STUCKEV 

Mrs. A. H. Stuckey, of Broken Bow. is one 
of the most talented women in the ci unity. 
Her literary work dates from her girlhood 
days, when she was a student contriljutur to 
the Cincinnati. ( )hio. Enquirer and Cazcltc. 
.•\t the time General Grant died, she entered 
a contest in which a prize was olTered for the 
best poem-tribute to the military hero. Over 
250 poems were submitted, but the effort of 
Mrs. Stuckey was awarded first place. She is 
a native of Ohio, where she spent her early life 
and passed through the public schools, grad- 
uated from the high school, and later she took 
a finishing course in the Ursuline College. 

^\'ith hor husband she came to Custer 



county in 1881, and ever since she has had a 
prominent part in the public life of Broken 
Bow and vicinity. She has been a social leader, 
and tireless worker in educational circles. Her 
local song compositions have won much favor. 
The poems that follow are from the pen of 
Mrs. Stuckey. 

The first poem. "The Lark's Returning," 
is taken from Donahoc's Magazine, a Boston 
]uiblication. "The Goldenrod," the poem that 
follows next, has been extensivelv published 
throughout Nebraska, in which state the gol- 
denrod is in high favor. The "Service Flag." 
or the last of the three poems submitted here, 
is a product of the war and has been immense- 
ly popular because of its local adaption to any 
community in the commonwealth. 

THE L.\RK's RETURXIXG 

O velvet throated bird ! You sit and sing, 
And call your playmate, to come echoing 
Your lay, alluring her, where'er you lead, 
Across the daisied mead. 

No silvery notes, that swell thy siren strain. 
Can tempt her forth to round thy full refrain ; 
Or follow thee, on tiptoe o'er the grass, 
^^'ith arms outstretched. Alas ! 

How often I have watched her eager play. 
And heard the wild, sweet laughter die away. 
When all her pretty arts had proven vain 
To coax \-our song again. 

One evening, when your vesper song begun. 
And she, the mellow cadences had run 
In measure true, an angel passing near 
Heard the notes so ringing clear. 

Then up he sped across the Milky Way 
To tell the Seraphim. In envv. thev 
P.esought. why earth should know this magic 
rune. 
Their chords could not attune. 

She nestled in my arms, the \'esper done. 
And prattled of the shadows where the sun 
Was playing hide and seek between the hills; 
Too tired, to mock your trills; 

When back the Seraph came : and from mv 

arms 
Lifted her, warm, pulsating with her charms. 
Then folded them across my empty breast — 
Song bird. \ou know — the rest. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



365 



And ever as you call before the door, 
I see thy playmate hasten as of yore ; 
The golden curls unbonneted, untwined. 
The harp strings of the wind. 

My arms reach out to gather her again 
To their embrace. Hush'd is the melting strain. 
I fold them slowly o'er my hungry breast ; 
Song bird, you know — the rest. 

THK C.ULDKNROD 

Hail noble flower ! Thy peerless golden glory 
Is now emblazoned on Nebraska's crest, — 
Fit herald to proclaim lier wondrous story. 
And like her, monarch of the mighty West. 

No mortal hand assisted at thy sowing. 
The stars wept tears upon the barren earth ; 
The dewy clouds knelt down to kiss them, 

flowing. 
When lo ! The travail of thy glorious birth. 

And as since, each glowing constellation 

Has shared its splendors with thee. Golden 
Rod, 

Has taught thy golden heart, hymns of obla- 
tion. 

That Heaven's stars breathe to the Triune 
God. 

In vain, Aeolus and his wind god revel 
And scatter devastation through each bower, 
The violets wither, roses proud dishevel ; 
Thy scepter still defies his blighting power, 

The pioneer beheld thy pristine beauty. 
Where for his dwelling thou bedecked the sod, 
Thy very life went out in love and duty 
Upon Penates' altar — Golden Rod. 

When through uld Nature's heart each warm 

pulsation 
Grows feebler, as the dying year grows old. 
Last of all thy race! O'er all the desolation, 
Shines out undimmed thy diadem of gold. 

Hail, matchless flower! Long may thy golden 

glory 
Blaze out upon Nebraska's giant breast, 
Her fair escutcheon glittering with thy story, 
And with her, rule fore'er the mighty West. 

THE SERVICE FLAG 

'Twas twenty centuries ago. 
Against the whiteness of the dawn. 
There blaz'd a star of meteor glow. 
In splendor over Bethlehem's khan. 
The service banner of The Lord 
In heaven's window was unfurl'd, 



And angel hosts awoke the chord 
That gave its message to the world. 

Then, tyrants trembled for their might. 
Then, idols tottered to their doom. 
As through the deep of slavery's night 
That service flag first pierced the gloom. 
The shackles from men's souls were riv'n 
Where'er in majestv' it shone. 
And freedom unto faith was giv'n. 
The world's democracy begun. 

And proven ; when, on Calvary's height. 
Where gleamed the wondrous Hag outspread. 
Was woven round its field of white, 
Golgotha's broidery of red. 
No greater love than this hath man, 
That, for his friend, his life he give, 
-And in the rear guard, or the van. 
He dies : that truth and freedom live. 

Down thru the stress of centuries. 

Thru conflicts that have mark'd.each age. 

Thru rise and fall of dynasties. 

O'er unknown depths, thru tempest's rage, 

Have come these colors consecrate. 

The star of hope from out the skies. 

The white of faith, commensurate 

With red of love's great sacrifice. 

The pilgrims brought them o'er the sea; 
The patriot wore them in his heart ; 
And when the arm of tyranny 
Was raised to wield the crushing dart. 
Old Glory to the world was born ; 
The red and white, her glist'ning bars, 
And blue, from heaven's dome was torn. 
To hold forever fixed, her stars. 

God ! how it pulsates to the breeze ! 
This flag infused with a soul. 
Its song rings over farthest seas. 
And echoes back from pole to pole. 
It shouts, it calls, it thrills and swells 
With tidings of great joy, it gives; 
Like pealing of ten thousand bells. 
( )ld Glory! O! it lives! it lives! 

For two score and one hundred years. 
It waves above a nation free, 
.Vnd, in its sacred covenant, clears 
The way to earth's democracy. 
When mad with lust of jjride and pow'r, 
.\ tyrant hurls war's ruthless sway, 
.And nations cry in that dark hour 
America! America! 

Old Glory answers to her need. 
From East and West : from South and North, 
Where'er her glitt'ring stars shall lead. 
Her loyal sons spring bravely forth. 



366 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



They kiss the hem of that dear flag, 
As kneeling, did of old, each sire; 
And vow no despot's hands shall drag 
Its honor thru dishonor's mire. 

Then from each window, streaming bright. 
"Xeath lowly eave, and palace grille. 
Shines out a banner thru the night. 
Like beacon fires upon each hill. 
The flag that points the tyrant's shame : 
Its white, that scorns the coward's dross, 
The holocaustal red, its frame ; 
Its star, enhallowed by the cross. 

O lads, while at the Vesper hour 

You mark "attention !" as you stand. 

And music throbs, as proud hands low'r 

The starry emblem of our land. 

With misting eyes, your oath renew 

To keep it without spot or stain. — 

We raise this service flag to you. 

Till you bring victory home again. 

Hats ofl:'! and lift it to the skies. 
This banner of the heart and home ; 
This pledge of service that our boys 
Swear by Old Glory's halidom, 
"That flat; shall strh'c for the opprcst. 
Uiilil all peoples shall be free. 
Until all nations call her blest." 
Old Glory ! God be praised for thee ! 

MRS. SABINA PENROD 

Airs. Sabina Penrod will be remembered as 
being a delightful, cultured woman. She and 
her husband cast their lots in the Yucahill 
district of western Custer county, shortly after 
the opening of the country under the Kinkaid 
Act, and there they lived for several years. She 
was a writer of unusual ability, and sold 
many poems to eastern magazines. Some of 
her most famous ones were "Xature" and 
"Life's Pathway." We submit here a poem 
inspired by the beginning of a "Perfect Day" 
in the Sand Hills. 

DAW.V I\ THF. CUSTER COIXTV HILLS 

(Copyright 1916) 
By Sabina Penrod 

( )li ! the glories of the Tnorning ! 

When the day begins to dawn. 
When the first faint streaks of sunlight 

Lightly fall across the lawn. 
From' a night of peaceful slumber. 

Restful sleep. I gladly rise 



And behold with admiration, 
Radiant beauties of the skies. 

How I wish I were a painter : 

I would paint a picture fair. 
Of a rare and beauteous landscape, 

'Xeath a balmy-hazy air ; 
But I couldn't paint the beauties 

Of this life among the hills; 
There is something in its freedom 

That my soul with rapture fills. 

In the days of early summer. 

When wild roses are in bloom. 
When the calls of grouse and chicken 

Echo with a constant boom, 
I love to stand at day-break 

And look out across the hills. 
As the first rays of the sunrise 

\\'ith their light all nature thrills. 

The shadowy hills and valleys 

And the smell of dewy grass. 
Mingled with the scent of roses, 

Leave a joy that will not pass; 
And I know where'er I travel. 

I these lovely scenes will see. 
That, where'er my habitation, 

The\- will always dwell with me. 

I will always sense their sweetness. 

In my heart these sounds will ring 
\\'hen the bees begin their humming 

And the birds begin to sing; 
I will see the shadowy vapors 

Floating over vale and hill ; 
T will see the wild birds bathing. 

Hear their early morning trill. 

1 will see the lowing cattle. 

Slowly moving as they graze, 
Hear the hoof-beats of the horses 

As I see the sun's first rays. 
I will see the beauteous colors 

Of the flowers and sky and sod. 
Feel the joy of ever .living 

Close to nature and to God. 



GASTON" S RHVMES FOR rADDIXG 

W. L. Gaston, the author of the lines below, 
in no way poses as a poet. He began his ca- 
reer in the field of journalism and won his first 
honors over the noin de plume of "Billv Rip- 
ton." He has done a good deal of commerical 
writing and a year or so ago engaged in storv 
w riting for a journal in the eastern part of the 
state, over the nom de plume of "Frank 
French." He is the author of "Cheliers Ales- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



367 



siah," "The Window in Tom," and "California 
Jubilee History.'" He has been ten years in 
Custer county. In the winter of 1915 he re- 
moved with his family to Wayne, where he 
lived for one year. On his return to Custer 
county he wrote the following poem, entitled 
"Home in Broken Bow." Several of his 
rhymes have been set to music and published 
in several of the modern song-books. One is 
reproduced here, for padding out the column. 

HOME IN BROKEN BOW 

I've searched full half the world, or so. 

But find no place like Broken Bow. 

I've crossed the plains, where some love best. 

And climbed the hills to sunset west. 

I know the east, the north and south. 

From border lakes to river's mouth ; 

It matters little where I go, 

I\Iy heart goes back to Broken Bow. 

I've stood beneath the domes of state. 
On carpets of the rich and great ; 
I've walked with prophets, sat with kings. 
And heard the song the siren sings, 
Where zealots pray and sinners sin. 
But give me common folks and kin 
And let me have, while here below, 
A home-like home in Broken Bow. 

I know the far-famed mines that hold 
The thrice rich hoards of yellow gold. 
I've seen the corn, like magic, grow. 
In deep soil'd vales where rivers flow. 
I've plucked the fruits and sipp'd the wines 
Of fine old trees and older vines. 
It matters little where I go, 
I claim mv home in Broken Bow. 



I love the dells and hill-land slopes, 
Where lazy sunshine lags and mopes : 
The alder-shaded homes and lawns. 
Where hustle breeds and plenty spawns. 
Men sing the songs of war or trade, 
Yet only home-like homes are made. 
It matters little where I go, 
My heart goes back to Broken Bow. 



WALKING THE W.\TERS 

(By W. L. Gaston) 

Jesus is walking the waters. 
Is walking in pow'r and might. 

To every boat on sea afloat, 

He's walking the waters to-night. 

CHORUS : 

He's walking the waters to-night, 
He's walking in power and might, 
Over the waves of dark Galilee, 
He's walking the waters to me. 

Over the mad waves, deep rolling, 

He walks the dark Galilee ; 
Thro' wind and wave. He comes to save ; 

He's walking the waters to me. 

Thro' sin and doubt's stormy billows 
He's bringing both hope and cheer. 

By every barque when night is dark, 
Master and King is walking near. 

Over the dark sea of death 

He's walking the waves before. 

O'er silent tides. His footstep glides. 
Till ev'rv boat shall reach the shore. 



CHAPTER XMI 

AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOP^MENT 

Years, Two Score and Oxe — Horse and Cow Pull the Plow — Corn Wears the 
Tassel and is King — A Great Alfalfa County — Custer Stands at the Head — 
Dressed in Green, Custer County Heads the List — An Early Live-stock Associa- 
tion — Live-stock R.msing — Cattle Grades Improved — Hogs, Black and Red — The 
Porker Pays the Mortgage — The Purple Blood of High Breeding — Sheep in the 
Wild and Wooly County — A City Man Makes Good — A Sample of Custer Coun- 
ty Thrift — Custer County Agricultural Society — Out of Debt — Races Twenty 
Years Ago — The Lundy Hydro-Electric Power Plant — Custer County' Irrigation 
— Horticulture in Custer County — J. D. Ream Makes a Find — Fruit Received Too 
Little Attention — The Milling Industry — The Broken Bow Roller Mills — 
Electric Lights Everywhere — Towns Have Good Water — No Mininc; Indl'stry — 
Has Developed Wealth Slowly — Happy and Prosperous Now — "Since He 
Paid the Mortgage" — The First Settler Tells the Story of the Years 



No successful pioneer will despise the day 
of small things. To commence small and to 
grow, is nature's way. The agricultural and 
industrial importance of Custer county to-day 
has been developed from what the easterner 
would have called "laughing stock" in the days 
of the vOs. It has been experiment after ex- 
periment, many of which were costly and 
heroic. It has been a struggle with but little 
to struggle with. Naught but indominitable 
courage and ceaseless effort could have 
wrought the miracle. The man who saw Cus- 
ter county in 1874 and has had his back turned 
ever since, can look again to-day and his first 
word would be the one last in the sentence 
above — a miracle. 

VKARS. TWO score AND ONE 

Two score and one years have passed since 
the first settlers started the plow to fashion the 
field, and the spade and axe to fashion the 
dwelling. Then it was virgin prairie, alto- 
gether fieldless. and for the most part house- 
less. The first thing to do was to locate — 
select the homestead. The level land was first 



selected, river bottoms — farms with river 
fronts, .\fter the claim was selected then 
came the house. Something to live in. as well 
as a place to live on, must be provided. If 
the settler had a covered wagon, he must live 
in that until he could build or dig a house. 
The homestead was the first thing, but the 
house must be second. If the place is on the 
river or one of the timbered creeks he will 
build a log house. If he has a breaking plow 
and a team to haul a few logs from the timber 
he will ere;t a soddy. If he is not rich in 
these commodities he will rustle a spade, dig 
a dugout and call it ''Home, sweet Home." 
The dugout of that day was the cheapest, and 
perhaps the most plebian, of the primitive hab- 
itations. The log house, though held down 
with a sod roof, was the abode of aristocracy. 
The sod house was middle-class and common- 
place, yet many of those sod houses were com- 
fortable and cozy. They were warm in win- 
ter and cool in summer, and if the roof were 
thick enough to keep out the rain they were 
not half bad. Generally the walls* were plas- 
tered with liill clav or a native stucco, which 



368 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



369 



smoothed up better than the clay and most 
nearly resembled plaster. This, with a coat 
of whitewash, if lime could be had. made both 
interior finish and decoration. Some of the 
first houses were without floor, other than the 
native earth. One settler, in reciting the 
hardships of the early day, claimed that the 
soil was so rich that they had to cut the grass 
ofl:' from the floor of the sod house twice every 
\\eelc, so they could find the baby. 

In such houses as these the best citizens of 
Custer county began their married life, and 
especially in such houses as these did they 
launch upon their Custer county careers. In 
this kind of house many of the present gener- 
ation, now in ac- 
tive life, were born. 
Just such humble 
dwellings, located 
on a quarter-sec- 
tion of unplowed 
prairie, have since 
developed into the 
modern homes and 
imjjroved far m s 
that are the pride 
of the county to- 
day. That fine, 
white house, with 
modern light and 
water equipment ; 
that big red barn ; 

that tlock of granaries, sheds, and cribs, to- 
gether with the hog house, the hen house, the 
icehouse, and the garage: these productive 
fields, green in growing time, and gold in har- 
vest time, with acres of waving alfalfa — all 
have come from that humble beginning. 

HORSE AND cow PULL THE PLOW 

If the early settler had a team, he was not 
only fortunate, but also the exception. The 
most of the settlers were teamless. Some had 
a yoke of oxen, some were provided with only 
one horse, and in several instances the horse 
and cow were harnessed together and made 
up a sort of complex team. Some men had 
neither horse nor ox, cow nor plow. With 
just their two hands, alone and unaided, they 







■ 




^m 


■•. v 




ilMdpHp# 


^-^BijMg 




^^^^^^^^^^^M^i^^tr^v.' 





[Plwto by S. D. Butcher. iSSO] 

A Typical Sod House 



commenced the battle of life, and almost a 
phenomenal success has rewarded their eliforts. 
They began with nothing, and to-day are the 
possessors of broad acres, equipped with 
modern houses, and have to their credit in the 
bank a competency for old age. 

There is no country in the world that affords 
better advantages to the indomitable spirit 
who possesses youth, strength, and energy ; no 
place will more liberally reward labor than the 
hills and valleys of old Custer county. No- 
where within its borders can you find a man, 
who has spent here a score of years, that is 
not singing the county's praises. In fact, most 
of the old settlers will very cheerfully get up 

in the night to 
brag on the re- 
sources of Custer 
county. It has 
been, from the ear- 
liest day, the poor 
man's opportunity, 
the young man's 
hope, and the old 
man's haven. Its 
invigorating cli- 
mate, its altitude, 
with its almost ex- 
clusive outdoor oc- 
c u p a t i o n. have 
made it a healthful 
land. There are 
no native diseases. Good health has always 
been universal. The old saying that the early 
settlers had to kill a maa to start a grave-yard, 
might be true of almost every community in 
Custer county. In the starting days, when 
evervthing was new and the people young, doc- 
tors were hardly needed, and the first who 
came to the county would have starved to 
death if thev had depended alone upon poor 
health and sickness. 

The first crop of the first settlers, in which 
the soil of Custer county had first opportunity 
to demonstrate its fertility, was sod corn ; the 
second was rye. The settlers of the first year, 
and they generally came in the spring time, 
turned over a few acres of sod. planted it to 
corn, and spent the rest of the time construct- 



370 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



371 



ing a habitation, and prospecting for water. 
Some settlers planted beans along with the 
corn and thus, in the fall, they had demon- 
strated that the soil was adapted to both corn 
and beans. In the New Helena country rye 
was the first fall crop and, nourished by the 
new, strong soil, made an astonishing yield. 
We have no record of any oats being sowed 
until the spring of 1877. From that time forth 
oats have been one of the standard crops. 
Spring wheat made its advent about the same 
time, or perhaps a little before the oat crop. 
Custer is to-day one of the wheat-producing 
counties of the state. 

The county commenced its wheat industry 
like most new counties, with spring wheat. The 
soil was new and rich, and the yield was big. 
The price, however, prevented rapid accumu- 
lation of wealth by the wheat-raisers. Fall 
wheat came later, when weeds and chinch bugs 
began to challenge the spring wheat, and fall 
wheat has made a record during the years, the 
truth of which is expressed in the closing sen- 
tence of the above paragraph. 

CORN \VE.\RS THE T.XSSEL AND IS KING 

The great outstanding crop of this county 
has always been corn. Several years it has led 
all counties in the state in its production. All 
varieties will mature in good seasons, but early 
varieties are most regular in production. The 
sod corn of the first settlers was a surprise to 
the men who planted it. If the crop was not 
eaten up or destroyed by the ranchmen's cattle, 
the forage was fine fodder and the yield some- 
times reached twenty-five bushels an acre. 
Since the cultivation of land and better meth- 
ods in farming have come into vogue, Custer 
has been rated as a corn county. In these days 
of greater production, every stalk wears a tas- 
sel, and every ear is wrapped in silk. When the 
.stalk puts oflf its summer robes of green and 
dons the autumn tan. the ears turn to gold and 
droop modestly at the praise of their own 
magnificence. 

The foregoing sentiment may be rated as 
stilted praise, but Custer corn deserves all that 
can be said of it. The real story of the corn, 
however, is tokl in a few f|uotations of figures 



which go to make up dry statistics. Statistics 
of any early day are lacking. If records were 
kept, the state department of agriculture made 
no reports. The following figures are given 
only to show what the county has done in the 
banner years of the past. The years of 1905 
and 1906 seem to be the banner corn years of 
all the forty-three years that are passed. In 
1905 Custer ranked second in the state in the 
production of corn. The total yield that year 
was 7,681,863 bushels. That was a great corn 
crop. The average per acre throughout the 
county was 36.5 bushels an acre. The average 
in the state that year was 37.65 bushels an 
acre. It was the great acreage in Custer that 
boosted it to second place in the state. The 
next year was an even better year for corn 
in Custer. The acreage increased and, al- 
though the average yield per acre was just one 
bushel less than in the previous year, the total 
crop came to the high figure of 8,251,158. 
This enormous yield put Custer into first place 
in the state. In this year the average yield per 
acre in the state was 35.28 bushels per acre, 
while in Custer the average yield was 35.5 
bushels per acre, which put the county above 
the average in yield. 

The last few years have not been so favor- 
able for corn and, like with alfalfa, the acre- 
age has been decreased in favor of wheat. This 
year's crop (1918) is estimated at 5,000.000 
bushels, in round numbers. 

The great bulk of the corn crop, and like- 
wise the great bulk of the hay crop, is fed at 
home, less than five per cent, of the corn raised 
being shipped out of the county. It is fed to 
cattle and hogs and thus made to bring an 
added profit. 

A GREAT .\LF.KLF.\ COUNTY 

The importance of alfalfa as a forage crop 
canot be overestimated. Alfalfa is one of the 
standard products, and the one which has done 
more to bring profit to the farmer than almost 
any other. The deep-green fields in evidence 
everywhere, are the gold mines of the county. 
If the "porker" has been a mortgage-payer, 
he has had to stuff himself with alfalfa in 
order to play the role. The dry times reduce 



37: 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



the crop, but it is never an entire failure. The 
prices have been good at all times — in fact, 
so good that it is safe to say that no crop has 
been more profitable than Custer county al- 
falfa. If corn is king, alfalfa is queen, and to- 
gether they fatten a royal family of beef and 
pork. Farmers depend on alfalfa, and raise it 
with less expense than any other forage. The 
climate and soil of the county have always 
contributed tlie natural elements to make it 
the hay crop of the middle part of the state. 

CUSTER ST.VNDS .\T THE HE.VD, DRESSED IN GREEN' 

It took the farmers a long time to realize 
fidly the importance of the alfalfa crop. For 



of inducing several farmers in different parts 
of the county to seed a few acres to the new 
crop for which so much was claimed. Judge 
Lavender was perhaps the first man in the 
vicinity of Broken Bow to try a small field, 
for hay and pasture purposes. The production 
of alfalfa was very limited for years. Seed 
was hard to obtain and the price was almost 
prohibitive. Alfalfa. like everything else, had 
to buck its way up hill against a field of oppo- 
sition. As the years went by. it made progress 
and to-day it has its place and fame estab- 
lished. It ranks in importance with corn and 
is absolutely indispensable to successful stock- 
raising. 




.\ Clster Col'.ntv Alfalf.v Field 



years it was raised only in small patches, and 
its value as hog pasture, and as winter hay 
for calves, milch cows, and stock cattle was 
hardly known. The first record of alfalfa in 
the county harks back to 1882, when \'irgil 
Allen, on the South Loup, sent to Sacramento, 
California, and procured enough seed to ex- 
periment with four or five acres. The experi- 
n.cnt was successful, and year by year he 
added to the field until he had in cultivation 
broad acres of this imported meat and milk 
producing hay. \'ery early in the "SOs several 
experiments were tried in the Middle Loup 
river valley, and these likewise proved suc- 
cessful. In 1886 Robert Hunter began the 
agitation for more alfalfa and was the means 



In the years 1907 and 1908 the acreage was 
largely increased and in the year 1909 the 
county came into prominence as an alfalfa 
producing county. The agricultural reports of 
this year rated Custer as the second county in 
the state in the production of alfalfa. In 1910 
it again forged ahead and went to the top, 
with 48,419 acres to its credit. This seems 
to have been the high year. For the next two 
years the acreage decreased at the rate of one 
thousand acres a year. In 1913 the acreage 
is reix>rted as nearly ?,000 less than in 1910. 
This year. 1918. the county stands in third 
place. The hard, freezing winters of later years 
and the pressure used to increase the wheat 
production for war purposes, have caused the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



373 



decrease notetl. In spite of decreased produc- 
tion and increases of other crops, the average 
value of the Custer county alfalfa crop for the 
last eight years has been over $1,600,000.00. 

In the 1918 Nebraska State Fair Custer 
county alfalfa was awarded eight different pre- 
miums. 

CUSTER COUNTY HEADS THE LIST 

The following extract from a 1917 issue of 
the Custer County Chief shows how the 



race for supremacy as a corn producer, with 
conditions represented by eighty-eight out of 
a possible one hundred points. Custer county 
is also in the high rank for oats, with ninety- 
four points, several counties having the same 
average. The other counties which are of 
equal rank in this respect are Red Willow, 
Buffalo, Hall, and Sherman. Custer county 
again touches the high mark in the wheat 
average, it being twenty-seven bushels per 
acre, with Red Willow county, another wes- 




[Plwto by S. D. Butcher] 



Two Crops th.at Never F,\ie 



county ranks in agricultural products for the 
year 1917: 

"The bureau of labor has, during the past 
week, completed the work of compiling the 
crop conditions of Nebraska by counties, and 
the report presents some surprises. It was 
only a few years ago when the eastern part of 
Nebraska was far ahead of other portions of 
the state, but things have changed, and this 
year, to see the finest crops in Nebraska the 
people have to come to Custer county. In 
speaking of the report of the bureau of labor, 
the Lincoln Neii-s, of July 31st has the fol- 
lowing: 

" 'Custer county kicks the high places in the 



tern county, a close secfind. with twenty-five 
bushels per acre.' " 

AN EARLY LIVE-STOCK ASSOCIATION 

The first live-stock association of which 
there is any record was organized in 1878. 
As the story goes, it was time for the spring 
roundup of 1878, and a meeting to organize 
for that purpose was called at Custer, which 
at that time meant the Young ranch and which 
was also the county seat, for the purpose of 
organizing for the roundup and for the added 
purpose of organizing a live-stock association. 
There were several large ranches represented, 
by owners and employes. The meeting had 



374 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTV, NEBRASKA 



all the characteristics of the early day and wes- 
tern stage. The organization for the roundup 
was effected by electing Phil Dufrand as cap- 
tain. With the roundup business out of the 
way, they proceeded to organize the Custer 
County Live Stock Association, the object of 
which was to promote the cattle industry and 
protect herds from cattle rustlers and those 
engaged in slaughtering "slow elk." The of- 
ficers of the organization were: President, I. 
P. Olive ; secretary, Harry Windsor ; treasur- 
er, Jacob Boblits ; inspector. J- D- Haskell. 



Most of the farms are conducted with a view 
to handling- stock. The abundant grasses of 
the pasture land are strong and nutritious, and 
cattle in pastures fatten rapidly. The forage 
crops of the cultivated lands are sufficient to 
winter all the cattle that the grass lands will 
summer. This makes Custer county farming 
very profitable. 

The passing of the great herds that roamed 
over the country in an early day, when every- 
thing was ranch and range, has not lessened 
the number of cattle. If there are no longer 




The P.\le-f.\ce Cattle h.we t.\ken Custer County 



A cr>mmittee, consisting of I. P. Olive, S. C. 
Stuckey, and E. J. lioblits, to draft a set of 
by-laws and set a constitution, was formed. 
This was the first cattle or stock association 
of any kind ever formed in the county. Their 
roll of membership has not been preserved, 
nor are minutes of any subsequent meeting 
obtainable. 

LIVE-STOCK R.MSI.VG 

That much-talked-of. invisible line which 
divides the grazing from the corn belt runs 
through Custer county. That makes it incline 
to both agricultural and grazing pursuits, a 
combination of farming and stock-raising. 



herds of .^,000 head, seventy-five herds of one 
hundred head each have come to take their 
place. On the smaller holdings, into which 
the big ranges have been broken, are better 
cattle and more to the square mile than in the 
days when everything was cattle. 

C.VTTLE GR.\DES IMPROVED 

On the small farm, where the herd is 
smaller, more care is given to stock and great 
l)ains is taken in quality selection for breeding 
purposes. As a result, cattle are of better 
grade than formerly. The scrub male no 
longer heads the herd. In its place is found 
the kinsr of models, bred in the long lineage 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



375 



of purple blood. Fine models of blooded stock 
are consequently found on every farm. 

Mrgfil Allen claims the distinction of im- 
porting the first blood in the cattle line. His 
fancy early ran to shorthorns. By importing 
thoroughbreds he set for his neighbors a fine 
example in herd improvement. The influence 
of the example has not been lost. Everywhere 
cattle have been improved until it is safe to 
say that no better cattle are found anywhere 
in the state. The county is full of shorthorns 
and white-faces, while Polled Angus and other 
varieties of polled cattle are not uncommon. 

The dairy interests have become enormous 
and milking strains of Durhams bred for the 
purpose, the famous milk-producing Holsteins, 
and the cream-producing Jerseys have come 
to stay. These milkers are in the dairies and 
in the one-cow barns of the town people. 

The cattle interests of the county are well 
developed and profitable. 

HOGS, BLACK AND RED 

When the early settlers came, some of them 
brought a few hogs with them. It has been, 
however, almost impossible to ascertain who 
brought the first hog into the county. The 
early hog served his purpose. He had to pio- 
neer and take his chances on short rations, 
the same as the other stock. The hog was 
cheap, but the great incentive to raise him 
spelled lard and bacon. 

The first breeder of a pure strain of hogs, 
of whom there is any record, was J. L. H. 
Knight, of Lee"s Park, who as early as 1885, 
while only a youngster himself, paid thirty 
dollars for a pure-blood Poland-China gilt. 
The offspring of this gilt in after years put 
good hogs on every farm in the eastern part 
of the country. 

To-day hog raising is one of the great in- 
dustries of the county. The two and three 
cents per pound price of the early day has 
improved as much as the breeds. At the time 
this page is being written, hogs are worth on 
the market, in any town in the county, eigh- 
teen cents a pound. The stock has developed, 
by select breeding, from the hazel-splitters of 
pioneer times to the square-blocked types of 



Poland-Chinas and Duroc-Jerseys which are 
found on every farm to-day. These two breeds 
predominate. They have been found most 
profitable. They show up best in the pork 
barrel and in the bank account. 

The agricultural reports of the state credit 
Custer in 1917 with nearly sixty thousand 
hogs. They constitute one of the greatest as- 
sets of the county. The hog crop of 1918 is 
far in excess of 1917. 

THE PORKER PAYS THE MORTGAGE 

F. M. Currie wrote the following article 
over seventeen years ago : 

Custer county is in the geographical center 
of the state of Nebraska. Its elevation is about 
2,000 feet above the level of the sea, and the 
average rainfall is not far from twenty inches 
per annum. It produces a large variety of 
nutritious grasses, and is well watered. Al- 
though streams are not very abundant, water 
is to be fotmd everywhere, in inexhaustible 
quantities, at various depths, ranging from a 
few feet in the valleys to four hundred feet 
on the highest table lands. It was the home 
of countless numbers of bufifalo before the 
advent of the cowboy. With the coming of 
the cattlemen, the buffalo were driven out, and 
it became a veritable paradise for the large 
cattle ranch. After it was opened for settle- 
ment, the homesteader claimed its broad and 
fertile prairies as his right under the law, and 
the cattle rancher was obliged to vacate. But 
the number of cattle was increased instead of 
diminished. In place of a few men owning 
hundreds and even thousands of head, a large 
number of men became the owners of small 
herds, and the total number was increased. 
Much of the land was broken out, and general 
agriculture became the occupation of the early 
settlers. Then it was that a more intensive 
agriculture became necessary, and the farmers 
turned their attention to the poor man's friend 
— the hog. The hog is essentially the friend 
of the poor farmer, because it requires very 
little capital with which to make a start. The 
number of hogs in Custer county has increased 
very rapidly, until nearly every farmer owns 
from ten to four or five hundred head. Of 
course the keeping of hogs necessitates the 
growing of corn. With the exception of two 
years — those of 1890 and 1894 — Custer 
county has produced a sufficient quantity of 
corn to mature most of the hogs raised within 
her borders. The high altitude, the pure at- 
mosphere, and excellent drainage of Custer 



376 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



county make it exceedingly healthful for both 
human being's and animals. The animal di- 
seases which are so common in most parts of 
the United S'tates. are almost unknown in 
Custer county. In recent years there has been 
a slight loss from disease known (in the com- 
mon parlance) as hog cholera, but Custer 
county has never had an epidemic which car- 
ried off whole herds of swine. 

The farmer, unlike his predecessor, the 
cattle man, usually markets his cattle in a 
finished condition. The cattle man of the olden 
times gathered his beeves from the plains and 
shipped them in large numbers to the market 
in Chicago or Kansas City. Those that were 
fat enough to kill were sold to the butcher ; 
those that were not finished were sold to the 
feeders in Iowa, eastern Nebraska, eastern 
Kansas, and Illinois. The farmer and cattle 
man of the present day feeds his own cattle 
and ships them, ready for the block, to the 
market in Omaha, which is distant about 180 
miles. The cost of transportation is about 
thirty-eight dollars per carload. In preparing 
his beef, the farmer finds a large saving in the 
use of the hog. The cattle are put in yards 
and fed all the grain they will eat ; at the same 
time hogs are put in the yard to follow the 
cattle, cleaning up the waste. The cattle usual- 
ly absorb aliout one-half of the nutritive value 
of the corn that passes through their stomachs, 
the other half would be wasted were it not 
for the hogs which follow the cattle, and the 
waste is thus transformed into pork. The hog 
and cattle industry go together and furnish 
a considerable profit to the farmer. In good 
seasons, the average farmer on 160 acres of 
good land is able to turn off a carload of cattle 
and a carload of hogs each year. The cattle 
are pastured on the grazing lands of the 
county. They are fed in winter on the rough 
feed produced on the farming land, consisting 
of cornstalks, straw, millet, etc. The hogs are 
raised usually during the summer season, and 
in autumn the two are placed together ; the 
farmer thus secures the entire profit accruing 
to the man who raises the cattle, who raises 
the hogs and who feeds them. Poland-China 
is by far the most popular breed of hogs, while 
Jersey Red. Chester Whites, and Berkshires 
are very abundant. 

In some of the valleys farmers have turned 
their attention to the raising of alfalfa. They 
are thus enabled to raise their young swine 
at a very low cost, and are only put into the 
yard to be finished. In 1887 Custer county 
shipped 32,640 hog? from the various stations 
of the railways within her borders. Allowing 
for a reasonable number that were shipped 



from stations outside of Custer county, but 
contiguous thereto, it is safe to estimate the 
number of hogs at 50.000. The future of the 
swine industry of Custer county is very prom- 
ising, and it will always be one of the most 
important industries of the county. 

THE PURPLK BLOOn OF HIC.H BREEDINC. 

The low grade of ])oorly selected stock with 
which the early settlers had to begin opera- 
tions in the county was, of course, a tremen- 
dous handicap to stock-breeding operations. 
But it has been overcome, and the high-grade, 
pure strain in every department of live-stock 
breeding marks a commendable progress. 
Cattle, hogs, horses, sheep, have been bred for 
the last twenty years on the lines of best se- 
lection, and the fine-stock breeders of the 
county to-day. with their products, constitute 
one of our proudest assets. The following are 
some of our breeders who are making Custer 
county fine stock famous throughout the state : 

Over in the Comstock region. Charles Xiel- 
horn is producing Poland-China hogs and red 
polled cattle. He is making fine progress and 
has developed both spe:ies to high-class tyjies. 

J. A. Kellenbarger, west of Merna. has some 
very fine specimen of Durhams. Joe has been 
in the business for several years and is. first, a 
good selector of type, and then, a good feeder, 
both of which characteristics are necessary in 
fine stock-raising. 

John Dietz, northwest of Broken Bow. is 
one of the progressive farmers of the com- 
munity. He is perfecting a fine line of red 
polled cattle. 

Benger & Son, of Callaway, are in the ring 
with classy white-faces, molded on long-lin- 
eage patterns and well marked and classic in 
color. 

Sam Waddington, in Ortello valley, has been 
breeding white-faced Hercfords for the last 
thirty years, and it would be hard to find a 
better marked, more evenly molded herd tlrm 
bis to-day, 

II. C. Grabert & Son are hog breeders who 
are attracting attention in the region between 
P)roken Bow and Westerville. They have pens 
full of the big rangy types of Duroc-Jerseys. 

r.on Ash. mirth of Broken Bow, has already 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



377 



established a reputation as a breeder of Po- 
land-China hogs. He has made a crowning 
success and has very materially boosted the 
hog production of Custer county by contribut- 
ing classy herd-heads to the community in 
which he is operating. 

South of Broken Bow, the Miller Sons, con- 
tinuing the breeding operations of the late 
Benjamin Miller, are producing Poland- 
Chinas of pure strain and acme style. 

Teddy Scott, two miles from Broken Bow, 
is a young, progressive farmer who is mak- 
ing his mark in the Poland-China world. He 
has scarcely become an extensive breeder, but 
he has a foundation of fine selects and has al- 
ready producer some types that might be en- 
vied by an older breeder. 

John Amsberry, down in the region of 
Mason City, breeds black Polled-Angus cattle 
that are blocky types of beef and profitable 
farm cattle. John and his son are veterans in 
the cattle business and deserve well the repu- 
tation they have established. 

Charles Wright, who has a good farm on 
the Muddy, is in the Jersey cattle business. 
He breeds the fawn-colored milkers and has 
some of the finest types of dairy and town 
Jerseys the country produces. 

Bill Tenant and Joe Sittler are two other 
fine-stock breeders dealing in Jerseys and con- 
triiniting to the cream and butter supply. 

For years Dr. Brenizer has been one of the 
shorthorn producers and one of the county's 
most ardent advocates of selected blood. He 
has contributed as premiums many of the best 
Durham males ever bred in the west. Custer 
county owes much to Dr. Brenizer. 

Zachary & Sons, substantial and progressive 
farmers of the West table, have given their 
attention to the high types of draft horses and 
are very successful home breeders. They have 
a line of home-grown Percherons that would 
be a credit to most any county. 

George StofTer, three miles north of ^lerna. 
likewise has given much attention to horse- 
breeding. Years ago he made purchases of 
classy Percherons, both stallions and marcs, 
and to-day has produced the most magnificent 
types. 



Cole Brothers, two miles east of Broken 
Bow, are quite extensive breeders of Shetland 
and Welch ponies. 

Ivan L. Leech, a progressive young farmer 
in the Westerville country, is turning attention 
to blooded strain? in cattle and hogs, inclining 
to the Durocs and the Diudiams. 

Charles Mytton, of Ansley, is an extensive 
breeder of Duroc-Jerseys and has reached a 
place where his annual sales attract attention 
over the central part of the state. 

In the Ansley district, B. J. Tierney is a 
very extensive breeder of shorthorn cattle and 
has established a reputation second to none in 




\rho!ogr<iphcd ill iSSo fc.v .!>'. D. BuUhjii 

An E.^rly-day Team 

the middle part of the state. His productions 
head herds all over the county. 

K. F. Dietsch is a new-comer who brought 
with him the best blood to be found in the 
northeast corner of the state. He has pur- 
chased a farm north of Broken Bow and 
named it Cedar Lawn Stock Farm. 

H. E. Pressey, of Oconto, is an established 
breeder of Duroc-Jersey hogs. He has been 
long in the business and has made a very 
creditable showing. He has on his stock farm 
everything that makes of breeding a profitable 
occupation. 

SHEEP IN' THE WILD AXD WOOLV COl'XTV 

If Custer county was ever "wild and wooly." 
the wool was not furnished in any great quan- 
tities by home-grown sheep. If it was a Cus- 
ter county Marv who had a little lamb with 



378 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



fleece as white as snow, it was before Mary 
moved west. Tiiere have been a few sheep 
in the county all of the time since the winter 
of 1875, but only a few. There are a few 
good-sized flocks in diiiferent parts of the 
county to-day, but Custer has never been 
rated as a sheep county. In the days of 
cattle, conditions were the same here as in all 
range countries, and more or less antagonism 
has always existed between sheepmen and cat- 
tlemen. The earlv cattlemen of Custer coun- 



storms have been natural enemies of the flock, 
yet natural conditions have not been unfavor- 
able to the mutton industry. 

In Butcher's history there is a picture of a 
splendid flock of sheep, marked "Sheep In- 
dustry in Lee's Park, in 1887," which is re- 
produced here. In 1882 the Haumont brothers, 
Jules and Ed., wintered sheep on the French 
table. In 1881 the Finlen brothers, Charles, 
Mike, and Tom, came from Streator, Illinois, 
and settled on the South Loup. They brought 




[Plloti, by S. I). Bi,tclu-r] 



Sheep Iniustry, Lee's P.\rk, 1887 



ty did not cncmirage the sheepmen. If one 
slipped into the countrv there was no reception 
committees ap])ointed to extend the glad hand 
and say to him, "Welcome, welcome to our 
])rairies. Turn your sheep loose and let them 
graze at their own sweet will." This was a so- 
cial function that the cattlemen, not given to 
formalities, grossly neglected. They acted as 
if they never cared whether there were any 
sheep in the coimtry or not. Sheep came, how- 
ever, and sheep have stayed, and sheep are 
here to-day. Sheep-killing dogs, coyotes, and 



into the country 1,000 sheep. They did not 
stay in the sheep Inisiness very long but 
merged into the cattle business as soon as 
possible. Pres Richardson started a sheep 
industry on his ranch north of Broken Bow 
and was very successful as long as he stayed 
on the ranch himself. 

In 1910 Custer county had but 3,901 sheep. 
In the last report, given in 1917, Custer has 
2.884, which is a decrease in the last seven 
years. 

Judge John Reese is now and has been for 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



379 



a number of years the prominent sheep man 
of the county. His .ranch is about nine miles 
southwest of Broken Bow. The Judge has 
made a success of sheep raising. 

A CITV MAN MAKES GOOD 

An instance that iHustrates how the rich 
soil of Custer county responds to energy and 
management, is related by James Pierce, and 
this is the personal experience and accomplish- 



good boys and two good girls, all of whom 
believed, with Benjamin Franklin, that "He 
who by the plough would thrive, himself must 
either hold or drive." Improving on this adage, 
we have both held and driven the most of the 
time. The house is on the old homestead, and 
is one of the four frame houses owned by the 
family. There are also two good sod-houses 
and one small building owned by an invalid 
son, who makes his home with us on the old 
homestead. One son settled in Valley county. 
The rest are all near Somerford postoffice, 




Li\i: bTuCk ux l-.'.KM ')V Gi.uKui. Ciinrs, northe.-\st of Mason City 



ment of a man, city-bred and born, who. to- 
gether with his family, has conquered the Cus- 
ter prairie and made toil profitable and land 
productive. He says: 

In the spring of 1880 we moved to Custer 
county, Nebraska, where we have since made 
our home. Having no experience in farming, 
except such as was to be obtained on salt water 
and on the paved streets of a city, I was not 
very successful at the new business and 
brought but little to Nebraska in the way of 
capital. A part of what we did bring was 
lo.st in the hard winter of 1880 and 1881. We 
brouoht with us. however, a faniil\- of six 



where together we own seven farms, contain- 
ing in all 1.720 acres. Besides the improve- 
ments of all kinds, in the way of barns, hog 
houses, etc., 480 acres have been bought by 
earnings of the old homestead. Besides this 
we have had a comfortable living, without 
crowding other people. 

The farms are all well stocked with horses. 
cattle, and hogs. Most of the land is fenced 
and cross-fenced, with yards for dififerent kinds 
of stock. Roughly estimated, I should say 
that the family had' last year 10,000 bushels of 
oats, 12,000 bushels of corn, and perhaps 
enough of other grain to make up 2.t,000 
bushels altogether. One piece of land, bought 



380 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



by a son seven years ag^o. has never failed to 
produce enough each year to more than pay 
the purchasing price. Some years, last year 
for example, the crop brought more than twice 
what the land cost. 

When we took the land in 1880 there was 
no wood on it, not enough for a riding switch. 
Now, if we want a load of fence posts, or sev- 
eral loads, we can cut them. Apple trees have 
been bearing for many years. All this with 
our own labor. What man has done, man may 
do. Stand up for Nebraska ! There is room 
for many more here. 

The above statement was written in 1904. 
The remarkable showing made up until that 
time has continued since in the same ratio. 
The writer has since moved to that greater 
country where all homesteads are river fronts. 
His sons and daughters are still here and are 
numbered among our best citizens. 

.\ S.\MPLE OF CVSTER COUNTY THRIFT 

Anton Smock, with his wife and a three- 
months-old babe, landed in Custer county in 
April, 1886, and settled on a quarter-section 
of land near Oconto. To commence the oper- 
ation of farming he had a yoke of oxen, a 
breaking plow, and a stone-boat sled. He had 
one cow and a calf. The above invoiced all 
his stock and implements. He had never had 
hold of a j)low-hantlle in his life. His wife 
was city-bred. He says tliey did not mak-e 
much of a success the first few years. He en- 
countered dry years, hail storms, and all the 
drawbacks and hindrances that the law allows, 
so that when he got through the memorable 
hard year of 1894. he had but little more than 
the amount with which he started. He says 
he had learned, however, that milking cows 
and raising hogs was the most profitable thing 
he could do, and he made up his mind that he 
would stick to that. 

Ten years later he owned and paid taxes 
on 1,400 acres of good Custer county land, of 
which 300 acres were imder cultivation and 
the balance in pasture or hay land, the whole 
farm fenced and cross-fenced, and equipped 
with good buildings, ninety head of stock-cat- 
tle, twelve head of horses. 100 head of hogs, 
and thirty milch cows. In addition to stock and 
improvements, he had fine sheds, filled with 



all kinds of farming implements. In relating 
his experience, he says: "!My wife and I 
worked hard, but we did too much work with 
our hands and not enough with our heads." He 
loudly praises Custer county and declares that 
good soil, favorable weather, helped out with 
a little hustle, is the Custer county way of 
spelling success. 

CUSTER COUNTY .\GRICULTUK.\L SOCIETY 

One of the most important organizations 
in the county is the Custer County Agricul- 
tural Society. It has done much toward the 
development of the county and is an insti- 
tution to which Custer county people point 
with no little degree of pride. The large scope 
of territor}- from whi:h the annual fair draws, 
makes it an attraction that brings to Broken 
Bow an immense concourse of people every 
fall. It has gained the well earned reputation 
of being one of the very best fairs in the state. 

In the summer of 1881 a little band of 
homesteaders met at the town of Westerville 
and organized what was known as the Custer 
County Agricultural Society. The organizers 
were C. S. Elison, S. C. Beebe, George O. 
Waters, A. W. Squires, D. M. .Amsberrv, R. 
C. Talbot, J. H. Westervelt. J. L. H. Knight. 
F. D. Miller. John Welsh, Thomas Blowers, 
Edgar \'arney, Martin Gering, C. T. Craw- 
ford, and B. E. Lamphear. The first officers 
were : C. S. Elison, president ; George O. 
Waters, vice-president; S. C. Beebe. secre- 
tary : and C. T. Crawford, treasurer. The 
first fair was held the latter part of August of 
the same year, and while it was a primitive 
one, yet it was a great event for a new county, 
and the attendance included every home- 
steader within a radius of a good many miles. 
The attractions were limited, horse-racing be- 
ing the main feature, while a pulling match, 
between Frank Doty, of Lillian, and H. 
Weakling, of Berwyn. was an important event. 
The exhibits were, of course, light, but never- 
theless the display of corn, wheat, and oats 
was far better than one would e.x]iect in a 
country that was but sparsely jxipulated. The 
pumpkin and melon show at this fair was 
something marvelous. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



381 



Another fair was held at Westerville in the 
fall of 1882. The following year Broken Bow- 
had gained sufficient prominence to become 
a rival of Westerville, and divided honors with 
her by the fair being held three days at each 
place. 

The first fair held in Broken Bow occurred 
about the middle of September, 1883, shortly 
after the Westerville fair. It was a great event. 
The grounds were located where the present 
court house stands, and the race course circled 
around a couple of blocks, where" exciting 
races took place. It is hardly necessary to add 
that in those days, with the population made 
up largely of young men and with the sturdy 
cowboy element predominating, that favorite 
horses were backed with plenty of money and 
plenty of nerve. At both the Westerville and 
Broken Bow fairs that year a leading attrac- 
tion was the walking of the tight-rope by Eli 
Armstrong, who was later sheriff of Custer 
county. Broncho-riding was a great attrac- 
tion, and the cowboy who could rope, bridle, 
saddle, and mount a wild horse, imaided, and 
ride to a given point first, was sure of a good 
purse. 

In 1884 the fairs were again held at Broken 
Bow and Westerville, during September and 
October, under the direction of the same so- 
ciety, which met at Westerville and voted the 
exclusive rights to a fair at Broken Bow. 
Shortlv after this the society was incorporated 
under the laws of the state, its official title be- 
ing the Custer County Agricultural Society 
and Live Stock Exchange. Forty acres of land 
were purchased, a mile east of Broken Bow, 
earlv in 1885, and permanent quarters were 
established. Suitable buildings were erected 
and a splendid half-mile track was made. The 
fair has been held regularly every year and 
has been constantly enlarged from its small 
beginning, with only a few dollars oft'ered as 
premiums, until its premiums and purses have, 
during the past few years, reached $3,500, 
while its crowds come from fifty miles in 
every direction. Its list of life-members is 
well up in the hundreds and it is, without 
doubt, one of the most progressive agricultural 
societies in Nebraska. Through the efforts of 



the agricultural society, Custer county cap- 
turned the gold medal offered by the state fair 
for the county exhibit which could take three 
successive first prizes. These prizes were won 
in 1888, 1889, and 1890, and this medal is 
prized very highly, as an everlasting monu- 
ment to the agricultural resources of the great 
"State of Custer." A county that can win such 
a prize in three successive contests with nearly 
one hundred competitors, surely has some 
merit to its claim as an agricultural county. 

Perhaps a word would not be out of place 
regarding those who have served as officers 
of this society. The official roster up to 1902 
is as follows : 

Presidents — C. S. Elison, 1881; George O. 
Waters, 1882 to 1884, inclusive; F. Zimmerer, 
1885; Edmund King, 18»5 and 1887; J. D. 
Ream. 1888 to 1896, inclusive ; L. H. Jewett, 
1897 to 1899, inclusive; J. O. Taylor, 1900 
and 1901. Secretaries — S. C. Beebe, 1881; 
J. L. H. Knight, 1882 to 1885, inclusive; A. 
R. Humphrey, 1886; J. L. H. Knight, 1887 to 
1890, inclusive ; W. H. Cramer, 1891 ; Cary 
Kay, 1892; F. H. Young, 1893 and 1894; L. 
McCandless. 1895; J. M. Fodge, 1896; E. R. 
Purcell, 1897 to 1901, inclusive. Treasurers 
— C. T. Crawford. 1880 to 1882, inclusive; 
D. :\I. Anisberry, 1883 to 1886, inclusive ; O. 
P. Perley. 1887 to 1893. inclusive ; E. F. Mc- 
Clure. 1894 to 1898, inclusive; J. A. Harris, 
1899; A. R. Humphrev, 1900; W. D. Black- 
well, 1901. 

The board of directors consists of nine 
members, three of whom are elected every 
year. This board has always been selected 
from among the verv best and most progress- 
ive farmers, stock-raisers, and business men 
of the county. The officers during the year 
1901 were: President. J. O. Taylor; vice- 
president, Thomas Finlcn ; secretary, E. R. 
Purcell ; assistant secretary, F. \\'. Haves ; 
treasurer. \\'. D. Blackwell ; directors, Ed ^Ic- 
Comas, G. R. Russom, John Finch. A. E. 
Hanna. W. A. George, H. Lomax, C. H. 
Miller, E. C. Gibbons, and P. F. Campbell. 

Since the foregoing roster of officials ren- 
dered service, the following prominent men 
of the countv have served on the official board 



382 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



and have done much to attain the present 
status of the association : Judge H. M. SuHi- 
van, Alpha Morgan, Emery F. Bush, I. A. 
Reneau, James S'tockham. Tom Finlen. and 
Judge X. Dwight Ford. 

OUT OF DEBT 

The organization is in splendid financial 
condition. The 1917 fair was pronounced a 
successful event by all who attended, and the 
Thursdav crowd was conceded to be the lar- 
gest in the history of the fair. All of the stock 
premiums were paid to the winners on the 



Its present officers are: E. R. Purcell, edi- 
tor Custer County Chief, president; Tom Fin- 
len, retired farmer, vice-president; N. Dwight 
Ford, county judge, secretary ; Alpha Morgan, 
lawyer and banker, treasurer. Directors — 
E. C. Gibbons, banker and rancher; C. H. 
Zachary, rancher and horseman ; B. J. Tierney, 
rancher and stockman ; J. O. Taylor, mer- 
chant ; Charles Wright, rancher and stockman ; 
James Stockhain, farm-machine expert : J. J. 
Douglass, rancher and banker; Charles Mel- 
ham, rancher and stockman ; Herman F. 
Grabert, rancher and stockman. 







il 


• 


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^^^■Tr^rr^ 




I 




w' 


1 ■■ 


.^ 



.\ CfSTER County Exhusit .\t thk Xebr.\ska State F.mr 



last day of the fair, and premiums in the 
other departments were paid in full within one 
week. After the business of 1917 was closed, 
all expenses of the fair were paid and all debts 
and judgments cleaned up, so that the organ- 
ization stands to-day with a substantial balance 
to its credit and with every stockholder and 
1917 attendant as boosters. 

The 1918 management has made a special 
effort to carry out all of the instructions and 
requests of our government in regard to the 
stock and agricultural departments, which will 
be instructive and educational in every way 
and of great value to all. It will be Custer 
county's school of agriculture and stock- 
raising. 



RACES TWENTY YEARS AGO 

Just as an exhibit of the old-time fair held 
in the day when the horse was king and 
"Fords" unknown, the race program is here 
given of one of Custer county's fairs, just as 
it took place twenty years ago. 

The program of races was exceptionally 
good this year and the field of horses large, 
while the minor sjiorts created the usual 
amount of interest. The \Mld West show was 
the main attraction and pleased the crowd. 

The management of the fair honestly en- 
deavored to give the people some genuine at- 
tractions, and advertised nothing that did not 
take place. Below we give a list of races and 
winners: 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



383 



Three-]\Iinute Trot; Purse, $75.00 
1st — Gold Dollar, owned by E. C. Gibbons. 
2d — Maud M., owned by F. C. Embree. 
3d — Dr. Keeley, owned by E. B. Harper. 
4th — Prairie Queen, owned by Daniel 
Sweeney. 

Pony Running- Race; Purse, $10.00 
1st — Crickett, owned by William Sailing. 
2d — ■ Baney, owned by J. AI. Landers. 
3d — Louie S., owned by William Spear. 

Green Trot and Pace; Purse, $20.00 
1st — Satshaw, owned by Savage Brothers. 
2d — Ed. L., owned by E. K. Litzenburg. 
3d — J. R., owned by J. O. Russell. 
4th — Don, owned by R. J. \'inton. 

Slow Mule Race; Purse. $6.00 
1st — Fay, owned by Frank Doty. 
2d — Jewel, owned by G. ^\^ Pulliani. 

2 :40 Trot and Pace ; Purse, $75.00 
1st — Fib, owned by J. R. Vinton. 
2(1 — Maud M., owned by F. C. Embree. 
3d — Bradshaw Girl, owned by E. K. Lit- 
zenburg. 

4th — Tiddledewink, owned by J. N. Auble. 

One-Half Mile Running Race; Purse, $50.00 
1st — John Corbin, owned by W. L. Cramer. 
2d — Alice G., owned by C. A. Bailey. 
3d — My Trump, owned by John Webb. 

Green Running Race; Purse, $15.00 

1st — ^lidnight, owned by Isaac Reed. 

2d — Butte, of Callaway, owned by J. M. 
McConnell. 

3d — Brown Billie, owned by W. L. Hack- 
ney. 

Special Race; Purse, $60.00 

1st — Pocahontas Billy, owned by J. Knight. 

2d — Jesse Jewett, owned by Jesse Gandy. 

3d — ^lonteno. owned by Savage Brothers. 

Free-for-all Trot and Pace: Purse, $75.00 
1st — Fib. owned by R. J. Vinton. 
2d — Pocahontas Billy, owned by J. Knight. 
3d — Jesse Jewett, owned by Jesse Gandy. 
4th — Gold Dollar, owned by E. C. Gibbon. 

Xovelty Running Race : Purse. $40.00 
1st quarter. Cadaverous, owned by Henry 
Crow. 



One-half, one-fourth, and one mile. John 
Corbin, owned by A\'. L. Cramer. 

Two-Year-C)ld Special Running Race; Purse, 
$20.00 
1st — Crickett. owned by William SalHng. 
-d — ]\Iidnight. owned by Isaac Reed. 
3d — Baney, owned by J. W. Landers. 

Colt Trot and Pace; Purse, $25.00 
1st — Ed. L., owned by E. K. Litzenburg. 
2d — Satshaw, owned by Savage Brothers. 
3d — Lady Winks, owned by J. N. Auble. 
4th — Buck, owned by D. W. Laterman. 

BICYCLE R.\CES 

One-half Mile Handicap; Purse, $6.00 
1st — ^H. Kenoyer. 
2d — • Wilbur Holcomb. 
3d — Ed. White. 

One-half :\Iile Handicap: Purse. $6.00 
1st — Fred ^Maulick. 
2d — Ed. White. 
3d — • H. Kenoyer. 

One Mile Handicap: Purse, $6.00 
1st — R. B. Johnson. 
2d — Wilbur Holcomb. 
3d — Fred Maulick. 



Slow Bicycle Race : 
1st — Frank Rublee. 
2d — Fred Maulick. 



Purse. $2.25 



One-fourth Mile Open; Purse. $6.00 
1st — Chestney Thompson. 
2d — Fred Maulick. 
3d — Ed. White. 

Two-Mile Handicap; Purse. $9.00 
1st — Ed. White. 
2d — R. B. Johnson. 
3d — Chestney Thompson. 
4th — Charley Shinn. 

Broncho Riding: Purse. $10.00 
1st — Bill Pursell. 
2d — Jim Kelley. 

Team-Pulling Match; Ptu-se, $2.50 
Won by H. L. Granger, of Wescott. 



384 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 





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c 

o 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



385 



EQUESTRIANSHIP 

Riding by Ladies. 
1st— Mrs. C. R. Eubank. 
2(1 — Miss Eva Jewett. 

Riding by Girls 
1st — Clara Jeffords. 
2d — Lena Osborne. 

TIIK LUNDV HYDRO-EI^ECTRIC POWER PLANT 

( )ne of the most promising industrial devel- 
opments ever inaugurated in the county is the 
so-called hydro-electric plant which is in 
course of construction at Doris, Nebraska, by 
James W. Lundy. Mr. Lundy is enthusiastic 
over the project and feels confident that he has 
power enough to transform Custer county, and 
central Nebraska as well, into a manufactur- 
ing center. Mr. Lundy is the owner of 1,600 
acres of land abutting both banks of the river 
for a distance of nearly three miles. All of 
I'.is land is under irrigation tlitches, and this in 
itself constitutes a valuable asset. Although 
the average width of the river is 700 feet, Mr. 
Lundy has narrowed the river-bed through his 
land until it is confined to a channel 100 feet 
wide. The Middle Loup river, which is the 
main fork of the Loup, has an average velo- 
city, at the Lundy point, of about 600-second 
feet. 

The fall of the river generally averages six 
feet to the mile, but at Doris the fall is eight 
feet per mile, which makes this one of the best 
locations on the river to develop water power. 
The Loup is a very remarkable river, in that 
its flow is always regular. The average vari- 
ation in rise and fall, at Doris, in drouth or 
flood times, is not more than twenty inches. 
The reason for this is found in the fact that 
there is no long, clay, valley drainage from 
surrounding hills leading either into the river 
or into the streams which feed the river. The 
volume of water in the river is maintained by 
springs and sand-seepage from distant lakes. 

Lundy has arranged to divert from the river 
as much water as will be necessary for ]5ower 
purposes at this time, but has it so arranged 
tliat a larger volume can be diverted at any 
time. The construction of his plant is so ar- 



ranged that the present unit can be added to 
at any time without disarranging the plant. 
The power canal which brings power water 
from the head-gates down to the side-gates and 
spillway is fifty feet wide and is capable of 
handling 400-second feet of water, while to 
operate the plant in its present proijortions 
will require only 200-second feet. 

It is arranged, however, so that the spillway 
will take care of the surplus water. The pres- 
ent plant unit is supposed to develop 225 
horse-power, but its power can be easily in- 
creased at any time, with but slight alterations. 

The dam proper is seventy-three feet wide 
and nearly fifteen feet high, which gives a 
twelve-foot working head of water. The foun- 
dations, which are necessarily on sand forma- 
tion, are from sixteen to thirty-four feet below 
the level of the river and are made of solid 
cement, reinforced with steel. In the construc- 
tion of the dam are 400 running feet of Wake- 
field sheet piling, six inches thick, tongued and 
grooved. One hundred and five round-piling, 
twenty-five feet long, help to fasten the dam 
to its moorings, and to stay the flood tide. Also 
used in the construction of the dam are 42,000 
feet of hard-pine, two-inch lumber: 13,000 
pounds of steel reinforcements: 250 loads of 
gravel; and 1,650 sacks of Pordand cement. 

The head-gates and ice-control are con- 
structed from 2.800 feet of two-inch, hard- 
■ pine lumber, .spiked to fiftv, twenty-five, and 
thirty-five foot piling. In the con.struction of 
the side-gates and spillway, 35,000 feet of two- 
inch, hard-pine lumber was used. The side- 
gates are anchored in their places by cedar 
piling, ranging from sixty to twenty-five feet 
in length. More than 12,000 pounds of steel 
reinforcement is used in the cement part of 
the side-gate construction. For the cement 
work of the side-gates were required 175 loads 
of gravel and more than 500 sacks of cement. 
In this connection there should be noticed a 
device which is ]\Ir. Lundy's invention. Here- 
tofore, all river constructions or attempts to 
harness the river power have been hindered by 
large deposits of quicksand or silt-sand, which 
creeps along the bottom of the old channels. 
The new contrivance automatically separates 



386 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUXTV, NEHRASKA 



the silt-sand in the bed of the stream from the 
vokime of flowing water and allows only clari- 
fied water to pass through the turbine. It is 
said that this is the only automatic device of 
the kind ever constructed. Mr. Lundy assures 
us that the design is simple and that it never 
fails to work out the results for which it was 
intended. It is so constructed and so simple 
that it requires no attention and is ready at 
all times to separate the sand. This contri- 
vance means much for the future development 
of water power, not only along the sandy- 
bedded Loup river, but also along all quick- 
sand streams as well. Formerly the sand has 
been removed or overcome by expensive me- 
chanical devices which have made water power 
too expensive. 

Mr. Lundy will use a fifty-six-inch Lettel 
turbine wheel which is especially constructed 
for a low-water head and which develops in 
the present unit 225 horse-power. The power 
is transmitted from the turbine to a new Sam- 
son cable drive, which is the most effective 
power harness for turbines yet invented. The 
turbine is controlled by a Woodard oil gov- 
ernor. The generator is 100 K. W. ; 125 K. 
\'. .A. ; six-cycle, three-phase, generator elec- 
tric dynamo and switch-board, which will 
generate 175 K. W., on peak load. 

Then new plant now in course of construc- 
tion, replaces the old plant, which has been 
used for a flouring mill for over thirty years. 
It is the opinion of those who have investi- 
gated the plant, and also the opinion of the 
assistant state engineer, that the new ideas 
used in construction by Mr. Lundy will make 
this plant a decided success and a remarkable 
power contribution to all the region of Custer 
county. It is claimed that the power generated 
here can be economicalh- distributed for a dis- 
tance of 400 miles, which radius will cover all 
central Nebraska. When it is understood that 
the Loup river is capable of developing 150 
to 200 horse-power per mile, it requires no 
prophet to understand what a valuable asset 
the river is to the contiguous territory. With 
the power properly developed, Custer county 
need not depend upon her agricultural re- 
sources entirely. The opportunity to become 



a manufacturing center is knocking at the 
door. 

In constructing the new power plant Mr. 
Lundy has done all of his own engineering 
and constructing work, and has been assisted 
in the construction work by Harry Gardner, 
foreman, and John WykofT, assistant foreman. 

CUSTER COUXTV IRRIGATION' 

Once irrigation was the scheme and dream 
of all farmers in the county living along the 
river valleys. The dry year of 1894 brought 
the project of irrigation to the front, as the 
cure and prevention of crop failure. Two ir- 
rigation districts were formed, one in Lillian 
precinct and one in Douglas Grove. Both dis- 
tricts bonded themselves in order to construct 
ditches, flumes, and side-gates, but owing to a 
series of very favorable years the ditches have 
lapsed into disuse and are badly out of repair. 
Recently the Douglas Grove district was in 
litigation. A suit was brought by some of the 
water-right holders to compel the officers of 
the district to repair the ditch and furnish 
water to complainants. The suit was lost and 
at the present date the ditch is not used. 

The Lillian ditch is practically abandoned, 
although in the vicinity of Gates a few farm- 
ers — George W. Dewey, estate of the late 
Ed. Bishop, Bert Gates, and others — are us- 
ing water on their land. These men and J. 
W. Lundy, of Doris Lake, are the only Cus- 
ter county farmers using water for irrigation 
purposes to-day. 

Concerning the construction of the Douglas 
Grove ditch E. C. Gibbon, of Comstock. writes, 
in 1901, as follows: 

"If the terrible drouth of 1894 was respon- 
sible for the construction of the Douglas Grove 
irrigation ditch, it has proved to be a blessing 
in disguise to the people of the Middle Loup 
valley, as it was in that year that the ditch was 
located, surveyed, and active work commenced, 
and it was by means obtained by working on 
this ditch that a large number of the people of 
this township were enabled to live through that 
memorable winter and to eke out a miserable 
existence until another crop could be raised. 
.\n attempt was made to induce the township 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



387 




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388 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



to help in the work, as the sum asked to be 
voted would return to the taxpayers as re- 
muneration for their work on the ditch, and 
thus help all concerned ; but this aid was re- 
fused, and those living under the proposed 
ditch were compelled to organize a company 
and vote bonds upon themselves to obtain 
money to carry on and complete the undertak- 
ing. I will say nothing about their repeated 
discouragements and failures, but after one 
of the most desperate struggles, like Bruce's 
spider, they overcame all obstacles and the 
ditch has been finished from the Sargent bridge 
to Spring creek at Douglas Grove, a distance 
of thirteen and one-half miles, and covering an 
area of 7.000 acres of valuable land. 

"As this is the only canal in this section of 
the country that has been successfully com- 
pleted and is now in successful operation, bless- 
ing its builders with its benefactions, it must 
be stated that its completion is due to the un- 
remitting and untiring efforts of a very few 
men, who stood by it. through evil report as 
well as good, until it was an accomplished fact, 
and the wonderful results obtained from the 
use of the water it furnishes have compelled 
those who were hitherto lukewarm su])porters 
to become the most enthusiastic and generous 
friends of the enterprise. The dit:h company 
at the present time is officered as follows : E. 
C. Gibbons, president ; W. H. Comstock, secre- 
tary ; Charles Wescott, treasurer." 

The topography of the South Loup valley 
is so unfavorable to irrigation that no extended 
attempts to use the river water on adjacent 
land has ever been made. In this vallev. hill- 
lieadlands project into the valley, coming up 
to the river banks in high cliffs, thus making 
the construction of ditches very expensive, if 
not impossible. 

UnKIKTI.TURK I.\ CrSTKR Cnr.VTV 

The horticultural jiroducts of Custer comity 
are not suffi.-ient to warrant any extravagant 
claims concerning this being a great fruit coun- 
try. The overwhelming preponderance of cereal 
crops causes the fruit industry to be neglected. 
.\ great variety of fruits, however, have been 
produced in the county and some varieties are 



extremely well adapted to both soil and climate. 
Cherries seem to be the most prolific bearers 
and are most regular in the production of a 
crop. It is, perhaps, owing to the fact that the 
cherr}' is a hardy tree and matures early, that 
it has come into prominence and received more 
than its share of cultivation. 

The early settlers planted small orchards as 
soon as they were able to procure the trees, 
and in most of these home orchards the cherry 
was the leading variety. Some few very large 
cherry orchards were put out for commercial 
purposes, but while the cherry is hardy and 
an early bearer it is likewise a short-lived tree, 
and the large or.-hards passed into decay. The 
owners did not feel that the profits of cherry- 
raising warranted them in replacing the dead 
trees and maintaining the orchards intact. But 
to-day. on almost every farm and on almost 
every residence lot in the cities and villages, 
can be found a few choice cherrv trees which 
generally jiroduce well. 

Apples rank next to cherries as a Custer 
county fruit. The hardy varieties do excep- 
tionally well if proper attention is paid to them. 
But in many instances the small farm-orchards 
receive little care and attention, and conse- 
quently it is not to be expected that they will 
produce large crops of well developed commer- 
cial fruit. Thus far the county has not raised 
enough apples for home consumption. 

In this latitude the peach tree does not stand 
the hard winter, and very few bushels of 
|)ea:hes have ever been raised in the county. 
Small fruits and berries do well in the low 
lands where they have sufficient moisture. 
Grapes are admirably adapted to the county's 
climatic and soil conditions and if given more 
attention could be raised in great abundance 
and with good profit. 

The whole county was full of wild fruit in 
an early day. .\n article written by James D. 
Ream thirty years ago will give an idea of the 
character and al)imdancc of Custer couiUy w ild 
fruits : 

.1. n. Ki:.\M .M.\Ki;s a i'ind 

The history of horticulture in Custer county 
would cover many pages if it included all the 
efforts and failures. But a few lines as to the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



389 



conditions found here at the time of the tirst 
settlement of the county may be of interest 
to some. While camping in the canyons with 
Wilson Hewitt, in January, 1880, I chanced to 
leave my gloves lying by the camp-fire in the 
evening, and when I looked for them in the 
morning I could not find them. After thorough 
search about the camp, Mr. Hewitt suggested 
that if I would tear down a pile of brush and 
trash that was about three rods from camp 
and that was three feet high and four or five 
feet broad, I would probably find my gloves, 
as it was a wood-rat's nest, and these rats had 
often carried off such articles for him while 
he was camped in the canyons. I immediately 
tore it down, and to my pleasant surprise I 
found my gloves, and nearly half a bushel of 
nice wild grapes, dried upon the stems, as clean 
and bright as when they were taken from the 
vines in the fall, and beneath these quite a 
quantity of dried plums. The rats had evidently 
provided the fruit for winter use, as they had 
eaten some of the plums, having gnawed the 
pits open and eaten the kernels out, but had not 
commenced upon the grapes. Here I obtained 
my first practical knowledge of the horticultu- 
ral products of the county. I at once began to 
inquire regarding them, and to my surprise I 
heard some wonderful stories as to their vari- 
ety and quantity. It was with great interest 
that I looked forward to the fruiting season, 
and. to my surprise, I found in the canyons, 
early in June, an unlimited supply of black 
currants, which, when stewed, with a little 
sugar added, made a sauce that was quite an 
addition to the meager fare of the average 
Custer county homesteader. We did not have 
very long to wait for the wild gooseberries to 
get large enough to stew, and of these, like the 
currants, there was an unlimited supply. Fol- 
lowing these came the wild blackcap-raspber- 
ries, which, although not scattered all over the 
county, were very abundant in some of the 
canyons, and often bore large quantities of 
luscious fruit, one woman having picked and 
canned eighty quarts in one season. By the 
time these were gone, the earliest varieties of 
plums and choke-cherries were ripening. It 
would be useless to attempt to estimate the 
quantity of these two fruits produced that sea- 
son, as every plum thicket was loaded with 
plums, the quality of many of the varieties be- 
ing e.xceptionally good, while every clump of 
choke-cherry trees was black with the ripening- 
fruit. I neglected the little wild strawberry 
that we occasionally find in the canyons. It is 
small, and not much of a bearer, but the flavor 
is verv fine. The buffalo-berrv is a fruit know n 



only in the western part of the state, growing 
on the sides and near the top of the steep 
canyons, and often bearing large quantities of 
very bright red and yellow berries, somewhat 
smaller than the tame currant. The bush or 
tree is a slow-grower and very thorny. The 
fruit is very sour and often hangs on the tree 
until winter, making a very pretty sight. It 
makes a fine jelly, and its juice is a valuable 
aid in making jelly from the more acid fruits. 
The wild dewberry was found on the Middle 
Loup river valley, but has not been extensively 
cultivated. In addition to all this we found 
some sections of the sand-hill country covered 
with what are known as sand cherries. The 
sand cherry is a low-growing bush or shrub, 
seldom reaching over eighteen inches in height 
in its native condition, but it is a very prolific 
bearer, a twig one foot high often bearing al- 
most half a pint of fruit, which very often grew 
the size of tame cherries. The pits are large, 
the skin thick, and the flesh not so juicy as 
the tame cherry. The fruit has a peculiar, pun- 
gent taste that is disagreeable to many people, 
but this characteristic is much less prominent 
in some varieties than in others. For a long 
time it was supposed to be the sand-cherry of 
the east, Prunus Pumila, but Professor Bailey, 
in a bulletin issued by Cornell University in 
1894, deiend this, and named it Prunus Besseyi, 
in honor of Dr. C. E. Bessey, of the Nebraska 
L'niversity, who had made extended experi- 
ments with this shrub. 

FRUIT RECEIVED TOO LITTLE .'\TTEXTI()N 

With all this array of varieties of fruit, and 
every bush and vine loaded to its utmost, is it 
any wonder that we entertained high hopes 
of the tame-fruit industry in the future? 
Whenever the pioneer turned the black loamy 
soil and planted and cultivated with reasonable 
care, he was richly rewarded with enormous 
production of grain and vegetables. 

But while the farmer pioneer was imbued 
with the spirit of push and perseverance, while 
he refuses to give up hope when met by dis- 
appointments, he is not a careful observer or 
a diligent investigator. In this case he did 
not stop to observe that all these fruits, in 
every instance, were found growing under pe- 
culiar conditions. They were always found 
where moisture was abundant, and ofttimes 
where protection was afforded from sun and 
winds. 

In this manner good old Dame Nature was 
trying to teach a valuable lesson. She had thus 



390 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



written a message in every canyon, on every 
hillside, and in every valley. She had written 
it in large, plain letters, telling how and where 
to grow trees, fruits, berries, vines, and big 
weeds. 

Did we read Nature's handwriting, and in- 
terpret her message of instruction? No, our 
untrained eyes failed to see the handwriting, 
and our undeveloped reasoning faculties failed 
to catch the lesson she had tried to teach iis. 
We remembered the luscious fruit that grew in 
the orchard on the old home farm, in the eas- 
tern states where we used to live. \\'e did not 
stop to question whether or not the varieties 
that flourished there, would stand this acrid 
climate, of hot sun, winds, and small rainfall. 
We planted what we thought we wanted to 
grow, and planted it where we happened to 
think we wanted it to grow, regardless of any 
laws of Nature, or any message that the good 
old Dame had sent us. We did not recognize 
that the location, the kind of soils and subsoils, 
the preparation of the ground, and the after- 
cultivation, were all basic problems that must 
be reckoned with. 

The ever-present itinerant tree-peddler was 
on the ground, and, supported by the great 
variety of wild fruits found growing here, as 
well as aided by glowing pictures and full 
description of the wonderful fruits that he 
said could be grown here, he caused the pio- 
neer's eyes to glisten and his mouth to fairly 
water, as he imagined he could see himself 
picking the ripening fruit from his own trees 
and vines, in the near future. Trees were 
planted galore, planted hither and yon — all 
laws of nature were disregarded and. in most 
cases, all known laws of cultivation aiul care 
were unheeded. 

Failures, yes, ninety per cent, of the early 
attempts at fruit-growing here were failures. 
But sufficient success has been attained to prove 
that many kinds of the tame fruits can be 
grown here with reasonable success , when 
there is given an intelligent compliance with 
nature's laws. But the splendid fruit-grow- 
ing sections of the eastern part of the state. 
where the hardier varieties of all kinds of 
fniits can be easily grown, and the equally 



successful sections of the inter-mountain 
country to the west of us, have supplied us 
with such great quantities of splendid fruits, 
at reasonable prices, that the problem of fruit- 
growing has lost much of its interest and 
has not received the attention that it would 
otherwise have received, .\nother resulting 
loss is that many of our farm homes lack 
much of the attractiveness and homelike ap- 
pearance that a well-cared-for orchard and a 
few flowers would have given them. The 
careful investigation and study required in 
successful fruit-growing under our conditions 
would have proven of great value to us in 




CoMSTocK Flouring Mills 

helping solve some of the many other drv- 
climate problems that we have met in our 
general farm enterprises. 

THE XtlLLIXG INDUSTRV 

Milling has been one of the industries of 
Custer county that has reached large propor- 
tions. In nearly every community a good- 
sized flour mill has been erected, and in most 
communities they are doing business at the 
present time. 

The first mill built in the county was at 
Westerville. In 1885 a man named Grierson 
located in W'esterville and put up a water- 
power mill on Clear creek. In this mill the 
first grists of the county were ground, ^^'ith 
the building of other towns, at the expense 
of Westerville's ambitions, the mill ceased op- 
erations, and high water destroyed the race 
and dam. Other mills of the county were 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



391 



built at Milldale, Callaway, Ansley, ^lason, 
Arnold, Conistock, Sargent, Ansclmo, and 
Broken Bow. Some of these mills have been 
destroyed by fire, but six are in operation 
to-day — those at Callaway. Arnold, Sargent, 
Comstock. Mason, and Ansley. Further ref- 
erence to these mills will be found in chapter 
IX, under the respective histories of the towns 
in which the mills are located. 

To S. J. Lonergan we are indebted for the 
following account of the Broken Bow mills : 

THE BROKEN BOW ROLLER MILLS 

The Broken Bow Roller Mills were erected 
in 1887. Messrs. Frey and Shoup, of Grand 
Island, Nebraska, commenced tlie work of 
building, and operated the mill for a short 
time. Owing to the liens filed by those who 
furnished the machinery — ainounting to about 
$11,000 — it was closed. The property at the 
time it was closed was valued at $20,000. 

S. J. Lonergan. who located in Broken Bow- 
in the spring of 1887, was induced to take the 
mill over on trial for three months, after which 
he decided to buy the controlling interest in 
it and made several needed improvements, 
costing about $9,000. Thereafter he paid all 
the liens against the property and incorporated 
the bu-siness for $29,000. ' Within this time 
George Frey purchased Mr. Shoup's interest 
in the company, but he later sold to the Central 
Nebraska National Bank, owned and con- 
trolled by John Inman and O. J. Coleman. 

After this exchange of interests, the com- 
pany continued to operate the property for 
several years at a profit, capital to do this be- 
ing furnished by the stockholders, who re- 
ceived notes executed by the company, for 
money advanced. During the '90s the Cen- 
tral Nebraska National Bank failed, but be- 
fore doing so it sold the milling company 
and paper to an Omaha bank, also disposing 
of their stock to some eastern parties. This 
action threw the propert}^ into court, and when 
it was sold it was bought by the Omaha banker 
who held the largest claim against it. Later 
on the Omaha banker sold the property to 
S. J. Lonergan, who immediately reincorpor- 
ated the business, under the name of the 
Broken Bow Roller Milling Company. He 
proceeded to enlarge the plant, by building an 
elevator, with a capacity of '30,000 bushels, 
and also installed several thousand dollars' 
worth of needed machinery, expending in all 
for these betterments. $13,000. which made the 
cost of the milling companv's property up to 
and including that time, $42,000. 



S. J. Lonergan continued to run the mill 
for several years after this time, at a profit — 
u]) to the time of the panic of 1897. In fact, 
the mill was running night and day at the 
tinre of the panic, and was doing a profitable 
business. This panic came like a thief in the 
night ; in the morning every banker in the 
country had crept into his cyclone cave, but 
the business man was left, like the private sol- 
dier on the firing line, to stop the onrush of 
this calamity or perish trying. Checks were 
valueless, money out of sight, property values 
were withered, and thousands of business men 
were carried out on the crest of this tide, to 
find themselves in the status from which they 
started in bygone years. 

In 1912 S. J. Lonergan traded the mill for 
land. It then became trading propertv, and 
it thereafter changed hands one or more times, 




. M.\sux City Flouring Mii.i, 

by lease or sale. \Miile being operated in 
1917, by Messrs. Jones and Bahr, it was burned 
and became a total loss. 

ELECTRIC LIGHTS EVERYWHERE 

In striking contrast to the lights used in the 
homes of Custer county forty years ago are 
the electric lights with which every town and 
village in the county is lighted. Forty years 
ago, candles were common and the oil-lamp 
of small, smoky burner was the major illumi- 
nation. It was a fortunate farmer that had a 
lantern with which to do chores in the barn 
after and before daylight, but to-day things 
have changed. Not only do the dwellers in 
the towns have homes lighted by electricity, 
but many of the farmers have their own elec- 
tric-lighting plants and thus are enabled to 
have every modern convenience on the farm, 
as well as in the city. The first lighting plant 



392 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COLXTY. NEBRASKA 



in the county was established at Ansley. The 
second was in Broken Bow. After several 
attempts, Broken Bow finally secured a splen- 
did plant, put in and operated by the Custer 
electric corfxiration of which Charles S. Mar- 
tin is president and manager. This plant was 
established in 1909 and is a large, modern 
plant, well eciuipi^ed to meet the needs of the 
community. 

In I''15 tile city installed a municipal plant 
and took over the city lighting, besides which 
it is now doing some commercial and residence 
lighting. Broken Bow is the only town in the 
county where two lighting plants are doing 
business. 

TiiW XS H.WE GOOn WATKR 

Over and again it has been mentioned that 
Custer county has the best water in the world. 
This is true not only, of the country districts 
where hydraulic wells go down to gravel and 
tap the under-stratum of sheet water which 
is always found on the river levels, but it is 
also true of all the towns and villages in the 
county. Every town has a water plant of its 
own. and good, healthful, pure water is 
pumped out of a deep municipal well and 
forced into some adequate reservoir, from 
which it is distributed in mains and laterals 
all over the town. Because of the abundance 
of water and the easy and comparatively in- 
expensive method of putting down deep wells, 
all of the smaller places have been enabled to 
procure water plants that might well be en- 
\ied by the larger cities of the east. 

NO MIXIXG IXDUSTRV 

With all her resources, no deposits of coal, 
iron, or other minerals have ever been found 
in the confines of Custer county. Indications 
of salt, potash, and othei" lesser productions 
of the earth have been found, but no investiga- 
tion of the deep, underlying strata has ever 
been made. Down on the Charles Humphrey 
place, some five or si.x miles west and north 
of Callaway, oil indications are so prominent 
that talk of prospecting has been indulged, 
but to date no determined effort has ever been 



made to find out what underlies the surface 
soil. 

Uuried underneath the surface of Custer 
county, are, beyond doubt, rich deposits of 
minerals, oil or gas, which await discovery 
and the push and pluck to develop and bring 
to the surface for man's utility. What may 
be the result of future reseach and investiga- 
tion can now be only conjectured. 

}1.\S DEVELOPED WE.\LTH SLOWI.V 

The |)henomenal wealth described in the 
last chapter of this volume and attributed to 
the thrift and energy of Custer county citizens, 
has been th« product of years. Soil has yielded 
rich reward to ever}' persistent tiller, but the 
jirocess has been slow — so slow that perhaps 
it is safe to say that thousands became dis- 
couraged and abandoned their attempts long 
before their labors could possibly be rewarded 
b\ nature, who weaves her pattern slowly and 
awaits her time for rewarding labor. 

In 1878, one year after the organization of 
the county, the first tax-roll was made up and, 
notwithstanding the fact that a great many 
cattle still were in the county, located on ex- 
tensive cattle ranches, the taxable jjroperty 
amounted to only $136,054.30. This, of course, 
was the tax valuation of the property 
and in reality only one-fifth of the cash 
value of the property at the time of its' 
assessment, but even at the actual value 
the i>roperty was far short of one mill- 
ion dollars — about one-seventy-fifth of the 
actual amount of property in Custer county to- 
day. It took seven years for the county to 
pass the million-ilollar mark in pro]ierty valu- 
ation, which it reached in 1886, when the tax- 
able ])roperty was valued at $1,131,507.20. The 
next year was a prosperous year, and more 
than a half-million dollars was added to the 
jniblic assets. Two years from the time they 
crossed the million-dollar line, or in 1888, they 
crossed the two-million-dollar line, with an as- 
sessed valuation of $2,256,281.00. Then for 
seven years little progress was made in the 
accumulation of property, Then came the 
memorable vear of 1804, which found them 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



393 



with only $100,000 more than they possessed 
in 1888. But the notable change comes the 
next year, 1895, when, owing to removals and 
depreciation of values, there was a decrease 
instead of an increase. The years 1894 and 
1893 are the only two years in the history of 
th.e county in which a decrease in taxable prop- 
erty is disclosed. In all other years small pro- 
gress was made and some addition noted. In 
189.5 values depreciated below the two-mil!ion- 
dollar mark and stood for that year at $1,970,- 
300.95. The next year, however, thev again 
passed the two-million-dollar line, and held the 
two million and a little more for nine years. 
Then, in 1904, they crossed the three-million- 
dollar-line, and the next year, 1905, crossed the 
four-million-dollar line. For two years more 
they stayed below the foiir-million-doUar line, 
and then, in 1908, a wave of prosperity seemed 
to strike them, or else increased valuations 
brought the holdings up to $7,114,658.52. They 
stayed below or close to the seven-million line 
for seven years, or until 1916, when the assess- 
ed valuation of $8,060,249.00 put them into 
their present place, above the eight-million-dol- 
lar line. In 1917 they added more than a half- 
million to the county prosperity, and from 
this time forth increases, on a larger scale than 
in the past, may be expected. The last report 
of the state auditor, for 1917, gives the Custer 
valuation at $8,594,451, which, multiplied by 
five, would give us the actual valuation of 
property at $47,972,253, which is manyiuillions 
below a conservative estimate of property if 
it should be apjiraised at present high 
valuations. 

HAPPY .\XD PROSPEROUS XOW 

Forty years of trials, hardships, and experi- 
ments are over. The farms are developed, 
homes established, the towns are located and 
permanent, the railroads are in vigorous oper- 
ation and prosperous years have come to the 
Custer countj^ people. The working over debts 
unpaid and mortgages that threaten to take the 
homesteads, are in the main part things of the 
past, and the feeling now of the old settlers 
is well described in R. F. Green's poeti:al 
lines in the JJ'all Street Journal: 



SI.XCE WE P-\ID THE .MOKTC.M'.E 

\\'e"ve done a lot of scrimpin' an' livin' hand- 
to-mouth, 
We've dreaded, too, wet weather an' we've 

worried over drouth. 
For the thing kept drawin' int'rest, whether 

crops were good or bad, 
-\n' raisin' mu:h or little, seemed it swallowed 

all we had. 
The women folks were savin' an' there ain't 

a bit of doubt 
But that things they really needed lots of times 

they done without. 
So we're breathin" somewhat easy, an' we're 

feelin' less afraid 
(Jf Providence's workin's, since we got the 

mortgage paid. 
I wish I'd kept a record of the things that 

mortgage ate 
In ]:irincipal and interest from beginnin' down 

to date ! — 
.\ hundred dozen chickens, likely fowls with 

yellow legs ; 
A thousand pounds of butter, and twelve 

hundred dozen eggs : 
Some four or five good wheat crops and at 

least one crop of corn. 
An' oats an' rye — it swallowed in its life- 
time, as sure's you're born. 
Besides the work an' worry, ere its appetite 

was stayed ! 
So we're more contented since we got the mort- 
gage paid. 
We've reached the point. I reckon, where 

we've got a right to rest, 
.\n' loaf aroun' an' visit, wear our go-to- 

meetin' best — 
Neglectin' nothin' urgent, understand, about 

the place. 
l')Ut simply slowin' down li\- l)its an' restin" 

in the race ! 
In time I'll get the windmill I've been wantin', 

I supose ; 
The girls can have their organ, an' we'll all 

wear better clothes. 
For we've always pulled together, while we've 

saved and scrimped and praved, 
An' it seems there's more to work for since 

we got the mortgage paid. 

THE FIRST SETTLER TELLS THE STORY Ol* THE 
YE.XRS 

In 1915 Lewis R. Dowse, one of Custer coun- 
ty's first settlers, visited the home of his child- 
hood, Sherborn, Massachu.setts, and while there 
was entertained by a historical society before 
which he paraded the experiences of a pioneer 



394 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



in Custer county. The Yankee State Daily 
contains the following: 

.\n interesting paper was read at the Octo- 
ber meeting of the Sherborn Historical So- 
ciety by IvCwis R. Dowse, of Comstock, Ne- 
braska, in which he said : 

"After five years in Iowa we pulled out for 
Nebraska. We went in a regular prairie 
schooner. Some put the motto 'Nebraska or 
bust" on their wagons. I put up no sign, but 
have been bursting out there in Nebraska for 
forty-two years. I finally located in what is 
now Custer county, in the middle I-X)up valley. 
As we were the first and only settlers in the 
valley, we had our choice of some fine lands 
along the river. The soil there is ver\' rich, 
but very different from that in Iowa. Those 
were days of real pioneer hardship. We had 
to go seventy miles to railroad and I had to 
make that trip to get provisions. That first 
winter the nearest white settler was twenty-five 
miles away. There were no roads, and elk, 
buffalo, and other wild animals were very 
numerous. We had some visits from friendly 
Indians, and once four startled my wife, com- 
ing to our camp when she was alone with the 
children. .\11 they wanted was plenty to eat. 
and of course they got it. 

"As soon as I could, after selecting my land, 
I rolled over the sod and got in a little corn. 
Then the grasshoppers came and ate it all up, 
and we were out for that year. The next year 
we raised a little, but the following year the 
grasshoppers again kindly harvested our crops. 
From that time on we gained a little, got more 



land under cultivation and widened our circle. 

"Then came our Indian scare, some time the 
last of the '70s, when General Custer and his 
men were massacred. Fearing that Indian war 
parties might wander into the valley of the 
Loup, the few settlers organized a company 
called the Rangers, and received arms from 
the government. They built a sod fort, with 
embrasures at the corners, so arranged that 
riflemen could gather there and sweep the 
sides of the fort with their volleys, and thus 
prevent storming parties from scaling the walls. 
Many of the settlers fled to the states farther 
east, but the dreaded redmen did not come to 
attack us. At last the Indians were overpow- 
ered and the scare was over. Our county was 
named in honor of General Custer. 

"Years of prosperity followed. All through 
the "SOs we had good crops and, with the ex- 
ception of the drouth of 1804, things have 
been growing better and better. Then came 
the railroad, and now we are very comfortably 
situated, ^^'here once was a free range, is now 
cultivated land. AVhere once I saw only wild 
animals, I now see the railroad train. The 
automobile goes over the old trail. Comstock 
has more people, more stores, more business 
than Sherborn. Such are the changes of forty 
vears. 'Sly daughter Alice was the first white 
child born in Custer county. 

"I am glad to revisit my old home and see 
the few now living who were here fifty years 
ago. I wish I could have with me my seven 
children and thirteen grandchildren. We will 
soon make Nebraska the real 'Dowse's Cor- 
ner.' " 



CHAPTER XYlll 
PRESENT DAY WEALTH AND RESOURCES 

A Bright-red Contrast — They Go Faster Now — Thev Have Traded Plows— No 

Telephone Gossip — No More Freight Hauling — Custer County Resources — 

Personal Property — Live Stock and Crops of the Present Year — The 

Automobiles Hoxk — Banks and Banking — Figures ix Recapitulation 

— Another Statement 



A complete manifest of Custer county's pres- 
ent wealth and resources cannot be made. 
Statistics are too lame. Data cannot be obtained. 
The best that can be done it to give general 
statements and approximate figures. It is 
safe, however, to say that Custer is the peer 
of any county in the state — a ranking county 
on almost every proposition. It has a popula- 
tion of from thirty-two to thirty-three thou- 
sand people and in point of population ranks 
fourth in the state. Its people have good homes, 
v,'ell improved farms, with all the accessories 
of comfort and luxury. The people are happy, 
prosperous, and industrious. They have the 
progressive spirit, and latest methods are em- 
ployed in every vocation and profession. 
Schools and churches constitute an asset in 
which the people have pardonable pride. 

A brigiit-red contrast 

Custer county is practically forty years of 
age. and between the sparsely settled, un- 
plowed prairies of forty years ago and the 
high culture and splendid improvements of the 
present day there is a bright-red contrast — 
a contrast that can neither be pictured nor 
described. 

Then there were about 200 people. To-day 
that number has been increased more than a 
hundred and fifty times. Then there were few 
roads. People traveled across country un- 
mindful of trails or lines, and cared only for 
directions. Thev forded streams and wound 



their way along the canyons or through the 
hills. To-day there are splendid roads, bridges, 
and culverts wherever they are needed. Everv 
stream has been conquered, every hill sub- 
dued, and every place made accessible. Well 
marked automobile roads traverse the length 
and breadth of the county and bring the travel 
of other counties and of the state over the 
Custer highways. The central Nebraska auto- 
mobile route runs through the county east 
and west, touching Westerville, Broken Bow, 
Merna, and Arnold. The potash road runs 
from the southeast to the northwest through 
the county, practically following the main line 
of the Burlington Railroad. The White Star 
line, from Lexington to Ainsworth, crosses the 
county north and south, passing through Lo- 
max. Oconto, Broken Bow, Lillian, and Mil- 
burn. The Holdrege Black Hills trail crosses 
the county north and south in the eastern part, 
and connects the Black Hills and Loup river 
highway, at Burwell, with the Lincoln High- 
way at Elm Creek and the Burlington High- 
way at Holdrege. Another splendid automo- 
bile road runs through the southwest corner 
of the county and connects the central Ne- 
braska route, at Arnold, with the Lincoln 
Highway at Kearney. This road follows the 
Union Pacific Railroad and traverses the 
South Loup and Wood river valleys. 

thev go faster now 
Forty years ago there were no automobiles, 



395 



396 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY. NEBRASKA 



steam car>, bicycles, or motorcycles, and only 
a very few buggies in the county. Travel was 
mostly on horseback. Some few had spring 
wagons, but if the family wanted to go any 
place and tiiere were not enough saddle horses 
— and nine times out of ten there were not — 
they took the lumber wagon. Sometimes the 
wagon was drawn by a yoke of slow-paced 
o.Ken. In any event, traveling accomodations 
were very meagre, and speed regulations were 
not required. One old settler declares that 
common consent, if not law, prohibited the 
driving of a yoke of oxen faster than ten 
miles an hour. To-day all this is changed. 
Top buggies 
came to take 
the place of 
lumber wag- 
ons and spring 
wagons and 
in them youth 
and age rode 
everywhere, 
in local terri- 
tory. Phae- 
tons and fam- 
ily carriages 
added a touch 
of aristocracy 
to this family 
of vehicles. 
Then came 

the bicycle, which brought a mode of mob- 
ilization that developed leg muscle and ap- 
pealed to the young bloods. As a family 
conveyance, however, the bicycle was never in 
high favor. To-day, the buggy and carriage 
are out of date, and motor cars frisk the poi> 
ulation over the highways from farm to town 
and from town to farm, across county or 
across state. 

ruv.\ II. WK TR.\i)i;n plows 

Forty years ago the breaking plow was the 
king of implements. Custer county husband- 
ry' began with the old "grasshopper"' plow. 
It was a prairie breaker, with a square share 
running at almost right angles with the beam. 
A few curved rods guided the cut sod into 




MiLBURN Bridge over AIiddi.e Lori' River 



its place bordering the furrow, where it was 
supposed to rest bottom-side up. The second 
plowing was done with small, walking stir- 
ring-plows, and later corn was cultivated with 
the one-horse, double-shovel corn-plows, or 
small one-row cultivators of the primitive 
type then in vogue. There were no riding 
plows of any description. 

The old-fashioned mowing machine came 
in for its share of work. Hay was the prin- 
cipal forage, and as grass grew abundantly 
everywhere, a mowing machine, a couple of 
bronchos and a little energy insured enough 
roughness for cattle and horses. The first 

grain crops 
were cut with 
the mowing 
machine, al- 
though one or 
two instances 
are recorded 
in which the 
grain was cut 
with the old- 
t i m e cradle. 
\\'ith the Cus- 
ter count)- 
people, the 
cradle was 
more jxjpular 
in the house 
than in the 
field. Later came the McCormick reaper, the 
Buckeye reaper, and then a little later the 
Marsh and Deering harvesters. 

To-day the machinery is much improved 
and up-to-date. Gang plows, drawn by large, 
well fed draft horses or tractor engines, stir 
the same fields in whirh the old-time imple- 
ments began the work. Planters, drills, seed- 
ers, harvesters or binders, listers, double- 
rowed cultivators, riding- harrows,, six-foot 
mowers, rakes, sweeps, stackers, threshers, 
and every other implement that has name or 
place in modern-day implement husbandry, are 
now in use in Custer county fields or on Cus- 
ter county farms. 

NO TELEPHOXE GOSSIP 

To the generation which has fallen heir to 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



397 



modern-day improvements it seems strange 
that people could have lived and trans- 
acted business without the telephone, but forty 
years ago there were no telephone lines. The 
housewife could not call up the other women 
of the neighborhood for an hour's visit when- 
ever she felt so disposed. The farmer could 
not take down the receiver and inquire all 
over the neighborhood for a stray cow. If a 
message had to be sent to a neiglibor a mile 
awav or ten miles awav, it had to be carried. 



XO .MOKE FREIGHT H.AULIXG 

The early settlers had no railroads. All 
kinds of supplies had to be hauled from rail- 
road points east or south. It required days 
to make these trijis. Almost indescribable 
hardships were endured by the men who made 
them. Teams were small and generally under- 
fed, because grain was scarce. Wagons were 
old and often in poor repair. .All this meant 
small loads, break-downs, tired-out horses, 
and innumerable other difficulties in transport- 




F.\RM Home of Joh.v Cherry, on the South Lorp 



There was no other way in those days. A 
message required a messenger. They could 
neither talk across the farm nor the county. 

Now the wires run everywhere. Rural lines 
connect almost every farm not only with the 
business houses of the towns and villages, but 
also with every other farm house in the 
countv. A great part of business is to-day 
transacted over the telephone lines. Neighbors 
visit, call the doctor, order from the stores, ad- 
vertise meetings, hunt stray stock, sell their 
produce, and get weather reports over the 
telephone. All this has been the development 
of two score years. 



ing freight from a railroad terminal to Custer 
county. It meant, too, a scarcity of supplies. 
It meant that only the bare necessities could 
be ]1rocured, and that no luxuries could be 
considered, but witli the coming of the rail- 
road all this has changed. The people of Cus- 
ter are as well served 1)y modern transporta- 
tion as any part of the mid<lle west. They 
have access to the markets of the world. They 
sell their grain at home, and buy their mer- 
chandise witliin thirty minutes' ricle of their 
homes, no matter where they are located. 
Their live-stock rides out of the county in 
slat-sided Pullmans. There are no more long 



398 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



drives, witli heavy shrinkage, in getting stock 
to market. The pioneers have lived their day, 
have weathered their storms, and have given 
to the present Custerites a heritage rich in 
convenience and almost voluptuous with lux- 
uries and comforts. 

CUSTER ecu XT V RESOURCES 

In round numbers. Custer county has 
1.658,880 acres of land. That comprises the 
sum total of her area. If it all belonged to 
one man he would have its intrinsic value 
carefully figured. He would know how much 
it was worth in dollars and cents. Every acre 
has a commercial value. It is worth more as 
a community holding than it would be as an 
individual holding. Therefore, it is proper to 
figure out its land value, for in no other way 
can the full resources or combined wealth of 
the county be ascertained. Figrire one-third 
of Custer county land at twent\^ dollars an 
acre, which would make a valuation of $11.- 
059,200: then figure another third at thirty 
dollars an acre, and that will add $16,588,800: 
the last third will comprise all the choice land 
of the county — land that ranges in price all 
the way from fifty to 150 dollars per acre. 
It will, therefore, be very conservative to value 
this portion of the county at sixty dollars an 
acre, which amounts to $33,177,600, making a 
grand total of $38,919,0-K). which amount 
would stand out in fine comparison with the 
valuation that might have been placed upon 
the county land forty years ago. 

Next comes the question of town lots. A 
part of Custer county's land is divided into 
small city lots. In the towns and villages of 
Custer county there are 10.204 which have an 
average value of $100 per lot. over and above 
the acreage value referred to above, w^iich 
adds another $1,020,400 to the grand total 
of land values. 

PERSO.V.M, PROPERTY 

The last available records for 1917 accredit 
Custer comity with 115.58 miles of railroads, 
valued at $1,485,340. In addition to this the 
terminal properties of the Burlington and 
Union Pacific Railroads amount to $419,430. 
Before the live stock is listed, let it be noted 



that Custer county has 680 shares of mining 
and oil stock, and other industrial enterprises, 
that the owners are willing to acknowledge. 
They have 1,381 pianos, 757 orgfans, and 1,400 
victrolas. Under the head of steamboats and 
other water craft in a state report, Custer 
county comes in for two. There are 321 gas- 
oline or steam tractors, 154 threshing ma- 
chines, 2,093. cream separators, and agricul- 
tural tools and implements to the value of 
$175,220. Xext come seven typesetting 
machines, valued at $28,000; seventy-three 
cash-registers, valued at $10,950; and 260 
stands of bees, every stand filled with a fine 
grade of alfalfa honey. It might just as well 
be observed here as anywhere else that Custer 
is credited with 1.266 dogs, which an expert 
values at thirty cents. Whether the expert 
means to value the dogs at thirty cents each 
or the whole bunch at thirty cents, is not 
clear. 

LIVE STOCK .\XD CROPS OF THE PRESENT YEAR 

In 1917 Custer county had 32.710 head of 
horses and 2.903 mules : total valuation of 
horses and mules, $2,228,880. It had 103.613 
head of cattle, worth $5,180,650; 59,722 head 
of hogs, worth $1,194,440: and 2.884 sheep, 
worth $43.2r«. 

Forty-five hundred acres of spring wheat 
that will average fifteen bushels per acre, mak- 
ing a total valuation of $135,000. starts off the 
crop valuation. Xext comes the winter-wheat 
crop, whicii will add $1,800,000. or approxi- 
mately S2.000.000 to Custer county wealth. 
This is followed with 5.000.000 bushels of 
corn, which, valued at one dollar a bushel, 
makes bushels and dollars even figures. Xow 
add 600,000 bushels of oats, 10,000 bushels of 
barley, 140,000 bushels of rye, 100,000 tons of 
alfalfa, 60,000 tons of prairie hay, 10,000 tons 
of millet and sorghum hay, 200,000 bushels of 
potatoes, 13,561 dozen chickens. 500,000 
pounds of butter. 300,000 gallons of cream — 
and one begins to get some idea of the al- 
most fabulous wealth and mammoth resources 
of Custer county. 

THE AUTOMOBILES HOXK 

One of the assets of Custer countv is a 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



399 



parade of automobiles. Statistics show that 
ill proportion to population Nebraska has more 
automobiles than any other state in the Union, 
and Custer county stands well at the head of 
Nebraska counties in the possession of motor 
cars. There is operated in the county one car 
for every eight persons. The county treasur- 
er's books show in round numbers that 4,000 
automobiles are owned and operated in the 
countv. This includes motor trucks as well 
as motor cars. Counting the population at 
32.000, it makes one car for every eight per- 
sons. If these cars should all turn out some 
day and form a procession on a good Custer 
county road, allowing 100 feet for each car, 
which is as close as they could run in safety, 
cars would cover seventy-six miles of road, or 
make a procession seventy-six miles long. 
Running at fifteen miles an hour, it would 
take five hours for the procession to pass a 
given point. 

Of the four thousand cars for which state 
licenses have been granted. 2,376 are Fords, 
197 are Dodges, 145 are Overlands. 219 are 
.Maxwells, 138 are Buicks. 122 are Chevrolets, 
62 are Studebakers, 47 are Oaklands. The 
remaining 604 range to big cars of expensive 
models, such as Hudsons, Chalmers, Willys- 
Knights, AIoline-Knights, and Cadillacs. Many 
expensive Sedan tops are in the list. 

B.XXKS .\XD B.AXKIXG 

Forty years ago Custer county had no 
banks, no credit, and no money. To-day. lo- 
cated and doing business in the county, there 
are a fiiU two dozen financial institutions, all 
chartered as state banks and all financially 
sound. 

The following is a report of the financial 
condition and total resources of the Custer 
county banks, as per call report, under date of 
Mav 10, 1918. for which this volume is in- 
debted to J. J. Toolev. secretary of the state, 
banking board : 

Anselmo State Bank. Anselmo. .S 264.681.11 
Peoples State Bank. Anselmo... l.=;3,861.96 
Farmers State Bank, Ansley. . . . 210.877.15 

Security State Bank. Ansley 244,606.02 

State Bank. Anslev 566,958.99 

Arnold State Bank, Arnold 624.748.67 



Security State Bank. Arnold... 127,575.34 
Broken Bow State Bank, Broken 

Bow 668,334.69 

Security State Bank, Broken Bow 415.562.97 

Custer 'State Bank, Broken Bow 451,507.39 
Nebraska State Bank, Broken 

Bow 152,446.55 

Berwyn State Bank, Berwyn. . . . 290,407.29 

Farmers State Bank, Callaway. . 553,636.92 

Seven A'alleys State, Callaway.. 416,839.84 

Farmers Bank of Merna, Merna 201,840.51 

Bank of Merna. Merna 337.302.62 

Farmers and Merchants Bank. 

Comstock 301.942.47 

Citizens State Bank, Comstock. . 304,946.45 

Oconto State Bank, Oconto. . . . 240.393.14 

The Farmers Bank, Oconto 217,397.26 

Sargent State Bank, Sargent... 302,477.54 

Farmers State Bank, Sargent... 361.978.76 

Farmers State Bank, Mason City 129,104.26 
The Mason Citv Banking Co., 

Mason City. .' 313.591.51 

Grand total in Custer county. $7,853,019.41 

FIGURES IN RECAPITUL-\TI0X 

Perhaps it will be easier to understand the 
vast resources of this oversized and progres- 
sive county if some of the figures set forth 
in the foregoing paragraphs are here re- 
peated and tabulated, so they can be more 
easily comprehended : 

Present- land value $38,919,040.00 

\'alue of town lots 1.020.400.00 

^'alue railroad lines 1.485,340.00 

\'alue railroad terminals 419,430.00 

Tractors and threshing ma- 
chines 175.220.00 

Typesetting machines 28.000.00 

Horses and mules 2.228,880.00 

Cattle 5.180.650.00 

Hogs 1 .194.440.00 

Sheep 43.2(=)0.00 

Spring wheat 135.000.00 

Winter wheat 2.000.000.00 

Corn 5.000,000.00 

Rye. oats, barley 500,000.00 

.\ifalfa. prairie, and millet hay. 1.500,000.00 

I5ank deposits and securities... 7.853.019.00 

.Automobiles 2.000.000.00 

Stocks of merchandise 1.200.000.00 

Schools, churches, public build- 
ings 2.000.000.00 

Mills, light and water plants. . . 320.000.00 

United States bonds and stamps 1,300.000.00 

Grand total $74,492,710.00 



400 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



While the foregoing figures afe very careful 
estimates, they are very conservative, and are 
given only to enable the reader to determine 
approximately something of the present-day 
wealth. 

ANOTHER STATEMENT 

.To illustrate the resources of Custer county, 
it might be stated s6mething like this. We 
have a record, nearly 4,000 years old. concern- 
ing the children of Israel, who found them- 
selves swamped, down in Egypt, and planned 
to emigrate to another country. They picked 
up bag and baggage and struck out in the 
middle of the night. They took their children 
and live stock with them, but the record de- 
clares they had to walk ; they liad no money 
to pay railroad fares and freight bills. 

If the people of Custer county should de- 
cide to hunt another lo;ation. unlike the Is- 
raelites, they would not have to walk. They 
have the money to pay both passage and 
freight. It would take, however, something 
like the following equipment to load them up 
and haul them out of the country. 

They would probably go over the Chicago, 
llurlington & Ouincy Railroad, which has 
fifty-four miles of road in one line running 
diagonally through the county. So run the 
engines down to the county line east of Mason 
City and let the Ixjx cars extend west to where 
the road crosses the county on the north. Then 
we will begin to load. Now fill 2.524 cars 
with machinery and farming implements, 
7,000 cars with furniture and household goods, 
including merchandise from the stores. Then 
load 1,781 cars with horses and mules. 5.181 
cars with cattle. 1,000 cars with small grain, 
10,000 cars with corn. 1,700 cars with hay, 
300 cars with potatoes, 500 cars with poultry 
and dairy produce. It will take 1,000 cars to 
haul the automobiles. 

When all these worldly possessions are 
loaded, it will make 35,417 car-loads, and, al- 
lowing fifty cars to an engine, it will take eight 
miles of engines to pull this freight. Switch 
them out on the main line and run them in 
trains of one-half mile length with only a half- 
mile between the sections, and it will require 



694 miles of road to line them up ready for 
starting. When the head engine is ready to 
whistle for Litchfield, the last caboose would 
be seven miles beyond Billings. 

Now the people theinselves have money to 
buy tickets, and have small disposition to w^alk. 
Thev will ride in sleepers and all will want 
lower berths. So, using low-er berths, by putting 
them two in a bed, it will require 1,000 Pull- 
mans to accommodate our thirty-two thousand 
people. It will require 250 baggage-cars to 
accomodate the trunks, valises, and surplus 
baggage of the passengers. 

Divide them into trains of twenty cars each, 
then the Custeritcs will ride in sixty-one spe- 
cial trains, which, running only a half-mile 
apart, will cover thirty miles of track, and, as 
lined up behind the freight, would extend the 
Custer county caravans thirty-seven miles be- 
yond Billings. Open the line, give them right 
of way, and start them out at twenty miles an 
hour, and it will take them thirty-six hours 
to pass a given point, or after they have been 
traveling thirty-six hours the last passenger 
coach will just get down to where the first en- 
gine started, but when it reaches that point 
the first engine will be thirty-five miles cast of 
Chicago. 

This is as far as it is profitable to trace 
them, for they would probably roll over the 
difl^erent lines of the country and, not finding 
a better location would return and unload in 
Custer county, where they would start over 
again, under very different conditions than 
those under which they made their first start. 

In the compilation of any circumscribed his- 
tory — such as that of a city or county — it is 
evident that its chief feature of interest will 
be found to be of a personal, family, or com- 
munity nature; and by the personal standard 
is the true value of all history' to be judged. 
The highest critics of historical work have 
justly held that any production that lacks per- 
sonal or human interest is of little lasting value. 
In the preparation of this history of Custer 
county the projectors and authors have kept 
this invaluable quality in mind, the while they 
have been alive also to the further necessity 
of carefully and strongly depicting the rela- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



401 



tions borne by this integral division of Ne- 
braska to the state and nation. Both in the 
early times and the later periods it has been 
shown that general as well as specific causes 
have contributed to the local and county de- 
velopment. 

While thus combining the general with the 
specific and personal, there has been an insistent 
care in avoiding the mistake of overburdening 
the narrative with extraneous matter. The 
general history serves as an effective back- 
ground for the bringing out, or proper revela- 
tion, of strictly home or county matters, and 
the work thus proves a fitting complement to 
and adjunct of the volume in which is out- 
lined the history of the state. 

Thus it is that the following chapter, or 
division, needs no voucher for its consistency 
or its expediency. In the perpetuating of 
genealogical and personal records concerning 
those who have wrought well in connection 
with the development of the great county of 
Custer, this publication offers still further ma- 
terial of enduring and cumulative historical 
value, and it is believed that in every instance 
the individual recognition that is accorded is 
eminently due. Those who have suffered the 
vicissitudes and hardships of the pioneer days 
merit more than passing honor, and the same 
is accorded in the following pages. Those 
who have devoted themselves with equal loyal- 
ty and constructive energ\- to carrying forward 
the work initiated by the pioneers and founders, 
likewise deserve the recognition that is here 



tendered, and it is believed that the final di- 
vision of this history rounds out most effec- 
tively the more generic history which closes 
with these paragraphs. 

The history of our country has ever been 
the history of the frontier. The spirit that 
lias presided over our destinies since the day- 
dawn of freedom has ever been the spirit of 
the pioneer. The creative, formative forces 
that marked the nation's miraculous birth ; the 
achievements of a century distancing those of 
a cycle of the nations of old ; the spirit that 
has preserved our honor unscathed aiuid the 
shock of battle and the riot of war; the pro- 
gress and prosperity which, unparalleled in 
the history of the race, have differentiated us 
from the people of all other cl.imes — all had 
their inspiration, their birth, and their fruitage 
in the rugged lives of our pioneers, as they 
swung the ax in the primeval forest or turned 
the virgin glebe in the untamed valleys and 
prairies of the west. "To such "scouts of prog- 
ress" Custer county must ever pay a tribute 
of highest honor, for within the confines of 
this county have been wrought works that 
measure up to the highest standard attained 
by the true American pioneer. Thus in a 
direct way, as well as by inference, the various 
personal sketches and family reviews that con- 
stitute the closing department of this publi- 
cation shall offer much to those who "read 
between the lines," both at the present and in 
future vears. 



402 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 




CHAPTER XIX 



FOUNDERS AND BUILDERS 



Personal ^Iention of ]\Iaxy of Thosb Who Have Been Exponents of Civic and 
T^Iaterial Development and Progress in Custer County 



AUGUSTIN R. HUMPHREY. — There 
is no man more widely known and no man 
who has been more closely concerned with 
public affairs and county developments than 
the man whose name is announced by this title 
line. In a wide circle of the county he is known 
to everybody as "Judge Humphrey," but in 
the near circle of closer friends the title is 
omitted, and the name abbreviated to "Gus." 
For the purpose of this review, however, we 
shall refer to him as Judge, a title honorably 
won and richly deserved. 

Judge Humphrey was born in 'Madison, In- 
diana, in February, 1859, and is a son of 
Augustin R. Humphrey, Sr., and Hanna 
(Hicks) Humphrey. The father descended 
from a fine old Kentucky family, and the date 
of his birth is recorded as July 12, 1816. The 
mother was born in Wales, and in her veins 
coursed the blood of that staunch, patriotic 
people who have made always a valuable con- 
tribution to the world, and who have furnished 
some of the best citizens America has ever pos- 
sessed. She came to this country with her 
parents when a mere child, and here received 
her training and lived her life. The Judge's 
parents were married in the county of his na- 
tivity, March 26, 1846, and both lived until 
the last week in August, 1904, at which time, 
by a striking and appropriate coincidence, both 
died in the same week. 

The Judge ran the gamut of the common 
schools in Iowa, to which state his father's 
family emigrated when the Judge was but five 
years old. It was in the public schools that 
the Judge imbibed the principles of Ray's 
Third Part Arithmetic, and committed to 
memory McGuffey's Reader and Speller, to- 
gether with most of the principles of Pinneo's 
Grammar. At the close of this public-school 
career he could repeat the contents of these 
schoolbooks verbatim, and in all probability he 
can come nearer repeating the contents of 
these volumes to-dav than any other Custer 



countv man or woman in whose school curri- 
culum they had place. He quit the common 
school at the age of fifteen, and entered the 
Normal College at Bloomfield, Iowa, in the 
fall of 1878. There he continued the studies 
until 1881. He taught school in the winter to 
get money to go to school the rest of the 
year: From this institution he was graduated 
in 1881, and he then went to the Iowa State 
University, where he took his law course, 
graduating from the law department in June, 
1882. This makes up the educational equip- 
ment of this useful citizen, whose life record 
it is a pleasure to relate. 

His domestic life began June 28, 1883, when 
he led to the altar Miss Nellie N. Nightingale, 
as the result of a college romance — owing to 
the fact that the bride was a member of the 
same class in college and graduated in the 
same class with her husband. In the fall of 
the same year the young couple turned their 
faces toward the west, following the star of 
empire until they reached Nebraska, where the 
ludge began by teaching school at Unadilla. 
There they remained almost one year. In the 
fall of 1884 they came to Broken Bow and se- 
lected this place for their future home ; and 
as soon as possible established a residence 
which has been the Humphrey home ever 
since. Here he commenced the practice of 
law : here he won his first legal victories ; here 
he shied for the first time his castor into the 
political ring, and received his first public 
recognition. Here he first won his successes, 
and here he has reached to-day the years of his 
retirement from the hard and strenuous duties 
of active practice. 

Into the family circle, as the years went by, 
three sons were born, all of whom are grown 
to manhood, a credit to the father and mother 
and entered upon what will undoubtedly be 
successful careers, Paul N. is now living at 
Pawhuska, Oklahoma : Donald R. operates a 
farm owned by the Judge on the South Loup; 



403 



404 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY. NEBRASKA 



Fred A. is a medical student in the State 
L'niversity. The two former are married and 
have established homes of their own. In the 
home of Donald is to be found the only grand- 
child, a bright boy who occupies a large place 
in the grandsire's affections. 

The shadow fell across the Humphrey 
household on :\Iay 30, 1914, when the wife and 
mother passed from life into that unknown 
and mysterious realm to which the great ma- 
jority of mankind has journeyed. Her death 
occurred in the Bailey Sanitarium at Lincoln, 
to which place she had gone in the brave 
struggle to regain health. Mrs. Humphrey 
was an excellent, cultured lady, prominent in 
many lodges and social circles, loved and re- 
spected by friends and neighbors. 

Concerning the political career of the Judge, 
and it has been an enviable one, it is to be re- 
corded that in 1889 he attended the state con- 
vention as a delegate. The convention was look- 
ing for a man from the middle part of the state 
to fill an important post on the ticket, and ac- 
cordingly the Judge was drafted. He says 
there was no reason — it was purely acciden- 
tal that he should be nominated at that time 
for commissioner of public lands and build- 
ings, but he received the nomination, was 
elected in the fall of 1890. and filled the office 
with credit. He was re-elected in the fall of 
1892 and served until the end of that second 
term, at which time he returned to Broken 
Bow and resumed the practice of law. He was 
elected county attorney in the fall of 1902. 
and elected county judge in the fall of 1905. 
being re-elected in 1907. In the spring of 
1916. over his earnest protest, the citizens of 
Broken Bow made him mayor, which position 
he filled one year, and then absolutely refused 
to be a candidate for re-election. The Tt'dge 
has always taken a keen interest in educational 
affairs. The ]iublic school was a favorite realm 
for his activities. From the spring of 1890 
until the end of the school year of 1914, he 
was a member of the board of education of 
his home city, and for the most of the time 
was chairman of the board. It can be truth- 
fully said that he made more president ad- 
dresses to graduating classes than any other 
man in Custer county, and it is quite likely 
that this is true of the entire state. 

The Judge has ceased the active practice of 
law. and spends a great deal of his time at 
his country home, \vhere he delights in the 
quiet hour and the healthful exercises of gar- 
dening and other productive recreation. No 
man in Custer county has responded more 
liberally to all calls of the public : no man has 
contributed more cheerfully to the promotion 



of every public enterprise, or has lent a greater 
service to the development of Custer county. 
These lines are written by a personal friend 
who has known him long and intimately, and 
who delights to pay the homage he feels is 
due to such a character as the judge has been. 
• W. L. G.\sTox. 



MACK C. WARRINGTON. — When he 
located at Broken Bow, in May. 1916, to 
assume the duties of register of the United 
States Land Office. Mack C. Warrington left 
behind him at Mason City, this county, nu- 
merous business interests and a reputation for 
honorable dealing as a business man, integrity 
in public office, and probity in private life. In 
his new community and in his new official 
capacity, he has not only maintained the repu- 
tation noted, but has also extended and 
strengthened it, so that there are few men in 
public life in Custer county to-day who stand 
higher in public favor, esteem, and confidence. 

Mr. Warrington was born at Guthrie Center, 
the county seat of Guthrie county, Iowa, Octo- 
ber 29, 1864, and is a son of William and 
Julia (Cooper) Warrington. His father was 
born in England, in 1820, and was a young 
man when he came to the United States. He 
was a blacksmith by trade. In 1854 he lo- 
cated in Illinois, where he began to work at 
his trade, and shortly thereafter he met and 
married Julia Cooper, who was born in Ire- 
land and who had come to the United States 
in 1848 and located in Illinois. Not long after 
their marriage Mr. and .Mrs. Warrington re- 
moved to Guthrie Center, Iowa, where, in 
1856. the father founded a blacksmith shop 
that is still in existence and is being conducted 
by one of his sons. He became one of the 
highly esteemed men of his community, was 
an influential Democrat and a ?kIason, and 
died in 1905, aged eighty-five years, in the 
faith of the Baptist church, of' which Mrs. 
Warrington, who died in 1901, also was a 
member. They became the parents of six 
children, of whom four are living — Mrs. T- F. 
Holster, a widow, residing at Guthrie Center, 
Iowa; Mack C, of this notice; Mrs. T. J- 
Campbell, the wife of a ranchman of Pafi- 
sades, Colorado ; and Bert, of Guthrie Center, 
who conducts the blacksmith business which 
was founded by his father sixty-two vears ago. 

After attending the public schools' of Guth- 
rie Center, Iowa, Mack C. \A'arrington com- 
pleted a course at Cornell College. Mount 
Vernon, that state, and began his career as a 
printer, a vocation which he learned in his 
home community. He was variously employed 
until .Vugust, 1886. when he came to Nebraska, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



405 



and, locating at Mason City, secured a posi- 
tion on the local newspaper, the Transcript, 
of which he became proprietor through pur- 
chase in the following year. During the thirty 
years that followed he continued to act as 
publisher and editor of this paper, which he 
developed into one of the strong and influen- 
tial journals of the Democratic party in this 
part of the state, and which had a large fol- 
lowing and a subscription list which extended 
over several counties adjoining Custer. In 
addition, he built up a large and profitable 
job-printing business and had interests in sev- 
eral other directions, being accounted one of 
the substantial men of Mason City. 

For a number of years Mr. Warrington has 
been prominent and influential in Democratic 
politics in Custer county, both personally and 
through his newspaper ownership, and while 
a resident of Mason City he served in a num- 
ber of capacities, including that of member of 
the school board, justice of the peace, and 
postmaster, of which last named office he was 
the incumbent for five years. In May, 1916, 
he received the appointment, from President 
Wilson, as register of the United States land 
ofSce at Broken Bow, and moved to this city 
to take charge of his duties, which embrace 
the responsibilities for a district that covers 
twenty-four counties. He disposed of his 
newspaper interests in 1917 and has devoted 
his entire attention to his office, in which he 
has already established an excellent record 
for capable, expeditious, and conscientious 
service. Mr. Warrington was a charter mem- 
ber of Mason City Lodge, No. 170, Ancient, 
Free & Accepted Masons, of which he is a 
past master, and he still belongs to the Masons 
and to the Modern Woodmen of America. 

In 1893 Mr. Warrington married Miss Mena 
iNIengel, who was born in Illinois, a daughter 
of Frederick Mengel. Mrs. Warrington is a 
member of the Catholic church. 



CHARLES H. HOLCOMB. — A resident 
of Custer county since 1883, when he came to 
this locality as a homesteader. Charles H. Hol- 
comb has Ijeen engaged in the practice of law 
at Broken Bow for a period of thirty-two 
years, within which time he has risen to a 
position of eminence among the attorneys of 
central Nebraska. Judge Holcomb is a native 
of Gibson county, Indiana, born January 21, 
1856, and is a son of John C. and Rebecca 
(Skelton) Holcomb. 

The paternal grandfather of Judge Holcomb 
was a minister of the "Hard-SheH" Baptist 



church, who came from the south at an early 
date and settled in Gibson county, where, in 
1821, was born John C. Holcomb. The latter 
passed the greater part of his life in farming, 
although he was also prominent in Democratic 
politics and at various times held official po- 
sitions, being for eight years deputy county 
auditor, and serving also as county auditor for 
a number of years. His death occurred in 
1879, and his first wife, also a native of Gib- 
son county, passed away in 1856. They were 
members of the Baptist church and were the 
parents of three children, of whom two are 
living: J. B., who is a ranchman of Broken 
Bow ; and Charles H. After the death of his 
first wife, Mr. Holcomb married her sister, 
Lucinda Skelton, and they became the parents 
of seven children, of whom three are living: 
S. A., of Lincoln, is at present a member of 
the board of control, he being a former gov- 
ernor of Nebraska and former member of the 
supreme court of the state ; S. H. is engaged in 
farming in. Gibson county, Indiana ; and Es- 
tella is the wife of L. E. Kirkpatrick, of 
Seattle, Washington, a former attorney of 
Broken Bow. 

The early education of Charles H. Holcomb 
was secured in the public school at Fort 
Branch, Indiana, and, having decided upon a 
professional career, he started the stud}' of 
law in the office of an attorney at that place. 
He practiced in Indiana until 1881. when he 
came to Nebraska and first settled in Hamil- 
ton county, which was his place of residence 
for two years. In 1883 he changed his center 
of activity to Custer county, locating on a 
homestead, but after three years he moved to 
Broken Bow, which has since bfeen his home. 
Here he established himself in practice, sub- 
sequently becoming associated with the law 
firm of Kirkpatrick & Holcomb, an alli- 
ance which lasted until 1891. In that year he 
formed a partnership with his younger 
brother, W. W. Holcomb, and the fimi of Hol- 
years — until the death of the younger mem- 
ber. He then continued alone until 1909, 
when he was elected judge of the county 
comb Brothers continued in existence for eight 
court, and he remained on the bench for five 
years, during which time he established a rec- 
ord for dignity, for judicial bearing, and for 
the wisdom and fairness of decisions that won 
him uniform commendation, ^\'hen he retired 
from the bench. Judge Holcomb formed a 
partnership with Judge Humphrey, and this 
now forms one of the strongest law firms in 
central Nebraska. Judge Holcomb is one of 
the men who have risen from the ranks, and 



406 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



his entire career has l^een one of steady and 
constant advancement, marked by the utmost 
integrity, sincerity, and fideHty to duty. 

Judge Holcomb was married in 1879, in 
Gibson county, Indiana, to Miss Alice Finch, 
who was bom in that county, and to this union 
there have been born five children : A. Wil- 
bur, engaged in the automobile business at 
Hastings, Nebraska ; Vessa, the wife of C. O. 
O'Banion, a cigar manufacturer of Aurora, 
Nebraska ; Mabel, formerly her father's dep- 
uty and always his assistant in his office work, 
now the wife of William Darnell, a contractor 
of Broken Bow ; Edna, the wife of S. S. 
Parkison, a railroad man ; and Roy, a member 
of the United States Coast Artiller}'. is in 
service in France at the time of this writing. 
^Irs. Holcomb is a member of the Christian 
church. The Judge is a Democrat in his 
political allegiance, and is affiliated with the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which 
fraternity he has passed all the official chairs. 



HARVARD LOMAX. — Two occupations, 
ranching and banking, have attracted the in- 
terests and energies of Han-ard Lomax, and 
in both fields of endeavor he has won standing 
and prosperity, being at this time the owner 
of much valuable land in Custer county and 
president of the Custer State Bank, of Broken 
Bow. Also he has been a prominent figure in 
public life and in several positions of marked 
responsibility has demonstrated his worthiness 
for such honors and his capacity for discharg- 
ing the duties of his high position. 

-Mr. Lomax was born at Stockport, England. 
September 15, 1859, a son of James and Mary 
(Hobson) Lomax, natives of England, who 
passed their entire lives there, the father dying 
in 1905, aged eighty-three years, and the 
mother in 1900, aged seventy-eight. James 
Lomax was a wholesale paper merchant and 
was a successful business man. He and his 
wife were members respectively of the Church 
of England and the Wesleyan Methodist 
church. They were the parents of seven chil- 
dren, of whom five are living: Henry Hobson, 
in the British government service at West 
Kirby. England : Harvard, of this review : 
Mrs. Robert Hamilton, a widow who lives in 
England: Maude, of New Quay. Cornwall. 
England : and Sarah Lloyd, of the same place. 

Harvard Lomax was given excellent educa- 
tional advantages in his youth and completed 
his studies when he was graduated in Weslev 
College, Sheffield, England, in 1878. He then 
spent one year as a fruit fanner on the Isle of 



Jersey, but in ISSO he immigrated to the 
United States and in -March of that year 
located in Custer county. He pre-empted a 
tract in the South Loup valley and held it for 
three years, but subsequently he removed to 
\\ ood river, where he homesteaded and in 
addition bought railroad land. For a time he 
was associated with his brother, Henry H., 
but the latter went back to England. Mr. Lo- 
max eventually became one of the well-to-do 
men of his locality and won general public 
confidence by his straightforward handling of 
business matters. He interested himself in 
public matters and in 1890 was elected to the 
state legislature, in which body he served one 
term, making a good record for constructive 
work. For several years thereafter he served 
as county supervisor, and in 1895 he was 
elected county treasurer, an office which he 
retained four years. In 1901 Mr. Lomax 
assisted in the organization of the Custer Na- 
tional Bank, of which institution he was the 
first cashier, remaining as such until 1917, 
when, he was made president. This institution, 
now the Custer State Bank, is sound and 
conservative, with an e.xcellent- reputation in 
banking circles, and it has a capital of $35,000, 
with surplus and undivided profits of $5,000, 
and average deposits of $415,000. Mr. Lomax 
still retains his holdings in farm property and 
gives some attention to the operation of the 
same, but the major portion of his time 
is taken up with banking affairs. In jwlitics 
Mr. Lomax is a Democrat, with independent 
inclinations. He is a Mason in high standing, 
a Knight Templar and a member of the 
Mystic Shrine and has served his Blue Lodge 
as master. He is a member also of the Wood- 
men and the Highlanders. With his family, 
he belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church. 
In February, 1884, Mr. Lomax was united 
in marriage to ^liss Laura White, who was 
born at Clifton. Illinois, a daughter of Thomas 
and Man' \Miite. early settlers of that state. 
The parents of Mrs. Lomax came to Nebraska 
in 1882. and Mr. White purchased a section of 
land near Lexington, where he followed farm- 
ing until his death. Mr. and Mrs. Lomax are 
the parents of six children : Edith is the wife 
of H. A. Stephenson, M. D., a graduate in 
medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Balti- 
more, Maryland, where Miss Lomax was a 
trained nurse, and Dr. Stephenson is now in 
the United States service as a surgeon at Fort 
Riley; James is cashier of the Custer State 
Bank at Broken Bow : Clift'ord, the manager 
of a cattle ranch in Cherr)- county, is a soldier 
in France at the time of this writing; Marian 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



407 



is a graduate of the Broken Bow high school, 
class of 1918: and Leslie and Frances are at- 
tending school. 



JOHN M. KIMBERLING. — Among the 
prominent citizens of Broken Bow, one who 
affords an encouraging example of success 
gained through the proper use of every-day 
abilities and opportunities, is John M. Kim- 
berling, president of the Broken Bow State 
Bank. His life work has been a response both 
to his early teaching and the needs of his en- 
vironment, and he has laboriously climbed 
every round in the financial ladder, having 
risen to the presidency from the humble posi- 
tion of bookkeeper. He was born in Marion 
county, Iowa, March 25, 1859, and is a son of 
Rev. Lawrence and Elizabeth (Reynolds) 
Kimberling. 

The paternal grandfather of Mr. Kimber- 
ling was Elijah Kimberling, a native of West 
Virginia, who spent his entire career in that 
state, which was also the birthplace of the 
maternal grandfather, John Reynolds, who 
moved to Iowa in 1852 and passed the rest of 
his life there, engaged in farming. Rev. Law- 
rence Kimberling was born in West Virginia, 
and as a young man moved to Marion county, 
Iowa, in 1852, being there married to Miss 
Reynolds, who also was born in West Vir- 
ginia. They settled down to an agricultural 
life in their new community and there spent 
the remainder of their days. Mr. Kimberling 
was an ordained minister of the Baptist church 
and for many years labored faithfully in the 
service of his blaster, filling numerous pulpits 
in the country surrounding his home. He was 
a self-made man in all that the term implies, 
and was greatly esteemed in his community. 
His political belief made him a Republican. 
There were five children in the family, of 
whom four are living: Frank, who is pro- 
prietor of a meat market at Franklin, Ne- 
braska; John M., who is the subject of this 
review ; C. V., who is engaged in the laundry 
business at Des Moines, Iowa : and Minnie, 
who is the wife of J. Dickey, a printer at 
Franklin. 

The district schools of INIarion county, Iowa, 
furnished John M. Kimberling with his early 
education, and this he supplemented with a 
course in a commercial college at Des Moines. 
His first vocation was farming, but this did 
not prove congenial, and for a time he was 
occupied in teaching school. Two years as 
an instructor convinced him that such aiT_ oc- 
cupation was not his forte, and in 1887 he 
came to Broken Bow. Nebraska, where he 



entered upon his real career, obtaining a posi- 
tion as bookkeeper in the Broken Bow State 
Bank. His advance with this institution was 
steady and continuous, for he rose consecu- 
tively to cashier and then to vice-president, 
and in 1917 was made president of this insti- 
tution, which is accounted one of the strong 
and stable banking houses of the county, with 
a capital of $30,000, surplus and profits of 
$10,900. and average deposits of $600,000. 
Mr. Kimberling is known as a man of rare 
sagacity and judgment, keen foresight, and 
inherent ability as a banker, with a proper 
blend of progressiveness and conservatism. 
He is held in the greatest confidence not only 
by his associates but also by the general pub- 
lic, and his fellow citizens have demonstrated 
their faith in him by making him city treasurer 
for nineteen years and a member of the city 
council for a like period. He is a Republican. 
Fraternally, be is affiliated with the blue lodge 
and chapter of York Rite Masonrj' and was 
formerly secretary of the lodge, and he and 
Mrs. Kimberling are members of the Baptist 
church. 

In 1890 Mr. Kimberling married Miss Cora 
Reyner, who was born in Iowa, and who died 
in 1894, leaving one child : Florence, who is 
now the wife of Edward Scott, a farmer near 
Broken Bow. In 1898 Mr. Kimberling was 
again married, being united with Miss Rosa 
Hemphill, also a native of Iowa, and to this 
union there have been born two children : 
Thelma and Rodgers, both attending the 
Broken Bow public schools. 



WILLIAM A. HOUSEL, D. M. D. — As 
in medicine and surgerv', the science of den- 
tistry is constantly developing new phases of 
usefulness, and in order to insure success, the 
dentist of to-day must keep fully abreast of 
the achievements of his profession. He must 
add skill to thorough research and combine 
close application to his task with the ability 
gained through experience. Such a practi- 
tioner is William A. Housel, D. M. D., who 
has been engaged in the practice of his pro- 
fession at Ansley since 1905, with constantly 
increasing success. 

Doctor Housel was born at Stockham, 
Hamilton county, Nebraska, July 15, 1875, a 
son of Gardner and Jennie (Cook) Housel. 
His father, who was born in New Jersey, in 
1848, was four years of age when he was 
taken by his parents to Madison, Wi.sconsin, 
where he grew to manhood and was educated 
in the public schools. In Wisconsin he was 
engaged in farming for a short time, but in 



408 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. XEBRASKA 



1870 he came to Nebraska and settled on a 
homestead in the vicinity of Stockham, Ham- 
ilton county, and in that community he mar- 
ried Miss Jennie Cook, who was born in New 
York city, in 1854, and who was brought to 
Nebraska as a child. They continued to live 
in that community until 1879, when they set- 
tled on a tree claim in Custer county. This 
claim Mr. Housel duly developed and im- 
proved, and to the same he has since added, 
by various purchases, until he now has 800 
acres of valuable land. A man of splendid 
energy and business ability, he has been very 
prosperous in his undertaking, and is now 
justly accounted one of the well-to-do, as well 
as prominent, men of his locality. He is a 
Democrat in politics, a leader in civic move- 
ments and enterprises and a consistent mem- 
ber of the Christian church, to which Mrs. 
Housel also belongs. They are the parents of 
four children, as follows : Frank, engaged in 
farming near Ansley; Dr. William A., of this 
notice; Dr. C. L., a specialist in diseases of the 
eye, ear, nose, and throat, and now in the 
service of the United States Army, at Austin, 
Texas: and Margaret, the wife of Ben Shel- 
don, who is carrying on agricultural opera- 
tions on his father's farm. 

Dr. William A. Housel attended the public 
schools of Ansley. and after his graduation in 
the high school lie spent three years at Cotner 
University, in Lincoln. He then pursued his 
professional studies at the Lincoln Dental 
school, from which he was duly grduated with 
the class of 1905, and he at once began prac- 
tice at Ansley, where he has maintained his 
office ever since. A courteous and genial 
manner, splendid skill in his vocation, and a 
natural love for his calling, have combined to 
attract to Doctor Housel a large and repre- 
sentative practice, and as the holder of the 
largest clientele in this part of the county he 
has been compelled to employ an assistant. He 
devotes his entire time to his professional 
business and has had little leisure for outside 
matters, but he is a stanch Democrat and gives 
his support to good civic movements. 

In 1900 Dr. Housel married Miss Florence 
L. Ford, who was born at Blue Hill, Nebraska, 
and who is a daughter of Fred Ford, a success- 
ful carpenter contractor at Bethany, X^ebraska. 
Of this union have been born five children. 
namely: Alice, Robert, Dorothy. Lucille, and 
Raymond F. Dr. and Mrs. Housel are mem- 
bers of the Christian church. 



JAMES K. HEWETT. — The proprietor 
and editor of a newspaper occupies a vantage 
ground from which he may make or mar a 



reputation, or build up or tear down a cause 
worthy of public support. Xot only the city 
of Broken Bow but Custer county at large has 
reason for congratulation that the Custer 
County Republican is in such safe, sagacious 
and thoroughly clean hands. It is considered 
one of the best general newspapers published 
in the county, as well as an outspoken, fair- 
play exponent of the best element of the Re- 
publican party : in fact it is in all respects well 
worthy of the care and sound judgment dis- 
played in its columns, and reflects credit on 
both the editor and publisher, James K. Hew- 
ett. 

Mr. Hewett was born at Bloomington, 
Franklin county, Nebraska, January- 9, 1890, 
a son of James H. H. Hewett and Maude 
(Kelly) Hewett. His paternal grandfather, 
Obediah B. Hewett, a prominent and leading 
attorney, came to Nebraska in 1857 and assist- 
ed in laying out the city of Beatrice. In 1859 
he married Miss Mary Turner. He fought as 
captain of Company M, Second Xebraska 
Cavaln-, during the Civil war. At the close 
of the war he settled in Brownville. where he 
remained until 1876, when he moved on to a 
farm near that city. In 1880 he went to Hast- 
ings, and he practiced law there until 1892, 
when he went to California and practiced law 
at Riverside, California, later moving to 
Chino, California, where he died in 1898. The 
maternal grandfather, of Mr. Hewett was 
James E. Kelly, who was born at Latrobe, 
Pennsylvania. At the age of nineteen vears 
he enlisted in the Thirty-fourth Regiment of 
Indiana \^olunteers and rose to the rank of 
captain. Returning to Indiana, he was mar- 
ried, December 31, 1863, to Margaret J. Law- 
rence, who accompanied him to Texas, where 
he saw six months' service on the border, dur- 
ing the days immediately following the strug- 
gle between the north and south. When hon- 
orably discharged he and his wife went to 
Roanoke, Indiana, where ^Ir. Kelly engaged 
in the mercantile business. Later the\' moved 
to South Carolina, engaging in cotton rais- 
ing. They then moved to Fond du Lac, 
where again Mr. Kelly engaged in the mercan- 
tile business. In 1879 he came to X^ebraska 
as a pioneer, taking a homestead in Harlan 
county. In 1880 he moved to Bloomington, 
engaging in the mercantile business until ap- 
pointed receiver of the United States land 
office at Bloomington, under President Har- 
rison. 

James H. H. Hewett was born in Brown- 
ville, Nebraska, and received excellent educa- 
tional advantages, being graduated from the 
Peru State Xormal. class of 1883, and having 
the distinction of being the first graduate of 



^HISTORY OF CL'STER COL'XTY. NEBRASKA 



409 



Hastings College, class of 1885. He studied 
law 'with his father and, after being admitted 
to the bar, entered the land otifice at Blooming- 
ton, Nebraska, and later at McCook, Nebraska. 
He was married to Miss Claude h- Kelh-, in 
1888, at Bloomington, Nebraska. They then 
moved to Box Butte county, Nebraska, where 
Mr. Hewett engaged in the practice of law, 
at Hemingford and Alliance, for a number of 
years. 

Mr. Hewett has always been prominent in 
Republican politics and for two terms was 
county judge of Box Butte county. He is now 
connected with the United States land office 
at Alliance, Nebraska. Mr. Hewett is prom- 
inent in Masonic circles, having been master of 
the Alliance blue lodge for seven years and 
eminent commander of the Knights Templars. 
Mr. and Mrs. Hewett have been the parents of 
three children, two of whom are living — 
James K. Hewett and Helen Bernice Hewett, 
who is a senior at the University of Nebraska. 

James K. Hewett was graduated from the 
Alliance high school in 1908, following which 
he entered the Nebraska State University, and, 
after pursuing an extended course in electrical 
engineering, was graudated with his degree of 
Bachelor of Science, in 1913. Going to Pitts- 
burgh. Pennsylvania, he took a special course 
of two years with the Westinghouse Compan)', 
and in 1914 returned to Nebraska. As a young 
man he had learned the trade of printing, more 
as a recreation than with the thought of using 
it as a business. However, there is the saying 
that once a man's blood be tainted with print- 
er's ink he is never able to disassociate himself 
from it. This may have been true in Mr. 
Hewett's case, for when he came back to Ne- 
braska in 1914 he joined the force of the Al- 
liance Times. Two years of experience there 
bound him firmly to newspaper work, and in 
1916 he came to Broken Bow and purchased 
the Ctister County Rcpiihliean, of which he 
has since been the editor and publisher. At 
the present time he has a circulation extending 
through Custer county and is producing a well 
printed, well edited sheet, with clean, live, 
authentic news, timely editorials and inter- 
esting locals. His efforts to give the people a 
good, readable newspaper have evidently been 
appreciated, and he is well supported in an ad- 
vertising way bv the merchants and profes- 
sional men of Broken Bow. In connection 
with his newspaper, Mr. Hewett has a well 
equipped job department, and turns out all 
manner of high-class job printing. 

Mr. Hewett was married at Lincoln, on No- 
vember 20, 1916, to Miss Anna Margaret 
Veith, who v^'as born at Lincoln, Nebraska, 
September 8, 1890. Mrs. Hewett is the young- 



est daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Veith, 
of Lincoln, Nebraska. Mr. Veith was born 
at (Jber-Ramstadt. Germany, in 1846. His 
father, Conrad \"eith, was librarian of the 
court documents at Schloss Lichtenberg while 
preparing himself for office in the probate 
courts of that city. Henry Veith left Ger- 
many when a young man, going first to Lon- 
don, where he lived a year before coming to 
the United States. In the '60s he decided to 
make Lincoln, Nebraska, his home and soon 
after took out his naturalization papers. He 
was married to Catherine Goetz, of Darm- 
stadt, Germany, on February 24, 1872, at Lin- 
coln, Nebraska. During all these years he has 
been successfully engaged in the mercantile 
business. 

]\Irs. Hewett graduated from the Lincoln 
high school in 1909. In 1913 she received her 
Bachelor of Arts degree from the Arts and 
Science College of the University of Nebraska, 
and her diploma from the Teacher's College 
of that institution. She taught in the Grand 
Island high school for three years, spending 
the summers taking post-graduate work at the 
LTniversities of Wisconsin and Nebraska. She 
is now engaged as the social editor of the Cus- 
ter County Rcf^ublican. She is a member of 
the Woman's Public Service Club, The Wom- 
an's Club, and the Browning Club. Mrs. 
Hewett is a member of the Presbyterian 
church of Broken Bow. 

Mr. Hewett is a member of the Modern 
Woodmen of America and the Public Service 
Club, of Broken Bow. 

^Nlr. and Airs. Hewett are the parents of one 
daughter, Helen Easley, born December 28, 
1917. 



REV. JAMES H. HERMES, the esteemed 
pastor of the Broken Bow Catholic church, is 
filling his second pastorate, having come to this 
city from Douglas, Wyoming, in 1917. While 
he is thus, more or less comparatively, a new- 
comer, he has already found a place in the 
affection and confidence of the people here, 
into whose lives and daily activities he has 
brought a moral influence that is contributing 
to their spiritual and material welfare. Father 
Hermes was born at Louisville, Kentucky, 
April 14, 1887, and is a son of Frederick Aug- 
ust and Regina (Lubbers) Hermes. 

The parents of Father Hennes, natives of 
the dukedom of Oldenburg, immigrated to the 
United States in 1882 and were married at 
Louisville, Kentucky, where they still reside 
and where the father is engaged successfully 
in the grocery business and in farming. There 
were thirteen children in the familv, of whom 



410 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



nine are still living, but Father James H. 
Hermes is the only one located in the west. 

Rev. James H. Hermes received his early 
education in the parochial schools of Louis- 
ville, and completed a collegiate course at St. 
Francis College. Trenton, New Jersey. He 
then went to Rome, Italy, to pursue his theo- 
logical studies and he was ordained September 
19, 1909, immediately following which he re- 
turned to the United States. His first charge 
was at Douglas, Wyoming, where he remained 
from 1910 until 1916, and in October, 1917, 
he came to Broken Bow, where he now has 
thirty-eight families in his congregation. Both 
in a material and spiritual sense the work of 
Father Hermes has been very successful. Since 
he commenced his ministerial labors at Broken 
Bow he has done much to improve the church 
and add to the welfare of the parish. He is 
a genial and warm-hearted man and not only 
commands the respect and confidence of his 
own parishioners but also enjoys the cordial 
esteem of a large circle of Protestant friends 
He extends hearty hospitality to all guests who 
visit his church or home, and greets all with a 
pleasant word and a cheery smile. He invari- 
ably exerts his great influence on the side of 
right, and lends liberal aid to all movements 
tending to promote the public welfare. All 
who listen to his pulpit utterances are im- 
pressed by his strong intellectual resources and 
the energy which characterizes his work. The 
life of Father Hennes has been a beneficent 
one, and its results have been abundantly mani- 
fest wherever he has labored. 

Father Hermes joined Casper Council, 
Knights of Columbus, at Casper, Wyoming, 
and has now reached the fourth degree in 
that well known fraternal order, having the 
distinction of being the only man in the state 
who has taken the four degrees within the 
period of as many months. 



MILO F. YOUNG, pioneer, frontiersman, 
miner, scout, Indian fighter, freighter and early 
settler, is probably the oldest man now living 
within the confines of Custer county, having 
passed his ninety-second year. His career 
has been one in which he has had varied and 
interesting experiences, from hunting buffalo 
on the western plains to the civilized existence 
of modem days, and few men, even of twenty 
less years, bear so few of the scars of life. 
Mr. Young was born June 18, 1826, ai St. 
Johnsbury, Caledonia county, \'ermont, a son 
of Benjamin and Alary (Jackson) Young. His 
paternal grandfather. Rev. Winthrop Young, 
was a minister of the Baptist church, and his 
maternal grandfather. Samuel Jackson, was a 



Revolutionary soldier who fought in the bat- 
tle of Bunker Hill. Benjamin Young, "who 
was born in New Hampshire, moved in young 
manhood to \ ermont, where he passed the rest 
of his life in farming. He and his wife had 
thirteen children, of whom Milo F. is the only 
survivor, the others being: Deborah, Loren, 
Obediah, Elijah and Abigail (twins). Alary, 
Benjamin. Harrison, Winthrop, Jackson, John 
and Alaria. 

Alilo F. Young was educated in the public 
schools and as a youth worked for his father, 
his first twenty-five cents being earned by 
spreading hay for a neighbor. Captain Aliles. 
He remained at home until his marriage, at 
the age of twenty-five years, and then pur- 
chased his father's farm, which he conducted 
for one year. The quiet pursuits of agricul- 
ture, however, did not appeal to Air. Young's 
nature, and he accordingly went to the city of 
Calais. Maine, where for four years he was 
engaged in the butcher business and for three 
years conducted a livery. Selling his interests 
in New England, he went to St. Anthony, 
Alinnesota, where he fanned for three years, 
and then, after a visit to his old home, he came 
to St. Louis, Alissouri, and up the Alissoun 
river, arriving at Omaha in 1858. At that 
time he took a claim twenty-four miles north- 
west of Omaha, in Washington county, but 
after three years he sold out and went to 
Pike's Peak, where he was engaged in min- 
ing one year. Mr. Young next became a 
freighter from Omaha to Cherrj' Creek and 
Denver, the latter then known as Aurora, and 
from Denver he carried the first printing 
press, for John Gibson, forty miles northwest 
to Blackhawk, better known as Central City. 
About twenty-four days were required to make 
his trips in the winter months, when, at night, 
he would scrape the snow off the ground under 
his wagon in order to make his bed. His fam- 
ily at this time were living at Central City, but 
in 1860 they went out to join Air. Young, with 
whom they remained two years, then going to 
Elkhorn City, in Douglas county. During this 
period Air. Young frequently killed bufifalo 
and freighted the meat and robes to Omaha, 
where he found a ready market. His ex- 
periences with the Indians were numerous, and 
when the red men went out on the Platte river 
to hunt, he would pass through their villages. 
One of the incidents of his life at this time, 
which is illustrative of the early days, had to 
do with the desire of Colonel Bent, government 
agent and Indian trader, to trade with a large 
party of Sioux, Cheyennes and Arapahoes. The 
Colonel had seven large loads of Indian goods 
and sent out a call for the Indians to come 
and trade, but the latter encountered a band of 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



411 



wild horses and forgot all about the errand 
upon which they were despatched. JMr. 
Young was camping on the river, when he was 
approached by one of the big chiefs of the 
Sioux, who rode up on a fat little Indian pony 
with its tail dragging the ground and motioned 
Mr. Young and his three companions, Henry 
Benjamin, Rube Hyatt and George Benjamin, 
to come to the Indian camp, where there were 
about 2,000 redskins. The plainsmen were in- 
formed by the chief : "Much buzz-buzz," evi- 
dently meaning that where they were camped 
were too many mosquitoes. Producing a long- 
stemmed pipe and some killikinick from a 
mink-skin pouch, the chief lined the men up 
on a wagon-tongue, lighted the pipe, took a few 
whiffs, and then passed it to the others, who 
followed suit, the chief then finishing the cere- 
mony by gravely puffing once or twice. He 
then said: "White man safe, no steal here," 
and true to his word the chief would not al- 
low his tribesmen to disturb them. 

Not so peaceable were Mr. Young's later ex- 
periences with the Indians. When the Second 
Nebraska Cavalry was called out, in 1862, to 
put down the uprising at New Ulm, Minnesota, 
and Spirit Lake, Iowa, Mr. Young served 
eleven months, helping to chase the Indians up 
to Sioux City, under General Sully and Colonel 
R. Furnis. At Sioux City the soldiers were 
joined by the Sixth Iowa Cavalry, and at 
White Stone Hill the command surprised a 
large party of the hostiles, gave them battle, 
routed them completely, and burned their 
tepees. In 1873 ^Ir. Young loaded twenty- 
two hogs, which he took to Denver for Christ- 
mas and sold at a good profit. Leaving, with 
his four magnificent horses, on the day before 
New Year's, the coldest day on record in the 
United States, he traveled back to Elkhorn 
City, bringing with him a family, and he him- 
self walked the entire distance, to keep from 
freezing. 

In 1876 Mr. Young came to Custer county 
and located at the mouth of Spring creek, and 
the property, on which his son, Frank H. 
Young, carried on operations for many years, 
is still known as the Young ranch. Mr. Young 
built the old log house depicted on another 
page of this work, and the same is of much 
historical interest, as it was used as the first 
court house of Custer county. The Young 
ranch is still operated by the heirs of Ben- 
jamin Young, to whom it was sold. There, 
for several years, Milo F. Young served in 
the capacity of postmaster of Custer, and 
later he acted as deputy under his son. Frank 
H., who was county clerk. He is a Repub- 
lican, and a member of the Masons. That his 
intellect is still unclouded, even at his ad- 



vanced age, is shown in the fact that he per- 
sonally, supplied the material for the fore- 
going sketch, in addition to relating numer- 
ous other interesting incidents of early life 
in this region. When he left the ranch, with 
a well earned competency, Mr. Young re- 
moved to his home at Broken Bow, where 
he is now residing, surrounded by every com- 
fort and enjoying the affection and warm re- 
gard of a wide circle of friends. 

In March, 1851, at St. Johnsbury, Vermont. 
Mr. Young married Mary Ann Woods, a 
daughter of Eben Woods, and they became 
the parents of four children, all of whom are 
deceased. 



ELBERT P. GAINES, cashier of the Se- 
curity State Bank of Ansley, is one of Custer 
county's young and progressive citizens who 
have created a favorable impression in bank- 
ing circles and established themselves in po- 
sitions formerly held by men many years their 
seniors. He is essentially a product of Cus- 
ter county, as he was brought here in infancy, 
was educated in this community's ptiblic 
schools and has received his business training 
in its institutions, while his career thus far 
has reflected credit upon the county's influ- 
ences and upon his own ability and character. 

Mr. Gaines was born at Cambridge, the 
county seat of Henry county, Illinois, Feb- 
ruary 21, 1886, and is a son of E. H. and 
Fannie B. (Page) Gaines, the former a na- 
tive of Illinois and the latter of Iowa. E. H. 
Gaines was reared and educated in his native 
state, and for a number of years was identified 
with the wholesale lumber trade, a field in 
which he met with marked success. In 1886 
he came to Custer county and established him- 
self in the hardware and implement business, 
in which he continued until his death. He 
was a man of excellent business ability, strict 
integrity, 'personal probity and sound citizen- 
ship, and he well merited his success and the 
respect in which he was uniformly held. He 
was a member of the Masonic fraternity, was 
a Republican in politics, and, with his family, 
belonged to the Christian church. Mrs. 
Gaines, who survives her husband, resides at 
Bethany, Nebraska. They were married at 
Menlo, Iowa, and became the jjarents of three 
children : Elbert P., to whom this sketch is 
dedicated; Fred B., who is identified with the 
automobile business at Chicago. Illinois ; and 
Loine, who resides with her mother and is en- 
gaged in teaching school at Bethany. 

Elbert P. Gaines attended the public 
schools of Ansley, and after his graduation 
in the high school he entered the hardware 



41. 



HISTljRY OF CUSTER COL'XTV, XEl'.RASKA 



and implement Imsiness with his father, under 
whose able preceptorship he gained his initial 
commercial training. He remained in the 
store until he was appointed postmaster of 
Ansley. during the administration of Presi- 
dent Taft, when he gave up other interests to 
attend to the duties of that office, When his 
term of four years expired, he identified him- 
self with the Security State Bank, in the 
capacity of assistant cashier. This institution 
had been organized February 5. 1915, by local 
capitalists, who recognized Air. Gaines' de- 
votion, fidelity, and general ability, by advanc- 
ing him, in 1918, to the post of cashier, which 
he holds at this time. The bank is capitalized 
at $20,000, and at this time has surplus and 
undivided profits of $3,000, while its deposits 
approximate $215,000. It is accounted a 
strong institution, bearing an excellent repu- 
tation in the banking circles of the state, and. 
guided by a conservative policy, has made con- 
stant advancement since its organization. Mr. 
Gaines has made many friends for the bank as 
well as for himself, among the patrons and de- 
positors, and has done much to inspire public 
confidence. 

On June 18, 1907, Mr. Gaines married Aliss 
Clara Varney, who was born at Westerville, 
Nebraska, a daughter of Edgar Varney, one 
of the early settlers and merchants of Wester- 
ville, and later a representative merchant at 
Ansley. Mr. and Mrs. Gaines have two chil- 
dren : Edgar V., born December 10, 1909 : 
and Helen L., born May 25, 1911. Mr. and 
Mrs. Gaines are attendants of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, and Mr. Gaines is a stanch 
Republican. He is prominent in fraternal cir- 
cles, being a thirty-second degree ]\Iason and 
a Shriner, and being at present worshipful 
master of his Masonic lodge. He is also a 
member of the Independent Order of C)dd 
Fellows, and is past chancellor commander of 
the Knights of Pythias. 



PUN L. METCALF. — To the old and 
distinguished state of New York the county 
of Custer is in no small degree indebted for 
some of its most prominent citizens, eminent 
professional men, successful farmers and cap- 
able and well-to-do merchants — and in the 
van of the last mentioned class, although he is 
at present retired, is Plin Metcalf, a resident 
of Sargent and a member of the town coun- 
cil. Mr. Metcalf was born in Wyoming county. 
New York, September 3, 1863, > and is a son 
of Augustus and Lucia (Crittenden) Metcalf. 

Milo Metcalf, the paternal grandfather of 
Plin Metcalf. was born in \'ermont, and as a 
youth was taken by his parents to Wyoming 



county. New York, where he followed farm- 
ing throughout the rest of his life. In that 
county were born his children, of whom three 
sons, Judson. George and Plin, served in the 
Union army during the Civil war, the last 
named meeting a soldier's death on the field 
of battle. Augustus Metcalf was reared on 
the home farm in New Y'ork and for a time 
followed the pursuits of the soil as a vocation. 
He was married in New York state, his wife 
also being a native thereof, but in 1872 he 
went to Putnam county, (Jhio, and engaged 
in the mercantile business at Belmore, where 
he was also postmaster for several years, and 
where he carried on a successful business until 
his death. He was a member of the Presby- 
terian church and was a Republican in his 
political views. After his demise Mrs. Met- 
calf carried on the business for several years, 
and also acted for four years as postmistress. 
Ijut in 1883 she disposed of her holdings and 
came to Custer county, Nebraska, where, like 
her sons, she settled on a homestead. Aftei 
coming to Nebraska she joined the ]\Iethodist 
Episcopal church. She is the mother of four 
sons : Walter, who still lives on his original 
homestead in Custer comity ; Plin, whose 
name initiates this review ; Perry, who also is 
on his original homestead here ; and Clarence, 
who is engaged in the implement business at 
Sargent. 

After attending the district schools of Put- 
nam county, Ohio, Plin Metcalf took a course 
at the Ohio State Normal School at Ada, and 
then commenced his career in the role of a 
school teacher. His experience as an educa- 
tor, however, lasted only one year, for in 1883, 
when he was twenty years of age, he came to 
Custer county and took up a homestead, as 
did also his mother and three brothers, all of 
the farms adjoining. He continued to follow 
farming and stock-raising with a full measure 
of success until 1899. when he turned his at- 
tention to mercantile lines, investing in a busi- 
ness at West Union, where he was located as 
a merchant until 1909. His ten years of e.x- 
perience there had been beneficial, and when 
he came to Sargent he was better equipped in 
knowledge of merchandising, so that his suc- 
cess here was immediate. He w-as in partner- 
ship with James Haggerty in a general store 
for a time, but he eventually bought his 
])artner's interest, and he continued as the sole 
])ro])rietor of the business until January- 1, 
1918, since which time he has lived in re- 
tirement. During the active years of his ca- 
reer Mr. Metcalf displayed excellent judg- 
ment, fine liusiness, capacity and shrewd 
knowledge of affairs, so that his operations 
were prosperous, and he is to-day considered 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



413 



one of his community's well-to-do men. He 
has a good farm in Dawson county and holds 
other interests, all accumulated in an honor- 
able and legitimate manner. Mr. Metcalf is 
a Republican and for some time has been 
actively interested in public aiTairs. For 
several years he was a member of the board 
of school directors, and he is now serving 
efficiently as a member of the town council of 
Sargent. His fraternal affiliations are with 
the Masons and Odd Fellows, in which latter 
order he has passed the official chairs. He 
and his wife hold membership in the Meth- 
odist Episcopal church. 

In 1<S82 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
]\Ietcalf to Miss Emma Slentz, who was born 
in Ohio, and to this union have come two 
children : Clyde, who is employed in the im- 
plement business with his uncle, Clarence Met- 
calf, and Grace, the wife of William Bruce, 
who at the time of this writing is serving in 
the United States Navy, his preliminary train- 
ing having been received at the Great Lakes 
Naval Training Station, Illinois, and at Hamp- 
ton Roads, Virginia. 



J. HARRY BRYAN. — One of the young 
farmers who is a native of Custer county, who 
was here reared and educated, and who here 
began farming and has already achieved an 
immense success is J. Harry Bryan, who re- 
sides in the vicinity of Huxley postoffice. 

J. Harry Bryan was born July 5, 1883, and 
is a son of Joseph and Mary E. ( Baker) 
Bryan. Joseph Bryan was born in Missouri, 
in 1844, and his wife, who was born in south- 
ern Illinois, September 25, 1844, is still living. 
The parents were married in southern Illinois, 
and came to Custer county in the early '70s. 
As sterling pioneers they located a homestead 
nine miles northeast of Mason City, and upon 
this place Mr. Bryan lived until the time of 
his death, in 1892. His widow, now vener- 
able in years, still lives on the old homestead. 
In their immediate family were eight children, 
seven of whom are still living. W. B. is a 
farmer in southeastern Kansas ; Mrs. John T. 
Wood resides at Mason City ; Mrs. G. L. 
Stevens lives in Custer county ; Mrs. L. F. 
Wilcox has her home on a farm at Glendive, 
Montana : F. G. lives at Burwell, Nebraska, 
where he is in the employ of the railroad com- 
pany ; J. Harry, the subject of this sketch, was 
the sixth born ; and Robert L. lives on the 
old homestead. The family belong to the 
Christian church. The father was a Republi- 
can in politics, and in his early life he entered 
the service of his country, from southern Illi- 
nois. \Miile thus serving in defense of the 



Union in the Civil war he contracted consump- 
tion. He was in Sherman's historic march to 
the sea, and his father, W. J. Bryan, was killed 
at the battle of Pittsburg Landing. 

The fair education which J. Harry Br_\an 
enjoys, was gleaned from the public schools ot 
his native county. He took up farming at an 
early age, and he now owns 120 acres of land, 
well improved, with a nice residence and all 
required outbuildings ; and the farm equip- 
ment, which is to be rated as first class, meets 
the requirements of all the operations that can 
be conducted upon a place of its size. 

In March, 1905, was recorded the marriage 
of Mr. Bryan to Mrs. Eva (Corey) Mitchell, 
who was born in Clay county, Nebraska, a 
daughter of William Corey, who was a pioneer 
of that county. The first husband of Mrs. 
Bryan was G. Mitchell. Mr. and Mrs. Brvan 
have three children — Guy, Leona, and Mil- 
dred — all bright and happy children, pursuing 
the foundation course of their education and 
contributing joy and satisfaction to their par- 
ents. 

Mr. Bryan is a member of the local lodge 
of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
in which he takes a prominent and active 
part. He affiliates with the Republican party, 
and is rated as one of the leaders and depend- 
able spirits in all partisan affairs. He is a 
progressive farmer, a good judge of live stock, 
and a citizen whose home and premises denote 
thrift and enterprise. 



CHARLES W. BOWMAN. — For a num- 
ber of years the name of Charles W. Bowman 
has been inseparably connected with the agri- 
cultural and real-estate interests of Custer 
county, where he has been located since 1885. 
His career here has been one of constant ad- 
vancement since his arrival, and both as a 
farmer and realty operator he has won success 
and maintained a high reputation for ability 
and integrity. 

Mr. Bowman was born December 27, 1863. 
at Plattsmouth, Cass county, Nebraska, a son 
of Albert G. and Mary .\nn (Covalt) Bow- 
man, natives of Ohio and West Virginia re- 
spectively, and is a grandson of Abraham 
Covalt. The family has been identified with 
the Christian church for many generations and 
its members have always been supporters of 
progressive movements along moral, educa- 
tional and religious lines. Albert G. Bowman 
was a cabinetmaker by trade, a vocation which 
he followed first in Ohio and later at Platts- 
mouth, Nebraska, but eventually he turned his 
attention to agricultural pursuits in the west- 
ern part of Cass county, where he rounded out 



414 



HISTORY UF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



a long, useful and honorable career. He and 
his wife were the parents of the following chil- 
dren : Sarah A. and Samuel H. died in in- 
fancy. Elizabeth, by her first marriage, had 
two children, Charles and Albert W'achter, 
who are farmers in Custer county. In her 
second marriage she became the wife of Will- 
iam H. Russell, a fanner, they leaving two 
children when they died. — John H. and Anna 
D. Abraham D. married Ella M. Bethel, and 
both are deceased. They had one son, — Carl 
E., who is a member of the firm of Bowman 
& Bowman, Broken Bow. Marj' A., who 
married John Keefer, a farmer near An- 
selmo, Custer county, is deceased. Ida D., 
who died in 1890, married James M. Russell, 
and her son is farming with his father in Cus- 
ter county. Rhoda H. is the wife of Joseph 
V. Carnes, a retired farmer of Lincoln, this 
state, and they have seven children, — Nellie, 
Myrtle, Lillie, Mar)^ Rhoda, Lulla and Ollie. 
Charles W., of this review, was the next in 
order of birth. Jennie V.. who makes her 
home with her brother Charles W., at Broken 
Bow, is the widow of the late Jacob L. Phil- 
lips, banker and broker, who died in 1890. 

Charles W. Bowman was given his educa- 
tion in the public schools of Cass county, and 
when still a youth he showed his industry and 
capacity for hard work by assuming the re- 
sponsibility of contributing materially to his 
own support. When he was a lad it was his 
custom to arise at daylight, gather several 
gallons of strawberries, and carry them on 
foot to Greenwood, Nebraska, a distance of 
three and one-quarter miles, where he would 
peddle them to the villagers. In addition, he 
at times herded cattle for the neighbors, and 
in this way managed to secure enough monev 
to keep himself in clothes. When he was but 
seventeen years of age he had saved monev 
enough to buy a team of ponies, which he traded 
for an acre of land at Greenwood, but this 
he sold after coming to Custer county. 'Sir. 
Bowman continued his thrifty habits and about 
the time he reached his majority he had ac- 
cumulated enough fann machinery to carry on 
operations, a team, a wagon and harness, and 
decided to try his fortune further to the west. 
Accordingly. March 20, 1885. he loaded his 
worldly possessions on his wagon and made 
preparations to bid his parents goodbye. Just 
as he was leaving, his father inquired as to 
the state of his finances. When he was in- 
fonned that the young man had just $3 cash 
capital, he brought forth a S20 gold piece, and. 
with tears streaming down his sunburned 
cheeks, presented it to his son. saving: "Son. 
you are going into a wild, unsettled countr>' : 
take this and may God bless you." Charles 



W. Bowman arrived in Custer county about 
ten days later and proceeded to take a home- 
stead and a timber claim about four miles 
north of New Helena. The first few years 
were hard ones for the ambitious young man, 
and, with the other pioneers who were rapidly 
settling the country, he experienced many 
hardships and was called upon to use numer- 
ous expedients in order that he might carry 
himself over the bad years. Among other 
things he spent many wear)- hours in digging 
up cedar stumps in the cedar canyons, from 
which the cedar trees had been cut and hauled 
to Grand Island and other points at an earlier 
day. These stumps were dug up and split 
into fence posts and then hauled 100 mile' 
to Grand Island and sold, or exchanged for the 
necessities of life. By 1902 Air. Bowman 
found himself well on the road to prosperity 
and the possessor of a good property which 
had been developed solely through his own 
efforts. But while his agricultural operations 
had proved verj- successful, he had become at- 
tracted to the real-estate business, and finallv, 
in 1902, he disposed of his ranch and farm 
and applied himself to realty and loans. His 
business ability, his expert knowledge of land 
values, and his general qualifications have en- 
abled him to become a leading factor in his 
line of work. His fonner farm, situated on 
what is known throughout Custer county as 
the Bowman Table, is to-day worth $100 per 
acre. 

Air. Bowman was married November 20, 
1897, near Anselmo. Nebraska, to Ida D. 
Dare, a daughter of James and Mary J. 
(Jackson) Dare, and four children have been 
bom to this union : Lloyd D., Alan,' N., 
Alaude E. and Deerce H. The family be- 
longs to the Christian church. Air. Bowman 
is identified with the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows and in the Alasonic fraternity he 
has received the thirty-second degree of the 
Ancient Accented Scottish Rite. Both he and 
his wife are members of the Order of the 
Eastern Star, in which Airs. Bowman has 
filled all the official chairs of her chapter. 



AIARTIN F. BLANKEKSHIP. a substan- 
tial farmer now living in comfortable retire- 
ment at Broken Bow, came first to Custer 
county in 1882. and with the exception of 
three years he has lived here ever since, the 
while he is well and favorably known all 
through this section. Air. Blankenship was 
boni at Indianola. Vermilion countv. Illinois, 
September 7. 1856. His parents were Alartin 
C. and (jeraldine (Scott) Blankenship, the 
former of whom was bom in Kentucky but 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



415 



reared in Indiana, and the latter of whom was 
boni and died in Vermihon county, Illinois. 
His grandparents were well known people in 
their day, their names being William and Mary 
(Whitesett) Blankenship and William and 
Elizabeth (Goliday) Scott. The parents of 
J\lr. Blankenship both died when he was an 
infant less than a year old, and of their seven 
children he and a sister, Mrs. Martha S. Nut- 
terfield, who lives in Illinois, are the only sur- 
vivors. The father was a preacher in the 
Missionary' Baptist church. 

Left an orphan when so young, Martin T. 
Blankenship necessarily was reared by stran- 
gers, and John T. Phillips and wife, farming 
people in Vermilion county, Illinois, became 
good foster-parents, teaching him habits of 
industry and giving him an opportunity to go 
to school in the winter time. In those days 
money was not very plentiful and boys had 
few chances to earn pocket-money. For that 
reason the first dime Mr. Blankenship ever 
earned and the use he made of it remain in his 
memory as the basis of an amusing story. He 
was about twelve years old when a neighbor 
paid him the ten cents for planting a field of 
corn, covering with a hoe, and the coin was 
treasured until he added ten cents more, about 
Christmas time, by turning a grindstone for 
a man. He gained permission to go to Dan- 
ville and there he invested his capital in a 
bunch of fire-crackers, with which he antici- 
pated making considerable of a celebration on 
Christmas day. He remembers remaining 
awake almost the entire night, until four 
o'clock on Christmas morning, and then of 
mischievously crawling on his hands and knees 
to the big old fireplace, where he inserted a 
fire-cracker in the smouldering embers. The 
explosion probably created enough excitement 
to satisfy a boy's love of adventure, but prob- 
ably he was forgiven when his foster-mother 
found out that the noise was not occasioned 
by the breaking of her cream jar from the 
frost, as she had feared. It was just an in- 
nocent boyish prank, and since that time Mr. 
Blankenship has often stated that he had never 
subsequentlv gained as much fun out of a 
like expenditure, \\1ien he was eighteen years 
old his foster-father died and his foster- 
mother went to Indiana, but he had been earn- 
ing his own living after he was fourteen 
years of age. 

Mr. Blankenship married. September 18. 
1879, at Potomac. Illinois, Miss Delilah E. 
Peterson, who died December 26, 1910. Her 
parents were Cornelius and Mary (Roderick) 
Peterson. In 1882 Mr. Blankenship brought 
his family to Nebraska and located in Custer 
county, five miles northwest of Broken Bow. 



and he remained on that place until 1886, when 
he returned to Illinois, where- he remained 
three years. Farming and stock-raising have 
always engaged his attention, and he has been 
very successful. To his first marriage four 
children were bom, namely : William D., 
Rosa B., Zona V. and Edward A., the last 
named being deceased. The first three were 
reared and schooled in Custer county. Will- 
iam D., who is a farmer near Kingfisher, 
Oklahoma, married IMatie Hussey, a daughter 
of Charles Hussey, and they have one child. 
Flossy E. Rosa B. is the wife of Frank De- 
Moss, who is a resident of Danville, Illinois, 
a Democrat, a member of the order of \\'ood- 
men and of the Free Methodist church. Mr. 
and Mrs. DeMoss have four children, Hallie 
A., Flo3'd, Annis, and Gerald. Zona V. is the 
wife of John Downing, who was a farmer 
near Oakwood, and who is in the national 
army at the time of this writing; he and his 
wife belong to the Free Methodist church and 
they have no children. Politically Mr. Down- 
ing is a Democrat. Mr. Blankenship's second 
marriage took place at Alliance, Nebraska, 
August 2, 1913, when he wedded Mrs. Susan- 
nah Canter, a daughter of Hiram and Lydia 
(Smith) Donohue, who were members of the 
Baptist church. Mr. Blankenship has been 
for years a very prominent man in the United 
Brethren church and the church record shows 
that he has been an earnest worker. Politi- 
cally he is identified with the Democratic 
party. 



CHARLES F. ELLERSICK. — The mill- 
ing interests of the community of Comstock 
and the surrounding country have a capable 
representative in the person of Charles F. 
Ellersick, who has been the proprietor of a 
flour mill in this locality for a period of 
twenty-three years, and who for the last eleven 
years of that time has been located at Com- 
stock. He -has developed an excellent busi- 
ness through good management and natural 
ability, and at the same time has been able to 
serve his community efficiently in official 
capacities. 

Mr. Ellersick was born in Hanover, Ger- 
many, September 1, 1857, and cftme to the 
L'nited States at the age of twenty-four years. 
.\ millwright by trade, he was employed by a 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, concern, for which he 
worked for about twelve years, during which 
time he had charge of the installing of the ma- 
chinery for the Broken Bow flour mill, erected 
by his house. Mr. Ellersick was not emploved 
at his trade from 1888 to 1895, but in the latter 
year he bought a flour mill from Mrs. Jenkins 



410 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



and Mr. Mickle. located at Wescott. He op- 
erated that mill until the railroad, passing on 
the east side of the river, brought into prom- 
inence the town of Comstock and practically 
eliminated the town of ^^'escott, so Mr. Eller- 
sick wisely changed the location of his mill, 
in 1907, to Comstock, where it has since flour- 
ished, with a constantly increasing business. 
This mill has a daily capacity of sixty-five 
barrels, and the demand for its product at 
present is such that it is operating practically 
all the time. 

Mr. Ellersick is a business man of no mean 
ability, and one who is thoroughly familiar 
with every angle of his particular line, the 
while he is well known to the milling trade. 
with an excellent reputation for integrity and 
fidelity in business engagements. As a citizen 
he has contributed generously of time, means 
and energy to movements for the betterment 
of Comstock and its people, and for several 
years jjast he has rendered valuable ser\'ice 
as a member of the town board, his business 
judgment and general acumen being held in 
high regard by his associates. Mr. Ellersick 
is a Democrat in his political allegiance, and 
fraternally he is affiliated with the local or- 
ganizations of the Masonic order and the Mod- 
ern Woodmen of America, in both of which 
he has many friends, as he has also in busi- 
ness life. 

At Grand Island, Nebraska, in 1885, was 
solemnized the marriage of Mr. Ellersick to 
Miss Lena Stoeppelman, and they are the par- 
ents of five children, namely : Katie, the wife 
of George Young, engaged in agricultural pur- 
suits near the city of Sargent: Lena, the wife 
of Henry Hein, the owner and operator of a 
farm near Westerville ; ]\Iiss Emma, residing 
at home but engaged in teaching in the public 
schools at Scottsbluft'; Charles, a flour mill- 
er associated with his father in business at 
Comstock, the maiden name of his wife hav- 
ing been Bernice Fretz ; and Flora, who re- 
mains with her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Eller- 
sick and their children are consistent members 
of the Lutheran church, which they attend at 
Comstock, and they liberally support all re- 
ligious movements. 



HAMILTON B. GLAZIER. — Nearly 
forty years have passed since the late Isaac 
Glazier drove into Custer county in true pio- 
neer style and settled on a homestead amidst 
a veritable wilderness where habitations were 
few and where civilization was still in its 
primitive form. For twenty years he lived 
and labored, slowly and arduously developing 
a farm and establishing a home for his familv. 



and watching and assisting in the advancement 
and progress which were making the country- 
side to flourish and thrive. This honored pio- 
neer has passed from earthly scenes, but the 
reputation for industry and integrity which he 
established is being perpetuated by his chil- 
dren, among whom Hamilton B. Glazier and 
his sister are the owners of the old homestead 
which they operate, near Comstock. 

Hamilton B. Glazier was born in Winona 
county, Minnesota, November 9, 1862, and is 
a son of Isaac and Emily (Bolen) Glazier, na- 
tives of New York state. The parents grew 
to maturity in the Empire state, and they were 
married in Illinois. Shortly after that event 
they moved to Winona county, Minnesota, 
where they settled on a new farm and carried 
on operations for a number of years. Not 
satisfied with' their surroundings, and desiring 
a home on the newly opened frontier of Ne- 
braska, in 1879 they drove overland in a 
wagon to Custer county and located in the 
\icinity of the site of the present village of 
Comstock. Like all new settlers, they were 
forced to meet and to overcome many ob- 
stacles and to endure numerous hardships, but 
they were persons of hardihood and courage 
anti cheerfully faced all difficulties. Mrs. Gla- 
zier passed to her final rest in 1886, but her 
husband survived until 1898, by which time 
he had become the owner of a valuable prop- 
erty, on which were improvements of a splen- 
did character. During his residence here Mr. 
Glazier set out about thirty acres of timber, 
one-half of which is now owned by his son. 
Mr. Glazier was a Republican in politics, but 
was active therein only as a voter, never car- 
ing for public office. He and his wife were 
the parents of five children, of whom three are 
living: Miss Lois, who makes her home with 
her brothers, for whom she keeps house ; Ham- 
ilton B., who is the subject of this notice; and 
.\lbert, also a bachelor, who is associated with 
his brother in his agricultural enterprises. 

' Hamilton B. Glazier received his education 
in the common schools of Minnesota, where 
he was reared as are most farmers' sons, and 
he was about seventeen years of age when he 
accompanied his parents in their overland 
journey to Custer county. He assisted in the 
early and later development of the homestead, 
in section 4, and since the death of his father 
he has added a number of improvements, in- 
cluding buildings, machinery, equipment and 
stock. He carries on general farming and 
stock-raising and has been unifonnlv success- 
ful in his ventures, so that he is accounted 
one of the substantial men of his community. 
\\ bile a good citizen and a supporter of worth- 
while and progressive movements, he has been 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



417 



content to remain a farmer and has sought no 
positions of puhhc import. Mr. Glazier has 
never married. 



JOSEPH BRYAN. — The subject of this 
memoir was formerly a prominent farmer of 
Custer county and was specially well known 
for the part he took in the advancement of 
education, religion and material progress in the 
part of the county in which he was located. 
The people in the vicinity of Ansley owe to 
him a debt of gratitude that will be hard to 

pay- 
Mr. Bryan was born in Missouri, ^larch 
29. 1846. and was the first-born son of Will- 
iam and Caroline ( Brim ) Bryan, who were the 
parents of six children. William Bryan was 
of English descent and served in the Civil war 
until he met his death, on the battle-field of 
Shiloh. His wife, who also was of English 
descent, died in Illinois. The parents of 
Joseph Bryan moved to Clay county, Illinois, 
when he was a small boy, and there, when 
seventeen years of age. he enlisted in Company 
K, Forty-eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantn,'. 
He served three years as a valiant young 
soldier of the Union, and after the close of 
the war he returned to Illinois and engaged in 
farming. 

On September 16, 1869, ^Ir. Bn,an was 
united in marriage, at Taylorville, Illinois, to 
Miss Mary E. Baker, who was born in Rich- 
mond county, that state, and who is a daugh- 
ter of \\'illiam and Caroline- (Uterback) 
Baker, prominent and honored citizens of this 
community. Mr. Baker died in Illinois and 
his widow was a resident of Custer county, 
Nebraska, at the time of her death. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bryan became the parents of 
seven children : William B. resides in Kan- 
sas ; Isabel is the wife of J. T. Wood, of Mason 
City, Custer county: Nettie is the wife of 
(irant Stevens and they live in Kansas; Alice 
is the wife of Luther \\'ilcox. and they are 
now living in Montana : Frank G. resides in 
the city of Lincoln ; J. Harry, who lives on 
the home farm, is individually mentioned on 
other pages of this volume ; and Robert L., 
who is living with his mother on the old place, 
and who is the owner of three shares of the 
home farm, having bought shares from two 
(if the other heirs, was born July 19, 1887. 

Joseph Bryan organized school district num- 
ber 132 and served as a member of the school 
board for a number of years. He and his 
wife were largely instrvunental in the organi- 
zation of the first Sunday school in the county 
Since the death of Mr. Bryan his widow has 
continued to reside on the old homestead and 



she has devoted much of her time to the im- 
provement of the place, the development of 
the farm and the paying off of the mortgage, 
as well as caring for the members of the fam- 
ily who are at home. She and her son Robert 
have been frequent exhibitors at the county 
fair. In 1911 they secured twelve first and 
six second premiums on exhibitions of fruits, 
vegetables, jellies and honey. These premiums 
included one sweepstake. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bryan came to Custer county 
in 1879 and lived through the hard and strenu- 
ous days marked by pioneer privations. Their 
first home was a dugout, and this was later 
supplanted by a sod house, which seemed a 
palace compared with the former abode. They 
commenced with nothing and at one time were 
completely destitute of anything to eat. They 
succeeded in borrowing ten dollars from a 
more favored neighbor and made the trip to 
Grand Island for foodstuffs. All had the 
measles at the same time and many other 
hardships fell to their lot. They had to go 
to Lincoln to secure household goods, but all 
these difficulties were eventually overcome and 
they pressed forward to the goal of independ- 
ence and prosperity. This is a fine family 
and the living children to-day are a credit to 
the parents who reared them, besides being 
a valuable asset to the community in which 
they have their homes. Mr. Bryan died in 
1892, and his good wife still survives, the while 
she is an honor to the motherhood of Custer 
county. 

The son Robert, whose farming operations 
on the home place are mentioned above, is a 
very excellent young man, is a splendid farmer 
and has perfomied an admirable service for 
his mother. He received his early education 
in the district school and in all respects is 
qualified for excellent citizenship and for the 
useful service he is rendering in his home 
community. Upon him falls the responsibility 
of maintaining the old homestead. 



LEWIS R. DOWSE. — Though he has not 
advanced far beyond the psalmist's span of 
three score years and ten and still possesses 
a full amount of physical and mental vigor, 
Mr. Dowse has the enviable distinction of be- 
ing the first permanent settler of Custer 
county, arriving here in August, 1873. It can 
thus be realized that the memory of this hon- 
ored pioneer compasses the entire gamut that 
lias been run in the devlopment of this section 
of Nebraska from a prairie wilderness to a 
populous and opulent district of a great com- 
monwealth, and it is gratifying to him that he 
has been able to play a part in the civic and 



418 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



industrial progress and upbuilding of Custer 
county. 

Lewis R. Dowse is descended from staunch 
New England ancestors and is a native of 
Middlesex county, Massachusetts, where he 
was lx)rn in the town of S'herborn, October 
20, 1845. His parents, William and Caroline 
( Ware ) Dowse, were natives of the same town, 
the father born September 3, 1815, and the 
date of the mother's birth having been Sep- 
tember 3, 1820. William Dowse learned the 
trade of whip-making under the direction of 
his father, who conducted an establishment 
for the manufacture of whips, where a large 
number of people were employed. After the 
death of his father William Dowse turned his 
attention to agricultural pursuits and he was 
thus occupied the remainder of his life. He 
died in September. 1901, at the age of eighty- 
six years, having long survived his wife, who 
passed away December 27, 1847. William 
Dowse was a Republican in politics and he 
and his wife were members of the Congrega- 
tional church. 

Edmond Dowse, a brother of William, held 
the office of chaplain of the Massachusetts 
state senate for twenty years and was re-elec- 
ted at the age of ninety, but refused to serve 
anv longer. He spent his entire life in his 
native town, passing away at the age of nine- 
ty-two, and for sixty years he held the pastor- 
ate of the local church. 

The subject of this record spent his boy- 
hood days in his native village, acquiring his 
earlv education in the public schools and also 
attending an academy at Sherborn. As a 
young man he secured employment in a fac- 
tory where cards were made to be used in 
the manufacture of cotton and woolen cloth, 
his intention being to learn the business. The 
Civil war being in progress, his patriotic spirit 
was aroused and he offered his services to his 
countrv. Failing to pass the physical exami- 
nation the first time, he again sought to enlist 
when, in 1864, the last call came, and this time 
lie was successful. He faithfully ser\-ed four 
months — until the conflict was brought to a 
close. Returning to his home he began learn- 
ing the trade of shoe manufacturing, following 
that occupation until the spring of 1868, when 
he decided to follow the advice of Horace 
Greeley, and "go west." Arriving in Iowa in 
the month of March, 1868, he took up the 
occupation of farming, and he resided in Iowa 
until June, 1873, when he decided to go far- 
ther west and started for Nebraska. His ar- 
rival in Custer county was in the month of 
.■\ugust, 1873, and it has been conceded by 
those who have interested themselves in his- 



torical records that he thus became the first 
permanent settler of the county. In 1903 the 
Old Settlers Association awarded Mr. and 
Mrs. Dowse each a medal as the first settlers. 
Their daughter, Mrs. Alice Sims, also was 
given a medal, as being the first white child 
born in the county. 

At ]\Iontezuma, Poweshiek county, Iowa, 
December 21, 1869, was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Lewis R. Dowse to Miss Sarah Wag- 
ner, a native of Auglaize county, Ohio, where 
she was lx)rn February 23, 1854, a daughter 
of Samuel and Caroline (Kats) Wagner, na- 
tives of Ohio and New Jersey respectively. 
The parents of Mrs. Dowse accompanied their 
daughter and their husband to Nebraska, as 
far as Loup City, where they remained until 
the spring of 1874, when they took up their 
abode in Custer county. 

From the standpoint of material possessions, 
Mr. and Mrs. Dowse were in very moderate 
circumstances. They had several head of cattle, 
a limited supply of household goods and farm- 
ing implements, no money, but an abundance 
of energy and a determination to succeed and 
establish a home. Those early years were 
fraught with innumerable hardships and pri- 
vations. The first years their crops were de- 
stroyed by grasshoppers, and only those who 
had the experience can realize what the grass- 
hopper scourge amounted to. 

]\ir. Dowse held squatter sovereignty until 
he pre-empted the piece of land which has 
been his home to the present time. From a 
humble beginning this pioneer couple have 
labored unceasingly, and that their et¥orts have 
been crowned with success is attested by the 
fact that to-day Mr. Dowse holds title to 400 
acres of land, well improved and under a good 
state of cultivation. 

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Dowse has been 
l)lessed with the birth of eight children and 
the presence of an adopted daughter: William 
married Florence Murphy and is a farmer near 
the old home : Eliza is a graduate nurse ; .Alice, 
who was the first white child born in Custer 
county, is the wife of Charles Sims, residing 
at Newkirk, Oklahoma : Lewis S', married 
Marie Pickel and resides in the state of ^^'ash- 
ington : Lawrence married Mabel Miner and 
lives near Comstock ; Elmer married Elsie Day 
and resides on the home place ; Ethel is the 
wife of Frank Steeple, residing at Comstock : 
Nellie is deceased and Faye, unmarried, is a 
stenographer at Seattle. Washington. 

.A. recital of some of the experiences and in- 
cidents that have come to this pioneer couple 
may helj) the readers of this volume- to realize 
that forty-five years have come and gone since 



t- 



.^ 




)? 






I 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



421 



they took up their abode here. This was un- 
organized territory at that time and taxes were 
paid to \'alley county, this being considered 
a loan, and the money being refunded after 
the organization of the new county. This was 
known as Kountz county at first, named after 
a firm of pioneer bankers in Omaha. Later it 
was called Garber county, after Governor Gar- 
ber. The present name was adopted in honor 
of that gallant Indian fighter. General Custer. 
At the time of the Custer massacre the settler^ 
in this neighborhood became much alarmed and 
some of them left here and went to Fort Kear- 
ney. Those who remained built a fort of sod 
and oak and cedar logs, and petitioned the 
government to equip the "Organized Rangers" 
with guns to protect the fort. But as they 
were never molested by the Indians the fort, 
which had been erected in section 15 of this 
township, never had to be used. The Indians 
caused the greatest alarm to the early settlers. 
JNIrs. Dowse recalls that about the time of the 
Indian troubles in Montana, four Pawnees 
walked up to the house one evening while her 
husband was away. They claimed four ponies 
had been stolen by another tribe and they were 
in search of them. These four stayed all night 
at the home of a neighbor and the next morn- 
ing the Indians asked for a writing of some 
kind to prove to other settlers that they were 
friendly. The neighbor gave them this note. 
"These are friendly Indians ; grease them and 
let them slide." The spot where Mr. Dowse 
established his homestead had been the camp- 
ing ground of Indians, and here numerous 
relics have been found. They have also dis- 
covered many holes in the ground in the shape 
of jugs, probably used by the Indians in cur- 
ing meat. 

]3ut times have changed and what was a 
wild, rolling prairie is now dotted with in- 
numerable farms, with here and there thriving 
villages; schools and churches have been built 
and Custer county is a much better place in 
which to live than when Mr. and Mrs. Lewis 
Dowse came here more than forty-five years 
years ago, while in the work of transformation 
they have contributed their full share. They 
are members of the Congregational church 
and Mr. Dowse is a member of the Grand 
Army of the Republic, thus maintaining pleas- 
ant relations with the few remaining veterans 
of the Civil war. In politics he has always 
given allegiance to the Republican party — 
the party which stood for a united country 
and has' always been the party for progress 
and reform. When the history of Custer 
county is completed and the life record of its 
people written, no record will be foimd more 



worthy of a place in its pages, and none will 
be of greater inspiration to future generations, 
than that of the first family who made per- 
manent location in Custer countv. 



LILBURN F. OXFORD, local manager of 
the business of the Dierks Lumber & Coal 
Company at Comstock, has the distinction 
of having been the second male white child 
born within the borders of Custer county, 
where he was reared to manhood, so that 
it is evident few citizens of the county at 
the present time have more fully witnessed 
the transitions, the splendid development and 
progress, in this now favored and opulent 
section of the state of Nebraska. As a 
child and youth he gained his share of ex- 
perience in connection with the hardships 
and other unpropitious conditions marking the 
pioneer epoch in the history of Custer covmty, 
and he has kept pace with the march of pro- 
gres in his native county, where he has been 
actively and successfully identified with both 
agricultural and commercial enterprise. As 
manager for the Dierks Lumber & Coal Com- 
pany's business at Comstock, he is essentially 
one of the representative and influential busi- 
ness men of this thriving village. 

Mr. Oxford was born in Douglas Grove, 
Custer county, on the 22d of July, 1876, and 
is a son of James L. and Laura B. (Hender- 
son) Oxford, the former a native of the state 
of New York and the latter of Eagleville. 
Harrison county, Missouri. In the spring of 
1874 James L. Oxford came from Missouri 
to Custer county, where he took up a pre- 
emption claim immediately west of the pres- 
ent side of the village of Comstock. In the 
autumn of the same year he returned to his 
old home in Missouri, and in the following 
spring he came with his family to Custer 
county, where he took a homestead near Wal- 
worth. He improved this property and there 
continued his farming and ranching operations 
until 1883, when he established his residence 
at Broken Bow and engaged in the liver>' busi- 
ness. There his wife died, in the spring of 
1884, and he then returned to his farm, upon 
which he continued to reside until 1895, when 
he divided his Custer county landed interests 
among his children. He then removed to 
Oregon, where he purchased 640 acres of lanr! 
and where he engaged in the raising of Angora 
goats and a good grade of cattle and where 
he still maintains his home. A Republican 
in politics, Mr. Oxford has taken a lively in- 
terest in jHiblic affairs, and while he has never 
had any ;imbition for public office he served 
two vears as countv commissioner of Custer 



422 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COIXTV, NEBRASKA 



county, an office to wliich he was elected in 
the late '70s. His religious faith is that ot 
the Baptist church. 

James h. and Laura B. (Henderson) ( ).x- 
ford became the parents of seven children, all 
of whom are living except one : Myrtle is the 
wife of Leonard R. Hersh, a farmer near 
Broken Bow; ALary E. is the wife of Albert 
Blessing, a farmer near Walworth, this county ; 
Daisy met an accidental and tragic death by 
the overturning of a container of scalding 
water, about 1879, when she was a child : Lil- 
burn F., of this review, was the next in order 
of birth ; Charles, who is still a bachelor, is 
a farmer and sheep-raiser in South Dakota : 
Fred is married and is a prosperous ranchman 
in that stat6; and Albert N., who married Alay 
Waters, is likewise an exponent of agricultural 
and live-stock enterprise in South Dakota. 

For his second wife James L. Oxford mar- 
ried Ella R. Ballinger, and they became the 
parents of five children, all of who are livmg: 
Clay is proprietor of a meat market at Browns- 
ville, Oregon ; Edward and Earl are farmers 
in that locality ; Sylvia remains at the parental 
home; and Flossie is the wife of an Oregon 
ranchman. 

.Vfter having duly profited by the advan- 
tages of the public schools of Custer county, 
Lilburn F. Oxford was for one year a student 
in the Broken Bow Business College. It is 
interesting to record that the tirst school which 
he attended was that of district No. 13, and 
the little sod schoolhouse, constructed in 1883, 
was located on land belonging to his father, 
the first teacher in this school having been 
Airs. Thomas Lampman. The first school- 
teacher in that vicinity, however, was Mr. A. 
N. Peale, who conducted a select school in 
fall of 1880. In 1889 the log schoolhouse 
mentioned was replaced by a frame structure, 
and this latter building was destroyed by a 
cyclone, in 1898, while school was in session. 
One pupil, Eva Fowler, was blown through a 
door of the building and against the school 
flag-pole, the injury causing her death. Other 
pupils were severely injured hut this one was 
the only fatality. 

After completing his youthful education Mr. 
Oxford was engaged in farming during one 
year, but at this time the inception of the 
Spanish-American war led him to subordinate 
all personal interests to the call of patriotism, 
and he enlisted for service in that conflict. He 
became a member of the First Nebraska Vol- 
unteer Infantr^^ with which he served eight- 
een months. In an engagement in Marilao he 
received a flesh wound, and he proved a loval 
and efficient soldier. After having been 
granted his honorable discharge from militarj' 



service Mr. Oxford returned to the farm, 
where he continued operations for the ensu- 
ing two years. He then accepted the position 
of manager of the business of the Dierks 
Lumber & Coal Company at Benvyn, and 
he has since continued his association with 
this representative concern, with which he 
has made an admirable record, his trans- 
fer to the management of the company's 
business at Comstock having occurred in 1915. 
He has done much to further the success of 
the company's business and is known as one 
of the reliable, energetic and progressive busi- 
ness men of his native county, as well as a 
loyal and public-spirited citizen. He gives his 
political allegiance to the Republican party but 
has never manifested any office-seeking pro- 
clivities. 

June 25. 1903, recorded the marriage of Mr. 
Oxford to Miss Madge Hersh, at St. Joseph 
Missouri. Mrs. Oxford is a daughter of 
George and Minnie ( AlcWilliams) Hersh, who 
came to Custer county in 1886 and purchased 
land four miles east of Broken Bow. Mr. and 
-Mrs. (Jxford have two children — lola. born 
.\ugust 19, 1908, and Lilburn N., born April 
14,^1912. 



ROBERT E. WATERS, who retired from 
the office of county clerk of Custer county in 
January, 1919, was, until his election to this 
office, a successful farmer and stock-raiser in 
the vicinity of Broken Bow. He still retains 
his holdings, but after assuming his official 
duties he gave more attention to the latter than 
to his agricultural work, the while he showed 
just as marked capability as an executive as he 
did as a tiller of the soil. Mr. ^^'aters was 
born in Clark county, Alissouri, March 12. 
1878. a son of George O. and Elvira ( Ston- ) 
\\ aters. the former a native of Ohio and the 
latter of Missouri. 

Isom Waters, the paternal grandfather of 
Mr. Waters, was born in Kentucky and at an 
early day became a pioneer of Alissouri, later 
moving to Custer county, Nebraska, where 
he pa.^sed his last years. The maternal grand- 
father, Gieenberry Story, also was a Ken- 
tuckian and an early settler of Missouri, \vhere 
he passed away after a career passed in farm- 
ing. George O. AX'aters was bom and edu- 
cated in Ohio, where he was reared as a 
farmer, and as a young man he went to Mis- 
souri, where he married. In Alay. 1879, he 
came to Nebraska and homesteaded land in 
Custer county, continuing to be engaged in 
agricultural pursuits until his retirement, when 
he was the owner of a half-section of land. 
all of which had l>een self-gained through in- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



423 



dustrious labor and good business methods and 
judgment. He took a somewhat prominent 
part in pubHc affairs, having served as deputy 
clerk of the district court for four and one- 
half years, as well as town assessor and super- 
visor, and having established a good record. 
He was known as a leader in the local ranks 
of the Republican party, while fraternally he 
became affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. 
He and his wife are now residents of Bakers- 
field, California, and they are members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church. They became 
the parents of nine children, of whom six sur- 
vive : W. W., who is an agricultural imple- 
ment dealer at Broken Bow ; C. P., who is en- 
gaged in dealing in stock-food at Des Moines, 
Iowa; Robert E., subject of this review; G. 
H., a farmer of Bakersfield, Califoniia ; C. S., 
assistant chief of police at Bakersfield; and 
Elvira Mae, the wife of Albert Oxford, a 
stockman and farmer of Oxford, South 
Dakota. 

A child when brought to Custer county. 
Robert E. Waters secured his education in 
the public schools of Broken Bow, and when 
ready to enter upon his independent career he 
chose farming and stock-raising as the medium 
for his sttccess in the business of life. He was 
thus engaged when the Spanish-American war 
broke out, and he enlisted in Company M, 
First Nebraska Volunteer Infantry, which 
command was sent to the Philippine Islands, 
where he took part in three battles. Upon his 
return to this countrj- he received an honor- 
able discharge and resumed his labors as a 
farmer and stockman, continuing to be so 
engaged until 1915, the year of his first elec- 
tion to the office of clerk of Custer county. 
His first tenu was decidedly satisfactory to 
the voters of this county, who gave him the 
re-election in 1917, and he continued to be 
known as one of his county's most capable and 
popular officials until normal political exigen- 
cies compassed his defeat for re-election in 
the autumn of 1918. 

In March, 1905, Mr. Waters married Miss 
Clara Daniel, who was born in Custer county. 
South Dakota, a daughter of J. M. and Belle 
(\Miite) Daniel, the latter now deceased, and 
the former a retired resident of Riverton, 
Wvoming. Mr. and IVIrs. Waters have six 
children — George, ^Mildred, Lena. Elvira, 
Mary, and Riley. The first four children are 
attending school. 

Mr. Waters is a member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern \\'ood- 
men of America, in the former of which he 
has passed the various official chairs. He is 
a Democrat in politics, in wliich he has always 
taken an active part, and his influence is 



counted upon, and not in vain, during elections. 
He continues to cultivate his land near Broken 
Bow, but rather in an advisory than in an 
active way, his official duties having received 
his chief attention. 



CEAY HARRY, manager of the Broken 
Bow branch of the Nebraska Telephone Com- 
pany, became identified with this line of busi- 
ness in 1917, after several years of journal- 
istic labor. During his college days he had 
shown a talent for matters pertaining to the 
newspaper field, and when he entered upon 
his career it was in this line of endeavor; but 
business life in another direction claimed him 
eventually, and he is making a decided suc- 
cess of his present activities. Mr. Harry is 
a Nebraskan by nativity, having been born on 
a farm in Hayes county, February 28, 1888, 
a son of Thomas ]Milton and Flora (Wright) 
Harry. 

Thomas Milton Harry was born in Illinois, 
a son of Thomas Smith Harry, who passed 
the larger part of his life in that state. 
As a young man Thomas M. Harry went 
to Shenandoah, Iowa, where he married 
Miss Wright, a native of Ohio and daughter 
of Thomas Wright of Fairbury, Illinois. 
In 1885 Mr. and Mrs; Harry came to Ne- 
braska and settled in Hayes county, Mr. 
Harry homesteading and eventually perfecting 
title to a claim near Palisade. He continued 
to be engaged in farming until 1893, in which 
year he was elected clerk of Hayes county, an 
office which he retained for four years, and 
after the expiration of his term he was en- 
gaged in the grain and elevator business for a 
number of years, in the meantime serving four 
years as assessor of Hitchcock county, Ne- 
braska. He next moved to Texas, but after 
a short stay in the Lone Star state he disposed 
of his interests there and purchased a small 
farm in the neighborhood of Springfield, Mis- 
souri, where he and Mrs. Harry now make 
their home. They are the parents of four 
children — Zelma, the wife of Harris Fuller, 
a fanner of near Springfield; Clay, subject 
of this sketch; Phebe, the wife of Jesse L. 
Barlow, a farmer and stockman near Red 
Cloud. Nebraska ; and Wayne R.. residing with 
his parents. Mr. and Mrs. Harry are mem- 
bers of the Christian Science church. He is 
a Republican in politics and a member of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which 
he has passed the various official chairs. 

The early education of Clay Harry was ob- 
tained in tile public schools of Hayes Center 
and i'alisade, and he was graduated from the 
high school with honors. Following this, he 



424 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



entered Doane Acadeni)', where he was 
graduated with the highest honors of the class 
of 1907. Becoming a student of Doane Col- 
lege, at Crete, Nebraska, he took a four years' 
course, his college career being a brilliant one, 
in which he gained numerous honors, being 
editor of the college paper for two terms and 
getting out the annual college publication in 
the year 1911. In his senior year he engaged 
in the newspaper business, as one of the own- 
ers of the / 'idrttc-Hcrald, with which he was 
identified for two years. He then went to 
Central City, Nebraska, where he purchased 
the Central City Nonpareil. He was the owner 
and editor of tJiis publication for twenty-one 
months, and he then returned to Crete, where 
he spent a short time in a job-printing office. 
Following this, he went to Holdrege, Ne- 
braska, where he took charge of the Holdrege 
Citizen and remained one year. In 1917 Mr. 
Harry deserted the newspaper business to en- 
ter the service of the Nebraska Telephone 
Company, and in December of that year he 
came to Broken Bow, where he was made 
manager. He has since devoted his undivided 
attention to the duties of this post, and has 
succeeded not only in giving the people of the 
community prompt and accurate service, but 
also in advancing the company's interests ma- 
terially. 

April 9. 1915, Mr. Harry married Miss 
Esther Hollenbeck, who was born in Kearney 
county, Nebraska, daughter of John H. and 
Ida M. (Eastwood) Hollenbeck. early settlers 
of that county. Mr. Hollenbeck, who is now 
a traveling salesman, is a son of a veteran of 
the Civil war. To Mr. and Mrs. Harry there 
has come one daughter: Rosamond Ida. 
They are members of the Congregational 
church at Crete, where Mr. Harr>- belongs to 
the Masonic blue lodge. At Broken Bow he 
is an active member of the Public Serv'ice 
Club, and his military record includes mem- 
bership from 1908 to 1911 in Company H, 
First Regiment. Nebraska National Guard. 
His political tendencies make him a Democrat. 



BURRITT W. KIMBALL, a well known 
general farmer and stock-raiser near Broken 
Bow. has been a resident of Custer county for 
nineteen years and during this time has de- 
voted himself continuously to agricultural pur- 
suits, his industry, thorough methods and good 
judgment bringing about very substantial re- 
sults. Mr. Kimball was born in Benton 
county, Iowa, April 11, 1875. His parents, 
both now deceased, were Hollis S. and Marv 
(Dorsey) Kimball. 

ihe paternal grandfather, George Kimball. 



who was bom in \'ermont, removed with his 
family to Iowa during the boyhood of his 
son Hollis S., and si)ent the remainder of his 
life in that state. The maternal grandfather 
was Beal Dorsey, who died in Iowa, in early 
manhood. Hollis S. Kimball accompanied his 
parents from \'ermont to Iowa, but a number 
of years later he came to Knox county, Ne- 
braska, where he secured a homestead claim. 
He eventually proved up on this claim, and 
he continued to live on that homestead for 
twenty-five years. During the Civil war he 
served three years as a member of the Third 
Iowa Cavalry. In later life he moved to 
California, and his death took place in the 
city of Los Angeles. In his early political life 
he was a Republican but later identified him- 
self with the Populist party. To his marriage 
with Mary Dorsey, who was bom- in Iowa, 
five children were bom, and three of them sur- 
vive — Nina, who is the wife of Frank Deitz, 
a farmer in Kno.x county ; Burritt W., who is 
the subject of this sketch; and Willis, who is 
a farmer near Sioux City, Iowa. 

Burritt W. Kimball attended school in Knox 
county and completed his school course at 
Niobrara. He has always been interested 
along agricultural lines and was already an 
e.xperienced fanner when he came to Custer 
county, his first purchase of land being 
280 acres, since then increasing to 440 
acres. He has improved his property and has 
commodious and substantial buildings. May 
26. 1897, recorded the marriage of ^Ir. Kim- 
ball to Miss Florence B. Johnson, who was 
born at Fulton, Illinois, and is a daughter of 
Dwight Johnson, a manufacturer of stock and 
hog food, at Omaha. Mr. and Mrs. Kimball 
have four children : Delisle. Thelma, and 
Margaret and lone (twins.) Mrs. Kimball 
is a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church, as are also all of the children. In 
politics Mr. Kimball is a Republican and fra- 
ternally he is affiliated with the Modern Wood- 
men of America. 



ALBERT R. CHRISMAN, a man of large 
estate and high personal standing in Custer 
county, retired from his farm to Broken Bow 
in 1915 but still carries on his farm industries 
and continues the raising of horses and mules 
on a large scale. He is one of the county's 
substantial business men. 

.Mbert R. Chrisman was born in Lafayette 
countv. Missouri. September 28. 1858. and is 
a son of Joseph I\l. and Lucy B. ( Richardson") 
Chrisman. the former of whom was born in 
\'irginia, in 1833, and the latter in 1840. They 
were married in \'irginia, lived many years 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



425 



in Missouri, and both died in Nebraska, the 
mother in 1890 and the father in 1913. 

The paternal grandfather, Joseph Chris- 
man, was a pioneer from Virginia to Missouri, 
making his prospecting trip on horseback, and 
about 1837 conveying his family across the 
country by wagon. He was a farmer and 
stockman and died in Missouri. His son, 
Joseph M., accompanied him to Missouri in 
1837 but subsequently returned to Virginia, 
where he was married to Lucy B. Richardson, 
a daughter of Marcus Richardson, who spent 
his life on his Virginia plantation. To this 
marriage the following children were bom : 
Lizzie, who is the wife of R. B. Sargent, of 
Custer county; Albert R. ; M. J., a retired 
fanner of Broken Bow ; Lucy, who is the wife 
of Geo. Sweeney, of Scheding, Nebraska ; H. 
E., of Broken Bow ; Hattie, who is the wife of 
Sam Tooley, of Broken Bow ; Samuel, who is 
deceased ; and Jennie Ruth, who is a trained 
nurse. In 1883 the family came to Nebraska 
and homesteaded in Custer county. The par- 
ents were members of the Presbyterian church. 

Albert R. Chrisman had school privileges in 
Missouri. He gave his father assistance on 
the farm and when the family came to Ne- 
braska he helped to bring, with other stock, 150 
head of cows, and for many years he con- 
tinued to be largely interested in stock. He 
owns large bodies of land in the state, includ- 
ing a section in Blaine county and 480 acres in 
Custer county, north of Broken Bow. 

November 20, 1889, recorded the marriage 
of Mr. Chrisman to Emma D. Tooley, a daugh- 
ter of William W. and Lucy A. Tooley, who 
came to Nebraska in 1884, from Indiana, and 
who reside at Broken Bow. Mr. and Mrs. 
Chrisman have five children — Ray, who re- 
sides on the home farm ; Chester A., who is, 
at the time of this writing, a soldier in the 
national army ; and Lucy, Mary and Joseph. 
Mrs. Chrisman belongs to the Methodist 
Episcopal church. Mr. Chrisman is a member 
of the Woodmen and is independent in poli- 
tics. 



ROBERT R. DUNCAN, president of the 
Bank of Merna, is one of the leading business 
men and financiers of Custer county. 

Mr. Duncan is a native of the Empire state, 
born at Buffalo, New York, February 17, 1857. 
His parents, James and Christine (Ross) Dun- 
can, were natives of Scotland, coming to Amer- 
ica when young people, and were married in 
New York, where they made their home until 
1857, when they became residents of Iroquois 
county, Illinois, where James Duncan became 
a successful farmer. The remainder of their 



lives was spent in Iroquois county, where the 
mother died in 1885 and the father in 1908. 
They were the parents of six sons and six 
daughters, and they lived to see their children 
all grow to maturity and become useful mem- 
bers of society. 

Robert R. Duncan was the yoyngest of the 
boys of the family and the last to leave the 
parental roof. He was reared on a farm and 
attended the public schools in the acquirement 
of his early education, later attending the In- 
diana Normal School at \'alparaiso. For five 
years he taught scliool in Iroquois county, 
Illinois, and in 1888 he came to Custer county, 
Nebraska, where he engaged in the hardware 
business with R. J. Kelly and T. F. Kelly, at 
Merna. This was eighteen months after the 
railroad had come, and he was one of the 
pioneer merchants of the town, continuing in 
the hardware business successfully until 1903. 
In 1905 he helped organize the Home Bank of 
Merna and became cashier of the institution, 
remaining in that position until 1916, when the 
Home Bank and the Bank of ]\Ierna consoli- 
dated and Mr. Duncan became president, thus 
having been the active chief executive of the 
institution for the past thirteen years. This 
is one of the strong financial institutions of 
Custer county, its stockholders and directors 
being numbered among the substantial men of 
Nebraska. 

At Ashkum, Illinois, on May 5, 1890, was 
celebrated the marriage of Robert R. Duncan 
and Miss Agnes McDonald, a native of Chi- 
cago, Illinois, and a daughter of Alex and 
Catherine McDonald, natives of Scotland, who 
became early settlers of Iroquois county, Illi- 
nois, where both passed away. 

Mr. and Mrs. Duncan are members of the 
United Brethren church. Mr. Duncan is a 
member of Merna Lodge No. 171, Ancient 
Free & Accepted Masons and has received the 
thirty-second degree in Scottish Rite Masonr)-, 
besides being affiliated with Tangier Temple. 
Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, at Omaha. He 
also holds membership in the Merna organiza- 
tions of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows, the Modern Woodmen of America, and 
the Royal Highlanders. 

Mr. Duncan has been a resident and business 
man of Merna for more than thirty vears, ar- 
riving here when it was a \illage of 200 popu- 
lation, and he has taken a commendable inter- 
est in those things which have had to do with 
the growth and upbuilding: of the community. 
Having faith in the future of Custer county 
as an agricultural district, he has invested in 
and is the owner of 1,120 acres of Custer 
county land. \\'hile making a success of his 
own enterprises, he has not been remiss in 



426 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COL'XTV. XERRASKA 



duties of citizenship and is heki in high esteem 
and respect Ij)- all who know him. 



ROBERT .1. KELLY, a pioneer settler of 
Custer county, was bom in La Salle county. 
Illinois, October 29. 1856. His parents, Mr. 
and Mrs. Thomas Kelly, had emigrated from 
Ireland and had likewise made a pioneer home 
in the J'rairie state when Illinois was in that 
stage of its history. 

Mr. Kelly's boyhood days were spent on a 
farm in Iroquois county, Illinois. He married 
Elizabeth Carey, also of Iroquois county. In 
1883 Mr. and Mrs. Kelly came to Custer 
county and took a homestead in Dale vallev. 
For several years Mr. Kelly was engaged in 
the mercantile business and later managed a 
grain business in Merna. Since 1900 he has 
been engaged in the real-estate business at 
Merna, and in the years of his residence in the 
countv he has taken commendable interest in 
those projects which have had to do with the 
develoi)ment and progress of the county. He 
is the owner of a ranch of 800 acres and he 
has been successful in his business ventures. 

Mr. and Mrs. Kelly are the parents of five 
children - — three sons and two daughters — 
and all have grown to maturity in Custer 
countv. 



ALBERT J. V.\N ANTWERP. — During 
the past ten years the office of surveyor of 
Custer county has been occupied by Albert 
Tason \'an Antwerp, whose services have been 
of such efficiency as to preclude any idea of a 
successor being named in his stead. He is 
also a well known farmer and stock-raiser of 
his native county. He was born on his 
father's homestead in Custer county, July 4, 
1882. and is a son of Francis Edward and 
Esther .Mice (Lathrop) Van Antwerp. 

The Van Antwerp family is of Holland 
Dutch origin, and for several generations lived 
in New York state. Francis Edward Van 
Antwerp was born at St. Charles, Illinois, the 
third one of five brothers. There he grew to 
manhood, and there his marriage occurred, 
his wife being a native of Roscoe, that state. 
In 1880, with their first-born son, L. J. \'an 
Antwerp, they journeyed to Nebraska in pio- 
neer style, with a covered wagon, and took up 
a homestead in Custer county. Upon the pio- 
neer farm the father passed the remainder of 
his life, and he was successful in the accumu- 
lation and cultivation of a tract of 320 acres. 
He died January 29, 1917. Mr. \'an .\ntwerp 
was one of the well known men of his com- 
munitv, and for a number of years, ofl' and 



on, forward from 1884, he occupied the of- 
fice of county surveyor, or deputy, in addition 
to which, in 1890 and 1900, he took the census 
of \\'ood River township. He was a Repub- 
lican in his political views, and fraternally was 
affiliated with the Odd Fellows, the Camp of 
the Modern Woodmen, and the Knights of 
r\thias. Mr. and Mrs. \'an Antwerp were 
the parents of five sons — Louis J., who is 
operating a farm in the vicinity of Lodi, Ne- 
braska ; Albert J., who is the subject of this 
sketch ; Charles Edward Arthur, who re- 
sides with his mother on the old homestead : 
Major Ernest A., who famis near Lodi ; and 
Merle S., who is identified with milling in- 
terests in Calloway. 

.\fter attending the public schools of Cus- 
ter county. Albert J. Van Antwerp adopted 
the profession of educator, and for two terms 
he was engaged in instrticting the young in 
the country districts. He then entered the 
normal school at Fremont, from which he was 
graduated in 1904, and in that same year he 
Ijccame a student at the University of Ne- 
braska, which he attended through 1904 and 
1905. When his education was comjileted, he 
came to Broken Bow and became deputy 
countv surveyor under his father, a jrosition 
which he retained about five years. In 1909 
he succeeded his father in office, and each two 
years since that time he has been re-elected. 
His record in office is an exceptionally good 
one, a statement which is hardly necessary, in 
view of the fact of his repeated elections. A 
Rei>ul)lican in politics he is accounted one of 
the strong and influential members of his 
party in the county. \Miile the duties of of- 
fice have absorbed a large share of his atten- 
tion, Mr. Van Antwerp has still found time 
to devote to business matters, in which he has 
achieved somewhat m.ore than ordinary suc- 
cess. The owner of a splendid ranch of 400 
acres, he is extensively engaged in raising live 
stock, and has recently started to concentrate 
his energies in this direction in breeding full- 
blooded Hereford cattle. 

In 1905 Mr. Van Antwerp married Miss 
IMarie Eneboe. w-ho was born at Canton. South 
Dakota, a daughter of Paul J. Eneboe. ^h. 
F.neboe. who was one of the early homestead- 
ers of South Dakota, experienced many of the 
hardships of frontier life, and during his 
earlier vears was compelled to transport his 
grain seventy miles in order to find a market, 
at Sioux City, Iowa, his means of conveyance 
being an ox-team. Mr. and Mrs. Van Ant- 
werp are the parents of two daughters — Iris 
( llivet and .\vis. both attending i^ublic school. 
The family belongs to the Presbyterian church, 
and Mr. Van .\ntwerp is affiliated fraternally 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



427 



with the Masons and Odd Fellows, in the lat- 
ter of which he has passed all the official chairs 
of the local lodgfe. 



CHARLES PENN. — The experiences of 
Charles Penn, now a member of the retired 
colony of Broken Bow, have ranged through 
the pursuits of war and peace, and have in- 
cluded mining in Colorado and Mexico, black- 
smithing and machinist work in Nebraska, and 
large sheep operations in which he occupied :i 
leading and prominent place among the ranch- 
ers of his section. His career has been a long, 
useful, and eminently successful one, and, in 
his declining years, he may look back with a 
measure of pardonable pride over his accom- 
plishments. 

Mr. Penn was born in ]kIorgan county, C)hio. 
November 22, 1846, a son of Caleb P. and 
^largaret (Newhouse) Penn, natives of 
Pennsylvania. Caleb P. Penn was a son of 
Reason Penn, who took his family to Morgan 
county, Ohio, at an early day, and there the 
father of Charles Penn was educated, grew 
to manhood, and was married. In 1850 Caleb 
Penn removed to Linn county, Iowa, where he 
settled down to agricultural pursuits, but in 
the evening of life he retired from active af- 
fairs and took up his residence at Broken Bow, 
with his son, at wdiose home both he and Mrs. 
Penn passed away. They were the parents of 
four children, of whom two survive — Charles 
and George, the latter a traveling salesman, 
with headquarters at Kansas City. Mr. Penn 
was reared a Quaker, while his W'ife was a 
member of the Christian church. He was a 
Whig originally in his political views, but with 
the birth of the Republican party he became 
an adherent of its principles. 

The education of Charles Penn was ac- 
quired with some difficulty, as it was neces- 
sary that he walk three miles to and from the 
Iowa district school of his community, but 
in the meantime he also was able to learn much 
of the blacksmith and machinist's trades. The 
Civil war came on to interrupt his career, and, 
although he was little more than a lad, he en- 
listed, in 1862, in Company H, Twenty-fourth 
Iowa Volunteer Infantry, with which he 
served nearly three years. He fought with a 
command which took part in some of the 
bloodiest and hardest- fought battles of the 
great struggle between the north and the south, 
but his recollection of the hottest fight of them 
all was that of Champion Hill, where his 
regiment lost 676 during the time, out of the 
1,018 men never returning. On his return 
from the war, the brave young soldier resumed 



his trades of machinist and blacksmith, both 
of which he fully mastered, and finally he set- 
tled at York, Nebraska, where he opened a 
shop for the pursuance of his vocations. He 
•was successful in his eiTorts, and in 1882 he 
came to Broken Bow, gave up his regular 
trades, and turned his attention exclusively 
to the buying and selling of sheep, a field in 
which he had acquired some previous exper- 
ience. This was something entirely difterent 
from his mining experiences in Colorado and 
old Mexico, his working at his trades, or his 
wearing of his countr}''s uniform, but just 
as he had been successful in the other avenues 
of endeavor, so did he become prosperous in 
his operations along this line, and by 1883 he 
had 24,000 sheep and a large and valuable 
ranch. He continued to be actively interested 
in this field and to have large holdings in other 
enterprises and industries until 1907, when he 
retired from active aiTairs and transferred 
business burdens to younger shoulders. 

Mr. Penn was married December 25, 1865, 
to Miss Emily Swecker, who was born in Wis- 
consin, a daughter of an early Iowa settler. 
Mrs. Penn died October 12, 1888, having been 
the mother of ten children, of whom seven 
are living: W^ H., a sketch of whom appears 
elsewhere in this work : Effie Stephenson, of 
Edgemont, South Dakota ; Nellie Brown, of 
Leaf City, South Dakota; :Melvin, of Butte 
city, Montana ; Ellsworth, also of that place : 
Clara Shocker, of Stanton. Nebraska ; and 
Ed, engaged in carpentry at Broken Bow. Mr. 
Penn was again married January 1, 1890. when 
he was united with Miss Laura \\'ood. a native 
of England, and they have two children : 
Warren, of Los Angeles, California, a genera! 
salesman for the Hudson Automobile Com- 
pany ; and Edith, in the employ of the Burling- 
ton Railroad Company, at Lincoln. Mrs. 
Penn is a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. ;\Ir. Penn is affiliated with the. blue 
lodge and chapter of the Masonic fraternity. 
He is a Republican in politics, and on several 
occasions has held public office, having been 
city marshal while a resident of York, and 
sherift' of Custer county from 1885 to 1890, 
during which time he established a splendid 
record for efficiency, conscientious perform- 
ance of duty, and unwavering courage. 



HENRY B. LANDIS, M. D. — The pro- 
fessional labors of Dr. Henry B. Landis, at 
Broken Bow, have covered a period of seven . 
vears. during which time he has firmly estab- 
lished himself as a thorough, skilled, and 
learned practitioner. This honored member of 



428 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



the Custer county medical profession was born 
near Burlington, Iowa, April 13. 1874, a son 
of Peter E. and Elizabeth (Fetrow) Landis. 

The paternal grandfather of Doctor Landis 
was Henr>- Landis, a native of Virgina, who 
migrated to Iowa and died in the latter state, 
while on the niateranl side, the Doctor is de- 
scended from a Holland Dutch ancestor. Peter 
E. Landis was born in Virginia, June 1, 1848, 
and was a child when taken to Iowa. There 
he grew to manhood, and when the Civil war 
came on he was one of the youths who swelled 
the Hawkeye state's fighting ranks. As a 
member of Company A, Nineteenth Iowa Vol- 
unteer Infantry, he fought gallantly for two 
years and nine months. He then resumed the 
duties of peace, in a regular, honorable, and 
industrious manner, which eventuated in his 
securing compensating awards. He remained 
as a resident of Iowa until 1884, when he 
purchased a farm near St. Joseph, ^Missouri, 
where he still resides, as one of his commu- 
nity's most highly esteemed residents. Mr. 
Landis is a Republican, ' and belongs to the 
Christian church, which represents also the 
religious faith of his wife. Mrs. Landis w-as 
born at Burlington, Iowa, November 9, 1853, 
and their union, at Wapello, Iowa, has been 
blessed by the birth of eight children, of whom 
five are living: Henry B. ; Mary Kathryn, the 
wife of C. F. Remus, a merchant of Maryville, 
Missouri ; Lowrie F., who resides at the home 
place; Alice Cary, the wife of Lawrence 
Brunn, a farmer near St. Joseph; and Fern, 
residing with her parents. 

The public schools of St. Joseph furnished 
Henry B. Landis with his preliminar>- educa- 
tional training, and following his graduation 
from the high school there he entered the 
Central Medical College. His diploma and de- 
gree of Doctor of Medicine were granted him 
in 1896, and in that year he commenced prac- 
tice at St. Joseph. Two years of interne work 
at Chicago and a post-graduate course in a 
polytechnic school gave Doctor Landis further 
preparation and added to the professional 
equipment which he brought to Broken Bow 
in 1911. His reputation, gained at St. Joseph, 
and at King City, Missouri, where he was lo- 
cated prior to coming to the county seat of 
Custer county, has been strengthened and 
solidified by bis professional achievements at 
Broken Bow. He has the confidence of a 
large clientage, and a high standing among 
his brethren of the profession. His profes- 
.sional labors are of a general character, as he 
is equally at home in any branch of his call- 
ing. .As one who keeps fully abreast of the 
advancements and progress made in medicine 
and surgery, Doctor Landis is a close student. 



1 



and in this connection he is interested in the 
work of the American Medical Association, 
the Nebraska State ?kledical Society, and the 
Custer County Medical Society. He is a Re- 
publican in politics, and is affiliated with the 
Masonic fraternity, in which he is a Knight 
Templar. His religious faith is that of the 
Christian church. 

In 1900 Doctor Landis married Miss Julia 
Elizabeth Jackley, who died, without issue, in 
1907. He was again married in 1909, when 
he was united with Miss Lennis May Tanner, 
a native of Missouri. They have one daugh- 
ter, Helen Elizabeth, who is attending school. 



ALFRED C. SLOGGETT. — Prominent 
among the retired agriculturists of Broken 
Bow is Alfred C. Sloggett, who came to Custer 
county in 1886 and whose career in this state 
has been marked by advancement from a hum- 
ble position to one of independence. Alfred 
Cole Sloggett was born in the village of Gran- 
by, Canada, March 13, 1853, a son of William 
and Bathania (Horner) Sloggett. the former 
a native of England and the latter of New 
York state. 

William Sloggett was a cabinetmaker and 
wagonmaker by trade, and also conducted a 
store in Canada, which he did also after re- 
moving to Illinois, in 1856. Mrs. Sloggett 
died at Forreston, that state, about the close 
of the Civil war, having been the mother of 
twelve children, of whom four survive — Wil- 
liam, a farmer of Ogle county, Illinois ; Alfred 
C. of this sketch ; John, a farmer of White- 
side county. Illinois ; and James, formerly a 
farmer and merchant, and for the past twelve 
years engaged in the restaurant business at 
Broken Bow. William Sloggett was married 
a second time, at Forreston, Illinois, and four 
children were born of this union : Vivian, a 
clerk in a store at Fremont, Nebraska ; Mour- 
teaville, a North Dakota farmer; Mrs. Anna 
Kerlin. a widow, of Fremont ; and Mrs. Peg- 
den, whose husband is a farmer in the vicinity 
of that city. 

Alfred C. Slogett was but three years of age 
when brought by his parents to the United 
States, and his early boyhood was passed at 
Forreston, Illinois. His mother died when 
he was but eleven years of age and after that 
conditions at home were not ])leasant for the 
lad, wlio ran away when he was fifteen, and 
whi). for about a year and one-half, worked 
for John Kaline, at Woosung, Illinois, thirty- 
five "miles from home. He saved his money 
and outfitted himself with clothes, made his 
way to Clinton. Iowa, and secured a position 
in a sawmill, but this did not ]>rove congenial 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



429 



and after six months he resigned and found 
employment with a farmer named Church, 
with whom he remained four years, at twenty- 
five dollars a month — about ten dollars a 
month more than common wages at that time. 
In the meantime he attended the country school 
during the winter months. A longing to see 
some of his kinsfolk whom he had left behind, 
led him back to Illinois, where he had been 
given up for dead, but after a short visit he 
returned to Iowa, where he worked a year at 
gardening. Once more going to Illinois, he 
began working for his brother, W'illian Slog- 
gett, with whom he remained three years, fol- 
lowing which he went to the home of Ed 
Bricknell, where he boarded, and during that 
year he farmed about forty acres of com, on 
his own account. While he had been working 
for his brother Mr. Sloggett had become ac- 
quainted with Miss Emma Miller, a daughter 
of Manuel Miller, of Ogle county, and thev 
were married September 15, 1877, at West 
firove. They resided in Illinois about seven 
years, when, inspired by the stories heard of 
the west, Mr. Sloggett came to Custer county, 
Xebraska, where, about seven miles north of 
Broken Bow, he contested a farm of 160 
acres. He returned to Illinois, where he re- 
mained about one year, and then came back 
and filed on the homestead. In 1886. with 
his wife and four children, Perr)-. Bessie, 
Charlie, and George, he came to make a home 
and accumulate a competency. At this time 
his possessions consisted chiefly of a few 
horses, which died the same year, and it was 
necessar}' that he find employment, in order to 
support his family while getting a start. Ac- 
cordingly he assisted in putting in the rail- 
road switches, and he also freighted oats about 
100 miles up the line to where they were build- 
ing the railroad. Mr. Sloggett has numerous 
reminiscences of these days He tells of ford- 
ing the river and of shooting prairie chickens 
and once in a while a deer. The next year he 
took up farming, and everything went well 
until the dry year of 1894, which brought about 
hard times. The family home was a sod 
house, as were the schoolhouses, and Mr. 
Sloggett assisted in the building of two of the 
latter. On this pioneer homestead the remain- 
ing children of the family were boni : Edith, 
Hattie, Harvey, Annie, Orville, and Everett, 
of whom Annie and On-ille are deceased. 
Perry, who farms his father's homestead, 
seven miles v.est of Broken Bow, in the Union 
valley, married a daughter of Charles Jenkins ; 
Bessie A. is the wife of Joseph Loyd, an im- 
plement salesman of Broken Bow ; ^Irs. Editli 
Rosier is the wife of a very prosperous farmer 
eight miles east of Broken Bow ; Hattie is the 



wife of Clyde Bates, a farmer nine miles 
northwest of Broken Bow ; George A., a 
farmer three miles south and one mile west of 
Ansdmo, married a Miss Rotton ; Charles is 
single and a farmer; Harvey M. was taken 
into the United States serv-ice during the first 
draft, being first with Company D, v355th Regi- 
ment, at Camp Funstcn, later going to \'irginia 
and being assigned to Company F, Fourth In- 
fantry, and finally being sent as a member of 
our heroic forces in France ; and Everett is 
in the eleventh grade of the Broken Bow pub- 
lic school. 

In 1902 Mr. Sloggett and his family moved 
to the Skelton place, about ten miles northeast 
of Broken Bow, where they lived more than 
two years, and in the spring of 1905 they 
moved again, this time to the Adams school 
section, four miles east of town. During the 
eight years that they resided there numerous 
fine crops were raised and Mr. Sloggett got a 
good start, but finally he tired of farming hill 
country, and this caused another change, the 
family moving to the old Rogers ranch, about 
one and one-half miles east of Broken Bow. 
After six years Mr. Sloggett retired from 
active pursuits and took up his residence in his 
modern ind commodious home at Broken Bow, 
where he has every convenience. He is still 
the owner of 368 acres of valuable land and his 
other wise investments have made him one of 
his community's substantial men. Mr. Slog- 
gett is a Republican, and served as road over- 
seer for three years. He has been connected 
with the Modern Woodmen of America for 
twenty-five years. Mrs. Sloggett and all the 
children belong to the Methodist Episcopal 
church. 



L. E:\IMETT COLE. — One of the old es- 
tablished and highly reputable undertaking es- 
tablishments of Custer county is that con- 
ducted by L. Emmett Cole, who, during a 
period of twenty-three years at Broken Bow, 
has placed himself firmly in the confidence of 
the people. He was born at Carlinville, Ma- 
coupin county. Illinois, October 8, 1857, and 
is a son of William D. and Aramanda (Bailey) 
Cole. 

William D. Cole was bom in 1829. in Ken- 
tucky, was there reared and educated, and there 
he married Miss Bailey, the daughter of a 
Kentucky fanner. They moved from their 
native state to Illinois not long after their mar- 
riage, Mr. Cole being engaged in fanning there 
for a number of years, but after their retire- 
ment from the active pursuits of life they 
went to Boise, Idaho, where they passed away, 
their deaths being but three weeks apart. They 



430 



HISTORY OF Cl'STER COL'XTY. NEBRASKA 



were faithful members of the Methodist 
church, and Mr. Cole was a Mason and a Re- 
publican. Of their children, hve are living: 
L. Enimett; Libbie.who is the wife of John 
Neal, a real-estate broker of San Francisco, 
California; Susie, the wife of Ed House, a 
real-estate and insurance broker of Broken 
Bow ; William D.. a drugg-ist of Portland, Ore- 
gon, who married Madge Womsley, of West 
Union, Custer county ; and Fred B., who has 
charge of the North \\'ind Lumber Company, 
of Carson, Washington. 

When L. Emmett Cole was still a lad his 
parents moved to Champaign county, Illinois, 
and there, in the public schools of Champaign, 
he received his education. He was an indus- 
trious youth, and his first money was earned 
in working on a broom-corn ranch, but subse- 
quently he learned the jjainter's trade, to which 
he devoted a number of years of his life. He 
remained in Illinois until the year 1887, when 
he came to Broken Bow, and while still carry- 
ing on his business as a painter he learned the 
undertaking and embalming business. In 1895 
lie went to work for W. J. Woods, of Broken 
Bow, and this association continued for ten 
years, when Mr. Cole engaged in the under- 
taking business in an independent way. He 
has since carried on the business alone. Mr. 
Cole has conducted his business in a manner 
that has won to him the respect and confidence 
of the people of his community, and for this 
reason he is widely called upon for his services 
during times of death, his duties having taken 
him as far west on the Burlington Railroad as 
Ashby, and as far east as Mason City. He 
has an up-to-date establishment in every par- 
ticular, with every convenience and all equip- 
ment for the proper care of the dead in a rev- 
erent manner, and features of his business are 
his chapel and his automobile service, includ- 
ing automobile hearse. Mr. Cole is a ^lodern 
Woodman, an Odd Fellow, and an Elk. 

In 1886, at Champaign, Illinois, just before 
coming to Nebraska, Mr. Cole married Miss 
Emma Price, her father being a successful 
contractor and builder. To this union there 
were born four children : Mabel, who is the 
wife of Homer Desrocher, a stone contractor 
in Detroit, Michigan; Roy, unmarried, a ser- 
geant in the engineering corps. United States 
Army in France ; Grace, who is sinsrle and 
engaged in the millinerv' business at Detroit ; 
and Harry, who is still attending school at 
Broken Bow. 



H. K. .\TKISSON. — The subject of this 
review is the efficient manager of the Mill)uni 
& Custer Telephone Company and has been a 



resident of Custer county for thirty-one years. 

H. K. Atkisson was born in Wayne county, 
Iowa, January 25, 1858. His father, I. N. 
Atkisson, who was a native of Kentucky, was 
a lawyer by profession and came to Nebraska 
in an early day, residing first at Ashland, later 
at Lincoln. In 1887 he came to Custer county, 
where he made his home until his death, in 
1891, at Broken Bow. The mother of our 
subject is Mrs. Minerva (Clark) Atkisson, 
who is a native of Pennsylvania, and who is 
now making her home in California. 

H. K. Atkisson, one of a family of four 
children, accompanied his parents to Nebraska 
and came to Custer county with them in 1887. 
He was engaged in mercantile business at 
Merna for several years and for several years 
past he has been manager of the Milburn & 
Custer Telephone Company. He has been a 
notary public for eighteen years and also deals 
in real estate. When a young man he ac- 
quired considerable knowledge of law and 
legal procedure, while working with his father, 
and this knowledge he finds valuable in exam- 
ining abstracts and investigating titles to prop- 
erty. 

in Webster county, Nebraska, Mr. .\tkisson 
married Miss B. L. Wells, a native of Mich- 
igan. Mrs. Atkisson has acquired a splendid 
education, is possessed of considerable literary 
talent and is serving at the present time as 
librarian for the public librarv' of ]\Ierna. Mr. 
and Mrs. Atkisson have three children : 
Roy N., who is sales manager for Deere & 
Company of Omaha : Blanche, who is the wife 
of J. R. Judge, of Lushton, Nebraska ; and 
Veva, who is the wife of F. E. Peterson, of 
Lincoln, Nebraska. 

The family are members of the United 
Brethren church and Mr. Atkisson is a Repub- 
lican in politics. Fraternally he is connected 
with the Merna organizations of the Independ- 
ent Order of Odd Fellows, Modern Woodmen 
of America, and Ancient Order of L^nited 
Workmen, and he is one of the ])rogressive 
citizens of Custer countv. 



SA^IL'EL M. LUCE, who is now living 
retired in Merna, after many years of activity 
as an agriculturi-it in Custer county, was among 
the very early settlers of this county and has 
witnessed the changes that have been brought 
about, while in the work of development he 
has aided in many ways. 

Mr. Luce was born near Bangor, Maine, 
March 24, 1850. and is a descendant from 
Puritan stock, his ancestors having been num- 
berefl among the first settlers of the Pine Tree 
state. His father, William S. Luce, was a 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



431 



native of Maine and followed the life of a 
sailor initil he received injuries that compelled 
him to abandon this vocation. In 1854 he 
came west, and after remaining a short time in 
Chicago he established his residence in Stark 
county, Illinois, where he continued to be en- 
gaged in fanning enterprise until after the 
close of the Civil war. In 1866 he became one 
of the pioneers of Clarke county, Iowa, where 
he passed the remainder of his life, his death 
having occurred in 1871. His wife, whose 
death there occurred in the preceding year, 
was a native of Massachusetts and her maiden 
name was Hulda Rogers. Four of their sons 
were soldiers in the Civil war, all serving from 
Illinois, but in different regiments — \\'illiam 
S. in the Ninth Cavalrj' ; Alonzo in the Nine- 
teenth Infantry; Richard in the Ninety-third 
Infantry ; and Isaac in the One Hundred and 
Twelfth Infantry. 

Samuel M. Luce was a little lad of four 
years when he accompanied his parents to Chi- 
cago and he was with them when the home was 
established in Clarke county, Iowa, in 1866. 
There he completed his education and there he 
eventtially engaged in farming on his own ac- 
count. 

February 28, 1872, at the home of the bride's 
parents, near Lacelle, Clarke county. Iowa, was 
solemnized the marriage of Samuel M. Luce 
to Miss Mary V. Perry, who was bom in 
Illinois, a daughter of Zachariah and Sarah 
(Keedy) Perry, natives respectively of Ken- 
tucky and Illinois. In 1882 the parents of 
Mrs. Luce became pioneer settlers of Custer 
county, and here they passed the remainder of 
their lives, the death of the mother having oc- 
curred in 1892 and that of the father in 1893. 

Mr. and Mrs. Luce continued to reside in 
Iowa until 1882, when they came to Nebraska. 
They lived one year in Nuckolls county and in 
1883 became residents of Custer county, al- 
though Mr. Luce had come to the county the 
year before and located and filed on his home- 
stead of 160 acres, in section 6, township 17, 
range 21. Here he erected a sod house, which 
was the home of the family for twelve years. 
They were among the very early settlers in 
this part of Custer county. There was no 
town of Alerna then, not a frame house in 
Broken Bow and only nine families in Dale 
valley. Mr. Luce helped organize the school 
district, helped erect the little sod schoolhouse 
and was identified with all movements for the 
upbuilding and development of the community. 
He made a success of his ventures in agricul- 
ture, brought his land to a high state of culti- 
vation and was actively engaged in farming 
until 1906, when he retired to Merna, where 



he has resided since in a comfortable home 
erected at that time. 

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Luce has been 
blessed with seven children : Sarah is the 
wife of B. C. Browning, residing at Merna ; 
Elijah is a resident of Merna ; Nancy is the 
wife of Dell Jones, of Menia ; LeRoy is living 
at Stratton, Nebraska ; John is a resident of 
Fort Collins, Colorado; Charles \V.. IDcewise is 
a resident of Colorado : and Bessie is the wife 
of Orville Burton, of Grover, Colorado. 

Mr. and Mrs. Luce are members of the 
United Brethren church and in politics Mr. 
Luce casts an independent ballot. He affili- 
ates with several fraternal orders, being active 
in the Alodern Woodmen of America, JModem 
Brotherhood, the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows and the Daughters of Rebekah. 

Samuel M. Luce is one of the venerable 
pioneers of Custer county, where he has been 
an interested witness of the changes that have 
made the county one of the leading agricul- 
tural and stock-raising districts of Nebraska, 
and in every relation of life he has measured 
up to the full standard of manhood and loyal 
citizenship. 



HARMER E. MYERS. — Although var- 
iouslv identified with aiTairs in Custer county 
since his arrival here more than a quarter of 
a century ago, it is probably as a moral and 
religious teacher that Harmer E. Myers will 
be longest and most gratefully remembered. 
More and more is it demonstrated that a cul- 
tivated mind and fine instincts reach their 
highest development oftentimes amid agricul- 
tural surroundings, diffusing around them that 
refinement and peace which are the hall-marks 
of the born gentleman toiler. To such a class 
belongs Mr. Myers, who is now one of the 
large land-owners of Custer county, but who 
for years was one of the most siiccessful and 
most aff'ectionately appreciated laborers in the 
United Brethren church, the numerous 
churches which he founded standing as monu- 
ments to his zeal and ministerial capacity. 

Harmer E. Myers was born in Clarke county, 
Iowa, March 24, 1865, a son of Lambert P. 
and Rebecca (Rilea) Myers. His paternal 
grandfather, Jonathan Myers, was a native of 
Virginia, and moved to the Western Reser\-e 
of Ohio at an early day. In that historic part 
of the Buckeye state he passed the remainder 
of his life in agricultural pursuits, and there 
he reared a family of ten children. William 
Rilea. the maternal grandfather of Mr. Myers, 
was a native of Ohio and eventually moved to 
Iowa. In the early days he was a freighter 



432 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COrXTY, NEBRASKA 



on the Mississippi river, taking flatboats down 
to New Orleans, and was also widely known 
as a famous hunter and trapper of his day. 

Lambert Packer Myers was bom in Ma- 
honing county. Ohio, in 1834, and as a young 
man learned the caliinetmaker's trade, whicli 
he followed in his home state. He was there 
educated and subsequently went to Indiana. 
In the '50s he removed to Iowa, where he se- 
cured employment in a mill. Through indus- 
trious work and careful saving he accumu- 
lated enough capital with which to purchase a 
farm in the neighborhood of Hopeville, where 
he rounded out his career and where he died 
in 1896. He was a Republican in politics and 
he served on school boards in several com- 
munities. He belonged to the United Brethren 
in Christ. Mr. Myers was married at Funk's 
Mills, Iowa, to Miss Rebecca Rilea, who was 
born in Brown county, Ohio, and who sur- 
vives her husband, she being a resident of Bed- 
ford, Iowa. They became the parents of nine 
children, of whom eight are living: Leonard 
v., a furniture dealer, undertaker and em- 
balmer at Red Oak, Iowa, is very prominent 
in his business in his state and was formerly 
vice-president of the National Undertakers 
Association ; Marion U. is a carpenter at Bea- 
consfield, Iowa ; Harmer E. is the immediate 
subject of this review: Anna is the wife of 
H. T. Chew, a farmer of Grand River, Iowa : 
Mrs. Elizabeth Besco, a widow, resides at 
Bedford, Iowa, where she has been success- 
fully engaged in business as a dry-goods mer- 
chant for the past si.xteen years; Amianella. 
prominent in the affairs of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, is the wife of Frank Allen, 
who was formerly a leading churchman and 
merchant of Bedford, Iowa, but is now a 
prominent real-estate man of Greeley, Colo- 
rado ; Adna E. is a contractor and builder at 
Los Angeles, California; and Almond Ray, a 
graduate of the Gem City Business College, 
Quincy, Illinois, was in the banking business 
for a number of years at McAlester, Okla- 
homa, but later was a resident of Rosalia. 
Washington, and he is now engaged in fann 
enterprise near Colville, that state. 

The country schools of Iowa furnished 
Harmer E. Myers his early educational train- 
ing, and after he had taught school for one 
year he entered the Western Normal College 
at Shenandoah. Iowa, where he was graduated 
in 1888. with the degree of Bachelor of Didac- 
tics. Thereafter he taught for one year in 
Fremont county, Iowa, and one year in Gage 
county, Nebraska. For two years he was prin 
cipal of schools at Crab Orchard, Nebraska 
and for a like period at Unadilia. Otoe county. 
He then taught one term of country school 



and one term in his home school in Nebraska. 
Prior to this time he had begun his labors as 
a minister of the faith of the United Brethren 
in Christ. He joined the annual conference, 
at Shelby, Nebraska, in March. 1892. although 
he had preached one year prior to this, hav- 
ing been granted a conference license. As- 
signed tc Unadilia, he held some splendid pro- 
tracted meetings and made a success of his 
first church. He then went to Seward, where 
he was pastor for three year, during which he 
more than doubled the membership there, tak- 
ing in 121 new members. Subsequently he 
was pastor of the First United Brethren 
church at Lincoln, where he was instrumental 
in transferring the church from the suburbs 
into the city proper, and after eighteen months 
in that pastorate he went to Pawnee City, Ne- 
braska, and remained as pastor of a country 
church for two years. In the meanwhile he 
had been formally ordained to the ministry', 
the ceremony of ordination having been per- 
formed at Blue Springs, Gage comity, by 
Bishop Castle. In 1900 he came to Broken 
Bow, where he was minister for two and one- 
half years, at that time resigning from the 
regular ministry, his last sermon being deliv- 
ered in a sod church at Custer Center, Iowa. 
However, from time to time he continued to 
preach, accepting different country appoint- 
ments, and he still fills a pul[)it occasionallv. in 
addition to doing some work in the lecture 
field. During his long experience in the work 
of the church. Mr. Myers met varying con- 
ditions. During one period, for three years, 
he preached three times each Sunday. One 
of his biggest successes was a revival held at 
the O. K. schoolhouse, where he organized a 
large class. For one year he accomplished 
some gratifying work at the Ortello church, 
to reach which he had to travel forty miles 
from Broken Bow, it being his custom to leave 
this city at three o'clock Saturday afternoon, 
sleep in a hay-mow that night, and eat lunch- 
eon in his bugg\', at Mema. 

As an agriculturist Mr. Myers has made an 
excellent success. He purchased his first 
quarter-section in 1900. at five dollars on acre, 
and in 1902 he secured a like amount at the 
same price, but in VK)3 was forced to pay six 
dollars and twenty-five cents an acre for a 
quarter-section, and later, when he bought a 
half-section, the price had again advanced. He 
has sold some of his land, but still owns 600 
acres of valuable farming property, in two 
farms — one, his home ])lace, consisting of 
480 acres, while the other, eighteen miles from 
Broken Bow. comprises 120 acres. Mr. 
Myers does much in the way of stock-raising 
and dairying, a field of enterprise in which he 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



433 



educated himself, and he has a splendid herd 
of Durhams. He has milked as high as forty- 
seven cows, although the average is twenty- 
five, and in 1917 he sold six hundred dollars' 
worth of cream, it having been his expectation 
in 1918 to advance that figure to over $1,000. 
He usually sells and ships a car-load of cattle 
and a like amount of hogs each year, and he 
has made a success also in the raising of reg- 
istered Percheron stallions. 

In 1889 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
JMyers to Miss Ella I. Talley, who was born in 
Ringgold county, Iowa, a daughter of Isaac A. 
and Nancy (Keller) Talley, who were born in 
Ohio, and came to Iowa in 1856. being 
among the earliest pioneers of Ringgold 
county, Iowa. To ]\Ir. and Mrs. Myers there 
have been born the following children : Evan- 
geline B. is the wife of William Hein, a farm- 
er near Westerville, Custer county ; Joy U. 
is engaged in teaching at Hastings, Nebraska : 
Paul S. resides at home and assists his father ; 
Vivian is the wife of Frank Thornton, a far- 
mer near Westerville; Jessie is engaged in 
teaching; and Royal, Hallie, and Beulah re- 
main at the parental home. Mr. Myers is in- 
dependent in his political views, and his only 
public office was that of a member of the town 
council at Crab Orchard, Johnson county, Ne- 
braska. 



FRED J. BAHR. — A comparatively recent 
addition to the grain and coal merchants of 
Broken Bow, F. J. Bahr established his in- 
terests here in 1909, bringing with him a com- 
mendable ambition to succeed, and that his 
aims have_been realized is shown in the fact 
that he is to-day numbered among the leading 
business citizens of his adopted community. 
Mr. Bahr was bom August 16, 1868, at Fay- 
ette, Iowa, a son of John J. and Lucy (Tim- 
merman) Bahr. 

John J. Bahr was born April 1, 1830, in the 
province of Alsace-Lorraine, France, and was 
a young man when he came to the United 
States with his father. William Bahr, and lo- 
cated in New York. There he married and 
for a few years was engaged in fanning, but 
about the vear 1860 he came to the west and 
bought 400 acres of land in Fayette county. 
Iowa, where he spent the remainder of his 
life. He was a Republican in politics, was a 
blue lodge Mason for fifty-fi\e years, and in 
religious^ faith was a Congregationalist, while 
Mrs. Bahr was a ^Methodist. They were the 
parents of the following children : Eva is the 
wife of J. M. Alexander, a farmer and real- 
estate broker of Gothenburg, Nebraska, he 
being an Odd Fellow and a Republican ; Will- 



iam A., a farmer of near Eagle, Nebraska, 
and a Republican, married Amy Roberts ; 
Polly is the wife of William Sharp, for years 
a fanner at Eagle, and now at Trenton, a Re- 
publican and a member of the Methodist Epis- 
copal church ; Mary is the widow of J. D. 
Freeman, who died at Mercedes, California, in 
the spring of 1917, he having been a Demo- 
crat, a Alodern Woodman, and a member of 
the Congregational church, to which Mrs. 
Freeman belongs; Fred J. is the subject of 
this review ; Orson K., a Mason and Republi- 
can, and farmer in Montana, married Lucy 
Allen, a daughter of Charles Allen ; and 
Thomas J., a Alason Republican and member 
of the Jklethodist Episcopal church, was for- 
merly a farmer and is now a resident of the 
San Luis Valley of Colorado ; he married 
Maude Jackson, daughter of John O. Jackson 
of Custer county. The maiden name of Mrs. 
Fred J. Bahr was Lucy Timmerman, and she 
was born in JeiTerson county, New York, a 
daughter of Henry Timmerman, and a direct 
descendant of a hero of the Revolutionary war. 
Her father was born March 8, 1796, and on 
November 19, 1820, married Polly Conley, 
who was born May 27. 1801, and who died 
May 6, 1876, Mr. Timmennan dying October 
6, 1883. Her grandfather, Henry Timmer- 
man, was bom in Montgomery county. New 
York, January 1, 1750, and in 1775 enlisted 
for service in the patriot army, for service in 
the war of the Revolution, under Captain 
Stuttel Yates. This command went on a cam- 
paign of eleven months into Canada, under 
General Montgomery, and its members were 
then discharged, at Quebec. Mr. Timmerman 
making his way back to his home, at Little 
Falls, on the Mohawk river. Drafted in 1776. 
he was sent to Ticonderoga and was out one 
month, and in the same year he was sent to 
assist in blockading Wood Creek ; to Fort 
Stanwick, where there was a general engage- 
ment; and at the mouth of the Unadilla river, 
where he was stationed for about two weeks, 
under Major General Sylsen. In a campaign 
under Brigadier-General James Clinton, he 
fought against the western Indians and was 
then called into the militia sen'icc, which oc- 
cupied about one-quarter of his time until the 
year 1780. He then enlisted in the batteau 
service, under Captain Samuel Gray, and re- 
mained therein for two seasons, during which 
time he was supposed to be out from six to 
seven months. His wife bore the maiden name 
of Polly Kellas. 

Fred J. Bahr was educated in the schools of 
Iowa and Nebraska, was reared as a farmer, 
a vocation which he adopted upon attaining his 
majority. When he disposed of his interests 



434 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY. NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



435 



in his native state, he came to Nebraska and 
secured a ranch of 400 acres, six miles north 
of Broken Bow, where he is making a success- 
ful specialty of raising the large type of Ches- 
ter-White hogs. In 1909 ]\Ir. Bahr came to 
Broken Bow, where he established himself in 
the grain and coal business, and this line he 
has followed to the present time, his splendid 
business abilities having enabled him to build 
up a large and important industry. 

Mr. Bahr married Miss Minnie Morris, and 
to this union there have been born three chil- 
dren ; H. Morris, who is in the eleventh grade 
of the Broken Bow high school ; Vivian M., 
a teacher in the high school at Broken Bow, 
Nebraska ; and Frederick J., six years of age, 
who has just started to attend the Broken 
Bow public school. 



DR. Q. HOWARD STEVENS. — While 
he is comparatively a newcomer in the city of 
Broken Bow, where he took up his residence 
and began practice in September, 1916, Dr. 
O. Howard Stevens has succeeded in estab- 
lishing himself firmly in a position of promin- 
ence in professional circles, as well as in the 
confidence of the public. He is a native of the 
state of Nebraska, having been born at Mil- 
lard, Douglas county, February 11, 1870, a son 
of George F. and IMary C. Stevens. 

George F. Stevens was bom in Maine and 
was a young man when he moved to Nebraska, 
in lSo6, Mrs. Stevens immigrating to the 
United States from Denmark in the year fol- 
lowing and taking up her home in this state 
also. They were married at Omaha, being 
residents of that place when it was but a small 
village, with little promise of its coming great- 
ness, but later they took up land at the pres- 
ent site of Millard, the town being located on 
their old pre-emption claim. 

Quincy Howard Stevens passed his boyhood 
and youth in eastern Nebraska. He received 
his preliminary educational training in the pub- 
lic schools, and subsequently attended Fre- 
mont College, where he had a creditable career 
and graduated with the degrees of Bachelor of 
Science, Bachelor of Arts, and Graduate m 
Pharmacy. On leaving college he found hnn- 
self equipped for educational work, and there- 
after he served as superintendent of public 
schools in several communities. While en- 
gaged in these labors he prepared himself as 
an optical refractionist. He attended the 
Needles Institute of Optometry, in Kansas 
City, from which institution he was graduated 
with the degree of Doctor of Optometry, and 
following this he was for a time engaged in 
practice at Omaha, in the meantime teachmg 



in the Omaha Optical School. He located at 
Broken Bow September 1, 1916, and has since 
had a successful practice. He possesses a 
natural love for his profession and an earnest 
desire to assist his ailing fellow humans. His 
slogan : "See Stevens and See Better" is ex- 
.pressive and characteristic. His office is lo- 
cated in the Bow, where he has a complete 
optical equipment for testing eyes and making 
and fitting glasses that give comfort and good 
vision. 

Mrs. Stevens was formerly Miss Elvira 
Morris, and she was an instructor in the pubic 
schools of Columbus City prior to her mar- 
riage. There is one son, Howard B., aged ten 
years. 



JOHN J. DOUGLASS, who is now one 
of the highly esteemed retired citizens of Call- 
away, has the distinction of being one of the 
three surviving organizers of Custer county. 
For forty-three years he has resided within 
the borders of this county, during which time 
he has seen the country grow and has assisted 
it in its development, his experiences having 
included the various conditions, incidents, and 
eras of life here from the rough and rugged 
happenings of the frontier days to the refine- 
ments and conveniences of modern civilized 
existence. 

Mr. Douglass was born ^klarch 17, 1845, 
at Sabina, Ohio, and is a son of Thompson 
and Ann (Coulter) Douglass,^ the former a 
native of Columbiana county, 'Ohio, and the 
latter of Ireland. His paternal grandparents, 
James and Mary (Taylor) Douglass we/re 
born in Scotland and were early settlers in 
Ohio. There were three sons and three 
daughters in the family: Albert, Sarah J., 
John J., Flora A., George, and Arminda, of 
whom Sarah J. and Albert are deceased. The 
common schools, which he attended during 
the winter terms, furnished John J. Douglass 
with his educational training, and until he was 
sixteen years of age he remained under the 
parental roof and assisted his father. At that 
time, however, he became restless, and, desir- 
ing to do something on his own account, ac- 
cepted a position as clerk in a dry-goods and 
grocery store. He started at a wage of eight 
dollars a month, and during the four years 
that he was thus employed he was gradually 
given advancement, but he finally decided that 
mercantile life was not his forte, and he re- 
turned to farming, in which he was engaged 
for two years. About this time — not long aft- 
er the close of the Civil war — he contracted 
the western fever, and in 1868 he came to Ne- 



436 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



braska, settling at Falls City, Richardson 
county, in the extreme southeast corner of the 
state. It is worthy of note that he made the 
entire journey of 1.100 miles, from Sabina to 
Falls City, on horseback — a big job for one 
horse and quite an undertaking for a young 
man who did not know the country. All- 
northern Missouri at that early date was thinly 
settled, and hundreds of stone and brick chim- 
neys, known as "Lincoln monuments" at that 
time, were all left to show what had been pros- 
perous homes before the ravages of war dev- 
astated the country. Arriving at Falls City 
in 1868, he secured employment as clerk with 
the mercantile firm of Reavis & Cameron. It 
was his desire at this time to venture further 
out on the frontier, and his plans for such a 
move had been practically completed when an 
incident occurred that dissuaded him from his 
desire at that time to get into the big-game 
countn,'. A party of United States surveyors 
went out on the Republican river to survey 
government land, and the entire party was 
ambushed by hostile Indians and massacred 
to a man. Air. Douglass' friends persuaded 
him to abandon his trip, and he eventually 
returned to Ohio, where he remained several 
years, until the Indians were quieted. 

In January, 1875, Mr. Douglass again left 
his Ohio home to return to the country which 
had gained such a hold upon him during his 
first trip, and he arrived here on the 6th day 
of that month. From Missouri he drove in 
a bunch of cattle, which he held on the Platte 
river during the summer, and during that 
time came to Custer county and located a 
ranch for the Rankin Live Stock Company, 
about a mile west of the present site of Call- 
away. Subsequently he went down into the 
Indian Nation and brought this concern's 
cattle, about 800 head, to the ranch, as w^ell as 
about 150 head of his own, which he had been 
holding on the Platte river. He was hired as 
foreman for this company and worked for 
them in that capacity about two years, or 
from 1876 to 1878. following which he put in 
about five years riding the range as a cowboy. 
Eventually he secured a large bunch of cattle 
of his own, and as the years passed he secured 
larger and larger business interests, so that 
finally he became one of the leading business 
men of the community, as well as an influen- 
tial factor in financial circles. At the present 
time he is retired from active business pur- 
suits and lives in his handsome and comfort- 
able modern house at Callaway. 

Mr. Douglass was married January 19, 
1892, to Miss May Taylor, who was born in 
Marion countv, Iowa, a daughter of Edgar 



and Sarah Margaret (Williams) Taylor. Mrs. 
Douglass' maternal grandparents had been res- 
idents of Missouri, but when the Civil war 
came on they were sympathizers M'ith the 
I'nion cause and were compelled to abandon 
their home and move to Iowa, where they lived 
until after the days of secession, of conflict, 
and of reconstruction. Mrs. Douglass received 
her education in the public schools of Iowa, 
attending the high school at Missouri \"alley 
and later completing a normal course at the 
\\'oodbine Normal school, at ^Voodbine, that 
state. She taught several terms of school in 
Harrison and Alonroe counties and then came, 
in July, 1888, to visit a friend at Broken Bow. 
As teachers were not plentiful, she was asked 
by Charles Randall, then county superinten- 
dent, to accept a school at Berwyn, a few miles 
east of Broken Bow. She accepted the school, 
and completed the term with much credit to 
herself as well as the district. About that 
time this school closed, and she was of¥eted 
a position in the ofifice of her future husband, 
who was clerk of the district court. She ac- 
cepted this position and held the same for four 
years, or until the expiration of Mr. Douglass' 
term of office, soon after which they were 
married and went to live on Mr. Douglass' 
farm, just west of Callaway. 

The country, however, was swept over by 
drouths, which left desolation in their wake, 
and great hardships were thus endured by 
those who could not turn to some other work 
than farming. Mrs. Douglass again took up 
school work, teaching for ten months the 
first year, with only a few days between terms, 
and she had begim on the third term when 
she received an appointment to a position in 
the state land commissioner's office, at Lin- 
coln, which she accepted and held until she 
resigned to come home and work in the post- 
ofifice, her husband having been appointed 
postmaster during her absence. She held the 
position of assistant postmaster for seven 
years. In March, 1906, Mrs. Douglass took a 
post in the Seven Valleys Bank, which she 
held for over a year, when she again engaged 
in school work, and she has taught continu- 
ously since that time, with the sole exception 
of one year, during which she attended the 
Kearney State Normal School She spent the 
summer of 1915 in the office of State Super- 
intendent A. O. Thomas : thus her entire time 
has been devoted to some phase of school work 
for the last fifteen years. She has assisted 
several of the county superintendents of Cus- 
ter county in giving teachers' examinations, 
and in many other ways she has aided those 
interested in educational work. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



437 



During all the years in wh'oh ^Irs. Douglass 
has taught in the rural schools of Nebraska, 
ii has been her boast that she has never missed 
a day from school on account of the weather, 
although she has faced many a snow storm 
and even severe blizzards in making her trips 
to and from school. She has been blessed with 
exceptionally good health and possesses an en- 
ergy- that equals and exceeds that of almost 
any other woman in the state. By attending 
teachers' institutes and also the summer ses- 
sions of the State Normal School, she has kept 
pace with the times in the progress made in 
the various departments of school work. Be- 
sides her school work, Mrs. Douglass is an 
active member of several lodges, the church, 
with its various organization, and a number of 
clubs. She is one woman who is happy at 
having cast her lot in Nebraska and she often 
declares that she would not exchange her 
little cottage at Callaway for a mansion in the 
far east. 

]\Ir. Douglass is one of the thirteen men who 
organized Custer county, and of the number 
only three are living in the summer of 1918 — 
A. L. Wise, Milo F. Young, and \h. Douglass. 
He has always been prominent and active in 
the affairs of the county, having been elected 
clerk of the first district court of Custer county, 
in 1887, an office which he held for four years. 
His election came ten years after the organiza- 
tion of the county, the work in the meantime 
having been done by the county clerk. He 
also served as postmaster during a long period, 
besides holding various other ofifices, and his 
public record is an excellent one. While now 
living in retirement, he is still interested in 
county afifairs. and his latch-string is always 
out to his many friends of the olden arid later 
days. Mr. Douglass is fraternally identified 
with the Mystic Legion. He is a Republican, 
is an advocate of woman suffrage, and his re- 
ligious faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. 



THOM.A.S H. BROWN has been identified 
with railroading ever since he entered upon 
his career as a lad of seventeen years, and his 
experiences therein have brought him into con- 
nection with the systems of both the United 
States and England. Mr. Brown, who is now 
cashier of the Burlington Route at Broken 
Bow, was born in Yorkshire, England, Januar\' 
29, 1S80. and is a son of Edward and Eleanor 
rMudd) Brown. 

The vocation now followed by Thomas H. 
Brown is. one which has had the services of 
the family during a long period, for his 



father was a depot agent in England, his 
native land, for more than forty years, and 
there he died when still in the service of one 
of the big railways. He was a well known 
man in his calling, as he was also in the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he 
was a member for many years. Mrs. Brown, 
also a native of England, survives her hus- 
band and still resides in that country. There 
were two sons and four daughters in the fam- 
ily, and of the five children now living only 
two are in the United States : Elizabeth, the 
wife of George Thompson, a farmer near 
Edgemont, South Dakota ; and Thomas H., 
the subject of this sketch. The family be- 
longs to the Church of England. 

Thomas H. Brown was given a public- 
school education in England, and when he was 
seventeen years old an opportunity presented 
itself for him to take up railroading. Having 
a natural inclination in that direction, he ac- 
cepted his chance and thus gained much ex- 
perience and won promotion before coming to 
the United States. January 31, 1911. Going 
direct to Edgemont, South Dakota, he secured 
employment in the office of the Chicago. Bur- 
lington & Quincy Railroad, where his work im- 
pressed the officials favorably, and in Decem- 
ber, 1912, he was transferred to the office at 
Broken Bow and placed in the position of 
cashier. He has since retained this post and 
has concentrated all his energies in the dis- 
charge of his official duties. During his resi- 
dence here, Mr. Brown has become widely ac- 
quainted, both with railroad men and others, 
and has succeeded in establishing a number of 
warm and sincere friendships. 

In February, 1912, at Hot Springs, South 
Dakota. Mr. Brown married Miss Annie 
Veronica Stockdale, who was born in Eng- 
land, and to this union there has come one 
son, John Edward, who is now attending 
school. Mr. and Mrs. Brown are members of 
the Protestant Episcopal church. He is a 
Democrat in his political views, and is fra- 
ternally identified with the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows and the Modern \\'oodmen 
of America. 



CHARLES F. BRAMER. — Classed with 
the well-to-do and highly esteemed citizens of 
Custer county, Charles F. Bramer has won 
well merited success in the field of farming 
and stock-raising, and since his advent in this 
locality, in 1907, has steadily advanced in po- 
sition and prominence. He is a native of Ger- 
many, born at Labes. Pomerania. in 1863, a 
son of Fred and Amelia (Aldrich) Bramer. 

I"red Bramer, a farmer by vocation, immi- 



438 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



grated to the United States with his family in 
1885 and settled in Saline county, Nebraska, 
where he followed agricultural pursuits dur- 
ing the remainder of his life, achieved a mod- 
erate degree of success, and died at the age of 
seventy years. He and his wife were the 
parents of the following children: Albert, 
who is engaged in farming in the neighbor- 
hood of Stamford, Nebraska ; Ricka, who still 
resides in (lermany ; Mrs. Amelia Myers, of 
Shickley, Nebraska; Mrs. Ida Schmidt', who h 
deceased; Mrs. Lena Bielke, whose husband 
is a farmer at St. Michel ; Charles F., who is 
the subject of this notice; Fred, who is a 
ranchman of this state; and Herman, who is 
identified with a lumber company in the state 
of Washington. 

Charles F. Brainer received his education 
in the public schools of Germany and had just 
passed into his majority when he left his na- 
tive land and immigrated to the United States. 
He first located in Saline county, Nebraska, in 
1884, but fourteen years later he removed to 
Buffalo county, where he continued agricul- 
tural pursuits until coming to Custer county, in 
1907. His operations here have all been along 
the line of general farming and stock-raising, 
and in each field he has achieved an enviable 
success. At this time he is the owner of a 
well cultivated farm located in section 16, 
township 71, where he has good buildings and 
other improvements, and his standing in his 
community is that of a capable farmer, an 
honorable business man, and a citizen of in- 
tegrity. Mr. Bramer belongs to the Roval 
Highlanders, and he and the members of his 
family are members of the Evangelical church 

^Ir. Bramer was married in 1889 to Bertha 
Schroeder, and they have the following chil- 
dren: Clara Mitchell; Gertrude Boyd, of 
Ansley ; Minnie Porath, of Wyoming ; and 
Ben, Clarence, Edwin, John. Elsie, Bertha, and 
Mabel, all residing with their parents. 



RHINEHART PORATH. — One of the 
fine farms of the southeastern part of Custer 
county is the property of Rhinehart Porath. 
It comprises 720 acres of rich and arable land, 
and the well tilled fields surround substantial 
buildings — a pleasant residence, commodious 
bams, and excellent outbuildings. Mr. Po- 
rath. the proprietor, has been a resident of 
Custer county since 1891, and during the 
period of his residence here he has advanced 
himself, through industry and careful and in- 
telligent management, to a position among the 
leading agriculturists of the locality. He was 
born in Pommern, Gennany, in 1860, and is a 
son of William and Fredericka Porath. 



The parents of Mr. Porath, who passed 
their entire lives in Germany, were farming 
])eople in moderate circumstances, and devoted 
themselves to the making of a comfortable 
home. Fhey were faithful members of the 
Lutheran Reformed church, and died in that 
faith, the father when sixty-four years of age, 
and the mother at the age of si.xty-three years. 
They were the parents of the following chil- 
dren : Rhinehart, the only one in .\merica, 
and Mrs. Amelia Kreoger, Gustav. Emma, and 
Ileinrich, all of whom live on farms in Ger- 
many. Rhinehart Porath received his educa- 
tion in the schools of his native land and was 
variously employed, principally at farming, 
until he came to the United States, in 1883. 
First settling in Wisconsin, he spent one year 
there, and he then came to Nebraska, where 
for two years he was employed in Saline 
county. In 1886 he entered the employ of the 
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, dur- 
ing the construction of that company's line 
from Mason City to Litchfield, and he worked 
also for several contractors. He has memories 
of the latter connection still, for there are still 
three weeks of unpaid wages due him by a 
contractor named Reynolds. He also worked 
at Miller during the construction of the Union 
Pacific Railroad, but finally returned to farm- 
ing, when, in 1891, he bought a relinquishment 
in Custer county. To his original purchase he 
has added from time to time, as his finances 
have allowed, and at the present day he has 
720 acres in his property. A large amount of 
this land is under cultivation and devoted to 
general farming, and Mr. Porath also has met 
with much success as a raiser of horses, cattle, 
and hogs. He is a man of sound business 
ability, and is one of the most practical and 
]>rogressive agriculturists of the community. 
He uses the most improved machinery in the 
develo]>ment and other operations of his farm, 
owning his own implements and doing his own 
repair work, and he finds an automobile of 
great value to him in the daily course of his 
business duties. He has been content to keep 
a!)Sorbed in his agricultural affairs and has not 
aspired to prominence in public life, but as a 
citizen has been strong in his support of con- 
structive legislation. 

In 1898 Mr. Porath was united in marriage 
to .-Xmelia Miller, of Swanton, Nebraska, and 
they became the ]>arents of the following chil- 
dren : Benjamin, who is married and resides 
on a homestead in Wyoming ; Ludwig, who is 
married and resides on a claim in the same 
state ; Margaret, who is married and lives in 
Buffalo county, Nebraska ; Hilda, who is the 
wife of a Custer county farmer; and Paul, 
Lena, John, Eunice, Edmond, and \\'ilma, all 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



439 



of whom remain at the parental home. Mr. 
and Mrs. Porath are members of the Evan- 
geHcal church, and they attend the church of 
this denomination at Mason City. The plea- 
sant Porath residence is located in section 27, 
township 71. 



HARRY C. KIMBALL, one of the sub- 
stantial business men of Broken Bow, has 
been engaged in the undertaking business here 
since 1904 and holds the oldest state license in 
Custer county. He was born January 29, 
1878, at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, a son of Ken- 
drick W. Kimball, and a grandson of Kendrick 
Kimball, a native of Ireland and an early set- 
tler of Wisconsin, where he was engaged in 
farming. 

Kendrick W. Kimball was born in Wiscon- 
sin, and is one of the few old settlers of Cus- 
ter county who still own their old home- 
steads. He came to this county in 1882, in 
the spring of which year he located in Clear 
Creek valley, east of Westerville, and for 
many years he actively followed farming in- 
dustry. He is now in retirement and makes 
his home at Ansley, where he is surrounded 
by every comfort. He is a member of the 
Christian church, belongs to the Modern 
Woodmen, and is a Republican in his politi- 
cal view. In 1876, at Stockbridge, Wiscon- 
sin, he married Miss Myra Bourne, a daugh- 
ter of Frank Bourne, of English descent, who 
was for twenty-eight years a sailor on whaling 
vessels and who visited many of the ports 
of the world. Seven children were born to 
Mr. and Mrs. Kimball : Harry C. is the sub- 
ject of this review ; Mary Alice, is the wife 
of Arthur Anderson, a farmer living eight 
miles northeast of Ansley, Nebraska ; Jessie 
M. is the wife of John Hall, a farmer near 
Ansley ; Bert F., a farmer living northeast 
of Berwyn, this county, and a Woodman and 
Odd Fellow, married Mabel House; Kendrick 
C. is an electrical engineer of Trident, Mon- 
tana, and is a Mason and Woodman ; Ruth is 
the wife of Uriah S. Lowden, a farmer on 
the old Kimball homestead, near Westerville ; 
and Theo George, a high-school graduate and 
member of the Woodmen, is working as an 
electrical engineer, with his brother at Tri- 
dent, Montana. 

In the earning of his first dollar, Harry C. 
Kimball, showed himself a lad of resource 
and initiative. A circus was showing to the 
populace at Ansley, and notwithstanding the 
fact that the youth was unable to obtain from 
his father the price of admission, he attended 
the exhibition and soon had struck a bargain 
with the clown. Whereupon, in the parade. 



young Kimball was found driving a little 
grey mule hitched to a cart, the lad sitting 
under a screen and holding aloft a monster 
papier-mache head on a pole. Not only did 
he see the circus, but when he returned to his 
home that night he was able to display his 
earnings, and was, perhaps, the proudest boy 
in Custer county. In 1897 he was graduated 
in the Ansley high school, and following this 
he began working on the farm during the 
summer months, while in the winter terms 
he taught school in the country, for six sea- 
sons. In 1904 he came to Broken Bow and 
entered the employ of S. P. Groat, in the 
furniture and hardware business, subse- 
quently holding a clerkship with Rockwell & 
Armstrong and their successors. In 1906, 
however, he engaged in business on his own 
account, and since that time he has steadily 
advanced in fortune and reputation, being 
known as the proprietor of one of the leading 
undertaking and embalming establishments in 
Custer county. Mr. Kimball has installed 
every appurtenance known to the art of mod- 
em undertaking, and is prepared in every 
way for the reverent handling of the dead. 
Possessing tact of the rarest kind, he is a 
sincerely appreciated friend at the homes 
which the angel of death has visited, and the 
confidence which is reposed in him comes 
from the manliness and integrity which he has 
displayed upon all occasions- 
Mr. Kimball was married June 17, 1908, at 
Lodi, Nebraska, to Miss Emma Ward, daugh- 
ter of Martin and Mary Ward, fanning peo- 
ple of English descent and members of the 
Evangelical church. One son has been born to 
this union : Hugh C. W., eight years of age 
and attending school. Mr. Kimball is a 
prominent Republican, and has served Broken 
Bow four years as a member of the city 
council. He is affiliated with the Odd Fel- 
lows, Woodmen, and Highlanders, and he 
and Mrs. Kimball belong to the Christian 
church. 



ELISHA TAYLOR. — Prominent among 
the operators in real-estate, loans, and insur- 
ance in Custer county is Elisha Taylor, a resi- 
dent of this locality for thirty-five years. Long 
a farmer and ranchman, he gave his attention 
strictlv to those pursuits until 1900, when he 
established himself in business at Broken 
Bow, and since that time he has so ably di- 
rected his activities and operations that to-day 
he is listed among the leading business citizens 
of the county seat. Mr. Taylor was boni in 
Green county, Wisconsin, December 20, 185 L 
a son of Miner and Anna (Norder) Taylor. 



440 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



Miner Taylor was born in the old Empire 
state, in 1825, and was a son of Elisha Taylor. 
a New York miller who passed his last days 
in Michigan. Miner Taylor was just past his 
majority when he moved to Green county, 
Wisconsin, where for a time he followed his 
trade of cooper. Later he became a saw-mill 
owner and after operating a business of that 
kind for a number of years he eventually con- 
centrated his energies in farming. He was 
engaged in the latter pursuit when the Civil 
war came on, and in January, 1863, he enlisted 
in Company K, Sixteenth Wisconsin Volun- 
teer Infantry, with which he served until the 
close of the war. He advanced to the rank of 
corporal, and in numerous hard-fought en- 
gagements, several of them during Sherman's 
"march to the sea," he displayed soldierly 
qualities that made his record an excellent one. 
In 1888 Mr. Taylor came to Custer county, 
Nebraska, and bought a farm near Merna, 
where he passed the rest of his life in farm- 
ing. He was a Socialist in his political belief, 
but took no active part in political or public 
affairs. His death occurred in 1906. In 
Green county, Wisconsin, he married Miss 
Anna Norder, who was born in Switzerland, 
in 1830, and who died in 1854. They had two 
children : Louisa J., the wife of G. A. Wiggins, 
a farmer at Cooper, Iowa ; and Elisha, of this 
review. For his second wife Mr. Taylor 
married Lenore Steams, and they became the 
parents of nine children, of whom seven are 
living: Jerome, who owns a stock farm of 
5,000 acres, in North Carolina ; Jessie Dietz, 
who is the wife of a Custer county farmer; 
Allen, who is traveling in Missouri ; Frank, 
who is a photographer of Broken Bow ; Hetty, 
who is the wife of Florin Jacobs, a fanner and 
president of the Co-operative Company store 
of Broken Bow' : Nellie, who is unmarried and 
a resident of Broken Bow; and \^'illis W., 
who is a farmer near this place. 

Elisha Taylor attended the district schools 
of Green county and the normal school at 
Whitewater, Wisconsin, and for his first voca- 
tion adopted the educator's profession. After 
five tenns of teaching, he resumed farming, 
and he continued to till the soil of Wisconsin 
until 1880, in which year he came to Nebraska 
and took up a homestead in Blaine county. 
He entered the stock business, which he fol- 
lowed there for four years, and in 1886 he 
disposed of his interests and came to Custer 
county, where he commenced to give practi- 
cally his entire attention to the buying and 
shijjping of live stock. In this field he made 
great strides and was known as one of the 
prominent and successful men in his line, but 
a broader field of opportunity opened before 



him in 1900, when he embarked in the real- 
estate, loan, and insurance business. This en- 
terprise has grown surprisingly and now is 
one of the most important of the city's busi- 
ness adjuncts. Mr. Taylor has a collection 
agency which handles a large amoulit of busi- 
ness annually ; he owns land which he takes 
care of on his personal account, as well as do- 
ing a big commission business ; and he repre- 
sents a number of the leading insurance com- 
panies, in addition to handlin'g farm and other 
loans. Straightforward in all his dealings, his 
reputation is beyond question or reproach. 

In 1888 Mr. Taylor married Louise J., a 
daughter of Charles Heusinger, a machinist 
of Grand Island and Omaha. Mrs. Taylor, 
who was born at St. Louis, Missouri, had one 
child by a previous marriage : Kathrj'n, the 
wife of William Jenkins, manager of the ship- 
ping department of the wholesale grocery- 
house of Coffin Brothers, Yakima, Washing- 
ton. To Mr. and Mrs. Taylor there have been 
born five children : Charles E., who is asso- 
ciated with his father in the real-estate busi- 
ness ; Fred L., who is county agricultural 
agent at Chadron, Nebraska ; Louise A., who 
is the wife of Dr. Dale G. Houlette, now in 
France, where he is connected with the navy 
dental corps of the United States Navy ; Clara 
H., who is residing at home and is steno- 
grapher for the Security State Bank ; and 
Margaret A., who is attending school. Mrs. 
Taylor is a member of the Christian Scientist 
church. Her husband is a Socialist in poli- 
tics, and has served as a member of the 
Broken Bow Council for several years. 



LEVIER B. CRAMER, whose life in Cus- 
ter county has covered a period of thirty-six 
years, is now one of the honored citizens of 
Broken Bow. He was bom November 3. 
1851, in Putnam county, Illinois, a son of 
Paul and Elizabeth (Basor) Cramer, the for- 
mer a native of Urbana. Illinois, and the lat- 
ter of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. There were 
four sons and six daughters in the family, anrf 
all were faithful members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. Paul Cramer, who w^as 
a mason and stone-cutter by trade, came to 
Custer county in 1882 and located one and 
three-quarter miles south of New Helena, on 
Victoria creek, where he purchased, for S200. 
land which afterward sold for $4,000. 

During the boyhood of Levier Bitner Cra- 
mer there were several principles which were 
enforced upon the family, these being the 
ones of honesty and industn,- and the value 
of money. In the latter connection he still 
retains a vivid remembrance as to how this 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



441 



was impressed upon him. He and a neigh- 
bor boy. living near-by, found a hub band 
from an old Pennsylvania wagon, took it to 
town and sold it to a blacksmith for four 
cents, which money they proceeded to spend 
for candy. The matter in some way reached 
the elder Cramer, and when young Levier 
reached home, his father got down a new 
blacksnake whip and without warning or ex- 
planation gave him an old-fashioned warm- 
ing up. The lesson had the desired effect, 
for subsequently and throughout his career 
Mr. Cramer has respected the value of money 
and has profited by this attitude. Mr. Cra- 
mer was never given the benefits of a school 
education, but his mind is bright and active, 
he possesses the knack of gaining knowledge 
in a manner not learned in books, and being 
intelligent he has obtained a good practical 
education. He accompanied his father to Cus- 
ter county in 1882 and remained with him as 
his assistant until the elder man's death, in 
1890. Since that time he has been engaged 
in business on his own account, at Broken 
Bow. He is a stone mason and has always 
followed the mason's trade, besides giving his 
attention to the cement contracting business 
and to broom manufacturing. Mr. Cramer 
is a natural mechanic and an expert in his 
line of business. His good workmanship and 
his industry have combined to assist him in 
the development of a prosperous enterprise. 
He has never cared for political matters, and 
has few interests aside from those of his 
home and his business. 

In 1877, in Putnam county, Illinois, Mr. 
Cramer married Miss Lucinda Hartman, 
daughter of William Hartman, a farmer of 
that locality. To this union there were born 
fifteen children, of whom eight are living at 
this time: Lee, who is a farmer near Merna, 
Custer county, has been for four years a mem- 
ber of the police force at that point : John 
M., a resident of Broken Bow and a .fanner 
by vocation, married Grace Thistle, and they 
have two children ; Henry, a farmer and stock- 
buyer of Broken Bow Rural Route No. 1, 
married Christina Simonson, and they have 
six children ; Frank, a farmer and stock raiser 
and buyer, of Broken Bow, married Maple 
Ralph, and they have two children ; Roy, a 
farmer of Broken Bow Rural Route, married 
Maplet Givens and has one daughter : Gilbert, 
single, is a farmer on the Broken Bow Rural 
Route; Sadie is the wife of John Clarks. pro- 
prietor of a laundry at Broken Bow. and they 
have three children ; and Ella is the wife of 
^^"illiam Rudv. a contractor of Florid. Put- 
nam county, Illinois, and they have two sons. 



Mr. and Mrs. Cramer and their children are 
members of the Methodist church. 



HOR.'\CE .F. KENNEDY was born at 
Brownville, Nemaha county, Nebraska, Sep- 
tember 2, 1873, a son of Charles H. and 
Catherine (Randall) Kennedy. His pater- 
nal grandfather was Stephen H. Kennedy, 
a native of Virginia, who followed the west- 
ward tide of civilization to Missouri at 
an early date in the history of that state and 
later located in Nemaha county, Nebraska, 
where he died. Mr. Kennedy's maternal 
grandfather was John Randall, who came 
from Tennessee, and was one of the early set- 
tlers of Nemaha county, Nebraska. 

Charles H. Kennedy was born in 1850, in 
Missouri, and as a young man moved with 
his^ parents to Nemaha county, Nebraska. 
where he married Catherine Randall, who was 
born in Tennessee, in 1848. Not long after 
his marriage. Mr. Kennedy engaged in the 
hotel business at Auburn and later was simi- 
larly engaged at Broken Bow, but after 
twenty years of successful operation of 
houses which were popular with the traveling 
public, he retired and he and Mrs. Kennedy 
still survive to enjoy the comforts which have 
come as rewards for industrious and honor- 
able lives. They are members of the Method- 
ist Episcopal church. Of the four children 
in the family, three are living: Mrs. S. L. 
^fuller, of Omaha, Nebraska; Horace F., of 
this review ; and W. B.. a fanner and ranch- 
man of Wiggins Colorado. 

The district schools of Broken Bow and 
Lincoln furnished Horace F. Kennedy with 
his early education, and his first occupation in 
life was found in employment on his father's 
homestead in Custer county. Later he was 
associated with his father in the hotel business 
at Broken Bow. H. F. Kennedy was sheriff' 
of Custer county for four years, from 1909 
to 1913, and is a Republican in politics. After 
his retirement from office, he engaged in the 
moving-picture business,' and is now owner 
and manager of the Lyric. Broken Bow's 
beautiful theatre, one of the finest and best of 
its size in the state. 

Mr. Kennedy was married December 25 
1900, to Nannie R. Talbot, who was born 
about eight miles east of Broken Bow. a 
daughter of Dr. R. C. Talbot, one of the old- 
time medical practitioners of the county. Thev 
have two children, Ruth and Howard, both 
attending school. Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy are 
members of the Baptist church. He is a 
Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner and has 



44J 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



passed the official chairs in the bhie lodge. Mr. 
Kennedy has an honorable military record, 
having served as a lieutenant in the Spanish- 
American war, as a member of Company M, 
First Nebraska Volunteer Regiment. For 
sixteen months he fought in the Philippines, 
and during the fighting with the enemy he re- 
ceived a bullet through his right lung, which 
sent him to the hospital for two months. Mr 
Kennedy is one of Broken Bow's substantia! 
business men whose success has been well 
merited. 



W.VLTER M. BRITTAN, a young farmer 
and business man who lives in the city of 
Callaway, is a native of Adams county, Iowa. 
He was born August 2. 1881. Concerning his 
father, Clifford N. Brittan. and his family, 
adequate record is gi.ven on other pages of this 
volume. Walter claims that his first money 
was earned as a mail carrier, although he was 
not in the service of the government. His 
mail-carrying operations consisted of taking 
notes for his uncle to the uncle's sweetheart, 
but the emolument received for this service, 
and its subsequent investment, are not re- 
corded. Likewise, the name of the uncle and 
also of the sweetheart are withheld. So, 
other than that this is where the subject of 
the narrative makes his debut into business 
life, this item has very little historical value. 

During his boyhood years, ^\■alter M. Brit- 
tan lived in a hotel and worked in a liven,' 
stable. When only eight years of age he 
drove a team for the surveyors who were 
laying out the lines of the present Callaway 
branch of the Union Pacific Railroad. On 
these occasions he was out with this survey- 
ing party for two or three weeks at a time. 

Mr. Brittan was married January 10, 1916, 
at Grand Island, to Maude L. Manyon, who 
is a young woman of gracious personality, 
she being a native of Illinois and a daughter 
of Jesse Manyon. Her mother's maiden 
name was Lettie Reed. In the comfortable 
home of Mr. and Mrs. Brittan, at Callawav, 
there are every form of home comfort and 
everything to contribute to happy home life. 
They have one child. Fern R., who is the pet 
of the family, and every one in the home 
musters to her command. Mr. Brittan has a 
son by a former marriage, Walter L. Brittan, 
who is attending St. Mary's College at St. 
Mary's, Kansas. 

The Brittans are owners of 400 acres of 
good land, which Mr. Brittan oversees and 
operates in intensive farming. In addition 
to this, he is the agent for the Dort Motor 
Company, and is doing a splendid business. 



The family is connected with the Methodist 
Episcopal church and Mr. Brittan is a prom- 
inent member of the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows. 



JOSEPH F. WILSON was the efficient 
and popular sheriff of Custer county from 
1911 until January 1, 1919, when he retired 
from ohice as a result of political exigencies 
which compassed his defeat for re-election in 
November, 1918. During his tenure of office 
he established and maintained a record for 
loyalty, fidelity to duty, and courageous and 
diplomatic handling of the important work 
that was assigned to him, with the result that 
he gained a secure place in the confidence of 
the citizens of Custer coimty. 

Mr. Wilson was born at Ottawa. Illinois, 
on the 17th of September, 1869, and is a son 
of John and Bridget (Fitzgerald) Wilson. 
John Wilson was bom in Scotland, in 1829. 
and was a young man when he immigrated 
to the L'nited States and made settlement in 
the vicinity of Ottawa, Illinois, where he 
found employment as a miner in the coal 
mines, this line of work having been his vo- 
cation in his native land. Finally he turned 
his attention to agricultural pursuits, to which 
he continued to give his energies until his 
death, October 22, 1882. Vitally loyal to the 
land of his adoption, he tendered his aid in de- 
fense of the Union when the Civil war was 
precipitated, and he served three years and 
three months, as a member of Comjiany D, 
Nineteenth Illinois \olunteer Infantry, with 
which he took part in many engagements, in- 
cluding several of the important battles that 
marked the great conflict between the states 
of the north and the south. In politics he 
was a Republican, and both he and his wife 
were consistent communicants of the Catholic 
church. After the death of her husband Mrs. 
Wilson continued her residence in Illinois 
until 1885, when she accompanied her son 
Joseph F. to Broken Bow. Nebraska, where 
she subsequently became the wife of David 
Broam and where she passed the remainder 
of her life. She was born in Ireland and was 
forty-eight years of age at the time of her 
death, in 1887. Of her four children by her 
first marriage the subject of this review is 
the only siirvivor. 

Joseph F. Wilson acquired his early educa- 
tion in the public schools of Streator, Illinois, 
and after his graduation in the high school he 
found employment in a roller-skating rink. 
He continued in this sen'ice eight months, and 
thereafter found more profitable employment 
in connection w ith railroad construction work. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



443 



After having given eighteen months to work 
in this connection, the romance of railway 
service palled upon him, and he resumed the 
vocation of his earlier years, that of farming. 
He continued his association with agricultural 
enterprise in Illinois for one year and then, 
in 1885, he came to Adams county, Nebraska, 
where he was similarly engaged for one year. 
He then came to Custer county, where he 
continued to be actively engaged in farming 
until 1911, when he was elected county sheriff. 
He immediately impressed himself upon the 
community as a man of vigor, resourcefulness 
and executive power, and the estimate placed 
upon his service was best shown in his reten- 
tion of otiHce for a period of seven years, dur- 
ing which he gave an administration that shall 
always figure as one of the most admirable 
in the annals of the official history of the 
county. In politics Mr. Wilson is aligned as 
a stalwart in the ranks of the Democratic 
party, and he has been active and influential 
in its councils in Custer county. He still re- 
tains active association with farm industry 
and is the owner of a half-section of land in 
Custer county. As in the past, he here gives 
much attention to the raising of live stock 
upon a somewhat extensive scale, and he has 
been specially successful in the raising of cat- 
tle. Mr. Wilson is a royal-arch Mason and 
is affiliated also with the Independent Order 
of ()dd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen of 
America, and the Knights of Pythias, in each 
of which his popularity is of unequivocal 
order. 

March 3, 1S92, recorded the marriage of 
i Mr. Wilson to Miss Nellie M. Harris, the 
ceremony having been performed at Loup 
City, this state. Mrs. Wilson was born in 
Ohio and is a daughter of John Harris, who 
was one of the sterling pioneers of Custer 
county, where he obtained a homestead and 
where he became well and favorably known. 
Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have six children: 
Hazel is the wife of Harry Holly, of Broken 
Bow : Gladys is the wife of Ora Swancutt, a 
farmer near .\nsley, this county : Beulah was 
graduated in the Broken Bow high school as 
a member of the class of 1918; and Clarence. 
Doris, and Leland (called "Woodrow" by his 
companions) are attending the public schools. 
Mrs. Wilson is a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church and is actively interested in 
its work. 



ANDREW PETERSON is a representa- 
tive farmer and good citizen of Custer county. 
Nebraska, who has spent almost his entire life 
here. He was born near Copenhagen, Den- 



mark, November 5, 1882, and is one of a fam- 
ily of eighteen children born to his parents. 
Milter and Mary (Peterson) Peterson, who 
are still living, hale and hearty, at Weissert, 
Custer county, to which village they retired 
from their homestead, in 1915. They came to 
the United States and to Callaway, Nebraska, 
July 4, 1888, and took up a homestead claim 
in Custer county, north of Oconto, where they 
continued their residence until they moved to 
Weissert, as previously mentioned. Of their 
large family the following survive : Peter, 
who is superintendent of a screw factory in 
the city of Hartford, Connecticut, married 
Hannah Gould; Pete, a bachelor, lives near 
Oconto ; I\Iary, who is the widow of Nels 
Johnson, lives five miles south of Berwyn ; 
Milter, who is a farmer and lives at Weissert, 
married Mabel Govier ; Carrie, who is the 
wife of Christ Peterson, lives at Fremont, 
Nebraska ; Lena is the wife of Henry Hen- 
derson, who is clerk in a furniture store in 
Council Bluff's. Iowa ; Andrew is the subject 
of this sketch; James, who is a section boss 
on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Rail- 
road, at Broken Bow, married Lucy Luther; 
Christ, who is fireman on a railroad and who 
lives at Grand Island, Nebraska, married 
Ruby Woods ; and Pretrena is the wife of 
Daniel Lewis, a railroad section hand, at 
Oconto, Nebraska. The parents of the above 
family were members of the Lutheran church 
in Denmark, but since coming to the United 
States have been united with the Church of 
God. The father is a Republican in his po- 
litical views. 

Andrew Peterson was six years old when 
he accompanied his parents to the United 
States and his education was obtained in the 
public schools in Nebraska. He was reared 
on his father's farm and has followed agri- 
cultural pursuits ever since. He was married 
March 3, 1909, to Mrs. Efi^e (Barnes) Mc- 
Caslin, a daughter of John and Emma (Lef- 
fler) Barnes. The father of Mrs. Peterson 
was horn in Illinois and the mother in Ohio. 
They came to Custer county in the spring of 
1885 and homesteaded in the neighborhood of 
Swiss valley, where they lived until 1910, 
when they removed to Superior, Wisconsin. 
There Mr. Barnes bought the farm which he 
continues to operate. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes 
had six children, namely: Effie. the wife of 
the subject of this review ; Clarence, who is a 
carpenter by trade and who lives at Broken 
Bow. married Edna Evans ; Orville. who is a 
railroad man living at State Line. Wisconsin, 
married Eva Spraker; William. Merle, and 
Osa. the younger daughter, remain with their 
parents at Superior. Wisconsin. By her first 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



marriage Mrs. Peterson had three children, 
the one survivor being Jesse ^IcCashn, who 
was born August 23, 1902, and who assists 
Mr. Peterson on the farm. Mr. and Mrs. 
Peterson have one son and two daughters : 
Elmer C, born February' 2, 1910; Dorothy, 
bom December 19, 1912 ; and Emma, born 
June 24, 1916. Mr. Peterson belongs to the 
Church of God. He is a Republican in h's 
political views, like his father, but has never 
been a candidate for office. 



CLIFFORD N. BRITTAN was bom Oc- 
tober 9, 1854, in Lafayette, Indiana. His 
parents, Francis and Louisa (Gates) Brittan, 
were natives of England and of their thirteen 
children only four are now living: Luther 
A., Mrs. Clara Beard, Mrs. Laura Dix, and 
Clifford N. The father came to the United 
States when twenty-one years of age. He 
landed in New York and at once entered into 
the silk mercantile business, in which he con- 
tinued the rest of his life — or until ripe old 
age caused his retirement. 

Mr. Brittan's first recollection of nionev 
earned was assorting the small nuggets of 
mineral that were removed from mines and 
thrown into the refuse dumps by the miners. 
His father moved from New York to Indiana, 
and from there to Dodgeville, Wisconsin. 
From the Badger state he moved to Burling- 
ton. Kansas, about the year 1855. Three years 
later, in 1858, he moved to Kansas City, but 
he decided that it was a very unsafe place for 
a man of Union proclivities. Accordingly, 
he started for Peoria. Illinois, to look for a 
situation, and expected his wife and seven 
small children to follow later by boat. Travel 
was by water, for the reason that railroads 
were very scarce and poorly operated in those 
early days. The steamboats made regular 
trips. Mrs. Brittan succeeded in getting her 
family aboard without accident, and the same 
evening the Confederate soldiers ca])tured the 
boat, near Boonesville, and started down the 
river with their prize. Some time during the 
night they learned that General Lyons had de- 
feated the Confederate army near Boones- 
ville, and this caused them to abandon the 
boat. The next morning General I^yons took 
charge of the boat, which he held for three 
days. Mrs. Brittan sent word to the General 
concerning her situation and finallv the boat's 
crew were allowed to proceed with the boat 
to St. Louis, where they landed the passen- 
gers. From here Mrs. Brittan and her family 
proceeded by boat to Peoria, Illinois, where 
thev met the father. 

Clifford N. Brittan became a harnessmaker 



by trade and occupation. He was married on 
Christmas day, 1871, in Quincy, Iowa, to Alice 
B. Jones, who was bom and reared at that 
place and who is a daughter of Luke R. Jones 
and Elizabeth (Parke) Jones, both natives of 
West Virginia. In the Clifford Brittan fam- 
ily are five children : Frederic C, Walter 
M., Charles E., Harry F., and Hazel B. 
\\'right. Frederic C. lives on the old Holli- 
way ranch near Arnold and has a water-power 
plant which furnishes electric j^ower and lights 
for the village of Arnold. Walter M. is in- 
di\idually mentioned on other pages. Charles 
E. is located at Alliance, Nebraska, and at 
present is vice-president of the First State 
Bank of Alliance. He is also vice-president 
of the Antioch Bank, at Antioch, and is a 
potash dealer and operator. Harry is a fann- 
er and ranchman living ten miles southwest 
of Callawax', where he conducts ver\- success- 
ful and extensive ranch operations. Hazel B. 
is the wife of Carl Wright, of Callaway, who 
is the Callaway miller. 

Clifford N. Brittan came to Custer county 
in 1889 and engaged in the hotel and liver\' 
business. During a period of ten years he 
gave his attention to fanning and ranching, 
still living in Callaway. In 1917 he sold 1.44o 
acres of good land, but he still owns a full 
section — 640 acres. In addition to this he 
has a fine town property and is counted a 
very successful man. Public-spirited, respon- 
sive to every appeal for community improve- 
ment, he is an excellent citizen. In politics 
he is independent, and religiously he is con- 
nected with the Methodist church. 



CHARLES A. GRANGER, who is a well 
known and respected citizen of Comstock, 
Nebraska, is one of the substantial men of 
Custer county, fanning aMd stock-raising 
being industries in which he is extensively en- 
gaged. Mr. Granger has been a resident of 
Nebraska for over forty years, but his birth 
took place in Macomb county. ^Michigan, June 
24, 1843. His parents were Haskel and 
Eunice (Dibble) Granger, these being gooG 
old New England names, but his father was 
bom in New York and his mother in Canada. 
Thev were the parents of seven children, 
three of whom are living, namelv : Charles 
A. ; Sallie. the wife of James Chrisman, a re- 
tired resident of Wahoo, Nebraska ; and Ev- 
elyn, the wife of Edward Knod, their home 
being on their farm in Saunders county, Ne- 
braska. 

For a number of vears, during which time 
the parents of Mr. Granger lived in Indiana, 
the father was engaged in business enter- 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



445 



prises in different cities. During an early 
period he owned and operated a dray line in 
Michigan City, Indiana, and for three years 
he conducted a meat market at Crown Point, 
that state. He then bought a hotel in that vil- 
lage and conducted it two years. In March, 
1877, he brought his family to Nebraska and 
settled in Saunders county. His death oc- 
curred in August of the same year. The 
mother survived him many years, having 
l»ssed her eighty-ninth birthday when she 
passed away, in 1915. They were people of 
real worth and were members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. The father was a Repub- 
lican in politics and was a member of the 
Masonic fraternity. 

Charles A. Granger attended the common 
schools in Indiana and assisted his father, 
who. with his other activities, was engaged in 
farming and stock-raising. Mr. Granger ac- 
companied his parents to Nebraska and his 
father's death, so shortly afterward, placed 
added responsibilities on his shoulders. In 
the spring of 1893 Mr. Granger came to Cus- 
ter county and bought land. He resided on 
that tract eleven years, making many improve- 
ments, and he then sold the property and 
moved into Comstock, where he has resided 
ever since. In the meanwhile he purchased 
another farm, west of the town. This place 
contains 1 10 acres, and he directs the fanning 
and stock-raising industries without living on 
the farm, making it profitable because he has 
had abundant experience and still keeps 
abreast of the times along agricultural lines. 

Mr. Granger was married April 25. 1869, 
at Hebron, Indiana, to Miss Marion Matheson. 
and they have seven children, as follows : 
Lydia is the wife of P. T. Walton, and they 
live at Plattsmouth, Nebraska ; Zara, who is 
a farmer near Sargent, Custer county, married 
Nannie Seidel ; Harry, who is in the well and 
windmill business at Comstock, married Inez 
Heller: Clarence, who is a farmer northwest 
of Comstock. married Maud Cleveland; Eva 
is the wife of Arnold Simpson, a farmer near 
Sargent; Florence is the wife of Mahlon 
Cleveland, a railroad man living at Aurora. 
Nebraska ; and Edith is the wife of Charles 
Cleveland, a farmer north of Comstock. It 
is a great satisfaction to Mr. and Mrs. 
Granger that their children are all so well set- 
tled in life and that all, with the exception of 
two, live near the old home, making it pos- 
sible for them to have the companionship of 
their thirty-three grandchildren and their 
three great-grandchildren. Since taking up 
his residence at Comstock Mr. Granger has 
taken an active interest in civic affairs, but not 
as a politician. His many years have given 



him a wider experience than some of his fel- 
low citizens and his ripened judgment is fre- 
quently consulted in matters of local impor- 
tance. Mr. Granger is a veteran of the Civil 
war. He enlisted, at Valparaiso, Indiana, in 
January, 1862, as a member of Company B, 
One Hundred and Fifty-first Indiana Volun- 
teer Infantry, and he served one year. He 
was then discharged on account of sickness. 
He took part in several minor skirmishes but 
in no important battles. 



CHARLES L. MULLINS, M. D. — The 
medical profession of Custer county has no 
more skilled or distinguished member than 
Dr. Charles L. Mullins, who, both as a pri- 
vate practitioner and in numerous positions of 
public trust, has gained a state-wide reputa- 
tion. He is a veteran of the Spanish-Ameri- 
can war and in connection with the nation's 
participation in the great world war he has 
been an indefatigable worker in behalf of the 
government's interests. The high esteem in 
which he is held by his professional confreres 
is evidenced by his being chosen president of 
the Nebraska State Medical Society. 

Dr. Charles L. Mullins was born at Win- 
chester, Clark county, Missouri, January 27. 
1867, a son of William B. and Anna M. (Kep- 
hart") Mullins. His paternal grandfather, 
Reuben Baker Mullins, was born in Virginia 
and at an early day went overland into Ken- 
tucky, as a contemporary of Daniel Boone. 
He was married in Virginia to Betsy Love be- 
fore emigrating, and both passed the rest of 
their lives in the Blue Grass state. The ma- 
ternal grandfather of Doctor Mullins was 
Henry Kephart, who was born in Pennsyl- 
vania, moved to Kentucky, married Sallie 
Teaters. and finally settled in the neighbor- 
hood of Blakesburg, Iowa, where he was en- 
gaged in farming until his death and where 
Mrs. Kephart also spent her last years. Will- 
iam B. Mullins was born in Pendleton county, 
Kentucky, in 1814, and as a young man 
adopted the profession of school teaching, a 
capacity in which he went to Blakesburg, 
Wapello county, Iowa, where he wedded Miss 
Anna M. Kephart, who was born in Kentucky, 
in 1833. Some time after their marriage they 
moved to Winchester, Clark county, Missouri, 
where tl-.ey were residing at the outbreak of 
the Civil war. and Mr. Mullins enlisted in the 
Twenty-first Regiment of Missouri Volunteer 
Infantr)'. At the close of a gallant service, 
he returned to Missouri, resumed merchan- 
dising, and continued to be so occupied until 
his death, which occurred Auenst 11, 1884. 
Mrs. Mullins survived him until 1917. They 



4-Vi 



HISTORY OF Cl'STKR COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



were the parents of six children : WilHam H.. 
of Missouri ; R. B., a dental practitioner of 
Broken Bow ; Mary, the widow of C. W. Bol- 
linger, formerly a retail and wholesale music 
dealer of Oskaloosa, Iowa; Sallie, the wife of 
S. W. Parr, of that place ; Dr. Charles L. ; 
and Luzenna, the wife of Fred Trico, of 
Oskaloosa. low^a. William B. Mullins was a 
Mason and in politics was a Democrat. 

Charles L. Mullins attended the public 
schools of Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska, and 
as a youth took up the study of pharmacy, 
completing his education therein at Northwes- 
tern University, Chicago. He was registered 
and began the practice of pharmacy in Cass 
county, Nebraska, where he resided for sev- 
eral years, and while thus engaged he became 
interested in the study of medicine, to which 
he applied himself personally for some time 
before entering the r)maha Medical College. 
Graduated with his degree in the class of 
1891, he began practice at Gretna. Nebraska. 
In 1892 he removed to Eagle: in 1894 he came 
to Ansley, Custer county ; and in 1895 he cen- 
tered his activities at Broken Bow, where he 
has since carried on a general practice. He is 
a close and careful student of his profession, 
and on several occasions has taken post 
graduate courses at Chicago. 

Not long after his location at Broken Bow, 
the Spanish-American war came on, and Doc- 
tor IVIullins enlisted as a medical officer, re- 
ceiving the rank of captain with the First 
Nebraska \'olunteers. He serv'ed in the 
Philippines and rendered valuable service to 
his country as a member of the first board of 
health at Manila after the American occupa- 
tion. Much of his time recentlv. in fact since 
the entrance of the United States into the 
great war, has been devoted to war work of 
varied character, and he gave specially efifect- 
ive service as a member of the exemption 
board of Custer county. Several years ago 
Dr. Mullins served as coroner of Custer 
county, and at present he is county health of- 
ficer, a post which he has held for a number 
of terms. He is also a member of the Ne- 
braska state board of medical examiners. He 
belontrs to the Custer County Medical Society, 
of which he has been secretary for a number 
of vears, and of which he w'as formerly i)resi- 
dent : he was president of the Nebraska State 
Medical Society for the year 1918; and he is 
a member also of the Missouri \'allev Medical 
Societv and the -American Medical Associa- 
tion. In politics he is a Democrat, and he is 
affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, includ- 
uw the Scottish Rite. 

Bv a former marriage Doctor Mullins has 
three children. The eldest, Tom P.. is en- 



gaged in the practice of dentistry at Valpa- 
raiso, Nebraska. Charles L., Jr., is a gradu- 
ate of \\'est Point Militan,- Academy, 1917, 
and at the time of this writing he is a captain 
in the Twelfth Infantry, United States Army, 
stationed at Camp Fremont, California, await- 
ing orders to go to France. The only daugh- 
ter, Mary, is the wife of H. Mashbum. a Cali- 
fornia ranchman. Dr. Mullins w-as married 
October 18, 1904, to Thankful Z. (Potts) 
Day, who was born in Kansas, but reared in 
California. She is a member of the Episcopal 
church. 



ALBERT P. JOHNSON, now one of the 
leading members of the Custer county legal 
fraternity, did not initiate his active career as 
a professional man. It was not until he had 
for some years been engaged in ])ursuits of a 
commercial nature that he took up the study 
of law, but since his entrance upon this field 
of endeavor, in 1903, he has advanced steadily 
in prestige and to-day he is adjudged one of 
Broken Bow's leading attorneys. Mr. John- 
son was born at Racine, Wisconsin, October 
22. 1871, a son of Burt and Caroline ( Swin- 
son) Johnson. 

Shortly after the close of the Civil war, 
Burt Johnson took up his residence at Ra- 
cine. Wisconsin, where he was married and 
settled down to work as a skilled mechanic in 
the wagon shops of the Mitchell Lewis Com- 
pany. Later he secured business interests oi' 
his own, and, becoming independent in means, 
in 191 1 he retired from active affairs and re- 
moved to Kearney. Nebraska, where he and 
his wife now reside, in the enjoyment of the 
comforts that come to those who have lived 
industrious and honorable lives. While not 
connected with any particular religious de- 
nomination, thcv are Christian people who live 
the true faith and whose actions are guided 
hv honorable motives. Mr. Johnson is a Pro- 
hibitionist in politics. They are the parents of 
four sons : J. \\'., who is a caqienter of 
Broken Bow ; Albert P., whose name intro- 
rluces this re\ ie^ • ; Ed<vard J., who is engaged 
in farming in Lincoln county, Nebraska : and 
Benjamin S.. who likewise is a successful 
farmer, with a property west of Mema, Cus- 
ter county. 

The public schn^'s of Racine, ^^"isconsin. 
furnished .Albert P. Johnson with his early 
education, following which he enrolled as a 
student at a school at Gibbon. Nebraska, this 
school later beconiine York College. York, 
Nebraska. He was duly graduated after com- 
])letin<' the prescribed course, in 1891. For 
several years he was variously employed, but 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



447 



in August, 1895, came to Broken Bow, where 
he began clerking. He gradually drifted into 
the insurance business, and while thus em- 
ployed came into contact with a number of 
problems that attracted his interest to the 
law. Deciding that he would follow a profes- 
sional career, he began studying under Kirk- 
patrick Brothers, a well known law firm of the 
city at that time, and eventually he went to 
the State University of Oregon, where he 
completed a course and was graduated with 
the degree of Bachelor of Laws, in 1903. On 
his return to Broken Bow, he at once engaged 
in practice, and since that time has devoted 
himself unremittingly to his calling. For a 
time he was engaged alone, but eventually be- 
came, as now, a member of the firm of Sulli- 
van, Squires & Johnson. This is considered 
one of the strong legal combinations of the 
county, and has been retained in numerous 
cases where important litigated interests have 
been opposed. Not long after his admittance 
to the bar, Mr. Johnson was elected county 
attorney of Custer county, and he acted in 
that capacity during 1904 and 1905, since 
which time he has not cared to have his name 
used in connection with public positions, pre- 
ferring to give his large clientele his undi- 
vided attention and energies. He belongs to 
the county and state bar associations and to 
the ^lodern Woodmen of America, and in 
political faith he is a Democrat. 

Mr. Johnson vi^as married, March 4, 1894, 
to Miss Lola M. Hogg, who was born in Iowa, 
a daughter of John A. and Margaret (Hall) 
Hogg, pioneers of the Hawkeye state. To 
this union there have been born five children : 
Esther R., who is the wife of Merlin C. Yan- 
nice ; Albert Paul, who is in the United States 
.\rmy, as a member of Flying Squadron C, 
stationed in Georgia at the time of this writ- 
ing: Thelma R., the wife of William Schultz ; 
and Margaret and Carol, public-school stu- 
dents. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson and their chil- 
dren belong to the United Brethren church. 



JAMES D. HASKELL, one of Custer 
county's best kno.wn and most respected citi- 
zens, came here in the spring of 1876, before 
the county was organized. He is a man of 
interesting personality and the experiences he 
li\ed through form an absorbing page of the 
county's history and are told with the gift of 
the true story teller. 

James D. Haskell was born June 2, 1853, in 
Butler county, Ohio. His father, Enoch Has- 
kell, was a substantial farmer of Butler county 
and reared his son in that practical way that 
in large measure prepared him well for the 



hardships, experiences and changed conditions 
that later entered his life. The district schools 
gave him an education that sufficed for ordi- 
nary social and business aiifairs in his early 
manhood, and later, in the school of expe- 
rience, he has widened and broadened his 
knowledge. In the spring of 1876 many eager 
homeseekers turned their eyes toward Ne- 
braska and, when they were able to choose, 
very many of them decided to settle in Custer 
county. Mr. Haskell entered the county with 
100 head of yearling heifers, for which he had 
paid $700 and which he had driven from 
Ellis, Kansas. He located a claim about eight 
miles west of Calloway. 

When Mr. Haskell came to Custer county 
he was a man of family. In December, 1880, 
at Eaton, Ohio, he was united in marriage to 
Miss Cora L. Wilcher, a daughter of Joseph 
Wilcher, and seven children were born to 
them, namely: Kent, Essie, Arlie, Alta, 
Hazel. lela, and Minnie. 

Mr. Haskell is an honored pioneer who has 
had startling adventures and unique expe- 
riences in Custer county, and the reader is 
referred to the detailed account of the same 
given in another part of this history. 



HARRY C. EVANS, proprietor of the 
Evans Hereford Ranch, located two miles 
west of Callaway, Custer county, has been for 
many years known to the citizens of this com- 
munity, to which he came with his parents in 
the year 1887. He is now known as a promi- 
nent and successful breeder of registered 
Hereford cattle and registered Percheron 
horses — a line of business in which he has 
been engaged for five years, and in connection 
with which he is rapidly taking rank with the 
leading stockmen of the county. 

Harry C. Evans, who was born at Mason, 
Effingham county, Illinois, February 12, 1877, 
is a son of Joshua H. and Samantha (Gibson ) 
Evans, and a grandson of John Gibson. His 
father was a Republican in his political sym- 
pathies, was a blacksmith by trade and fol- 
lowed this vocation in Illinois for a number 
of years, both he and his wife having been 
faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. They had two children : Launa, who 
is the wife of George H. La Fleur ; and Harry 
C. When Harry C. Evans was four years of 
age his parents moved to What Cheer, Iowa, 
and he attended the public schools of that 
place and also at Perry and North Platte. He 
finished his schooling in Custer county, Ne- 
braska. The only son of his parents, he early 
displayed industry and a predilection for his 
father's business, and when he was still so 



448 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



small that he had to stand upon a box, he 
began earning money at his father's forge, 
where he placed himself in front of the anvil 
and did striking to make a weld. He thor- 
oughly mastered his father's trade and with 
him moved to Callaway in 1887. Here father 
and son continued blacksmitliing together until 
the elder man was elected postmaster, an office 
which he capably filled for a period of twelve 
years. In the meantime Harry C. Evans con- 
tinued the blacksmith business until 1913, 
when he disposed of his interests to turn his 
attention in the direction of raising and breed- 
ing stock. For some time past he had been 
interested in the subject of Hereford cattle 
and Percheron horses, and when he bought the 
720-acre tract, two miles west of Callaway, 
which is known as the Evans Hereford Ranch, 
he began with characteristic energy to breed 
registered animals in both these lines. He has 
met with surprising sticcess during the five 
years that he has been engaged in this busi- 
ness, and the results that he has attained have 
made hnn known as somewhat of an authority 
on the subject. Mr. Evans occupies an estab- 
lished place in the confidence of his associates 
and the general piiblic, and is a progressive 
citizen who supports beneficial and construc- 
tive movements in his community. He is a 
Republican, but not an office-seeker, and he 
and his wife are members of the Alethodist 
Episcopal church. 

j\lr. Evans was married June 23, 1907, at 
Mason City, Iowa, to Miss Frankie M. Cross- 
ley, the only child of Amasa A. and Gertrude 
(Van Fleet) Crossley, the former a native of 
Pennsylvania, and the latter of Auburn, New 
York. Mr. and Mrs. Crossley were members 
of the Episcopal church, and the father be- 
longed to the Odd Fellows' fraternity. Four 
children have been bom to Mr. and Mrs. 
Evans : Gertrude June, attending the Calla- 
way schools as a student of the third grade ; 
and Robert C, Frankie M., and Harriet L., 
at home. 



BRYAN LEONARD. — The art of healing 
is as old as man, and there have been and still 
are many and diverse systems. One of these 
that has Ix-come very generally accepted 
among well informed people, because of its 
remarkable efficacy when other svstems have 
entirely failed, is known under the name of 
chiropractic. Its practitioners are of both 
sexes, as in other medical schools, and are 
graduates of institutions which thoroughh' 
teach the underlying scientific principles of 
this admirable system. 

Br>'an Leonard, who is well known as a 



chiropractor at Callaway, Nebraska, was born 
in Ireland, in 1882, a son of Hubert and Julia 
(Freeman) Leonard, who were likewise born 
in Ireland, and of whose large family of chil- 
dren eight are living — Mrs. Mary Tehon, 
John J.. Michael M., James G., Patrick F., 
Hubert, Bryan, and Charles E. Dr. Bryan 
Leonard was four years old when his parents 
came to the L'nited States and settled in Phila- 
delphia, Pennsylvania, and in 1886 the family 
came to Custer county, Nebraska, and located 
in Eureka valley. There he grew to man- 
hood, attending school and assisting his father 
in boyhood and afterward following farming 
and ranching on his own account. Prior to 
taking up chiropractic. Dr. Leonard taught in 
the schools of Custer county for eight vears. 
It would be interesting to know what definitely 
turned Dr. Leonard's attention to the profes- 
sion for which he is so eminently qualified, but 
statistics are at hand that show that in 1911 he 
became a student of chiropractic, at Daven- 
port, Iowa, and he was graduated in the 
Chiropractic College in that city. 

Dr. Leonard was married in 1905, in Cus- 
ter county, to Miss Elizabeth J. Schmitz, who 
is a daughter of John B. and Ann (\\'ard- 
robe) Schmitz, and they have one son. Gale 
H. Mrs. Leonard also is a chiropractor, hav- 
ing likewise been educated at Davenport, 
Iowa, and having graduated in the same class 
with her husband. They both practiced at 
Farmington, Iowa, and at Milton, Iowa, prior 
to locating at Callaway, in 1914. Here they 
have been continuously engaged in practice 
with the exception of the time required for 
a post-graduate course, which they have both 
completed, and Mrs. Leonard has also com- 
pleted a full course in Red Cross work. They 
have built up a fine practice here and have 
state licenses for both Nebraska and Kansas. 



J.VMES R. DE.\N. a.ssociate justice of the 
supreme court of Nebraska, came for Chicago 
to Custer county in C^ctober, 1890. and has re- 
sidede here ever since except when serving on 
the suijreme bench, when, as the law provides, 
he resides at Lincoln. He is a native of St. 
Louis. Missouri, and is of Scotch-Irish an- 
cestry. He is a son of Henry and Ellen Mar- 
garet Dean. His mother's family name was 
Armour. She was a native of South Carolina, 
but her parents were of Scotch-Irish descent. 
Judge Dean's father emigrated from Cmnity 
.\ntrim, Ireland, as a boy of seventeen, without 
means. He became a tanner and leather 
merchant at St. Louis, with interests in tan- 
neries at .Allegheny and other points in Penn- 
sylvania. \Micn he retired from business he 



HISTORY OK CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



440 




James R. Deax 



450 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. XEIiRASKA 



engaged in farming. He died in 1889 and his 
widow passed away in 1901. their remains be- 
ing interred in the family plot of ground in 
W'oodland cemetery at Des ^loines, Iowa. 

Judge Dean acquired his preliminary educa- 
tion in his native city and at Decorah. Iowa. 
\\']ien he was ten years old he visited Europe 
with his father, and in later years he has visited 
nearly every state in tlie Union, as well as 
Mexico and Canada. After his eleventh year, 
except when in school, he worked on a farm 
until he entered upon his profession. In 1885 
he was graduated from the law department of 
the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, 
besides taking other branches of study at the 
university and paying his own way through 
.school. That year he located and entered prac- 
tice in Chicago, where he remained until he 
came to Broken Bow. He was the fourth to 
hold the office of county attorney here, being 
first elected in 1894 and re-elected in 1896. He 
was city attorney of Broken Bow four years 
and a member of the board of education ten 
years, serving four years as president. In his 
first year as city attorney he compiled the or- 
dinances of 1904. 

In January, 1892, Judge Dean married Miss 
Jennie E. Sutton, daughter of Albert Y. and 
.\bbie C. Sutton, of Broken Bow, and they 
have two children, Paul H. and Dorothy S. 
Dean. 

( hi January 1. 1909. the subject of this re- 
view was appointed supreme judge, by Gov- 
ernor George L. Sheldon, when the constitu- 
tional amendment was adopted increasing the 
membership of the supreme court from three 
judges to seven. In 1911, on a party ticket, 
he failed of election to the supreme bench, by 
a narrow margin, but he led his ])arty judicial 
ticket in the state by about 9,000 votes. He 
has membership in the American Bar Associ- 
ation ; the Masonic Fraternity, including the 
Royal Arch Chapter, the Knights Templars, 
and the Shrine : and also the Odd Fellows. He 
is a Presbyterian, as were his forefathers. In 
1906 he was commissioned from the presbxterv 
to the General Assembly at Des Moines. Iowa. 
He is a Democrat — iierhaps one of the best 
known of that party in Nebraska. In 1913 he 
was a Wilson presidential elector-at-large. 

November 7, 1916, Judge Dean was elected 
judge of the supreme court for a term of six 
years. At that election there were six candi- 
dates for the supreme bench, three of whom 
were elected. They were not the candidates 
of any political party but appeared as individ- 
uals on a separate ballot, without party desig- 
nation. The total vote for supreme judge in 
Custer countv that vear was 5,163, and of these 



Judge Dean received 4,024 votes. His decisions 
and written opinions are said to have the merit 
of such brevity as is consistent with clearness. 
Those written by him during his appointive 
term are in volumes 83, 84, and 85 of the Ne- 
braska Supreme Court Reports and volumes 
120 to 124 of the Northwestern Reporter. His 
opinions for his present elective term begin 
in volume 100 of the Nebraska Reports, and 
the current Northwestern Reporters beginning 
with volume 161. Some of his opinions ap- 
pear in "Lawyers Reports Annotated" and in 
other legal publications. 

Northeast of Broken Bow Judge Dean has 
some land where he successfully grows alfalfa. 
In 1910 he become interested in this plant, and 
now he has almost 100 acres that yield from 
two to three crops yearly. 



GEORGE I. SELLON, M. D.. city physi- 
cian of Broken Bow, has been one of the 
prominent members of his profession here 
since 1912, and his splendid acquirements 
have served to attract to him a large profes- 
sional following, while his standing among his 
fellow practitioners has led to his being the 
recipient of \'arious honors in the Custer 
County Medical Society. Doctor Sellon was 
bom at Murray, Iowa, July 24. 1882, and is a 
son of Henry and Alice (Swickard) Sellon. 

Henry Sellon was born in Illinois, the son 
of a Methodist Episcopal minister who came 
to the United States from England. For a 
time Henr)' Sellon was engaged in farming in 
his native state, but after his marriage to 
Miss Swickard, who was a native of Pennsyl- 
vania, he went to Iowa and purchased a fann 
in the vicinity of Murray, Clarke county. 
About 1895 the family home was changed to 
Wyoming, in which state the mother's death 
occurred, and Mr. Sellon subsequently went 
to Harding, Arkansas, where he is living on 
his own farm. There were four children in 
the family, of whom three are living: Stella, 
who is the wife of C. P. Budd, a stockman of 
Marbletown, Wyoming: Edward L.. who 
served as a soldier during the Spanish- 
American war and died soon after the close 
of that struggle: George I., who is the sub- 
ject of this sketch; and ]\label, the wife of 
Dr. C. D. Stafford, a practicing physician of 
Kemmerer, Wyoming. Mr. Sellon is affiliated 
with the Methodist Episcopal church and in 
politics is a Republican. 

George I. Sellon attended the public schools 
of Murray, Iowa, and the high school at 
Evanston, ^^^•oming, following which he pur- 
sued a cotirse in the Wyoming State Univer- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'NTY, NEBRASKA 



451 



sity, at Laramie. There he was graduated in 
1905, with the degrees of Bachelor of Arts 
and Bachelor of Philosophy. After his gradu- 
ation he engaged in educational work, and 
for three years he was superintendent of 
schools at Cumberland, Wyoming, but his 
preferred profession was that of medicine, 
and he accordingly entered the medical col- 
lege of the Nebraska State University, being 
graduated in 1912, with the degree of Doctor 
of Medicine. During his final year at college 
he worked as an interne in the Swedish Hos- 
pital at Omaha, and following his graduation, 
fully prepared, he came to Broken Bow and 
established himself in practice. He has been 
very successful in the building up of a large 
professional business and while his practice 
is of a general character, he has made some- 
what of a specialty of diseases of the eye, 
ear, nose, and throat, of which he has made 
a particular and thorough study, and a field 
in which he has gained some reputation. Dr. 
Sellon is serving as city physician of Broken 
Bow. He belongs to the Custer County Medi- 
cal Society, of which he was secretary in 
1915 and president in 1917, and he holds 
membership also in the Nebraska State Medi- 
cal Society and the American Medical Asso- 
ciation. He enjoys an excellent reputation as 
a physician who closely observes the highest 
professional ethics. Politically he supports 
the Republican party. In Masonr\' he has 
risen to high rank, belonging to the Scottish 
Rite bodies and also the Mystic Shrine. 

In 1912 Dr. Sellon married Miss Myrtle L. 
Leffler, who was born at Exeter, Nebraska, a 
daughter of F. J. Leffler, who served through 
the Civil war and was an early settler of Ne- 
braska. To this union has been born one son : 
Dale I., now three years old. Mrs. Sellon is 
a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. 



WILLIAM E. HEAPS, who is a fine ex- 
ample of the thrifty, enterprising farming 
class of Custer county, was born on his 
father's farm seven miles northeast of Broken 
Bow, March 8, 1888. His parents are 
Charles G. and Elzina (Wheeler) Heaps, 
both of whom were born in Indiana, from 
which state they came to Custer county, Ne- 
braska-, in its early days of permanent settle- 
ment. They are highly respected farming 
people and are members of the Baptist 
church. Thev have the following children : 
Oliver, Frank'. William E., Charles, Rex, Ada, 
Margaret, and Leone. The father belongs to 
the Modern Woodmen of America and in 
politics votes with the Populist party. 

William E. Heaps obtained his education 



by attending the public schools in the winter 
time, and he remained at home assisting his 
father until he was twenty years of age. The 
first money he earned for himself was fifty 
cents a day, paid him by Joseph Holcomb. He 
has been frugal and industrious and he owns 
what is known as the Peter Mohat place, 
situated six miles north of Broken Bow, and 
consisting of 600 acres of valuable Nebraska 
soil. 

Mr. Heaps was married June 11, 1913, to 
Miss Velma Smith, who is a daughter of 
Charles and Rose (McGraw) Smith, and a 
granddaughter of James McGraw. Mr. and 
Mrs. Heaps have three children : Marie H., 
Clarence G., and Lois M. He belongs to the 
Baptist church. 



LON D.AVIS, a substantial retired farmer 
now residing in Custer county, owns a large 
amount of valuable property in the vicinity 
of Broken Bow — forty acres adjoining the 
city and 420 acres situated two miles to the 
east. He came first to Nebraska in the spring 
of 1882, and although farming and cattle- 
raising have been his main industries since 
then, there is one interval which he recalls 
with a great deal of interest, that being sev- 
eral years during which he rode the range as 
a cowboy. Mr. Davis was born in the village 
of McCarthy, Ohio, July 2, 1850. His par- 
ents were David A. and Louisa (Davis) 
Davis, his paternal grandparents coming from 
Wales and his maternal ancestors from Eng- 
land. By trade his father was a stonecutter. 
He belonged to the order of Odd Fellows and 
he and wife were members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. They had seven children, 
namely: Lon, Charles, Ellsworth, William 
M., Benjamin F., Hannah, and Clara B. All 
of these children are living except Hannah. 

Lon Da\is lived at home in Jackson county, 
Ohio, until he was eight years old and after 
that made his home for some years with Hon. 
H. S. Bunday. then a member of congress, 
who was the father-in-law of Senator For- 
aker. In the spring of 1882 Mr. Davis 
came from Ohio to Dawson county, Nebraska, 
and for the two succeeding years he lived near 
Tra])per's Grove, two miles east of Sumner, 
moving then to the vicinity of Georgetown, on 
the South Loup river. In the spring of 1886 
he rode the range and trailed cattle down the 
South Loup river from the Streeter Woods 
ranch to Glendive, Alontana. With his cow- 
boy comrades he assisted in ferrying the cattle 
across the Yellowstone river and then drove 
the cattle 150 miles northwest, to the new 
ranch. During this trip they went through 



452 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COl'XTY. NEBRASKA 



Rapid City and the Black Hills and had se- 
rious times in their efforts to get water while 
passing through the 100-mile strip known as 
the Bad Lands, in South Dakota. Mr. Davis 
has many entertaining stories to relate con- 
cerning cowboy life as he experienced it 
while with the H-3 ranch on Running Water, 
and his description of the method of a round- 
up is very interesting. When a roundup is 
started different camps are located where 
water and feed are plentiful. A large terri- 
torv is worked and the cattle are driven in 
and "night-herded" until many miles of terri- 
tory have been included, when the bunches of 
cattle are all thrown together and each outfit 
cuts out its own brand and then works them 
back to their own range. The roundup was 
often the scene of much sport, and sometimes 
remarkable horsemanship was displayed in 
cutting out and branding the calves. Fre- 
quently also the "boys" engaged in riding 
contests after their business was completed, 
and their equestrian skill has long been the 
theme of verse and stor\', besides which, it 
mav be added, it frequently lias been a main 
feature in motion-picture work, in recent 
years. 

Mr. Davis was married at Broken Bow, 
September 3. 1890, to Miss Emma Sander- 
son, who is a daughter of John and Hannah 
S. (Chapman) Sanderson, and a grand- 
daughter of John and Hannah ( Watson ) 
Sanderson. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have five 
children: Mrs. Clara B. Taylor, Mrs. Rutli 
A. Copsey, Ina M.. Alon E., and Elbert D. 
Miss Ina M. Davis is a popular teacher. The 
familv belongs to the Presbyterian church. 
Mr. Davis is a good citizen but not a seeker 
for office. In politics he is a Republican. 



W. H. PENN, who is now numbered 
among the substantial business men of 
Broken Bow, has been the architect of his own 
fortune, and, having based his life's structure 
on substanliai foundations, has builded sound- 
ly and well. When he entered upon his ca- 
reer he was possessed of little save inherent 
ability and a determination to succeed, and 
these have been sufficient, through their de- 
velopment, to enable him to become a well- 
to-do merchant in a community that does not 
lack for able men. 

Mr. Penn was born in Linn county, Iowa, 
December IS. 1866. a son of Charles and 
Emily (Swecker) Penn, a sketch of whose 
career will he found in the review of Charles 
Penn. elsewhere in this work. He attended 
the public schools of York, Nebraska, and was 
sixteen years of age when he accompanied his 



parents to Broken Bow, where his first work 
was in the official capacity of deputy sheriff 
under his father, who was at that time sheriff' 
of Custer county. His strict attention to duty 
in that position gained him public confidence, 
and he was subsequently made city marshal, 
an office which he held for one year, but 
eventually he turned his attention to mercan- 
tile pursuits, accepting a position as clerk in 
one of Broken Bow's stores. After twelve 
years of experience in this direction, he 
engaged in the clothing business on his own 
account, and subsequently he added dry goods, 
shoes anrl men's furnishing goods. The firm 
name is now Penn & Rodgers Company, and 
the establishment carries a large and up-to- 
date line of attractive goods, its trade having 
grown and developed from a small beginning 
to a point where four clerks are given regular 
employment and extra help is needed for Sat- 
urday night's business. Mr. Penn is ac- 
counted an energetic, thoroughly capable and 
strictly honorable man of business, and his 
standing and reputation are high in commer- 
cial circles and with the general public. 

In 1895 Mr. Penn was united in marriage 
to Miss Maude Hurless. who was bom in 
Iowa, a daughter of John and Mary E. Hur- 
less. The Hurless family resided for a few 
years in Iowa, but in the '80s came to Ne- 
braska, where Mr. Hurless and his wife passed 
away. For many years Mr. Hurless was a 
railroad man. principally employed in bridge 
construction work, as a foreman To. Mr. 
and Mrs. Penn there have been bom five 
children : Charles, who is identified with the 
Bell Telephone Company, at Bridgeport, Ne- 
braska : Louise, who resides with her parents : 
Harry, who is attending a school of wireless 
telegraph}- at Minneapolis; and John and 
\\"inifred, also students, at home. Mrs. 
Penn is a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. Mr. Penn is fraternally identified 
with the blue lodge and chapter of the Ma- 
sonic order. .\ Republican in jxjlitics. he is 
influential in his party, and has taken a keen 
interest and helpful part in civic affairs, being 
at this time a member of the Broken Bow 
city council. It has been his fortune to have 
attained many of his ideals and ambitions, and 
to have so directed his affairs in life that he 
has v\on success without the aid of outside in- 
fluences — he is an excellent example of the 
self-made man. 



C.EORGE E. PENNINGTON, M. D. — 
Dr. Pennington, who is familiarly known in 
Broken Bow and throughout Custer county, 
was born March 28, 1875, in Stewartsville.. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COLWTY. NEBRASKA 



453 



Missouri. His father, Robert T. Pennington, 
was a man of sterling worth and came of a 
fine line of Kentucky ancestors, he himself be- 
ing a native of Kentucky. The Doctor's 
mother's maiden name was Martha M. Kems. 
The immediate family circle of which Dr. Pen- 
nington is a representative, was a large one, 
— there were fourteen children, seven of 
whom are living at the present time. Record- 
ing their names we have the following: John, 
William R., George E., James L., Margaret 
E. Duncan, Eliza Sweitzer, and Emma Gauntt. 

The Doctor's father served three years in 
the Home Guards of his native state. He 
has a record of having lived fifty-three years 
on his Missouri homestead, where he reared 
his children. When the Doctor was a small 
boy he worked on the farm, doing such work 
and chores as generally fall to the lot of a 
farmer boy. His first money was earned by 
dropping corn by hand in the cut-over stump 
land of Missouri. This was a hard job, and 
there is small doubt but that the boy earned 
the twenty-five cents per diem. After finish- 
ing the common schools he attended the Wes- 
ley University at Cameron, Missouri, from 
1894 to 1896, inclusive. After this he en- 
tered Emsvvorth Medical School, at St. 
Joseph, Missouri, where he completed a four 
years' course, graduating in 1902. In addi- 
tion to this medical preparation, the Doctor 
n-as a student at St. I.ouis for several months, 
rounding out and completing his medical 
course. In 1902 he was married, at Bolivar, 
Missouri, to Miss Julia E. Egbert, who since 
that time has been his companion and help- 
meet, sharing with him all the vicissitudes of 
a rising young physician bent on establishing 
a lucrative practice in a western country. 
Mrs. Pennington, like her husband, is a native 
of Missouri, and is a daughter of Caldon G. 
Egbert, who was a native of Illinois. Her 
mother, whose maiden name was Sarah M. 
Gardner, was a native of Tennessee. In the 
Egbert I'amilv of which Mrs. Pennington was 
a member were five children — Emma Rollins, 
Julia E. Pennington. William T. Egbert, 
Charles L. Egbert, and John A. Egbert. 

Dr. and Mrs. Pennington have three chil- 
dren. The oldest, Marie E., is in the high 
school ; Pauline is finishing the eighth grade : 
and Georgia is in the fifth grade. 

After his graduation and marriage, Dr. 
Pennington came to Custer county and lo- 
cated at Anselmo, where he engaged in the 
drug business, which he handled in connection 
with his medical practice He remained at 
this place until 1908. when he moved to 
Broken Bow and commenced the buildine of 
the lucrative practice he now enjoys. This 



city has been his home since that time. The 
Doctor is, well and favorably known, not only 
in Anselmo and Broken Bow, which havj 
been his home towns, but throughout the en- 
tire county. In the early days of his prac- 
tice, trips were long, and consequently he was 
called long distances into the country for con- 
sultation purposes and often met the people 
of other towns in the county. His official 
position has tended to widen his acquaintance. 
He has served the county as health officer for 
eight years, and for seven years prior to the 
abolition of the office of coroner he served 
as county coroner. In fraternal circles the 
Doctor has been an ambitious climber and is 
to-day one of the few thirty-second degree 
Masons in the county. He is also an Odd 
Fellow and ranks high in the councils of that 
fraternity. Politically, he affiliates with the 
Republican party. He and his family are 
coimected with the Christian church, where 
they are faithful and constant attendants. 
Whenever the Doctor's professional duties 
will permit, he is found attending the church 
services held on the Sabbath day. Dr. and 
Mrs. Pennington are estimable people and 
held in high esteem by all their neighbors, 
fellow townsmen, and a wide circle of friends 



COMMODORE C. BIGGERSTAFF. — 
(3ne of the members of the retired colony of 
.Broken Bow, Mr. Biggerstaft'. during a long 
and active career, has been successful in his 
operations as agriculturist and business man. 
and the extent and importance of his various 
holdings at this time serve to give him a 
position of prominence among his city's capi- 
talists. He was born in Athens county, 
Ohio. October 27. 1852. a son of John J. and 
Nancy (Sickles) Biggerstaff. who passed their 
lives in Kno.x county. Illinois, having moved 
there from their Ohio home in the fall of 
1853. There the senior Biggerstaff was a 
farmer and stock raiser. They were mem- 
bers of the United Brethren church, and the 
father was a Democrat and a member of the 
Masonic fraternity. Seven children were 
bom to John J. and Nancy Biggerstafif : Com- 
modore C. ii the subject of this sketch ; 
Alonzo died in infancy: Julia E. is the wife 
of Richard Williams, of Kansas City. Mis- 
souri: Josephine is the wife of ?Ienry Wes- 
ner ; Margaret, is deceased ; Mary A., is the 
wife of James W. Pamp; John C. is a re- 
tired capitalist of Oakland. Califomia. 

Mr. Bigeerstafi" was given a public school 
education in Knox county, Illinois, and also 
spent the winter of 1875-6 at Kno.x College. 
Galesburg. Illinois, following which he re- 



454 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



1 



turned to the home farm. He and his family 
remained in Illinois until 1880. 

^Ir. Biggerstaff was married July 7, 1878, 
in Knox county. Illinois, to Miss Jennie Cook, 
a daughter of John W. and Elizabeth ( Ramp ) 
Cook, the ceremony taking place at the home 
of the bride's grandfather, Benjamin Ramp, 
a wealthy farmer and stock-raiser To this 
union one son was born, Chatmcev C, bom 
July 26, 1904. John W. Cook came from 
York, Nebraska, "to Broken Bow in 1890 and 
embarked in the grocery business, which he 
followed continually here until his death, Feb- 
ruary 7, 1908. He was a Republican, a sub- 
stantial citizen, and a member of the Odd 
Fellows lodge. He and Mrs. Cook \vere the 
parents of four children : Lauretta L.. who 
is the wife of Thomas L. Sharp ; Jennie, who 
is the wife of Commodore C. Biggerstaff ; 
Mary Elizabeth, who died in infancy ; and 
Wilson Caster, formerly a physician and min- 
ister of the Methodist church, a graduate of 
the osteopathic school at Kirksville, ^Missouri, 
who died in March, 1908. 

In the spring of 1880 Mr. and Mrs. Bigger- 
staff came to Nebraska and located at York, 
where he was engaged in the mercantile and 
cattle business until May, 1884, when he 
moved- to Broken Bow, Custer county. In 
that year he engaged in the hmiber business, 
under the firm name of Biggerstaff & Her- 
shey. and in this enterprise he continued 
about four years. In the meantime, in 1886. 
he took up land two miles northwest of 
Broken Bow, and during the next twenty- 
three years he was engaged in agricultural 
pursuits and stock-raising. He then retired 
and took up his residence at Broken Bow, 
where he is accounted one of the city's most 
substantial citizens, being the owner of large 
tracts of land as well as stock in valuable oil 
wells and paying coal mines. Mr. Bigger- 
staff is a Democrat, but is not in any sense a 
politician. He belongs to the Presbyterian 
church, of which Mrs. Biggerstaff is a prom- 
inent attendant, having been one of the seven 
charter members of the Broken Bow congre- 
gation, in 1885. She has always been prom- 
inent in church work, and was likewise in- 
strumental in the formation of Broken Bow"s 
library association 



SAMUEL VAN BUSKIRK, a resident of 
Custer county, since 1S88, has been variously 
identified with the interests of this region 
since the time of his arrival and, principally 
as an agriculturist, has accumulated a compe- 
tence that permits him to pass the evening of 
life in comfortable circumstances, in his 



pleasant home at Merna. A native of the 
Keystone state, Mr. \"an Buskirk was born 
in Monroe county, Pennsylvania, May 6, 1848. 
His father, Samuel \'an Buskirk, also was a 
native of Pennsylvania, where he was born 
in 1808, and he died af Alta, Iowa, in 1891. 
He was a successful farmer and in 1856 he 
became a pioneer settler in Iowa, in which 
state he resided for different intervals in Dela- 
ware. Dubuque, and Buena Yista counties. 
The mother of our subject was in her maiden- 
hood. Mary Ann McNeal. She was a native 
of Pennsylvania, in which state she married, 
and her last days were spent in Alta, Iowa. 
She and her husband were members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church. 

Samuel \'an Buskirk was a lad of eight 
years when the family settled in Iowa and in 
that state he was reared on a farm. When 
he reached his majority he chose the occu- 
pation with which he was familiar, and in 
Buena Yista county. Iowa, he followed agri- 
cultural pursuits imtil 1888. He then became 
a resident of Custer county, Nebraska, where 
he pre-empted 120 acres, north of Broken 
Bow. His first home was a sod house, and 
pioneer conditions were still in evidence on 
every hand. Five years later he purchased 
land north of Merna. and there he conducted 
farming and stock-raising operations with 
good success for many years. While a resi- 
went of Iowa he learned the value and su- 
perior quality of the Aberdeen Angtis cattle 
and he brought to Custer county a fine male 
of that breed. While he was engaged in di- 
versified farming, his pastures were well 
stocked with that type of cattle, for which he 
fovmd a ready demand on the market, such 
stock ha\ing a reputation for generally com- 
manding top prices. Industry and good 
judgment have marked the career of this pro 
gressive exponent of the agricultural and live- 
stock interests of his adoijted county, and Mr. 
\'an Buskirk has been able to retire with a 
competence, being the owner of 600 acres of 
land. 

In Iowa Mr. Van Buskirk was united in 
marriage to Miss Ann Elizabeth \'an Buskirk, 
a native of New Jersey, and she presides with 
grace and dignity over their beautiful new 
home in Merna. Four children came to bless 
the home : Bessie i.s an accomplished and 
popular teacher in the Merna schools' Jesse 
is a merchant at Merna' Lura is the wife of 
David Ward and they reside at Marcus, Ne- 
braska ; and Delia is deceased. 

The family are members of the L'nited 
Brethren church and Mr. Van Buskirk is a 
Re])u!)lican in jiolitics. Fraternally he be- 
longs to the Merna lodge of the Independent 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



455 



Order of Odd Fellows and also the Masonic 
lodge of Alerna. Though seventy years of 
age, j\lr. Van Buskirk is a man who might 
pass for one twenty years younger, and he 
is still active in affairs, looking after his landed 
interests and being a director in the Bank of 
Merna. He is recognized as one of Custer 
county's public-spirited citizens and in every 
relation of life measures up the full standard 
of American citizenshi[). 



ROBERT D. McCARTY is one of Custer 
county's pioneer citizens and is now living 
retired in a beautiful home in Merna. Rob- 
ert D. McCarty is a native of New York state, 
and was born near Syracuse. March 9. 1840 
His parents, Dennis and Hanora (Clifford) 
McCarty, were natives respectively of County 
Cork and County Tipperary, Ireland. They 
inimigrated to the United States when yount^ 
people and were married in New York. Den- 
nis McCarty became a farmer, and about the 
close of the Civil war located on a farm in 
A\ elister county, Iowa, near Fort Dodge, 
where he and his wife spent the remainder of 
their days. 

Robert D. McCarty was reared on a farm 
in .\ew ^'ork and accompanied his parents to 
Iowa. About this time he engaged in rail- 
road-construction work, which he followed 
for many years. 

In the spring of 1880 he and his family, in 
company with the Downey and Corcoran 
families, came to Custer county, and he se- 
cured as a homestead the southwest quarter 
of section 14, township 18, range 22. He 
also took a tree claim of 160 acres, but as the 
trees did not make a ven,- good growth he 
pre-empted this land, and this half-section 
was the scene of his activities until he retired. 
He has been successful as a farmer and to- 
dav is the owner of 800 acres of land. 

On September 10, 1870, at Fort Dodge. 
Iowa, was solemnized the marriage of Rob- 
ert D. iMcCarty and .\nna Downey, a native 
of Scranton. Luzern county. Pennsylvania, a 
daughter of John and Ellen (Sweeney) Dow- 
ney, a record of whom appears elsewhere in 
this volume. The home of Mr. and Mrs. 
McCarty has been blessed with the birth of 
eleven children, all of whom have grown to 
maturitv, and as the hand of death has not 
yet entered this household they have ever\' 
reason to be thankful. The record of the 
children is as follows : James owns and op- 
erates a farm in Custer county : Lizzie is the 
wife of Ambrose Sweeney, of Merna ; Ella 
became the wife of Edward Snell, residing in 
Seattle, \\'ashington ; John is a fanner on 



East Table ; Joseph is a merchant in Merna ; 
Mike and Robert ojierate land belonging to 
their father; Frank is the owner of a farm 
near the old home place ; Ambrose is a mem- 
ber of the national army ; Raymond is en- 
gaged in farming and is still a bachelor; and 
Margaret is the wife of J. D. Christ, of An- 
selmo. 

Mr. and Mrs. McCarty are among the very 
early settlers of the county and recount many 
interesting incidents pertaining to the early 
days and the hardships with which they had 
to contend. One of the greatest obstacles to 
overcome was the matter of securing water. 
When the McCarty family and those who ac- 
companied them came to Nebraska they drove 
with teams, just northwest of where Broken 
Bow now stands they stopped to inquire of 
some men where the)' might get water for 
their stock and for family use. J. D. Ream, 
who had located there that spring, pointed to 
a spot where he said was the well and said 
they could help themselves. On reaching the 
spot, they discovered a horse had fallen into 
the well and no water could be had. They 
continued their journey to the locality where 
they had filed on land, and the next day sent 
a hired man and one of the sons to get water 
on Victoria creek. They failed to find this 
stream and returned with water which they 
had scooped up out of a buffalo wallow, and 
which could be used only after a thorough 
process of boiling. 

Not a sign of anyone ever having been here 
could be seen, not a wagon track in Dale val- 
ley, and their nearest neighbors on the north 
were in the Black Trills. Their first home, in 
which the family lived for several years, was 
constructed of sod, the bit of lumber used in 
it being hauled from Grand Island For 
several years after coming here Mr. McCarty 
followed railroading, while the wife and chil- 
dren held down the claim. The winter of 
1881 was one of the worst ever seen in this 
country. Starting on the 11th of December 
it snowed continuously until the 25th, and it 
looked strange to the family to see a blizzard 
raging and the sun shining. The snow was 
nine feet deep on the level. The prairies in 
those days were covered vi'ith fleas, which 
gave considerable annoyance to the settlers, 
who would put the legs of their bedsteads in 
cans of Water to keep the fleas from getting 
into the beds. But with all the trials and 
hardships, they were happy in the thought 
that they had a home they could call their 
own, and a place where they could rear their 
children. The satisfaction that comes to 
them now. more than repays for all the 
hardships they endured. 



456 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



The members of the family are communi- 
cants of the Cathohc church, and in the work 
of development they have contributed their 
full share. To the courage and labors of 
such as the McCarty family the present gen- 
eration is indebted for the comforts and bless- 
ings of present-day conditions, and a historj- 
of Custer county would be incomplete without 
mention of what they have accomplished. 



OLIVER G. SMITH. — One of the pros- 
perous exponents of the agriculture and stock- 
raising interests of Custer county is Oliver G. 
Smith, who has been a resident of the county 
since pioneer days. 

Mr. Smith was born in \\'est X'irginia, Feb- 
ruary 7, 1868. His father, Cornelius D. 
Smith, was likewise a native of West Vir- 
ginia, in which state he married and became 
a land-owner and farmer. He resided there 
until 1879, when he came to Nebraska and 
took a homestead in Kearney county, near 
Minden. After one year's residence there he 
sold out and came to Custer county, in 1880, 
where he homesteaded on section 3, township 
18, range 21, casting in his lot with the very- 
early settlers in this part of the county. The 
first home was a sod house with a dirt floor 
and dirt roof, and in this the family lived for 
several years. The mother of our subject 
bore the maiden name of Jane Pierpont and 
was a native of West Virginia. She came to 
Nebraska as a pioneer woman and is now 
making her home in Mema, her husband hav- 
ing passed away at the age of seventy-five 
years. She is a member of the United Breth- 
ren church, as was also her husband, and they 
became parents of seven children : Oliver 
G. is the eldest; Mattie is the wife of D. \W. 
Widaman, of IVlerna ; Mrs. Charles Wachter 
likewise resides in Custer county ; David S. is 
a resident of Merna : Wirt lives in the Arnold 
vicinity of Custer county ; Mar\' died at the 
age of sixteen years; and John died in child- 
hood. 

Oliver G. Smith was a boy of eleven years 
when the home was established in Nebraska 
He was reared amid the scenes of pioneer 
days and on reaching manhood became a 
farmer. His first purchase was 160 acres ad- 
joining the old place, and when it came into 
his possession it was wholly unimproved. To 
day Mr. Smiih is the owner of 77^ acres, with 
a fine set of improvements, and general farm- 
ing and stock-raising are carried on with good 
success. 

As a companion and helpmeet Mr. Smith 
chose Miss Luella Wheeler, who was bom in 
New York, a daughter of Joseph and Eliza 



Wheeler, who became residents of Custer 
county in 1888 and are both now deceased. 
Mr. and Mrs. Smith have become parents of 
three children : Lena passed away at the 
age of twenty-one years ; and Aha and Edgar 
are still at home. 

Mr. Smith is one of the substantial men 
of the community. He casts an independent 
ballot at the polls and has never aspired to nor 
held any public office. He belongs to the Mod- 
ern Woodmen of America and ^^'oodmen of 
the World lodges in Merna and is held in un- 
qualified esteem by all who know him. 



\\"ILLIAM H. Mc KNIGHT. — A resident 
of Nebraska from the time when the only 
buildings known in the central part of the 
state were composed of sod, \\'illiam H. Mc- 
Knight has watched with the eye of a pro- 
prietor the various changes that have been 
brought I)y the passage of the years and the 
sturdy and progressive work of the settlers. 
and has himself borne a full share of the labor 
of development. He is now one of the large 
landholders and successful agriculturists of 
the Berwyn community of Custer county, 
where his accomplishments entitle him to the 
respect and esteem in which he is uniformly 
held by his fellow citizens. 

Mr. McKnight was born in Lafayette 
county, Wisconsin. May 20, 1850, a son of 
Miles and Joanna (Dillehay) McKnight. His 
father, the son of Scotch parents, was born 
in 1805, in eastern Tennessee, and was married 
in \'irginia to !\Iiss Joanna Dillehay. who was 
liorn in Virginia, August 11, 1811. The 
year following the close of the Black Hawk 
war they moved in covered wagons to Wis 
consin. and for a number of years Mr. Mc- 
Knight was employed in the lead mines at 
Mineral Point, because, although he had taken 
up land, he had no capital with which to de- 
velop his fann and was consequently com- 
]K'!led to take other work. He passed the re- 
mainder of his life in \\'isconsin and before 
his death, May 13. 1865. had seen his financial 
affairs in excellent shape, and was known ii. 
his community as a well-to-do citizen. Mrs. 
McKnight survived him until 1873 and died 
in the faith of the Baptist church, of which 
he also was a member. He was a Democrat 
in his political sympathies. Of the seventeen 
children born to this worthv couple, onlv three 
survive at this time: William II.: Belle, who 
is the widow of N. G. Dersjin and resides at 
Monroe, Green county, \\'isconsin ; and M. 
W.. who is engaged in fanning in the vicinity 
of Adams, Nebraska. 

William II. McKnight was educated in the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



457 



public schools of Wisconsin and was reared 
on the home farm, where he was living at the 
outbreak of the Civil war. He was much too 
young for service, but was constantly entreat- 
ing his parents to permit him to join the arm\ , 
I and toward the close of the war, when he was 
* still only a lad, he ran away from home and 
joined the Eleventh Illinois Cavalry, with 
which he served six months. He then re- 
turned to his Wisconsin home and resumed 
his association with farm enterprise. In lcS7I 
he there married Miss Etta Parsons, who was 
born in Wisconsin, a daughter of Monroe I. 
and Jane Parsons, now residents of Iowa 
There were five children bom to this union, of 
whom four are now living, these being : Ira 
Derwood, who resides on a farm at Glenwood, 
Iowa, and is engaged in the real-estate busi- 
ness : Lewis Winfield, who is a farmer of the 
same community ; Delia Leora, who is the 
wife of Oscar Lee, principal of the State In- 
dustrial School at Waukesha, Wisconsin : and 
\\'ilbur Harrison, who is a member of Com- 
pany I, One Hundred and Sixty-eighth Infan- 
tr}', arrived in France in December, 1917: he 
was later wounded and.was in a hospital at the 
time this article was written. Mrs. McKnight 
died December 13, 1888, and February 28. 
1889, Mr. McKnight was again married. Miss 
Belle Jones becoming his wife. She was 
born Februarv- 7, 1868, in Tippecanoe county. 
Indiana, and is a daughter of James Alfred 
and Louisa Elvira (Joslin) Jones, the fonner 
a native of Indiana and the latter of Ken- 
tucky. The parents of Mrs. McKnight moved 
to Saunders county, Nebraska, in 1869, and 
after the father's death the mother came to 
the home of her daughter and son-in-law, 
with whom she remained until her death. 
Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. 
McKnight : Jesse Floyd, who was in the 
base-hospital camp at Camp Cody, is now at 
home: Virgil Sidney is a farmer of Custer 
county : and Forrest Edward, George William, 
and James Theodore all remain at home. 

Mr. McKnight first came to Nebraska in 
1879. in which year he located in Butler 
county. He saw little to encourage him at 
that time, the countPi- being practically unde- 
veloped, while the few settlers, living far 
apart, were doing without conveniences and 
living in primitive sod houses. After two 
years he returned to Wisconsin, but the west- 
ern country had made its impression and 
formed its attraction, and shortly thereafter 
he again located in Butler county, where he 
followed farming until 1903. That vear 
marked his arrival in Custer county, which 
has since been his home. Here he purchased 
440 acres of land, put it under cultivation. 



built a nice home and substantial outbuildings, 
and he has since established himself as a pro- 
gressive and skilled farmer who thoroughly 
knows his business and can make his labor 
pay him proportionately. He carries on gen- 
eral farming and raises all kinds of live-stock, 
the while the success which has attended his 
efforts is evidence of the consistency of his 
methods. 

Mr. McKnight is fraternally affiliated with 
Ansley Lodge No. 176, Ancient Free & Ac- 
cepted Masons, and has received the thirty- 
second degree of Scottish Rite Masonry-, at 
Omaha. In politics a Republican, he has 
wielded some influence in his community, and 
has rendered good service as a member of the 
school board. 



CLARENCE ?^IACKEY. — Instances are 
numerous in Custer county where men have 
arrived in this part of the country without ac- 
quaintances or friends and have worked their 
way to affluence and position, but there are 
few which equal the record of Clarence 
Mackey, president of the Ansley State Bank 
and one of his community's wealthiest and 
most prominent citizens. Mr. Mackey was 
handicapped at the outset of life by very little 
educational training, and before he came to 
Nebraska he had been unable to accumulate 
any sum even approaching a starting capital 
Yet his ability, given the opportunity, finally 
evidenced itself, and to-day Mr. Mackey is 
accounted one of Ansley's leading citizens. 

Mr. Mackey was bom at Minerva, Ohio. 
August 11, 1860, and is a son of Thomas and 
Caroline (Taylor) Mackey. natives of Stark 
county, Ohio His father, who was the son 
of a lifelong resident of the Buckeye state, 
learned th.e cabinetmaker's trade in his youth, 
and was engaged in the work of his trade at 
the outbreak of the Civil war, when he en- 
listed for service in the Union army and be- 
came a first lieutenant in a regiment of Ohio 
volunteer infant^v^ He engaged in a number 
of hard-fought battles, but escaped wounds, 
although for some time he was confined to 
the hospital, because of sickness, .\fter the 
war he was engaged for a long period in agri- 
cultural ])ursuits and the later years of his 
life were passed at Minerva. Ohio, where he 
died in 1899. and where his widow, who sur- 
vives him in ripe old age. still makes her 
home. She is a devout member of the Chris- 
tian church and is a woman of many excel- 
lencies of mind and heart. Mr. Mackey was 
a Democrat in his political faith and was a 
member of the .Masonic fraternity. He and 
his wife were the parents of five children, of 



458 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



whom four are living: Clarence is the im- 
mediate subject of this review ; Harr\-, who 
resides at Chadron. Nebraska, is a locomotiVe 
engineer on the Chicago & Northwestern Rail- 
way ; William met his death a number years 
ago. in a railway accident: Leona is the wife 
of E. W. Jobes, a manufacturing machinist 
at ilinerva, Ohio; and Jolui. who resides at 
the old home at Minerva, is retired from active 
pursuits. The maternal grandfather of Clar- 
ence Mackey was Finn Tajlor, who was bom 
in ( )hio and spent his entire life there, pa- 
tenting land under President ^lonroe, at a 
time when the Indians were to be found in 
large numbers. 

The educational advantages of Clarence 
Mackey in his youth were decidedly limited 
in character, for he early began work at the 
coal mines of Pennsylvania, and continued 
thus employed for a number of years. He 
first came to Nebraska, in 1891. and following 
this was employed at various places. In 
1892 he located near Westerville. where he 
first rented a farm of 160 acres. He later 
purchased land, and this he put under culti- 
vation and improved in various ways, in the 
meantime carrying on extensive operations in 
mixed farming and stock-raising. His suc- 
cess was marked in agriculture, and subse- 
quently he began to turn his attention to 
other affairs. About 1903 he entered the field 
of banking, and at the present time he is 
president of the Ansley State Bank, which, 
under his wise and capable direction and con- 
servative policies has become recognized as 
one of the safe and substantial institutions of 
the county. His success has been absolutely 
self -gained and his career can be profitably 
studied by aspiring youths who are commenc- 
ing their careers without friends or fortunes 
to assist them. 

In 1892 Mr. Mackey married ]\Iiss Ella 
Camjibell. who was born in Pennsyhania. a 
daugbrer of Richard and Elizabeth ( Fate) 
Campbell, who now live at \Vesterville. Cus- 
ter county, Nebraska. Mr. Campbell was a 
railroad man for many years. ^Irs. Mackey 
died in April. 1906. the mother of four sons 
and one daughter : William, who is twenty- 
one vears of age. entered the United States 
Navy, June 1, 1918. as a student at the Great 
Li'kes Naval Training School : Thomas, eigh- 
teen years of age, has entered the United 
States Navy school at Lincoln, where he at- 
tends the State University ; Richard, who is 
seventeen years of age, is attending school : 
Clarence, Jr., fifteen years old, is likewise a 
student; and Ella, thirteen years old, is at- 
tending school. Mr. Mackey was again mar- 
ried, in Februarj-, 1917, when Miss Elsie Sa- 



ville became his wife. She was born in Cus- 
ter county, and is a daughter of Dana M. and 
Sarah L. Saville. Her father, who came to 
Custer county about 1883, and was a pio- 
neer homesteader, died on his farm, in l9l6. 
Fraternally ]\lr. Mackey is connected with 
the Masons, in which order he has reached 
the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite : 
and he is affiliated also with the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen 
of America and the Knights of Pythias. In 
each of these fraternities he is popular with 
his fellow members. He has long been prom- 
inent in civic and political affairs of a local 
order, and his well known business and finan- 
cial ability, as well as his integrity and per- 
sonal probity, have caused him to be selected 
by his fellow citizens for positions of marked 
trust. He has twice been a member of the 
state legislature and twice county treasurer, 
and his public record is a splendid one. char- 
acterized b)' conscientious and constructive 
service' for the general welfare. He is a 
stanch Democrat. 



DANIEL G. BO^^■LEY. — Practical indus- 
try, wisely and vigorously applied, seldom 
fails of attaining success, and the career of 
Daniel G. Bowley. now one of the progressive 
farmers of Custer county, is but another proof 
of this statement. When he started out in 
life he had but few advantages to assist him 
along the road to success, but his diligence and 
iudiciouf management have brought him 
ample success as a reward for his labors. 

Mr. Bowley was bom in Alleghany county, 
\'irginia, October 3, 1870, a son of William 
O. Bowley, who was one of Custer county's 
first settlers and of whom extended mention 
is made elsewhere in this volume. Our sub- 
ject accompanied the family to the pioneer 
home in Nebraska and as a boy witnessed the 
hardships and struggles of the early-day set- 
tlers. As his age and strength increased he 
assi.sted more and more in the lalxjr incident 
to developing and operating the homestead, and 
under the instructions of his father he learned 
the best methods of planting and harvesting, 
so that when he reached manhood he was well 
equipped with the practical experience to en- 
able him to become a fanner on his own ac- 
count. He started out for himself at the age 
of twenty-two years and operated land as a 
tenant for a few years, meeting with the suc- 
cess that justified him in making a purchase 
of land. It is fifteen years since he bought 
his present fami. which at that time was whol- 
ly unimproved hut which has been brought 
to a high state of cultivation, and by the erec- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COLXTY, NEBRASKA 



459 



tion of suitable buildings Mr. Bowley has a 
valuable property- General farming and 
stock-raising form the basis of the enterprise 
carried on by the owner, though he has given 
considerable attention to horticulture and has 
a fine apple orchard of seven acres, the same 
having been bearing fruit for several years. 

For a companion and helpmeet Mr. Bowley 
chose Aliss Josephine Hennesey, a native of 
Virginia. They are members of the Method- 
ist church, South, and Mr. Rowley's political 
beliefs make him a Democrat. The Bowley 
family were among the first settlers of the 
county and members of that family have had 
to do with the upbuilding of the community 
for more than forty years, so that historic 
consistency is conserved when a place is given 
the subject of this biography in the annals of 
Custer countv. 



WARREN THOMAS HURST, M. D. — 
The medical profession of Custer county in- 
cludes among its members many men of emi- 
nent ability, whose training has been compre- 
hensive and whose fine talents have been de- 
veloped through broad experience, close appli- 
cation, constant study and the broadening m- 
fluence of intimate association with their fel- 
low men. In this category one of the fore- 
most, without doubt, is Dr. Warren T. Hurst, 
a general practitioner in medicine and surgery 
and a specialist in diseases of the eye, ear, 
nose, and throat. He has been engaged in 
professional labors at Broken Bow since 1912. 
Dr. Hurst w^is born August 20, 1878, at Mar- 
ion, Linn county, Iowa, and is a son of 
Thomas and Martha (Walker) Hur.st. 

The parents of Doctor Hurst were born, 
reared and educated in Canada, where their 
marriage was solemnized, and shortly after 
that event they came to the United States and 
settled in Illinois. After about ten years' resi- 
dence in that state, they changed their location 
to Iowa, where Mr. Hurst continued to work 
at railroading, which was his life vocation. In 
1883 he came with his family to Nebraska, 
where he held various positions with railroad 
lines, and finally he took up his permanent 
abode at Omaha, where, although advanced 
in years, he continues to be identified with the 
big' railway conii)anies, at this time being con- 
nected with the flag service in the shops. He 
has been a Mason for many years, is a Re- 
publican in politics, and his wife is a member 
of the Baptist church. Thev are the parents 
of three children : Lydia, the wife of Ther- 
mon Brown, a railroad man of Omaha • 
Frances, the wife of James Leary, a mechanic 
of Denver. Colorado": Dr. \\'arren T., of this 



review. There are two deceased children : 
George E., formerly of ( )maha, died in 1912, 
and Mrs. Alice Elizabeth Short, of Omaha, 
died in 1910. 

Dr. Warren T. Hurst was five years of age 
when he accompanied his parents to Nebraska, 
and here his early education was secured in 
the public schools. He was graduated from 
the high school at Weeping Water, Cass 
county, with the class of 1895, and after some 
further preparation he entered the Creighton 
School of Medicine, at Omaha, where he took 
a four years' course. He spent another year 
at the Chicago College of Medicine and Sur- 
gery and then went to Valparaiso, Indiana, 
where he was graduated May 20, 1912, fol- 
lowing which he engaged in practice at Chi- 
cago. In this same year he changed his field 
of operation to Broken Bow, and since then 
he has built up a splendid practice, both in a 
general way and as a specialist in the treat- 
ment and cure of diseases of the eye, ear, nose, 
and throat. Doctor Hurst belongs to the 
various organizations of his calling, and keeps 
fully abreast of the advancements being made 
in the sciences of medicine and surgery. He 
stands high in his calling, not alone among his 
fellow practitioners, but with the general pub- 
lic as well, and has served as county physician 
of Custer county and as health officer. His 
political tendencies cause him to support the 
principles and policies of the Democratic 
party. During his college career he joined 
the Phi Rho Sigma fraternity, and he belongs 
also to the Masonic fraternity, both York and 
Scottish Rite bodies and also the Mystic 
Shrine. Dr. Hurst has been a supporter of 
good movements, civic and educational, as 
well as those of the Presbyterian church, of 
which he is an attendant, Mrs. Hurst being a 
member thereof. 

Prior to her marriage to Dr Hurst, Mrs. 
Hurst, who is a native of Coi^enhagen, Den- 
mark, was Miss I.ola Beck. She and the Doc- 
tor are the parents of one child ; Juanita. 



JAMES LANGE. — Since he is the owner 
of a fine tract of land on the second bench 
of the Buffalo Table, south of Callaway, and 
has around him everything necessary for com- 
fortanle living and thrifty farming, Mr. Lange 
should be rated as one of the foremost citi- 
zens of the south part of the county. 

Tames Lange was born in Denmark, on the 
13th day of Decemlier. 1865, and is a son of 
Theodore and Anna M. (Sorrenson") Lange, 
both of whom were natives of Denmark, 
possessing all the characteristics of Scandi- 
navian thrift. For more complete record of 



460 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



Theodore Lange and the family, reference 
may be made to the sketch of Marius Lange, 
on other pages of this volume. 

When James Lange reached the age of 
fourteen years he entered upon a four years' 
apprenticeship in a blacksmith shop. When 
nineteen years of age he came to the United 
States, and in the city of Chicago he and his 
older brother, Marius, worked about a year. 
Then coming farther west, he landed in Lex- 
ington, Nebraska, and worked for Anton 
Abel, a ranchman who seems to have had a 
ranch in both Dawson and Custer coimties. A 
year later he came into Custer county, where 
he continued work on the Abel ranch on the 
Cottonwood branch, for at least a year. He 
then filed on a homestead 20 miles south of 
Callaway, on Buffalo creek. This property 
he acquired by the relinquishment of Jacob 
Peterson. He and his brother bought a yoke 
of oxen and v^'ent back to Lexington to 
straighten up the land deal. On this trip they 
experienced one of the severest and most try- 
ing ordeals of their pioneer days. They were 
caught in a three-day blizzard, and when they 
started for home the snow was nearly three 
feet deep. They had to lead a couple of wild 
bronchos, which they had bought of Mr. Abel. 
Night overtook them, they lost their way, 
could find no trail and came near to freezing 
to death. Marius was not strong, and the 
task of plowing through the snow was more 
than he could stand. He became sick and 
exhausted, and' James carried him miles on 
his back and led the ponies. Marius begged 
to be left on the prairie, but that would have 
meant his death, so they dragged on mile after 
mile, and reached home about one o'clock in 
the morning. Both men had their feet so 
badlv frozen that their toes had to be ampu- 
tated. 

(_)n Februarv 24, 1889, in Broken Bow, was 
solemnized the marriage of James Lange to 
^liss Hester Richardson, daughter of William 
T. and Jane (Yinsen) Richardson, both Ken- 
tucky people. Since the establishment of 
their home the Lange family has had its circle 
increased by the birth of four children — 
Gertrude S. J.. Julius T.. \'erna M. and Lor- 
elta L, all of whom remain under the parental 
roof and contribute to the life and hapi)iness 
of the place. 

Mr. Lange's holdings comprise 720 acres, 
which he is now improving. A fine dwelling 
has just been erected, which makes a splendid 
modern domicile in which the family can en- 
jov farm life. A general farming and stock- 
raising business is carried on by Mr. Lange 
and the boys. The family are connected with 
tlie Lutheran church and in the matter of poli- 



tics. .Mr. Lange's first choice is for the Demo- 
cratic party. 



JOSEPH D. BYLER. — This is an ordi- 
nar\' story of an ordinary man, — one who in 
his modest way lived his life and in his de- 
parture left behind him a splendid family, a 
creditable record, and the comforts earned by 
hard toil. 

The subject of this memoir was bom in 
Pennsylvania, Januarj' 2. 1857, and was a son 
of Jacob and Sarah ( Yoder) Byler. He came 
of an excellent Pennsylvania family, and was 
one of eight children, only three of whom are 
living at the present time — Isaac, Rudolph, 
and David. Joseph D. was the yoimgest of 
the family. 

It was in Pennsylvania that the boyhood 
years of Joseph D. Byler were spent, and 
there he had recourse to the common schools, 
in which he received a good fundamental edu- 
cation that qualified him for the business 
transactions of life. At the age of fifteen 
years he left the home farm and started into 
the world for himself. His first journey 
landed him in Logan county, Ohio, where he 
worked for a number of years. From there 
he went to Garden City, Missouri. There he 
associated himself with Charles McCants, and 
the two started for Nebraska. He arrived in 
Custer county in the spring of 1885. An in- 
ventory of his worldly possessions showed him 
to be better off than a good many others were 
when reaching the county. He had three 
mules, harness, wagon and twenty-five dollars. 
He located in Roten valley, fourteai miles 
southwest of Callaway, and bought a relin- 
quishment from James Howell. It was here 
that he established, and maintained for two 
years, bachelor quarters. 

Two years after he reached Custer county 
Mr. Byler married Miss Ida F. Hauenstine. a 
nati\e of Ohio and daughter of Jacob and 
Lncinda (Dull) Hauenstine, both of whom 
were natives of Pennsylvania. In the family 
of Mrs. Byler's father were fourteen children. 
The surviving members of this large family 
of children are: Mrs. Joseph Redhead, liv- 
ing near Callaway; Jacob, of Toledo. Ohio: 
Mrs. John Belmire, of St. Louisville. Ohio : 
Joseph, residing near Callaway. Custer 
county: and Mrs. Ida Byler, widow of the 
subject of this memoir. 

When the Byler home was established in 
Custer county, in 18<87, it was an unpretentious 
sod house, and the home was maintained and 
the early develojiments of the fann started 
under very adverse circumstances. For two 
years Mr. Bvler hauled water six and seven 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



461 



miles. Then he chig a well 200 feet deep and 
jmt in a board casing. He had a horse and 
bucket to draw the water from the well. 
Later he added more room to the sod house, 
but in order to do this he took the roof from 
the barn and got along with a dirt floor. 

In the course of time four children were 
born into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Byler, 
and concerning them the following brief rec- 
ord is entered : Bessie M. Blixt, whose hus- 
band is an implement dealer in Callaway, has 
four children, two boys and two girls. Clar- 
ence H. is, at the time of this writing, in the 
nation's military senice, as a member of Bat- 
tery C, Three Hundred and Thirty-ninth 
Field Artillery, at Camp Dodge. Iowa. Ruth 
A. and Nellie M. are at home with their 
mother. 

A great sorrow came to the home on the Stli 
day of July, 1916, when the husband and 
father was called from the scene of his labors 
in this world to the reward of the next. He 
had been a kind and provident father and hus- 
band, and his death was a sore bereavement. 
He left his family, however, in good circum- 
stances, on a farm of 480 acres, well improved 
and in a high state of cultivation. For twenty 
years prior to his death, Mr. Byler had been a 
faithful member of the Evangelical church. 
Mrs. Bvler and her children who are not mar- 
ried, make their home on the place and main- 
tain the farming operations conducted by the 
late husband and father. 



ARTELLUS P. C.\LHOON. — One of 
the venerable and honored citizens of Broken 
Bow, long a Nebraska farmer in Polk and 
Custer counties, Artellus P. Calhoon is now 
living in comfortable and well deser\^ed re- 
tirement, after a long and creditable career. 
He is a native of St. Joseph county, Michigan, 
and was born Mav 26, 1845, his parents being 
Alvin and Lois (Bean) Calhoon. 

While still a young man, Alvin Calhoon, 
who had been reared to farming, raised a 
company for service in the Indian troubles, 
and he' fought with the rank of captain. 
Later he removed to Michigan, where he set- 
tled on a farm and passed the rest of his life 
in agricultural pursuits. He was a strong 
.\bolitionist, in the climacteric period leading 
up to the Civil war, was a stanch Republican 
in his political views, and he and his wife 
were faithful members of the Methodist 
church, of which he was a local preacher dur- 
ino- the earlv days. There were eight children 
in'' the Calhoon family, and all are living: 
Marcellus, who married Clara Rowley, is a 
retired farmer of Ord, Nebraska; Emma, who 



is the widow of Samuel Sidwell, makes her 
home at Minatare, Nebraska : Clarence C. 
who married Tillie Hahn, is a farmer of Polk 
county. Nebraska ; Bingham, who married 
Caroline Simpson, is a farmer of York 
county, this state; Lola is the wife of Lewis 
Munson, a fanner near Peoria, Kansas; Law- 
rence and Florence are twins, the fonner 
having married Anna Demmick and being a 
farmer near Gladwin, Michigan, and the lat- 
ter being the widow of Lewis Moore, of 
Three Rivers, Michigan ; and Artellus P. is 
the subject of this sketch. 

Artellus P. Calhoon received his early edu- 
cation in the public schools of Michigan, and 
as a young man of twenty-seven years he 
came to Nebraska, his first settlement being 
in Polk county, where he took up a home- 
stead and farmed for eighteen years. In 1900 
he disposed of his interests in that locality 
and came to Custer county, where he con- 
tinued his operations with increasing success 
until the spring of 1918, when he turned over 
the responsibilities and burdens to younger 
shoulders and retired to his comfortable home 
at Broken Bow, where he is surrounded by 
every convenience. During his active years 
Mr. Calhoon was rightly accounted a capable 
fanner and stockman, as well as an able 
business man whose transactions were char- 
acterized by the highest integrity. He has 
always been a loyal and public-spirited citizen 
and at various times has been active in civic 
affairs, more as a supporter of movements for 
the general welfare than as an aspirant for 
office or a holder of public posts. 

In the spring of 1877 Mr. Calhoon was 
united in marriage, in Polk county. Nebraska, 
to Miss Henrietta Robinson, who is now de- 
ceased, and they became the parents of six 
children, concerning whom the following brief 
record is consistently entered : Alvin, who 
married Bertha Luther, is a minister of the 
Free Methodist church and is living near 
Alberta, Canada, where he has a fann and 
fills a pulpit ; Calvin, who married Dolly Bar- 
bee, is a preacher of the Home Association, 
and resides near Jerome, Arizona ; Miss Zora 
resides with her father, for whom she keeps 
house. Ina is the wife of Rev. James Davis, 
a farmer and preacher in the vicinity of De 
Nova. Colorado. Clinton, who married Mary 
Shepard, is a preacher of the Nazarene 
church and resides in Kansas. Charles, who 
is still a bachelor, resides with his father and 
sister and is now studying to become a min- 
ister. 

It is interesting to note that Mr. Calh(jon's 
sons have inherited from their paternal grand- 
father the nredilection for ministerial labors. 



462 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTV. NEBRASKA 



three already having adopted this profession 
and the fourth lieing engaged in ])reparing for 
that high calling. The married daughter of 
Mr. Calhoon chose for her husband a 
preacher. Mr. Calhoon is himself a generous 
contrilmtor to religious enterprises and move- 
ments. 



EARL W. BROWN. — This caption spells 
the name of a prosperous son of a popular 
sire who was one of the prominent pioneers 
of Custer county, as the story which follows 
will disclose. 

Earl W. Brown hails from Kansas, where 
he was born March 12, 1881. and he is a son 
of A. D and Matilda (Mullen) Brown, Cus- 
ter county pioneers of more than ordinary 
prominence. In the family of A. D. Brown 
were the following named children — Claude, 
Harl, Lawrence, Forrest, Stella Holliday, 
Earl W., Lila Phifer, and Oma, the last men- 
tioned being a student in the Grand Island 
Business College at the present time. A. D. 
Brown was a prominent farmer and stock- 
raiser in the early days of the South Loup 
countrys in which section he settled in 1881. 
Here he located a tree claim and bought 160 
acres, about five or six miles southeast of the 
site of the present thriving town of Arnold. 
He was at that time in the full vigor of man- 
hood and soon became one of the active and 
influential men in that part of the countv, 
much credit being due him for the ser\'ice he 
rendered in developing the southwest section 
of the county. He served on the board of 
supervisors for a number of years. He and 
his good wife were devoted members of the 
Christian church. Mr. Brown died on his 
farm, December 17, 1909. He was a high- 
degree Mason and an Odd Fellow of high 
rank and good standing. The children have 
been a credit to their parents and occupy in 
their respective communities much the same 
relation as that sustained by the parents. All 
of the children are in the Christian church 
and the boys are either Masons or Odd Fel- 
lows. 

Further brief data concerning .\. D. Brown, 
the sterling pioneer, are available and should 
be incorporated in this review. He was born 
at Indianapolis, Indiana, March 1, 1847, and 
thus his age at the time of his death was 
sixty-two years, nine months and five days. 
He was reared and educated in the old 
Hoosier state and he represented that com- 
monwealth as a gallant young soldier of the 
Union in the Civil war. At the age of 
eighteen years he enlisted as a member of 
Company A, One Hundred and Thirty-second 



Indiana \'olunteer Infantry, John S. Tarking- 
ton having been captain of the company. Mr. 
Brown proved a faithful and valiant soldier 
and his honorable discharge, dated December 
15, 1864. was signed by Abraham Lincoln, 
president of the L'nited States, and Edwin M. 
Stanton, secretary of war. His marriage to 
Miss Matilda Mullen was solemnized in 
1870. near Dwight. Illinois. 

It was here in Custer county that Earl W. 
Brown ran the gamut of youth and received 
his education in the public schools. Here, 
too, he laid the foundation for the activities 
of his manhood years. On June 7, 1915, in 
the home of the bride, on the South Loup 
river, four miles east of Georgetown, he led 
to the marriage altar Miss T. Leila Downey, 
the ceremony being performed by Rev. N. C. 
Johnson. Airs. Brown is a daughter of John 
M. and Anna E. (Welch) Downey, pioneers 
who became widely known as Mr. and Mrs. 
"Mack" Downey and who became the parents 
of nine children — Charles H. ; Mary ^IcMil- 
lan ; Leila Brown ; Edna Wood ; Helen, who 
was graduated in the Broken Bow high school 
and who is now a teacher and a prominent 
playground supervisor for the Chautauqua 
system ; \'ema, who is a stenographer in Sagi- 
naw. Michigan, was a commercial graduate 
of the Broken Bow high school ; Zenadie was 
graduated in the Broken Bow high school and 
is a teacher at the jiresent time; Gregor M. 
is at present attending Kearney Militars' Aca- 
demy : D. Marlen is a student and is at home 
with his parents. Mary, Leila, and Edna 
Downey finished their education at the state 
normal school. The Downey family are all 
members of the Presbyterian church. The 
father was an old-time landsman who came 
to Custer county nearly forty years ago. 

Mr. and Mrs. Earl Brown are following in 
the footsteps of their respective parents and 
in addition to being representatives of two 
very popular families, both jirominently con- 
nected with early-day history, they individu- 
ally are winning a well deserved popularity 
for themselves. One child. Robert E., two 
years of age, furnishes sunshine and good 
cheer for the home. ^Ir. Brown is farming 
rather extensively, as he operates his mother's 
farm and also 320 acres of his own. He is 
one of the men to be reckoned with at the 
present time — one of the contingent upon 
whom present-day responsibilities rest heav- 
ily. He is a farmer and stock-raiser of no 
mean caliber and the general appearance of 
his home premises denotes thrift and declares 
his success. He is a member of the Christian 
church, his wife holding niembership in the 
Prebyterian church, and both stand for high 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



463 



ideals and highest t3'pe of senice. Mr. Brown 
has received the thirty-second degree of the 
Scottish Rite in the Alasonic fraternity, and 
is a Repubhcan in poHtics. As stated in the 
beginning, this prosperous son of a popular 
sire has paid the tribute of his Hfe to Custer 
county. 



JACOB J. SEANEY. — Living in honor- 
able and well earned retirement in the Finch- 
ville vicinity, than which there is no more 
fertile district in all the vast domain of Cus- 
ter county, is a courteous gentleman who has 
known the privations and hardships of pio- 
neer life in the west and who has contributed 
his share to county upbuilding and food pro- 
duction as demanded by the present day. It 
is to this citizen that recognition is here ac- 
corded. 

Mr. Seaney was born February 16, 1853, 
in Union county, Indiana, and is a son of 
Pleasant and Elnora B. Seaney, both of whom 
likewise were bom in the Hoosier state, and 
who became the parents of three children — 
William, Sarah Becl<, and Jacob J. The 
father was a farmer, and he lived and died 
near Richmond, Indiana. 

Jacob J. Seaney lived at the parental home 
until he attained to his legal majority. He 
earned his first money trapping muskrats and 
coons. He received good educational advan- 
tages, but all his life has confined his efforts 
to the farm. In the state of his nativity he 
was married, on October 3, 1878, to Miss 
Nancy Mendenhall, a daughter of Noah and 
Nancy (Gard) Mendenhall, the former a na- 
tive of Pennsylvania and the latter of Indiana. 
In Mrs. Seaney's immediate family, besides 
herself, were two children — Jeremiah, and 
Margaret Hamilton. Mr. and Mrs. Seaney 
came to Custer county in 1888 and located on 
the South Loup river, six and one-half miles 
southeast of where Arnold now stands. There 
is some contract in the condition in which Mr^ 
Seaney arrived and that of other pioneers, for 
he was fairly well supplied with this world's 
goods when he first took up his residence here. 
He owns at the present time 800 acres of good 
land, well adapted to farming and stock-raising 
and in this dual occupation he has acquired 
most of his money. In the family circle are 
the following named children : Elsie is the 
wife of Charles T. Snyder, who lives at Snod- 
grass, Wyoming, and is assistant game warden 
of that state, and they have one daughter. 
Charles P., who is farming near Arnold, mar- 
ried Lida Bailey and they have one son. Maud 
M. is the wife of Ellery- Kniser, a farmer in 
the Arnold vicinity, and they have two sons 



and one daughter. Dora is the wife of Ferdi- 
nand Beshaler, an Arnold farmer. Elmer J. 
is still a bachelor and is farming his father's 
land. 

Mrs. Seaney, the mother, died May 12, 
1891. Mr. Seaney still lives on his farm, but 
his possessions are such as to render him 
care-free and to enable him to retire from 
active work. His land is leased and still goes 
on producing foodstuff for humanity. The 
pioneers of the "80s and '90s know of Mr. 
Seaney's early activities and hold him and his 
family in high esteem. In politics his affilia- 
tions are with the Republican party, and he 
has been always ready to assist all worthy ob- 
jects, the while he has been regarded as a 
prominent and leading spirit of the commu- 
nity. 



NOAH MELHAM. — America, with its 
vast and varied opportunities for the achieve- 
ment of success, has attracted to its shores 
those of every civilized race in the world, and 
in every well settled community there are to 
be found representatives of far-distant coun- 
tries. Custer county is no exception to this 
rule, and one of its thriving communities, the 
enterprising little city of Sargent, has a 
worthy representative of far-off Syria, in the 
person of Noah Melham, who is successfully 
engaged in business as the proprietor of a 
general store. 

Mr. Melham was bom August 4, 1884. at 
Aumscheit, Syria, Asia Minor, and is a son 
of Melham Norah and Mary (Scessien) 
Norah, who spent their entire lives in Syria. 
The father was a small famier for many 
years, but when overtaken by failing health 
he took up the occupation of charcoal burn- 
ing. There were eight children in the family, 
of whom five are living: Charlie and his 
wife, Jennie, reside near Sargent, and he is 
a farmer; the present address of Abraham is 
unknown ; Beade is engaged in farming near 
Sargent: Noah is the subject of this review; 
and Barbara is the wife of John Rohana, a 
faraier living in Syria. Noah Melham re- 
ceived his education in his native land and re- 
mained under the parental roof until he at- 
tained the age of twenty-one years, when, 
stirred by ambition which could not be satis- 
fied in his own country, he bade farewell to 
his parents and went to Rio de Janeiro, Bra- 
zil, where he remained six months. He then 
came to the United States and for six months 
was a resident of Fall River, Massachusetts, 
at the end of which period he turned his face 
to the west and in 1906 arrived at Comstock, 
Nebraska. For one year following his ar- 



464 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY. NEBRASKA 



rival he tried his hand at farming, but this 
vocation did not prove congenial or remunera- 
tive, and the young Syrian gave up the at- 
tempt and began traveling as a salesman of 
Watson's remedies. He thus continued for 
three years, during which time, through his 
industry and capable methods of salesman- 
ship, he accumulated a snug little capital. He 
had built up a good business, which was grow- 
ing rapidly, but the first of his objects was 
accomplished, and he sold out his route and 
returned to his native land, where he re- 
mained six months. \\'ithin that time he mar- 
ried Sadie Wieken, who was born in Syria, 
.May 4, 1885, a daughter of Pete and Mach- 
bobe (Mahvvat) Wieken, farming people of 
that land, where they spent their entire lives. 
Mrs. Melham has one brother, John, who still 
farms the paternal acres in Syria. Mr. and 
Mrs. Melham became the parents of three 
children, of whom two survive : Marie, 
born Tulv 17. 1911; and Oscar, born Jnne 2, 
1913." 

Upon his return to the United States from 
Syria, Mr. Melham again took up his resi- 
dence in Custer county, and again gave his 
attention to farming. This he followed with 
some degree of success for six years, but, 
once having experienced the attractions of 
commercial life, he was irresistably drawn 
back into business affairs, and he eventually 
sold out his farming interests and opened a 
general store at Sargent. This he has con- 
tinued to conduct with constantly growing suc- 
cess, a feature of his business being the hand- 
ling of the . proprietarv' articles known as 
Watson's remedies. A man of pleasing per- 
sonality, courteous, obliging, he has made 
scores of friends in his adopted land and this 
fact perhaps has contributed as much to his 
success as have his untiring industry and his 
native business ability. 

MARSHALL E. EDDY, ex-county treas- 
urer of Custer county, furnishes in his career 
another exemplification of self-made manhood. 
Thrown u])on his own resources at the tender 
age of eleven years, he has won his way to 
business success and public influence, and at 
present he is extending the scope of his useful- 
ness to the work of education, religion and na- 
tional patriotism. In consonance with the reg- 
ulation that a county treasurer may serve only 
two consecutive terms, Mr. Eddy retired from 
this office at the end of the year 1918, after 
having scrsed two terms. He was born May 
.^. 1857, in Canada, and is a son of Stephen 
P. and Margaret Jane (Finlay) Eddy. 

The Eddy family originated in England, 



whence its early representatives came to Amer- 
ica prior to the Revolutionary war, in which 
several bearing the farmily name participated. 
For some years the family resided in Xew 
York state, where Harden Eddy, the paternal 
grandfather of Marshall E. Eddy, passed his 
life as an agriculturist, and there also, for a 
a time, lived the maternal grandfather. Henry 
Finlay, who was a native of Ireland. Stephen 
Eddy was born, reared, and educated in the 
Empire state, and after his marriage went to 
Canada, where for a few years he was engaged 
in business as a gontractor for brick and stone 
work. He subsequently returned to Xew 
York, but in 1877 he removed to Michigan, 
where both he and his wife were residents of 
Bay City at the time of their death. They had 
nine children of whom five are living. Charles 
H., an invalid, is proprietor of a shooting gal- 
lery at Unionville, Michigan : Mary is the wife 
of James Ormisten. a land man of Alberta. 
Canada : Margaret J. is the wife of C. C. 
Honeywell, a farmer in the vicinity of Union- 
ville, Michigan; Marshall E. is the subject of 
this sketch ; and S. R. is a painter at Mar- 
quette, Michigan. The family has been affili- 
ated with the ^^ethodist Episcopal church. Two 
of the uncles of Marshall E. Eddy took part in 
tlie Civil war, as Union soldiers. One, Carle- 
ton Eddy, was wounded in the last battle of 
the war and never re'covered from his injuries, 
dying a few years later: the other, Philo, was 
in the engineer corps, and returned safely to 
his home. 

Marshall E. Eddy, as noted above, was called 
upon to make his own way in the world when 
he was still a child, and for the most part he 
educated himself, although he attended the 
public schools of Canada and Bradford, Penn- 
sylvania. He equipped himself so well that 
he was able to secure a teacher's certificate, 
and for several years he taught school near 
Bradford, being present during the big excite- 
ment in the oil fields, about 1879. From that 
community he came to Exeter, Nebraska, 
where he taught school for one year, following 
which he turned his attention to agriculture 
and began working a homestead in Custer 
county, twelve miles west of Merna. He was 
courageous and persistent enough to remain 
until he paid out on his claim, and he then 
transferred his base of activities to Merna, 
where he took charge of an implement business 
for the firm of Holland & McDonald. After 
working for this concern three vears, he re- 
ceived and accepted an advantageous and at- 
tractive ofTer from the Deering Harvester 
Company, and for six or seven years he was 
a traveling salesman for this famous corpor- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY, NEBRASKA 



465 




Makshaix E. Eppv 



466 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



ation. When he resigned and left the road it 
was to form a partnership with Mac Johnson, 
in a ranch located in the northern part of 
Custer countv. where they handled 300 to 400 
head of cattle, but Mr. Eddy later sold his in- 
terests to his partner and bought a tract of 
land at the townsite of Merna. where for three 
years he was engaged in farming. Next he was 
one of the founders of the institution known 
as the Home Bank of ]\Ierna, and about that 
time was also instrumental in the erection of 
several large structures there, including a mod- 
ern hotel and opera house. When he sold his 
bank, after operating it for three years, he 
came to Broken Bow to assume the duties of 
deputy county treasurer, under Clarence Mack- 
ey, and he held that position for five years. 
During this time he gained in full degree the 
confidence and respect of his fellow citizens 
and when the opportunity came they elected 
him to the county treasurership. his record in 
that office being such a splendid one that when 
he appeared for re-election he was given a 
majority of 1,700 votes, on the Democratic 
ticket, in a county that is largely Republican. 
He retired from office in January. 1919. 

Mr. Eddy was married November 10, 1888, 
to Miss Frances J. Reader, who was born in 
Wisconsin, a daughter of Henrv' and Wilhel- 
mina Reader, the former a native of New York 
and the latter of Switzerland. They were early 
settlers of Wisconsin, from which state they 
drove to Iowa in an ox-cart, as early residents, 
and about 1882 changed their home to Nebras- 
ka, where they passed the remainder of their 
lives. Mrs. Eddy was educated at Osceola. 
Iowa, and after teaching school in Iowa two 
terms spent the same length of time in teach- 
ing at Broken Bow. She is a member of the 
Christian Science church and is one of the 
highly intellectual and well informed ladies 
of her adojited city. Three children have been 
born to Mr. and Mrs. Eddy, of whom the 
first born, Carl, died at the age of nine months. 
Euroia Pearl has for the past two years been 
engaged in Chautauqua work, and is now man- 
ager of a troupe of girls, touring the New 
England states, she herself being a brilliant 
reader and gifted and a talented singer. Slie 
received her early education at Merna. follow- 
ing which she was sent by her parents to Brow- 
nell Hall, at Omaha, and her musical training 
was completed at Northwestern University, 
Chicago, and the Boston Conservatory of 
Music. A'era M., the youngest child, was edu- 
cated at Merna and Brownell Hall. Omaha, 
following which she took a three vears" course 
in the Mechanics Institute of Rochester. New 
York, from which she secured a diploma in 



domestic science. She also has a state teach- 
er's certificate in Nebraska, and during the 
1917-18 term taught in the Union school, near 
Berwyn, Custer county. On the 18th of May, 
1918. Miss \"era Mae Eddy became the wife 
of Sargeant ^^'illiam J. Lovelace, of Kentucky, 
who was at the time located at Camp Taylor, 
that state, in the service of the United States. 
Since the signing of the armistice Sergeant 
Lovelace has been transferred to Newport 
News, Virginia. 

Mr. Eddy is a member of the Modern Wood- 
men of America, and is a prominent Democrat. 
Always a loyal and public-spirited citizen, he 
has given his aid to all progressive and patri- 
otic movements, and in connection with the 
world war he rendered his country excellent 
service as chairman of the exemption board at 
Broken Bow, and as a member of the executive 
committee of the Red Cross. 



JOHN D. WIELAND. who is manager of 
the Dierks Lumber Company at Callaway, Ne- 
braska, is a man well and favorably known in 
Custer county, of which he has been a con- 
tinuous resident for thirty-three years. He 
has led an active business life during all that 
time, continually coming into contact with 
other stable and reliable men, and at the pres- 
ent time he is numbered with the county's best 
and most dependable citizens. 

John D, \\'ieland was born at Salem, 
Columbiana county, Ohio, February 14, 1867. 
and is the only survivor of the six children of 
Daniel and Christiana (Koupp) Wieland. 
Daniel W'ieland was a farmer, and in the 
spring of 1867, when his son John D. was 
three months old, he removed from Colum- 
biana county, Ohio, to Montgomerv- county. 
Iowa, where he carried on farming until his 
deatli, which occurred when John D. was 
about eighteen years old. The latter had com- 
pleted the common-school course and had also 
a business-school education. When thrown 
upon his own resources he came to Custer 
countv and immediately secured employment 
with the Dierks Lumber Company. He worked 
for this company at Broken Bow for eight 
vears, in a responsible position, and then 
moved to Callaway and took charge of the 
Dierks interest at this place. Mr. Wieland 
has the distinction of being the oldest em-, 
ploye of the company, having worked for it 
continuously for thirty-three years. It goes 
without saying that he is highly valued by the 
companv's principals, who have foiuid him 
not only thoroughly efficient, but also faithful 
and trustworthy. 

Mr. Wieland was married, at Callaway, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



467 



Nebraska, March 28, 1894, to Miss Elizabeth 
Thompson, a daughter of Robert and Esther 
(Hendry) Thompson. Mr. and Mrs. Wie- 
land have three sons and one daughter : Rob- 
ert D., who is a druggist and registered 
pharmacist, in business at Callaway, married 
Sophia Mailer, a daughter of Albert Mailer; 
Yerne O., who is a student of the Callaway 
high school, is employed in the lumber and 
coal office of the Dierks Lumber Company ; 
Lester D., who resides at home and still pur- 
sues his studies, is a clerk in his brother's 
drug store ; and Lauretta, a bright little miss 
of ten years, is still in school. Mr. Wieland 
has never taken any active part in politics but 
has always been conscientious in the perform- 
ance of civic duties 



PETER N. HENRY is an industrious 
and progressive farmer and highly respected 
citizen of Custer county, where he has pres- 
tige as a representative of an old and honored 
pioneer family. Further distinction is his in 
that he can claim Custer county as the place 
of his nativity. 

Air. Henry w^s born in the district known 
as Stop Table, west of Callaway, this county, 
and is a son of Josephus W. and Margaret 
(.^twood) Henry, the former of whom was 
born at Edinburg, Johnson county, Indiana, 
in 1842, and the latter of whom likewise was 
a native of the old Hoosier state. In the earlv 
'80s Josephus W. Henry came with his fam- 
ily to Nebraska and nimibered himself among 
the pioneer settlers of Custer county. He 
became a substantial farmer and valued citi- 
zen, was a Republican in politics, was affili- 
ated with the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, and he and his wife were members 
of the Baptist church. Of their nine children 
six are living, — Samuel M., James W., 
Joseph F., Peter N., Mrs. Minnie Carr, and 
Mrs. Catherine Blixt. 

Peter N. Henry remained with his parents 
until he had attained to his legal majority, and 
in the meanwhile he had assisted his father iji 
the work of the pioneer farm and attended 
the country school during the winter tenns. 
In chosing a vocation he wisely adopted that 
under whose influences he had been reared, 
and he has devoted his attention to the basic 
industries of agriculture and stock-raising, 
with an attendant success which demonstrates 
his energy and good judgment. Mr. Henry 
is the owner of 200 acres of excellent land, 
in the vicinity of Callaway, his well improved 
farm being situated nine miles south of that 
village, besides which he owns an attractive 
and comfortable residence at Callaway. In 



an industrial way he gives his attention to di- 
versified agriculture and stock-jaising, and 
while he has never been active in politics he 
gives his support to the Republican party, co- 
operates with his fellow citizens in the further- 
ance of measures advanced for the general 
welfare of the commtniity, and is loyal to all 
civic duties and responsibilities. 

At Broken Bow, on the 24th of November, 
1908, Judge A. R. Humphrey solemnized the 
marriage of Mr. Henry to Miss Elizabeth Os- 
borne, a daughter of David M. and Mary E. 
(Gilbert) Osborne, who were bom in In- 
diana and who now reside at Callaway, Cus- 
ter county, their other children being as here 
noted : Ollie, who is the wife of Joseph D. 
Haunstine : Alwilda, who is the wife of 
Arthur Ashley ; and Scott, C. Wesley, Noah 
C, and Francis M., all of whom remain at 
the parental home. Mr. and Mrs. Henry 
have no children. 



CHARLES E. REED. — One of the young 
men of sterling worth in Custer coimty, who 
was born, educated, reared and married here, 
is Charles E. Reed, who belongs to an early 
settled and highly respected family of the 
county. Charles E. Reed was born in Custer 
county, December 7, 1895, one of a family of 
nine children born to his parents, F. S. and 
Amy (Jacobson) Reed. The mother of Mr. 
Reed was born at Crete, Nebraska, and died 
in Custer county. January M, 1918, aged fifty- 
three years and ten months. The father was 
born in Illinois and is an extensive agricul- 
turist in this county. 

Charles E. Reed obtained his education in 
the public schools. Farming has been his 
chosen vocation and at the present time he is 
working with his father, in order to have an 
unusual har\est in the time of war stress, 
when loyal and uatriotic men all over the land 
have been offering their lives on the field of 
battle, and when others, far away from the 
stage of conflict, have been making superhu- 
man efforts, in their occupations and activities, 
to help the cause for which the .stupendous 
world war has been waged. At time of this 
writing Mr. Reed was placed in Class 4-A of 
the selective draft. 

Mr. Reed was married February 26, 1917, 
at Broken Bow, Nebraska, to Miss Flossie 
Palmer, who was born in Custer county, she 
being a daughter of John B. and Mary A. 
(Kensell) Palmer and a granddaughter of 
Henn,- V. Kensell. The father of Mrs. Reed 
resides on his ranch, which is located seven 
miles southwest of Broken Bow. Mr. and 
Mrs. Palmer came to Custer county in 1884 



468 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COfXTV. NEBRASKA 



and settled eight miles southwest of Broken 
Bow, at a time when they had to freight all 
their supplies from Kearney, a distance of 
sixty-five miles. They had a family of four 
sons and two daughters, as follows: Edward 
F. Palmer is deceased; Jasper I. is at home; 
Clarence E. is a member of Company E, 
Fourth Infantry, American expeditionar\' 
forces in France; Joseph E., who died from 
wounds received in the trenches in France, 
June 16, 1918, will have his name peq^etuated 
as the first Custer county hero to give his life 
in the world war; Flossie is the wife of 
Charles E. Reed of this sketch ; and Ollie re- 
mains with her parents. In the season of 
1918 Mr. Reed and his father have 250 acres 
in com and 250 acres in small grain, and their 
prospects are very encouraging as to the 
abundance of the yield on both sections. Mr 
and Mrs. Reed have one child, Alice Lor- 
raine, bom September 26, 1918. 



THOMAS NORBURY. — Custer county 
has had many men of worth who have finally 
passed from the scene of life, and a notable 
one of these was the late Thomas Norbury, 
who for many years was president of the 
Seven Valleys Bank, at Callaway, this county. 
He was an unusual man in many ways, and 
during a part of his life was a traveler and a 
pioneer in different lands, his experiences giv- 
ing him a wide knowledge of men and af- 
fairs. He possessed literary ability that won 
him notice as a magazine writer, and he was 
also an astute business man and able financier. 
For more than a quarter of a century he lived 
in Custer county, and during that time, 
through his energy, encouragement, and cap- 
ital, some of the most stable business enter- 
prises here were organized and established on 
firm foundations. 

Thomas Norbury was born at Knutsford, 
Cheshire, England, December 28, 1841, and 
died at Callaway, Custer county, Nebraska. 
July 25, 1915. He was the only child of John 
and Ann (Daniels) Norbury. His father 
was a master builder and as the youtli grew 
up, when not attending school, he leamed the 
mason's trade under his father. In 1859 his 
father consented that he should make the 
voyage to Australia, hoping the sea air would 
restore the youth to health, which desirable 
result was realized. When Thomas Norbury 
reached .\ustralia, with two companions he be- 
gan to pros])ect for gold, and they located a 
claim on which they were working when a 
telegram reached him that his beloved father 
was dying. Ilastilv disposing of his inter- 
ests for almost nothing, the dutiful son has- 



tened back to England, where he found his 
father on the road to recovery and, in fact, he 
lived many years afterward. In the mean- 
while the abandoned claim in Australia was 
later fully de\eloped and became known as 
the famous Williams Creek mine, estimated 
to be worth millions of pounds. 

^Ir. Norbury remained in England until 
about 1860 and during those years wrote 
voluminously for the magazines. He then 
once more decided to tn,- mining for gold, and 
in this quest he visited the mines in the vicin- 
ity of Caribou, British Columbia. He con- 
tinued to prospect for the precious metal for 
several years, and before feeling ready to set- 
tle down to a quiet business life he made two 
trips around the world. In answer to another 
call from his father, he then retiu^ned to 
England, and subsequently he went into the 
building business at Leigh, in Lancashire. He 
had a large business there, and in his own 
yards dressed the lumber for use in the houses 
he built for rent. He became a man of local 
prominence and served on the town board of 
Leigh. Mr. Norbury then crossed the ocean 
once more, and landed in the United States. 
In 1888 he came to Custer county, Nebraska, 
locating at Callaway in June of that year. 
He immediately became interested in the 
building up of this section and was one of the 
first to buy shares in the flouring mill and 
other enterprises which he helped to put on a 
paying basis. He was one of the leading or- 
ganizers of the Seven Valleys Bank of Calla- 
way and was its president for many years. 

On the 20th of August, 1893, was solemn- 
ized the marriage of Mr. Norbur\' to Miss 
Agnes L. Tyson, at Cottonwood farm, near 
Callaway. Mrs Norbun' was born March 
10, 1864, on Clarence street, Bolton, Lanca- 
shire. England. Her parents were William 
and Jane (Roberts) Tyson. On the paternal 
side her grandparents were Roger and Betty 
(Burkitt) Tyson, and on the matemal side 
her grandparents were Joseph and Mary 
(Davis) Roberts. Her father was bom on 
the border of Cumberland, in the north of 
England, and her mother was bom October 3. 
1827, at Nantlyn. county of Denbeigh, North 
Wales. Mr. Tyson was an u])holsterer by 
trade. His children were as here noted : Ade- 
laide J., Birkett, and Barbara are deceased . 
^liss Catherine A. lives in England ; William, 
who is president of the Seven Valleys Bank 
at Callaway, is a Royal Highlander, a Repub- 
lican and a member of the I-'piscopal church, 
his wife, Annie, being a daughter of \\'illiani 
Norbury ; Agnes L. is the widow of Thomas 
. Norbur>-, the honored subject of this memoir; 
Fannie, who is the wife of luhvard Warbur- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



469 



ton, a druggist in England, has one child, and 
they belong to the Congregational church ; 
and George, who is a member of the Church 
of England and of the Masonic fraternity, 
owns a cotton mill at Leigh, England. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Norbury a son 
and daughter were born — Thomas W. and 
Fanny J. Thomas W. Norbury had four 
years of training in the Kearney Military 
Academy and then attended the Bradley Poly- 
tecnic .School, at Peoria, Illinois. Thereafter 
he was bookkeeper in the Seven Valleys Bank, 
a position which he was filling when he en- 
listed for service in the world war, as bugler 
in Company B, One Himdred and Eighth 
Militar}' Police, Thirty-third Division, Illinois 
infantry. At time of this writing he is "some- 
where in France." He is a member of the 
Episcopal church and is affiliated with the 
Royai Highlanders. Miss Fannie J. Norburv 
was graduated from the Callaway high school 
and afterward was for one year a student in 
the Nebraska State Normal School at Kear- 
ney. She resides with her mother at Calla- 
way and they are prominent in social life. Mrs. 
Norbury is a communicant of the Episcopal 
church and she holds membership in the 
Royal Highlanders and the Order of the 
Eastern Star. 



JOHN H. RUSSELL. — In every commu- 
nity will be found quiet, industrious business 
men following different vocations, without 
whom the ordinary industries of civilized life 
could not go on, and very often it will be found 
that these are self-made men, having, unaided, 
built up their own fortunes. In this connec- 
tion attention may be called to John H. Rus- 
sell, who is the leading stone mason at Calla- 
way, an experienced man in his line of work, 
and also a citizen who is held in esteem on 
account of his sterling character. John H. 
Russell was born at Gates, in Custer county. 
NehrnsLa, December 25, 1882, and is a son 
of William H. and Elizabeth E. ( Bowman) 
Russell, the latter of whom was born in West 
Virg^inia, a daughter of Abraham Bowman. 
^\'illiam H. Russell was born in Indiana but 
later in life became a farmer in Custer county. 
Nebraska. Of his two children, John H. is 
the elder, and Jennie A., who died at Lincoln, 
Nebraska, in 190,\, was the wife of Trem N. 
Denman. 

John H. Russell remained at home with his 
parents until he was twelve years old, attend- 
ing school and making himself useful to his 
father, and later on he was a student for one 
year in the Lincoln high school. He has 
taken care of himself ever since he left the 



parental roof. Lie began as driver of a de- 
livery wagon for J. C. Bowen, and remembers 
how proud he was when he thereby earned 
his first suit of "store" clothes. In 1897 he 
applied himself to learning the mason's trade 
and afterward, for seven years, he was in the 
employ of William C. Dodson, a prominent 
general contractor at Lincoln. In 1904 ^Ir. 
Russell came back to Custer county. For 
six months he was connected with a hotel at 
Merna, but with that exception he has been in 
business as a stone mason continuously ever 
since. He has completed the stone work on 
many of the important buildings at Callaway 
and other places, and his reputation is that of 
a steady, reliable and competent workman. 

Mr. Russell was married, at Broken Bow, 
Nebraska, June 3, 1905, to Mrs. Vinnie Bar- 
ker, who is a daughter of Jesse I\I. and In- 
diana (Carter) Ash, and she has brothers and 
sisters as follows : Mrs. Elva Wright, Airs. 
Blanche Mooncy, .-Monzo, Ward, Harn-, Her- 
bert, Boyd, George, and Corbett. By her for- 
mer marriage Mrs. Russell has one son, 
Richard Barker, and Mr. and Mrs. Russell 
have three daughters, Nina, Delia, and Lulu, 
all of whom are attending school. Mr. Rus- 
sell has never been very active in politics but 
he has b.is own political preferences and keeps 
well infomied on all the great issues 'of the 
present time, as well as showing lively inter- 
est in public aft'airs in his own nation, state, 
countv, and conimunitv. 



ROBERT E. GIVEN. — On the roll of 
Custer countv's early settlers who have passed 
to their reward, mention should be made of 
Robert Elliot Given, who was bom in Pember- 
ton county, Virginia, March 25, 1826. On the 
4th of January, 1855, he was united in mar- 
riage to Rachel M. Jordan, a native of the same 
county as her husband, her birth having oc- 
curred June 13, 1831. They were farming 
age of eighty-seven years, a privilege which 
people and in 1870 they became residents of 
Whiteside county, Illinois. In 1879 they 
numbered themselves among the early settlers 
of Fillmore county, Nebraska. In 1884 they 
came to Custer county, where Robert E. 
Given secured as a homestead the southwest 
quarter of section 28, township 18, range 21, 
where he became one of the early settlers of 
this part of the county. His first home was 
the primitive sod house, and he shared in the 
hardships and privations incident to those 
early days. He later bought a quarter-section 
adjoining his original homestead on the west, 
where he and his wife passed the remainder 
of their days and where his death occurred 



470 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTV, NEBRASKA 



April 3, 1899, his wife having preceded him 
to eternal rest. Tannan,- 19th of the same year. 
A few days prior to his death he told his minis- 
ter that he had been a Christian for sixtv 
years. He and his wife had been lifelong 
members of the Methodist Epicopal church. 

Robert E. Given met with success in his 
farming operations, and at the time of his 
death he was the owner of three quarter-sec- 
tions of land. He and his wife had a family 
of nine children : William is a resident of 
Lincoln, Nebraska; Sampson is engaged in 
agricultural pursuits in Custer county; Eliza- 
beth is the wife of J. S. Kennard, of Seward, 
Nebraska ; Mansel, who died two years ago, 
lived in Chicago ; Samuel is a resident of 
\\ hiteside county, Illinois ; John died in in- 
fancy ; Ellis W., who owns and operates the 
old home farm, is individually represented on 
other pages of this volume ; E. S. is residing 
at Pueblo, Colorado; and Deborah is the wife 
of James Anderson, of Emporia, Kansas. 

Pioneer conditions were still in evidence on 
every hand when Robert E. Given settled in 
Custer county, and he lived to see vast 
changes take place in the community he helped 
to develop. 



MICHAEL AIcCARTY is one of the na- 
tive sons of Custer county, and was born on 
his father's homestead, in Dale vallev, Sep- 
tember 2S, 1S8S, a son of Robert D. M'cCarty. 
of whom extended mention is made else 
where in this volume. 

Michael McCarty was reared on the fami 
and acquired his education in the public 
schools of his native township, .^s a boy he 
assisted in the development of the homestead 
and when a young man of twenty-one years 
he wisely chose the vocation with which he 
was familiar. He is now operating a farm 
of 160 acres, belonging to his father. 

For a wife and companion Mr. McCarty 
chose Miss Irene Dale, a native of Custer 
county, and they are the parents of three 
children : Rachel, Laurence, and Leonard. 
Mr. and Mrs. McCarty are members of the 
Catholic church and are held in high esteem 
in the community with which the ^IcCarty 
family have been identified for thirty-eight 
vears. 



CARL R. KRENZ. — Few men in Custer 
county have been residents here for a longer 
period than has the gentleman whose name in- 
troduces this record, thirty-eight years hav- 
ing come and gone since he cast in his lot 
with the pioneers of this county. 



Carl Rudolph Krenz is a native of Prussia, 
Germany, where he was born November 27, 
1831. He has no knowledge of his parents, 
both having passed away when he was quite 
young. He made his home' in his native land 
till he was twenty-two years of age and there 
he learned the trade of furrier. In 1853 he 
started for America, and after a trip of three 
weeks, from Liverpool, England, he landed 
at Brunswick, Nova Scotia, the voyage being 
made on a sailing vessel. He went to Boston, 
Massachuetts, where he found employment 
until 1859, when he l)ecame a resident of Dav- 
enport, Iowa, there working at his trade for 
sixteen years. His next place of residence was 
in Nebraska City, where he remained two 
years, after which he went still further west 
in Nebraska, and located at Grand Island. 

Desiring to become a farmer and not 
possessing the necessary capital with which to 
jnirchase land, he came to Custer county in 
the fall of 1880 and took a homestead of 160 
acres, in section 14, township 18, range 22. 
He also secured a tree claim, in another part 
of the township, but this he later traded for 
land adjoining his homestead. His first 
dwelling here was a dugout, in which the 
family lived two years. Then was erected a 
sod house in which the family home was main- 
tained till 1903, when the present commodious 
frame house was erected. 

Those were strenuous times for the settlers, 
and the nardships and privations they endured 
can hardly be realized by the present genera- 
tion. L)ne of the greatest drawbacks to the 
country was the question of water. It was 
a long way to the spring on Victoria creek and 
water was scooped from buffalo-wallows or 
lagoons till a well could be dug. The first 
well in Dale valley was dug by Mr. Krenz, in 
the spring of 1881, on the \\'illiam Couhig 
homestead. The nearest market or trading 
posts were Kearney and Grand Island, and the 
trip to either of these towns required several 
days. Mr. Krenz, like other early settlers of 
Custer county, possessed those qualities which 
made it possible for him to meet and over- 
come obstacles, and, as the years passed, suc- 
cess crowned his efforts. Thus to-day he and 
other pioneers who remain are surrounded 
with the comforts and blessings which they 
justly deser\'e and which the present genera- 
tion ought to appreciate. 

Mr. Krenz has been twice married. His 
first wife, Wilhelmina, he wedded in Germany. 
To them were bom five children, two of whom 
are deceased, while those living are Mrs. 
Bertha b'berling, of Davenport, Iowa ; Rob- 
ert, of the same place; and Julius, a resident 
of New Mexico. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



471 



For his second wife Mr. Krenz chose Miss 
Catherine Katosky, a native of Germany, and 
she passed away in 1900. She was the mother 
of eight children: William, Joseph, and 
Charles are all residents of Cnster coimty ; 
John resides in Grant county, Nebraska ; Al- 
mon resides on the old home farm ; Anna is 
unmarried and resides in Iowa ; Emma is the 
wife of Fred Hargerden, of Alliance, Ne- 
braska ; Catherine is the wife of Tom Murray 
and they reside at St. Paul, Minnesota. 

Mr. Krenz's religious views coincide with 
the teachings of the Lutheran church, in the 
faith of which he was reared, and in politics 
he is Republican. 

Almon Krenz, who now owns the old farm, 
was born Februarj' 3, 1881, in a sod house on 
the Thomas farm, where his parents lived for 
a time after they first came to the county. He 
has always made farming his occupation, and 
the scene of his operations has been the old 
homestead. For a wife and helpmeet he 
chose Miss Daisy Winther, and they have 
three children : Ray, Rena and Thelma. 

Carl Rudolph Krenz has lived retired for 
several years and has reached the venerable 
comes to but few persons. He has been an 
eye-witness to the changes that have taken 
place in Custer county, and in the work, of 
trans fomiation he has contributed his full 
share. It is only fair to such as he, as well 
as to their children and their children's chil- 
dren, that their life record be written and 
given a place in the history of the county in 
which they spent the best years of their lives. 



WILLIAM E. MARTIN. — Down in the 
Roten valley, seventeen miles southwest of 
Callaway, in a splendid farming district, is the 
well equipped fann of the progressive citizen 
whose name introduces this sketch. 

Mr. Martin was born near Hollister, Cali- 
fornia, and is a son of John and Clara (Wil- 
kins) Martin, the former a native of \\'iscon- 
sin, and the latter of Iowa. In the family 
of John Martin were three sons and one 
daughter. When William E. ^lartin was but 
four vears old, his father died, and the mother 
left California, taking the children back to 
Iowa, where William was sent to live with his 
uncle, with whom he remained until he was 
thirteen years of age. He obtained his early 
education by attending countrs' school in the 
winter time, and his boyhood work included 
catching gophers, picking up rock and cutting 
wood. After he was thirteen years of age 
he worked on a farm bv the month, for which 
service he recei\ed three dollars per month. 

After coming to Nebraska, Mr. Martin set- 



tled in Nance county, and on the 12th of Sep- 
tember, 1899, in Fullerton, that county, he 
married Miss Nettie Bishop, a very excellent 
young lady who was well fitted to be the part- 
ner of his joys and sorrows. Mrs. Martin 
was born in Illinois, and is a daughter of John 
W. and Elizabeth (Gustine) Bishop, the for- 
mer a native of Shelby county, Indiana. In 
the Bishop family were five children — Mrs. 
Nettie Martin, AVthur E., Ella F., Mary L., 
and Fred E. 

In the Martin home to-day are three chil- 
dren — Erma F., who is a young ninth-grade 
student ; Otha O., who has climbed to the 
eighth grade ; and Kenneth A., who stands on 
the seventh rung of the educational ladder. 
All are at home and are promising candidates 
for future usefulness. 

Mr. and Mrs. Martin came to Custer 
county in 1905 and bought the farm known as 
the Solomon Yoden place, in Roten valley — 
a property described above as being seventeen 
miles southwest of Callaway. Mr. Martin 
farms 110 acres. He has made his money by 
mixed farming, in which he has turned ofif a 
good many hogs and cattle. He gives some 
attention to dairying and in 1918 he sold four 
hundred and seventy-four dollars' worth of 
cream from seven cows. When it comes to 
handling stock on the farm Mr. Martin has a 
notion that only the best quality pays, and ac- 
cordingly he keeps the best that can be pro- 
cured. He has a pleasant home, a profitable 
farm, is thrifty and prosperous, and he and 
his wife enjoy the confidence and respect of 
their neighbors. Their religious affiliation is 
with the Methodist Episcopal church. 



LESTER D. KIRKPATRICK. — Here is 
a title-line name widely known in Custer 
county ; here is the story of a young man who 
is essentially a Custer county product, who is 
at the present time a very extensive operator 
in food production, and who has already laid 
the foundations of an unusually successful ca- 
reer. 

Lester D. Kirkpatrick was bom in Broken 
Bow, Nebraska, October 30, 1885, and is the 
second son of John S. and Isabel (Croft) 
Kirkpatrick, his father having been a well 
known early-day lawyer whose residence was 
in the county-seat town. Lester D. Kirk- 
patrick is one of a family of seven children — 
John C, Lester D., Harrison M., Ina B., Ruth, 
Marie, and Marion. His sister Ina is a law 
graduate. • His youngest brother, Marion, is 
at the time of this writing, somewhere on the 
French coast, in the naval service of the United 
States. John C, the eldest brother, is estab- 



47. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



lished on a ranch of 3,000 acres, owned by his 
father, in Brown county, Nebraska. Harri- 
son M. is a lawyer by profession and is en 
g-aged in practice at Idabel, Oklahoma. Ruth 
is the wife of Franz Jansen and they reside 
in Kansas City. Marie is the wife of Wil- 
lard M. Bohart, of Plattsmouth, Missouri. 

Lester D. Kirkpatrick left Broken Bow with 
his parents when his father moved to Lincoln, 
after having been appointed a commissioner 
of the supreme court, on the bench of which 
he served four years. Lester was graduated 
in the Lincoln high school and also took a 
course in the Lincoln Business College. In 
1904 he enlisted in the coast artillery division 
of the regular army, stationed at Fort Hunt, 
Virg-inia. He served thirteen months and, 
not liking regular army life, bought his dis- 
charge and went to Kansas City, where his 
father's family was located. There he at- 
tended the Kansas City Business College, 
which gave him an additional educational 
equipment. When through school he returned 
to Custer county and took charge of one of 
his father's farms, about eight miles west of 
Broken Bow. 

March 2, 1907, recorded the marriage of 
Mr. Kirkjiatrick to Gertrude Reinhard, a 
daughter of John and Mary Reinhard, living 
near McKinley postoflice in Custer county. An 
extended reference to this family is found 
elsewhere in this volume. 

The family circle of Mr. and I\Irs. Lester 
D. Kirkpatrick has been increased by the ad- 
vent of three children — Marion, aged eight ; 
Helen, aged six, and Eugene,' aged four 
( 1918). These are bright young children, full 
of hope and promise. At the present time Mr. 
Kirkpatrick is operating a ranch which belongs 
to his father and is located in the Sells valley, 
seventeen miles south of Callaway. The hold- 
ings comprise 1,540 acres, of which 750 are in 
cultivation and used for crop production. The 
remainder of the land is used for grazing pur- 
poses and has helped to produce army beef. 
so much needed in connection with the great 
world war. .\side from his local operations 
Mr. Kirkpatrick deals in stock, which he buys 
and sells, and he is considered a "live wire" 
in the community. He expects the home place 
to shi]) out each year at least 200 head of cat- 
tle and 100 head of hogs. This makes Mr. 
Kirkpatrick an extensive producer and a ven- 
valuable citizen, especially at this time. In 
politics. Mr. Kirkpatrick affiliates with the 
Democratic party. Both he and his wife have 
a good standing in the community and are 
rated as "A No. 1' in all progressive move- 
ments. 



JOSEPH D. HAUENSTINE. — The 
farmers of the Callaway district seem to be 
uniformly prosperous and possessed of a 
common thrift that has distinguished their lo- 
cality. This storj- concerns a man who has 
contributed and is contributing to that rqju- 
tation. 

Joseph D. Hauenstine was born August 10, 
1859, in Chatham, Licking county, Ohio. He 
is a son of Jacob H. and Lucinda (Dull) 
Ifauenstine, who were both natives of Penn- 
sylvania and were very estimable people. The 
stork served them well and brought to their 
domicile fourteen children, only five of whom 
are living at the present time. They are 
Jacob W., Joseph D. ( the subject of this 
sketch), Mrs. Matilda Bellmire, Mrs. Lucinda 
Readhead, and Mrs. Ida F. Byler. 

During his early life Joseph D. Hauenstine 
attended the countn,- school and formed stu- 
dious and industrious habits which ha\e shaped 
the course of his entire life. His first money 
was spent for a slate and pencil, and very early 
in his career he formed a habit — which de- 
veloped into a hobby — of making scrapbooks 
out of clippings from newspapers. These 
hooks he has preserved through the years, and 
to-day they show not only his wide range of 
rtadmg but also the course his mind has taken 
in all public e\ents. In addition to his scrap- 
book filing, he has kept a faithful diary, and 
some day these daily accounts will be very in- 
teresting reading. His father, although a 
cooper by occupation, owned a farm, and here 
young J. O., as he was familiarly called, put 
in his first years and began the reading which 
has made him a well infomied man on all sub- 
jects. 

Mr. Hauenstine came 
and to Custer county in 
a homestead and tree 
drouth period of 1894 

homestead to the man who held a luortgage on 
it, for $350. The farm is now a very valuable 
one. 

.Augftist 24, 1892, at Lexington, was solemn- 
ized the marriage of Mr. Hauenstine to Miss 
Minerva O. Osborn, who was born in Ken- 
lucky, the daughter of David M. and Mary 
(Gilbert) O.sborn, both of whom were na- 
tives of the Hoosier state. In the Osborn 
family were seven children, .\side from Mrs. 
Hauenstine they were Alwilda Ashley, O. 
Scott, \\'eslev. Lizzie Henry, Noah C, and 
Francis ( )sborn. The famil\- belonged to the 
Evangelical church 

Mr. and Mrs. Hauenstine established and 
have maintained a comfortable home and they 
have reared a familv of fi\e children, all of 



to Nebraska in 1882 
1886. Here he took 
claim. During the 
he relinquished his 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



473 



whom are promising candidates for future 
usefulness. The children are Florence, Elsie. 
Edith, Raymond, and Hazel I., all of whom are 
in school — either at home or in the high 
school ac Callaway, where ]\Iiss Edith is pur- 
suing her studies. 

The hardships and trials of pioneer days are 
known to Air. and Mrs. Hauenstine. They 
have weathered storms and drouths, and 
they have surmounted difficulties that would 
have discouraged less dauntless spirits. They 
have conquered their difficulties and are to- 
day well and pleasantly located, surrounded by 
the rewards of their toil. They own the orig- 
inal tree claim and the total area of their Cus- 
ter county holdings is 375 acres, beside which 
Mr. Hauenstine still owns the old homestead 
of his father in Knox county, Ohio. He and 
his wife, w'ho has been a true helpmeet, have 
made their money in farming and stock-rais- 
ing. They ha\e emphasized dairying and to- 
day their dairying operations are made more 
profitable than ever, by the use of an under- 
ground silo which is unique in its construc- 
tion and very profitable as a forage preserver 
for milch stock and all grades of young cattle. 

The Hauenstines are regarded as fine peo- 
ple, and are well esteemed by their neighliors. 
Mr. Hauenstine exercises a good deal of in- 
dependence in politics. 



CHARLES B. PEARCE is one of the most 
prominent and prosperous exponents of farm 
enterprise in the Arnold section of Custer 
county and is a liberal and progressive citizen 
who well merits recognition in this publication. 

Mr. Pearce claims the fine old Hoosier 
state as the place of his nativity and is a scion 
of one of the sterling pioneer families of that 
commonwealth. He was bom in Sullivan 
county. Indiana, on the 27th of July, 1865, and 
is a son of W^ashington Allen Pearce and Su- 
.sanna (McClure) Pearce, the former of whom 
was born in Sullivan county, Indiana, in 1813, 
and the latter of whom was born in Kentucky, 
m 1821, she having been eight years of age at 
the time of her parents' removal to Indiana, 
where she was reared to maturity and where 
her marriage was solemnized. Washington 
A. Pearce continued to be identified with agri- 
cultural industry in his native state until 1876, 
when he removed with his family to Missouri, 
where he passed the remainder of his life, the 
subject of this review being the youngest of 
the family of eleven children. 

In the public schools of Indiana Charles B. 
Pearce acquired his early educational discipline 
and he w^as about eleven years of age at the 
time of the familv removal to Missouri, where 



he continued his studies in the public schools, 
when opportunity afforded, and where also he 
gained full fellowship with the sturdy work 
of the home farm. 

In 1887, within a short time after attaining 
to his legal majority, Mr. Pearce, animated by 
his full share of ambition and self-reliance, 
made his way to Custer county, Nebraska, 
where he cast in his lot with the pioneers of 
that day. Here he pre-empted a quarter-sec- 
tion of land, and the same constituted the 
nucleus around which he has developed his 
present large and valuable landed estate, his 
home ranch to-day comprising a full section 
of 640 acres, of which 250 acres are main- 
tained under a high state of cultivation, and 
here Mr. Pearce devotes himself vigorously 
and successfully to diversified agriculture and 
stock-raising. He gives special attention to 
the breeding and growing of hogs, and for 
several years past two car-loads of hogs have 
been marketed from this farm each year. (Jn 
the place Mr. Pearce keeps an average of forty 
head of cattle and twenty-five head of good 
horses, while the yards show a fine flock of 
thoroughbred Rhode Island Red chickens, the 
poultry exhibit being really one of the attrac- 
tions of the farm. Enterprising policies and 
wise management characterize the varied op- 
erations of Mr. Pearce, and thus he gains the 
maximum returns from his well ordered activi- 
ties as a representative husbandman of Custer 
county. 

The domestic relations of Mr. Pearce had 
their inception in 1891, when he led to the 
marriage altar Miss Sylvia Campbell, who 
was born in Iowa and who came with her 
mother to Custer county in 1884. Mrs. 
Pearce has proved the gracious and popular 
chatelaine of the pleasant home and has con- 
tnbvUed greatly to the succers of her husband. 
They have four children, concerning whom 
the following record is consistently entered, 
the ages noted being applicable at the opening 
of the year 1919 : Vera, aged twenty-six 
years, is a Red Cross nurse and at the time 
of this writing is stationed at Camp Cody. New 
Mexico. She is a graduate of the training 
school for nurses that is maintained in connec- 
tion with St. Luke's hospital in the city of 
Denver, Colorado, and has been in the Red 
Cross service for several months. Cecil, aged 
seventeen years : Gladys, aged thirteen ; and 
Nolan, aged ten, all remain at the parental 
home and are duly profiting by the advantages 
of the public schools. 

With naught of exaggeration or inconsis- 
tency, it may be stated that Mr. and Mrs. 
Pearce are leaders in their community, where 
they have been active promoters and supporters 



474 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



of all helpful enterprises. Mr. Pearce has 
contributed community service from time to 
time by holding some of the local district or 
township offices, and at the time of this writ- 
ing he is giving efficient service as township 
clerk. He is a successful, progressive farmer 
who attributes much of his success to a faith- 
ful following of the mixed-crop policy in his 
farm activities. He and his wife hold mem- 
bership in the Methodist Episcopal church and 
are popular factors in the best social life of 
their home community. 



JOHN T. MARONEY. — Credit this 
young farmer of Irish extraction to the An- 
selmo region. Give Anselmo credit for his 
thrift and enterprise, and let it be known that 
Custer county, in common with most other 
sections of this great country, is deei)ly in- 
debted to Irish-American blood. 

John T. Maroney is a native of Custer 
county. It was here that he discovered Amer- 
ica in 1889. He is the son of Timothv Ma- 
roney, a familiar character in Anselmo. In 
the father's family were two children, John 
T. and his sister, Alary Knoell, of New Helena. 
John T. Maroney, himself a native of the 
county, married a native daughter of 
the county when, on April 26, 1911, he 
led to the marriage altar Miss Ora Ross, 
who was born in tlie year 1890 and is 
a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jonas Ross. 
Since their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Maroney 
have maintained a representative Custer 
county home and by ])rovident energ\- have 
supplied it with necessities and comforts as 
occasion required. Three ':hildren furnish the 
household with sunshine and banish lonesome- 
ness. Kenneth, aged six years, Paul, aged 
four years, and Richard, aged one year ( 1918), 
will soon be large enough to assume the man- 
agement of household affairs. Mr. Maronev 
and his family live on his father's land, upon 
which are good impro^'emc:lts and 160 acres 
of which are in cultivation. He has a good 
grade of stock, which consists of fifty head 
of cattle, twenty-one head of horses, and ten 
head of fine-grade hogs. These form a foun- 
dation of the -herds Mr. Maroney expects to 
own when a few more years have come and 
gone. They constitute the nucleus of a for- 
tune v/hich he anticipates will be large enough 
to permit his retirement after the strenuous 
years of middle life are past. He and his 
wife have lived eight years on the place and 
are making good in more ways than one. 
John's early education was in the public 
schools and later in the Long public school of 
Omaha, of which he is a graduate. He is in- 



dep)endent in politics and stands for anything 
that is helpful to the community Speaking of 
the opportunities in this country for making 
money, he remarks that when eleven years of 
age, he made his first money by loading hay, 
and for this ser\'ice his employer gave him 
two dollars, which was almost, if not quite, 
a man's wages. Mr. and Mrs. Maroney are 
members of the Catholic church. They are 
good neighbors and enjoy the confidence of 
their manv friends. 



HOMER :\I. SULLIVAN, of Broken Bow, 
Nebraska, was bom in Davis county, Iowa, 
May 1, 1857, and is a son of David L. and Re- 
becca (Morris) Sullivan. He began the study 
of law in the office of Payne & Eckleberger, at 
Bloomfield, Iowa. He taught school until 
188,^, when he was admitted to the bar. In 
the fall of 1884 he came to Broken Bow and 
began the practice of his profession with Au- 
gustin R. Humphrey, with whom he was as- 
sociated until 1890. He then formed a part- 
nership with C. L. Gutterson, and this alliance 
continued until he was appointed judge of the 
district court, by Governor Holcomb, to fill 
the vacancy caused by the election of Judge 
William L. Greene to congress. 

In the fall of 1897, Judge Sullivan was 
elected to fill out the term, and he was re- 
elected for the full term in 1899. He was 
count V attorney of Custer county for one term, 
1887-88. 

Judge Sullivan affiliated with the Republican 
party until 1896, when he allied himself with 
the Populist party. In November. 1880. he 
married Miss Ella Turner, of Agency City. 
Iowa, and five children, four daughters and 
one son. have been born to them — Ina. Jennie, 
Lynn, Alma, and Elma. 



AUGUST OSTRAND. — A resident of 
Custer county during a period of thirty-five 
years, Mr. Ostrand here acquired a homestead 
on the 9th of June, 1884, since which time he 
has advanced himself to a position of substan- 
tial prominence among the agriculturists of his 
commimity. near Mason City, where he is now 
conducting general farm operations on a half- 
section of land, with due attention given to 
diversified agriculture and stock-raising. Mr. 
( )strand is a native of Sweden, where he was 
born Januan' .^, 1850, and he is a son of John 
R. and Breta (Oleson) Ostrand. who ])assed 
their entire lives in their native land. 

August Ostrand was educated in the schools 
of his native country, where also he earh^ 
learned the lessons of practical industry. In 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



475 



1872 he came to the United States and found 
employment in a furnace manufactory at De- 
Kallj, Illinois. He later returned to Sweden, 
where he remained for some time, and upon 
coming again to the United States he sought 
ways and means to lay the foundation for in- 
dividual independence and success. In 1884 
he came to Custer county, Nebraska, and made 
permanent settlement. He secured in that 
year a homestead claim near Mason City, and 
this property he still owns. To the same he 
has added from time to time, as his financial 
resources have warranted and his judgment 
dictated, with the result that he is now the 
owner of a half-section of land, in addition to 
other valuable real estate. His residence farm 
is situated in section 6, township 13, range 18, 
where he has an attractive residence and other 
substantial buildings, as well as being pro- 
vided with modem implements and machinery 
with which to lighten farm labor and add to 
the success of his operations. While general 
farming has been his principal business, Mr 
Ostrand has been successful also in the raising 
of cattle and hogs, and each year he ships live- 
stock to the leading markets. He is progres- 
sive and energetic and maintains a reputation 
for integrity in business and for public spirit 
as a citizen. He is affiliated with the Masonic 
fraternity and the Alodern Woodmen of Amer- 
ica, and the religious faith of the family is that 
of the Presbyterian church. 

On the 36th of November, 1879, Mr. Os- 
trand was united in marriage to Miss Breta 
Carolina Olsen, and concerning their children 
the following brief record is available: Con- 
stantine, who was born in Sweden, is now en- 
gaged in farming in Custer county ; Anna is 
the wife of Harley Johnson, likewise an agri- 
culturist in this county; Lavina is the wife of 
L. G. Kleckner; John R., at the time of this 
writing, is with the American Expeditionary 
Forces in France : Hattie is a popular teacher 
in the public schools of Mason City ; Bettie is 
the wife of Lee Fisher, a farmer of this 
county : William and Benjamin remain at the 
parental home : and Clara is attending the pub- 
lic schools at Mason City. 



E. C. HOUSE. — One of the oldest real- 
estate, loan, and insurance enterprises of 
Broken Bow is that established in 1886 by E. 
C. House. The founder was an excellent can- 
didate for a successful real-estate business, for 
he had formerly had experience in the same 
line, and the field which he chose as his scene 
of operations was an advantageous one, both' 
from the town and country standpoints, the 
while he pursued clean methods and made his 



word and judgment respected. The result is 
a business which is not only financially profit- 
able but has also placed the community in a 
favorable light before those living in adjacent 
towns and country. The business is now con- 
ducted under the title of E. C. House & Son. 

E. C. House was born at Moundville, Mar- 
quette county, Wisconsin, June 28, 1858, a son 
of James Uavid and Francis (Turner) House, 
natives of L,ondon, England, where they mar- 
ried and where several of their children were 
liorn. Coming to the United States in 1848, 
the family settled in Wisconsin, where the 
father became a successful farmer, and where 
his death occurred in 1865. He was a stanch 
Republican, and he and his wife were con- 
sistent members of the Episcopal church, four 
of their sons and one daughter having their 
names registered in the church at St. Johns- 
wood, England. There were ten children in 
the family, of whom eight are living: Nate 
J., who is a retired citizen of Canton, South 
Dakota, served four years and three months 
as a soldier of the Union during the Civil war : 
John, who is a retired citizen of Morris, 
Minnesota, enlisted for one year in the Union 
army at the outbreak of the Civil war, was 
wounded in the first battle of Bull Run, where 
he was taken prisoner, and spent the following 
eleven months in Libby and Andersonville 
Prisons before being exchanged and honorably 
discharged; William is living retired at Arling- 
ton, Iowa ; Eliza is the wife of George Falk- 
ner, a farmer of Glenwood, Minnesota; Julia 
is the wife of J. E. Cowen, a retired citizen of 
Fresno, California; Mrs. Anna Bates is a 
widow and resides at Arlington, Iowa ; Emma 
is the wife of Mr. Broten, who is in the cream- 
separator business at Grand Forks, Minnesota. 

E. C. House received his education in the 
common schools of Portage City. \\'isconsin, 
and for his first occupation learned the sad- 
dlery business, in which he was engaged for 
some time, subsequently turning his attention 
to the insurance field. L,ater he displayed tal- 
ent as a real-estate operator and insurance 
salesman, and his business grew to such im 
portance that he subordinated all else to it. 
In 1886 he came to Broken Bow, where he es- 
tablished himself in the same line, and in 
more recent years he admitted his son to part- 
nership, under the firm style of E. C. House 
& Son. The prosperity which has attended 
this firm has been the direct result of industry 
and the following out of an honorable policy 
in conducting a general real-estate, loan, and 
insurance business. Mr. House is a Royal 
Arch Mason, and during an early day he held 
the chairs of senior deacon and junior warden 
in the chapter. He is a stalwart Republican, 



476 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, XECRASKA 



and he and Mrs. House, as well as their chil- 
dren, belong to Saint John's church. Protestant 
Episcopal. 

July 2, 1890, r^Ir. House married Miss Susie 
I. Cole, who was born at Champaign, Illinois. 
She is a daughter of \V. D. Cole, an agricul- 
turist, who came to Broken Bow in 1888. To 
Mr. and Mrs. House there have been born two 
children : Adclla is the wife of Harr>' B. 
Tieniey, a managing chemist with interests at 
.•\ntioch, Shi-ridan county, Nebraska ; and Na- 
thaniel J., still a bachelor, is junior member of 
the firm of Iv C. House & Son, he being a 
graduate of the Broken Bow high school, class 
of 1913. Nathaniel J. House, who was born 
.\ugust 20, 1894, is a blue lodge and chapter 
Mason, and is one of the energetic and pro- 
gressive voung business men of Broken Bow. 



RICHARD BKLLIS. — Of the old and 
honored residents of Custer county, few have 
coml)incd in greater or more successful degrees 
the qualities which make for individual success 
and those which are helpful to their fellow men 
than has Richard Bellis, prosperous farmer and 
extensive landholder, and minister of the 
Church of God. Mr. Bellis has reached the age 
of eighty-one years and, while he has somewhat 
rela.xed from the strenuous labors of a decade 
or so ago, he still attends to the daily routine 
of his farming affairs, and continues to minister 
to the spiritual needs of his church's people. 

Richard Bellis is a native of Wales, born 
February 14, 1837, his parents being Robert 
and Hannah (Bill) Bellis, neither of whom 
ever left their native land. Robert Bellis be- 
gan life as a butcher, but in later years adopted 
the vocation of farming. By his first wife he 
had a family of four children, all deceased, and 
by his second mariage he had eight children, of 
whom Richard is the only survivor. Richard 
Bellis was given his early education in the pub- 
lic schools of Wales, and while his training was 
not far out of the ordinary his mind was so 
receptive and retentive that he gained a much 
better schooling than the majority of his com- 
panions with the same advantages. Through- 
out his life he has continued to be a great read- 
er and keen observer, with the result that to- 
day he is an extremely well educated man and a 
clear and logical thinker. Shortly after his 
eighteenth birthday he left his home in Wales 
and came to .America. He arrived in New 
York City February 22, 1853. For one year 
thereafter he remained in the Empire state, 
and he then removed to Illinois, where he made 
his home for two years and was em- 
ployed as clerk. He caiue to Nebraska in 



1879 and was numbered among the pioneers 
of Hamilton county, where he bought land and 
resided for ten years, carrying on fanning. 
It is to be understood that when he came to 
this country he had little or no capital, that 
his early struggles were exceedingly hard, 
and that every dollar he possesses to-day has 
been gained through his own etiforts. When 
he left Hamilton county, Mr. Bellis came to 
Custer county and homesteaded a property, 
and here he has continued to reside to the 
present time. He erected all the buildings 
which are now located on his quarter-section, 
in sections 9 and 39. in addition to which he 
made all the other improvements which make 
this property so valuable and productive. Car- 
rying on mixed farming operations in an in- 
dustrious way and according to modern meth- 
ods of procedure, he won success such as 
comes to but few, and he is now able to en- 
iov the comforts and conveniences which are 
the rewards of a life of earnest effort, clean 
living, and probitv. 

oil the 29th of'May, 1861, Mr. Bellis wed- 
ded Miss Hattie Cornelia Sweezey. who was 
born in Illinois, and after their marriage they 
located on a farm near Winnebago, Illinois, 
where Mr. Bellis continued his active associ- 
ation with farm enterprise for the ensuing 
sixteen vears. Mrs. Bellis passed to the life 
eternal in January, 1877. secure in the faith of 
the Church of God. Of the three children of 
this union only one is living — May, who is 
the wife of Frank ^IcFarland. a farmer in the 
vicinity of Newell. Iowa. 

In 1881 was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. Bellis to Mrs. Nancy J. (Stark) Stine, 
widow of John Stine, who had served as a 
soldier in the Civil war. the three children of 
this union being Tillie J., Ellen May, and La 
Nora Ann Stine. Mrs. Bellis claims In- 
diana as the place of her nativity ; she is a 
representative of a sterling pioneer family of 
the Hoosier state, and is seventy-one years of 
age. 

In 1892 Mr. Bellis was ordained as minister 
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, by the Nebraska 
eldership of the Churches of God in Nebraska. 
.\t the time of the present writing he has 
charge of the Church of God at Berwyn. Cus- 
ter county. It is interesting to record that 
Mr. Bellis personally revised this sketch, and 
that without the aid of glasses. I'or twenty- 
six years he has preached locally, having 
spent eleven years of that time at Weissert, 
without interruption, and at times during his 
.career of spreading the Gospel he has traveled 
many miles by team to address the people. 
The life nf Mr. r.cllis has been a long, useful 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




Mr. and Mrs. Rich.ard Bellis 



HISTORY OF CUSTER CnuXTV. XEHRASKA 



and inspiring- one, and furnishes a lesson 
which cannot fail to have a good effect u]ion 
the minds of the young — those who are start- 
ing life without friends or helpful influences, 
just as Mr. Bellis did many years ago. His 
achievements make him deserving of the rev- 
erence and esteem in which he is uniformly 
held in his part of Custer county. 



ROBERT Mc CARTY. — Born and reared 
on the farm which is now his home, Robert 
McCartv rej)resents one of the pioneer fami- 
lies of Custer county. September 3, 1890, was 
the dale of his birth and he is a son of Robert 
D. McCarty, who is a retired farmer residing 
in Merna and whose life story, as a pioneer in 
Custer countv, will be found elsewhere in this 
volume. 

Roliert McCarty married ^liss Dora Ellen 
Thomas, who was likewise born in Custer 
county. She is a daughter of Charles Thomas, 
who was only 3 boy when he came to Custer 
county and who, when old enough, secured a 
homestead, his life record being given else- 
where in this history. 

Robert McCarty is successfully engaged in 
farming operations on the old homestead. He 
and his wife are members of the Catholic 
church and are ])rominent in the younger social 
circles of the communitv. Thev have one 
child, Lucille M., born Februarv 19. 1918. 



OLl\ER 1!. MEMS. — Broken Bow 
counts on her role of honored and departed 
citizens none who left behind more numerous 
or substantial evidences of association with its 
atYairs th;in did the late Oliver H. Mevis As 
a soldier, business man, investor and public- 
spirited citizen, he came and went among the 
people of his town from his arrival in 1890 
■until his death. August 5, 1913. and there re- 
mains in his wake an impression of practical 
usefulness, and of genuine, dependable char- 
acter — due in ))art to his sturdy ancestry, but 
more directly traceable to his untiring zeal and 
ready recognition of opportunity. 

Mr. Mevis was !)om at Syracuse New York. 
January 22, 1836, a son of Hiram Mevis. His 
father was born in one of the eastern states 
and his mother in Holland. At an earlv date 
the family located at Lansing, Michigan, 
where riHvi-r H. Mevis secured the advantages 
to be obtained by attendance in the public 
schools. He was still a young man when he 
left Michigan and removed to St. Paul. Minne- 
sota, where he was located at the outbreak of 
the Civil war. With vouthful enthusiasm and 



patriotism he offered his ser\'ices to his coun- 
try, and during the following three years he 
fought gallantly as a member of Company D, 
Second Minnesota \'olunteer Infantry. His 
service was crowded with experience, including 
wounds and capture by the enemy, and was 
characterized not only by the utmost courage 
in the face of danger but also by unremitting 
fidelity to duty. When he received his hon- 
orable discharge, Air. Mevis went to Chicago, 
where he was united in marriage with Miss 
Anna Keman, who was born near Three 
Rivers. Canada. Mrs. Mevis died, without 
issue, in 1896. After their marriage Mr. and 
Mrs. Mevis went to Galesburg. Illinois, where 
'Sir. iNIevis founded a dry-goods business, 
with a small stock of goods. Later he dis- 
posed of his interests there and went to Hills- 
boro, where, with a little larger stock, he en- 
gaged in a similar venture and carried on a 
successful business for a number of years. 
His advent in Nebraska occurred in 1879. in 
which year he settled at Fremont, where his 
business activities continued for eleven years. 
During all this time he had been constantly 
I)ushing further and further ahead on the 
road to success, and in 1890 he came to 
Broken Bow and opened a pretentious estab- 
lishment, which immediately attracted the 
patronage of the citizens of the community. 
This was the leading store of its kind and 
continued to be under Mr. Alevis' capable 
management and wise and far-sighted direc- 
tion right up to the time of his death. — and 
this in spite of the fact that he was an in- 
valid for three or four years preceding his 
demise. His guiding hand and alert mind 
were always felt in the conduct of the busi- 
ness which he had founded and which was 
still growing and expanding when death 
called him to his final rest. .Mr. Mevis started 
his career with practically nothing, and he 
worked his way steadily upward until he was 
one of the substantial men of a community in 
which there were numerous citizens of inde- 
l)endent means. In doing so he never found 
it necessarv to take an unfair advantage of 
others, and his life record contains no dark 
]iages in regard to disabling others that he 
might himself go unscathed in the battle for 
coiumercial supremacy. He made numerous 
wise investments, exercising his e.xcellent 
business judgment r-nl his faith in his com- 
munity at one and the same time, and among 
his purchases was a laree block at the south- 
east corner of the Public Square, a property 
which is still owned by his widow. Mr. 
Mevis was a faithful member of the Catliolic 
ch.urch, to which A'rs. Mevis also belongs. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



479 



He was a member of the Knights of Cokim- 
bus and was a Repubhcan in his poHtical 
views. 

October 27, 1897, was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Mevis to JMary EHzabeth Boures, 
who was born at St. Paul, Minnesota, a 
daughter of Thomas and Amelia (Kernan) 
Boures, who were united in marriage at St. 
Paul, Minnesota, the father having been born 
at Three Rivers, Canada, and the mother at 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 



CANUTE LEE, who is industriously and 
successfully engaged in farming in the vicin- 
ity of Alason City, and whose specialty is the 
raising of cattle, hogs, and horses, is one of 
the sons of Norway who have found pros- 
perity in Custer county through the exercise 
of natural ability, good management, and per- 
sistent industry. His entire career has been 
devoted to the pursuits of agriculture, for 
from the time of his arrival in this countn', 
as a child of three years, he has always lived 
on a fann and his interests have always been 
centered in the pursuits of the soil. 

Mr. Uee was born in Norway, July 14, 
1852, and is a son of Stephen B. and Ellen 
Lee, also natives of that country. He was 
the third in order of birth, the others of the 
children being : Brims, who is now retired 
from active pursuits and makes his home at 
Los Angeles, California; Nels, who died and 
is buried at Broken Bow ; Martha, who makes 
her home with her brother at Los Angeles ; 
Andrew and Margaret, who are deceased ; 
and Louis, who met his death at Los Angeles, 
California. 

Canute Lee was about three years old when 
his parents came to the United States, in 1855. 
the first residence being in Henrv county, Illi- 
nois, where the father was engaged in farm- 
ing for five years. From the Prairie state 
the family moved to Crawford county, Wis- 
consin, in 1860, and there the son Canute at- 
tended the public schools during and after 
the period of the Civil war. He was brought 
up as a farmer, and after a career of only or- 
dinary success in Wisconsin he came to Cvis- 
ter county, Nebraska, and here, in 1889, he 
purchased his present property. The home 
of his parents was three miles north of Anslev. 
where they rounded out long and honorable 
lives, but Mr. Lee's property is situated near 
Mason City, being in section 15, township 13, 
range 18, where he has 160 acres in a good 
state of cultivation. Mr. Lee has had much 
success in his experiments in raising cattle, 
hogs, and horses, and his reinitation in this 
direction has led him to be accounted some- 



what of an authority upon the subject. Just 
as he is progressive in his private affairs, so 
he is likewise public-spirited and constructive' 
in his citizenship, and his support is never 
withheld from an\' worthy measure, whether 
religious, ci\ic, or educational. His integ- 
rity in business dealings has never been ques- 
tioned, and, all in all, he is a very desirable 
citizen. 

Mr. Lee married Miss Mary C. Nelson, a 
member of a Custer county agricultural fam- 
ily, and to this union there have been born 
five children: Ida, who is the wife of Ber- 
nard Schrader, a farmer of Custer county; 
Edward, who married Aliss Laura Dewey, of 
Ansley, and who carries on agricultural op- 
erations not far from the home place ; An- 
drew, who married Miss Hulda Porath and 
who is his father's assistant in operating the 
farm ; Amy, who is deceased ; and Eunice, 
who lives with her parents on their home 
fann, on Elk creek. 



JACOB B. KLUMP. — Among the men 
who came to Custer county during the early 
'80s were found a number of men who were 
veterans of the Civil war and who had also had 
experience in farming. They were men who 
were destined to assist in the development and 
upbuilding of this section. One of these 
was Jacob B. Klump, who, after many years 
spent in successful farming operations, is now 
living in comfortable retirement at Broken 
Bow. 

Mr. Klump was born December 24, 1834, 
in the kingdom of Wurtemberg, Germany, 
and he is a son of John M. and Fredericka 
(Wolf) Klump, who passed their entire lives 
in that country. There were seventeen chil- 
dren in the family, of whom thirteen grew to 
maturity, and Jacob B. was the fifth in order 
of birth. In his native land he had the bene- 
fit of eight years of training in the public 
schools, and during his boyhood and early 
youth he was employed in his father's mill. 
In March, 1853, his mother took him before 
the district court of his home community in 
order that he might relinquish his citizenship 
to Gemiany, and not long thereafter he and 
his two sisters, Katie and Sophie, came to the 
United States and joined their uncle, Francis 
Klump. a fanner of Lake county, Illinois. 
Jacob B. Klump worked at whatever honor- 
able employment presented itself, and was 
variously engaged until the Civil war came 
on, when, in 1861, he joined Company G, 
Thirty-ninth Illinois Veteran Volunteers, 
under Colonel Light. He served his term of 
enlistment, three years, and then re-enlisted 



480 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTV. NEBRASKA 



for a like period "or for the duration of the 
war," at Hilton Head, South Carolina, in the 
same company and regiment. While he par- 
ticipated in every engagement in which his 
retciment took part, he was of sturdy physique 
and glowing health, and was incapacitated 
only twice, when he received slight wounds. 
His big engagements numbered thirteen or 
fourteen, and at all times he proved a brave 
and faithful soldier. Mr. Khimp's brother 
William, who had come later to this country', 
was a member of the same company and 
regiment and died at Morris Island, South 
Carolina, after serving nearly three yeare. 
In the Union army, he also had six brothers- 
in-law, three of whom died of wounds during 
their first year of sen-ice. In Januars-, 1864. 
^Ir. Klump secured a furlough and returned 
to Jo Daviess county, Illinois, where, on Feb- 
ruary 29th, he married Miss Jane Parkinson, 
a daughter of James and Christina (Hoy) 
Parkinson. He returned to his regiment and 
continued to serve gallantly, being advanced 
to sergeant and then to regimental color- 
bearer, and receiving two honoral:)le discharges 
from the service, the last one in 1865. .\t 
that time he returned to his home in Illinois 
and purchased eighty acres of land, on which 
he continued to carry on operations with suc- 
cess imtil 1883. He then came to Custer 
county, Nebraska, and located near Cliff 
postoffice, where his wise management and 
industrious labor combined to bring him suc- 
cess and enable<l him to accumulate a large 
tract of land. He made numerous improve- 
ments on his property, including the sinking 
of a cistern that held 1,000 barrels of water, 
and in 188S he sunk a well 400 feet deep, at 
a cost of $600. When he reached advanced 
years he retired from active pursuits and re- 
moved to his i)resent home, at Broken Bow. 
but he is still active and alert, and much of 
his time is spent in his repair shop, where his 
natural bent toward mechanics finds expres- 
sion. 

Mr. Klump has been frequentlv called upon 
to serve in jniblic positions and his record as 
an official is an excellent one. Before leaving 
Illinois, he ser\ed sixteen years as justice of 
the peace, being commissioned by four ditf'er- 
ent governors, and since coming to Custer 
county he has been justice of the peace eight 
years and supervisor two years. Mrs. Klump 
died in 1906, having been the mother of eleven 
children, of whom nine are living: Sophia 
is the wife of 1^'red Bertram, a farmer near 
King Citv, Missouri, and she is the mother 
of si.x children ; I lerman R., who is a resident 
of Mcl'herson countv, became the father of 



six children, of whom three are li\ing ; Julia 
is the wife of James Holliwell, a farmer at 
Mema, and they have two children ; Fred- 
erick \\ ., who is a ranchman at Ringgold, 
^IcPherson county, married Ethel Butler; 
Miss Mary- is engaged in teaching school at 
Lincoln : Ruby is the wife of Fred Hackbarth, 
engaged in farming near Hershey, Lincoln 
county, and they have four children ; Hardy 
B., who served as a soldier in the Spanish- 
American war, is now a farmer near Arnold, 
Custer county; Miss Olive is engaged in teach- 
ing in the state of Washington ; August E., 
a fanner in Garfield county, married Lulu 
Martin and they have three children. 

In 1907. at Broken Bow, Mr. Klump was 
again married, being united with .Mrs. Mary 
Koch, concerning whose four children by a 
former marriage the following brief record 
may consistently be entered : Andy married 
Miss Clara Dale and they have two children; 
Jacob wedded Miss Lizzie Harpley and they 
have four children : C)scar enlisted in the 
government airship service in connection with 
the nation's participation in the world war 
and at the time of this writing he is assigned 
to duty as clerk in the office of the major in 
government barracks in the state of New 
York ; and Carrie is the wife of Clayton 
Yohn, their children being four in number. 

Mr. Klump is one of the valued and appre- 
ciated members of the Broken Bow post of 
the Grand .\rmy of the Republic, his wife 
holding membership in the 'SN'oman's Relief 
Cor]js. and both are members ui the Methodist 
Episcopal church. 



FR.\NK J. McCARTY is one of the 
younger generation in his native coimty and 
lias had the good judgment to remain within 
its borders. Here he owns and operates a 
farm of 160 acres. Mr. McCarty was born 
in his ])resent home townshij), on the 11th 
of March, 1885, and is a .son of Robert D. 
McCarty, of whom extended mention is made 
elsewhere in this volume. 

\\'hile yet a young man at home. Frank J. 
IMcCarty began farming independently, by 
renting land. In 1912 he purchased his pres- 
ent fami, and he has brought his fields to a 
high state of cultivation, the while he has 
erected a substantial set of buildings and suc- 
cess f idly carries on general farming. 

Mr. r\IcCarty married Miss Mar\- Teahon, 
who, like her husband, was born in Custer 
county, and who is a daughter of Patrick Tea- 
hon, now deceased. The home of Mr. and 
Mrs. McCartv has been blessed with two chil- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



481 



dren — Bernadette and Richard. The family 
are members of the CathoHc church and in 
poHtics Mr. AlcCarty is a Democrat. 



DANIEL R. ROCKWELL. — The career 
of Daniel R. Rockwell is an illustration of 
active and diversified energ\'. and in its work- 
ing out it has invaded the fields of agriculture, 
commerce, and pulilic service. It has been the 
fortune and privilege of this prominent citi- 
zen of Broken Bow to have attained well 
merited success in each of the avenues of per- 
sonal endeavor into which his industry has 
taken him, and at the time of this writing he 
is giving his country exceptionally efficient 
service in discharging the responsibilities con- 
nected with the office of federal food admin- 
istrator for Custer county. 

Air. Rockwell was born in Chautauqua 
countv. New York, November 5, 1866. His 
father, William H. Rockwell, was born in 
Bradford, Pennsylvania, the family having 
come from Germany, and settled at Bradford, 
Pennsylvania, where the grandfather was en- 
gaged in business. William H. Rockwell re- 
moved from the Pennsylvania home to Chau- 
tauqua county. New York, where he was re- 
siding at the outbreak of the Civil war. He 
was a \'olunteer for the Union service, and for 
three years fought gallantly with a New York 
infantry regiment. When he received his 
honorable discharge he returned to his home, 
resumed his civilian duties, and made as good 
a record in the paths of peace as he had in 
the strenuous energies of the great struggle 
between the north and south. His political 
support was given to the Democratic party, 
and he and his wife, whose maiden name was 
Adaline Remington, and who was a daughter 
of Ransom Remington, were consistent mem- 
bers of the Congregational church. 

Daniel R. Rockwell entered upon his ca- 
reer at a time when the usual run of boys are 
still enjoying the advantages of the public 
schools. He had opportunities for the train- 
ing of his mind in the district institutions of 
his neighborhood during the winter months, 
but he was a lad of only thirteen years when 
he left the parental roof and went to Benton 
county, Iowa, where he found employment 
on the farm of his cousin, W. H. Rockwell. 
During the next eleven years he remained in 
that county, his industrious and energetic 
services always being found available by the 
farmers there, and careful saving of his earn- 
ings enabled him, in 1S<S9, to come to Custer 
county, Nebraska, and buy a relinquishment 
claim on timber land near Sargent. Thirteen 
years of development work brought this land 



to a high state of cultivation, and during this 
period Mr. Rockwell added to his holdings 
from time to time, so that to-day he is the 
owner of 960 acres of fertile Custer county 
land, in addition to which he has properties in 
other counties in Nebraska and in other 
states. His work at the start was of the 
hardest kind, but his ability, perseverance and 
ambition were able to stand any kind of strain, 
and he had the final satisfaction that comes 
only to a man who has accomplished some- 
thing worth while, by himself and for him- 
self. Mr. Rockwell took up his residence at 
Broken Bow in 1902. He had shown to him- 
self that he was possessed of business ability, 
and he proceeded during the next five years 
to demonstrate this same fact to the old Piano 
Company, for which concern he traveled 
throughout the surrounding territory, as a 
salesman of machinery and as a collector. 
When he resigned his position with that con- 
cern, he embarked in a business venture of 
his own, his line being hardware and furni- 
ture, and he brought this business to a point 
where it was paying large dividends. He 
has since disposed of his interests in this en- 
terprise, having accepted a very satisfactory 
ofTer. When he gave up his business cares, 
he did so with an absolutely clean slate, his 
reputation in commercial circles being one of 
the kind that will stand an acid test. 

Mr. Rockwell's business record is not the 
only thing that gives him the right to be 
named as one of Broken Bow's first citizens. 
His public service also has been something 
far from the ordinars'. He was early recog- 
nized as a man of ability, stability and worth, 
and after acting three terms as councilman 
he was elected mayor of the city. During 
the two terms that he served as chief munic- 
ipal executive, the community was given the 
benefit of splendid administrations ; numerous 
movements of a progressive nature in the way 
of civic betterment were started, and Broken 
Bow was the beneficiary in a number of other 
ways. That his record was clear was evi- 
denced in his appointment to his present posi- 
tion as federal food administrator for Custer 
county. Mr. Rockwell is a thirty-second de- 
gree Mason, and the family attend the Presby- 
terian church. 

November 18, 1884, at Belle Plaine, Iowa, 
Mr. Rockwell married Miss Almeda Vadike, 
daughter of J. P. and Mary Jane (Drake) 
\'adike, well known and honored farming peo- 
ple of this community. Four children were 
born to this union: Edna I., who is the wife 
of Edgar B. Osborne, a prosperous farmer 
of Superior, Wisconsin, with one daughter, 
Robetta : Ethel I., who is the wife of Thomas 



482 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



Rector, a railroad man of Superior, Wiscon- 
sin, with a daughter, Margarie; Miss Hazel, 
who resides with her parents at Broken Bow, 
and is a well known teacher in the public 
schools ; and Melvin, who is still a public- 
school student. 



HARRY R. KNAPP. — So to direct one's 
affairs that it is possible to retire from the 
strenuous activities of life while still there 
are the best years of existence coming, is a 
reward that comes to but a favored few. 
Among these may be mentioned the present 
county clerk of Custer county, Harry R. 
Knapp. of Broken Bow. He has been a 
ranchman and business man, has made good 
in both directions, and now, while in retire- 
ment as to business affairs, he is still active 
and energetic in his community, and has so 
impressed himself upon the minds of his fel- 
low citizens that it has been recognized that 
he is of the timber of which good public of- 
ficials are made. He was elected to the ofhce 
of county clerk in November, 1918, on the 
Republican ticket, and he assumed office Janu- 
ary 1, 1919. 

Mr. Knapp is a Nebraskan by birth, train- 
ing, education. exj)erience, and inclination. He 
was born at \\'ahoo, Saunders county, in No- 
vember, 1S74. a son of John \\". and Nancy 
I. ( Tull ) Knapp, natives of Hancock county, 
Illinois. John W. Knapp is a Saunders 
county farmer whose qualities of character 
have made his name in his locality synonymous 
with integrity and stability. He is an Odd 
Fellow, votes the Republican ticket, and at- 
tends the Methodist Episcopal church, in the 
faith of which he and Mrs. Kna[>p reared 
their five children. Three of these children 
survive : Harry R. is the subject of this re- 
view ; Wirt E., a well known grain dealer of 
Saint Louis, Missouri, who married Fay Har- 
ris, now deceased, is the father of two chil- 
dren, — Wirt E.. Jr., and Laura ; and Roy C, 
a farmer of Kearney, Nebraska, is married 
and has four children. 

.Alternating with his work on the home 
fann, Harry R. Knapp passed his boyhood in 
attending the local public schools. He had 
the further advantage of being sent to the 
high school at Wahoo and a business college 
at Fremont, but he was no sluggard in his 
youth, as his industry kept him energetically 
working and his first money was secured by 
strenuous labor on a neighboring farm in 
Saunders county, his emolument being fifty 
cents a day. He remained on the honiestead 
imtil he had attained to his majority, at which 
time he struck out for himself, and his good 



judgment in business affairs placed him in a 
position where, in 1907, when he came to Cus- 
ter county, he was able to purchase 1,000 
acres of land, on Ash creek. After eleven 
years he retired from active participation in 
business affairs and took up his residence at 
Broken Bow. 

As an intelligent and well informed man, 
co-ordinating his community's interests with 
his personal feeling, Mr. Knapp has been a 
constant observer of what is going on about 
him. He has been a constructive worker in 
assisting local movements, and his prominence 
in this direction led his party to give him the 
candidacy for the county clerkship. His per- 
sonal record is one that assures him of good 
support, and his business career is one of the 
kind that stands for an A-No. 1 rating. Fra- 
ternally. Mr. Knapp belongs to the Masons, 
the Independent < )rder of Odd Fellows, and 
the Woodmen. With his family, he holds 
membership in the Methodist Episcopal 
church. 

Mr. Knapp was married November 4, 1901, 
at \\'ahoo, Nebraska, to Miss Edna C. Rob- 
inson, daughter of Charles T. and Flora 
( Spurgeon ) Robinson. Mrs. Knapp's par- 
ents are well known and honored farming 
people of Saunders county and prominent 
members of the Methodist Episcopal church 
in their community. Mr. Robinson is a 
Democrat and is affiliated with the Modern 
Woodmen of America. Mr. and Mrs. Knapp 
have a bright and interesting little daughter. 
Glayds M., who is five years old in 1918. 



GEORGE W. Mc RAE. — After thirty 
years of continuous effort in the vocation of 
agriculture, George \\'. McRae retired from 
his activities in 1913, and since that year 
has been living quietly at Berwyn. During 
the time that he was applying himself to his 
vocation, he demonstrated the possession of 
marked abilities, and accumulated a compe- 
tency, while at the same time he won and 
held the respect of his fellow citizens. Mr. 
McRae was born in Harrison county, Indiana. 
January 12. 1852, a son of Daniel B. and 
Nancy (Wright) McRae. 

C. C. McRae, the paternal grandfather of 
George W., was bom in Scotland and was a 
voung man when he immigrated to the United 
States. He lived at various points, princi- 
]iallv in the south, and died in western Ten- 
nessee, where he had been engaged in farm- 
ing. The maternal grandfather was Joseph 
\\'riglit, who for years carried on farming in 
Indiana and passed away there. Daniel B. 
McRae was bom on his father's home planta- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



483 



tion in South Carolina, where he was edu- 
cated, and as a youth of twenty years he went 
to Indiana, where he pre-empted land. He 
soon showed his capacity for shrewd business 
dealings, added to his holdings from time to 
time, and when he died he left an estate which 
included 160 acres of land, in addition to 
which he had other valuable investments. 
Following his demise his widow came to Ne- 
braska, but she lived only a year after her ar- 
rival. They were the parents of five children, 
of whom there are two living: George W. ; 
and J. \V., the latter a fanner of Colorado. 
The parents were faithful members of the 
Presbyterian church. Politically Daniel B. 
McRae was a Republican, and during Civil 
war times he was a stanch Abolitionist and 
did much to assist the Union cause. 

George W. McRae was educated in the dis- 
trict schools of Indiana, and vvhile he was 
reared on the farm and trained in its pur- 
suits, he also learned in his youth the trade 
of plasterer, which he followed in connection 
with his fanning activities. Leaving the 
Hoosier state in 1882, he came to Nebraska 
and located in York county, but after one 
vear he came to Custer covmty, where he took 
up a homestead. This continued to be his 
home for the next thirty years, or until 1913, 
when he retired from active labor and re- 
moved to his pleasant home at Berwyn. The 
success which came to Mr. McRae was the 
result entirely of his own efforts, for at no 
time in his career did he have to call upon 
other than his own abilities to attain his ob- 
jects. Fie is a Republican in his political 
views, but, while a good citizen, has not cared 
for public office. His reputation in business 
is beyond reproach, and there are many who 
have reason to thank him for his good ad- 
vice and counsel in matters of importance. 
As a fratemalist, Mr. McRae has been affili- 
ated with the Odd Fellows for many years. 

In 1881, prior to coming to Nebraska, Mr. 
McRae wus married, in Indiana, to Mrs. Mag- 
gie (W^alter) Hart, who was born in southern 
Indiana, a daughter of John Walter, a native 
of Germany who died in Indiana. To this 
union there v.'cre born three children : Coday 
married Hazel Norcutt, and has one child, 
Dorothea Maxine : Flavious resides at home, 
but at the time of this writing he is in the 
government war service, as a member of a 
medical crops stationed at Dunkirk, New 
York: and Ora Lee is the wife of James 
Davidson, a farmer of Perwyn, and they have 
one chill, Mary Margaret. By her former 
marriage, Mrs. McRae is the mother of three 
children : George H., John \\'., and Katie 
( Hart ) Davoll. 



HENRY L. WILSON. — While he is one 
of the latest m.embers to join the bar of Custer 
county, Henry L. V\ ilson has already obtained 
a recognized position and standing among the 
practitioners of this locality, and at Broken 
Bow, where he established his residence in 
December, 1916, he has built up a substantial 
and represenative professional business. Mr 
Wilson is a native son of Nebraska, and was 
born at Chadron, Dawes county, September 
5, 1886, his parents being Tohn AI. and Clara 
E. (Mitchell) Wilson. 

John M. Wilson was born in Scotland and 
as a lad developed wanderlust that caused him 
to run away from home and work his passage 
across the Atlantic to Canada, where he ac- 
cepted such employment as he could find. His 
adventurous spirit later led him to Colorado, 
where, during the early pioneer days, he en- 
gaged in hunting and freighting, and he se- 
cured his start in this way — principally in 
what he was able to obtain by his prowess in 
hunting bulfalo. In 1886 he settled down at 
Crawford, Nebraska, where he established 
himself in the clothing business, and there he 
has conducted the leading store of its kind 
ever since, he being known as one of the fore- 
most merchants of his community. He is a 
Republican in his political views. In Colo- 
rado was solemnized the marriage of John 
M. Wilson to Clara E. (Mitchell) Williams, 
and they are the parents of three children : 
Henry L., Harr\- (a traveling man with head- 
quarters at Vancouver, Canada), and Ruby. 

Henry L. Wilson attended the public schools 
at Crawford, and after his graduation in the 
high school, in 1903, he began teaching school, 
a vocation which he followed for one vear. 
Next he entered the University of Nebraska, 
and after there continuing his studies two 
years he was absent for one year, but later he 
was a student for another half-term. Finally 
he entered the law department, and in 1911, 
he was graduated, being immediately admit- 
ted to practice. He started his professional 
labors at Crawford, and in the same year he 
was appointed city attorney, but in 1914, he 
removed to Lincoln, where he remained until 
coming to Broken Bow, in December, 1916 
Here he bought the practice and good will of 
Judge J. R. Dean, and since that time he has 
been in the enjoyment of a constantly increas- 
ing professional business. He has been active 
in public aiifairs, and is at present serving 
Broken Bow as city attorney. In the election 
of November, 1918, he was the Republican 
candidate for county attorney, but was de- 
feated. A man of broad learning and sound, 
practical knowledge of the law, he is rapidly 
making a name and reputation for himself 



484 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



and has already taken long strides toward a 
leading place in the legal fraternity in Custer 
county. In politics he supports the cause of 
the Republican party. Mr. Wilson belongs 
to the various organizations of his profession 
and is fraternally affiliated with the Independ- 
ent Order of Odd Fellows. 

On June 21, 1913, Mr. Wilson was united 
in marriage, at Crawford, to Miss Lena Fafek, 
who was born at that place, and to this union 
there has been born one child : Twilla. 



CAR]< SWENSON is a young man of 
thirty-six years and is a native of Custer 
county. He is one of the successful young 
farmers operating in the Burr Oak district of 
the South Loup river region. His life story 
for the most part is covered in the following 
biographical sketch of his father and father's 
family. 

John Swenson, seventy-nine years of age in 
1918, is a native of Sweden and forty-nine 
years ago brought to the United States those 
industrious and frugal habits common to the 
people of that north Scandinavian region. His 
wife, Mary (Peterson) Swenson, is past sixty 
years of age and possesses all the qualities of 
the sturdy Swedish race to which she belongs. 
John Swenson landed in New York, where 
he remained until he came to Custer county 
and homesteaded a fine quarter-section of 
land. He located on his present place thirty- 
eight years ago. When he reached this coun- 
try he had practically nothing, and all his 
possessions of the present day are the direct 
results of his own toil and savings. Mr. and 
Mrs. John Swenson liecame the parents of 
seven children : Mollie is deceased ; Samuel 
and Carl remain at the parental home : Tilda 
Amy lives in Custer county ; Eddie is at home : 
Olga continues to reside in this county ; and 
Willie, the youngest, is at home. The father 
and mother belong to the Presbyterian church. 

Carl Swenson. the subject of this sketch, is 
a farmer and partner on the home place, which 
to-day consists of the old homestead and three 
other quarter-sections, which have been pur- 
chased, making in all a full section of good 
land, on which are excellent improvements. 
The stock raised on this farm is of unusually 
high grade — the best kind of hogs that select 
breeding can produce, and red Durham short- 
horns and Percheron horses that make a fine 
show for live-stock production. 

Carl Swenson is a social member of the 
Modern \Yoodmen of America, and is a. con- 
stituent member of the Presbyterian church. 
He enjoys the confidence and respect of a 
large circle of friends and as a progressive 



son of the west he also has exhibited the 
sterling characteristics of the hardy race from 
which he springs. 

WILLIE C. SHOEMAKER. — The man 
whose life history these lines relate lives in 
the Cumro district, where the soil is produc- 
tive and where the inhabitants are among the 
best people of the county. 

Mr. Shoemaker is fifty-six years of age 
(1918), and a native of Porter county, In- 
diana. His Hoosier blood has stood him in 
good stead and his industrious traits, inher- 
ited from good parentage and imbibed in earlv 
years, have borne splendid fruits in Nebraska. 

His father, Albert Shoemaker, who was a 
native of the Buckeye state and who lived to 
the age of seventy-nine years was a retired 
farmer at the time of his death, which occured 
in Iowa. The mother of the subject of this 
sketch was Melvina (Maulsby) Shoemaker, 
who was bom in Indiana and who died in that 
state, when but twenty-two years of age. 
Born to the union just mentioned were two 
children, the subject of the sketch and a little 
sister, Melvina, who died at the age of 
eighteen months. By the father's second 
marriage there are four children — Rila, who 
lives in Muscatine, Iowa ; Mrs. \'iola Dood. 
whose husband is an Iowa farmer ; Ever- 
ett, who is a IMissouri farmer; and Roy, who 
lives at Red Oak, Iowa, where he is assistant 
cashier of the First National Bank. 

Albert Shoemaker was a veteran of the 
Civil war, in which he rendered to the gov- 
ernment very valuable service as a valiant 
soldier of the L'nion. He was a fanner bv 
occupation and both he and his wife were 
faithful members of the United Brethren 
church. 

In 1888 Willie C. Shoemaker married Miss 
Nettie H. Martin, and to bless this union and 
make happy the parental home have come six 
children: Bliss is a young man of twenty- 
eight years (1918) of age and is already em- 
barked upon his successful career as a farmer 
in Custer county: l\ay, :iged seventeen, is still 
on the home fami and is rendering his father 
\aluable assistance ; Ross, aged nine years, is 
a school boy who is still home and who is a 
candidate for usefulness in future years ■ 
label Cherry is married and lives on a farm 
in custer county ; and Lula and .\lbro are 
deceased. 

In the Shoemaker holdings are 700 acres, 
well adapted to fanning and stock-raising. 
One quarter-section of this ranch was home- 
steaded by Mr. Shoemaker. When he wa>- 
but two years of age his parents removed from 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



485 



Indiana to Iowa, where he grew to young 
manhood and received his early education. It 
was there that the foundation of his hfe and 
character were laid, in the formative years 
when human destinies are plastic. He came 
directly from Iowa to Custer county in 1887, 
ten years aiter the organization of the county, 
when everything connected with the country 
was young and primitive. 

Mr. Shoemaker's stock-raising operations 
have followed all lines — horses, hogs, and 
cattle — and in each of these he has been a 
successful producer. His farm improvements 
are ample to meet all requirements and make 
stock-raising profitable. He and his wife now 
take their ease as compared with the experi- 
ences of early days. The slow vehicle of 
1887 has been transfomied into a modern 
automobile and this has brought the home 
farm comparatively close to communit)' cen- 
ters and larger towns. Mr. Shoemaker is a 
member of the Modern Woodmen of Amer- 
ica and the family is connected with the Pres- 
bvterian church. 



PETER STRIEDER. — From the time of 
his arrival in Custer county, in 1898, to the 
present, I'eter Strieder has been demonstrat- 
ing the possession of qualities of persever- 
ance, industry, and good citizenship, which 
have combined to win him personal success 
as an agriculturist and the esteem and friend- 
ship of those among whom he has lived and 
with whom he has been associated. This en- 
terprising and energetic farmer and stock- 
raiser of section 21, township 71, was born in 
Germany, June 19, 1860, a son of Andreas and 
Gertrude (Dhein') Strieder. 

The parents of Mr. Strieder passed their 
entire lives in their native land, where the 
father was a successful agriculturist and also 
followed the vocation of milling, being an in- 
dustrious man and one possessed of un- 
bounded energy and marked ability. He and 
his wife were faithful members of the Cath- 
olic church, and were the parents of four 
children: Peter, who is the subject of this 
sketch ; Henry, who is a resident of Germany ; 
Gertrude, who married Anton Fier and lives 
in Germany ; and Anna, who is married and 
likewise lives in Germany. Peter Strieder 
grew up on the home farm in Germany, where 
he assisted his father in the daily tasks about 
the home place and also secured a knowledge 
of the milling business. He continued to re- 
side under the parental roof until he was 
twenty-seven years of age. In the time that 
elapsed between that age and the year of his 
majority he had harbored longings to try his 



fortunes across the Atlantic, his imagination 
having been fired by the tales of opportunities 
at hand in America. Accordingly, in 1887, he 
came to the United States and took up his 
abode in Jackson county, Illinois, where, in 
order to get a start and to familiarize himself 
with conditions and the language and customs 
of the country, he worked about the country 
among the farmers. Gradually he accumu- 
lated a competence, and in 1898 he realized 
his ambition to become a property owner on 
his own account, when he came to Custer 
county and purchased his present home place, 
a property consisting of 160 acres. This land 
at that time was not in the best of condition, 
but Mr. Strieder set about remedying this de- 
fect, and he now has one of the fertile, pro- 
ductive and valuable tracts of his locality. He 
does general fanning, being equally at home 
in all the various branches of agriculture, and 
has made what is to be considered a very satis- 
fying success. Mr. Strieder has not been 
active in politics, and upon political questions 
of the day maintains an independent stand, 
reserving his right of franchise to vote for the 
man he considers best qualified for the office. 
He served as postmaster of Pilot for more 
than four years. He and the members of his 
family are faithful and consistent attendants 
of the Catholic church. 

In 1895 Mr. Strieder was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Uouise Zimmer, and two chil- 
dren have been born to this union : Bruno 
P., who at the time of this writing is with 
the American Expeditionary Forces in France ; 
and Gertrude, who remains with her parents. 



ORVILLE M. MOUREY. — Among the 
younger element in the agricultural industry 
in Custer county, Orville M. Mourey has been 
numbered since 1912. In that year he came 
to his present farm, in section 30, in the Mason 
City community, and here his success has been 
marked and continued. He is typical of the 
class of young farmers who are expected to 
niaintain the prestige of this locality during 
the years to come, and his progress thus far 
would seem to be indicative of his ability to 
do his full share in carrying on the work of 
development and the raising of standards. 

Mr. Mourey was born near Miller, Buffalo 
county, Nebraska, not far from the banks of 
the South Loup river, March 13, 1891, and is 
a son of W. R. and Sarah (Dougherty) 
Mourey. His father, who was a native of the 
east, migrated to Nebraska in 1883. At that 
time he was a man of no means, his main 
capital in fact being found in his ambition and 
determination, along with a willing industry 



486 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



and an inherent capacity for persistent and 
continued labor. He took up a homestead in 
Buffalo county, near the site of what after- 
ward became the town of Miller, and since 
that time has continued to be engaged in agri- 
cultural pursuits, adding to his acreage and 
to his standing as a business man each year. 
He is now the owner of 900 acres of good 
land, all accumulated through legitimate chan- 
nels of business, and has the greater part of 
this land under cultivation. He and his wife 
became the parents of seven children : Or- 
ville M., of this notice: Ada, who married 
Ervin Simmons, a farmer of Buffalo county ; 
Herbert, who lives in Custer county : his twin, 
who died in infancy, unnamed; and Blanche, 
Esther, and Melvin, who live with their j)ar- 
ents. 

Orville M. Mourey received his education 
in the schools of Buffalo county and grew up 
on the home farm, his boyhood being passed 
in much the same manner as other farmers' 
sons of his day and locality. He commenced 
farming operations on his own account in 
Buffalo county, where he met with a measure 
of success, but in 1912 came to Custer county, 
where he purchased his present farm of 160 
acres. Since then he has been busily engaged 
in erecting substantial buildings and improv- 
ing his land with the installation of modern 
improvements of every character, and the fer- 
tility of his land can be testified to by his large 
crops. He is one of the progressive and con- 
structive men of his community and is always 
ready to give a trial to any method or experi- 
ment that promises to aid in progress and ad- 
vancement. He has found no time to enter 
actively into politics, his farming operations 
having to this writing demanded all of his 
attention. 

Mr. Mourey was married Septemlx-r IS, 
1911, to -Miss Minnie Esherman, daughter of 
\\ illiam and Mary ( Shucker ) Eshermar. 
farming people of Buffalo county, and to this 
union there have been born two children : 
Earl and Mildred, both of whom reside with 
their parents, and the former of whom is at- 
tending school. 



ELLIS \V. KNIGHT. — Custer countv 
gained a good citizen in 1913, when Ellis \V. 
Knight settled in the .Anselmo region. 

Mr. Knight began his earthly career June 
18, 1889, which makes him still a young man 
just entering the prime of manhood. He is a 
son of William and Zelma ( Brown ) Knight. 
His father was a native of England and his 
mother a Wisconsin lady of splendid and 
homelike qualities. The father came to Amer- 



ica with his parents in the days of his youth. 
They settled near Topeka, Kansas, and later 
moved to Gage county, Nebraska, where they 
established a farm home near the town of 
Adams. 

Ellis \\'. Knight qualified himself for life 
and all its activities in the public schools and 
in the Univei^sity of Nebraska. Five years 
ago. in 1913, he came to Custer county and 
became manager and part owner of the 
Smith & Knight ranch, containing L120 acres, 
and in this partnership arrangement he is an 
extensive cattle and hog raiser. At present 
they have 200 head of cattle and 250 hogs. 

February 15, 1908, Mr. Knight married 
^liss Ethel Shrepf, daughter of Emil and Nel- 
lie Shrepf, of Lincoln, Nebraska. The father 
was a native of France and the mother came 
of English lineage. Mr. and Mrs. Knight are 
the parents of five children, who are bright, 
full of life and all candidates for energetic 
manhood and womanhood. They are: Don- 
ald, (icorge, Dorothy, Irene, and Leonard. 

Mr. Knight has three brothers: Henry, 
who is a Custer county farmer ; Williaiu, who 
is employed on the Smith &: Knight ranch : 
and Fred, who is at present away from home. 
On the Smith & Knight ranch managed by the 
subject of this sketch are good buildings of 
all kinds, a farm home and ever\- farm and 
stock accessory, building or shed that could be 
required. The ranch contains also the pres- 
ent-day accessory of a good garage, and every-- 
where one sees the evidence of thrift and good 
management. 

The Knights are splendid peoj^le, good 
neighbors, reliable and substantial citizens. In 
politics the Democratic principles have the 
preference of Mr. Knight, but independence 
is not abandoned. He is a member- of the 
Ancient Free & Accepted Masons. 



PATRICK TEAHON was one of the early 
settlers of and lived to see vast changes take 
place in Custer county. He was bom in Ire- 
land and when a boy accompanied his par- 
ents to .\nierica. His mother died when he 
was quite small and his father was killed while 
serving in the Union army in the Civil war. 
Thrown upon his own resources, young Tea- 
hon worked at whatever would-give him a 
living, and in the early '80s he came to Cus- 
ter county and secured a homestead. There 
he built a sod house, in which he kept bach- 
elor's hall until his marriage to Mrs. Thomas 
Griffiths, who was a native of Wales and 
whose maiden name was Man' Price. She 
was a girl of eighteen when she came to 
.America to make her home with an aunt. By 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



487 



her marriage to Thomas Griffiths she became 
the mother of seven children. By her mar- 
riage to Thomas Teahon she became the 
mother of two children — Mary, who married 
Frank J. McCarty, and Joseph, who operates 
the home place and makes his home with his 
mother. It was on this farm that Thomas 
Teahon was called to his final rest ; he passed 
away January 11, 1918, and in his death the 
community lost one of its sterling pioneers 
and substantial citizens. 



JAMES D. McCARTY, who owns and op- 
erates a fine fami of 160 acres, in section 22, 
township 18, range 22, is a representative of 
one of the families of Custer county that has 
been prominent since pioneer days. He was 
born in Webster county, Iowa, October 31, 
1871, a son of Robert D. and Anna (Dow- 
ney) McCarty, and he was a lad of nine years 
when the family came to Custer county and 
settled on a homestead in this township. 

The incidents pertaining to those days and 
the labor involved in opening up a new farm 
are quite familiar to him. He remained at 
home, assisting in the work of the old home- 
stead, until he reached his majority, when he 
began an independent career as an agricultur- 
ist. He operated land as a tenant for a few 
years, and met with the success that made it 
possible for him to become the owner of a 
farm. His present place is equipped with 
substantial buildings, and general farming is 
carried on successfully. 

In 1899 was solemnized the marriage of 
James D. McCarty to Miss Anna Sweeney, a 
daughter of Henry Sweeney, deceased, and 
Bridget (Han-ey) Sweeney, who came to 
Custer county in 1886 and of whom further 
mention is made on other pages of this 
volume. Mr. and Mrs. McCarty are the par- 
ents of four datighters, all of whom are still 
under the parental roof — Lily K., Ruth V., 
Feme M., and Estelle A. The family are 
communicants of the Catholic church and in 
politics Mr. McCarty is a Democrat. Aside 
from the duties of presiding over the house- 
hold Mrs. McCarty has found time to serv'e 
two tenns as a member of the school board. 
Mr. and Mrs. ^McCarty are people of real, 
genuine worth and are held in high esteem by 
all who know them. 



FLORIAN JACOBS. — The two vocations 
of agriculture and merchandising are so close- 
ly allied that it is not unusual to find an indi- 
vidual person engaged in both lines of en- 
deavor. Such has been the experience of 



Florian Jacobs, who, after many years of suc- 
cessful eftort in farming, turned his attention 
to merchandising. At the present time he is 
president of the Co-operative Company, one 
of the leading business enterprises of Broken 
Bow. 

Mr. Jacobs was born in Hamilton county, 
Indiana, October 22, 1869, a son of Francis 
M. and Laura A. (Teal) Jacobs. His grand- 
father, Sanford Jacobs, was a South Caro- 
linian who became a pioneer in Ohio and later 
in Indiana, at a very early day, and he died 
in the latter state. Francis M. Jacobs was 
born in Adams county, Ohio, in 1842, and as 
a youth was taken by his parents to Indiana, 
where he was living at the outbreak of the 
Civil war. He enlisted in Company B. Thirty- 
ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which 
regiment he served during the greater part of 
the war and with which he made an honor- 
able record, while taking part in a number of 
hard-fought engagements. W'hile with Gen- 
eral Sherman on the famous "march to the 
sea," he was wounded, at Marietta, Georgia, 
but he recovered. Later he was captured by 
the enemy, in South Carolina, and for three 
months was confined in Libby Prison. After 
being mustered out of the service, at the close 
of the war, he returned to Indiana, where he 
married Laura A. Teal, who was born in 
Sweden, in 1849, and was three years of age 
when brought by her parents to the United 
States. Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs settled down to 
an agricultural career in Indiana, where they 
remained until 1874, in which \'ear they came 
west and located in Dawson county, Nebraska. 
where Mr. Jacobs bought land. In 1875 he 
moved to the vicinity of Callaway, Custer 
county, where he remained two years. In 
1877 he took up a homestead at New Helena, 
where he duly perfected his title and where 
he continued to carry on operations until his 
death, in 1900. His widow still remains on 
this old homestead. Mr. Jacobs was a Demo- 
crat and a member of the Grand Army of the 
Republic. He and his wife were the parents 
of the following children : Florian ; Miss 
Cora, a professional nurse, of Ansley, Ne- 
braska ; Jessie L., a well known educator and 
lecturer, of Tulsa, Oklahoma ; Charles S., en- 
gaged in the lumber business at Craig, Colo- 
rado : Miss May V., a teacher in the schools of 
Ranchester, Wyoming; Maude V'., the wife 
of S. M. Blue, an accountant and expert in 
penmanship, of Portland, Oregon ; Edna, the 
wife of H. R. Cutler, a carpenter at New 
Helena. Nebraska : and Beatrice, the wife of 
David \\'illiams, a farmer of the same com- 
munity. 

Florian Jacobs was five vears of age when 



488 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



brought by his parents to Custer county, and 
when he was nine years old he attended the 
first school in the county, in a little log struc- 
ture which still stands as a landmark of early 
days. He secured sufficient education to en- 
able him to get a teacher's license, and for 
several years he was engaged in the instruc- 
tion of the young, but eventually he turned 
his attention to farming and stock-raising. He 
started in a small way, but through industr\- 
and persi.-tent effort succeeded in the accumu- 
lation of satisfying capital, and in 1903 he 
moved to a farm seven miles northwest of 
Broken Bow, where he had 190 acres and car- 
ried on extensive operations. Mr. Jacobs 
continued to center his interests in farming 
until he became one of the founders, in 1917, 
of the Co-operative Company, which conducts 
a general merchandise business, with a capital 
of $50,000. Of this company he is the presi- 
dent. In his business career he has demon- 
strated the same ability that he displayed as a 
farmer and stock-raiser, and his straight for- 
\vardness and honorable conduct have but 
served to further advance his reputation and 
solidify his popularity. 

In 1898 Mr. Jacobs married Miss Hettig M. 
Taylor, daughter of Miner and Lenore 
(Stearns) Taylor. Miner Taylor was a na- 
tive of New York, was a Civil war veteran, 
and was a pioneer of Custer county, wdiere he 
settled in 1888. Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs have no 
children. Mrs. Jacobs is a member of the 
Christian Science church, and Mr. Jacobs is 
a Scottish Rite Mason. He is a Republican in 
politics, and though he prefers business to pub- 
lic matters, he is at all times a loyal citizen and 
a supporter of public-spirited movements. lie 
is ser^-ing at the present time as representative 
of Custer county in the state legislature 

DARIUS il. AMSBERRY. wdiose election 
to the office of mayor of Broken Bow occurred 
in April. 1918. has in this preferment been 
accorded one of the many evidences of popu- 
lar confidence and esteem shown him within 
a period of more than forty years" residence 
in Nebraska. Mr. Amsbcrry has wielded large 
and beneficial influence in connection with the 
civic and material development and progress 
of Custer county, and has been specially prom- 
inent in connection with educational matters 
and the newspajjer business in this section of 
the state. Save for his official services he 
is now living virtually retired, and as one of 
the foremost citizens of Custer county, he 
merits a definite tribute in this history. In 
the fall of 1918 he was elected secretary of 



state for Nebraska, the duties of which office 
he assumed January 1, 1919. 

^Ir. Amsberry was born near Knoxville, 
Marion county, Iowa, on the 10th of Septem- 
ber. 1851. and is a scion of one of the honored 
pioneer families of that part of the Hawkeye 
state. He is a son of William F. and Harriet 
A. (Brown) Amsberry, both of whom were 
bom and reared in West Mrginia, where also 
their marriage was solemnized. The father 
was born September 9, 1823. and his death 
occurred in November, 1887. The mother was 
born in 1833 and she passed to the life eternal 
in the year 1898. 

William F. Amsberry came to the west and 
settled in Marion county, Iowa, in 18-1^. There 
he became a pioneer farmer, and later he en- 
gaged in the lumber business, with incidental 
operation of a saw mill. In 1879 he came with 
his family and settled in Custer county, near 
Mason City. He took up a homestead and 
developed a productive farm, both he and his 
wife having passed the residue of their lives 
in this state and the names of both being here 
entitled to pioneer distinction. Mr. Amsberry 
was originally a Democrat in politics, but 
eventually he transferred his allegiance to the 
Republican party. He was influential in com- 
munity affairs as a pioneer in Iowa and there 
served as justice of the peace. Both he and 
his wife held membership in the Baptist 
church. Of their seven children all are living 
except one: Beatrice, who resides at Mason 
City. Custer county, is the widow of Hiram T. 
Kauff'man : Darius M., of this review, was 
the next in order of birth ; Madora H. is the 
wife of George W. Runyan. a retired farmer 
residing at Broken Bow ; Boyd F. is a resident 
<if Anacortes, Washington ; Marcena L. is a 
farmer near .-Vnsley, Custer county. Nebras- 
ka ; and Kittie is the wife of Lew M. Whit- 
taker, a merchant and stockman at Canton. 
Sioux county. 

The paternal grandparents of the subject 
of this sketch were William and Polly (Ever- 
ett) Amsberry, who were born in the state 
o.f New York and who thence removed in an 
early day to ^\'est \'irginia. the closing years 
of their lives having been passed in Iowa, 
where they were pioneer settlers. It may con- 
sistently be noted that the family name of the 
mother of Polly (Everett) Amsberry 's mother 
was Franklin and that she was a cousin of 
Benjamin Franklin. 

Darius M. .Amsberry was reared under the 
conditions and influences that obtained in the 
pioneer ejxjch of Iowa history and in his 
vouth he received Sfood educational ad- 



HISTORY UF CUSTER COLWTY, XEBRASKA 



489 




Darius M. Amsi'-ERRY 



490 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



vantages, including those of Central Univer- 
sity, at Pella, Iowa. He was. for four years 
successfully engaged in teaching in the public 
schools of his native state, and after coming 
to Nebraska he taught five years in the vi- 
cinity of Grand Island. He then came to 
Custer county and entered a homestead claim 
near Mason City. He gave his attention to 
the reclamation and cultivation of this farm 
for a period of six years, and he then, in 1884, 
established his home at Broken Bow, the ju- 
dicial center of the county. In formulating 
and advancing the work of the public-school 
system of Custer county Mr. Amsberry played 
a most prominent part, and for this service 
alone the county owes him a lasting tribute 
of honor. He served six years — 1882-88 — 
as county superintendent of schools, and with- 
in this regime he effected the organization of 
one hundred and sixty school districts in the 
county. This was at the period when the 
county was gaining its maximum tide of im- 
migration, settlers coming in caravans and 
by other primitive mediums of transportation 
and giving to the social and industrial devel- 
opment of the county a remarkable impetus. 

.After his retirement from the office of su- 
perintendent of schools Mr. .\msberry pur- 
chased the plant and business of the Custer 
CoKiitx Republican, and for the ensuing 
twenty years he continued as its editor and 
publisher. He made this pajx^r a medium for 
the advancement of the best interests of the 
countv along all lines, and under his adminis- 
tration it continued as the leading newspa]ier 
of the county during a long period. In 1006. 
under the administration of President Roose- 
velt, he was a])pointed receiver of the United 
States land office at Broken P>ow\ and he was 
reappointed under the regime of President 
Taft. In this important office he continued 
his effective service for a period of nine years 
and nine months, at the expiration of which 
time he retired. After selling his newspaper 
business Mr. .\msberry turned his attention 
to real-estate operations, and in this connec- 
tion likewise he proved himself the able and 
progressive e.xiionent of civic and industrial 
development and advancement. 

Since his election to the office of mayor of 
Broken Bow, in the spring of 1918, Mr. Ams- 
berry has shown the same loyalty and re- 
sourcefulness that have marked his activities 
in all other fields in which he has served within 
his long period of residence in Custer county. 
His able and resolute administration in the of- 
fice of secretary of state is assured. 

In politics Mr. .\msberry is found aligned 
as a stalwart and able advocate of the prin- 



ciples of the Republican party, he is affiliated 
with the Masonic fraternity and the Indepen- 
dent Order of Odd Fellow's, and both he and 
his wife hold membership in the liaptist 
church. 

( )n the 6th of April. 1875, was solenniized 
the marriage of Mr. Amsberry to Miss Ev- 
eline Greenlee, who was bom near Corydon, 
^^'ayne county, Iowa, and who is a daugh- 
ter of Sylvester and Hettie Greenlee, sterling 
pioneers of Iowa, in which state they con- 
tinued to reside until their death. In conclus- 
ion is given a brief record concerning the 
children of Mr. and Mrs. Amsberry: Minnie 
M. is the wife of James W. Clay, a prosperous 
farmer near Broken Bow ; William S. is a 
railway employe and resides in the state of 
Oklahoma: Amy R. is the wife of Carl Foote, 
a ranchman near Dunning, Blaine county, Ne- 
braska ; Lorin W. is identified with newspaper 
enterprise at Dunning; and Lillie H. is the 
wife of Wilbur H. Bangs, a ranch operator 
near Purdum, Blaine county. 

WILLIAM H. LEWIS. — The agricultural 
interests of Custer county find a worthy rep- 
resentative in the subject of this record, who 
owns and operates a well improved farm near 
Anselmo. 

Mr. Lewis was born in Lafayette county, 
W^i.sconsin, August 24, 1860, and is a son of 
\N'illiam H. and Elizabeth (Simons) Lewis, 
the former born in New York state and the 
latter a native of Boston, Massachusetts. The 
parents were married in Wisconsin and in 
1870 they became early settlers in Sedgwick 
county, Kansas, but owing to ague and fevers, 
which were prevalent in that country in the 
early days, they moved to Missouri, later set- 
tling in Iowa. From the Hawkeye state they 
returned to Kansas and settled in Smitli 
county, where they resided from 1877 to 1900. 
In 1901 they moved to Colorado, where both 
passed away at the age of seventy years. 

William H. Lewis spent his boyhood days 
on farms in Wisconsin, Kansas and Iowa and 
eventually became a farmer on his own ac- 
count, residing in Smith county, Kansas, for 
fifteen years. In 1900 he came to Custei 
county and purchased 160 acres, south of .\n- 
selmo. Here he has erected subsl;mtial build- 
ings, and he has enlarged his farm by purchas- 
insj an additional quarter-section in 1914 and 
still anotlicr c[ur'rter-section in 1916. Here he 
is succes.sfullv engaged in diversified agricul- 
tural pursuits, and he also owns 640 acres of 
grazing land, north of .\nselmo. 

For a companion and helpmeet Mr. Lewis 
m.irried Miss .'\nn Brechbuhle, who was born 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



491 



in Switzerland and wlio accompanied her par- 
ents. Fred and Anna Brechbnhle. to the United 
States when she was five years of age. the 
family home being established in Smith 
county, Kansas. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis are the 
parents of eight children : John and Clarence 
are married ;ind reside in Anselmo ; Ralph is, 
at the time of this writing, in the service of 
his country, as a member of the United States 
army in France ; and Frank. Lester, Marie, 
Jennie, and Doris are at home. 

Mr. Lewis is a Democrat in politics and has 
rendered efficient service as justice of the 
peace and township clerk. He is one of the 
substantial men of his community and is well 
and favorably known. 



Ai.VlN DAILY. — As manager of the 
Farmers Mercantile Company. Inc., of An- 
selmo, Mr. Daily is demonstrating his ability 
as one of the able business men of Custer 
county, and he also has the distinction of be- 
ing one of the early settlers of the county. 

Mr. Daily is a native of the Empire state, 
and was born near Hallsville, New York. Janu- 
ary 1, 1862. a son of William Grant Daily and 
Phoebe (Howe) Daily, a record of whom ap- 
pears on other pages of this volume. .Alvin 
Daily, a record of whom appears on other 
pages of this volume. Alvin Daily was nine 
years old when the family moved to Knox 
county, Illinois, and was with his parents 
when, two years later, a removal was made to 
Louisa county, Iowa. He was reared on a 
farm and educated in the public schools, and 
when a young man he taught school for a time. 
At the age of twenty-one years he took up the 
occupation to which he had been reared, and 
for a short time he was engaged in farming 
in Louisa county, Iowa, but in the fall of 1883 
he and his brother Leon started for Nebraska 
with a covered wagon and a team of four 
horses. They spent one season in Howard 
county and then came on to Custer county. 
In section 24, township 20, range 22, Mr. 
Daily took a homestead which he improved 
and upon which he resided until he moved to 
his present location, the northeast quarter of 
section 16, township 20, range 21. This prop- 
erty he lias developed into one of the valuable 
farms of the community. It is equipped with 
a fine, modern house, good barns and outbuild- 
ings and is one of the finest homes in Custer 
county. "The Meadows" is the name given 
to the place and it embraces 400 acres, all 
under a good state of cultivation. 

May 26, 1882, in Louisa county, Iowa, Mr. 
Daily was united in marriage to Miss Rose 
Dell Peters, a daughter of Daniel H. and Mary 



(Lake) Peters, who were natives of Delaware 
county, Ohio, and who settled in Louisa 
county, Iowa, in 1881, both being now de- 
ceased. Mrs. Daily joined her husband in 
Custer county soon after he located the home- 
stead, and she shared in all the pioneer ex- 
periences incident to the times. Mr. Daily 
says he wore out three "soddies" before they 
built their present residence. 

Mr. Daily is now manager of the Farmers 
Mercantile Company, Inc., of Anselmo and 
still resides on his farm. He has made a suc- 
cess of his affairs and is justly accounted one 
of the substantial men of his adopted county. 



THOMAS TORGERSON. — Two genera- 
tions of toilers have pinned their faith and 
lent their practical energy to the farming prop- 
erty now owned and managed by Thomas 
Torgerson, a tract which lies in the Broken 
Bow community of Custer county and which 
has been in the family name since 1886. Its 
present owner, a man of industry and splendid 
reputation, was born in Norway, in 1867, and 
is a son of Lars and Martha Malinda Torger- 
son. 

The parents of Mr. Torgerson were born 
in Norway and in 1874 immigrated to the 
United States, the first settlement of the fam- 
ily being in Iowa. There the father secured 
work in the coal mines, and there the mother's 
death occurred, following which Lars Torger- 
son, deciding he was not making sufficient 
progress, came to Custer county and, in 1886, 
homesteaded the present property of his son. 
Thomas. He and his wife were the parents 
of six children, of whom five are living, but 
only two are now located in Nebraska : 
Thomas and Samuel, the latter farming near 
the Kansas line. Lars Torgerson, who died 
at the home of his son in Custer county, was a 
Republican in politics, and his religious faith 
was that of the Lutheran church. 

Thomas Torgerson was but seven years of 
age when brought by his parents to the United 
States, and as he was sent to the coal mines 
to work and to assist in the family support 
when he was but twelve years old, he was not 
given any great advantages in an educational 
way. However, he was bright and alert, has 
always been a close observer of men and 
things, and thus he has acquired more 
thorough and practical knowledge than manv 
men who have had infinitely better opportu- 
nities. \\ hen he accompanied his father to 
Nebraska, he turned his attention to farming, 
and in this vocation he has made a worthy 
success. His father, while an upright and in- 
dustrious man, had not been prosperous, hav- 



492 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



ing met with several business reverses, which 
necessitated his putting a mortgage on the 
homestead, and this had not been cleared oft 
when he died. His son Thomas, who took over 
the farm, has not only succeeded in making 
the farm clear of indebtedness, but also has 
added from time to time to its acreage, until 
he now owns a full section of land, all under 
cultivation, and improved with a modem home 
and substantial and commodious bams and 
other farm Iniildings. "Tom" Torgerson, as 
he is familiarly known, bears the reputation 
of being a man of his word and one of in- 
flexible integrity. In addition to general farm- 
ing, he buys and sells horses, and also handles 
many cattle. He is a member of the Modern 
Woodmen of America, maintains an independ- 
ent stand in regard to political questions, and. 
with Mrs. Torgerson, belongs to the Christian 
church. 

On December 25, 1898, Mr. Torgerson mar- 
ried Miss Maude Cox, who was born in Mis- 
souri, and was brought to Custer county in 
1885, by her father, Daniel Cox, who home- 
steaded a property and was engaged in agri- 
cultural pursuits until his death Mr. and 
Mrs. Torgerson are the parents of four chil- 
dren : Wardie, Nellie, and Blanche are at- 
tending the Broken Bow high school, and 
Martha, at home, is the youngest of the chil- 
dren. 



D.WTD CHRISTEN may truly be called a 
self-made man, as his present prosperity has 
come to him through his own efforts, and his 
life record exemplihes what may be accom- 
plished by industry and perseverence. 

Mr. Christen is a native of Bohemia, where 
he was born August 20, 1862, and he is a son 
of Pius and Nellie Christen, who spent their 
entire lives in Bohemia, the father passing 
away at the age of seventy-eight years and 
the mother at the age of sixty-eight years. 
They were farming people, and they had three 
sons, all of whom came to America and are 
now residents of Custer county. The names 
of these sons are Pius, David, and Frank. 

David Christen was reared in his native 
land and at the age of fourteen years he found 
emjiloyment as waiter in an eating-house. 
\\ hen sc\enteen years of age he began learn- 
ing the blacksmith trade, and he followed that 
trade in the old country until 1885. when he 
came to .\merica. At Beaman, Grundy 
county. Iowa, he worked at his trade and at 
farm lalior until 1892, when he came to Cus- 
ter county, Nebraska, and purchased 160 
acres of land, in township 19, range 21. The 
place was equipped with a sod house and 



stable, and for two years he resided on this 
farm. He then purchased the old Dryden 
farm, in the same neighborhood, and there he 
successfully carried on agricultural pursuits 
for several years. That he succeeded is at- 
tested by the fact that to-day he is the owner 
of 1,200 acres of land, which he and a tenant 
operate on shares. In 1910 Mr. Christen re- 
moved to Anselmo, and for one year he here 
conducted a hardware store. He then built 
the electric-light plant, which he operated 
three years. He became vice-president of the 
Anselmo State Bank and when J. J. Tooley 
became secretary' of the state banking board 
Mr. Christen succeeded him as cashier. Since 
that time he has devoted his time to the man- 
agement of this substantial banking institu- 
tion. 

The Anselmo State Bank was organized 
July 27, 1903. with a capital of $5,000. Frank 
Young was president, David Christen vice- 
president, and J. J- Tooley cashier. Business 
was conducted in a little frame building on 
the site of the present quarters. For three 
years the bank occupied the IniiUling where 
the j)OStoltlce is now established, and when the 
Masonic Temple was erected the bank leased 
the ground floor, where it is now located. The 
Anselmo State Bank has had a steady growth 
and its capital has been increased to $25,000, 
while it has a surplus of $5,000. The present 
officers are : Charles G. Sanders, president ; 
J. A. Kellenbarger, vice-president; David 
Christen, cashier; and F,. J. Foley, assistant 
cashier. 

Mr. Christen was united in marriage to 
Airs. Lena M. Streb (nee Smith), a native 
of Springfield, Ohio, and a daughter of Frank 
Smith. At the time of her marriage to Mr. 
Christen she was the widow of Roman Streb. 
In religious faith Air. and Airs. Christen are 
communicants of the Catholic church, and his 
political views make him a Democrat. Suc- 
cessful in business, public-spirited in citizen- 
ship, every worthy cause has the liberal sup- 
port of Mr. Christen. 



WILLIAM G. MILLS. — Custer county 
has a fine coterie of retired farmers who have 
worked through the long days of their middle 
lite and are now enjoying a deserved rest, be- 
ing well ])rovided with the comforts of life, 
as the result of iheir toil. William G. Alills is 
one of these. He was bom June 13, 1862, in 
Aladison county, Iowa. His ]Kirents, William 
and Lucinda (Stark) Alills. were staunch, 
sulistanlial people, and were held in unquali- 
fied respect and esteem. The father was a 
native of Illinois and the mother was born in 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



493 



the Hawkeye state. The father was affiHated 
with the JNIasonic fraternity and during the 
Civil war served as a second heutenant in 
Company I, OVenty-first Iowa Vohinteer In- 
fantry. Four children compose the family 
circle of this estimable couple. They are Ira 
P., William G., Emma L. English, and E. 
Grant. 

When \\'illiani G. IMills was but three years 
of age his father yielded to the call of the 
west and located in Lancaster county, Ne- 
braska Territory, in 1865. Lincoln at that 
time was not yet on the map. Here the father 
obtained a homestead farm, and he lived on 
the place eighteen years. <)n this pioneer farm 
the early years of the life of William G. MilL 
were spent. It was here that he earned his 
first money and gradually inducted himself 
into the live-stock business. It was his job to 
do the family churning, for which his mother 
paid him one cent an hour. Twenty-five hours 
of churning thus earned him twenty-five cents, 
and with this as his part of the investment, 
he and his brother Ira purchased a pig in part- 
nership. They raised the pig, sold it and 
bought two pigs. These were finally sold, and 
with the proceeds they bought two calves. This 
launched them into the stock business so ef- 
fectually that they have never been able to get 
out. Air. Mills helped on the fann during 
the summer time, attended public school dur- 
ing the winter time, and finally finished his 
high-school course and attended the state uni- 
versitv, at Lincoln. In 1883 Mr. Mills came 
with his father and family to Custer county 
and the father located five miles north of Ar- 
nold, which locality has since that time been 
known as Mills valley. At that time W'illiam 
lacked six weeks of being twenty-one years of 
age, but with an eye to good business, he select- 
ed a homestead and a tree claim, and the day 
that he was twenty-one found him bright and 
early in the North Platte land office, ready to 
make his filing. Thus was laid the foundation 
of the competency his Custer activities have 
since secured for him. 

Continued bachelorhood had no attractions 
for Mr. Mills, so, on December 7, 1884, he led 
to the marriage altar Miss Millie A. Guy, who 
was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, a daughter of 
William and Martha (Hall) Guy, the former 
a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of the 
District of Columbia. Both parents were 
members of the Protestant Alethodist church. 
In the Guy family were three children — Dr. 
Milton P. Guy, Laura A. (deceased), and Mil- 
lie A. Mills. 

Mr. and Mrs. William G. Mills have five 
children : Guy P., who lives on a farm near 
Arnold, married Daisy Phiper, and they have 



two sons. John M., who likewise is a farmer 
in the Arnold vicinity, married Susie Simms 
and they have one son and one daughter. 
Charles S. is farming near Logan. He mar- 
ried Merle Lester, and they have one son. 
Clarence E. is somewhere in France. He 
was one of the first graduates of the Arnold 
school and on the 5th day of September, 1917, 
he entrained for Camp Fimston. He was 
later made corporal and then promoted to 
sergeant of Company A, in connection with 
headquarters business. He was with the 
American Expeditionary Forces in France at 
the time the great war came to a close. Mav 
is at home with her parents and in the tenth 
grade of the Arnold schools. 

Mr. and Mrs. Mills lived on their land in 
Mills valley twenty-seven years, during which 
time he was an extensive producer of hogs, 
cattle, and horses, but he is inclined to the idea 
that 'hogs and horses paid him better than 
cattle. Before he divided his land among his 
children he had 1,320 acres, all well improved 
and in a high state of cultivation. He still 
owns 500 acres but maintains a splendid home 
in Arnold, where three acres of ground makes 
a garden plot or small farm that furnishes him 
with all the exercise that he cares to take. The 
family, children and all, belong to the Method- 
ist church. All are well and favorably known 
in the southern regions of the county. 



HIRAM R. BLACK. — Once numbered 
with the active, progressive men of his day 
and generation, the subject of this memoir has 
been called from the scenes of pioneer life to 
that eternal home where it is believed worth 
and merit are rewarded. Mr. Black was born 
January 14, 1859, in Mahaska county, Iowa, 
and was a son of Samuel Black, a native of 
Germany. In his father's family there are 
but two surviving children — Belle Black and 
Anna Coakley. When Mr. Black was but 
seven months old his mother died and he was 
taken by a family named Steward. When 
nine years of age he went to work on his own 
account and prepared to face the world for 
himself. The adventures and hardships of 
after years had no effect upon his dauntless 
spirit. He turned his hand to anything he 
could find to do. He succeeded in getting a 
liberal education and worked his way slowly 
to the front. * 

On the 19th day of April, 1884. in Omaha, 
Mr. Black n'as imited in marriage to Ernestine 
(Berndt) Vogel, a young lady who was born 
May 20, 1857. in Flinsberg. Germany, a daugh- 
ter of Carl and Christina (Knobloch) Berndt. 
Both of Mrs. Black's parents were Gennans 



494 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COl'XTV. NEBRASKA 



of long ancestral lines. In her father's fam- 
ily were four children — Herman, Mrs. Black, 
August, and lunma. 

Air, and Mrs. Black established a home of 
their own and maintained it always upon hos- 
pitable lines. They were hard-working peo- 
ple, frugal and provident, and as a result they 
were always able to obtain the necessities and 
many of the comforts enjoyed in the western 
homes of Custer county. Their family cir- 
cle widened with years, and to-day the family 
page records the following named children : 
Edward, the firstborn, is a farmer near Calla- 
way. He married Ella Klein and they have 
one daughter. They are members of the 
Church of God. Cora E. Black is a trained 
nurse, having graduated in the Douglas County 
Hospital, in C)maha. When not employed in 
her profession, she makes her home with her 
mother on the farm three miles east of Ar- 
nold. As she is a skilled nurse there is great 
demand for her services, and she is rarely at 
home for any considerable period. May F. 
graduated as a member of the first class in 
the Arnold high school. She married Clar- 
ence Gist, a conductor on the Burlington Rail- 
road, and they live at O'Neill. Nebraska. Iva 
Black lives at home with her mother. She is 
also a nurse who received her training in the 
Douglas County Hospital. Mark R. Black 
runs his mother's farm. 

Mrs. Black has three children by a former 
marriage. They are Albert \ ogel, who mar- 
ried Florence Hoftnian and lives on a farm of 
his own, near Arnold. Theodore Vogel like- 
wise is a farmer near Arnold. He married 
Ida Ray, and they have five children — three 
sons and two daughters. They are members 
of the Baptist church. Bertha is the wife of 
Thomas Ryan, a farmer and plasterer living 
near Arnold, and they have three children — 
two sons and one daughter. 

Three years after their marriage Mr. and 
Mrs. Black came from Council Bluffs, Iowa, 
to Custer county, where they located on what 
is known as the East Table, on the Anselmo 
road. They had to haul water ten miles, and 
they kept this up for two years. Mrs. Black 
says that when her husband first came out to 
see this country and secure land, he told her 
that it was ten miles down to water and ten 
miles uj) and ten miles in any other direction. 
During their experience of the first two years, 
she l)ccame convinced that this was not an ex- 
aggeration. They lived on East Table about 
three or four years and then moved to the 
South Loup river, where she has lived ever 
since. Mr. Black died April 28. 1916. He 
was a member of the ]\Iasons, a charter mem- 
ber of Chapter No. 225. He was one of the 



prominent pioneers of the county. He helped 
to develop the county's resources. He and 
his wife endured the hardships, crossed the 
rivers, climbed the hills, and outbattled their 
difficulties. At the time of his death they 
owned 670 acres of land, and this is still the 
home of Mrs. Black. For a time they lived 
in Arnold, where Mrs. Black was postmistress 
for five years, after which she conducted a 
shoe store for seven years, while Mr. Black 
and the children operated the farjii. The farm 
home to-day is the rallying center for the chil- 
dren. Here they delight to gather and here 
Mrs. Black delights in the homecoming of the 
children and the grandchildren, to whom she 
recites the stories of the early da vs. 



ALEXANDER DE LOSH. — Retired 
from active operations, the subject of this 
sketch lives in Arnold, where, in a modern 
home, he enjoys the comforts to which his 
years of toil entitle him. 

Mr. De Losh was born on the 26th day of 
March. 1858, in St. Lawrence county. New 
York. In the same countv were born his 
parents, Cornelius and Sophia (Myers) 
DeLosh, of whose children five are living — 
William, Julius, Marj- A. Green, Alexander, 
Alma Ewald, and John. Cornelius DeLosh 
was a farmer by occupation and he moved 
to Delaware county, Iowa, Iowa, when his 
son Alexander was seven years of age. In 
Delaware county the father purchased a 
fami, and there the youthful days of Alex- 
ander were spent. The jiarents were devoted 
members of the Methodist church. At 
the age of ten years Alexander DeLosh earned 
his first money, by helping a neighbor drive 
hogs six miles to market. For this service he 
was given twenty-five cents. Durin.g the sum 
mers he was employed upon the farm and in 
the winter months he attended the country 
schools, where he received a fundamental edu- 
cation that has served him well in all the sub- 
sequent transactions of business. Since he 
was thirteen years of age he has practically 
made his own way in the world. His first 
wages were eleven dollars a month, and that 
was considered an imusual compensation in 
those times. These excessive wages were 
])aid because Alexander had the reputation of 
Ix'ing a "good hand." He did not have the 
easy time of the present-day farm hand. He 
did not expect to have the chores done before 
sundown and the use of an automobile after 
supper. In fact, the farms in those days were 
operated on the eight-hour plan — eight hours 
in the forenoon and eight in the afternoon. 
Bv the time he was eighteen vears of agfe Mr. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



495 



DeLosh managed to equip himself for farm- 
ing in an independent way. 

December 12, 1878, Mr. DeLosh was united 
in marriage to Charlotte W'hittaker, daughter 
of Samuel T. and Cynthia A. (Alayne) Whit- 
taker. Mrs. DeLosh belonged to an Iowa 
family in which were ten children, eight of 
whom are living at the present time — So- 
crates, Marius, Jane S., Danford, Meroc 
Bruce, Mary A. DeLosh, Isabelle Morgan, 
Charlotte DeLosh, and Ulysses. 

Early in the spring of 1885 Mr. and Mrs. 
DeLosh, urged by the lure of the west, came 
to Custer county, Nebraska, and located a 
homestead eleven miles south of Arnold, on 
the Tallin Table, where they have made their 
home for thirty consecutive years. Theirs 
were the experiences of the pioneer days. Dur- 
ing the tirst three years of their residence here, 
they hauled water eleven miles, then they put 
down a well to a depth of 306 feet, at a cost of 
one dollar a foot. After eight months they 
lost the use of this well and had to haul water 
for two years more before they were able to 
put down another well. This shows the real 
stufif of which the early 'settlers were made. 
It took pluck to persevere under such handi- 
caps, but Mr. and ]Mrs. DeLosh stayed. They 
put down another well, they "made good," and 
to-day the original homestead has been in- 
creased to 1,280 acres, upon which are two 
sets of good building improvements. Mr. 
DeLosh is now able to live retired, and ac- 
cordingly he has established himself at Ar- 
nold, in a comfortable, modern home. He 
credits farming and stock-raising for all of 
his accumulations and success. Concerning the 
children of Mr. and ]Mrs. DeLosh the follow- 
ing brief data are available : Walter C. mar- 
ried Maud Purcell and became the father of 
one son and two daughters. He died October 
27, 1913. At that time of his death Walter 
owned a full section of land on the Tallin 
Table and his .widow still resides on the farm. 
He was a Mason, and was well and favorably 
known in the community. Isabelle F. is the 
wife of Alartin Holt, a farmer who owns a 
half-section of land on the Tallin Table, and 
they have one daughter. George A. is the 
youngest of the family, and thus it falls to his 
lot to operate his father's farm. He married 
Esther Alagunsen, and they have one daughter. 
Alexander DeLosh is a Mason in high stand- 
in, having received the thirty-second degree of 
the Scottish Rite. He has been a member of 
the school board in district No. 133 for more 
than twenty-five years, and in many other 
ways has rendered a public service to the com- 



munity in which he has lived during these 
years. 

JAMES S. WALLACE. — Bearing a fam- 
ily name that has been one of eminence in the 
history of Scotland, this well known citizen of 
Custer county may well take pride in claiming 
the land of hills and heather as the place of his 
nativity. Appreciative of the subtle attrac- 
tions and undeniable opportunities offered in 
connection with practical journalism, Mr. 
Wallace has chosen the newspaper profession 
as his vocation, and the success which he has 
attained in this field of endeavor is shown 
forth in his well equipped establishment and 
the excellent business which he controls as 
editor and publisher of the Anslcy Herald. 

Mr. Wallace was bom in Berwickshire. 
Scotland, on the 4th of November, 1884, and 
is a son of James and Isabelle (McNeish) 
Wallace, the former of whom passed his entire 
life in Scotland, where his widow still resides. 
Of their children John, Henry, and William 
still maintain their home in Scotland, and 
thus the subject of this review is the only rep- 
resentative of the immediate family in the 
United States. William was a gallant young- 
soldier in the English forces on the great 
battlefields of France during a go6dly portion 
of the time while the great world war was 
raging. The father was an earnest communi- 
cant of the established Church of England, as 
is also his widow, and in this ancient faith 
they carefully reared their sons. James Wal- 
lace devoted the major part of his active ca- 
reer to the great basic industry of agriculture, 
and his life was ordered upon the highest plane 
of integrity and usefulness. 

James S. Wallace was reared under the 
sturdy discipline of the old home farm, and 
in his youth he was given the best of educa- 
tional advantages — both in Edinburgh, Scot- 
land, and Northumberland, England. Moved 
by ambition and a desire to emancipate him- 
self from the life of a farmer, soon after at- 
taining to his legal majority Mr. Wallace de- 
cided to leave his native land and try his for- 
tunes in America. In 1906 he crossed the At- 
lantic and after remaining for a short time in 
Canada he made his way to Seattle, Washing- 
ton. Later, in 1911, he came to Nebraska, and 
at Alliance. Box Butte county, he gained his 
initial experience in the newspaper and general 
printine business, through his connection with 
the Alliance Semi-Weekly Times, with which 
he continued his association three years. 

As an independent newspaper publisher Mr. 
\\'allace made his first venture when he pur- 



496 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



chased the plant and business of the Cilby 
Chrotiide, at Gilby. North Dakota. He made 
a great success of this venture, and thus was 
led to seek a broader and more inviting field 
of journalistic exploitation. Accordingly, in 
June, 1918, he came to Ansley and purchased 
the Ansley Herald. He forthwith placed this 
paper on an upward climb, and the advance- 
ment has continued from that time to the 
jjresent, with the result that the paper has be- 
come a potent influence in pubic affairs in this 
part of the county, an effective exponent of 
local interests, and a vehicle through which 
communal progress and prosperitv are 
furthered. The Herald now has a circulation 
of nearly 800 copies weekly and is to be found 
in the representatives homes throughout the 
Ansley district of the county. The Herald 
ably champions the principles and policies of 
the Re])ublican party and is a local political 
organ of no insignificant influence, the while it 
expresses the well fortified political views of 
its publisher. However, Air. Wallace en- 
deavors to give to his readers a fair, impartial, 
and unprejudiced view of all questions of in- 
' terest, political and otherwise, and his paper 
luerits classification among the model village 
]_)ulilications of Nebraska, its columns giving 
effective summar\- of the latest news of gen- 
eral character, as well as a chronicle of local 
events and activities, and terse, well written 
editorials. The Herald has good support from 
the merchants and professional men of its 
community, and it is recognized as a good ad- 
vertising medium. In connection with the 
newsi)aper plant is a well equipped job-print- 
ing department, in which first-class job ]>rint- 
iiisr of all kinds is executed. Mr. Wallace is 
affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows and he and his wife are members of 
the Christian church in their home village. 

In June, 1915, was solemnized the marriage 
of Mr. Wallace to Miss Elda Fern Bacon, who 
was lx)ni at Crab Orchard, Johnson county, 
Nebraska, and whose father. Royal Bacon, is 
an extensive landholder in Gage county, this 
state. Mrs. Wallace acquired her earlv edu- 
cation in the pul)lic schools at Cambridge. 
Furnas county, and supplemented this by at- 
tending Doan College, at Crete. Prior to her 
marriage she was a successful and popular 
teacher, as princi])al in the public schools of 
Alliance for several years. Russell, the only 
child of Mr. and Mrs. Wallace, was born 
NovemlKT 2, 1917. 



F.nW \RD AT. SFNNFTT. - The interests 
of the Mason City locality in regard to the in- 
dustries of farming and stock-raising are 



worthily and well represented by Edward M. 
Sennett, who has a well improved property in 
section 10, township 13, range 18. Coming to 
Custer county a stranger, in 1904, he soon won 
the esteem and confidence of those with whom 
his business brought him into contact, and 
from that time until the present his popularity 
and prosperity have steadily increased. Mr. 
Sennett was born in ^^'ashington county, Penn- 
sylvania, August 21, 1857, and is a son of 
James B. and Ruth ( Hall) Sennett. 

The parents of Mr. Sennett, Pennsylvanians 
by birth and agriculturists by predilection and 
vocation, left their native state when Edward 
M. was still a small boy and took up their resi- 
dence in Illinois, where they passed the rest of 
their lives as industriou.s farming people, 
rounding out honorable careers and becoming 
moderately successful. They were the parents 
of these children: Edward M., whose name 
introduces this article ; John, who is engaged in 
farming near Mason City; Frank, who resides 
in Illinois and is a farmer; Hai'n" and Charlie, 
who also are Illinois farmers ; Mary, who is 
the wife of John Park, a farmer in Indiana ; 
Lizzie, who is the wi'fe of Patrick O'Connor ; 
and Addie, who is the widow of Del Hender- 
son. 

Edward M. Sennett acquired his education 
in the public schools of Illinois, where he was 
reared on the home farm, and he remained 
under the parental roof until after he had at- 
tained his majority. He took up farming as 
a means of livelihood, having had all his train- 
ing along that line, and after some years si)ent 
in the central west he decided to iry his for- 
tune in Nebraska, from which state he had re- 
ceived glo\ving reports. With excellent judg- 
ment, he chose Custer county as his stage of 
residence, and in 1904 he located upon his 
present property, not far from Mason City, in 
section 10, township 13, range 18. Since his 
arrival he has greatly enlarged his holdings 
and is now the owner of 320 acres, all in a 
good .state of cultivation, with substantial 
buildings and modern equipment. Mr. Sen- 
nett is the fortunate possessor of just those 
(|ualities which arc essential to success in the 
business of farming, and, having had much 
experience in his field of endeavor, he is ac- 
counted one of the able and progressive men 
of his vicinity. Mr. Sennett lias not been 
active in public alTairs, save as a good citizen. 
He and the members of his familv belong to 
the ICvangelical church. 

In 1881 Mr. Sennett was united in marriage, 
in Illinois, to Miss Jane Whitman, and to this 
union there were born six children : Oeoree, 
a widower, who is engaged in farming in Illi- 
nois : John, who is deceased ; Ed, who is assist- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



497 



ing his father in the cultivation of the home 
acres ; James, who married Hazel Hollenbach 
and is engaged in farming in Custer county ; 
Ralph, who married Clara Jelinek, and also 
farms in this county ; and Lida, who is the 
wife of Sid Hollenbach, owner of a Custer 
countv farm. 



HUBERT LEONARD, who is well known 
among the representative people of Custer 
county, is a prosperous general farmer residing 
on -section 28, township 34. Mr. Leonard 
came to this county with his parents when he 
was a mere boy, and has lived here ever 
since. He was born in County Roscommon, 
Ireland. September 1, 1880, one of a family of 
ten children born to Hubert and Julia (Free- 
man ) l^eonard. Both parents were born in 
Ireland. They immigrated to the United 
States in 1888 and immediately came to Ne- 
braska, where the father secured a homestead 
claim in Custer county, near Anselmo. This 
he developed and improved. In the spring of 
1913 he removed with his family to Anselmo, 
and there his death occurred in November of 
the same year. His widow still makes her 
home in Anselmo. Of the ten children of the 
family the following are living : Mary is the 
wife of Thomas Teahon, a farmer living 
southwest of Anselmo ; John, who is a farmer 
in the same neighborhood, married Lizzie 
Jacquot ; Michael is engaged in the real-estate 
and insurance business at Anselmo ; James G.. 
who is in the abstract business in Broken 
Bow, married Nellie Reed ; Patrick, who is 
postmaster of Anselmo, married Elsie Ross; 
Hubert is the immediate subject of this 
sketch ; Bryan, who is a chiropractor prac- 
ti'ioner and resides in Kansas, married Libbic 
Schmitz ; and Charles, who is also a chiro- 
practor, lives in Burke, South Dakota, and 
married Viola Reed. The father of the above 
family was a faithful member of the Roman 
Catholic church. In his political views he was 
a Democrat. 

Hubert Leonard has been engaged in farm- 
ing ever since his period of school attendance 
ended, and he has the reputation of being very 
successful in hi; agricultural undertakings, be- 
cause of his practical and thorough methods 
and his sound judgment. Like his father be- 
fore him. he is a Democrat in politics. He 
has never accepted any political favors but 
has served as school director of his district 
since 1917. 

]\Ir. Leonard was married February 27. 
1906. to Eleanore Hollidav, who was bom in 
Missouri, .\ugu.st 3, 1885. a daughter of 
Thomas C. and Catherine (Ray) Holliday, 



the former of whom was sherif? of Custer 
county two terms — 1894-1898. Mr. and 
Mrs. Leonard are members of the Catholic 
church. They have two children : Pearley. 
born February 23, 1907; and Violet, born No- 
vember 1, 1911. 



ROLAND ROHDE. — There are not a few 
instances among the agripulturists of Custer 
county where the men who are engaged in 
farming and stock-raising are operating prop- 
erties upon which they were born and upon 
which they have passed their entire lives. This 
is particularly true, and naturally, among the 
members of the younger generation, many of 
whom have succeeded their fathers, who were 
homesteaders here but who have now turned 
over the responsibilities and labors to younger 
and stronger shoulders. Vn the class men- 
tioned is found Roland Rohde, who is a pro- 
gressive and enterprising young farmer and 
stock-raiser of township 71, in the Mason City 
community, and who has already achieved a 
remarkable success for one who has just passed 
his majority. 

Roland Rohde belongs to a pioneer home- 
steading family of Custer county, and was 
born not far from Mason City, in 1897, a son 
of Albert Rohde, a sketch of whose career 
will be found elsewhere in this work. There 
were three sons in the family, and all have 
grown to be worthy, industrious, and honor- 
able men. Frank, who is, at the time of this 
writing, with the American E.xpeditionary 
Forces fighting in France, was well known in 
his home county before being called to the 
colors, was a general favorite among his as- 
sociates, and belonged to the local Grange and 
to the Evangelical church at Mason City. Her- 
man, the other brother, is associated with Ro- 
land in the cultivation of the farm, and is a 
voung, progressive and energetic farmer, an 
enthusiastic member of the Grange, the meet- 
ings of which he attends regularly, and a 
stanch Republican. 

Roland Rohde was reared on the home farm 
and received his education in the public 
schools. Having resided on the home place 
all his life, he is thoroughly familiar with 
every detail of its operation and management, 
and now has a full partnership in the prop- 
erty, which comprises 640 acres, of which 400 
acres are devoted to farming. He and his 
brother have been greatly interested and 
markedly successful in stock-raising, and in 
addition to pure-bred horses are engaged in 
raising Red Polled cattle and pure blooded 
Poland-China hogs. The property is splen- 
didly equipped with modern buildings and 



498 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



other improvements, including an Overland 
automobile, a blacksmith shop with a complete 
set of tools, and a complete threshing machine 
outfit. Like his brother. Roland Rohde is a Re- 
publican. He is still numbered among the 
eligible bachelors of his native county. 



JIM BAKER may well be cited as one of 
Custer county's old settlers, as forty years 
have rolled by since he came into the county 
in which he now owns 200 acres of fine land 
situated in section 25, within easy distance of 
Broken Bow. Mr. Baker was bom in Iowa, 
September 5, 1869, and his parents were 
Thompson and Sarah (Huffman) Baker, who 
removed from Iowa to York county, Ne- 
braska, in 1872. There were thirteen children 
in their family, a strong and sturdy stock, and 
of these the following are living: Frank, who 
is 3 farmer near W'esterville, Nebraska, mar- 
ried Margaret Gardner ; Tina, who is the 
widow of Charles Hare, lives at Ansley, Ne- 
braska ; Walter, who is a farmer in Custer 
county, married Lulu Nelms ; Alice, who is 
the wife of Frank Hays, a farmer near Wes- 
terville ; Kate, who is the widow of Austin 
Daniels, lives near Westerville ; Hattie mar- 
ried William Gardner, a farmer, and they live 
near Morecroft Wyoming: Ralph, who is a 
traveling salesman, married \'eila Lewis, and 
they reside at Alliance, Nebraska ; Wesley N., 
who is a farmer in Custer county, married 
Amy Copsey: May is the wife of John Dates, 
a farmer in Custer county ; and Maud is the 
wife of Herbert Hollenbeck, a farmer near 
Wester\ille. 

Jim Baker was three years old when his 
parents brought him to York county, Ne- 
braska, and he was about nine years old when 
he came to Custer county, in the fall of 1878. 
He obtained his education in the Custer cotmty 
schools and then learned the blacksmith trade, 
which he followed in conjunction with farming 
until 1903. since which time he has devoted 
himself to agricultural pursuits exclusivelv, 
carr\-ing on mixed farming and cattle-raising. 
Lie hris a valuable, well improved estate. 

In May, 1899. Mr. Baker married Miss Lil- 
lie Ross, who was bom in Illinois, and they 
have three children : Alice, who was bom 
December 12, 1900: \'erla, who was born Aug- 
ust 5, 1902 : and Roy, who was born June 22. 
1904. .\11 of the children remain at the pa- 
rental home. 

Mr. Baker is a Republican in his ]>olitical 
views and is a loyal and public-spirited citizen. 
Wonderful changes have taken place since 
Mr. Baker came to Custer county, and he has 
done his part in developing the country. 



PAUL J. HAUMONT. justice of the peace 
and representative citizen of Custer county, 
has been engaged in agricultural activities here 
ever since he completed his course of study in 
the State Agricultural College, at Lincoln. Mr. 
Haumont was born in Custer county, June 18, 
1880. His parents were Edmund and Mary 
(Severyns) Haumont. both natives of now 
historic villages of Belgium, where his father 
was born m 1856 and his mother, April 27, 
1848. It chanced that both came to the L'nited 
States, the mother reaching this countr}- in 
July. 1875, and the father two years later. To 
their subsequent marriage three children were 
born: Paul J., Eddie (deceased), and Sylvia, 
the one daughter being now the wife of Al- 
bert Kleeb, a farmer. Edmund Haumont was 
an intelligent man and in addition to being a 
capable farmer in Custer county he also be- 
came a citizen of the United States, one loy- 
ally interested m political sentiment. He voted 
first with the temporary- Greenback party but 
afterward, until his death, January 7, 1917, 
with the Republican party. Both he and his 
wife were faithful members of the Roman 
Catholic church. 

Paul J. Haumont grew up on his father's 
farm and attended the countrv' schools. Later 
he took a course in the Nebraska .Vgricnltural 
College, at Lincoln, the benefit of which disci- 
pline has been amply proved by the success 
that has attended the intelligent management 
of his farm, which he devotes to mixed farm- 
ing and stock-raising. Although he is counted 
one of the best farmers in this section, he has 
not given all his time to personal undertakings 
but, through a hearty interest in the general 
welfare of his county, has informed himself 
concerning a good citizen's responsibilities, 
and has so gained the confidence of his fellow 
citizens thereby that, although independent in 
politics, he has been county clerk for four 
years and a justice of the peace for the same 
length of time. 

Mr. Haumont was married in 1906 to Eva 
Polkingham, who is a daughter of Douglas 
and Eliza (Gerrett) Polkingham. and they 
have the following children : \'iolet. bom 
April 10. 1907: Thomas, bom May 4, 1908; 
Lee, born Februarv- 8, 1910; Arthur, bom 
October 25, 1912 ; Grace, born Januarj- 25, 
1916. 



PETER R. PEDERSON, who has been a 
resident of Custer county for thirty-three years 
and is well and favorably known in every di- 
rection, is an extensive raiser of fine stock, to 
which industrv- he mainly devotes his manv 
acres of well improved land. Mr. Pederson 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



499 



was born in Denmark. February 18, 1861. His 
jiarents were S. M. and Anna (Jensen) Peder- 
son, who were people of some consequence in 
Denmark before coming to America. They 
were highly esteemed in their own community 
and were leading members of the Lutheran 
church. 

S. M. Pederson came to the United States 
in 1869 and in New York he followed his trade 
of mason and contractor about one year. He 
then sent for his family and they established 
their home soon afterward in CJconomowoc, 
Wisconsin. From that place Mr. Pederson 
was sent as one of the commissioners assigned 
to the service of effecting and arranging for 
a Danish colonization in the Oconomowoc dis- 
trict. From different sections of Denmark 
the new settlers came in a body, and they be- 
came fully assimilated in the civic and indus- 
trial life of the Badger state — the founders 
of families that are to-day ntmibered among 
the best and most prosperous in W^isconsin, 
the while representatives of these families 
have also become worthily identified with the 
citizenship of various other states of the 
Union. The year 1870 was that in which the 
wife and seven children of Mr. Pederson 
joined him in New York, and after the removal 
to Wisconsin he did a considerable amount of 
building, as a contracting mason, as did he 
later in Chicago, he having removed to that 
metropolis in the autumn of 1871. Later he 
became a resident of Howard county. Ne- 
braska. Concerning the surviving children of 
this sterling citizen the following brief record 
is consistently entered at this juncture: Lizzie 
is the widow of Ouinn Kirkpatrick and resides 
in the city of Seattle, Washington ; Minnie is 
the wife of Jens Jenson. who is engaged in the 
lumber business at Bellingham. Washington : 
Peter R. is the immediate subject of this 
sketch: Mary is the wife of Hans Jensen, a 
railroad engineer, and they reside at Cheyemie, 
Wyomins:; and Yetta, who is the widow of 
George Raymond, resides at Everett. Wash- 
ington. 

Peter R. Pederson obtained his educational 
trainnig in the jjublic schools of Grand Island, 
Nebraska, and remained in Howard county 
until 1883. He was a clerk in the postoffice 
at Grand Island for one year and then spent a 
year at Carbon, Wyoming. From \\'yoming 
he came to Custer county in 1885, and he has 
remained here ever since. Here he is to-day 
the owner of a section of well improved land. 
He bought a brother's claim and also filed on 
a claim for himself, and all this land, substan- 
tially improved, returns adequate income. His 
home place is in section 23, township 34. 

In 1887 Peter R. Pederson was united in 



marriage with Emily J. Cudmore, who was 
born February 12, 1876. Her parents were 
Edward W. and Sarah J. Cudmore, and they 
came to Nebraska from Canada, both being 
natives of Toronto. Concerning the children 
of Mr. and Mrs. Pederson the following data 
are available: Soren M., who was born Jan- 
uary 19, 1899, entered the United States ser- 
vice in connection with the nation's participa- 
tion in the great world war. As a member of 
Company H, Third Engineers Corps, he re- 
ceived training at Camp Humphrey, Virginia, 
and he was serving in Company C. One-Him- 
dred and Twenty-second Regiment of Engi- 
neers, at the time when the war came to a close. 
Elsie, who was born September 27, 1900, is a 
student in the Nebraska State Normal School 
at Kearney. John Clifton, who was bom Sep- 
tember 7, 1902, died on the 11th of September, 
1C)16 Marmion, v.-ho was born July 30, 1904. 
and Esther, who was born March 7. 1908, re- 
main at the parental home and are attending 
the public schools. 

In politics Mr. Pederson gives his allegiance 
to the Democratic party, and his religious faith 
is that of the Lutheran church, his wife being 
a member of the Methodist Episcopal church 



CHESTER SAMS, who is one of Custer 
county's excellent farmers and whose exper- 
ience in connection with farm enterprise covers 
manv years, is the owner of well cultivated 
land in section 24. township 17 in the vicinity 
of Berwyn. 

Chester Sams was born in Bremer county, 
Iowa, on the 1st of August, 1874, and is the 
younger of the two children of Tohn L. and 
Cora R. (Terry) Sams. The death of the 
mother occurred February 25, 1879 and the 
elder of her two children is Charles A., who 
married Miss Irene Carl and who is a pros- 
perous farmer in Custer county. The sec- 
ond marriage of John L. Sams occurred in 
Polk county, Nebraska, where, on the 30th 
of December. 1883, he wedded Florence A. 
Hornback. Two sons were born of this 
union : Roy B.. who married Goldie Samp- 
son, of Custer county, is engaged in fanning 
in this county, and James L.. who married 
Hattie M. Powell, is a farmer near Payette, 
Idaho. Mrs. Florence A. (Hornback) Sams 
died October 29. _1907. 

In March, 1895, John L. Sams settled on 
a farm near Weissert, Custer county, and 
here he and his wife united with the Metho- 
dist Episcopal church, with which they con- 
tinued their identification until 1904, when 
they transferred their membership to the 
Church of God. 



500 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Chester Sams was young at the time of 
the family removal to Nebraska, and here he 
has continuously resided to the present time. 
He obtained his youthful education in the 
public schools of Polk county, this state, and 
throughout his entire active career he has 
been closely identified with farm enterprise. 
In his farm operations he is vigorous and 
progressive and he is one of the valued citi- 
zens of the Berwyn vicinit)'. 

On the 29th of March, 1903, was recorded 
the marriage of Mr. Sams to Miss Sadie 
Franklin, who was born in Otoe county, 
Nebraska, May 5, 1882, and who is a daugh- 
ter of William and \nn (Eve) Franklin, both 
natives of England. Mr. Franklin died in 
1910, at Mason City, Custer county, where 
his widow still resides. The names and re- 
spective dates of birth of the children of 
Mr and Mrs. Sams are here entered • Thelma 
\'.. Februarv 3, 1904; Rosa M., August 10, 
1907 ; Edith O., November 26, 1913 : Esther 
Ann, February 22, 1915 ; and John, August 
13, 1916. The older children are attending 
school. 



HARVEY B. ANDREWS. — Few of the 
pioneer residents of Nebraska passed through 
more thrilling e.xperiences, faced greater 
hardships, overcame more obstacles, and 
gained greater results than did the late Har- 
vey B. Andrews, whose death occurred at 
Anselmo, May 8. 1916. His life was typical 
of the courageous, persevering spirit which 
brought about the settlement, civilizing, and 
development of the West, and his career was 
one in which he rose from obscuritv to prom- 
inence and wealth. In the early days, when 
Custer county was still on the frontier, he 
drove stage, fought Indians, and shot buffalo 
and other wild game ; later he became a large 
landholder and one of the most successful 
ranchment of the central part of Nebraska, 
and subsequently he applied his keen business 
acumen and foresight to the direction of fi- 
nancial and other institutions, to their great 
and lasting benefit — and in each capacity, in 
each community, and in each field of endeavor 
he steadfastly maintained a recognized repu- 
tation for integrity and honor of the strictest 
kind. 

Mr. .Andrews was a resident of Broken Bow 
at the time of his death, and a local paper 
gave the following statement of the passing 
of this honored pioneer: "In the midst of a 
cheerful conversation, and while seated at 
dinner in the home of W. S. Tupper. at An- 
selmo. Mondav at 12:30 p. m.. H. B. Andrews, 



one of Custer county's best known citizens, 
suddenly ceased to breathe. His death was a 
decided shock to the comnumity. and though 
he had been ailing for a year or more, the past 
six months had shown such marked improve- 
ment in his condition that he was thought for 
the time to be out of danger." 

Harvey B. Andrews was born in Alleghany 
county. \'irginia, January 22, 1849, the sixth 
order of birth in a family of six sons and four 
daughters. His parents, William and Eliza- 
beth (Oliver) Andrews, also were natives of 
the Old Dominion, where they were married, 
reared their children, and passed their entire 
lives. Of their children four sons and one 
daughter still live in that state. 

Ilarvey B. Andrews was educated in the 
public schools and was reared a farmer, re- 
maining under the parental roof until 1874. 
in March of which year, in company with a 
party of about nine other youths of his neigh- 
borhood, he set out for the west, with the 
vicinity of New Helena. Nebraska, as his des- 
tination. The Union Pacific Railroad carried 
the little party as far as Kearney, where they 
hired a team and wagon and. with a driver, 
continued on their journey through Loup 
City, Sherman county, and on into the terri- 
tory of Custer — along the north side of 
Middle Loup river until reaching a point op- 
posite the mouth of \'ictoria creek. Blocked 
by the river, they set about the difficult task 
of fording the stream, in which tiie wagon 
was taken to pieces and floated across and the 
stronger men carried the weaker ones. It fell 
to Mr. Andrews' lot to carry across Charles 
Mathews, who in later years, as county judge 
of Custer county and one of the best known 
men in central Nebraska, frequently related 
the interesting story. .After fording the creek, 
the party continued to follow it along the east 
side until reaching Victoria Springs, where 
Messrs. Andrews and Mathews were the 
only ones of the nine to make a permanent 
settlement. Mr. Mathews took a ])re-emp- 
tion where the springs gushed out of the 
creek, while Mr. Andrews selected his claim 
a little further up-stream, this later becoming 
the Bowley farm. 

In the fall of 1877 Mr. Andrews made a 
homestead entry in Cedar canyon, this tract 
covering the principal part of the little cedar 
forest there, and being very valuable because 
of the timber. Some of the cabins erected 
from logs taken from this canyon still stand 
on \'ictoria creek. Mr. Andrews and Mr. 
Mathews, as the original settlers of that 
neighborhood, in later years exchanged rem- 
iniscences of the time when game was plenti- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



501 




Harvey B. Andrews 



502 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COLXTY. NEBRASKA 



ful and the Indians hostile. During his resi- 
dence there Mr. Andrews killed deer and an- 
telope by the hundreds, as well as one buffalo, 
and for ten years his family had no other kind 
of meat, while the family residence was first 
a log house and later a soddy. As early as 
1874 Mr. Andrews worked at freighting from 
Grand Island to Fort Hartseff, the military 
post above Ord, thus demonstrating the fact 
that in the new country he was willing to ac- 
cept any kind of honorable employment that 
promised sufficient emolument so that he could 
better his condition. In 1877 he accepted the 
dangerous position of driving stage in the 
Black Hills, and he held that post from April 
1st to September, at a time when the Indians, 
on the war-path, frequently followed him. 
Just before his run the driver of the stage 
was killed by hostile Indians, and on one oc- 
casion Mr. Andrews, with his stage, came 
upon the mutilated bodies of two men and 
women who had been massacred by the red- 
skins. It is to be imagined that for many 
years Mr. Andrews had anything but a friend- 
ly feeling toward the Indians. In the early 
days, in connection with frontier life, he had 
other experiences which taxed his strength 
and courage. At the time of the great blizzard 
of January 12, 1888, still well remembered by 
the "old-timers," he had been in Broken Bow, 
and left the train at Anselmo, where he en- 
deavored to get a liveryman to take him home, 
oflfering five dollars — a large sum in those 
days — for the six-mile trip to Xew Helena. 
However, no one would venture out in such 
a storm, and, purchasing a lantern, Mr. An- 
drews, in the face of remonstrances by the 
residents of Anselmo. started out along the 
wire fence. By the time he had reached the 
end of it, he had convinced himself that he 
was equal to the task of braving and defeating 
the storm, and about ten o'clock he reached 
his home, thoroughly frightening Mrs. An- 
drews, by his arrival at such an hour on such 
a night. .\t the time of the blizzard of Oc- 
tober 15. 1880, which continued three days, 
he had just returned from Dismal river, where 
he had a large bunch of cattle, but with the 
early fontiersman's sagacity he had felt the 
coming of the great storm and had hurried 
home. 

Mr. -Andrews was a man who made the 
most of his opportunities — one whose splen- 
did judgment and foresight and fine business 
abilities won him success and prominence. He 
accumulated some 7,000 or 8,000 acres of val- 
uable land, on which he conducted large farm- 
ing, stock-raising, and ranching operations, 
and later he entered business and financial 



circles, in which he gained like success. In 
the fall of 1911 he and his family left their 
ranch home at Anselmo and retired to a farm 
adjoining the eastern suburbs of Broken Bow, 
and there Mr. Andrews lived quietly until his 
death. He was originally a Democrat, but 
later took an independent stand regarding 
public questions and candidates, but was no 
office-seeker himself. However, he was al- 
ways ready to discharge his responsibilities, 
and for some time served on t-he county board 
as supervisor from the Victoria district. He 
was a leading Mason, being a member of Bro- 
ken Bow blue lodge, the chapter and com- 
mandery, and also being affiliated with Tan- 
gier Temple of the Mystic Shrine, at Omaha. 
\\lth Mrs. Andrews and their daughter, Lilly, 
he held membership in the Order of the Eastern 
Star. 

On September 29. 1878, ^Ir. Andrews was 
united in marriage with >,Iiss Jennie Lough- 
ran, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth I Mor- 
row) Loughran. of Loup City, to whose home 
Mr. Andrews had made a trip in 1876. Mrs. 
Andrews' parents were natives of Ireland, and 
her father immigrated to Canada when he was 
but fifteen years of age. There he married 
and there his first wife died. In 1874 he made 
a trip of inspection to Nebraska, and in 1876 
he brought his family here for a permanent 
residence. He died here in his eighty-sixth 
year. ]\Irs. Loughran had been married first 
in Ireland, and was twent)- years of age when 
she started for Canada with her husband and 
child, both of whom died soon after landing, 
of what was known as "ship fever," now sup- 
posed by many to be the deadly typhus fever. 
Although her father sent her money to return 
to Ireland, she was independent, and was 
working for a wage of fifty cents per week, 
saving her money for her passage, when she 
met and married Mr. Loughran. Later they 
came to Nebraska, where she passed away 
some time before the death of her husband. 
They were the parents of four children : James, 
who is a farmer of Gates, Nebraska ; Mary, 
who is the widow of W. H. ^IcCowin, of 
Curtis, Nebraska: Alice, who is the widow of 
J. L. A'innedge, of Taylor, this state: and 
Jennie, who is the widow of the subject of this 
memoir. Mr. Loughran was a Catholic and 
Mrs. Loughran a member of the Presbyterian 
church. 

Of the children born to the union of Mr. 
and Mrs. Andrews, seven survive : Mary is 
the wife of R. F. Aldrich, living on a farm 
near Broken Bow ; Charles H. is connected 
with the large real-estate firm of Wood Bro- 
thers, at Lincoln, Nebraska ; Jennie is the wife 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



503 



of John A. ]\Iack:, of New Helena, a farmer ; 
Lilly B. is the wife of Joe M. Downey, a 
stockman near Anselmo ; Alice is the wife of 
C. Ernest Crouch, a farmer and stork-raiser, 
and they live with Mrs. Andrews; Fannie is 
attending school at York; and Stella Minerva 
is attending school at Broken Bow. Mrs. An- 
drews still survives her husband and resides 
at the pleasant and comfortable modern home 
in the suburbs of Broken Bow, where she al- 
ways extends a hospitable welcome to her 
many friends, whether they be of the modern 
times or of the days of the frontier, when she 
assisted her husband so ably in his struggle to 
obtain a foothold in the new country where 
in later years he was destined to become such 
an important figure. 



FRED H. ARTHUR. — A pronounced 
study in contrast among the upbuilders of 
Custer county is presented in the career of 
Fred FI. Arthur. His twentieth century- 
status is represented by the ownership of 
large tracts of land, and between the labor- 
enslaving and poverty-clouded days of the 
past and those of the prosperous present, he 
has encountered many varied and developing 
experiences, the very existence of which 
stamps him as a man of courage, initiative, and 
purpose. Mr. Arthur was born at Fond du 
Lac. Wisconsin, May 14, 1859, and is a son 
of Horace and Mary (Green) Arthur. 

Homer Arthur, the paternal grandfather of 
Fred H. Arthur, was born in the state of New 
York, where he spent the greater part of his 
life, btit finally he moved to Wisconsin, and 
thereafter to Iowa, where he died at the age 
of ninety years. He married Miss Fannie 
Higby, who was related to ex-Governor Brad 
ford of New York and was descended from 
Revolutionary stock. Horace Arthur was 
born in Lewis county. New York, in 1828, 
and there he married Miss Mary Green, who 
was born in 1830. in that same cotuity, and 
who was a daughter of James and Hannah 
Green, the former of whom died in Wisconsin, 
in 1858, and the latter in 1869, both being na- 
tives of the Empire state. Shortly after their 
marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Horace Arthur went 
to Wisconsin, making the voyage via the Erie 
Canal and the Great Lakes to Chicago and 
thence proceeding by stage coach to Wiscon- 
sin. There Mr. Arthur took up government 
land and engaged in farming. He was making 
a success of his operations when the Civil war 
interrupted his peaceful career. As a loyal and 
patriotic citizen he enlisted as a member of a 
Wisconsin regiment of volunteer infantry, and 
he was with his command in camp in Indiana 



when he was suddenly taken sick with typhoid 
fever, his death occurring soon after his re- 
turn to Wisconsin, in 1863. He was a Demo- 
crat in politics, and his religious faith was 
that of the Congregational church, as was 
also that of Mrs. Arthur, who survived until 
1915. and died in Iowa. They were the par- 
ents of six children, of whom three are living: 
Charles M., who is a retired resident of Web- 
ster City, Iowa ; Fred H., whose name intro- 
duces this sketch ; and Minnie, who is the 
widow of Frank Wilson, and is a resident of 
Webster City, Iowa. 

The district schools of Iowa, to which state 
he was taken after the death of his father, 
furnished Fred H. Arthur with his early edu- 
cation, this being supplemented by one year's 
attendance in a business college at Webster 
■ City. His life work was then commenced as 
a farmer in the Hawkeye state. He remained 
in that state until 1887. when he and his 
brother went to South Dakota and took up 
land, remaining there seven years. Follow- 
ing this. Mr. Arthur came to Custer county, 
where, in 1894, he bought land. He has since 
added to his holdings until he now has 520 
acres in his own property, all well improved, 
said improvement having been made by him- 
self. In addition to his own land, he is the 
owner of the property which formerly be- 
longed to his wife's father, and both famis 
have splendid buildings and other improve- 
ments. When he star'ted upon his career he 
had absolutely nothing to assist him save his 
own initiative, determination, and resolute 
purpose, and with these fortifying character- 
istics and good management he won success. 
His judgment led him to make a speciahy of 
live-stock for a number of years. This ven- 
ture turned out prosperously, and a good 
grade of stock is still raised upon his farms, 
although alfalfa is the principal product at 
this time. Mr. Arthur retired from the farm 
in lanuary. 1917. and since then has been liv- 
ing quietly' in his modern residence at Broken 
Bow. 

In the year 1889, at Broken Bow. was 
solemnized the marriage of Mr. Arthur to 
Miss Alta B. King, a daughter of George W. 
and Emily (Green) King, natives of the state 
of New York. Mr. King came with his fam- 
ily to Custer county, Neliraska, in 1886. Here 
he entered claim to a homestead and set him- 
self vigorously to the developing of a pro- 
ductive" f ami. Sterling citizens of the county, 
he and his wife here passed the remainder of 
their lives. Mr. King died in Januar\-, 1908, 
his wife having passed away July 17. 1890. 
They became the parents of four children, 
concerning whom the following brief data 



504 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY. NEBRASKA 



may consistently be entered at this juncture: 
Emma, who was born in the state of New 
York, July 13, 1849, became the wife of Rob- 
ert Ledwith, a farmer in Custer county, and 
her death occurred May 25, 1917. Edgar 
Howard, who was born Januarj' 29, 1852, in 
Wisconsin, died March 6, 1897. He married 
Ida Burnham and they had one child, Horace 
B. Frank E., who was born September 13, 
1854, became a locomotive engineer in the ser- 
vice of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, 
died on the 19th of Januar>% 1895. Alta 
Bell, wife of the subject of this sketch, was 
born September 28, 1859. Captain George 
W. King, father of Mrs. Arthur, was one of 
the gallant sons of the nation who went forth 
in defense of the Union when the Civil war 
was ]3rccipitated. At the inception of the war 
he enlisted as a private in Company H, Thirty- 
second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and 
through valiant and efficient service he won 
consecutive promotion and was captain of 
his company when the war came to its close. 
He participated in many engagements, includ- 
ing a numlier of the important battles marking 
the progress of the great conflict, and was 
with the forces of General Sherman on the 
historic march from Atlanta to the sea. 

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur have one son, George 
F,., who now has active charge of the father's 
fine farm property in Custer county. The 
maiden name of his wife was Frances Shir- 
key, and they have one child — Louise. 

Fred H. Arthur is a Republican in politics, 
and on his party ticket he was elected town- 
ship assessor, an office of which he was the 
efficient incumbent during a period of seven 
consecutive years. He is affiliated with the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen. 



JACOB M. CASE, who has spent the 
greater part of his life as a farmer in Custer 
county, Nebraska, is a representative of a 
well known and highly respected pioneer fam- 
ily of this section and is a substantial farmer 
living on section 11, township 17, not far dis- 
tant from Berwyn. Jacob M. Case was born 
in Ringgold county, Iowa, August 25, 1874. 
He is the eldest of four children bom to 
Peter M. and Ellen (\\'ray) Case. They 
were natives of Indiana, from which state 
they moved to Iowa. From the latter state 
they came to Nebraska and thev reached Cus- 
ter county in October, 1888. Thev came over- 
land, in pioneer style, and the father bought a 
relinquislunent and developed the property 
into a fine farm. He now lives retired at 
Weissert. The mother died in December. 
1893, her children all surviving, namely : 



Jacob M. is the subject of this review ; Luther 
S. conducts a Salvation Army store in Peoria, 
Illinois ; Arthur G., who is a fanner near 
^lonte Vista, Colorado, married Ida Leek ; 
Guy W. is connected with the Salvation Army 
unit that has been doing noble work in war- 
ravaged France. 

Jacob M. Case was fourteen years old when 
he accompanied his parents to Custer county. 
He had already received a district-school edu- 
cation in his native state. The settlers of 
thirty years ago in Custer county found many 
hardships to contend with, but Mr. Case and 
his father had not expected anything other- 
wise for a time,' and gradually, through their 
industry and good management, the home 
property became productive and increasingly 
valuable. As years passed Mr. Case's 
younger brothers left the farm for other ave- 
nues of usefulness, but he has always re- 
mained a farmer and has the reputation of 
being a very competent one. 

Mr. Case was married March 4, 1899. to 
Hattie W. Perkins, and of their seven chil- 
dren five are living: Daisv B., born Februan' 
18, 1900; Everett A., born March 6, 1903: 
Gladys M., born ]\Iarch 2, 1906; Glenn B, 
born October 9, 1909 ; and Donald M., born 
Januan,- 16, 1917. All of the children re- 
main at the parental home. Mr. and Mrs. 
Case are members of the ^lethodist Episcopal 
church. In politics he is a Republican. 



ROY B. SAMS, who is a general fanner 
living on section 14, township 17, Custer 
county, belongs to a well known pioneer fam- 
ily of the state and one of agricultural im- 
portance in Custer county. He was born in 
Polk county. Nebraska, October 5, 1885, and 
is a son of John L. and Florence A. (Horn- 
back) Sams. His mother died October 29, 
1907. Lie has one brother, James L., who is 
a fanner near Payette, Idaho, and two half- 
brothers by his father's first marriage, these 
being Charles A. and Chester, both of whom 
are good farmers and substantial citizens of 
Custer county. John L. Sams came to Ne- 
braska from Iowa, and eventually he estab- 
lished his residence in Custer county, where, 
in March. 1895. he settled on a fann near 
Weissert. There he and his wife united with 
the Methodist Episcopal church, of which they 
continued members until 1904. when thev 
transferred their membership to the Church 
of God. 

Roy B. Sams attended the public schools 
through his boyhood days and then began to 
learn the practical duties that make up the 
life of a fanner. His land is cultivated care- 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



505 



fully and intelligently and yields abundantly. 
Mr. Sams was married September 29, 1910, 
to Goldie Sampson, a daughter of James and 
Ida (Tift) Sampson, the former of whom was 
born in Denmark. Jaiuiary 24, 1855, and is 
a sailor. The mother of ^Irs. Sams died Feb- 
ruan- 20, 1907. Mr. and Mrs. Sams have two 
children but only one survives, Lawrence 
LeRoy, who was born July 1, 1911. Mr. 
Sams is a Democrat in politics. 



WILLIAM T. CLOUSE. — One of the 
substantial farmers of Custer county is the 
reliable citizen whose name initiates this para- 
graph. He came to Custer county in an early 
day, and experienced all of the hardships and 
trials incident to pioneer life in the period of 
the '80s, when the conveniences of the pres- 
ent day were vague dreams of the future. 

Mr. Clouse is a native of Pennsylvania, in 
which state he was born July 24, 1856. His 
parents were H. V. Clouse and Barbara 
( Metz ) Clouse, whose birth dates from 1811. 
In the family of H. V. Clouse were ten chil- 
dren : Susan, Hemian, and Ella are de- 
ceased : Philip lives in Yale, Iowa ; Floyd lives 
in Pennsylvania, the state of the family na- 
tivity ; William T. is the Custer county citizen 
around whose career the incidents of these 
paragraphs cluster ; Katy is deceased ; Theo- 
dore is in Iowa ; Davis still clings to Pennsyl- 
vania, where he has his home ; and Samuel 
was living in Iowa when last heard from. 

During the Civil war the family of H. V. 
Clouse, lived close to the historic Mason and 
Dixon Line, and one of the experiences that 
fell to their lot during those trying years was 
the burning of their home, an event which the 
younger members of the family will never 
forget. 

William T. Clouse was married in his na- 
tive state in 1877, to Sarah Replogle, who is a 
daughter of David and Rosanna (Zook) 
Replogle, both of the Keystone state. Mr. 
and Mrs. Clouse became the parents of nine 
children, eight of whom are still living: David, 
resides at Squirrel, Idaho : Henry is located 
in Sumner, Nebraska ; Charles lives in Staple- 
ton, this state; Reuben resides in Eddyville, 
Dawson county ; Rosanna is deceased ; Alice 
is the wife of Horace Austin, a farmer in Cus- 
ter county ; Raymond answered the call of his 
country and is in the service of the govern- 
ment, as a member of a field-artillen,' com- 
pany ; Nettie is the wife of Elmer Freeze, a 
prosperous farmer in Dawson county ; and 
George Washington is attending school in 
Sumner. 

Mr. and Mrs. Clouse came to Nebraska in 



1886, and he pre-empted eighty acres in Buf- 
falo county, but later homesteaded in Custer. 
At the present time the family lands consist 
of 240 acres well improved and in a high 
state of cultivation. L'pon this land a general 
fanning and stock-raising business is con- 
ducted. The home to-day stands in striking 
contrast with the sod house which was built 
in the early day and in which Mr. and Mrs. 
Clouse lived for twenty-one years. During 
the first years of their residence in Custer 
county they had to ford the river in order to 
reach either Ansley or Broken Bow, to which 
places their produce had to be hauled. At the 
time Mr. Clouse filed on his claim he made 
the entire trip to Grand Island and return 
with nothing to eat. These are only a few of 
the incidents through which he and his wife 
passed during the trying times of the early 
days. The blizzard of January 12, 1880, has 
left a lasting impression upon their memories. 
Mr. Clouse went to the schoolhouse that even- 
ing for his boys. He left one of the boys at 
the home of a neighbor, and he and the older 
son faced the blizzard. After a hard strug- 
gle and strenuous battling, they succeeded in 
reaching their home — a trip both will remem- 
ber as long as they live. The Clouse family 
are ver)- excellent people, well rated by their 
neighbors, and they enjoy the confidence of 
all who know them. They are connected with 
the Brethren church. 



HARRY WOODRUFF is distinctively a 
Nebraska product. Here he was born, here 
he was reared and educated, here he married, 
and here he has lived his life until the present 
time. He belongs to a family which is well 
known in the county and which is highly re- 
spected for its contribution to civic and ma- 
terial progress and prosperity. 

Mr. Woodruff was born in Hamilton 
county, Nebraska, September 4, 1872, and in 
1876, he came with his father into the pioneer 
section of Custer county. Here he was edu- 
cated in the common schools, and" here he re- 
ceived the qualification which enables him at 
the present time to conduct successfully all 
matters of business pertaining to farm and 
stock transactions. 

He married Miss Fannie Judge, a daughter 
of James Judge, who came to Nebraska from 
Illinois. As a result of this union four chil- 
dren were bom, all of whom are still living 
and make up a family circle of which any 
home might be proud. The first, Mildred, is 
the wife of Otto Johnson, a farmer who makes 
his home in Sumner. The, second born, Leo, 
is still at home and assisting in farm opera- 



506 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, XERRASKA 



tions. Eugene is the contribution of the fam- 
ily's patriotic spirit to the senices of the 
government. He is a member of the Forty- 
eighth Balloon Cor])s, stationed at Omaha, 
at the time of this writing. Frank, the young- 
est, is attending high school at Broken Bow 
and is a member of the senior class. When 
he entered the high school he was the young- 
est student in the school. 

Mr. Woodrufif owns 160 acres of well im- 
proved land, splendidly equipped for success- 
ful farming, and on this he maintains his 
pleasant farm home. In social circles he has 
been active and prominent. He is a member 
of the Royal Highlanders, a fraternal insurance 
organization ven,- popular in the middle west. 
He is a member and generous supporter of the 
Catholic church. He is also a member of the 
Knights of Columbus, to the war-work of 
which organization he has always been a lib- 
eral contributor. 

Speaking of early days, Mr. \\'oodruft' re- 
calls that in the years gone by he hunted deer 
on the old home place and often stalked wild 
game in the immediate vicinity of his present 
home. 

The VVoodruffs are splendid people, and 
well merit the high esteem of their friends and 
neighbors. Custer county is the richer bv the 
life efforts of this estimable family. 



JOSEPH KAELIN, whose well improved 
farm is situated in section 13, township 17, 
with convenient market facilities at Berwyn. 
is not a native of the great state of Nebraska, 
but has been favorably known here for over 
a quarter of a centun-. He was born in 
Switzerland, November 15, 1868, and is a son 
of Joseph and Mary (Kaelin) Kaelin. who 
passed their entire lives in Switzerland, and 
who were faithful members of the Roman 
Catholic church. The father followed the 
trade of shoemaker. 

Joseph Kaelin was twenty-three years old 
when he came to the United States with the 
intention of making this country his future 
home. He was a well educated voung man 
in his own langiuige .ind very quickly acquired 
a working knowledge of the English tongue. 
He reached Pawnee county, Nebraska, in 
1891, and remained there three years. He 
then came to the neighborhood of Ansley, in 
Custer county, and has followed farming ever 
since. In 1901 he bought his present well im- 
proved fann and here he is engaged in mixed 
farming and stock-raising, his persistent in- 
dustr\- and thorough methods making his 
farm enterprise very generally profitable. 

Mr. Kaelin was married in January, 1899. 



to Ida Spoerri, who was born in Switzerland. 
August 1, 1869, a daughter of Jacob and 
Annie B. (Keller) Spoerri, neither of whom 
ever came to America. Mrs. Kaelin has two 
brothers still li\ing in Switzerland — Carl J. 
and Jacob J. Her father was a watchmaker 
by trade, and both he and his wife belonged 
to the church at Zwingle. Of the six children 
of Mr. and Mrs. Kaelin five are living, as fol- 
lows : Emma, born Xovember 23, 1899; 
loseph. born [une 12, 1901 : Frank, born Aug- 
ust 23, 1904;" George, bom October 27, 1908; 
and Doris, born August 27, 1911. Mr. Kae- 
lin and his family belong tO' the Catholic 
church at Ansley. He has never been very 
active in politics but gives his support to the 
Republican party. 



U. S. HORX'. — One of the respected citi- 
zens of the South Loup country, prominent 
throughout his community, is U. S. Horn, 
whose life achievement is an asset to the his- 
tory of the county. 

Mr. Horn was bom in Nemaha county, this 
state, August 20. 1868, and is a son of John 
and Harriet (Ralston) Horn. His father, 
who is still living, was eighty-three years of 
age on the 4th day of July, 1918. The mother 
has passed to her reward. John Horn and 
his wife were the parents of eleven children, 
and concerning those now living, the follow- 
ing brief record is given: Mrs. Ann (Horn) 
Green lives in Montana ; Mrs. Alice Bran- 
stiter is a widow, and she resides at Lomax. 
Custer county ; Charles is a fanner, and re- 
sides in the vicinity of his brother, U. S. 
Horn ; U. S. Horn, the fourth of the family 
group, is the subject of this sketch; John Mil- 
ton Horn is a Custer county fanner and citi- 
zen ; Mrs. Elsie (Hom) Sapp lives in Ne- 
maha county; and Orley likewise resides in 
Xemaha county. 

The early years of U. S. Horn were spent 
in Nemaha county, where he passed through 
the common schools, and secured a good fun- 
damental education. He was married De- 
cember 24, 1889, to Miss Fannie Jewell, whose 
family was prominent in Nemaha county. 
Mrs. Hom is a native of that coimty. where 
her early years were spent and where she had 
the same opportunities for education as did 
her husband. 

In the family circle of the Horns are six 
children, all of whom are at home, where 
they assist in fann work and enjov the ad- 
vantages of splendid schools. They are. 
Claret. Melvin, Blanche, Leo, Floyd, and 
Clyde. 

,Mr. and Mrs. Horn came to Custer county 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



507 



too late for pioneer experiences, but not too 
late to contribute their sterling worth to the 
citizenship of the county at the present day. 
It was 1904 when they moved in, bought the 
place on which they now live and commenced 
practical farming operations. They had been 
farmers in Nemaha county and withal were 
very successful. They succeeded in securing 
a good foundation and what might be called 
a splendid start before they sold their Nemaha 
possessions and repurchased in Custer county. 
Accordingly they were better fixed when they 
came to the county than were most of the 
people who make their home in this central 
part of the state. But the greatest asset they 
Ijrought with them was indomitable spirit, 
good judgment, and industry. With these 
they commenced their Custer county home. 
For a time Mr. Horn rented his father's land, 
and he made it profitable both to himself and 
his father. The home place to-day is one of 
the attractive farm properties on the South 
Loup, wilh a modern and comportable house 
and all else to constitute a well equipped stock 
and grain farm. All these improvements are 
the result of the labors of Air. and Mrs. Horn. 
In social afTairs Mr. Horn is a prominent 
Mason and Odd Fellow. Both he and his 
wife are highly respected citizens and neigh- 
bors and have a large circle of friends who 
delight in the good fortune that has come to 
them in their western home Custer's county 
can well be proud of such citizens. 



HARTFORD R. BR.\CHEAR, who, dur- 
ing a long and successful career, has followed 
various occupations in several parts of Ne- 
braska, is now a well known resident of 
Franklin county, although his operations are 
by no means confined to the borders of that 
county. During his residence in this state, 
he has been in turn, and t'lgether, blacksmith, 
farmer, stockman, and auctioneer, and in his 
several fields his versatility has assisted him 
to well deser\'ed prosperity. He is a native 
of Illinois, and was boni December 14, 1867, 
his parents being Aaron R. and Ellen E. 
(Kelso) Brachear. 

Aaron R. Brachear was born February 3, 
1840, in Logan county, Illinois, and there 
grew to manhood and adopted the vocation 
of farming. With the formation of the Re- 
publican party he became an ardent supporter 
of its principles, and later was an advocate 
of the cause of freedom for the slaves. He 
enlisted in 1862, in Company B, One Hun- 
dred and Sixth. Illinois Volunteer Infan.trv, 
and in November, 1863, at Jackson, Tennes- 
see, he was joined by his wife, who was un- 



willing to be longer separated from him. She 
traveled with his regiment until the close of 
the war, acting in the capacity of nurse, and 
did not leave the service until he had re- 
ceived his honorable discharge, at the close 
of hostilities, at which time she returned with 
him to the farm in Illinois. Both had splen- 
did records for bravery and fidelity to duty. 
In 1870 Aaron R. Brachear decided to try 
his fortunes in the west, and November 15 
of that vear, with his wife and two small sons, 
Montford H., and Hartford R., he started 
from Taylorville, Illinois, and came to Saline 
county, Nebraska, traveling overland by the 
prairie-schooner route and arriving at his des- 
tination four weeks later. The family settled 
on a homestead three miles north of the pres- 
ent site of Friend, Nebraska, where Mr. Bra- 
chear became a prominent hog and cattle 
dealer, following this vocation as a seller on 
the market for eighteen years. He was wide- 
ly and favorably known in business circles as 
a man of integrity, and he and his wife were 
devout members of the Christian church. 
Beside their sons they were the parents of a 
daughter, now Mrs. Laura M. Butcher. For 
the past twenty years Mrs. Brachear has made 
her home with her son Hartford R. 

Hartford R. Brachear was educated in the 
public schools and reared to agricultural pur- 
suits. He was brought up in a home which 
should have satisfied any boy of his years, 
but, like some other youths, he developed a 
roving disposition, and when si.xteen years 
old he suddenly took the notion to earn his 
own living and spend his money as he pleased. 
With this end in view, he arrived in a rail- 
road camp, looking for employment, and three 
days later he was not only covered with glory 
but with various specimens of the insect world, 
the names of which are seldom mentioned in 
polite society, but a name for which has been 
coined by the fighting men in France, who re- 
fer to them as "cooties." Needless to say, 
voung Brachear was glad to make his way 
home, a sadder but wiser young man, and 
cheerfully to take up the work of the farm, 
prosaic and lacking in adventure though it 
nught be. In addition to general farming and 
raising stock, Mr. Brachear carried on a suc- 
cessful blacksmith business for a number of 
years, and eventually developed inherent pow- 
ers for the business of auctioneering, one of 
the difficult vocations which necessitates the 
possession of peculiar talents. He has fol- 
lowed these three vocations with good success, 
and at present is the owner of a valuable farm, 
under stages of development, which is located 
in the vicinity of Wauneta, Chase county, this 
state, on the Frenchman river. 



508 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



Mr. Brachear was married September 7, 
1898, at Hastings, Nebraska, to Miss Geneva 
H. McCartney, riaiighter of James McCartney, 
and to this union there have been born four 
chikhen: Mon. D., who is assisting his 
father in the development of the farm ; 
Olga B., who is a high school student : 
Ora Ellen, who is a student in the graded 
schools : and Opal Ruby, who is the baby of 
rhe family. Mr. and Mrs. Brachear are con- 
sistent members of the Christian church. He 
is fraternally identified with the Modern 
Woodmen of America, and his political sup- 
port is given to the Democratic party, al- 
though he is not a politician and has not cared 
for public office. 



PAUL E. CAVENEE is one of the young 
farmers of Custer county who has the major 
part of his career yet before him, and he be- 
longs to that class of young men who are the 
sturdy and substantial scions of the pioneer 
generation, and upon whom the burdens of 
the present day are resting. 

Air. Cavenee was bom May 22, 1891, in 
Custer county, and is in every sense of the 
word a Custer product. His parents, John E. 
and Alice (Smith) Cavenee, were pioneers of 
the late '70s, and the family name has long 
been familiar throughout the county, in con- 
nection with ])ul)lic affairs and general civic 
and industrial interests. 

John E. and Alice (Smith) Cavenee became 
the parents of two children, and the subject 
of this sketch is the one surviving. The 
father was a native of Ohio and he lived in 
the prairie district of the Buckeye state until 
the call of the west enticed him to move, and, 
when once started with his face towards the 
setting sun. he never stopped until he struck 
the South Loup country in Custer county. This 
was in 1878. Mr. Cavenee arrived with prac- 
tically nothing except energy and determina- 
tion. To-day the Cavenee holdings comprise 
1,040 acres of splendid land, well improved 
and in a high state of cultivation. 

Paul E. Cavenee ran the ordinary gamut 
of a Cutter county youth, save that he had 
better opportunities for education than are 
accorded the majority. After finishing the 
country- school he attended the Broken Bow 
high school and from there went to Kearney, 
where he took a normal and business course. 

In December, 1917, Paul Cavenee married 
Mrs. Elizalieth Stairs, of Oconto, she being 
of splendid ])arentage and being a very- estim- 
able, and gracious lady. Mr. Cavenee con- 
ducts farming o])erations on a somewhat ex- 
tensive scale and is raisinsj all kinds of stock. 



with which he is making a decided success. 
His fathers farm and also leased land, known 
as the Campbell place, constitute the ranch 
property he is operating. 

Both Mr. Cavenee and his father are prom- 
inent in fraternal circles, the father expend- 
ing most of his activities in the Knights of 
Pythias. Paul E. is a member of the Be- 
nevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and in 
the time-honored Masonic fraternity he has 
received the thirty-second degree of the Scot- 
tish Rite. The family's religious affiliations 
are with the Presbyterian church. 

Opportunity and years are before Mr. and 
Mrs. Cavenee, and their friends prophesy 
splendid things for them in the oncoming 
years. 



JOHN R. ALLEN. — Industry-, self-reli- 
ance, and a capacity for painstaking labor 
have contributed to the present prosperity of 
John R. .\llen. a well known Custer county 
farmer, and will doubtless have much to do 
with his future usefulness and pemianent suc- 
cess. For many years a follower of the trade 
of caqienter, of more recent years he has 
turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, 
and at present he is the owner of a fine farm 
and beautiful home, located two miles north- 
west of ( jconto. 

John R. Allen was bom in Lincolnshire, 
England. January 15, 1861. a son of William 
and Martha (Swan) .Alien. The family 
came to the United States in 1871 and settled 
in Mahaska county. Iowa, where the father 
continued to be engaged in famiing during 
the remainder of his life. There were three 
sons and four daughters in the family, and of 
these children four still survive: John R., 
Mrs. t'liza Thompson. William, and Mrs. 
Mattie Shelby. 

When he was a small lad in England. John 
R. Allen could not be kept in school, as his 
studies were distasteful to him, and his father, 
desiring to teach him a lesson, hired him out 
to a neighbor to do chores, at a wage of three 
shillings a week. His mother j)ermitted him 
to keep this money the first week, and the 
eight-vear-old lad immediately spent it for the 
first knife that he ever owned. It is to be re- 
corded that he lost the knife before sundown 
of the same day. He was ten years old when 
the family came to the United States, and 
grew up in Mahaska county. Iowa, where he 
completed his education in the public schools 
and where he worked for some years on his 
father's fami. He remained under the pa- 
rental roof until 1880. in which vear his 
mother died, and he left home and began to 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



509 



learn the carpenter's trade, at which he spent 
two years, during which time he received his 
board and seventy-five cents a day. He con- 
tinued to apply himself industriously to the 
carpenter trade, and in 1905 bought a farm 
of 240 acres, two miles northwest of Oconto, 
although he did not locate thereon until 1908. 
Since the latter year he has been engaged in 
farming, and he now has a beautiful home, 
of which he is justly proud, in section 25, 
township 60. He uses modern methods in his 
work and his property shows the beneficial 
results accruing from intelligent management. 

On October 19, 1884, at David City, Ne- 
braska, Mr. Allen was united in marriage 
with ]\Iiss Nora Lamunyon, who was born 
in Michigan, a daughter of Wheeler W. and 
Nettie ( Snedaker) Lamunyon. Twelve chil- 
dren were born to this union : Mary is the 
wife of Clififord Howell, a railroad man of 
North Platte, Nebraska, and they have one 
son ; Edward, a farmer of Abbott, Colorado, 
married Bertha Kobo and has one daughter ; 
Carrie M., the mother of a son by a former 
marriage, is now the wife of O. B. Dresback, 
an electrician in Lincoln, Nebraska ; Nellie is 
the wife of John Kolbo, a plumljer of North 
Platte, and thev have one daughter; George 
W., who is at home and engaged in farming 
his father's property, was placed in Class 1 
of the selective draft and made himself ready 
to respond to the call into the service of his 
country; Ruth is the wife of Lee N. Bolton, 
a farmer of Lodi, Nebraska, and they have 
one son ; Bessie is the wife of Thomas B. Wal- 
ler, freight agent of the LInion Pacific Rail- 
road at Kearney ; Joseph resides at home and 
assists his father; Ethel is an eighth-grade 
student; Frederick W. and Clyde R., are at- 
tending school ; and Doris is six vears of age 
(1918). 

Mr. Allen is independent in his political 
views, and takes no active part in politics, but 
is a loyal and public-spirited citizen whose 
support is never withheld from helpful enter- 
prises and good civic movements. 



REV. BRENARD A. SHIVELY. — It is 
not often that an outsider understands or ap- 
preciates the work of the clergy of the United 
Evangelical church. Fortunately these learned 
and worthy ministers give but little thought 
to the criticism or lack of appreciation on the 
part of the world, resting content with the 
realization that they have carried out the 
ideas of their superiors, have done the work 
of their blaster, and have accomplished un- 
told good for the benefit of humanity. One 
of these unselfish and venerated members of 



the United Evangelical clergy is Rev. Brenard 
A. Shively, pastor of the church of this faith 
at Callaway. 

Brenard A. Shively was born January 22, 
1881, at Newport, on the Juniata river, in 
Perry county, Pennsylvania, and is a son of 
Charles and Catherine (Longacre) Shively, 
also natives of the Keystone state. The 
father, now deceased, was for many years a 
merchant in Pennsylvania, where he had 
stores at different points. There were five 
children in the family : Brenard A., Maurice 

C, Laura (who died single) ; Mrs. Ahce 
Straup (also deceased) ; and Miss Mary E. 

When still a boy, Brenard A. Shively came 
into the first money earned by himself, this 
being gained by picking slate in an anthracite 
coal-breaker at the mines at Kingston, Penn- 
sylvania. When he was a little older he at- 
tended the public schools of Wilkes Barre, 
and when not engaged at his studies, he was 
employed in drawing wire in the establish- 
ment of the Hazard Manufacturing Company. 
Later he went to Albright College, at Myers- 
towaT, in his native state, where he received 
his higher education, in preparation for the 
ministry, and at Hazelton, Pennsylvania, in 
February, 1902, he was licensed to preach the 
Gospel, by the Eastern Pennsylvania confer- 
ence of the United Evangelical church. At 
that time he came to Humboldt, Nebraska, 
where he accepted a call to the Cottage 
church, and after there remaining two years 
he went to Shelton, Buffalo county, where he 
remained a like period. 

On October 19, 1904, at Dawson, Nebraska, 
was solemnized the marriage of Rev. Brenard 
A. Shively, to Miss Bertha R. Heim, who was 
born at Dawson, daughter of Joseph G. and 
Rosa Heim, early settlers of Richardson 
county, where they still reside. Six children 
were bom to Mr. and Mrs. Shively and all 
reside at the paren^-al home — Mildred A., 

D. Ray, T. Ruth, Hilda M., Evelyn E., and 
Charles J. 

From Shelton, Buffalo county, Mr. Shively 
went to Naponee, Franklin county, where he 
ser\'ed three years as pastor. He then went 
to Eustis, Frontier county, where he spent a 
like period, and eventually he removed to 
Aurora, the county seat of Hamilton county, 
where he remained two and one-half years. 
In Se])tember. 1914, he was called to Callaway, 
where he has since acted as pastor of the 
Evangelical church, serving also the pulpits at 
Spring Creek and Brown Valley. 

For seven years Mr. Shively held various 
offices in the State Christian Endeavor Union, 
pnd he was transportation manager for that 
organization to two international and one 



no 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



world's Christian Endeavor conventions. 
Possessed of no mean literary ability and of 
the power of expression, he has done much 
writing in the past, and he is the author of 
the history of the United Evangelical church 
in Custer county, which appears in this pub- 
lication. Mr. Shively is an earnest, zealou?, 
and energetic pastor, — one who is not only 
possessed of ministerial ability, but is also a 
practical man of affairs, capable of handling 
business matters in an expeditious and able 
manner. He is greatly beloved by the mem- 
bers of his congregation, and has many warm 
friends among men of all creeds and denom- 
inations in the various communities where he 
has carried on his work. 



LEE H. MORRISON. — The life stor>- of 
Lee H. Morrison nnis the common routine 
of ordinary- men who combine thrift, energy, 
and frugality, together with sterling character, 
in the composition of their lives. 

He was bom August 2, 1872, in York 
county, Nebraska. His father. William F. 
Morrison, was a prominent man of the com- 
munity and came of sterling Pennsylvania 
stock. His mother, \'irginia L. (Lichten- 
berger) Alorrison, also came from Pennsyl- 
vania, the region of coal and iron. In this 
family were ten children: Harry L. (de- 
ceased;, Edmond W., Charles O., Samuel A., 
Joseph E., Frederick W., Alfred E-, Lee H., 
Dr. George A., and Annie (deceased). 

Lee H. Morrison was reared on the farm 
and made himself generally useful by doing 
chores and assisting in all kinds of farm work. 
He had good school opportunities and suc- 
ceeded in graduating from the Bradshaw high 
school. 

One of the episodes connected with Lee's 
early life, in which he and his entire family 
had a thrilling experience on the father's farm, 
is worth relating. On the 3d day of June. 
1890, a funnel-shaped cloud, out from the 
southwest, was obsen-ed to be coming straight 
toward the village of Bradshaw and in a di- 
rect line with the Morrison farm, which was 
located on the edge of the town. It did not 
take long for the inmates of the home to 
realize that danger was near. The windows 
and doors were first torn out. and this gave 
a decisive intimation that the house was not 
a safe refuge. Young Lee and his brother 
.Alfred eot hold of their mother, and together 
thev made their way through the l)linding dust 
and flying timbers to the cellar. They reached 
the cellar about the time that the cyclone 
picked up the house, which was a large frame 
building, and then dropped it back again on 



its foundation. This caprice of the storm 
was followed by another effort, which this 
time lifted the house at least twenty feet high 
and tore it into fragments, scattering the tim- 
ber and debris to the west and north for a 
long distance. There were eleven people in 
the house, and all succeeded in escaping to 
the cellar. The only one harmed was the 
hired man, George Forrester, who in some 
way had his left ear cut oft', close to his head. 
The entire town of Bradshaw was destroyed. 

Mr. Morrison's first money, which was not 
a large amount, was earned while he was still 
a boy, living near Bradshaw, by herding cattle 
for the neighbors. After finishing school, 
which was some time in his eighteenth year, 
he commenced working for his brother Sam- 
uel, who was then conducting a farm-imple- 
ment business in Bradshaw. Later young 
Lee had some experience in the livery busi- 
ness, but this was not financially profitable. 

Lee H. Morrison came to the important 
date of his life October 22. 1899, at which 
time he married Miss Sadie McMullan a 
teacher in the Bradshaw high school. The 
bride's father was Patrick McMullan. an 
Ohioan by birth, and her mother. Rebecca 
( Holbrook) ]McMullan, was an estimable \'ir- 
ginia lady. Mr. and Mrs. Morrison have 
three children, all at home with their parents. 
— Harold A., fifteen years of age ( 1918) : 
Edith, thirteen years of age ; and Mabel, eight 
years old. After the marriage of Mr. and 
Mrs. Morrison they fanned for a year near 
where they fomierly resided, and then, in 
1901, they cast in their lot in Custer county. 
Thev located four miles east of Callaway, 
where they operated a fann for one year in 
partnership with Mr. Alorrison's brother 
Frederick. Then, still retaining his interest 
in the stock and farm, Lee H. Morrison 
formed another partnership, with his brother 
Alfred, and engaged in the hardware and fur- 
niture business at Callaway. This last enter- 
{)rise was short-lived, and in eight months the 
merchandise stock was sold to Mahan Broth- 
ers. 

After this Mr. .Morrison returned to farm- 
ing and stock-raising, and he has made the 
raising of short-honi, pedigreed cattle a spe- 
cialty. His place is called the Sunnyside 
Ranch and adjoins the well known Young 
Ranch on the north. It is about three miles 
north of the South Loup river and consti- 
tutes a fine stock farm. Air. Morrison is get- 
ting well started with a fine heni of well built, 
blocky Durhams, which will soon make for 
themselves a reputation throughout the coun- 
try. 

Mr Morrison stands high in Masonic cir- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTV, XEBRASKA 



511 



cles and his wife is a member of the Eastern 
Star. Both are members of the Christian 
church. 



JOHN REINHARD is a broad-minded 
Custer county farmer of retiring disposition 
— one who shrinks from undue pubHcity but 
whose story, nevertheless, should be recorded 
for the benefit of his children and also to 
demonstrate tlie advantages America has over 
most European countries. 

John Reinhard was born May 9, 1858, near 
the great Krupp gtm works, at Essen, Ger- 
many. His father's name was Frank Rein- 
hard and his mother's maiden name was Ger- 
trude Sclihich. Both parents were hard- 
working people. In their family there were 
six children, John (the immediate subject of 
this sketch), Mary Schroeder, Agnes Buttler 
(deceased), Gertrude Penman, Peter, and 
Freda (deceased). The father was a coal- 
miner by occupation, and by practicing strict 
economy he managed to support the familv. 

The first money John Reinhard remembers 
earning was that made by working in the 
Krupp gim works. The laws of Germany 
compelled the schooling of children, so young 
John had the advantage of a fundamental edu- 
cation. He was compelled to remain in school 
until fourteen years of age. then he began his 
work in the now celebrated munition factorv. 
This was in 1872, shortly after the Franco- 
Prussian war. At that time business was 
booming, and the lad of fourteen made more 
money than he was thereafter able to make 
when he had reached the age of eighteen or 
nineteen vears. The particular work to which 
he was assigned was making molds for large 
casting, which weighed from five to fifty 
thousand pounds, from fifty to one hundred 
men being needed to fill these molds of the 
largest size. The metal used was Bessemer 
steel. In this establishment they used steel 
hammers weighing from two to seven thou- 
sand pounds. Mr. Reinhard worked in this 
establishment a full year, and he then went 
into the coal mines and worked with his 
father until he was twenty-three years of age, 
when his piarents immigated to America. The 
Reinhards began their career in America in 
the year 1881. their first location being the 
Hocking Valley coal fields of Ohio, where 
they worked at coal-mining about eighteen 
months. 

During the time he was thus employed in 
Ohio coal mines, young lohn Reinhard learned 
to speak English fairly well, and he made up 
his mind that he wanted to see something of 
America. And so, during the next six years. 



he developed into somewhat of a traveler, 
working from place to place and covering a 
good deal of territory. Being used to coal- 
mining, he first supj)osed that mining was the 
only work that he could do. In 1885 he found 
himself in Nevada, working in a quartz mine, 
and in 1886 he and an English friend, Fred 
Hutchinson, entered into partnership and went 
to Alaska, where they prospected along the 
Yukon river. They did fairly well, and re- 
mained in the territory three summers and two 
winters. Then, in 1888, they came back to 
the states, and in 1889, Mr. Reinhard went 
back to Germany and consummated a ro- 
mance of early years by marrying Mary Gehr- 
man. a daughter of Frank Gehmian. The 
young people came to America the same year, 
and came almost directly to Custer county, 
Nebraska, where they located in Custer can- 
yon, eight miles northeast of Callaway, in sec- 
tion 35, township 16, range 22. This is still 
their home place. Their landed possessions 
now are 560 acres, all of which is splendidly 
improved, and on which is a beautiful farm 
home. All the land and improvements have 
been earned on and from the farm, and Mr. 
Reinhard votes this a good country. 

Mr. and Mrs. Reinhard have reared a splen- 
did family of children, who have developed or 
are fast developing into representative men 
and women. They are as follows : Gertrude 
is the wife of Lester Kirkpatrick. a farmer 
and ranchman living five miles northeast of 
Etna postoffice, Custer county, and they have 
two sons and one daughter. Miss Anna Rein- 
hard, a school-teacher who has qualified her- 
self for her work by a normal course, has 
taught five temis in Custer county, and she 
still makes her home at the old homestead 
place. Frank Reinhard. a bachelor of 22 
A'cars. was in Class 1. Division B. of the last 
selective military draft. He has 800 acres of 
rented land, near Round Valley, and is farm- 
ing on his own account. Sophia is the wife of 
Clarence J. Garrison, a mechanic living in 
Kearney, Nebraska, where he is employed in a 
garage. Frederick, a popular young bachelor, 
is working with his brother Frank on a farm 
near Round Valley, this county. John, Jr.. 
and Hilda are at the parental home, where they 
make themselves useful and at the same time 
are attending school and qualifying themselves 
for useful American citizenship. 

Mr. Reinhard is affiliated with the Ancient 
Order of United Workmen, and in political 
matters he is independent and votes for the 
man rather than the party. He often talks 
about this country and compares its advan- 
tages with those of Germany, his native land. 
In speaking of the mammoth steam hammers. 



5i: 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY. NEBRASKA 



of 7000 pounds' weight, used in the Essen 
Knipp gun works, Mr. Reinhard says those 
hammers were called Fritz and could strike 
such a blow on the large anvils that it would 
jar the earth for blocks around. The mechan- 
ism was also so perfect that the blow could be 
struck so gently that it would hardly break an 
egg, but he declares the blow struck by ener- 
getic, ambitious boys here in America will 
count for more than the blows of those heavy 
steel hammers. 



PHILIP J. STEIGER is a ver>' successful 
farmer in the Ryno precinct. He was born 
November 21, 1870, near Augusta, Illinois, 
and is a son of Jacob and Sophia A. (Snyder) 
Steiger, both natives of Germany. In the 
father's family were five children, and Philip 
J. is the eldest of the four who are still living, 
the others being John H., Dora B., and Rosa 
A. All are connected with the United 
Brethren church. The father and the chil- 
dren are for the most part associated with 
farm industry. 

When he was a very young man Jacob 
Steiger came to the United States with his 
older brother, and, like most men from the 
"Old Country." he was quick to improve the 
opportunities of the New World. 

From his sturdy and worthy parents Philip 
T. Steiger inherited the characteristics that 
have made him a successful Custer county 
farmer and valued citizen. Mr. Steiger re- 
members that the first money he received was 
earned by trapping quails, at Huntsville, Illi- 
nois. The amount was not large, but in those 
days, and to a boy of his age, it amounted to 
almost fabulous wealth. The experience of 
young Philip were those which commonly fall 
to the lot of a farmer's son in this countn-. 
He attended countr\' school, made the most 
of his opportunities, and developed a self-re- 
liance that has been one of the assets of his 
mature years. When Philip Steiger was but 
twelve years of age, his father came to Hal! 
county, Nebraska, and located three and one- 
half miles northwest of Wood River. There 
Philip grew to manhood and there he married 
;\Iiss Lillian .Afflerbaugh, who was bom in 
that count\ . and who is a daughter of Nathan- 
iel and Leah (Erb) .Mflerbaugh. The par- 
ents were prominent people in Hall county, 
and both were natives of Pennsylvania. 
Their children were eight in number — Mrs. 
Kmma I. Smith, .\lva I., Mrs. Ida S. Leach, 
David C, Mrs. Nora E. Graham. Mrs. Lil- 
lian M. Sleif^er, Ira R., and Jason R. 

Mr. and Mrs. Steiger maintain a happv and 
comfortal)le home, in which they are blessed 



with one son, Harold R.. a bright lad of ten 
years ( 1918). 

In 1901, ^Ir. Steiger moved into the Spring 
creek region, and purchased a quarter-section 
of good land, and since that time he has added 
to his possessions until he has 480 acres of 
productive and valuable Custer county soil, 
on which he has a beautiful home and a splen- 
did farm equipment. .All this is the product 
of his own toil and good management. Fann- 
ing has paid him well. In connection with 
agricultural enterprise he has indulged ex- 
tensively in breeding and feeding live stock 
until the combination of farming and stock- 
raising has rewarded him with his jiresent 
possessions. 

In social circles Mr. Steiger belongs to the 
Masonic fraternity and Modern Woodmen of 
.America. His wife is an active member of 
the Eastern Star, and both are connected with 
the Evangelical church. Mr. Steiger's politi- 
cal preference is for the Republican party. 



LE\ I S. EMPFIELD. — The vigorous 
and progressive population of Custer county 
is made up largely of successful e.xponents of 
the agricultural and live-stock industries. In 
e\ery part of the county, farmers seem to 
thrive, and as an able and honored represen- 
tative of farm enterprise, as well as being one 
entitled to pioneer honors. Mr. Emjitield is 
speciallv entitled to consideration in this his- 
tory. 

Levi S. Empfield was bom in Beaver \'al- 
ley. Cambria county. Pennsylvania, and is a 
son of Jackson B. and Jane (Pittman) Emp- 
field, both of whom likewise were natives of 
the old Keystone state, their children having 
been ten in number — Elmer E., Mrs. Salina 
E. Campbell. McKee P. (deceased). Chalmers 
(i., Levi S., Benjamin F., Laura C. McClure, 
Burton C, Mrs. Grace D. Owen, and Mrs. 
Nellie Headley. All of these children were 
reared to maturity in Custer county, Ne- 
braska, and all became prominent and influen- 
tial in those things that conserve and repre- 
sent industr}', thrift, and community develop- 
ment. 

In the earlv days large families did not en- 
jov the advantages and luxuries that mark 
the ])resent era. and consequentlv, in order 
lo relieve ])arental burdens, Levi S. Empfield, 
when a lad of eleven years, went to live with 
an old gentleman, with whom he contracted to 
remain until he was eighteen years of age, his 
compensation for work on the fann in the 
meanwhile being his board and clothes, be- 
sides which, at the temiination of his contract, 
he was to receive a horse, saddle, and bridle. 



HISTURV OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



513 



The old gentleman had distinct miserly pro- 
clivities, was ne\er animated by any measure 
of generosity, and was very exacting in, his 
relations with his young assistant. After 
three years young Levi Empfield decided that 
he had fulfilled as much of his contract as it 
was possible for him to do. and he accordingly 
abandoned his work and walked to his 
father's home, thirty-five miles distant. He 
made this joumey, through a mountainous 
countn,', in the month of February, when the 
trip was made the more difficult by the pres- 
ence of mud and snow. During the next year, 
1886, Mr. Empfield worked on a farm, for 
six dollars a month, and he carefully saved 
his earnings. In 1887, in company with his 
father and his youngest brother, he came to 
Nebraska, and the other members of the fam- 
ily came later. In Custer county the father 
homesteaded the land where the old Ryno 
postoffice was located by him and where he 
served as postmaster for a period of fifteen 
years. During a part of this time Elmer E. 
Empfield, the eldest son, was mail contractor, 
and Levi S., subject of this sketch, carried the 
mail from Custer to Redfern postoffice, on the 
Red fern Table, via Lodi. He made the trips 
back and forth on horseback, and incidentally 
forded the South Loup river, both summer 
and winter. He continued his service on this 
mail route for two years. In 1894 he left 
Custer county and went to the state of Wash- 
ington, where he remained about eighteen 
months and where he worked for fifty cents 
a day — and was glad to get even that amount. 
Thereafter he passed a year in California, and 
by working from five o'clock in the morning 
until eight o'clock at night, he finally accumu- 
lated a modest sum of money. From Cali- 
fornia he went to Utah, and there he was 
employed in the mines and ore mills for two 
and one-half years, at the expiration of which 
he returned to Custer county. 

In the spring of 1901 Mr. Empfield pur- 
chased 320 acres of land and also homesteaded 
an adjoining tract of .eighty acres, on Spring 
creek, seven miles northeast of Callaway. 
Here he has since maintained his home. Mr. 
Empfield began his independent farm opera- 
tions on a tract of 160 acres, and he is to-day 
the owner of a well improved landed estate 
of 560 acres, on which he has a most attrac- 
tive home and through his association . with 
which, as a vigorous and progressive farmer 
and stock-grower, he has achieved substantial 
success. He is liberal and public-spirited as 
a citizen, is a Republican in politics, and he 
and his family command the unqualified es- 
teem of the community in which they live. 

August 12, 1901, recorded the marriage of 



Mr. Empfield to Miss Eva Waddington, who 
was born in Illinois and who is a daughter of 
Samuel and .Margaret (Oliver) Waddington, 
her father being now a well known stockman 
in Custer county. Mr. and Mrs. Empfield 
have a fine family of five children — Ralph 
E., Lloyd R., Alice B., Rae W., and Ruby H. 

OLIVER D. JAMES was born September 
21, 1856, in Park county, Indiana. His 
father, Samuel R. James, was likewise a na- 
tive of the Hoosier state, and his mother was 
Lucinda (Jacks) James, who was a daughter 
of Pailman Jacks. 

In the family of Samuel R. James were 
five children — Oliver D. James, Stella 
(James) Barney (deceased), Oscar M. 
James, Lydia (James) Mobley, and Alva 
James. Both Mr. and Mrs. lames belonged 
to the Methodist church. Samuel R. James 
served three years as a soldier in the" Civil 
war. He became a member of the Seventy- 
first Indiana Volunteer Infantry, which later 
was made the Sixth Cavalry. 

Oliver D. James says that he made his first 
money when eight years of age by picking 
blackberries. He invested the money in a 
pig, but this did not prove a ver\- profitable in- 
vestment, as the pig died. He worked at 
home, and went to school in the winter time 
until he was seventeen years of age, when his 
father died, and, as he was the oldest of the 
children, the main burden of supporting his 
mother and the other children fell to him. 
In 1882 his mother moved to Putnam county, 
Missouri, where she resided for two year's. 
Then, with three of her children — (31iver D., 
Stella, and Alva — she came to Custer county. 
Oliver and his mother took pre-emptious and 
a homestead five miles southwest of Callaway, 
in the spring of 1884. Mr. James claims to 
have driven the second nail in the first build- 
ing built in Callaway. The valley in which 
they settled derived its name from the James 
family and is still known as the James val- 
ley. Mr. James continued to care for his 
mother until the time of her death, which oc- 
curred at his home, December 4, 1916. The 
loved and devoted mother attained to the ripe 
old age of eighty-two years, and they were 
never separated longer than a month or so 
from the time of his birth until her death. 

Februarys 10, 1891, at Trenton, Missouri, 
was recorded the marriage of Oliver D. 
James to Hattie E. Campsey, who was bom 
ill the state of Iowa, and is a daughter of 
John Campsey, who was a Pennsylvanian. 
Her mother, whose maiden name was Pris- 
cilla Nelson, was a native of the Buckeye 



514 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY. NEBRASKA 



state. Mr. and Mrs. John Campsey had eight 
children — Mrs. Mar\- Jane Penn (deceased), 
Mrs. Margaret Gregg, John C. Campsey. 
David S. Campsey, Joseph D. Campsey (de- 
ceased), Mrs. Martha Rison, Mrs. Hattie E. 
James, and Mrs. Catharine Newton. The re- 
ligious faith of this family has long been that 
of the Methodist church, which has received 
from the family a loyal and generous support. 
Mr. and Mrs. James have one son, Guy C. 
James, who married Miss Helen Morrison, 
and is a farmer by occupation, living six 
miles north of Callaway. Mr. and Mrs. Guy 

C. James have one son and are prosperous 
young people. 

In 190Ji Mr. James sold his 4S0-acre farm 
in James valley and moved to Callaway, 
where he was engaged in the general merchan- 
dise business for four years. In 1909 he sold 
his stock of goods to his brother-in-law. J. 

D. Campsey, after which he commenced farm- 
ing operations with his son. on a rented fann. 
He thus continued about seven years, and then 
moved back to Callaway, buying sixteen and 
one-half acres joining the town on the west. 
He has this small tract in a high state of culti- 
vation and so arranged that the entire area 
can be irrigated, which enhances its value 
many times. Mr. James is a breeder of large- 
boned Duroc-Jersey hogs, and it is safe to 
that say no breeder in Custer county produces 
better specimens ot "aulairn-haired" swine 
than does Mr. James. 

In the matter of thrill and excitement, one 
of Mr. Tames' early experiences equals any 
of the "stunts" pulled oflf by Texas Jack, Lit- 
tle Buckshot or, perhaps, our friend Buffalo 
Bill. In 1886 he visited his brother in Chey- 
enne county, forty miles north of Sidney. 
One day he went with his brother and a 
neighbor named Di.xon, into a big cedar can- 
yon, on a hunting expedition. Dixon shot 
and crippled a deer, which ran up the side of 
the canyon on to the table land above. Mr. 
James in those days was an expert horseman 
"and adept with the lariet rope. He mounted 
his pony and followed the deer across the 
level plain, gaining on it at every jump, and 
after a short and exciting race he was near 
enough to throw the rope. Then the deer 
suddenly disappeared — as suddenly as if the 
ground had opened and swallowed it. It drop- 
ped completely out of sight. The pony stop- 
ped so abruptly that Mr. James came near to 
plunging over its head, when he discovered 
that he was on the brink of another canyon 
with a precipitous bank of at least 100 feet. 
The jjony stopped so close to the edge of the 
bank that the dirt under its front feet caved 
off and fell to the floor of the canyon below. 



After recovering from his excitement. Mr. 
James rode a mile down the bank of the 
canyon, to a f)oint where he found a trail 
leading down into the canyon. He then rode 
back up the floor of the valley and secured the 
deer. 



J.AMES D. REAM. — Custer county has 
no resident more widely known in either pri- 
vate or public life than the progressive farmer 
and public-spirited citizen whose name initi- 
ates this paragraph. Mr. Ream is a native of 
Newcastle. Pennsylvania, where he was born 
(October 18. 1852. His parents were Benjamin 
and Elizabeth (Simpson) Ream and his pa- 
ternal grandfather was John Ream — all in- 
tluentiai and respected residents of Lawrence 
county, Pennsylvania. 

Benjamin Ream was born in 1824 and in 
1855 moved to Mahaska county. Iowa. Re- 
sponding to the call of his country, he enlisted 
in 1861 for three years' service in the Civil 
war. He was second lieutenant of Company 
C, Seventh Iowa \'olunteer Infantry. .\t the 
battle of Belmont, where he had command of 
his company, he was so severely wounded that 
he died seven days later. His death occurred 
at Cairo, Illinois. By trade he was a carjsen- 
ter and cabinetmaker. Politically lie was a 
Lincoln Republican. Both he and his wife 
were faithful members of the United Breth- 
ren church. His children were John T., Mrs. 
.\nna E. Foster. Mrs. Louisa Thompson. 
Samuel, and James D. 

James D. Ream remained at home with his 
mother until after he had reached his majority. 
He recalls the early days of his first intro- 
duction into the science of agriculture, when 
he was paid twenty-five cents a day for drop- 
ping corn in a field of long rows which were 
covered by hoe by a second laborer. No mod- 
ern machinery made farm labor either light or 
(lelighful in those days. He attended school ' 
when opportunity presented itself and worked 
(luring all the spare time at farming, chop- 
ping wood, grubbing out stumps, or quarrying 
stone, as occasion required. In 1878 he came 
to Nebraska and bought eighty acres of land 
near Stromsburg. in Polk county. 

In January, 1880. Mr. Ream came to Custer 
county and selected a homestead and timber 
claim five miles northwest of where P.roken 
How now stan<ls. Neither the town nor the 
postoffice was yet established when he came, 
he being the first settler in the little valley 
where he still resides. It was here that the 
real career of the man began. He here found 
an n]ip(3rtunity for the develojiment of that 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



515 



resourceful character and that public spirit 
which have g-iven him a state-wide reputation 
as an enterprising, tireless worker along ag- 
ricultural and educational lines. He was 
among the very first in the state to recognize 
that our little, inefficient rural-school districts 
were a positive hindrance to the establishment 
of adequate schools and ideal rural-life con- 
ditions, and if the future years bring enlarged 
or consolidated districts and adequate schools, 
with school buildings of such size and con- 
struction as will serve as community social 
and educational centers, thus providing an op- 
portunity for the development of ideal rural- 
life conditions, he will be entitled to a fair 
share of the credit. He saw the opportunities 
of the west ; he saw the possibilities of the 
agricultural development of Custer county ; 
and likewise he saw the need of a community, 
life that would help develop the latent social 
instincts and inspire the ambitions of the ris- 
ing generation. He gave himself to the double 
task. He developed his farm. He experimented 
with many kinds of grain and trees. He be- 
came a careful student of agriculture and hor- 
ticulture, and discovered soine facts in relation 
to the Cedar apple fungus not previously 
known to the scientists. 

In this connection it may consistently be 
stated that Mr. Ream was virtually deprived 
of the distinction that should be his in the 
matter of the discovery that it requires two 
years for the fungus to make its complete 
cycle from cedar apple to the cedar leaf and 
return again to the cedar tree to be there ma- 
tured and made ready for a second onslaught, 
scientists having previously supposed that this 
com]}lete cycle was completed in one year. A 
report of this discovery by ^Ir. Ream was 
published in the Custer County Chief, a year 
prior to the time when the botanist at the 
L'niversity of Nebraska effected the publica- 
tion of the discovery in the Sniithsonhiii Re- 
port. It may further be noted that at one 
time Mr. Ream had in Custer county the finest 
bearing-orchard in this section of the state. 
From lack of time properly to care for this 
orchard, it finally outgrew the supply of mois- 
ture and thus top-killed. 

.A.S a result of the investigations and experi- 
ments of Mr. Ream in methods of farming, 
his crops are usually above normal, and his 
farm is to-day one of the most attractive of 
the central west. The evergreen windbreaks, 
consisting of cedar and Black Hills spruce, 
are exceptionally fine. No distinguished visitor 
ever comes to Broken Bow with a desire to 
see what the country can produce, without be- 
ing taken to the Ream farm, where he sees a 



practical demonstration of what thrift, and 
skill, when applied in harmony with nature's 
laws, have been able to accomplish. His im- 
provements are of the first order, and stand 
as a splendid monument to the profits of agri- 
culture as conducted by Mr. Ream. He has 
been an able and consistent advocator of ev- 
erything that would tend to better the social, 
educational, and material conditions of the 
community and the state. He helped organize 
the Nebraska Farmers Congress and the State 
Corn Improvers Association, and has served 
several years as master of the Nebraska State 
Grange. The Grange work furnished an ideal 
field of labor for him, as the Grange brings 
the people of the rural community togetlier in 
a social way, which not only contributes en- 
tertainment but also stimulates the latent am- 
bitions of the young people and inspires them 
to greater activities in all the commendable 
avenues of life's endeavors. It was this work 
that gave him the clear vision of the ineffici- 
ency of our school system, and the determin- 
nation to correct it. 

Politically, Air. Ream is not classed as a 
partisan. He is, on the contrary, inclined to 
be independent and nonpartisan. Yet he is 
generally pojndar and has been the recipient 
of political honors at the hands of his fellow 
citizens. In 1901 he served in the lower house 
of the state legislature and made an honorable 
record. He has served also as county commis- 
sioner, making a splendid record for himself 
and serving to the best interests of the county. 
He has filled many minor offices in the local 
community and ]3recinct. In farmers' insti- 
tutes, held for the purpose of promoting ag- 
riculture and horticulture, Mr. Ream has 
always been active, and his addresses, papers, 
and advice have not only been much sought 
but have also been very valuable to the public 
generally. Progressive in spirit, born with an 
ability to lead, he stands in the first rank of 
public promoters and is willing and able to 
lead in every progressive movement that con- 
tributes to the public welfare. For seven 
years he was president of the Custer County 
•Agricultural Society ; he was the leading fac- 
tor in the organization of the Farmers' Insti- 
tute held at Broken Bow and for twenty-one 
years was chairman of the local organization. 
He has also been effic'ently connected with the 
state board of agriculture, having served sev- 
eral years as a member of that body. He is 
widely known throughout the state as an agri- 
culturist and horticulturist, and his name ranks 
high in agricultural and grange circles, as well 
in all farmers' movements. 

February 11, 188,^. in Mahaska county, 



;i6 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COl'XTV. NEBRASKA 




Tames D. Ream 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



517 




Mrs. Tames D. Ream 



518 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COrXTY. NEBRASKA 



Iowa, Mr. Ream was joined in holy wedlock 
to ^liss Anna E. Seevers, a daughter of Frank 
and Elizabeth Seevers. Further mention of 
Mrs. Ream's family is made in the sketch of 
Robert ^l. Seevers, on other pages of this vol- 
imie. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Ream 
established, and have since maintained, an ideal 
home, to which every convenience and com- 
fort of modern life has' been contributed. 

Mrs. Ream has proved herself a veritable 
helpmeet in all the activities of their married, 
life, she having borne her full share of the trials 
of home-building in a sod house, and the pri- 
vations and hardships generally due to pioneer 
life. Much of the credit is due to her for the 
the flowers that have bloomed so profusely 
in the door yard, and the order and neatness 
in which the grounds of the home have been 
kept. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Ream the years have 
brought three children, all of whom are now 
grown to maturity and bid fair to continue 
the public services of their parents. The chil- 
dren are ; Fred H., who is in business in Kan- 
sas City, Glen C, who resides at Broken Bow, 
and Loy G., who is pursuing a course in the 
Universitv of Nebraska, at Lincoln. 



PAUL G. KOLBO. — This begins the 
story of another young farmer of the Kolbo 
family. Mr. Kolbo, who is located near Lodi, 
is a farmer of careful and frugal habits, and 
he enjoys a splendid reputation in his com- 
munity. He was bom April 5, 1885, in Cus- 
ter county, and is, therefore, in every sense of 
the term a Custer county product. He is a 
son of Oliver and Anna K. (Lee) Kolbo, who 
are mentioned elsewhere in the biographical 
department of this volume, and who became 
the parents of nine children — Melvin, Hil- 
mer, Paul G., Julia, Olson, Oscar, Selmer, 
Rudolph, and Tim. Rudolph is in the ser- 
vice of his country, and at the time of this 
writing, he is somewhere in France, Oliver 
Kolbo came to Custer county at an early date 
and has always been counted as one of the 
])ioneer sjjirits who did much to develop the 
resources of the county. 

Young Paul Kolbo made his first money by 
carrying water to the harvest hands. He and 
his father and brothers farmed on a very 
extensive scale, and the labor of every mem- 
ber of the family was required to conduct the 
oj)erations and make them profitable. Thus, 
early in life, Paul formed the industrious 
habits that have enabled him to make good 
in every farming or stock-raising undertak- 
ing with which he has identified himself. 



Like most farm boys, his services were de- 
manded on the fann, but he ran the gamut 
of the common schools and received a funda- 
mental education which places him at ease in 
all business transactions requiring judgment, 
and business acumen. 

On the 24th of December, 1898, Mr. Kolbo 
married Miss Laurina Simonson, at Broken 
Bow. Mrs. Kolbo also is a native of Custer 
county, and this makes the entire household 
of Paul G. Kolbo a Custer county family. 
Mrs. Kolbo's parental home was in Rose val- 
ley. She is a daughter of James M. Simon- 
son, who by occupation was a shoemaker, and 
who for some time followed his vocation in 
the city of Broken Bow. The maiden name 
of his wife was Anna C. Jensen, and both 
were bom in Denmark ; they are estimable 
people. The children of Mr. and Mrs. 
Simonson are eight in number — Peter J., 
^Irs. Mary J. Cunningham, Simon P., Mrs. 
Christina Cramer, Hans P., Julie, Mrs. Laur- 
ina Kolbo, and Mrs. Carrie M. Cantrell. 

Mr. and ]\Irs. Kolbo have a happy and 
pleasant home, in which four children have 
come to share the blessings of their parental 
care, but one, the eldest, James O., has been 
taken from the parents into that heavenly 
home where he awaits the final reunion that 
time will bring. The living children are 
Pauline L., and Paul L. who are twins, six 
years of age, and the youngest, Jerold R., is a 
sweet little lad of two years, the pet of the 
home and the one who largely ndes the af- 
fairs of the Kolbo household. 

Mr. Kolbo, aside from being a ])ainstaking 
and careful fanner, is a stock-raiser of no 
mean reputation. He likes stock, is counted 
a good hand with stock, knows how to handle 
it and succeeds in keeping his stock in good 
condition. He is a member of the Woodmen 
of the World, in which he takes a prominent 
part. Religiously the home is divided between 
the Methodists and the Lutherans, but so long 
as strict integrity and Christian character are 
concerned, denominationalism counts for 
little. Mr. Kolbo generally votes the Repub-. 
lican ticket. 



ROSCOE R. BANGS is a veteran of the 
Civil war who has had experiences in the 
field of agriculture and merchandising, and 
whose successful and well directed operations 
have served to make him one of the leading 
business citizens of Broken Bow, where his 
activities have been ceiUered since 1915. Mr. 
Bangs is one of the few men furnished this 
community by the state of Maine, for he was 
born there, at Fannington, March 18, 1843. 




Y/ AL^' ' E R VV O O I-' 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY. NEBRASKA 



521 



a son of Richard and Isabelle (Clayton; 
Bangs. 

Richard Bangs was bom in October, 1809, 
at Gorham, Maine, and passed his life in the 
peaceful pursuits of farming. He died on 
his farm, in 1888, after an honorable and use- 
ful career. He was a Democrat but never en- 
tered actively into politics, preferring to give 
himself wholly to his farming operations, in 
which he was considered a successful man 
for his day. Mrs. Bangs, who was bom at 
Farmington, Maine, in September, 1809, died 
in 1872, having become the mother of six 
children, of whom three still survive: Mrs. 
Anna C. Sprague, a widow residing at Farm- 
ingfton, Maine ; Roscoe R., subject of this re- 
view ; and Mrs. Annette B. Kendall, who re- 
sides at Springfield. Alassachusetts, and whose 
husband is a fruit-grower and the owner of a 
chicken ranch. 

Roscoe R. Bangs attended the public schools 
of Farmington and began life on the home 
fann. The peaceful routine of his life was 
interrupted by the outbreak of the Civil war, 
however, and September 5, 1862, he enlisted 
in Company L, First Maine Cavalry, with 
which he served two years and nine months, 
being a member of the Army of the Potomac 
and participating in such important engage- 
ments as Fredericksburg, Chancellorville. and 
Gettysburg. He took part in the battle of 
the \\'ildemess, went with his -company and 
took part in the engagement at Cold Harbor, 
and with his regiment participated in each 
consecutive battle in which it was involved up 
to the time when victor\- crowned the Union 
arms. He established a splendid record for 
bravery and faithful performance of duty, and 
when the war was closed and peace declared 
he returned to his home in Maine. His life 
was changed, however, and his views as well, 
and he soon left the parental home and went 
to Hartford, Connecticut, where for four 
years he was employed in a belt factory. 
While living there, in 1869, he married Miss 
Mary Baisley, who was born in Connecticut, 
and shortly after this event he returned to 
Maine and engaged in the clothing business. 
In this he continued with a measure of suc- 
cess for seven years, and thereafter he spent 
five years as the proprietor of a general store. 
Feeling that he could better his fortunes in the 
west, in 1882 Mr. Bangs came to Nebraska, 
and located at Ashland, where for one season 
he was the occupant of a farm. He also spent 
a like period in a shoe store, but in 1884, he 
came to Custer county, where he took up a 
homestead and proved up on it, and for four 
years thereafter continued to engage in farm- 
ing. Eventually he rented his farm, although 



he continued to live in the country, and finally 
he sold the property. Later he was in busi- 
ness at Wescott, and subsequently at Com- 
stock, for thirteen years, and in April, 1915, 
he came to Broken Bow, where he established 
himself as the proprietor of a modern furni- 
ture business. While he is a practical new- 
comer to this community, he possesses the 
necessary business attributes and qualities and 
has already gained the confidence and patron- 
age that go to make for success in a mercan- 
tile venture. He has been found a man of 
sound integrity, and the business done by his 
store has shown a consistent advancement. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bangs became the parents of 
six children : Twins who were born in 1875 
both died in infancy; Carrie J. is deceased; 
Georgia B. is the wife of Howard Savage, an 
insurance man of Everett, Washington ; Lot- 
tie B. is the wife of E. C. Wescott, an auto- 
mobile man of Chicago; and Ralph B. is on a 
ranch in Cherry county, Nebraska. Mrs. 
Bangs, who died in 1905, was a member of 
the Congregational church at Comstock, al- 
though she had formerly been a member of 
the South Baptist church of Hartford, Con- 
necticut. Mr. Bangs is a Mason, and is a 
popular comrade of the Grand Army of the 
Republic, being past commander of C. C. 
Washbum Post, No. 98. The military honors 
of the family are being well upheld by two of 
his grandsons, Clarence J. Forte, and Roscoe 
E. Savage, who have been gallant young sol- 
diers of the United States Army in connection 
with the nation's participation in the great 
world war. He is a Republican and inter- 
ested in politics and public affairs, but his only 
official position has been that of town clerk. 



WALTER WOOD. — A rancher and 
stockman whose field of operation is in the 
pioneer region of the South Loup river is 
Walter Wood. He is thirty-nine years of age, 
and is a descendant in the first generation 
from the pioneer, Joshua Wood, who was 
chosen as Custer county's first sherifif and 
was one of the early characters in pioneer 
days ; further mention of hi< career is madt 
in the life sketch of his son Frank, elsewhere 
in this volume, as well as in his personal sketch, 
which is accompanied by an excellent f)ortrait 
of this sterling pioneer. 

^Valter Wood was born in 1879, in the 
^\^ood river district. February 18, 1918, he 
was united in marriage to Edna Downey, a 
very excellent young lady who by birth and 
life-residence is entirely a Custerite. 

Walter Wood is the manager of part of the 
Wood ranch, on which stock-raising on a 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. XEBRASKA 



large scale is conducted by him and his 
brother Frank. His cattle herds average 
about 900 head of high-grade Herefords, but 
of course the number fluctuates accordingly as 
sales are made. From 100 to 160 hogs are 
produced each year, which adds to the food 
stuff of the country very materially. A splen- 
did Percheron stallion heads the stables ,from 
which are produced fine horses. The farm 
is well improved, with stock-raising promin- 
ently featured. All kinds of farm machinery, 
and a splendid automobile contribute their 
share to making operations profitable and e.x- 
tensive. Mr. Wood and his wife are a splen- 
did couple in good standing in the community 
and are rated always in the first class. 

It might be said that no better stock- judge 
or ranch manager than Mr. Wood is to be 
found in the stock or ranch business to-day. 
Like his brother, he patriotically responds to 
all war appeals and is an ardent supporter 
of the government. The dependence of the 
country is upon such food-producers as the 
Woods Brothers. 



JOHN HOTHEM, who is one of the ster- 
ling pioneers of the district aljout the town of 
Sumner and whose well impro\ed farm estate 
lies across the line in Dawson county, has 
been closely and worthily identified with the 
civic and industrial development and progress 
of this favored part of the state and is spe- 
cially entitled to recognition in this history. 

Mr. Hothem was born in Ohio, and is a 
son of John and Christena ( Bremer ) Hothem, 
the former of whom attained to the patri- 
archal age of eighty-eight years and the latter 
of whom passed away at the age of seventy- 
eight years, they having become the parents 
of seven children, three of whom are living — 
the subject of this review and two of his 
sisters. Valentine died at the age of seventy- 
two years and Michael was seventy-one years 
of age at the time of his death; Catherine 
died at the age of eighty-two years, and 
IClizabeth at the age of eighty years. The 
two surviving daughters, in 1918. are Mary, 
aged seventy years, and Margaret, aged sixty- 
eight years. In 1840 John Hothem, Sr., im- 
migrated to America from his native Ger- 
many, and he settled in the state of Ohio, 
where he became a substantial citizen and 
where his son John was born, as noted above. 

He whose name introduces this article was 
reared in ( )hio, where he received the ad- 
vantages of the common schools, and as a 
young man his ambition prompted him to seek 
his fortunes in the progressive west. After 
leaving Ohio he was a resident of Indiana 



for a period of six years, and the ensuing six 
years he passed in the state of Iowa. In 1879 
he came from the Hawkeye state to Nebraska, 
in company with \\'ilson Hewett, whom he 
accom]janied to Custer county, Mr. Hewett's 
name being prominently identified with the 
pioneer annals of this county. Mr. Hothem 
states that when he and Mr. Hewett were 
making their initial trip into Custer county 
and were proceeding up the course of Muddy 
creek, they became stranded, on account of 
lack of water for themselves and their teams, 
but they finally extricated themselves from 
this difiticulty. Mr. Hothem has been actively 
associated with fami enterprise during the 
major part of the time since he came to this 
section of Nebraska, and he has won pros- 
perity through earnest and well directed en- 
deavors. He endured his full share of the 
hardships that marked the pioneer days, and 
he pressed forward to the goal of inde- 
pendence and definite success, all that he has 
in the line of worldly possessions to-day hav- 
ing been accumulated by him since he estab- 
lished his residence in this part of the state. 
\\'hen he arrived in Custer county he was 
fortified in the possession of two horses and 
a wagon, but his available cash was repre- 
sented in the sum of only twenty dollars. He 
has been a productive worker and the passing 
years have brought to him a worthy success. 
He is affiliated with the Masonic fratemitv, 
including the Order of the Eastern Star. 

In 1885 was recorded the marriage of Mr. 
Hothem to ]\Iiss Wilhelmina Lahm, and tliey 
have eight children : Jacob continues to re- 
side in Custer county: Etta, Elizabeth, and 
Anna remain at the parental home : Wesley is 
out working for himself but still remains in 
Custer county : and Fern, William, and Alin- 
nie remain with their parents. 



HARVEY S. WATERBURY, who has 
been a successful participant in both agricul- 
tural and mercantile lines at Berwyn and the 
surrounding vicinity for a number of years, is 
one of the contributions of the state of In- 
diana to the citizenshi]) of Custer county. 
Mr. Waterbury was bom at Logansport, In- 
diana, September 24, 1858, and is a son of 
Harvey M. and Louie (Calloway) Water- 
bury. 

1 larvey N. Waterbury, the paternal grand- 
father of Harvey S., was Ijorn at Waterbur\-, 
Connecticut, and at an early date removed to 
Michigan, where he j)assed the remainder of 
his life and where his death occurred when he 
was in advanced years. The maternal grand- 
father was Timothy Calloway, who was born 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



0^6 



near Dover Bay. Delaware, and after his 
marriage he settled in Ohio, shortly following 
which he lost his wife, who had home the 
maiden name of Jennie Olcar. Subsequently 
he became one of the early settlers of In- 
diana, and there his death occurred when he 
was seventy-seven years of age. Harvey M. 
Waterbury was born near the city of Kala- 
mazoo, Michigan, in 1835, and as a young 
man he went to Indiana, where he met and 
married Louie Calloway, who was born at 
Lake Sicott, Indiana, in 1837. He was a 
farmer by vocation, was an energetic man 
who was making his mark in the world, and 
was a sincere member of the Christian church. 
He had been a strong Republican, and when 
the Civil war came on, it found him one with 
intense Union sympathies, so that at length 
he broke home ties, left his wife and five 
children, and enlisted in the Fifty-fourth 
Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He 
met a soldier's death on the field of battle, 
during the second day's fighting in the siege 
of Vicksburg. Of the five children, Har- 
vey S. is the only survivor. Later, Mrs. 
Waterbury, who died January 2, 1906, became 
the wife of John Robison, and they became 
the parents of seven children, of whom three 
survive: Mrs. May Harrington, whose hus- 
band is now a photographer at Logansport, 
Indiana ; Mrs. Ruth Tiner, whose husband is 
identified with a laundry-machinery manu- 
facturing company at Cincinnati, Ohio ; and 
John, a farmer in the vicinity of Logansport, 
Indiana. 

Harvey S. Waterbury received a limited 
education in the public schools of Burnetts- 
ville, Indiana, and when he was sixteen years 
of age he left the home of his guardian, after 
which he worked for farmers in the neigh- 
borhood until he had attained to his legal 
majority. At the age of twenty-one years he 
came to Nebraska and located in Howard 
county, where he found employijient b^ the 
month, as a farm hand. About one year 
later, July 12, 1880, Mr. Waterbury came to 
Custer county and took up a homestead, his 
first -vote being cast that fall, for James A. 
Garfield for president. In 1881 he further 
strengthened his position by forming a home 
of his own — through his marriage to Miss 
Carrie Sigoumey, who was born near San- 
dusky, (Jhio. Seven children came to this 
union, of whom six are living : Louie, who is 
the wife of Charles Betts, a fanner of Chap- 
pell, Nebraska; Jessie, who is the wife of 
Charles Wolford, a very successful jeweler at 
Gothenburg, Nebraska ; Ray, who is in busi- 
ness at Litchfield, this state, the maiden name 
of his wife having been Mayme Garnett ; 



Lottie who is the wife of W. L. McCandless, 
cashier of the Berwyn State Bank ; Harvey, 
who is his father's associate in the store busi- 
ness, and who married Ada Stark ; and Veva 
Ruth, who is the wife of L. G. DeValt, con- 
nected with the State Bank of Berwyn. 

In 1894, after about fourteen years of suc- 
cessful farming operations, Mr. Waterbury 
turned his attention to mercantile lines, and 
during the period that has followed he has 
built up a large, representative and lucrative 
business. He has also' been interested in a 
blacksmithing business, and in each avenue of 
activity his abilities have served to bring him 
a full meed of prosperity. He bears the 
reputation of being a man of the strictest in- 
tegrity, and this is evidenced by the confidence 
in which he is held by his associates and the 
public in general. A Republican in his politi- 
cal sympathies, he has always taken an interest 
in public matters, and has rendered his com- 
munity valuable service in the offices of clerk 
and assessor. He belongs to the Independent 
.Order of Odd Fellows, and has not only been 
through the chairs of the local lodge but also 
those of the grand lodge, at Broken Bow. 
Both his sons are Masons, Ray liaving re- 
ceived the thirty-second degree of the Scot- 
tish Rite. Mr. Waterbury and the members 
of his family belong to the Methodist Episco- 
pal church, and all have been earnest and 
generous supporters of all movements which 
have been made for better citizenship, better 
morality, and better education. 



NORMAN E. BOYD is one of the pushing, 
energetic, and enterprising business men of 
Broken Bow, where he has built up a prosper- 
ous trade in the automobile-repair and general 
electrical business. Born in Dewitt county, 
Illinois, February 13, 1881, he is a son of 
Frank and Minerva (Waller) Boyd, and a 
grandson of David Boyd. Frank Boyd was 
an Illinois farmer until 1905, when he dis- 
posed of his interests in that state and came 
to Broken Bow, where he was variously em- 
ployed for five years, then entering the city 
waterworks department, with which he has 
been identified for eight years. Mrs. Boyd 
died in Missouri, in 1896, leaving only one 
son, the subject of this review. 

Norman E. Boyd was educated in the pub- 
lic schools of Illinois, and as a youth was en- 
gaged principally in assisting his father on the 
home farm. However, he had a natural bent 
toward mechanics and gradually mastered the 
trade of electrician, to which he devoted his 
attention for some years as a journeyman, 
both in Illinois and after coming to Custer 



524 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



county. Realizing the opportunities offered 
by the growing automobile business, with 
Harry Hildebrandt as a partner, he estab- 
lished himself in business at Eighth and K 
Streets. Broken Bow, where he does a gen- 
eral automobile electrical-repair business, a 
special feature of which is the vulcanizing of 
old automobile tire casings, which process 
prolongs their life thousands of miles. He 
n.ms a battery, as a Willard service station, 
and now has an excellent patronage, not only 
among the people of Broken Bow but also 
among those who visit from other parts of 
the state, his accurate and expeditious work- 
manship and his natural courtesy and consid- 
eration having combined to make customers 
as well as friends. At the time of this writ- 
ing Mr. Boyd's partner, Air. Hildebrandt, is 
in the army, at Fort Funston, but retains his 
interest in the business. 

Mr. Boyd was married in August, 1904, at 
Broken Bow, to Miss Minnie Boots, daughter 
of C. S. Boots, a Custer county farmer, and 
she died December 8, 1913, leaving two chil- 
dren : Frank and Iva K., who are attending 
the Broken Bow public schools. Mr. Boyd 
was again married, March 2, 1914, when he 
wedded Miss Mattie Gross, daughter of 
Charles and Mary (Gumi) Gross. Two chil- 
dren have been born to them: Paul and 
Lillian. Mr. and Mrs. Boyd are members of 
the Methodist Episcopal church. 



WILLIAM C. SCHAPER. — While he is 
one of the younger members of the legal fra- 
ternity of Broken Bow, the fact of his youth 
seems in no way to have affected the success 
of William C. Schaper, who is already ac- 
counted one of the rapidly rising attorneys of 
Custer county. Experiences have been nu- 
merous and varied in the life of Mr. Schaper, 
who was born October 4, 1890, at Mason City, 
Nebraska, a son of Henry E. and Louisa 
(Trobbe) Schaper, and a grandson of Chris 
Schaper. 

Henry E. Schaper was born near Hanover, 
Germany, and came to the LTnited States as a 
lad of fourteen years, locating at DeWitt, Ne- 
braska. In 1888 he homesteaded southwest of 
Mason City, and in 1902 he went to Mason 
City, where he established himself in a mer- 
cantile business. There his career was 
rounded out. He was an Odd Fellow, was a 
Democrat in political belief, and he and Mrs. 
Schaper, who was born at Malvern, Iowa, 
were members of the Piaptist church. Will- 
iam C. Schai)er spent his boyhood on the home 
farm, and his first money was earned by 
jjitching hay for a neighbor. He has a keen 



recollection of how they praised his eftorts, 
how his boyish pride caused him to outdo 
himself in the work accomplished, and how his 
strenuous labors incapacitated him for further 
work for a week. He attended the country 
schools until he was twelve years of age, at 
which time his father moved to Mason City, 
and there the youth divided his time between 
clerking in his father's store and going to the 
public school. However, he did not feel that 
he was getting proper educational advantages, 
and when he was sixteen years of age he ran 
away from home and went to Grand Island. 
He arrived at his destination with just twelve 
cents in his pocket, but, nothing daunted, 
sought and found work, and he was able to 
make his way through school by laboring in- 
dustriously as a clerk in a shoe store, waiting 
on tables in a restaurant, and whatever other 
honorable employment presented itself or that 
he could ferret out. During the second year, 
Mr. Schaper secured a pass on a hog train 
going through to Seattle, Washington, a trip 
on which he was accompanied by a chum, 
Emory Runyan. The men in charge of the 
stock became drunk and remained so during 
the entire trip, and the two youths were not 
only conipelled to unload the hogs at Alliance, 
Billings, and Spokane, but had to carry the 
feed from the cars to the stock yard, because 
of the fear of being left afoot and alone a 
long way from home. On reaching Spokane, 
young Runyan stopped off to see an uncle, 
but Mr. Schaper went on to Seattle, where he 
received a pass back as far as Billings. There 
he worked a week, earning just enough money 
to buy from a traveler a pass to Broken Bow, 
and after going two days without food he 
was extremely glad to get back to Custer 
county. He again began working his way 
through school and eventually finished a five- 
year course at Grand Island, during which 
time he attended two inter-collegiate oratorical 
meets, one at Orleans and one at Hastings, 
as a member of the staff of the Volant, the 
college newsi)aper, with which he was con- 
nected actively during the greater part of his 
college career. In the tall of 1911 Mr. 
Schaper entered the Nebraska State Univer- 
sity, at Lincoln, where he took the full course 
in the law department and was graduated 
June 10, 1914, with his degree of Bachelor of 
Laws. He was admitted to the bar by the 
supreme court on the day of his graduation 
;ind to the federal courts on the same day. 

( )nc week after his graduation Mr. Schaper 
was married, at Wahoo, Nebraska, to Shirley 
M. Shires, a daughter of Millard Shires, and 
started for his home town of Mason City, 
where he arrived without a dollar. He en- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



525 



gaged in the practice of law there and was 
soon in sound financial circumstances, con- 
tinuing at Mason City until October, 1916, 
when he came to Broken Bow. Here he has 
since carried on a general practice and has 
steadily advanced in patronage, in public con- 
fidence and in the ranks of his calling. He has 
been connected with much important litiga- 
tion, and his success in several prominent 
cases has demonstrated his possession of 
marked talents. He belongs to the various 
organizations of his profession, is an active 
member of the Pul>lic Service Club, and is a 
Woodman, a Royal Highlander, a Mason, and 
a Shrin'er. His political inclinations cause 
him to stipport the Democratic party, and he 
and Mrs. Schaper hold membership in the 
Baptist church. They are the parents of two 
children : Carlos E- and Lucile. 



DEWITT BOWLEY. — Among the young 
men of moral and material worth whose ener- 
getic labors are contributing to the business 
prestige of Broken Bow, one who is making 
rapid progress in the commercial world is 
Dewitt Bowie)', who for several years has 
been the proprietor of a furniture business 
and also has other interests. He was born at 
New Helena, Nebraska, October 21, 1890, and 
is a son of William O. and Minerva (Hud- 
dleston) Bowley. 

William O. Bowley was bom in West Vir- 
ginia and was an early immigrant to Custer 
county, settling in the vicinity of New Helena, 
where he established a home among the pio- 
neers. He was a man of small capital when 
he came and this was soon swallowed up, his 
early experiences and those of his wife, par- 
ticularly during the hard winter of 1880 and 
spring of 1881, including all the hardships and 
privations coincident with pioneer life on the 
western plains. He was compelled to haul 
his necessities of life from Grand Island and 
Kearney, and his wheat was laboriously 
ground in a cofYee-mill, but his was the kind 
of courage that but grows stronger under ad- 
versity, and eventually he became one of the 
coimty's successful men and accumulated a 
large amount of property. He died, highly 
respected, April 6, 1913, at Anselmo, and his 
widow is now a resident of ^Merna, this 
county. There were six children in the fam- 
ily, as follows : James, the owner of two 
farms near Sargent, married Grace Rtish, and 
has three sons and two daughters : Gallic is a 
farmer and stock-raiser near New Helena, and 
his wife is Josie, whose parents were from 
Virginia ; John, who is engaged in farming 
and stock-raising on the old homestead, near 



New Helena, married Ethel Smith, a daughter 
of Moses Smith, and has had three daughters ; 
Oscar, who is a Custer county farmer, mar- 
ried Ora Flemmings and they have five daugh- 
ters and one son ; Annie is the wife of Bert 
Garrison, a farmer near New Helena, and they 
have two daughters and one son ; and Dewitt 
is the subject of this sketch. 

Dewitt Bowley attended the public schools 
in the vicinity of his home, and divided his 
boyhood and youth between working on the 
home place, for his brothers, or on the farms 
of the neighbors. He remained on the home 
farm until he reached his majority, at which 
time he entered tipon his own career, his en- • 
ergies for a time being devoted to farming. 
In 1915, however, he became proprietor of a 
furniture business, which he has since built up 
to satisfying proportions, and in connection 
therewith he is conducting a rooming house. 
He is one of the alert and progressive young 
men of Broken Bow and is bringing himself 
rapidly forward by the exercise of industry 
and good management. 

Mr. Bowley was married Jime 3, 1914, at 
Broken Bow, to Miss Grace Pemie, daughter 
of David and Eva (Albertson) Pernie, who 
for some years were engaged in agricultural 
pursuits near Anselmo but are now living in 
retirement at Broken Bow. Mr. Pernie is a 
member of the Odd Fellows lodge and is a 
Republican in his political views. He and his 
wife had seven children : Blanche, Clark, 
Grace, Ethel, Myrtle, Lucille, Eva, and Will- 
iam. Mr. and Mrs. Bowley are the parents 
of one son, William, bom in 1915. 

Fraternally, Mr. Bowley is affiliated with 
the Modern Brotherhood of America, in 
which he has numerous friends. He main- 
tains an independent stand upon poltitical 
questions. 



FRANK DEVINE, who was born in 
1872, is a son of John A. and Bridget A. 
( Shaqj ) Devine, very excellent people, of 
Irish extraction, who have given to this cmm- 
try the splendid contribution of their life ef- 
fort and a family of children who are nu- 
merated among our best citizens. In the family 
of John A. Devine were eight children : 
Charles,- the first son, lives in Illinois; the sec- 
ond son is Frank, the subject of this sketch ; 
the third. James, is a banker and prominent 
citizen of Oconto, Custer county; Joseph, the 
fourth born, is a young farmer living with his 
mother and his brother Frank on the home 
place, where he assists in the farming opera- 
tions : John, the youngest son, is a dentist by 
profession and is living at Cheyenne, Wyom- 



526 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



ing; Martha is the widow of Joseph P. Berry 
and maintains her residence at Oconto, this 
county: Anna is the wife of James Noon, of 
JoHet, lUinois ; and Mary, who has been popu- 
lar and successful as a school teacher, resides 
at the old home, with her mother and two 
brothers. 

As indicated above, Frank and Joseph De- 
vine and their mother live on the old home 
place, and here the father died about nine 
years ago. The brothers are doing a general 
farming and stock-raising business, to which 
they devote the most of their time. They 
are energetic men of good judgment and of 
^that business ability which insures success to 
every venture they undertake. 

They have been very patriotic and ardent 
supporters of the government in the crisis en- 
tailed by the great world war. They re- 
sponded liberally to every call and were glad 
to render whatever assistance lay in their 
power. 

They are members of the Knights of Colum- 
bus, and to the splendid war work done by 
this organization, as well as the Red Cross 
and the Young Men's Christian Association, 
they have made their contributions. They 
are also substantial supporting members of the 
Catholic church. 



MRS. ALBERT GUNDY. — Several of 
the valuable and highly improved farms of 
Custer county are owned and operated by 
women, and most of these are widows of for- 
mer agriculturists, while most of them be- 
came well versetl in the science of tilling the 
soil by reason of basing assisted their respec- 
tive husbands during their years of indus- 
trious labor. Under this classification is to be 
placed Mrs. Gundy, whose farm, six miles 
soiuheast of Broken Bow, comprises a tract 
of 160 acres, with good improvements. This 
property is owned by Mrs. Gundy, who has 
resided here for more than nine years. 

The late Albert Gundy was born near the 
city of Berlin, Germany, September 25, 1832, 
and was a son of Frederick and Minnie 
Gundy, who brought their family to the 
United States in 1839 and settled in Ohio. 
Later they went to Illinois, where they en- 
gaged in agricultural pursuits, and where both 
parents jjassed away in the faith of the Luth- 
eran church. They gave three sons to the 
Union cause during the Civil war — Fred, 
William, and Ed., the first-named of whom 
fell on the battlefield of (Gettysburg. 

.Vlbert (jundy received his education in the 
public schools of (Jhio, and as a young man 
he engaged in independent farming operations 



in Illinois. He was an industrious man, with 
good, practical ideas, and did not lack the 
courage to adopt modern methods, so that he 
made a success of his operations. In 1892 he 
moved to Iowa, where he had just begun to 
repeat his Illinois success when he was called 
by death, April 22, 1894. Following his de- 
mise Mrs. Gundy disposed of the home farm 
in Iowa and came to Custer county, where she 
j)urchased 160 acres of land six miles south- 
east of Broken Bow, this place being her pres- 
ent home. Here she has develoi)ed a splen- 
did fami, one of the most valuable in this 
part of the county, with substantial buildings 
and modern improvements of every character. 
She has numerous friends in the communit)', 
attracted to her by her many fine qualities of 
mind and heart, and she belongs to the Cath- 
olic church, attending services at St. Joseph's 
church. Broken Bow. 

Mrs. Gundy, who married Mr. Gundy in 
1869, bore the maiden name of Mary Lerette, 
and she was born in Illinois, a daughter of 
Louis and Eliza (Delill) Lerette, the former 
a native of France and the latter of Canada. 
There were eleven children in the Lerette 
family, of whom four survive — Mrs. Cather- 
ine Jones, of Chicago; Mrs. Margaret Fin- 
gure, of Joilet, Illinois ; Nicholas, a retired 
farmer of Hancock, Iowa: and Mrs. Gundy. 
( )f the thirteen children Ijorn to Mr. and Mrs. 
Gundy, ten attained to maturity : Henr}-, an 
Iowa farmer: Jessie, deceased wife of Louis 
Range, of Joliet, Illinois : Frank, farming in 
Custer county: Fred, a mail carrier at Min- 
den, Iowa: May, the wife of \Vill Booth, a 
farmer near Broken Bow : Maggie, the wife of 
George Allard, proprietor of a garage at 
Crookston, Nebraska : Kate, the wife of Frank 
Coulter, of Custer county : Lewis, a carpenter 
of Lincoln: Lucy, the wife of James Roucis, 
a railroad man of Lincoln ; and .Vndrew and 
George, at home, and assisting their mother in 
conducting the home farm. 



HENRY SWEENEY. — In this brief 
memoir is given the life record of one of Cus- 
ter county's early settlers — a man who con- 
tributed his full share to the upbuilding of his 
community. 

Henry Sweeney was born in Roscommon 
county, Ireland, and when a young man of 
about eighteen years, having heard favorab'e 
reports concerning the opportunities to be 
found in .America, he left his native land, and 
came to the L^nited States, where he first 
found em])loyment in New Jersey. It seems 
that he was not disappointed in the jjrospects 
which confronted him, for he sent for his par- 



I 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



527 



ents and had them join him, he making^ a home 
for them as long as they lived. They were 
Thomas and Ellen (Henry) Sweeney, and 
both passed away in New Jersey. 

Henry Sweeney then went further west, 
and in Livingston county, Illinois, he estab- 
lished a home. There he married Bridget 
Harvey, who was born in County Leitrim, Ire- 
land, August 24, 1840, a daughter of Daniel 
and Catherine (McGuire) Harvey, both of 
whom lived and died in their native land. 
Bridget Harvey was a girl of sixteen years 
when she came to America, with friends and 
neighbors who settled at Dwiglit, Illinois, 
where she met her future husband. The young 
couple continued to reside in Illinois until 
1886, when they came to Custer county, Ne- 
braska, and located in section 16, township 18, 
range 22. This being school land, it was not 
open for settlement, but Mr. Sweeney pur- 
chased 480 acres of it as soon as it was on the 
market for sale. Pioneer conditions were still 
in evidence on every hand, and a sod house 
served as the family home for many years. In 
1908 Mr. Sweeney made arrangements to pro- 
vide better quarters for the family, and the 
large frame house which adorns the place was 
erected that year. But the husband and 
father was not long permitted to enjoy the 
new home, as he was called from the scene of 
earthly activities in November of that year. 
His widow still makes her home on the old 
farm and is one of the Custer county pioneer 
women who shared in its pioneer hardships 
and who has been spared to view the changes 
that have taken place and share in the joys 
and pleasures of the present day. She became 
the mother of ten children : Thomas met ac- 
cidental death at the age of nineteen years, in 
a sand bank caving at Ulysses. Nebraska ; Cath- 
erine is the wife of Owen Gray, of Seward 
Nebraska ; Harry is married and resides in 
Wyoming ; George is a farmer of Custer 
county ; Alice died at the age of four years 
and seven months; Arthur is a resident of 
Anselmo ; Amrose resides at Merna ; Ann is 
the wife of James D. McCarty ; William lives 
at Merna ; and Edward J. owns and operates 
the old home farm. The family are com- 
municants of the Catholic church and are 
held in the highest respect. , 



JAMES FARRITOR. — Among the pio- 
neers of Custer county who still reside within 
its borders mention should be made of James 
Farritor, who for thirty-eight years has been 
a resident of the county. 

Mr. Farritor is a native of the Emerald 
Isle, born in County Kerry, Ireland, May 25, 



1834. He was a babe in arms, only five weeks 
old, when his parents, John and Nora ( Fitz- 
gerald) Farritor emigrated from Ireland to 
the United States. They first settled in Bos- 
ton, later living at Worcester, Massachusetts, 
then in Connecticut, and from the latter state 
they removed to Tioga county, Pennsylvania, 
where they spent the remainder of their lives. 
James Farritor spent his boyhood days in 
the different places where his parents lived and 
when a young man he became a coal miner. He 
was still a young man when he went to 
Streator, Illinois, where he follov/ed mining 
until 1880. In that year he came to Nebraska 
and secured a homestead on Victoria creek, 
Custer county. But few families were to be 
found in the county when he took up his resi- 
dence here, and the work of development had 
only been begun. He built a sod house, be- 
gan the task of conquering the wilderness, and 
in due time was planting and harvesting. Here 
he followed agricultural pursuits for many 
years. In the early days Kearney was the 
nearest trading and milling point, and Mr. 
Farritor made many trips there to get wheat 
ground and to secure provisions for the fam- 

At Elmira, New York, Mr. Farritor was 
united in marriage to Miss Ann McDonald, 
a native of Ireland, and she became one of 
Custer county's noble pioneer women. They 
became the parents of five children, as fol- 
lows : The firstborn, a daughter, is now a 
Sister of Charity in a Catholic convent in 
Kansas: Mrs. H. G. Clark, Mrs. Joseph Moro- 
ney ; and Mrs. Homer Hickman all reside in 
Custer county ; and Julia, is deceased. 

Mr. Farritor makes his home with Mr. and 
Mrs. Joseph Moroney, his wife having passed 
away. He is one of the venerable pioneers of 
Custer county and has reached the age of 
eighty-four years. He has been an eye-wit- 
ness of the vast changes that have taken 
place in this section of Nebraska, and delights 
in recounting the experiences of those early 
days. 



EDWARD J. SWEENEY. — The subject 
of this record is a worthy representative of the 
agricultural interests of Custer county, within 
whose borders he has resided since he was 
five years of age. 

Edward James Sweeney was born in But- 
ler county, Nebraska. March 16, 1880, and is 
a son of Henry and Bridget (Harvey) Swee- 
ney, a record of whom appears on other pages 
of this volume. Reared on the farin, he wise- 
ly chose as a vocation the occupation with 
which he was familiar, and he is to-day the 



528 



HISTdRV OF CUSTER CUL-XTV, NEBRASKA 



owner of 320 acres of the old home place. It 
is one of the best improved fannsteads in the 
township, the buildings having been put here 
by his honored father. 

Mr. Sweeney married Miss Delia Kaelm, a 
native of Custer county, and they are the 
proud parents of twin children, a boy and a 
girl, named Helen Eileen, and Henr\' Edward. 

The family are members of the Catholic 
church and Mr. Sweeney votes the Democratic 
ticket. He is a progressive and up-to-date 
farmer, as well as a representative of one of 
the early families of Custer count v. 



GEORGE W. TRUEMAN is consistently 
given pioneer honors in Custer county, within 
whose borders he has maintained his resi- 
dence for more than thirty years. He re- 
claimed and developed one of the excellent 
farms of the county and as an energetic and 
progressive business man he is now manager 
of the general merchandise store at George- 
town, w-here he also holds the office of post- 
master. 

Mr. Tnieman was lx)rn in Pennsylvania, 
in the year 1S57, and is a son of John George 
Trueman and Caroline (Coleman) Trueman, 
who were folk of sterling character and who 
reared their children in such a way as ad- 
mirably to fit them for the duties and respon- 
sibilities of later years. Of the four children 
the following brief record may consistently be 
entered : David L. is a resident of Camus 
Valley, Oregon ; Martha is the wife of Will- 
iam Rollins and they reside on their fami 
north of Sumner, Dawson county ; George W., 
of this review, was the next in order of birth : 
and William lives in Dawson county. 

George W. Trueman acquired his early 
education in his native state and supplemented 
this by attending school after the family re- 
moval to Illinois, in which latter state he was 
reared to adult age. He continued his resi- 
dence in Illinois until 1886, when he came with 
his family to Nebraska and established his 
permanent home in Custer county. Here he 
entered claim to a homestead of 160 acres, and 
in its development, improvement, and diversi- 
fied activities he showed characteristic energy, 
thrift, and good judgment, with the result 
that he made the property one of the well 
equipped and valuable farms of the county. 
That the homestead was recently sold for 
$4,000 gives tangible evidence of the fact that 
the property had received the best of manage- 
ment on the part of Mr. Trueman, who had 
incidentally made a record for vigorous and 
effective enterprise in connection with agri- 
cultural and live-stock industry. He now has 



full charge of the general store of George- 
town, as representative of the owner, H. S. 
Clouse. In his present field of enterprise he 
is meeting with the same gratifying success 
that attended his activities as a farmer, the 
while his personal hold upon popular confi- 
dence and esteem inures to the success of 
the business with which he is now identified. 
In politics Mr. Truenian upholds the basic 
principles for which the Republican party 
stands sponsor, but he is not constrained by 
partisan dictates to the extent of feeling it 
necessary to vote for candidates who do not 
appeal to his judgment, even if they are ad- 
vanced by his own party. He holds member- 
ship in the Christian church, of which his wife 
likewise was a devoted adherent, her death 
having occurred in 1897. 

The year 1882 recorded the marriage of 
Mr. Trueman to Miss Mary Helen Hope, and 
the four children of this union are living: 
Carrie is the wife of Byron Morgan, of Cus- 
ter county; John William conducts a garage 
and blacksmith shop at Cumro, this county ; 
Martha is the wife of Dell ^^lason, their home 
being in Custer county : and Arthur S. resides 
at Fort Collins, Colorado. 



JOHN TEAHON. — As we write of the 
early settlers of Custer county, giving each 
his meed of praise, the name of John Teahon 
should have a place in the front rank. 

John Teahon is a native of the Emerald 
Isle, born in County Kerry, Ireland, where 
the days of ■ his boyhood and youth were 
passed. In 1880, when a young man of 
twenty-one years, he came to America, and 
for one year he resided in Halifax. In 1881 
he came west to Nebraska, and in the month 
of July, 1882, he drove a team and wagon to 
Custer county, where he pre-empted the 
northwest quarter of section 17, township 18, 
range 22. When asked if "Uncle Sam" had 
made any improvements, Mr. Teahon an- 
swered as only an Irishman could do, "No, 
that was left for your Uncle John to do." 

Not a house was in sight in the valley on 
the west, and North Platte and Kearney were 
the nearest trading points when Mr. Teahon 
took up l^s residence here. He shared in all 
the trials and hardships of the pioneer days, 
but has been faithful to duty and has con- 
tributed his share toward the betterment of 
conditions. 

.\t Milford, Massachusetts, Mr. Teahon 
married Miss Mar\' Ellen Teahon, a native 
of that place, and following is a brief record 
concerning their children : Mar\- E. and 
Lizzie were given special advantages in busi- 



J 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



529 



ness education, the former taking first prize 
in a contest given by the Remington Type- 
writer Company, and she now has a position 
at Grand Island, while her sister holds a 
similar position in Montana ; Ella, John, Jr., 
William, Michael, and Maurice are all at 
home. The family are members of the 
Catholic church. When asked his political 
views, Mr. Teahon replied, "Put it in your 
book just as I tell it," and, pointing to a knoll 
where he slept under a wagon the first night 
after he came here, he said, "I have never 
missed an election and never voted a straight 
ticket." 

Mr. Teahon has rendered valuable aid in 
promoting those measures that have had to do 
with the upbuilding of his part of the county. 
He is a friend of the publi: school and has 
always advocated the employment of efficient 
instructors, realizing that the boys and girls 
of to-day are to be the men and women of 
the future. He gave his time and influence 
to help establish rural free delivery in his 
community, sacrificed his own convenience to 
benefit the majority, and did all in his power 
to make possible the present system of parcel 
post service. 

Mr. Teahon is possessed of an unusual 
amount of real Irish wit, is genial and opti- 
mistic, is well posted on current events, and 
is a fluent conversationalist. He is the 
owner of 240 acres of land, and what he has 
achieved is the result of his own and his fam- 
ily's hard work and good judgment. 

Patrick and Elizabeth (O'Donohue) Tea- 
hon, parents of the subject of this sketch, 
were sent for by their son, and they spent 
their last days with their children in Custer 
county. 



EDWIN A. BUTLER, a veteran business 
man of Ansley, who has constantly been con- 
nected with the mercantile interests of this 
place for thirty-twO' years, is accounted one of 
his community's progressive citizens and a 
prominent factor in the automobile industry 
as represented in Custer county. He entered 
his present business, as proprietor of a 
garage, after a quarter of a century's connec- 
tion with the implement trade, and in his 
present field of endeavor he has equaled and 
added to the reputation which he gained in 
his former line. 

Edwin Adams Butler was born on a farm 
in Knox county, Illinois, Augu.st 31, 1859. a 
son of Matthew and Louisa (Drake) Butler. 
His father, a natiVe.-of Gardner, Maine, went 
as a young man to Ohio, where he was united 
in marriage with Miss Louisa Drake, who 



was born in the city of Cincinnati, and shortly 
after their union they moved to Illinois. 
There Mr. Butler was able to purchase good 
government land for one dollar and twenty- 
five cents an acre, and on the home farm in 
Illinois Mrs. Butler passed away in 1862. 
Her husband continued to follow farming 
there with success until 1878, when he came 
to Seward, Nebraska, and bought land at 
seven dollars an acre. He became the owner 
of valuable farming land and much town 
property, and at the time of his death, which 
occurred in 1898, he was accounted one of his 
county's well-to-do citizens. He was a Re- 
publican in his political affiliation and wielded 
some influence in party circles, and his re- 
ligious connection was with the Congrega- 
tional church. He and Mrs. Butler were rep- 
resentative of the best element in community 
life. They were parents of si.x children: 
Samuel, who is a well known realty operator 
of Lincoln. Nebraska ; Allen, who is engaged 
in the jewelry business at Ansley, Custer 
county ; Edwin A., whose name introduces 
this sketch ; and three who are deceased. 

Edwin A. Butler received his early educa- 
tion in the public and district schools of Illi- 
nois, and when he was nineteen years of age 
he accompanied his father to Seward, Ne- 
braska, where he gained his first knowledge 
of the implement business. For four or five 
years he was engaged in that business on his 
own account, at Seward, but in 1886 he re- 
moved to Ansley, where he established the 
business that he conducted for twenty-five 
years, with constantly increasing success. 
Mr. Butler displayed excellent ability in the 
handling of his afTairs. which placed him 
among the town's leading business citizens, 
and in addition to this he traveled for six 
years for the International Harvester Com- 
pany, in selling its widely known products. 
In 1913, recognizing an opportunity, he 
opened a modern garage at Ansley, and began 
doing a large business, not only with the 
automobilists of Ansley and the surrounding 
towns and countryside, but also with those 
traveling through this region from distant 
points. From the start he has handled Ford 
cars and various accessories, in addition to 
which he has done a large business in general 
repairing. By 1917 his business had grown 
to such proportions that he was obliged to 
secure larger quarters and better accommoda- 
tions, and accordingly he built his present 
establishment, a building, modern in every 
wav, and fifty by forty feet in dimensions. 
Mr. Butler is a man of the highest and 
strictest integrity — one whose reputation for 
soliditv and sterling character has been built 



530 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



531 



up through years of straightforward business 
transactions. He is a member of the Masonic 
fraternity, the Odd Fellows, and the Modern 
Woodmen, is a Republican in politics, and has 
served efficiently and conscientiously as a 
member of the town board. 

In 1882 Mr. Butler married Miss Clara 
Anderson, who was born in Pennsylvania, a 
daughter of Lewis Anderson, who settled, at 
a very early date, in Seward county, Ne- 
braska, where he was a very successful 
farmer, and at his death left a handsome 
estate. Five children were born to J\Ir. and 
Mrs. Butler, namely: Alice, who is the wife 
of Charles Chandler, engaged in the drug 
business at Ansley ; Grace, who is the wife 
of Fred Maulick, engaged in the meat-market 
business at this place; Delia, who is the wife 
of Ray Lockhart, of Broken Bow, who en- 
tered the United States army in June, 1918; 
Harry, who is engaged in the automobile 
business with his father, and is a thirty- 
second degree Mason ; and Edwin, who resides 
with his parents and attends school. Mrs. 
Butler is a consistent member of the Method- 
ist Episcopal church. 



JOHN STA.\B. — The financial stability 
and personal influence of John Staab. one of 
the foremost farmers and large landholders 
of Custer county, are the result of patient ap- 
plication to merchandising and farming, pru- 
dent investments, and industry and persever- 
ence in whatever undertakings have occupied 
his attention, Mr. Staab was born in Dane 
county, Wisconsin. June 11. 1859, and is a son 
of Liborius and Louisa Pauline (Marold) 
Staab, both natives of Germany. 

The parents of ^Ir. Staab were both young 
people when they immigrated to the United 
States, and they met and were married in 
Dane county. Wisconsin. In his native land 
the father had been a cabinetmaker, and in 
Wisconsin he followed carpentry and baking 
as occupations, but in 1870 he came to Platte 
county, Nebraska, where he secured a home- 
stead and engaged in farming, a vocation 
which he followed during the rest of his life. 
He was a suc:essful, self-made man and had 
the esteem and regard of his associates and 
neighbors in each of the communities in which 
he lived. He was reared as a Catholic, but 
later adopted the faith of the Lutheran church. 
Mr. and Mrs. Staab were the parents of nine 
children, of whom seven are living: Charles, 
who is living retired in the state of Washing- 
ton ; John, who is the suljject of this sketch; 
Adam, who is a ranchman of Cherrv countv. 



Nebraska ; Louis, who conducts a meat market 
at Chicago, Illinois ; Will, who is a dairyman 
in the state of Washington ; Theodore, who is 
a turner by trade and at present employed at 
Chicago ; and Otto, who drew a section of land 
in .\rthur county, Nebraska, and has since pur- 
chased a like acreage. 

The educational advantages of John Staab 
were limited in his youth to attendance at dis- 
trict schools of Dane county, Wisconsin, and 
Platte county, Nebraska, during three months 
of the year, and in the latter state he was 
forced to travel twelve miles to attend school. 
However, he has done much to educate him- 
self, having been a close observer and a great 
reader, and he is now well informed in regard 
to a wide range of important subjects. As a 
youth he secured a position clerking in a gen- 
eral store at Columbus, Nebraska, and sub- 
sequently he ran a herd of cattle and hauled 
freight for a distance of twenty-six miles, his 
various activities combining to give his a start 
in life. His first property was secured in 
Platte county, when he traded a pair of ponies 
for a tra:t of eighty acres of land, and later he 
engaged in the general-store business at Lee, 
Nebraska, where he made a success of his un- 
dertaking, by reason of his ability and good 
management. In 1895 he secured another 
Platte county farm, on which he installed his 
family, and in 1898 he disposed of his store 
business at Lee, increasing his Platte county 
holdings to 200 acres and living on his farm 
there for about five years more. In 1903 Mr. 
Staab came to Custer county and bought 1.480 
acres of land, and he gave his supervision to 
this property for another year before he re- 
turned to Platte county, where he sold his 
property, after which he brought his family 
back to Custer coimty. Here he has since re- 
sided and here he later added eighty acres 
to his holdings. There were no improvements 
on the Custer county property at the time of 
his arrival, but he at once began building op- 
erations, and he now has six complete sets of 
buildings, including residences, barns, and 
other structures. His sons now own their own 
places — land their father bought when he 
came here — and are doing well. Mr. Staab 
has always carried on general farming and has 
engaged in stock-raising, and his operations 
have been uniformly successful. A man of 
varied interests and keen and active mind, he 
has been more or less prominent in public af- 
fairs. In early life he was a Democrat, leav- 
ing that party to join the Populist movement 
and subsequently returning to the Democratic 
organization. At this time he is greatly inter- 
ested in the work of the Non-Partisan League. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTV. NEBRASKA 



While' residing at Lee., he was for a number 
of years a trustee of that town and was town- 
ship clerk of Sherman township in Platte 
county. Since coming to Custer county he has 
been chairman of the township board of Ber- 
wyn town several years and a member of the 
school board during a long period. His offi- 
cial record is one which has been characterized 
by conscientious attention to duty and the 
same kind of energy and intelligent direction 
of affairs tliat have been noted in the handling 
of his j)ersonal enterprises. 

In 1882 Mr. Staab married Miss Elizabeth 
Mayer, who was born in Schuylkill county. 
Pennsylvania, a daughter of Enoch and Rachel 
(Yoder) Mayer, the former born in 1831, in 
Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, and 
the latter in 1838. in Schuylkill county, that 
state. The marriage of the parents was sol- 
emnized in the Keystone state, and in 1868 thev 
removed to Iowa, where Mr. Mayer purchased 
a homestead. He continued operations thereon 
until 1908, when he removed to Tipton, Iowa, 
and since then he has lived in retirement and 
in the devoted companionship of his wife. He 
is a son of John Mayer, a native of Pennsyl- 
vania. Mr. Mayer is a Democrat, and he and 
his wife are members of the German Reformed 
church. Their eight children are all living, 
but Mrs. Staab is the only one residing in Ne- 
braska. 

Mr. and Mrs. Staab are the parents of 
twelve children: John E.. of Anslev : Aaron 
Clark, farming near his father's home ; Anna, 
the wife of Harry J. Newman, a farmer at 
Guelph, North Dakota ; George Enoch, farm- 
ing near his father's home ; Ida. the wife of 
Wesley Harris, operating one of Mr. Staab's 
farms : .Arthur L.. farming near his father's 
property: Madia A., the wife of Ray Hawk. 
a farmer near .Ansley ; \\'alter. his father's as- 
sistant on the home farm; and Reuben. Irena. 
Carlisle, and Zelma. all at home. The family 
belongs to the Baptist church. 



ARCHIE L. LOWRY. — One of the new- 
comers who constitutes a valuable asset and 
has made Custer county the benefactor by his 
advance is Archie L. Lowry, who is a native 
of Hall county, Nebraska, in which county he 
was bom September 4, 1884. He is a son of 
Clarence N. and Maggie (Dufford) I<owr}-. 
The father was bom in Indiana, but the 
mother comes from the rugged hills of Penn- 
sylvania. The father came to Nebraska when 
but seven years of age, with his widowed 
mother, and they made a home near Peru. 
Nemaha countv. In 1871 thev moved to Hall 



county and settled near Doniphan, where the 
mother still resides. 

Archie L. Lowr}- is a member of a fam- 
ily of seven children, and has two brothers 
and four sisters. Robert and Roland are sub- 
stantial Hall county fanners. Delia is the 
wife of M. J. Meserall. of Doniphan. Of the 
other children it may be recorded that Nettie 
is the wife of Thomas Herr, of Doniphan; 
Gertrude is the wife of Vem Crawford. 

Archie L. Lowry was united in marriage, 
April 9, 1905, to Eva Gray, a fine young 
woman of Hall county, she being a daughter 
of Eugene and Ella ( Hudson ) Gray. Mr. 
and Mrs. Lown*- have two children, Malcolm 
and Eva Jean, bright youngsters who con- 
tribute to the joy and satisfaction of the home. 

^Ir. and Mrs. Lowry came to Custer county 
in 1914 and bought land in section 25, town- 
ship 20, range 21, north, and they are now the 
owners of 400 good acres, on which are fair 
buildings, a good farm home and everything 
to indicate without announcement that the 
owner is one of the prosperous farmers and 
ranchmen of the county. 

In politics Mr. Lowry is a Republican, and 
fraternally he is a Mason and an Odd Fellow. 
Custer county has room for and can afford to 
pay a premium for more families like the 
Lowrys. 



ENNIS SCOTT. — Custer county has had 
few citizens of finer fiber or more sterling 
worth than the late Ermis Scott, whose field 
of operation was the community northeast of 
Anselmo, where are located the farm he de- 
veloped and the fine country home which he 
erected for himself and his family, and in 
which he expected to spend the years of his 
retirement. 

Mr. Scott was born June 28. 1855, in 
Whiteside county, Illinois. His father was 
Edwin Scott and his mother Mar>' ( Scott) 
Scott, both natives of the Buckeye state. An 
incident in the family history of Mrs. Scott 
is so remarkable that it is worthy of record in 
this column. Her parents moved from Ohio 
to Illinois in an early day, and to make the 
trip the father built a house-boat, loaded into 
it all his worldly goods and a family of 
thirteen children, and floated leisurely down 
the Ohio river to the Mississippi river, then 
up the Mississippi to Rock river, thence up 
the Rock river to Como, Illinois, which is 
near Sterling, that state. This was long be- 
fore railroads were built, and the house-boat 
constituted an easy and economical mode of 
travel. 

Ennis v^cott availed himself of public-school 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



533 



advantages, by which he quaHfied himself for 
useful citizenship and such public sen-ice as 
he was called upon to render. His life occu- 
pation by his own choosing was farming, in 
which he made a striking success. In 1884 
he yielded to the call of the west and arrived 
in Antelope county, Nebraska, where he re- 
mained only a short time. In the fall of the 
same year he settled in Custer county, where 
he homesteaded 160 acres in section 26, town- 
ship 20, range 22. His wife remained in 
Antelope county and continued teaching 
school, in order to supply the sinews of war 
by which the western claim could be im- 
proved and the primitive home established. 

December 30, 1877, the same year in which 
Custer county was organized, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Scott to Miss Charity D. 
\\ bite, a daughter of Humphrey K. and Mary 
(Bumgardner) White. Her father, descend- 
ed from an old English line, was born in 
1798, in X'irginia, and he died in Ohio, in 1883. 
The mother was born in Maine, in 1818, and 
she passed away in the same state and in the 
same year as her husband. 

Mr. and Mrs. Ennis Scott established an 
almost ideal home, into which were born, in 
the course of years, four children, two of 
whom died in infancy, the other two are sons: 
Stanley B., who was born July 27, 1886, is 
now farming in Custer county ; and Leon E., 
who was born June 11, 1894, is with his 
mother on the home place, but was in the 
draft for military service in the world war. 
It was arranged that when Leon was called 
to the service Stanley would take charge of 
the old home farm and conduct the extensive 
farming operations that his father maintained 
all through his active years. 

In coming from Antelope county into Cus- 
ter, Mr. and Mrs. Scott hauled their goods in 
a covered wagon, which was drawn by an ox 
team. They experienced many hardships, but 
their indomitable will conquered all obstacles. 

Mr. Scott died July 9, 1916, having just 
completed a fine country home and having 
added to the fanu equipment all necessary 
outbuildings, barns, and sheds. He and his 
good wife expected to pass their declining 
years in ease and comfort. They had passed 
the years of toil, they had reached the hilltop 
from which the prospect was pleasing and the 
road much easier, but the end of life had 
come to Mr. Scott. 

Mr. Scott was one of the most enterprising 
men in Custer county. He believed in public 
improvements for the community and comfort 
for his family, and both of these he did all 
in his power to provide. A generous spirit. 
Custer county is the richer for the years of 



his residence within its confines. He was a 
member of the Independent C)rder of Odd 
Fellows and the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen, and in politics was a stalwart and 
leading Republican. Mrs. Scott continues to 
reside in the beautiful home, surrounded by 
all the blessings and comforts of life except 
the companionship of the worthy husband 
whose life fortimes she shared so many years. 



GEORGE E. RICHTMYER. — The com- 
munity of Ansley records upon its roll of de- 
parted and honored citizens none who left be- 
hind more substantial and valued evidences of 
association with its affairs than the late 
George E. Richtmyer. As a banker, farmer, 
and stock-raiser, politician, and public-spirited 
citizen, he came and went among the people 
of the vicinity of Ansley from the time of his 
arrival in Custer county, in 1883, until the 
close of his life, October 1, 1917, and in con- 
nection with memories of him there remains 
an impression of practical usefulness and 
genuine, dependable character, traceable to his 
imtiring zeal, persevering industry and ready 
recognition of opportunity. 

Mr. Richtmyer was a native of the state of 
New York, where he was born in 1850, a son 
of William and I\Iary (Francher) Richtmyer. 
The family originated in Holland, and was 
early founded in New York state, where, at 
Gilboa, Schoharie county, William Richt- 
myer was born. He was a machinist and 
wagonmaker, trades which he followed for a 
number of years, but eventually he turned his 
attention to farming and completed his career 
as a tiller of the soil in his native state. 

George E. Richtmyer was educated in the 
public schools, completing his studies in the 
high school at Windham, following which he 
entered upon his career as a school-teacher. 
However, he did not find the desired financial 
success in this field, and finally he concluded 
to try his fortune in the west — in the new 
country opening up in central Nebraska. Ac- 
cordingly, he became a pioneer of Custer 
county, where, in 1883, he located on a home- 
stead. He proved up on his claim, adding to 
his income by teaching in the pioneer country 
schools during the short winter terms. When 
he had established ownership of his land, he 
returned to New York, and in March, 1889, 
he there married Miss Sophia Decker, who 
was born in Schoharie county. New York, a 
daughter of George and Elizabeth (Vande- 
vort) Decker, who spent their lives in New 
York, the former being a native a Conesville 
and the latter of Gilboa. There were six 
children in the Decker family, of whom three 



534 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTV. NEBRASKA 



survive : Elida D., the widow of William 
■ Bemer, a farmer of Jefferson, New York; 
Sophia, now Mrs. Richtmyer ; and Louie, the 
wife of John E. Martin, a farmer of Jefferson, 
Xew York. 

Returning to Custer county with his bride, 
Mr. Richtmyer settled down to the business 
of cultivating and improving his property, 
and in the passing years became one of the 
leading and substantial men of his community, 
his management of his affairs being governed 
by an inherent ability, and his perse\erance 
and industry l)eing particularly strong points 
in his character. He became interested in 
public affairs, first as a Republican, but when 
the Populist movement suddenly became an 
important factor in national affairs, he joined 
that organization. In 1892 he was appointed 
deputy county clerk. In 1896 he was elected 
clerk of Custer county, by a large majority. 
While he traveled out of Omaha for almost 
two years, his main interests were confined to 
Custer county, and he had the utmost faith 
and confidence in this section. In 1903 he 
turned his attention to financial matters, by 
becoming the chief organizer of the Farmers 
State Bank of .\nsley, of which he became 
cashier. Later he was president of this insti- 
tution, the affairs of which he directed wisely 
and well, in a conservative though progressive 
manner, and he was president of this bank at 
the time of his death. The death of Mr. Richt- 
myer occurred October 1. 1917, and was of 
tragic order — he was run over by a wagon 
when he was returning to Ansley from a visit 
to the old homestead, and he did not recover 
from the injuries he received in this deplor- 
able accident. He left many behind to mourn 
him — those who had known him best and 
who recognized his superior qualities of mind 
and heart. At the time of his death the 
Ansley Herald said : "He was the soul of 
honor and his friends and friendships once 
made were always sacred to him." 

Mr. and Mrs. Richtmyer had one son : 
Louis D., who was born in 1890, and who was 
educated at Wesleyan University, Lincoln ; 
the Nebraska State University : and Went- 
worth Institute. Boston, Massachusetts. In 
the last named institution he was graduated in 
1915. Since the demise of his father, he has 
been operating the old homestead upon which 
his revered father first located in 1883. Mrs. 
Richtmyer. who survives her husband and 
resides in her pleasant home at Ansley, has 
in this community a wide circle of friends, 
and she is a memi)er of the Christian Science 
church of Boston. 



G. THOMAS HARTSON. — In this para- 
graph is an exhibition of young blood on the 
fami — blood that is as red and vigorous and 
floats as much iron as the blood that welled 
in the veins of the hardy pioneers forty years 
ago. There is an old and hackneyed phrase 
that "blood will tell." and it is probably true, 
but blood finds no better opportunity for tell- 
ing than on a Custer county farm under 
present day conditions. Tom Hartson was 
l)orn May 2, 1889. twenty-nine years ago, by 
which it is noted that he is on the morning 
side of thirty. For family history see sketch 
of James B. Hartson. 

December 18. 1912. recorded the marriage 
of Mr. Hartson to Minnie Butcher, a young 
lady born and reared in this county, possessed 
of all the western graces that always impart 
life and vigor without taking toll of womanly 
virtues or gracious characteristics. The 
young people are now engaged in making 
their start. They have one child, Fem, four 
years of age — old enough and bright enough 
to direct the affairs of the household and to 
keep the fond parents dancing in attendance. 

The farm operated by Mr. Hartson is 
rented from his father and consists of 160 
acres of well cultivated land, with good build- 
ings and general equipment. Tom Hartson 
owns his own implements and horse jx)wer, 
has a good line of live stock, and chances for 
sticcess are very largely in his favor. He 
milks five cows and gives much care and at- 
tention to the profitable details of the fanning 
game. He has been fifteen years a resident of 
the coimty. and within another fifteen years, 
with like diligence and economy, he and his 
good wife will have a comfortable home, 
"fronting on easy street." 

Mrs. Hartson belongs to the Christian 
church. In politics Tom is independent. He 
votes the ticket as it suits his fancy, and no 
political boss cracks the lash alx)ve his back. 
A young family like this is part of the assets 
that insure the future prosperity of the 
county. 



AL:MER E. SPENCER. — One of the sub- 
stantial men of the present day in Custer 
county is Aimer E. Spencer, who has survived 
the many hardships the early settlers here had 
to contend with, and the stor)' of his expe- 
riences is very- interesting, as throwing a light 
upon the sturdy pioneers of 1880. He was 
born in Bremer county. Iowa, a son of Jo- 
siah W. and Margaret (Greenwood) Spencer, 
the latter of whom resides with her son .Mmer 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



=■35 



E., of this review. Josiah W. Spencer served 
three years as a soldier in the Civil war, and 
at one time was captured by the enemy and 
incarcerated for three weeks in the prison pen 
at Andersonville, Georgia. His seven chil- 
dren all survive, namely : Aimer E. is the 
immediate subject of this sketch: Addalaska 
G., who was bom Februar\' 14, 1873, and who 
is a farmer near Broken Bow. married Sarah 
Story ; Josiah L., who was born May 8, 1875, 
and who is a retired farmer living in Broken 
Bow, married Dora Mottinger ; Alta. who was 
born November 14, 1877, is the wife of Rev. 
John \V. Pirnie, pastor of the Church of God 
at Broken Bow : -Katie F., who was born Sep- 
tember 25, 1880. is the wife of John Holland, 
a farmer near Westerville ; Lula D., who was 
born October 30, 1885, is the wife of Aaron 
Story, a farmer near Farley, Iowa; and 
Thomas L., who was bom December 6. 1887, 
resides at home. Mr. Spencer brought his 
family to Valley county, Nebraska, in 1879. 
and in the following year homesteaded in 
Custer county. In order to secure provisions 
Mr. Spencer had to make a trip to Grand 
Island, leaving the family alone, and, with 
Indians still in the neighborhood and wild 
animals not entirely eliminated, Mrs. Spencer 
found many causes for anxiety. She relates 
that on one occasion when he was away, the 
children went out to gather wood and one of 
the sudden blizzards of snow came on and 
they were snowbound the entire night in the 
schoolhouse. Josiah W. Spencer was one of 
the venerable and honored pioneer citizens of 
Custer county at the time of his death, which 
occurred in February, 1908. 

Aimer E. Spencer accompanied his parents 
to Custer county in 1880 and still lives on his 
father's old homestead, where he carries on 
mixed farming and stock-raising, the former 
disadvantages of this section having been 
largelv overcome by improved methods. July 
1. 1894, he married Miss Carrie Bishop, who 
is a daughter of George and Emily ( Hipsher) 
Bishop. Mrs. Spencer was the fourth in order 
of birth of her parents' family of children, 
the others being: .-\ddie is the wife of 
Alfred Crowther. a fruit farmer in Tulare 
county, California: Charles, who also is a 
fruit farmer in Tulare county, married Marj' 
Govier : David, who owns a f mit ranch in 
the above county, married Belle Sidwell ; Nel- 
lie is the wife of Oscar Lindgren, a famier in 
Hamilton county, Nebraska : and Nettie. Mr. 
and Mrs. Spencer have five children : Ralph, 
who was bom August 8, 1895, and who is a 
farmer in Custer county, married Elsie Pir- 
nie: Lela. who was born August 8, 1897. is 
the wife of John Piper, a farmer in Custer 



county ; Aimer was born July 30, 1903 : 
George was born September 10, 1907 ; and 
Alvin was born January 18, 1910. The three 
youngest children are all at home. Mr. 
Spencer is affiliated with the Berwyn camp of 
the Modern Woodmen of America. 



AXEL E. ANDERSON, who is a farmer 
and stockman in Custer county, is also a pub- 
lic official and is well and favorably known. 
Mr. Anderson was born in the city of Stock- 
holm, Sweden, IMarch 29, 1870, one of a fam- 
ily of three children born to Augustus and 
Tilda ( Larson) Anderson. The parents of 
Mr. Anderson came to the United States and 
in the spring of 1880 settled in Polk county, 
Nebraska, where the mother died thirty days 
afterward and the father some years later. 
Two of their three children are living — Axel 
E. and John E., the latter of whom married 
Alma Almberg, , their home being at Stroms- 
berg, Nebraska. 

Axel E. Anderson obtained his early educa- 
tion in the public schools of Polk county. Ne- 
braska, and supplemented this discipline by a 
course in a business college at Bushnell, Illi- 
nois. He theii spent a year in Minnesota and 
from there went to Decatur, Illinois. From 
that place he came, in 1906, to Custer county, 
Nebraska, and this has been his home ever 
since. He owns a half-section of land, which 
is well improved and favorably located, and 
his industries include general farming and 
stock-raising. 

]\Ir. Anderson was united in marriage, in 
December, 1898, to Jessie M. Hart, the eldest 
daughter of Sunderland and Mary (Briscoe) 
Hart, of Decatur, Ihinois, where Mr. Hart 
was a retired farmer. Mrs. Anderson has 
two sisters and one brother — Lucy, who is 
the wife of Charles P. Maxwell, a musician, 
at Decatur, Illinois ; Edith, who lives with her 
sister: and Edward C. who is a business man 
of Jennings, Louisiana. Mr. and Mrs. An- 
derson have two children : Earl H., born De- 
cember 15, 1899: and Horace W., born June 
13, 1901. Both sons are at home and attend- 
ing the Broken Bow high school. Mr. Ander- 
son is somewhat prominent in Republican 
politics and for the past two years has been 
treasurer of Garfield township. He belongs 
to the Odd Fellows and the Modern Wood- 
men of America, still holding membership in 
Illinois. 



JOHN GOVIER. — A practical representa- 
tive of the agricultural interests of the Broken 
Bow community of Custer county is found in 



536 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



the person of John Ciovier, who has an excep- 
tionally well developed property, located in 
section 20, township 18, which has been his 
home since 1885. Mr. Govier, during the 
thirty-three and more years that he has carried 
on operations here has accomplished several 
objects, in that he has established a good home, 
contributed a prosperous farm to the develop- 
ment of the county, and established himself 
in a tirm jx>sition as a substantial and esteemed 
citizen, thereby reaching a goal that many men 
might well envy. 

John Govier was born near Wolverhampton, 
England, August 7, 1850, a son of James and 
Ann (Osbom) Govier. His parents came to 
the United States in 1864 and settled in the 
vicinity of Boscobel, Wisconsin, where James 
Govier was engaged in farming during a pe- 
riod of many years. He was a man of indus- 
try, held the good will and respect of his 
neighbors and the confidence of his associates, 
and was a stanch Republican in his political 
views. He and his wife were faithful mem- 
bers of the Church of God and died in Custer 
county, Nebraska, in that faith. They were 
the parents of thirteen children, of whom 
seven are living: John, who is the subject of 
this notice; Thomas, who is single and lives 
in Canada, where he follows farming ; Charles, 
who married Addie Atkins, and is a farmer 
of the vicinity of Weissert, Nebraska; James, 
who is single and resides at Ansley, Ne- 
braska ; .Annie, who is a resident of the local- 
ity of Knob, California ; .\lbert, who married 
Margaret ]\Iitcheson, and lives at Ansley; and 
Mary, who is the wife of Charles Bishop and 
makes her home in California. 

John Govier was a lad when he accompanied 
his parents to the United States, and when he 
reached manhood he adopted the vocation of 
farming, in which he has been engaged ever 
since. After some years of operation in Wis- 
consin, during which he achieved only a 
measure of success, in 1885 he came to Ne- 
braska, and on March 31st of that year he 
secured a homestead in section 20, township 
18, Custer county. He has since resided on 
the same property, engaged in general fann- 
ing and the raising of live stock, and has met 
with marked success in his efforts, being the 
owner of fine buildings, up-to-date equipment 
and a fine grade of stock. He maintains a 
high standing in the community, and while he 
has not been particularly active in local affairs, 
he has always shown his public spirit when 
measures of an important character have 
called for the supjx)rt of progressive citizens. 

Mr. Govier was married March 1, 1877, to 
Miss Rebecca M. Beamer, a daughter of John 
and Nancy M. (McKee)« Beamer. To. Mr. 



and Mrs. Beamer there were born seven chil- 
dren, of whom five are living: Nancy J., of 
Broken Bow, is the widow of the late John 
Trtiitt; Angeline C. married Thomas Cook 
and lives on a farm near Cromwell, Iowa; 
Clark, who married Sadie Allen, is engaged 
in farming in .Missouri ; Hannah is the wife 
of James Derickson, a carpenter of Broken 
Bow; Rebecca M. is the wife of John Govier. 
of this sketch ; and Ira Hopkins, a son of a 
later marriage of Mrs. Beamer, is a half- 
brother of Mrs. Govier. To Mr. and Mrs. 
Govier have been bom eight children, and of 
these six survive: Harrj' E., who married 
Sadie Smith, is a farmer in -the Round valley 
community of Custer county ; Clarence E', 
who also farms in Round valley, married 
Coralee Covert ; Mabel L. is the wife of Miller 
Peterson, a farmer near Weissert ; Lulu P. is 
the wife of .\lfred Larson, a farmer near 
Broken Bow ; Thomas W. W., who married 
Emma Johnson, is a farmer of Round valley ; 
and Nellie E. B. is single and resides with her 
parents. Mr. and Mrs. Govier also have an 
adopted son, Joseph T. Govier, who was born 
Mav 30. 1915". 



\MLLIAM T. S. LINE. — One of the best 
stock fanns to be found in the southern part 
of Custer county figures as the home and the 
stage of the activities of Mr. Line, who is one 
of the progressive and representative citizens 
of the county. He claims Indiana as the 
place of his nativity and he celebrated his fifty- 
third birth anniversary in 1918. His wife, 
whose maiden name was Carrie Irene Spell- 
meyer, was born in the state of Illinois and is 
fift)-four years of age at the time of this writ- 
ing. Mr. Line is a member of a family of 
eight children. Four of his brothers are liv- 
ing, and one of the number is a Nebraskan — 
Marshall Line, who resides near Burwell, 
Garfield county. Two brothers and one sister 
are deceased. 

Concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. 
Line brief record may consistently be entered 
at this jtmcture : Arthur and Ren S. are both 
associated with the work and management of 
their father's North ranch; Ivan J. remains at 
home and contributes his quota to the ranch 
operations ; Claude represents the family and 
his native county as one of the gallant young 
men who became members of the national 
militar}- forces when the country l^ecame in- 
volved in the great European war, and he was 
stationed at Camp Funston, Kansas, at the 
time when the war came to a close ; Laura 
Lomas is living at home ; Eva and Dennis B. 
are students in the high school at Eddyville. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



b37 



Dawson county, a place not far distant from 
the home ranch ; and Blanche also is attending 
the public schools of that village. 

The Line landed estate comprises 1,600 
broad acres, and 400 acres are maintained in 
a splendid state of cultivation. Mr. Line came 
into possession of this fine property by pur- 
chase. The permanent improvements are of 
excellent order and the property constitutes 
one of the best and most profitable stock farms 
in Custer county. The fann machinery is of 
the most modem and approved type and in 
itself constitutes a splendid asset, the while its 
utilization, as well as the general appearance 
of the farm, clearly indicates the progressive- 
ness and good judgment of the owner of this 
valuable landed estate. 

In the past years Mr. Line has bought 
cattle and fattened them for the market, and 
he has made the enterprise profitable, as has 
he also that of raising and handling hogs. 
However, in later years Mr. Line has given 
special attention to the dairy department of 
his fami activities, and at the present time he 
maintains a fine herd of thirty-five milch 
cows. The prevailing high prices for dairy 
products have made dair\'ing very profitable 
to Mr. Line, especially during the period of 
the great world war, and he has been progres- 
sive in the handling of all details of this line 
of enterprise. 

Mr. Line was reared and educated princi- 
pally in Illinois, to which state his parents 
removed when he was about twelve years of 
age, and there he continued to maintain his 
home until 1884, when he became a pioneer 
settler in Dawson county, Nebraska, whence 
he later came to Custer county. He remained 
in this county about five years and then re- 
turned to Dawson county, but he has owned 
and resided upon his present Custer county 
farm since 1896, this being one of the best 
properties in the fertile region in the southern 
part of Custer county. The Line family is 
one of prominence and influence in this com- 
munity and its members enjoy unqualified 
popular confidence and esteem. 



ALBERT BAYNE. — 'The responsibilities 
of present-day activities rest heavily upon the 
men and women living. Albert Bayne. who 
lives down in the Georgetown section of the 
South Loup, belongs to this class, and is a 
man who is well able to share the responsi- 
bility and discharge individually all obliga- 
tions, public and private, resting upon him. 
He was one of the homesteaders of 1886, and 
has been since that time one of the improvers, 



contributing to county development in his 
modest yet appreciable way. 

He is a son of Lee George Bayne and Lyza 
(Richmond) Bayne, both of whom were na- 
tives of Ohio, in which state both of them 
passed from the activities of this world. The 
subject whom these lines concern passed his 
early days in the Buckeye state, where public- 
school opportunities were afforded, and there 
he qualified himself for good citizenship and 
for business transactions as they arise to-day 
in general country life. 

In the home established by Mr. and Mrs. 
Bayne six children have been born : Hattie 
Johnson, who lives on a farm in Dawson 
county ; Mattie, who died in Iowa, several 
years ago : Charlie, who is a Dawson county 
farmer ; Jennie Line, who lives near Burwell, 
on a farm ; Harry, who is the youngest, and 
who is married and living on a farm near 
O'Neill. Nebraska, his one child being but 
twenty months old at the time of this writing, 
in the autumn of 1918. 

On the homestead where the Baynes live 
are to be found fairly good improvements, 
which meet the requirements of the operations 
as Mr. Bayne conducts them. He has been, 
withal, a successful farmer and stockman, and 
merits the good reputation he sustains in the 
immediate circle of his acquaintance. 



LINCOLN G. SELL. — This title line in- 
troduces a man with a history, a man who has 
gone through various and varied experiences 
in the western country, and who to-day is one 
of the constituents of comnnmity enterprise 
and country prosperity. Mr. Sell was born 
in the state of Michigan, December 24. 1869. 
and is a son of John G. and Sylvia ( Smith ) 
Sell. In his father's family were three chil- 
dren, the other two being Mrs. Anna Robert- 
son and Mrs. Minnie Hudson. 

Lincoln G. Sell received his early education 
in his native state, where he attended the pub- 
lic schools and supported himself in the mean- 
time by cutting cordwood. It was probably 
here that he learned to "saw wood." a char- 
acteristic which has stood him in good stead 
during all his life. 

On" the 10th day of December, 1901, the 
matrimonial career of Mr. Sell began, when 
he led to the marriage altar Miss Annie 
Mutchie. a splendid young lady of Lexing- 
ton, Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Sell became the 
parents of five children, all of whom are living 
and doing honor to their parents — Maggie, 
Mabel. Francis. Peter, and Charles. All of 
the children are still at home and are engaged 



538 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY, NEBRASKA 



in useful service in connection with the house- 
hold and the farm. 

Mr. Sell arrived in Nebraska November 10, 
1887, about one month prior to his eighteenth 
birthday anniversary. Like most of the set- 
tlers, his parents came with little of this 
world's goods and some of the hardest ex- 
periences of the pioneer davs fell to their lot, 
the father having taken up a homestead. The 
father froze to death, fifteen years ago, in a 
canyon north of the Sells home place, and this 
tragedy shocked and grieved the entire com- 
munity. Lincoln G. then took a homestead 
and to-day he has a half-section of well im- 
proved land. 

Concerning his early life, Mr, Sells says 
that in 1S90 he went into McPherson county, 
where he stayed a short time, and later he en- 
gaged in railroading. From there he went to 
Omaha, where he was employed for a time in 
the L'nion Stockyards, which yards he helped 
to build. While working there he contracted 
typhoid fever, and he came home. After re- 
covering he returned to Omaha and went into 
the army, with which he participated in one 
of the engagements during the Indian trouble. 
His conijjany took an active part in the battle 
of Wounded Knee, on December 27th. After 
leaving the army he returned to McPherson 
county, where he ran wild horses for a time. 
In this enterj>rise he had the misfortune to 
have his left hand badly crippled. While in 
McPherson county at that time he took hay 
contracts and put up a large amount of prairie 
hay. He then moved back to his home, where 
he has since resided and where he enjoys the 
comforts of farm life under most favorable 
circumstances. He belongs to the Republican 
])arty, to whose principles he has long given a 
faithful adherence. 



ROBERT B. WALKER. — More than a 
quarter of a century's connection with the 
banking interests of Mason City, during 
which time he has risen from a clerkship to 
the presidency of the Mason City Banking 
Company, has made Robert B. Walker one of 
the best known figures in financial circles of 
central Nebraska He is a native of Canada, 
and was bom January 29, 1<%7, a son of Ro- 
bert and Margaret (Baird) Walker. 

Robert Walker, the paternal grandfather of 
Robert B. Walker, was born in Ireland, and 
was a young man when he immigrated to 
Canada with his wife and infant children, the 
rest of his life being ])assed in farming in 
that dominion. John Baird, the maternal 
grandfather of Mr. Walker, was likewise a 
native of the lunerald Isle and was an earlv 



settler and farmer of Canada. Robert Walker, 
father of Robert B. Walker, was born in Ire- 
land, and was a child when taken by his 
parents to Canada, where he was reared and 
educated. Following his marriage to Mar- 
garet Baird, a native of Canada, he continued 
farming in that country- until 1884, when he 
came to Custer county, Nebraska, and secured 
a homestead. He was an agriculturist on that 
property for some years, then moving to Gib- 
bon, Buft'alo county, where he established him- 
self in the hardware business, with his son. 
He is now retired, at the age of eighty years. 
He has been a Mason for many years and he 
and Mrs. Walker are members of the Presby- 
terian church. They have had ten children, 
of whom two reside in Custer county : John, 
who is a supervisor of Custer county and en- 
gaged in farming near Mason City; and 
Robert B., who is the subject of this review. 

Robert B. Walker was educated in the 
public schools of Canada and was seventeen 
years of age when he accompanied his parents 
to Custer comity. For two j'ears he lived and 
farmed on the family homestead, but in 1886 
he came to Mason City, where he clerked for 
two years, and then was variously employed 
until entering the Bank of Mason City, in the 
capacity of bookkeeper. From that time to 
the present he has been identified with bank- 
ing matters, always advancing, and to-day he 
is president of the Mason City Banking Com- 
pany, one of the strong institutions of this 
part of the state, with a capital of $25,000, 
surplus of $5,000, and average deposits of 
$275,000. Mr. \\'alker is considered one of 
the capable, careful, and conservative bankers 
of Custer county, and is a man whose personal 
integrity and probity have done much to con- 
serve the interests of his institution and to 
gain and hold the confidence of the public. 
He is a Republican in his political views, and 
is well known in Masonrv', having attained 
Scottish Rite degrees, having been master of 
his lodge at Mason City, and holding member- 
ship as a noble of the Mystic Shrine. As a 
citizen he has been public-spirited and con- 
structive in his assistance of worthy move- 
ments for the general welfare. 

October 22, 1891, recorded the marriage of 
Mr. Walker to Miss Maude Hill, who was 
born in Wisconsin, daughter of L. B. Hill, 
who came to Mason City in 1888 and for a 
time was the incumbent of the postmastership. 
Four children have been bom to Mr. and Mrs. 
^^'alker: Harold, twenty-six years of age, is 
a graduate of the medical department of the 
L'niversity of Nebraska, at Omaha, and en- 
listed in the United States Medical Reserve, 
in which connection he has l>een assigned to 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



539 



the general hospital at Kansas City, as a medi- 
cal interne: Mildred, a graduate' of Kearnev 
Normal school, is now a teacher in the public 
schools of Mason City ; Marion resides ;it 
home and is a high-school student ; and Paul, 
aged seven years, is attending school. The 
family belongs to the Baptist church. 



CARL HOLCOMB. who is favorably 
known in business circles of Broken Bow as 
one of the proprietors of Holcomb Brothers' 
garage, has resided in Custer county prac- 
tically all of his life, and in his career he has 
demonstrated the possession of abilities of a 
superior order. This enterprising business 
man was born November 20, 1882, in Gibson 
county, Indiana, a son of Monroe C. and 
Amanda (V'ickers) Holcomb. His father 
migrated from Indiana to Grand Island in 
1883. and about 1885 homesteaded northeast 
of Broken Bow, in what is known as the 
Holcomb neighborhood, there passing the re- 
maining years of his active life. His death 
occurred at Broken Bow, January 13. 1900. 
and Mrs. Holcomb survived until February 
11. 1912. They were faithful members of 
the Baptist church, and parents of three sons : 
Carl, Floyd, and Ray. 

At the time of the death of their father, 
the Holcomb brothers inherited the old home- 
stead, which is now being operated by the 
youngest of the three, Ray, a skilled and 
thorough agriculturist who is securing excel- 
lent results. In addition the brothers own 
640 acres of land adjoining, and have the best 
of equipment and buildings — three complete 
sets of improvements. Ray Holcomb is a 
Democrat, affiliates with the Woodmen, and 
has numerous warm and appreciative friends. 
Floyd Holcomb, who is now a member of the 
firm of Holcomb Brothers, proprietors of the 
garage at Broken Bow, was brought up as a 
farmer and that was his vocation until enter- 
ing business life, in 1918. He is a member of 
the Baptist church and votes the Democratic 
ticket, while his fraternal relations are with 
the Masons, the Odd Fellows, and the Wood- 
men. He is accounted an alert and hustling 
business man whose standing has been gained 
through marked ability and individual effort. 
Mr. Holcomb married Ruby Baker, and they 
have four children : Margaret, Monroe, Don- 
ald, and Gift'ord. 

Carl Holcomb was brought up on the home 
farm, assisting his father during the summer 
months and attending the district schools in 
the country in the winter terms, and his first 
money was earned by plowing corn with an 
old "walking" cultivator, for Mr. John 



Smalley. After his father's death, he re- 
mained on the homestead and continued his 
activities as a farmer until 1918. in which 
year he and his brother Floyd bought the 
garage at Broken Bow, from Martin & Son, 
located the first block east of the Farmers' 
co-operative store. An excellent business has 
been developed, and in addition to conducting 
a general agency for Dodge Brothers cars, a 
general line of repair work is done and all 
manner of tires and accessories are handled. 
Mr. Holcomb has firmly established himself 
as a reputable man of business, of much abil- 
ity, and of strict integrity. While residing in 
the country he was called upon to fill public 
offices, being school director for six years and 
township clerk two years, and he discharged 
his duties in an entirely satisfactory and effi- 
cient manner. He belongs to the Odd Fellows 
and the Woodmen, and he and Mrs. Holcomb 
are members of the Baptist church. 

Mr. Holcomb was married March 22, 1906, 
near Broken Bow, to Miss Rose Triplett, a 
daughter of Clark S. and Ruth (Holman) 
Triplett, farming people of Custer county. 
Mr. Triplett was a Democrat and he and his 
wife belonged to the United Brethren church. 
They had the following children : Inman, 
John, Jesse, Earl, Rose, Ida, Ada, ^laud, and 
Goldie. Mr. and Mrs. Holcomb have one 
son : Carl, Jr. 



SAMUEL T. KEARNEY. — Down in the 
south part of the county, so far that Sumner 
is the nearest town, on a farm of 240 acres, 
is the home domicile of Samuel Tilden 
Kearney, who was born in Greene county, 
Illinois, in 1873. His wife, Lizzie (Boyer) 
Kearney, was born in the same year, in the 
Buckeye state. The father of Mr. Kearney 
was Henry C. Kearney, who was born on the 
high seas, and who departed this life in the 
sixty-eighth year of his age. The mother was 
Mary Ann (Jones) Kearney, a native of 
Greene county, Illinois, and she was sixty-one 
years of age at the time of her death. In the 
family of the senior Kearney were five chil- 
dren : W. T., who lives near Lomax ; Frances 
Orr, who is living at Sigourney, Iowa ; Sam- 
uel T., who is the subject of this sketch ; Mrs. 
Anna Wellett, of Sheridan, Wyoming ; and 
Nettie Boyer, of Aitkin, Minnesota. 

In the family of Samuel T. Kearney arc 
four bright children, who do credit to him- 
self and his wife and make happy and en- 
joyable their farm home: Esther Viola and 
Adah Hazel are both attending the high 
school at Overton, Nebraska : and Mary and 
Merle are attending school at Sumner. 



540 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



The Kearney place consists of 240 acres of 
good land, and the farm is well improved, 
100 acres being under cultivation and ven,- 
productive. All kinds of farm machineni", 
out-buildings, etc., make up the farm equip- 
ment. Stock-raising is one of the sources of 
profit and income followed by Mr. Kearney. 
The develojiment of the place has been 
brought about under many difficulties and 
early-day experiences. Lumber for the build- 
ings was freighted in the early days from 
Kearney. Sumner is the nearest towMi. The 
spring wagon and the lumber wagon of the 
early day are no longer used as the vehicles 
of conveyance, but the family ride in a motor 
car and are farming with modern-dav imple- 
ments. 

Mr. Kearney is a member of the Modern 
Woodmen of America, in which order he 
takes a prominent part. The family stand 
high is the community and are worthy of the 
rating accorded them. 



CHARLES E. SHEPPARD. — The life of 
Charles E. Sheppard, of Broken Bow, is an 
illustration of the j)Ossible control over earlv 
limitations and the wise utilization of ordinary 
op])ortunities. His career has been identified 
with Custer county from 1889, since which 
year he has engaged in several business ven- 
tures, but for the past seventeen years he has 
been proprietor of the elevator of the Central 
Granaries Company. Mr. Sheppard was born 
January 19. 1851. near Springfield. Illinois, a 
son of Franklin Bullock. He was about one 
year old when his i)arents died, within a month 
of one another, and he was adopted by and 
taken into the home of Ira S. and Marjorie 
(Van Vleet) Sheppard. 

Ira S. Sheppard was bom in the state of 
New York, and as a young man removed to 
^Minnesota, where he was engaged in the boot 
and shoe business until reaching the age of 
thirty-five years, when he turned his attention 
to farming. He was a memlier of the Masonic 
fratcrnitv and was a strict Prohibitionist. He 
died in 1917, Mrs. Sheppard passing away in 
October, 1908, both in Moon Lake township. 
Their own children were a daughter who died 
when young: and Joseph P., Cyrus R., Pros- 
per E., Benjamin F., and Fred. 

Charles E. Shepjiard was sent to the dis- 
trict schools in Minnesota, and spent the 
summer months in working on his foster 
father's farm. He remembers well the first 
money he ever made, the sum of ten cents, 
which was given him for handing bundles of 
wheat on a stack to Elder Kem, a Methodist 
Episcopal minister. The incident remained in 



his memon,- because of something that fol- 
lowed. In the evening, with the other young- 
sters, he went out to the old log barn to look 
at some newly-arrived puppies, and when the 
jealous and irritable mother dog charged him 
he nearly lost his hard-earned dime as he fled 
to safety. Mr. Sheppard remained on the 
home ])lace until he was twenty-two years of 
age, and then founded a home of his own 
when he married, April 18. 1873. at Linden. 
Minnesota. Miss Mar\^ E. W'arner. daughter 
of Captain Luther and Jennie (Goodwin) 
Warner. Her father was a native of New 
York and was captain of a canal boat, and her 
mother was bom in England. Mr. and Mrs. 
Sheppard became the parents of eight chil- 
dren, of whom five are living. Franklin Lu- 
ther, the eldest son. is a member of the 
Broken Bow grocery firm of Sheppard & 
Burk. located in the Dierks Block, and is a 
Mason and Highlander, a Republican in 
politics, and a member of the Episcopal 
church. He was first married to Grace Ken- 
nedy, daughter of Charles Kennedy, and they 
had one child. Stella. Mr. Sheppard married, 
second, Marion Vanderburg. and they have a 
son. J. Luther. Charles .\. Sheppard. second, 
son of Charles E.. follows the trade of mason 
at Broken Bow. and is a Republican. He 
married Marj' Carr. daughter of George Carr, 
a pioneer farmer of Custer county, and they 
have two sons and three daughters. Mabel, 
the elder daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles 
E. Sheppard. is the wife of John Myrick. a 
farmer in the vicinity of Sherman. Pennsyl- 
vania, and has three daughters. R. J. Shep- 
jiard. youngest son of Charles E., is a musi- 
cian of Beloit. Kansas, and is a Republican 
voter. He married Eva McCall. Pearl, the 
yoimgest child of Charles E. and Mrs. Shep- 
pard, is a graduate nurse from Green Gables 
Sanitarium, Lincoln, as is her husband, George 
Minor, and for the past several years they 
have been conducting the Broken Bow Hos- 
[lital. Thev are members of the E]iiscopal 
church and Mr. Minor is a Republican. 

Charles E. Sheppard came to Custer county 
in 1889 and took up his residence at Broken 
Bow, where he embarked in the ice business. 
This he conducted for seven years, when he 
disposed of his interests and for some time 
thereafter applied himself to caq:)entry, a 
trade which he had mastered in his youth, 
but in 1901 he became the manager of the 
elevator known at Broken Bow as the Central 
Granaries Company, of which he has made a 
substantial success. He is one of the pro- 
gressive business men of his community and a 
citizen who supports actively and generously 
all movements which promise advancement. 




3 . n ■ ^^-^yi^^^ 




'C- 



W^t*r^ Aifi ht^ Ce 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



543 



PETER W. MULLEN. — The qualities 
of adaptability, common sense, persistence, 
and good judgment have prevailed in the ener- 
getic life of Peter W. Mullen, winning for 
him .enviable rank in business circles of 
Broken Bow, where since 1908 he has been 
a member of the firm of Mullen Brothers, 
operators in real estate, loans, and insurance. 
Mr. Mullen is a product of the agricultural 
region of Harrison county, Iowa, having been 
bom at Missouri Valley, Julv 6, 1878, a son 
of Peter R. and Ellen MJ ( Rourke ) Mullen. 
His parents were natives of Dubuque county, 
Iowa, and his grandparents on both sides were 
born in Ireland. 

Peter R. Mullen passed his entire life as an 
agriculturist in Iowa, where he was known in 
several communities as a capable and indus- 
trious man, a stanch member of the Demo- 
cratic party and a faithful Catholic. He died 
January 16, 1918, at Missouri \'alley. Iowa, 
where his widow still resides, in the home of 
her son-in-law, Frank McBride. There were 
nine children in the family, as follows : John 
is deceased ; James P., a ranchman of Broken 
Bow, Democrat and Catholic, married Rose 
Sweeney, daughter of Michael Sweeney, and 
has had five children, of whom four are liv- 
ing — James, Joseph, Charles, and Thomas; 
Peter W. is the immediate subject of this re- 
view : Man,' A., who died in November, 1916, 
was the wife of George P. Sweeney, owner of 
a garage at Neola, Iowa, and a member of the 
Catholic church and the Knights of Columbus, 
with four children — Francis, Ellen, James, 
and Eileen ; Charles M., a Custer county 
farmer, Democrat voter, Catholic, and a 
member of the Knights of Columbus, married 
Catherine Ryan, daughter of Edward Ryan, 
and has five children — Loretta, Catherine, 
Bernard, Carmelita, and Joseph ; Ellen M., 
wife of John J. Ryan, a farmer of Broken 
Bow, Catholic, Democrat, and Knight of 
Columbus, has five children — Leona, Ce- 
lestine. Joseph, Ellen, and Richard : Catherine 
is a member of the Dominican Sisters at 
Omaha; Genevieve, wife of Frank McBride, 
of Missouri \'alley, in the L'nited States post- 
ofifice department, a Democrat, and memljer 
of the Knights of Columbus, has two chil- 
dren — Geraldine and Lucille ; and Cecelia is 
the wife of John Doyle, a farmer near Neola. 
Iowa, a Democrat, Catholic, and Knight of 
Columbus, with one child — Clair. 

Peter \\'. Mullen received his education in 
the public schools of Harrison county, and 
until he was thirty years of age he worked on 
his father's farm with his brother Charles. 
When he was a lad his father was greatly 



troubled by gophers. In order to stimulate 
his sons' energy in getting rid of these pests 
he made them an offer of three cents for each 
animal, and in case its head possessed gray 
hairs the reward was five cents. It is to be 
supposed that a thorough search was made on 
each little rodent by the sharp-eyed youths, 
to see that no gray hairs escaped them. 
While residing in Iowa Mr. Mullen took some 
interest in real-estate matters, but this was 
only as a side line, and it was not until he 
came to Broken Bow, in November, 1908, that 
he engaged in the business seriously. Here 
he joined his brother James, who had pre- 
ceded him by about one year, and the finn of 
Mullen Brothers, real estate, loans, and insur- 
ance, was formed, the business having since 
been developed to large and important pro- 
portions. The brothers have won universal 
confidence and respect because of their 
straightforward manner of conducting their 
transactions, and their business standing is 
excellent. 

On October 5, 1909, Peter W. Mullen was 
married, at Missouri Valley, Iowa, to Miss 
Anastasia J. Ryan, daughter of John and 
Julia fSenat) Ryan, farming people of that 
community and devout members of the 
Catholic church. Mr. Ryan was a Democrat 
and belonged to the Knights of Columbus. In 
the Ryan family there were the following 
children : Edward, Richard, Timothy, Mary, 
Patrick, James, Bridget, Malachi, Margaret, 
Johanna, and Anastasia. Mr. and Mrs. Mul- 
len are the parents of four children : Angela, 
born in 1910; Patricia, born in 1912; Alary, 
born in 1914; and John, born in 1916. 

EUGENE J. BOBLITS. — In Eugene J. 
Boblits, one of Custer county's best known 
citizens, is found a leader in the cattle indus- 
try on the South Loup river, and he is also 
an honored veteran of the great Civil war. 
Mr. Boblits was born December 21, 1846, in 
Frederick county, Maryland. His father, Jacob 
Boblits, was likewise born in Frederick county, 
where he became a man of considerable prom- 
inence. He was influential in the Masonic 
fraternity, the Independent ( )rder of Odd 
Fellows, and the Knights of Pythias ; was an 
elder in the Moravian church, and was a tanner 
bv occupation. He married Josephine Gernand, 
who was a daughter of Jacob Gernand, a 
weaver, and of the eight children born to them 
the following are living: Eugene J. is the sub- 
ject of this review: Alice is the widow 
of Eugene Willard. of Pittsburgh. Pennsyl- 
vania, and she has four children ; and Ida is 



544 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



the wife of Henn' C. Stuckey, a retired rancli- 
maii now residing at Lexington. Nebraska, and 
they have three sons and two daughters. 

Eugene J. Boblits Hved at home and assisted 
his father until July 7. 1862. when he enlisted 
for service in the Civil war. entering Company 
H. One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Pennsyl- 
vania Volunteer Infantry. He was so severely 
wounded at the battle of Antietam. September 
17, 1862, that he was confined in a hospital 
for three months, at the expiration of which 
he was honorably discharged, December 8. 
1862. Of his bravery and the quality of his 
service no better testimony can be produced 
than the following lines, which may be found 
on page 74 of the history of the regiment : 
"In the retreat from the said West Woods, 
tile regimental colors of the One Hundred and 
Twenty-fifth were saved through bravery wor- 
thy of special mention. The color sergeant. 
George A. Simpson, was shot down and in- 
stantly killed, and five of the color guard went 
down. Then Eugene Boblits, of Company H. 
rescued and carried them for some distance, 
and when he was badly wounded, he threw 
them to Sergeant Walter W. Greenland, of 
Company C (afterward adjutant general), 
from whom Captain Wallace received them 
and carried them to the rear of the batter)- we 
were ordered to support. In the meanwhile 
men were falling thick and fast, like leaves in 
autumn, and out of the 150.000 soldiers en- 
gaged on both sides in this great battle. -40.000 
men were killed and wounded between sunu]) 
and sundown." 

Home care and nursing brought about Mr. 
Boblits' partial recovery, so that, in 1863, he 
was able to enter Millwood Academy, at Shad 
Gap. Huntington county. Pennsylvania, where 
he continued for three years and completed 
his education. By tliat time he had so far re- 
covered from his wounds that he was able to 
learn the tanning business under his father, 
and he became so expert that he was engaged 
by James B. Reese to operate the latter's large 
steam tannery at New Creek. West \'irginia. 
where he remained for four vears. In the 
meanwhile he married, and in 1874, with his 
father's assistance, he went into the cattle bus- 
iness on the South Loup river, having come 
to Custer county in the fall of 1873. He has 
witnessed many changes in this field of enter- 
prise, as in every other industry, during these 
forty-four years, but he has always maintained 
that Nebraska is the natural stage for cattle- 
raising. Mr. Boblits has tender recollections 
of his childhood home and of his loving par- 
ents, who taught him habits of industry and 
instilled ideas of thrift. He tells an amusin" 



story of what was probably his first business 
transaction, when he was yet a little boy. His 
mother prevailed upon him to keep the cow- 
yard clean, and encouraged him by the pay- 
ment of three cents a week. He carefully. saved 
his pennies until he had accumulated eighty- 
five cents, when, unknown to his mother, he 
planned to spend his entire fortune on a valen- 
tine for a little neighbor maiden and awaited 
the coming of the good saint's day to purchase 
and send the heart missive. It was but a 
short time before -this that his dear mother 
came to him and. patting him on the shoulder 
as good mothers do. she said, to his dismay: 
"Eugene, you have been a good little boy and 
I am going to take your saved-up pennies and 
put enough more with them to buy you a pair 
of red-top boots with copper toes.'' 

Mr. Boblits was married October 3, 1871, 
to Mrs. Harriet E. McNeill, of New Creek, 
West Mrginia. She had one daughter by her 
first marriage, and this daughter is now Mrs. 
Jennie B. Allcar. a resident of Keyser, West 
\'irginia. Mrs. Boblits' maiden name was 
Harriet E. Duling. Her father. William A. 
Duling. was born near Bull Run, X'irginia. and 
before the Civil war. was a slave-owner and 
planter. Her mother. Harriet (Cluter) Du- 
ling. was a native of Hampshire countv. West 
Mrginia. Mr. and Mrs. Boblits have three 
children — James J., w-ho operates the home 
ranch, four and one-half miles north of Ocon- 
to : Mary J., who is at liome : and Harriet A., 
who is the wife of Frank A. Ticrney. a ranch- 
man near Oconto. 



FLOYD HOLCOMB. — In the thriving 
community of Broken Bow, one of the live 
and enterprising business men is Floyd Hol- 
comb, w-ho, with his brother, Carl Holcomb, is 
actively engaged in the conducting of an 
automobile garage. He has been a resident of 
Custer county since 1885. in which year he 
came to this community from his birthplace, 
Hamilton county. Nebraska, where he was 
boni Novemlier 9. 1874. a son of John Mon- 
roe Holcomb and Amanda (Vickers) Hol- 
comb. There were three sons in the family : 
Carl, Floyd, and Ray, of whom the last- 
named is looking after the brothers' large and 
valuable agricultural interests in Custer 
county. 

Floyd Holcomb started to attend the dis- 
trict schools of Custer county, he iiaving been 
still a boy w-hen he accompanied his parents 
to Custer county, in 1885. the family settling 
nine miles northeast of Broken Bow, in a lo- 
cality which subsequently became known as 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



545 



the Holconib neighborhood. He earned his 
first money working for his father, with 
whom he remained until the latter's death, in 
1900, when he removed to other land, which 
he and his brothers had purchased. In 1917 
Mr. Holcomb and his brother Carl decided to 
enter business at Broken Bow, and according- 
ly they here bought the old Martin garage, 
which they have since conducted with great 
success. Air. Holcomb is known as a business 
man of superior ability, and in addition to 
executive capacity possesses much mechanical 
skill and ingenuity. He is interested in fra- 
ternal affairs, being a member of the Masons, 
the Odd Fellows, and the W'oodmen, and his 
political faith is that of the Democratic party. 
He and his family belong to the Baptist 
church. 

Mr. Holcomb was married, May 16, 1908, 
to Miss Ruby Baker, daughter of Rolland T. 
and Margaret J. (McClain) Baker, former 
farming- people of this county and now re- 
tired residents of Broken Bow. To this union 
there have been born four children : Mar- 
guerite T., John M., Donald R.. and Gift'ord F. 



R.\SMUS ANDERSON. — The career of 
Rasmus Anderson, a pioneer of Custer county, 
and now one of the successful business men 
of Broken Bow, has been one in which inter- 
esting incidents have occurred from his early 
boyhood, and in which he has worked his way 
from obscurity to prominence and from pov- 
erty to affluence. He is a native son of Den- 
mark, and was born July 11, 1863, his parents 
being Niels and Marie (Rasmussen) Ander- 
son, natives of that country. 

Mr. Anderson's father was a sea captain 
who owned his own vessel and did a general 
commercial business, both at home and 
abroad, frequently conveying cargoes of grain 
to England, where he would take on coal as 
cargo for the return trip. Mr. Anderson 
vividly remembers one trip which he took 
with his father when he was about twelve 
years old, to Iceland, carrying a load of pro- 
visions and returning with wool and woolen 
goods. He was ver\' greatly interested in the 
Hekla geyser, near INlount Hekla and the 
famous volcano of that name, the geyser 
throwing a stream some fifty feet in height. 
The return journey was delayed through 
various reasons and it was not until late in 
the fall that the sturdy little vessel again put 
to sea. so that it was twice necessary on its 
voyage to run out into the Gulf Stream, where 
the warm waters would melt the great cakes 
of ice that had formed on the vessel's sides 
and threatened to sink it. There were eight 



children in the Anderson family, of whom 
seven are living, five in Denmark, and Mr. 
Anderson and one sister in the United States. 
This sister is now Mrs. IMarie Winters and 
resides at Norman, Nebraska. 

Rasmus Anderson received a public-school 
education, and when a lad of seven years be- 
gan to think of going to foreign lands, eagerly 
listening to the stories of the sailors from 
whom he occasionally secured employment at 
cleaning their nets and knocking the barnacles 
from the bottoms of their boats. He was but 
seventeen years of age when he left the 
parental roof and shipped on a three-masted 
schooner, "The Sun," bound for England, 
with a cargo of barley. When he arrived in 
the latter country, stories that he heard in 
America fired his imagination with a desire to 
visit this country, and March 10, 1880, he em- 
barked on a tramp steamer, "The Marathon," 
and set sail for the United States. As it was 
still early in the spring the sea was rough and 
the weather stormy, but after a voyage of 
twenty-two days the steamer made port at 
New York city and young Anderson there- 
after arrived in Boston with only five cents 
in his pocket. In addition to this financial 
handicap, he had no working knowledge of 
the English language, but he soon secured em- 
ployment in helping to unload cargoes from 
the incoming vessels, and he continued to be 
thus employed until he had enough money to 
buy a ticket to Niles, Alichigan. There he 
obtained work on a farm and remained for a 
few months, following which he moved on to 
(jmaha, Nebraska, and was given free trans- 
portation to Grand Island, to work with a 
surface gang on the Union Pacific Railroad. 
After one day's work he graduated from that 
position, for which he had little liking after 
his blankets had been stolen by some of the 
gang, and he accordingly made his way to a 
farm in Hamilton county, where he worked 
for a short period. In 1883 Mr. Anderson 
came to Custer county and settled on a home- 
stead in the Dutchman's valley, six miles east 
of Broken Bow, where he made his real start 
toward success. 

(Jn May 13, 1886, about three years after 
his arrival, Mr. Anderson was married, at the 
home of the bride's parents, near Berwyn, to 
Louisa E. Barnes, daughter of Peter \i. and 
Eunice (Roden) Barnes, farming people, the 
former a native of Ohio and the latter of 
Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes had three 
sons and three daughters. They were devout 
members of the Alethodist church, and Mr. 
Barnes was a Republican. Mr. Anderson re- 
mained on his farm about fifteen years, and 
each year he was increasingly successful as 



546 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



a farmer and stock-raiser. Eventually he be- 
came interested in real estate, and finally he 
moved to Broken Bow, to devote all of his 
time to this business, in which he has made a 
marked success. His office is located over the 
postoffice. he being the owner of the building, 
in addition to which he has various other in- 
terests and holdings. He has an excellent 
reputation in business circles, as he has also 
as a citizen. He is a member of the Masons 
and is a Republican in politics. 

Mr. and Mrs. Anderson have had six chil- 
dren, as follows : Ray R., a graduate of 
Broken Bow High school and Broken Bow 
Commercial College, is now municipal-court 
judge and United States commissioner at 
Billings, .Montana; Nels M. is a salesman of 
automobile accessories, at Portland. Oregon ; 
Omer K., who is a resident of Broken Bow, 
and who is a salesman for Swift & Company, 
of Omaha, married Anna Eddy, and has one 
son, Omer K., Jr. ; Lee I. is a student at the 
Bailev SanitariunT, Lincoln; Eunice I. is a 
teacher in the public schools of Broken Bow ; 
and Florence is the wife of Lieutenant W'arde 
Cousin, a member of the United States Tank 
Corps, stationed with his regiment at Gettys- 
burg, Pennsylvania, at the time of this writ- 
ing. 



GUY E. LIVERMORE. — The life of a 
professional or literary man seldom exhiliits 
any of those e.xciting or striking incidents that 
seize upon public feeling and fix attention 
upon himself. His character is generally 
made up of the aggregate of the qualities and 
cjualifications he may possess and as these 
may be elicited by the exercise of the duties 
of his vocation or the particular profession 
to which he may belong. Guy E. Livermore, 
editor of the Sargent Leader, may not form 
an exception to this general rule, but since ma- 
turity his life has been one of constant pro- 
fessional duty, and the distinction he has at- 
tained in the journalistic circles of Custer 
county is evidence enough that these qualities 
have not been planted on barren soil. 

Mr. Livermore was born in Ringgold 
county, Iowa, October 17, 1875, and is a son 
of M. F. and Sophia E. (Hatch) Livermore. 
His father was born in Louisa county. Iowa, 
where he was united in marriage with Sophia 
E. Hatch, born near Canton, Ohio, in 1854. 
In his native state, where he was bom in 1850, 
^Ir. Livermore followed farming and school 
teaching in the vicinity of Mount Ayr until 
1879. in which year he moved to Kansas, 
where he engaged in farming a homestead for 
four years. The bufi'aloes had disappeared 



from the plains of Kansas a number of years 
previously, but Mr. Livermore added to his 
income through the former presence of this 
noble animal, by collecting bones from the 
prairies and hauling them forty miles to 
market. In 1883 he came to Custer county 
and settled on a homestead, and here he con- 
tinued to be engaged in farming until his 
death, in 1892. He and Mrs. Livermore 
were the parents of seven children : Guy E., 
whose name initiates this article ; \\eldon, of 
Sargent ; Floy, who is engaged in teaching 
school in Custer county ; Mrs. R. W. Hicks, 
whose husband is a Sargent druggist ; Mrs. 
Rae Hicks, whose husband has the star mail 
route from Ansley to Sargent ; Fay, who is 
farming near Burwell ; and Harrison B., who, 
as a member of the national amiy, in France, 
and in a medical coq:is at the time of this 
writing. Mrs. Livemiore, who is a resident 
of Sargent, belongs to the Christian church, 
and her husband held the faith of the Method- 
i,St Episcopal church. He was a Republican 
in politics and ser\'ed on the county board of 
supervisors about 1886 or 1887. 

Guy E. Livermore attended the graded 
schools of Sargent and the high school at 
Broken Bow, graduating from the latter, in 
1900, as a valedictorian of his class. He be- 
gan teaching in 1894, and continued to be 
thus engaged for twenty-two years, being one 
of the best known and most popular teachers 
in Custer county. In 1908 he took a course 
in the University of Nebraska, attending sum- 
mer school courses. He made good advance- 
ment in his profession, and during the last 
eight years of his pedagogic labors he was 
principal of the school at Comstock, which, 
during his regime, increased from three to 
six rooms. He was a general favorite with 
])upils. teachers, and his other co-v>orkers, and 
was acknowledged a man of particular effi- 
ciencv in his field. In 1916 Mr. Livermore 
turned his attention from this kind of educa- 
tional work to another field, the instruction 
of the jniblic through the columns of a news- 
jxiper. He purchased the Sargent Leader, 
which now has a circulation of nearly 1000 
copies in Custer county and which has been a 
success under his management. It is bright, 
clean, enter])rising and wholesome, and it has 
made many lasting friends among the read- 
ing public, being also well deserving of the 
su])port it receives as an advertising medium. 
In connection with the paper .Mr. Livermore 
conducts an ui>-to-clate job printing office. 

September 1, 1908 Mr. Livermore was 
united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Miller, 
daughter of the Hon. E. Miller, who repre- 
sented liis district in the state legislature. Mr. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



547 



Miller was a pioneer farmer of Sargent and 
was a well known real-estate man, but he is 
now living a retired life at Hastings, Ne- 
braska. Of the seven children born to Mr. 
and Mrs. Livermore, four are living — Leland 
C, nine years of age (1918); Clarice, six 
years old ; Roscoe, aged four years ; and 
Wanda, two and one-half years of age. The 
family belongs to the Methodist Episcopal 
church. Mr. Livermore is a member of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which 
he has passed the official chairs, and in poli- 
tics he is independent. 



CLARK H. FENSTERMACHER, M. D. 

— Standing among the highest in his profes- 
sion in Custer county, and enjoying a not less 
exalted jjosition in the estimation of his 
friends, whose name is legion. Dr. Clark H. 
Fensterniacher, of Sargent, is likewise de- 
serving of more than passing mention because 
of his accomplishments in the field of sur- 
gery. He is a native of Cass county, Mich- 
igan, and was born March 2, 1873, a son of 
C. A. and Margaret (Hill) Fenstermacher. 

C. A. Fensterniacher was born in Pennsyl- 
vania, where he was educated and reared as 
a farmer, a vocation which he adopted and 
followed in Michigan. He was married in 
Cass county, that state, to which his wife had 
come as a young woman, from her native New 
Jersey, and there Mr. Fenstermacher con- 
tinued to be engaged in agricultural pursuits 
uiUil his retirement, several years prior to his 
death. He was a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, to which his widow, who 
is a resident of Michigan, also belongs. They 
were the parents of five children : Dr. C. C. 
is engaged in practicing medicine ; Dr. Clark 
H. is the subject of this notice; Abbie is the 
wife of Clarence Metcalf, an implement dealer 
of Sargent, Nebraska ; Maggie, twin of Ab- 
bie, is single and is a resident of Michigan ; 
and Verna is a teacher in the public schools 
of that state. 

Dr. Clark H. Fensterniacher received his 
early education in the public schools of Mich- 
igan and spent his boyhood on the home farm. 
An agricultural life, however, did not appeal 
to him and after some preparation he entered 
the University of Louisville, Kentucky, irom 
which he was duly graduated in 1900, in 
which year he began practice at vSargent. He 
has continued here with constantly increasing 
success, and now has a large and lucrative 
practice of a general character, although he 
specializes to some extent in surgery, a branch 
in which he has met with particularly grati- 
fying success. He has given much study and 



thought to this department of his profession, 
has kept fully abreast of the great advance- 
ments being constantly made, and perhaps no 
practitioner in Custer county has had more 
experience in this direction. For a lumiber 
of years he has been local surgeon for the 
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad at 
Sargent. He holds membership in the various 
medical organizations, and is affiliated with 
the local lodge of the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows. His political beliefs cause him 
to maintain an independent stand in regard to 
public matters. Gifted with a love for his 
chosen profession, quick of intuition, and gen- 
erous and sympathetic in his work, he has 
won the respect and esteem of the citizens of 
Sargent, and by his courteous manner and 
genial nature, as well as acknowledged abil- 
ity, has won an enviable practice and sur- 
rounded himself with a circle of warm 
friends. 

Dr. Fensterniacher was united in marriage 
in November, 1913, at Sargent, to Aliss Olive 
Griffith, who was born in Custer county, a 
daughter of George Griffith, who is engaged 
in farming near Callaway, this county. Dr. 
and Mrs. Fensterniacher are the parents of 
one child, Inez. 



^ ALLIE L. MORGAN. — Down on the 
South Loup, on the same quarter-section upon 
which is located the Cuniro store and post- 
office, in a region noted for its pioneers, lives 
one of the staunch, reliable characters who 
helped to make the history of the early day. 
This was none other than Allie Levi Mor- 
gan, who was born in Aurora, Illinois, in 1858. 

He is a son of Levi and Sarah (Satter- 
field) Morgan. Levi Morgan served as a 
member of an Illinois regiment during the 
Civil war, and, like many another gallant 
soldier of the Union, he came home but to 
die — a martyr to a noble cause. 

Allie L. Alorgan came to Nebraska in 1879, 
from Aurora, Illinois. He landed at Lexing- 
ton and made his way into Custer county in 
1880. Here, one year later; he homesteaded 
on the South Loup — the place he now owns 
and upon which he maintains his splendid 
farm home, which is known throughout the 
south part of the county as the "Pioneer's 
Rest." During those early days, he worked 
first on one ranch and then on another, some- 
times for L. D. George and sometimes for 
John George, sometimes for Andy Pancake. 
But no matter where his operations were ex- 
erted, he made good and managed to culti- 
vate his own land, put on substantial im- 
provements, culti\ate a tree claim and keep 



548 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



things going ; and all this without much to 
start on. When he filed on his tree claim, it 
took ever)' cent he had in the world. 

In 1882 Mr. Morgan was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Cora George, a member of the 
widely known George family, and she did 
well her jjart in making the home and ac- 
cumulating their possessions. A lady of refine- 
ment and a splendid mother, she be<|ueathed 
her characteristics to her children and leaves 
in her home the monument of her life. She 
died in August, 1918, at the age of fifty-eight 
years. During her life time she and her hus- 
band maintained an open, hospitable home, 
characteristic of the South Louj) country. 
Their union was blessed by the birth of three 
sons : Byron is married and lives on the 
home place ; Nc G. operates the Cumro store 
and is the community postmaster : Fletcher is 
married and also lives on the home place. 
During his life time Mr. Morgan has been 
connoisseur of Indian relics, and he has on 
hand to-day a larger and perhaps more valu- 
able collection than any other collector of rel- 
ics in the county. Many of the arrowheads, 
spearheads, stone knives, battle-axes, stone 
hammers, etc., described and illustrated in the 
historical pages of this volume, belong to him. 
These he has preserved at great pains and 
much expense, and some day his collection 
will be a great asset to some museum or his- 
torical society. Historians of the state are 
indebted to ^Ir. Morgan for much valuable 
information gleaned from the relics he has 
collected. 

The Morgans are highly esteemed in the 
community, are promoters of all progressive 
movements and, withal, are influential citizens. 
During her lifetime, Mrs. Morgan was a mem- 
ber of the Baptist church. 

,\nent the experiences through which Air. 
and Mrs. Morgan passed, we submit the fol- 
lowing lines, written by Mr. Morgan himself, 
and addressed to his wife. These lines 
describe the passing of the old sod house in 
which their children were born and where so 
many experiences incidental to pioneer times 
took place. 

\\ ell. Cora, I've torn down the old ?od house, and as 

I pause a moment to rest, 
My thoughts go wandering backward to the early 

days in the west. 

Full twenty years and five have passed away since T 

felled the giant tree 
That helped to Imild the cabin and make a home for 

you and me. 

Don't you rememhcr, we were sweethearts then ? 

Our paths were still untrod, 
But many and many are the happy years we spent 

in that house of sod. 



Together we rocked the cradle upon its earthen 

floor. 
Together we fought the famine, when the wolf was 

at the door. 

And our children grew to manhood beneath the fam- 
ily tree 

.•\nd through many a storm and blizzard it sheltered 
\ou and me. 

But the wheels of time turn onward and its walls 

were in the way ; 
To make room for better improvements, I tore them 

down to-day. 

\ow our acres are numbered liy the liundreds, our 

cattle hy the score, 
Our granaries are bursting with a thousand bushels 

or more. 

But better than all the riches which we toiled for 

years to get, 
And the sweetest of all God's blessings, is this, we 

are sweethearts vet. 



ROBERT A. HUNTER. — Industr)' in 
labor, and faith in his community have been 
contributing factors in the success of Robert 
A. Hunter, who, after years of participation 
in farming, stock-raising, and ranching in Cus- 
ter county, is now residing in comparative re- 
tirement at Broken Bow. Mr. Hunter was 
born February 25, 1855, at St. Louis. Mis- 
souri, a son of Robert and Elizabeth (Ander- 
son) Hunter, natives of Scotland. 

Robert Hunter came to the United States 
when thirty years of age, and shortly after 
his arrival he married Miss Elizabeth Ander- 
son, whose mother was a member of the fa- 
nirns Scotch publishing-house family of Mc- 
Millan. She was eighteen years old when she 
came to this country, and after their marriage 
she and Mr. Hunter located near Litchfield, 
Illinois, where they engaged in farming and 
stock-raising, accumulating large holdings in 
land and stock. They were faithful members 
of the Persbyterian church, in the faith of 
which Mr. Hunter died in 1890, at Walsh- 
ville, Illinois. Mrs. Hunter survived until 
1903 and passed away at the home of her 
son Robert A., at Broken Bow. They are 
survived by four children: Mary J. is the 
wife of Peter \V. Davenport, a veteran of the 
Civil war. a Republican, and a member of the 
Christian church and the Woodmen's lodge ; 
Robert .\. is the subject of this sketch : James 
.\., a retired ranchman of Alliance, Nel)raska, 
is a Woodman and a Rejiublican : and Martha 
is the wife of A. L. Mcl'liai!. a fariuer near 
Litchfield, Illinois. 

Robert A. Hunter attended the public 
schools and Lebanon (Illinois) College, and 
he remained on the home farm until his mar- 
riage, Marcli 14, 1877. at Walshville. Illinois, 
to Martha .\. Beck, a ilaugbter of .Moses and 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



549 



Emily C. (Barlow) Beck. Mr. Beck, who 
was a pioneer farmer of Illinois, was an elder 
in the Presbyterian church, belonged to the 
Odd Fellows, and was a Republican. Not 
long after their marriage, ^Ir. and Mrs. Hunt- 
er came to Custer county and located six 
miles north of Broken Bow, on an unde- 
veloped ranch, which Mr. Hunter named 
Sunny Dell. They lived in a little sod house 
and their early struggles for a start were 
ones that taxed their energies to the full, but 
both possessed determination and persistence 
and in the end they triumphed over all ob- 
stacles. Mr. Hunter had the utmost faith 
in the community which he had selected as 
his home, and during the drouth years of 1(S90 
and 1894, when other settlers were discour- 
aged and were leaving for their former homes 
in the east, he bought all the land adjoining 
his own. When his small capital was ex- 
hausted he borrowed money, often paying as 
high as three per cent, a month interest, but 
his faith was vindicated, and he has lived to 
reap the reward of his confidence. He still 
owns his original homestead in Custer county, 
besides other property, and while he is now 
partly retired and living in his comfortable 
home at Broken Bow he still supervises the 
operations on much of this land. 

For many years Mrs. Hunter has been one 
of the most prominent women in Custer 
county. During the earl)* days, when her 
husband was struggling hard to make ends 
meet, she secured a position teaching school, 
and for five years, during nine months out of 
the year, drove daily from five to seven miles 
to take care of her classes, taking with her 
her two daughters. In addition to this ser- 
vice she did all of her own housework at the 
ranch, and did not think it any hardship. 
Even when prosperity' came, and the family 
moved to Broken Bow, she continued for a 
time to teach in the public schools here. For 
many years she taught a young men's Bible 
class in the Sunday school of the Presbyterian 
church, and she has always been active in the 
work of religion and temperance. She was 
the first president of the Custer county Wom- 
en's Christian Temperance Union, has given 
numerous lectures at public meetings in behalf 
of temperance, and was a charter member of 
Chapter S, P. E. O., subsequently serving as 
vice-president of the Nebraska grand chapter 
of the P. E. O. She was a member also of 
the women's board at the Trans-Mississipjii 
Exposition, held at Omaha in 1898. In 1915 
she published the "Story of the Four Gos- 
pels," for boys and girls, and a temperance 
drama entitled "Weighed in the Balance," 
both of which met with immediate favor. She 



has contributed numerous short stories and 
other articles to different periodicals. A 
woman of splendid talents and utmost sin- 
cerity, it is her wish to serve her day and gen- 
eration and to merit her Master's : "Well 
done, thou good and faithful servant." 



JAMES N. PEALE. — Of the men who 
have lent dignity of character, excellence of 
labor and largeness of general co-operation to 
aiTairs in Custer county for a considerable 
period, none is held in greater esteem than is 
James N. Peale, the proprietor of a grocery, 
fruit, and feed business and a creamery sta- 
tion at Broken Bow. 

Mr. Peale was born November 4, 1863, at 
Plarrisonburg, Rockingham county, Virginia, 
a son of Anderson N. and Martha (Bushnell) 
Peale. Anderson N. Peale was born at Cross 
Roads, Rockingham county. Virginia, a son of 
Jonathan Peale. the original ancestors having 
come from England, and for many years An- 
derson N. Peale was a school teacher in the 
Old Dominion state. In 1883 he came to 
Custer county, Nebraska, where he located 
near New Helena and began to teach school, 
but after a few years he located at Wester- 
ville and established himself in the hotel and 
meat-market business. His death occurred at 
Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1896, he hav- 
ing removed to that city several years prior 
to his demise. He was a Presbyterian and in 
politics was a Democrat. Mrs. Peale was 
born at Reidsville, North Carolina, a daughter 
of Henry Bushnell, a leading civil engineer 
and during his day considered one of the best 
mathematicians of the south. He was a 
Democrat and a member of the Baptist 
church. 

The mother of James N. Peale died when 
he was fourteen years of age, near Harrison- 
burg, Virginia, and following that he had no 
real home. He managed to earn small 
amounts of money by collecting bones, which 
were ground into fertilizer, and by selling 
such old iron as he could find, but he did not 
make much progress until the spring of 1880, 
when he came to the west, in comjianv with 
E. N. Bishop, their destination being Cnmdy 
county, Iowa, a community which thev event- 
ually reached. ( )ne month later, with a pair 
of plug horses and an emigrant wagon, they 
came to Gates, Custer county, Nebraska, tak- 
ing sixteen days to make the journey, and 
young Peale hired out to James L. Cixford, 
who was proprietor of the Oxford ranch, on 
Lillian creek. He worked there about four 
years, attending the district schools in the win- 
ter months, and sul)sec|uently he went to Wes- 



550 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



terville, where for three or four years he 
clerked in mercantile establishments. During 
President Cleveland's first administration he 
was appointed postmaster at Westerville, and 
he also conducted a mercantile business at that 
point. From that time to the present there 
has not been a period of more than several 
months' duration that he has not been actively 
engaged in mercantile pursuits. His talents 
seem to be naturally adapted to barter and 
trade, and at the present time he is the pro- 
prietor of a splendidly successful enterprise 
on the north side of the Public Square at 
Broken Bow, handling staple and fancy gro- 
ceries, fresh fruit, feed, etc., and conducting 
a creamery station, under the style of J. N. 
Peale & Company. Mr. Peale has an excel- 
lent reputation in business circles — a man of 
industry and energy, enterprise and spirit, and 
he is noted for his strict integrity and the 
manner in which he lives uj> to his business 
obligations. 

^lr. Peale was married July 4. 1888, at 
Broken Bow, to Miss Alattie S. Bond, daugh- 
ter of Benjamin Bond, a farmer of this com- 
munity, and of the children born to this 
union, two are living, — Shemian C, who is 
the proprietor of a feed and fuel business at 
Los Angeles, California ; and Walter N., who 
is telephone-order clerk for the great whole- 
sale grocery house of H. Jevne Company, at 
Los Angeles. Mr. Peale is a member of the 
Methodist Ejiiscopal church and is a staunch 
Democrat in politics. He is fraternally af- 
filiated with the Odd Fellows and the Knights 
of Pythias. 



WILLIAM BOEKING. — N u m b e r e d 
among the homesteaders of 1882 in Custer 
county who are still the owners of their orig- 
inal properties, although now retired from 
active labor, is found \\illiam Boeking. Mr. 
Boeking was for years a successful farmer 
and stock-raiser of Custer county, but in the 
spring of 1916 he took up his residence at 
Litchfield, where he is the proprietor of an 
implement business. 

Mr. Boeking was born in Westphalia, Ger- 
many, January 15, 1860, and is a son of Henry 
and Kathryn { Knnn ) Boeking, the fonner 
l)orn in Ciermany in 1S37, and the latter on 
January 16th of that year. They were mar- 
ried in their native land and resided in West- 
l)halia until coming to the United States, in 
1868, in which year they settled in Livington 
county, Illinois. During the next eleven 
vears they were engaged in farming in that 
county, and then, in 1879, they started out 
in a wasron for Nebraska. After a long and 



tedious journey they arrived at their destina- 
tion, in Sherman county, where the father 
filed on a homestead. Through his industry 
and good management he became well-to-do, 
and when he died, on his homestead, in 1885, 
he was one of the substantial and highly re- 
spected men of his community. He was a Re- 
publican in politics, and he and his wife were 
faithful members of the Evangelical church. 
They were the parents of five children : Will- 
iam of this sketch ; Henry-, who died at Grand 
Junction, Colorado; Albert, of Strathcona, Al- 
berta, Canada ; ^Iar\', the widow of William 
Ruland, and a resident of Litchfield : and 
John, on the old home farm in Sherman 
county. 

William Boeking was given his education 
in the jniblic schools of Illinois, to which state 
he had been taken as a lad of eight years, and 
he accompanied his parents to Sherman 
county, Nebraska, in 1879. He resided there 
three years, and then, with his possessions, 
which consisted of a team of horses, a wagon, 
and two dollars in cash, he came to Custer 
county and settled on a homestead. When 
others, less determined and stunly, gave up 
their land under discouraging conditions, he 
held grimly on to his property, and in the end 
his perseverance was rewarded, for his prop- 
erty developed productiveness and value and 
its ownership eventually made him a wealthy 
man. He carried on general farming, in ad- 
dition to doing considerable stock-raising, and 
from time to time he added to his holdings, 
until he had 5()0 acres. In the spring of 1916 
he turned over the strenuous labor of the farm 
to younger hands, although retaining its 
ownership, and removed to Litchfield, where 
he engaged in the hardware and implement 
business. In 1918 he traded the hardware 
store for a farm in Sherman county, but he 
still owns the implement business. Mr. Boek- 
ing has made a decided success of his career, 
during which his transactions have always 
been honorable, fair, square, and above-board. 
He has sened as asses.sor of his county three 
years and has always discharged the duties of 
citizenship in a conscientious and creditable 
manner. His political support is given to the 
Democratic ]«rly, and his religious faith is 
that of the Methodist Episcopal church, to 
which the members of his family also belong. 

In 188,?. the year following liis arrival in 
Custer county, Mr. Boeking was united in 
marriage with Miss Emma Fienhold, who was 
born at Peru, Illinois, and they became the 
parents of twelve children, of whom nine sur- 
vive : .Albert, who carries on operations on 
his father's- farm in Sherman county, Ne- 
brask.i : Mary, who married Harry Douglass, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



551 



of Custer county ; Kate, the wife of Ned 
Perry, a farmer of Butfalo county, Nebraska ; 
Ed, who entered the United States army in 
1917, and later entered active service in 
France ; Bertha, who married George Pater- 
son, a farmer of Custer county; Harve, a 
student of the State University, at Lincoln, 
where at the time of this writing he is taking 
a course in radio work, having enlisted in the 
United States service ; and George, Mildred, 
and Grace, who remain with their parents. 



SYLVESTER McWORTHY was born in 
Carroll county, Illinois, July 21, 1854. His 
father. Peter Mc Worthy, was born in one of 
the eastern states, of Irish descent, though for 
many years the family had been residents of 
the United States. When a young man 
Peter McWorthy settled near Quincy, Illi- 
nois, where he became a farmer and where 
his marriage occurred, the maiden name of 
his wife having been Hicks, and she having 
been born near Quincy, Illinois. From that 
locality they moved to Carroll county, Illi- 
nois, becoming early settlers there, and in that 
county they spent the remainder of their days. 

Sylvester McWorthy. the subject of this 
record, was reared on a farm in Illinois and 
in 1883 he came to Custer county, Nebraska, 
where his boyhood friends, the Thomas boys, 
had settled but a short time before. Mr. JNIc- 
Worthy secured a homestead of 160 acres — 
the southwest quarter of section 19, township 
18, range 21. He had the usual experiences 
of the early settlers of Custer county, and a 
sod house was his home until six years ago, 
when he erected the present frame structure. 
This farm has always been his home since he 
came here, thirty-six years ago, and for many 
years he carried on general farming, though 
he now rents his land and practically lives re- 
tired. Mr. McWorthy has a host of friends 
in the community, though he has not a rela- 
tive in the state, and he has chosen to live in 
single blessedness, as one of the popular 
bachelors of the county in which he has long 
lived and labored and of which he is a sterling 
pioneer citizen. 



HENRY T. BARRETT. — Among the 
early settlers of Custer county who have 
helped to bring about present-day conditions, 
mention should be made of Air. and Mrs. 
Henry T. Barrett. 

Henry T. Barrett was born in Jackson 
county, Iowa, October 20, 1860. His parents, 
Hercules and Susan ( Hawke) Barrett, were 
natives of Cornwall, F^ngland, where thev 



were born within six miles of Land's End. 
While still young people they came to Amer- 
ica, and they lived in turn in Wisconsin, in 
Illinois, and in Jackson county, Iowa, their 
last days having been spent in Cass county, 
that state, where both passed away, he at the 
age of seventy and she at the age of seventy- 
six years. 

Henry T. Barrett was reared in his native 
state and when a young man came to Custer 
county and took a somestead of 160 acres, in 
section 22, townssip 17, range 22. He built 
a sod house, proved up on the claim, and re- 
cently he deeded the farm to one of his sons. 

In 1885, in Custer county, was solemnized 
the marriage of Henry T. Barrett to Sarah 
E. M. Cass, who was born in Jackson county, 
Iowa, and who is a daughter of John and 
Orpha (Hill) Cass, natives of New York state 
and early pioneers of Jackson county, Iowa, 
where they passed away. 

In 1884 Mrs. Barrett, before her marriage, 
came to Custer county and secured a home- 
stead in section 22, township 18, range 22. 
Here she was married and since that event 
she and her husband have made this their 
home. They occupy a nice frame house, and 
the improvements are in keeping with present- 
day development. 

Mr. and Mrs. Barrett have two sons: 
.\lonzo, who was graduated in the Merna 
high school, as a member of the class of 1912, 
is at home and is assisting in the operation 
of the farm. He recently married Miss Min- 
nine Foerst. Grant, who was graduated in tlie 
Merna high school, class of 1915, was a mem- 
ber of the United States Army in France at 
the time when the great war came to a close. 

Mr. and Mrs. Barrett are among the pio- 
neer settlers of Custer county, have contrib- 
uted their full share to the progress and de- 
velopment of the community in which they 
live, and are people of genuine worth. 



AMOS O. ALEXANDER was born Feb- 
ruary 27, 1871, in Nebraska City, and he is a 
son of James O. and Sarah E. ( Standley) 
Alexander, who were honored pioneers of 
Nebraska, and from whom Amos O. inherited 
the characteristic traits that have made his 
life career very successful. There were these 
children in the family of James O. and Sarah 
E. Alexander — Phineas W., Sarah J., Fin- 
ley, James M., Luella A. Spegal (deceased), 
.\ddie E. Flower (deceased), Amos O., (the 
farmer and business man of whom this sketch 
is written), and Lillian M. Andry. Through 
the mother, this familv was connected with the 
Methodist church. The father was a stock 



n:)^ 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



raiser and farmer by occupation, and his farm 
was situated seven miles northwest of Ne- 
braska City, where he died when his son 
Amos was but five years old. It should be 
made a matter of record that the late James 
O. Alexander was one of the valiant band of 
territorial pioneers in Nebraska. He came 
to Nebraska Territory in 1855, prior to the 
time when railroads had been constructed 
through this section of our national domain, 
and he lived up to the full tension of frontier 
life during the period of his early residence 
in the now prosperous and opulent common- 
wealth of Nebraska. He was a man of strong 
character, commanded unequi\ocal confidence 
and esteem and was affiliated with the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows. 

At an early age Amos O. Alexander began 
looking for ways by which he could earn 
money. When eleven years of age he worked 
for his brother. His brother permitted him 
to plant a small tract of ground with corn, 
and when, at maturity, the product was sold, 
it brought five dollars. This first five dollars 
looked bigger to .\mos than many times that 
amount would to-day. He worked at home 
and went to school whenever opportunity of- 
fered until he was thirteen years of age. By 
this time his older brothers and sisters had 
married, and this left him at home with his 
mother and a younger sister. The situation 
challenged his strength and manhood. He 
must contribute to his mother's support. This 
he did by working on the fami. and from that 
time until the day of her death he charged 
himself with the care and support of his 
mother, who passed to the life eternal on 
March 29, 1918. The mother's farm was 
sold in 1892 and with her two younger chil- 
dren she came to Custer county and bought 
160 acres, southwest of Arnold. As soon as 
Amos ( ). was of age he took a homestead on 
the same table, nine miles sowthwest of Ar- 
nold, where he made his home until he moved 
to Arnold, three vears ago. 

July 11, 1894." at North Platte, Nebraska. 
Mr. Alexander married Cora A. Dourte. of 
Nebraska City. Mrs. Alexander is a daugh- 
ter of John and Cordelia (Barnum) Dourte. 
In her father's family she was the only daugh- 
ter. She had three brothers, Edward J., San- 
ford B., and Myron J., and also three half- 
brothers. LeRoy G., Carl P., and Harley O. 

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander was 
enlivened, as the years went by, with five chil- 
dren — four boys and one girl, ^^'a^ren, at 
the time of this writing, is somewhere in 
France, as a member of a supply company of 
the Fourth Infantry-, .American Expeditionar)' 
Forces. He is a graduate of the Arnold 



high school. H. Nolan is a graduate of the 
Arnold high school and is now teaching near 
Arnold. He makes his home with his par- 
ents. Alva H. also is a graduate of the Ar- 
nold high school, is a mechanic by occupation 
and is working at home with his father. 
Ralph E. is a freshman in the high school. 
Constance, six years of age, is the pampered 
idol of the home. The home farm of the 
Alexanders, on Garfield Table, comprises 480 
acres, with all necessary equipment and im- 
provements. At the present time they have 
retired from the farm and have a comfortable 
home in Arnold, where Mr. Alexander is 
building a new garage and machine shop, of 
brick anfl cement. The dimensions of the new 
building are 60 bv 112 feet, with an upper 
story 60 by 60 feet. This gives over 10,000 
square feet of floor space and when it is fin- 
ished the commodious building should insure 
a profitable business. Mr. Alexander is con- 
sidered one of the "live wires" of the com- 
munity, is an Odd Fellow by social connections 
and his high standing in the community will 
insure him a splendid business in his new en- 
terjjrise. His wife enjoys the same distinc- 
tion and esteem in the community. 



WILLIAM R. YOUNG, M. D. — The 
career of Dr. William R. Young is strongly 
entrenched in the history of the medical pro- 
fession in Custer county. The thriving com- 
munity of Ansley, to which he came in 1897. 
offered a promising field for the young phy- 
sician, and the citizens who have watched his 
uprising have never had cause to regret the 
faith thev placed in his energy, enthusiasm, and 
ability. He has grown into his opportuni- 
ties, has fashioned his resources to his needs, 
and has reflected dignity, sincerity, and genu- 
ine worth upon a profession for which he is 
singularly and admirably equipped. 

Dr. William R. Young was born in Pitts- 
burgh, Pennsylvania, September 8, 1868, a 
son of Thomas and Jane E. (Rutherford) 
Young. His parents were natives of England, 
his father immigrating to the United States 
alone, in voung manhood, and his mother com- 
ing with her parents when a child. Thomas 
S. Young was a fanner by vocation, an occu- 
jwtion which he followed for a number of 
vears in Pennsylvania, Init later he moved to 
the vicinity of Williamsburg, Iowa, where he 
passed the rest of his life in agricultural pur- 
suits, his death occurring there in January, 
1917. when he was eighty-three years of age. 
Mr. "S'oung was a Republican in his political 
views and for a number of years served as 
postmaster at a country- office. He was a 



HISTORY UF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



553 



Mason and was a member of the Alethodist 
Episcopal church, as was also Airs. Young, 
who died in 1913, when sixty-four years of 
age. They were people who were highly es- 
teemed in their community, noted for their 
charities and their unfailing kindliness and 
hospitality. They had four children : Will- 
iam R., of this notice; and iMary, Nellie, and 
Jennie, all of whom reside at Williamsburg, 
Iowa. 

After completing his preliminary educa- 
tional training in the public schools of the 
country community in which his father's farm 
was located, William R. Young began his pro- 
fessional studies in the medical department of 
the University of Iowa, in which institution 
he was duly graduated after a creditable col- 
lege career. He thus received his degree of 
Doctor of Medicine in 1893. At that time he 
began his professional work at Marengo, 
Iowa, but after four years there came, in 1897, 
to Ansley, which has since been his home, the 
center of professional activities, and the scene 
of his rise and success. Through ability and 
splendid professional equipment he has stead- 
ily advanced in his profession and has built 
up a name for himself, while acquiring a large 
])atronage. While the Doctor has been a gen- 
eral practitioner, being equally at home in the 
various branches of medical and surgical 
science, he has nevertheless specialized to some 
extent in the treatment and cure of diseases of 
the eye, ear, nose, and throat. Always a close 
and careful student, with a receptive mind, 
he has continued his studies and has taken 
several post-graduate courses — in New York, 
ill 1907 ; three months in Chicago, in 1917 ; and 
two months in the latter city in 1918. He is 
a valued member of the Custer County Medi- 
cal Society, of which he was formerly presi- 
dent for several terms ; the Nebraska State 
Medical Society ; the Missouri Valley Medi- 
cal Society ; and the American Medical Asso- 
ciation. 

On August 22, 1894, Dr. Young was united 
in marriage to Miss Mae Roloson, who was 
born near Williamsburg, Iowa. They have 
no children. Dr. and Mrs. Young are mem- 
bers of the Christian church and are interested 
practically in religious, charitable, and edu- 
cational work and movements. He is a prom- 
inent ]\Iason, having attained Scottish Rite 
degrees, and politically he is a Republican, al- 
though close application to the duties of his 
profession has kept him from active partici- 
pation in political affairs. 



SAMUEL O. STERNER, who is one of 
the enterprising and progressive farmers of 



Custer county and a well known and respected 
citizen, has spent almost his entire life in this 
county, for he was only one year old when 
his parents, James and Amelia (Shaw) Ster- 
ner, here established their home. He was born 
in Appanoose county, Iowa, March 28, 1883, 
and IS one of the seven survivors of a family 
of ten children, the others being: Mrs. Alice 
C. Ireland, Mrs. Flora Johnson, Mrs. Nevada 
Doggett, Charles W., George C., and Robert 
J. James Sterner was born in Ohio and his 
wife was born in Indiana. In politics he was 
a Republican, and his religious membership 
was in the United Brethren church. He 
brought his family to Custer county in 1884 
and died here in 1891. 

Samuel O. Sterner was only eight years old 
when his father died, and his boyhood mem- 
ories all linger about the first home, especially 
when pioneer hardships in Nebraska are the 
subject of conversation. His father located 
on Cliff Table and when the dry season came 
on, the lack of water became a very serious 
matter, as it had to be hauled from the Loup 
river, which was twelve miles distant. The 
family lived on Cliff Table for nine years, dur- 
ing a part of the time being able to secure 
water from the old Caswell place, which was 
distant less than a mile. Purchase was then 
made of the present homestead, which belongs 
to Samuel 0. Sterner and which is situated 
on Spring creek, six miles northeast of Calla- 
way. This fine property has been managed 
by Mr. Sterner and its industries successfully 
carried on by him eVer since he was sixteen 
years of age. Under the circumstances, this 
was a heavy responsibility, but anyone who 
can visit Mr. Sterner's well improved estate 
of 280 acres and see his ripening crops of 
grain — 175 acres under cultivation, eighty 
being in corn and the rest in oats, wheat, and 
rye — will readily assert that good judgment 
regulated his activities and that he has been 
well rewarded for his years of industry. Until 
1911 Mr. Sterner's mother resided with him 
on the homestead, and she then purchased 
property at Callaway, where she has a very 
comfortable home. 

Mr. Sterner was married September 21, 
1904, at Broken Bow, Nebraska, to Miss Clara 
Knudsen, who was born in Custer county, and 
is a daughter of Nels and Anna (Tower) 
Knudsen, who were born in Denmark. Mrs. 
Sterner has one brother and one sister — 
.\lphoiie and Mrs. Anna Reeder. Mr. and 
Mrs. Sterner have three children : Myrle, 
Orval, and Aunno, all of whom have been 
given good school advantages. Mr. Sterner 
has always voted the Democratic ticket. He 
is affiliated with the Brotherhood, with the 



554 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Masonic fraternity and with the order of 
American Yeomen. .\s may be imagined, he 
has always been a man of activity and energy, 
and that these traits characterized him when 
he was still a boy may be illustrated by a story 
that Mr. Sterner sometimes tells of the first 
piece of money he earned. This was paid to 
liim by Uavid Moses, as a reward for sitting 
])erfeclly quiet on a chair for a period of 
ten minutes. 



MRS. STELLA WATKINS. — The pio- 
neers of Custer county of the year 1885 in- 
cluded numerous emigrants from Illinois, 
many of whom settled permanently and assisted 
materially in the development of the agricul- 
tural and other interests of the county. 
Among these was the William family, whose 
members subsequently became well known and 
highly respected here, and among whom was 
a daughter, Stella, who is now Mrs. Stella 
Drum Watkins, and who for the past twenty- 
six years has been a resident of the northern 
part of Callaway, where she is widely known 
and has many sincere friends. 

Stella William was born in Grundy county, 
Illinois, February 20, 1869, a daughter of 
Richard E. and Anna R. ( Teeter ) William. 
The father was a native of Wales, his parents 
coming to the United States when he was five 
years of age, and having settled in Illinois, 
where he was reared to manhood and where 
he married Anna R. Teeter, a native of In- 
diana. They became the parents of nine chil- 
dren, of whom seven are living: John T., 
Walter J., Ida (the wife of Henry \Vheeler), 
Anna (the wife of Grant Patterson), Blanche 
(the wife of Zearl Ramzey), Gertrude (the 
wife of Roy Hussey), and Stella (Mrs. Wat- 
kins). Richard E. William was engaged in 
farming in (inuuly county, Illinois, until 1885, 
in which year he brought his family to Cus- 
ter county, Nebraska, and settled on Red Fern 
Table, twelve miles south of Callaway, where 
he and his wife still nudve their home. Mr. 
William, a man of remarkable energy, still 
oversees the operations on his 300 acres of 
crop-bearing land, although he has reached the 
age of eighty-one years, and his devoted wife, 
although ])ast seventy-two years of age in 
1918, is likewise alert in mind and active in 
body and performs all her own work, disdain- 
ing assistance. These sterling pioneers are 
greatly honored and respected in the com- 
munity in which they have lived so long, ard 
in which they have displayed those excellencies 
of heart and mind that have endeared them to 
many friends. 

When she accompanied her ])arents to Cus- 



ter county Stella William was a young lady 
of sixteen years and was a graduate of the 
high school at Braid wood, Illinois. Subse- 
quently she attended the Custer County Teach- 
ers' Institute for six weeks, and she obtained 
her first certificate from Superintendent U. 
M. Amsberry. She began to teach on Red 
Fern Table, where she continued her effective 
services two years. She was married .\ugust 
2?, 1887, to Charles B. Drum, a son of Dela- 
van Drum. His business was the sinking of 
hydraulic wells, a vocation in which he was 
successfully engaged until his death. Novem- 
ber 26, 1907. Four children were born to this 
union: Delavan C, who is clerk of the ;\1 id- 
way Hotel, Kearney, Nebraska, married Ger- 
trude Bainbridge, daughter of Emmett Bain- 
bridge, and has a son and a daughter: Harry 
E. ("Bud") lives with his mother and step- 
father ; Erwin G., nineteen years of age, is a 
member of Battery E, One Hundred and 
Twenty-seventh Artillery, stationed at Fort 
Sill, Oklahoma, at the time of this writing : 
and Stella May, who is residing with her 
mother and stepfather, and who is a graduate 
of Callaway high school, class of 1917, taught 
one term of school and is now a clerk in the 
postoffice at Callaway. 

November 28, 1909, Mrs. Drum became the 
wife of Richard Watkins, a son of George and 
Lucy Watkins, and to this union there has 
been born one son : Richard W. Mr. Wat- 
kins has successfully followed the well-con- 
struction business in Custer county during -\ 
period of sixteen years, but is now engaged 
in farming in a successful way, on the prop- 
erty, north of Callaway, on which Mrs. W'at- 
kins has made her home for the past tweiity- 
six years. They are the owners of 520 acres 
of good Custer county soil, which has been 
brought to a high state of productiveness ajul 
im[)roved with modern buildings and the latest 
equipment of all kinds. Mr. and Mrs. Wat- 
kins are widely known in this communit\ jMid 
are as widely respected. They are leading 
and consistent members of the Evangelical 
church, and politically Mr. Watkins is a Demo- 
crat. 



OTIS H. MOOMEY, one of the substantial 
merchants of Broken Bow. and senior mem 
her of the grocery and market finn of O. H. 
Moomey & Son, has been a resident of Custer 
county since 1892, and during the quarter of 
a century that has intervened he has been 
variously connected with the rising industrial 
and commercial interests of this section, al- 
ways to the benefit of himself and his com- 
munity. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



555 



Mr. Moomey was bom on a farm near Iowa 
City, Johnson county, Iowa, on a property 
which belonged to his father, Peter Moomey, 
who had inherited it from grandfather Jacob 
Moomey, the original holder of the land from 
the United States government, from which he 
had secured it on a soldier's land warrant, as 
a veteran of the War of 1812. Jacob Moomey 
was a son of John Moomey, who was not only 
a veteran of the Revolutionary war but also 
a member of the body-guard of General Wash- 
ington. In this connection Jacob Moomey was 
distinguished by the following incident : Close 
students of Revolutionary history will remem- 
ber, as related, that on one occasion a British 
officer through some means slipped through 
the American lines, rode up to the side of 
General Washington, and, raising his sabre, 
was intent upon the death of the patriots' com- 
mander. He was prevented from the deed by 
the prompt action of a private who thrust up 
his gun and received the blow, which was de- 
livered with such force that it cleft the gun 
barrel nearly in two, broke the sabre in three 
pieces and split the private's thumb to the 
bone, but saved the General's life. This pri- 
vate was O. H. Moomey's great-grandfather. 

Mr. Moomey remained on the home farm 
with his parents until reaching the age of nine 
years, at which time his father, partly because 
of the death of a son and a daughter, his only 
other children at that time, sold his home and 
moved to Wilton Junction, Iowa, where he 
was engaged in the butcher business for two 
or three years. At the end of this period he 
moved to Keokuk county, Iowa, where he 
again engaged in mercantile lines, but, meeting 
with business reverses, he lost all that he had, 
and his son, Otis, then a lad of sixteen years, 
was thrown upon the world to make his own 
way. The manner in which he earned his first 
dollar is well remembered by him. It was in 
the fall of 1876 that he hired out to one Amos 
Quinn to work on what was then known as a 
"blind" or "mole" ditcher, at the then highest 
wage known, eighteen dollars per month. 
They used two yoke of oxen for the propelling 
power, and on the first morning Air. Quinn 
asked the youth if he had any experience in 
driving cattle. On being answered in the nega- 
tive, the employer said : "Well, here is the 
best trained two yoke of oxen anybody ever 
had," and, handing the whip to the lad, con- 
tinued, "Now, as you have had no experience 
with cattle, I will give you a lesson in driving 
here in the yard before we go to work. Now 
the names of these cattle are. Buck and Bill, 
the leaders, and John and I\ed, the wheelers. 
You always want to stand on the left side of 
cattle when commanding them and when you 



want to start say: 'Git up, Buck-Bill-John- 
Red,' and when you want them to stop say : 
'Whoa.' If you want them to turn to the 
right say : 'Gee,' and to the left say : ' Whoa- 
ha buck.' " After a few lessons of this kind 
the employer said : "You see how good they 
are to mind. Now, boy, I want you to re- 
member I won't have you whipping these 
cattle, for they do not need it, and if I catch 
you at it I will tire you." After loading the 
beam on to the capstan, Mr. Quinn and the 
expectant, but by no means confident youth, 
started to the field, but before reaching their 
objective point they had to cross a large, 
muddy slough, in which they nearly mired 
down. Remarking that it was jnilling the 
cattle too hard, Mr. Quinn threw oil the beam, 
drove the capstan over where they were ready 
to start, and while he was setting it in place 
he sent the youth back with the cattle after 
the beam. The return trip was made in safety, 
but in turning the cattle around young 
Moomey got into trouble, for he picked up the 
whip and went to the wrong side of the cattle, 
with disastrous results. When he shouted : 
"Git up Buck-Bill-John-Red," the oxen began 
pulling first one way and then the other, and 
when he gave the command : "Whoa-ha 
buck," the cattle backed up and turned 
around, the youth having to run for his life 
to keep them from trampling him in the mud. 
However, some way in the scramble he hap- 
pened to get on the right side again, when the 
cattle righted up and he was able to deliver 
the beam to his employer in proper fashion. 
This was the first and last work young 
Moomey did by the month. He conceived the 
idea that he would rather be his own employer 
and accordingly he rented a farm the next year 
and employed his parents to keep house for 
him. There he afterward met and married 
Ella, the second daughter of Lafayette Strick- 
land, who, during those days, was what was 
known as a "handy man," being a carpenter 
and wagonmaker by trade, but later in life 
conducting a hardware and grocery store. To 
this union there were born two children : For- 
rest Beryl and Feme, the latter of whom was 
called to the Heavenly Father when only two 
and one-half years of age. Worry over the 
loss of this child, and hard work in helping 
her husband to get a start in life, caused the 
mother to break down physically and, after a 
long siege of illness, when she was reduced 
almost to the point of being an invalid, Mr. 
Moomey decided to come to Custer county. 
Here he arrived in the fall of 1892, and here 
Mrs. Moomey soon regained her former 
health. She engaged in the millinery business 
at Mason City, occupying a portion of the 



556 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



room where Mr. Moomey conducted and 
owned a general store. After about nine years 
of prosperous business in these Hues, they 
sold out and moved to a farm of one-half sec- 
tion, which they purchased and improved and 
which they later sold. Finding this profitable. 
Mr. Moomey engaged in the business of buy- 
ing town lots and pieces of unimproved land, 
building houses on them, and then selling. He 
operated principally, around Ansley. and was 
making a success of his ventures, but, as he 
himself puts it. "Like the ston,- of the Indian: 
you may educate him and he will wear a plug 
hat and kid gloves for a while, but turn him 
loose and he will go back to the wigwam." So 
with Mr. Moomey. Upon being notified of 
the sudden death of Mr. Morrison, at Broken 
Bow, who had been engaged in the butcher 
business, Mr. Moomey and his son, familiarly 
known as Ber\l, purchased the establishment 
from the widow, and after a year or two 
merged it into the present meat and grocery 
business, located on the west side of the Pub- 
lic Square, where they are doing a splendid 
business, under the firm name of O. H. 
Moomey & Son. 



JOHN MARK BENNETT. — This is a 
story of a Pennsylvanian who transferred his 
activities to the central west, where he has 
made a record of which any man might well 
be proud. 

John Mark Sennett was born on St. Valen- 
tine's day of the year 1859, in the good old 
state of Pennsylvania. His parents, James 
B. and Ruth .Knn (Hall) Sennett, were both 
native Pennsylvanians and were very excellent 
people of good standing in their home state, 
whence they eventually removed to Lawrence 
county, Indiana, where, on a rented farm, the 
father conducted farming operations a few 
years. He then moved further west, and lo- 
cated near Hoopston. Illinois, where he con- 
tinued farming activities, on rented land, until 
the day of his death. 

In the family circle of this worthy couple 
were nine children, eight of whom are still liv- 
ing: Edward, who lives on a farm in Custer 
county; John Mark, who is the subject of this 
narrative, Frank, who is still a resident of Illi- 
nois, Mar>', who is the wife of Richard Parks 
and whose home is in Illinois ; Lizzie, who is 
the wife of Patrick O'Conner, living in Illi- 
nois ; Belle, a widow, whose home is at Hoop- 
ston, Illinois ; Adeline, who is deceased ; Harry, 
who is living at Hoopston, Illinois, as is also 
Charles, the youngest member of the family. 

Before the arrival of John Mark Sennett 
in Custer countv, he had received his educa- 



tion in the Hoosier state and had been well 
fitted for the business transactions incident to 
a farmer's career. In 1870 he left Indiana 
and journeyed as far west as Illinois, where 
he established himself upon a farm. He came 
to Custer county in 1884, when the county 
was but seven years old, and when pioneer 
conditions prevailed everv'where. He home- 
steaded a good quarter-section of land, began 
at once its impro\ement and by frugal habits 
succeeded in making his way and adding to his 
possessions. It seems that Hoopston. Illinois, 
still had attractions for him, for in 1893 he 
there led to the marriage altar Mollie .\deline 
Arihood, a young woman who was born in Tip- 
pacone county. Indiana, and who is a daughter 
of William Lawson Arihood and Almira 
(Peterson) Arihood, the father a native of 
( )hio and the mother of Indiana. Mrs. Sen- 
nett's parents came to Nebraska in 1906. and 
here the father died May 19. 1917. his widow 
now making her home with Mr. and Mrs. Sen- 
nett. 

Mr. and Mrs. John Mark Sennet have four 
children — Ruby, and Jessie are popular 
teachers, having received their education in the 
Nebraska public schools and the State Normal 
School at Kearney : Harn*- and Harley are 
twins and are pursuing their studies in the 
home school. The family are members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church. 

The first land Mr. Sennett owned was a 
Custer county farm. This he purchased and 
to the same he has added until to-day his land 
holdings in Custer county constitute a rounded 
section of 640 acres, providing for retirement 
in old age. Twenty-two town lots are to he 
marked down in the inventorv of this success- 
ful farmer. Every do Inr of the Sennett 
possessions has been made by Mr. Sennett and 
his wife. In addition to the land owned in 
this county they have sixty-two acres in the 
coast region of Texas — a property that is 
very valuable and that is rapidly increasing 
in value as that countr\- is developed. .\ 
large circle of friends in the entire communitv 
hold Mr. and Mrs. Sennett in high esteem 
and applaud the success which they have 
achieved during their years of residence in 
Custer countv. 



. EDWIN E. SOLI RES'. — Among the firms 
wlio Iiave contributed to the prestige of Custer 
county as the home of able and learned repre- 
sentatives of the profession of law. one which 
is generally acknowledged to be a leader, and 
particularly in the field of criminal procedure, 
is that of Sullivan. Squires & Johnson. .\ 
member of this firm who has ])laved a prom- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



557 




Edwin E. Squires 



558 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTV. NEBRASKA 



inent part in its success is Edwin E. Squires, 
who has tatcen advantage of his opportunities, 
fashioned his resources to his needs, and re- 
flected dignity, sincerity, and genuine worth 
upon a profession for which he is singular!)- 
and even a(hnirably equipped. 

Mr. Squires was born on a farm in Dehi- 
ware county, Iowa, August 29, 1867, and is a 
son of James H. and ^lary A. ( Eberhart) 
Squires. His paternal grandfather, John A. 
Squires, was a native of New York, and in 
his later years moved to Iowa, where he met 
an accidental death, at a Fourth of July cele- 
bration. James H. Squires was born near 
Cortland, New York, in 1842, and was seven 
years of age when taken by his parents to 
Iowa. For a number of years he was engaged 
in farming in Delaware county, that state, and 
he also had some experience in selling insur- 
ance and in the drug business, finally locating 
at Lawrence, Kansas, where he lived while his 
children were being educated. His death oc- 
curred at Kearney, Nebraska, in 1893. Mr. 
Squires, who had been a successful farmer and 
business man. was a member of the Indepen- 
dent ( Jrder of ( )dd Fellows and Ancient Order 
of United Workmen, was a Republican in 
politics, and belonged to the Congregational 
church. He married Mary A. Eberhart, who 
was born in 1848, in Mercer county, Pennsyl- 
vania, a daughter of Hiram B. Eberhart. Mr. 
Eberhart brought his family to the west some 
time during the Civil war period, and he died 
in Iowa. Mrs. Squires survives her husbatid, 
is a resident of Kearney, Nebraska, ard is 
the mother of two children: Edwin E.. whose 
name initiates this review, and Claude, who 
was educated in the normal school at Law- 
rence. Kansas, and was a teacher until her 
marriage to Logan Sammons. a farmer of the 
neighborhood of .Axtell, Nebraska. 

Edwin E. Squires received his early edu- 
cational training in an academy at Manchester, 
Iowa, and a high .school at Monticello. that 
state, and he then entered the literary dcjiart- 
ment of the Kansas State L'niversity, at Law- 
rence, from which he was graduated in 188'). 
At this time his finances were at a somewhat 
low ebb, but he was determined upon com])let- 
ing his ]3rofessional training, and by working 
during the summer months he was able to 
earn sufficient funds to carry him through a 
complete course in the legal department of the 
L'niversity of Nebraska, in which he was duly 
graduated in 1893, with his degree of Bachelor 
of Laws. He at once began nract'ce at Kearnex , 
where he was located until 1907. and within 
this time he served one term, of two years, as 
countv atlornev of Buffalo countv. Likewise 



he became known, somewhat more than local- 
ly, for his ability in criminal cases, a notorious 
manslaughter case, in particular, attracting at- 
tention and giving Mr. Squires recognition 
when he won a victory for his client. Thus 
it was that when he came to Broken Bow. in 
1907. he found that his reputation had pre- 
ceded him, as he was almost immediately the 
recipient of professional business of the most 
desirable kind. Soon after his arrival he formed 
a ])artnersliip with Homer M. Sullivan, under 
the style of Sullivan & S(|uires. and since then 
Albert P. Johnson has joined the combination, 
which is now known as Sullivan, Sc|uires & 
Johnson. This association of able legists now 
does the largest and most important business 
in Cu.ster county, the two original members 
making a specialty of criminal law. Mr. Squires 
has been counsel in six murder cases, repre- 
senting the defendant in four, and has been 
the winner in all save one of the six. He has 
been successful in a material way and is the 
holder of much valuable land in Custer county. 
A Republican in politics, he has taken an active 
part in local afl^airs, and in 1913 he was elected 
mayor of Broken Bow. a capacity in which 
he gave his fellow townsmen an excellent ad- 
ministration. 

In 1898 Mr. Squires wedded Miss .\nnie 
Finch, who was born at Dallas. Illinois, a 
daughter of John A. and Elizabeth Finch. 
Mr. Finch, a native of Pennsylvania, was a 
pioneer of Dallas. Illinois, where he settled in 
1846. and where he was a merchant and ship- 
])ed goods down the Mississippi river. The 
family moved to Kearney. Nebraska, about 
1886. and there he and his wife passed away. 
Mrs. Squires died in 1907, having been the 
mother of one child. Marj* Elizabeth, who is 
a senior at the Kearney high school. The 
mother was a devoted member of the Congre- 
gational church, to which Mr. Squires also 
belongs. 



THOMAS J. GILLTGAN. — Anywhere 
within the fine Middle Loup region of Custer 
county can be found no better ranchman than 
the sterling citizen whose name initiates this 
paragrajih and who is well entitled to recogni- 
tion in this history. Every^body calls Mr. Gil- 
ligan "Tom," and this fact ofif'ers indubitable 
testimony to his personal poinilarity. For 
many years he has held precedence as one of 
the extensive and successful stockmen of the 
northern part of Custer county, and a resi- 
dence or more than thirty years in the countx' 
marks his as entitled to pioneer honors. 

Thomas J. Gilligan was born in Essex 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



559 



county, New York, on the 4th of March, 1860, 
and is a son of John and EHza (O'Donnell) 
Gilligan, who were representative of fine old 
Irish stock and from whom the subject of this 
review received the inherent attributes that 
have made for strong manhood and the thrift 
that is born of energy and mature judgment. 
John Oilligan was born and reared in the fine 
old Emerald Isle and was a young man when 
he came to America, in company with one of 
his brothers who was a sailor by occupation. 
He landed in the city of Boston, and within 
a short time thereafter he made his way to 
Wisconsin, where he found employment as 
driver in the transportation of the United 
States mail. He gained pioneer experience in 
the Badger state, where he remained several 
years, and in 1854 he established his reasidence 
in Essex county. New York, where he turned 
his attention to agricultural enterprise. There, 
in 1865, was solemnized his marriage to Miss 
Eliza O'Donnell, who was born in Ireland and 
who was but ten years old when her parents 
immigrated to America and established their 
home in the state of New York. John Gilli- 
gan passed the remainder of his life in the Em- 
pire state, where his death occurred in 1880, 
and his venerable widow still maintains her 
home in that state. They became the parents 
of seven children, of whom five are living, 
two of the number becoming residents of Ne- 
braska — Thomas J., of this review, and Dr. 
J. P. Gilligan, who established himself in the 
practice of his profession at O'Neill, Holt 
county. 

Thomas F. Gilligan was reared and educated 
in his native state, where also he gained his 
initial experience in connection with the basic 
industries of agriculture and stock-raising. 
In 1882 he came to Nebraska, as a sturdy and 
ambitious young man of about twenty-two 
years, and he passed the first two years in 
Gage county, where he was employed by the 
late Nathan Blakely, one of the most honored 
and influential pioneers of that county. In 
1884 Mr. Gilligan came to Custer county, 
where he entered claim to a homestead in sec- 
tion 24, township 20, range 22, and where he 
girded himself for the responsibilities and ex- 
actions of pioneer life. By hard work and 
good management he forged forward toward 
the goal of success and prosperity, and he has 
long been numbered among the substantial and 
representative exponents of agricultural and 
live-stock industry in this county. He has fol- 
lowed agricultural enterprise on an extensive 
scale, with large holdings of land, but his 
major success has been gained in connection 
with the raising of live stock. 

Loyal and progressive as a citizen. Air. Gil- 



ligan has contributed his full quota to civic 
and material advancement in Custer county, 
and has taken lively interest in all things touch- 
ing the communal welfare. In politics he has 
been independent, and he now maintains a 
non-partisan attitude, in which connection he 
gives his support to men and measures meeting 
the approval of his judgment. He is a com- 
municant and liberal supporter of the Catholic 
church. 

In the year 1899 was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Gilligan to Miss Nora Calkins, a 
daughter of William Calkins, and of this union 
were born six children — Eleanor, Marie, 
Peter, Thomas, Jennie, and Nicholas. All of 
the children are living except Thomas, who 
died at the age of four years, the mother also 
having passed away. By careful providing of 
ways and means Mr. Gilligan kept his chil- 
dren well provided for, and all still remain 
with him except Jennie, who resides with an 
aunt in the state of New York, she being four- 
teen years of age at the time of this writing. 
In 1908, after the death of their mother, Elea- 
nor and Marie Gilligan went to the home of 
their uncle, Dr. J. P. Gilligan, where they re- 
mained five years and in the meanwhile at- 
tended an academy school. At the expiration 
of the period noted, they returned to the pa- 
ternal home, where they have since had charge 
of its domestic economics and have proved 
themselves most competent housekeepers, be- 
sides which they are popular factors in the so- 
cial activities of their home community. 



WALTER A. BENCE, who is one of the 
prominent and thrifty farmers of Custer 
county, has been a continuous resident of the 
county for the past thirty-five years. He was 
born in Harrison county, Indiana. November 
18, 1859, and is the eldest son of Socrates and 
Ambrosia (Nelson) Bence. Socrates Bence 
belonged to a pioneer family of Indiana and 
was born and died on a claim that his father 
had pre-empted. He was a man of puljlic 
influence, a Democrat in politics, and for four 
years, 1884-1888, he served as sherifif of Har- 
rison county. Both he and his wife spent 
their lives in Indiana. They had six children 
and five survive, namely: Walter A. is the 
subject of this sketch; Mary is the wife of 
Charles Hurst and they live on the old home- 
stead ; Jennie is the wife of Benjamin Chick- 
ering, of Louisville, Kentucky ; Charles, who 
lives in California, married Mary Denbow, 
now deceased. The mother of the above 
children was a member of the Presbyterian 
church. 

Walter A. Bence grew to manhood on the 



560 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



old family homestead in Harrison county and 
attended the iniblic schools. He immigrated 
with his family to Nebraska and drove his 
team of horses, with his covered wagon, into 
York county, Februar}' 24, 1882. In March. 
1883, he came on into Custer county, where he 
has lived ever since, engaging ver}' success- 
fully in mixed farming and stock-raising. He 
owns a historic tract of land, known as the 
Lone Tree country, it being where the des- 
perate horse thieves who ravaged Brown 
county met just judicial punishment in the 
summer of 1884. 

In August, 1880, Mr. Bence married Miss 
Catherine Walter, a daughter of John and 
Catherine ( Kiefer) Walter, who became the 
parents of fifteen children. Of these children 
the following survive : John, who lives in 
Harrison county, Indiana, married Ann 
Fleischman ; Caroline is the widow of George 
Dahl, of Louisville Kentucky; Mary is the 
wife of Casper Zeiler, of Louisville: Henry, 
who is a resident of Los Angeles, California, 
married Tena Hemple ; Margaret, who mar- 
ried, first. John Hart, and, second. George W. 
McRae. lives at Bcrwyn, Custer county ; 
Catherine is the wife of Walter A. Bence. of 
this review ; Sarah is the widow of William 
Hart, of Louisville ; Louis, of Harrison 
county, Indiana, married Caroline Bruch ; 
Jacob, of Custer county, married Minnie Cud- 
more ; Anna is the widow of John Steller, of 
Los Angeles: and Barbara is the wife of 
Andrew Barber, of Brith, Iowa. 



ALEXANDER PIRNIE, who is one of 
Custer county's representative citizens, resides 
on his well improved farm, in section 12, 
which he took up as a homestead claim thirty- 
nine years ago. He was born in Perthshire, 
Scotland, July 16, 1853. His parents were 
Alexander and Janet (Morris) Pirnie, who 
came from Scotland to the United States in 
1879. Their objective point was Nebraska 
and the father took up a homestead in Custer 
county, where he passed the remainder of his 
life. The death of the mother occurred at 
Buffalo, Kan.sas, but the burial of both was in 
Lone Tree cemetery. Custer countv. They 
were strong and vigorous people and nine of 
their family of ten children are still living, as 
follows : Alexander, whose name introduces 
this paragraph : John, who is a farmer and 
dain'man, living at Merna, Custer county : 
Icssie, whose home is in Buffalo. Kansas ; 
Peter, who is a gravel contractor in Kansas 
City, Kansas : James, who is a miner at Daw- 
son City, Alaska: Mrs. Elizabeth Stoeker. who 
lives at Broken Bow: Mrs. Catherine Parson, 



whose home is at Aspen, Colorado : Mitchel, 
who is in business in Scotland ; and William, 
who is a farmer near Escondido. California. 

Alexander Pirnie had excellent school ad- 
vantages in his native land. With other mem- 
bers of his family he came to the United 
States in 1876 and located first in Poweshiek 
county, Iowa. Securing work with farmers, 
he remained in that section for three years and 
then came to Nebraska. For about a year he 
remained in York county but late in 1879 he 
come to Custer county and secured the home- 
stead on which he has lived ever since, follow- 
ing general farming and stock-raising. From 
the first Mr. Pirnie has been a prominent and 
useful citizen of his community and he has 
been identified with much of the wonderful 
progress made here in the last quarter of a 
century or more. He ser^-ed as a juror in the 
first regidar tenn of the district court ever 
held in Custer county and is one of only two 
surviving members of that body, the other be- 
ing Edwin McClure, of Broken Bow. The 
presiding judge, who came through by team 
from Kearney to hold court, was Judge Gaslin. 
In politics Mr. Piniie is a Democrat. He 
served nine years on the town board, was a 
justice of the peace for the same length of 
time and for twelve years has been a director 
in his school district. 

September 1, 1881, Mr. Pirnie married Miss 
Lucina Pov.ell. of Custer county, a daughter 
of John and Maria Powell, formerlj' of Craw- 
ford county, Wisconsin. Ten of the twelve 
children of Mr. and Mrs. Pirnie yet survive, 
namely: Earl is a merchant and also ])ost- 
master at W'eissert : David M., who is a 
tarmer, lives at Weissert : John W., who is a 
minister of the Church of God. on the Berwyn 
circuit, lives at Broken Bow: Mrs. Lucy 
Cooksley lives at Weissert: Mrs. Amy Leek 
lives five miles east of Weissert: Mrs. Mira 
Cooksley lives on a farm near Weissert ; 
Richard is a farmer near Comstock : George 
and ( )tis both remain at the parental home : 
and Mrs. Elsie Spencer lives at Rose Valley 
postoffice, Broken Bow. 



WILLIAM U. UHLMAN, whose well im- 
proved farm and comfortable surroundings 
indicate efficiency as a farmer and a mea- 
sure of personal ])ride in the home that he has 
acquired through his own industry, is well 
known in Custer county, where he is re- 
spected and esteemed. He was born in 
Switzerland, near the city of Zurich, Febru- 
ary 2, 1881. His parents were LHrich and 
Lesetta fSchutz) Uhlnian, who immigrated 
to the L'nited States in 1883. Thcv had four 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



561 



children, namely : P ritz, who is a farmer and 
carpenter residing near Broken Bow, Ne- 
braska, married \'ictoria Smets ; William Ul- 
rich Uhlman is the subject of this sketch; 
Mary, who is the widow of Charles Myers, re- 
sides at Broken Bow ; and Rosa is the wife of 
Wilbur Osbom, who follows the carpenter 
trade at Broken Bow. 

William Ulrich Uhlman was two years old 
when the family came to the United States 
and located in Clermont county, Iowa. The 
father engaged in farming there for one year 
and then came to Custer county, Nebraska. 
and homesteaded. Thus this has been the 
section in which all the children grew up. 
William U. obtained his education in the pub- 
lic schools of Custer county and had practical 
training on the farm in preparing for his 
chosen vocation. Every section of the coun- 
tr)' presents disadvantages together with op- 
portunities, and there have been seasons in 
the past history of Custer county when agri- 
cultural operations failed because of natural 
causes, but in later times, since fanning and 
stock-raising have come 4argely into the hands 
of well informed and experienced men like 
Mr. Uhlman, little complaint is ever heard of 
lack of fine crops in this beautiful section. 
Mr. Uhlman's experience has led him to adopt 
dry-fanning methods and he has been very 
successful. 

Air. Uhlman was married March S, 1905, to 
Miss Marie Smets, who is now deceased. She 
left three children — Avis, who was born 
March 29, 1906; Bemice, who was bom Feb- 
ruary 22, 1909 ; and Inez, who was born April 
19, 1912. Mr. Uhlman is a member of the 
Swedish Lutheran church. In politics he is a 
Republican and he belongs to the fraternal 
order of Modern Woodmen of America. His 
farm lies in section 9, township 18, range 19, 
— in Round valley, Custer county. 



NELS A. HALL. — For forty-two busy 
years Nels A. Hall, one of Custer county's 
best known fanners and stock-raisers, had his 
home in this section of the great state of Ne- 
braska. He has seen wonderful changes of 
all kinds since he came to this section and has 
done his share in the development of the 
county's agricultural resources and in estab- 
lishing such necessities of civilization as good 
roads, schools, and churches. When a com- 
munity can claim a majority of such stable 
and dependable men as Mr. Hall its per- 
manence and progress are assured. It was a 
matter of genuine regret to the many Custer 
county friends of Mr. and Mrs. Nelson when, 
on the 24th of September, 1918, they left their 



old home near Round \'aUey and removed to 
Marion county. Oregon, where Mr. Hall pur- 
chased an attractive place, two miles distant 
from Silverton. and where he and his wife 
intend to pass the remainder of their hves. 

Nels A. Hall is a native of Norway and was 
born near Gjovik, November 15, 1854. His 
parents were Andreas and Annie (Nelson) 
Hall, who had four children, namely: Nels 
A., Peter, Halldora, and Bertha. The father 
was a carpenter by trade. In 1874 Nels A. 
Hall came to the United States. He was then 
twenty years old and had attended the com- 
mon schools and probably had, to some extent, 
learned his father's trade. At that time 
America called young men from many parts 
of the world, freely offering opportunities that 
older countries could no longer give. Owner- 
ship of land and a home of one's own at- 
tracted many to the western states, and in 
1874, among the others who settled in Dane 
county, Wisconsin, many from Norway, was 
Nels A. Hall. That was but a step on the 
way, but Mr. Hall remained there two years 
and he came to Nebraska in the year 1884. 
He pre-empted land in Custer county, and on 
this he continued to reside until his removal 
to Oregon, as noted above. His well improved 
Custer county farm is situated in section 34, 
township 19, in the vicinity of Round Valley. 
The years that followed settlement were years 
of hard work, but diligence and perseverance 
in time brought rewards in peace and plen- 
teousness. Mr. Hall followed methods which 
have been proved best in this climate and was 
exceedingly successful as a farmer and stock- 
raiser. 

Mr. Hall was married, at Boscobel, Grant 
county, Wisconsin. April 9. 1879. to Miss Bell 
Olson, a daughter of Ingebret and Anna 
(Anderson) Olson, and the following named 
children have been born to them : Egbert, 
Anna, Helen. Peter. Lewis, and Andrew. All 
of the children have been given good educa- 
tional advantages. Mr. Hall and his family 
belong to the Lutheran church, to which his 
parents also belonged. He has long been a 
loyal and appreciative citizen of the United 
States and is a Republican in politics. 



MARK O. AND WILL N. BOOTS.— 
One of the splendidly developed farming 
porperties lying in Custer county in the vi- 
cinity of Broken Bow is that which belongs 
to Mark O. and Will N. Boots — a tract of 
320 acres, on which are to be found the latest 
improvements. These brothers are accounted 
among the self-made men of their locality, as 
they started out in life with only their am- 



362 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTV. NEBRASKA 



bitions and abilities as tbeir capital, and what 
they have achieved has been through their own 
unaided efforts. 

-Mark < ). Boots was born August 19, 1870, 
and Will X. Boots March 17, 1872, their place 
of nativity haying been a farm in Carroll 
county. Iowa. They are sons of C. S. and 
Sarah A. (Prettyman) Boots. Their pater- 
nal grandfather, John O. Boots, was an early 
settler of Miami county, Indiana, in which 
state he pa.ssed the greater part of his life in 
agricultural pursuits, and on the maternal side 
their grandfather was James Prettyman, a na- 
tive of Delaware, who early became a farmer 
of Indiana, but spent his last years in the 
state of Washington. C. S. Boots was bom 
August 31, 1842, in Grant county, Indiana, 
and in 1865, in the Hoosier state, he married 
Aliss Sarah A. Prettyman, who had been born 
in Starke county. Indiana, April 2, 1849. Not 
long after their marriage they removed to 
Iowa, where, in Carroll county, Mr. Boots 
was engaged in farming as a renter. In 1889 
he came to Nebraska and located in Custer 
county, where he found the medium through 
which to gain success, as he is now one of the 
well-to-do and substantial men of his com- 
munity. Mr. Boots is a Democrat in politics 
and he and his wife belong to the Christian 
church. They becanie the parents of thirteen 
children, of whom nine sunive : Mary, the 
wife of A. B. Miley, a Custer county farmer; 
Mark O. and Will N., whose names introduce 
this review; Jenetta, the widow of J. F. Line; 
Bertha, the, wife of Martin A. .\lmandinger, 
a farmer of Lakeside, W'ashington ; Nellie, the 
wife of Fred E. Conley, who is working in a 
shipyard at Portland, Oregon; T. A., engaged 
in farming in Grant county, Nebraska ; and 
Misses Kate and Alta, on the home place with 
their parents. 

Mark O. and Will N. Boots received their 
education in the iniblic schools of Iowa and 
accompanied their parents to Nebraska in 
1889. While the former remained on the 
home place, Will N. worked out among the 
neighboring agriculturists for several years, 
and the boys then rented land together. This 
they cultivated until they could get sufficient 
capital to set them up as i)roprietors. Even- 
tually they were able to purchase 160 acres, 
in the Broken Bow neighborhood, and to this 
they have since added a like acreage, and their 
land is now all under a high state of cultiva- 
tion, ])roducing the standard crops in abund- 
ance, under their skilled management and 
treatment of the soil. In addition to general 
farming they have experimented successfully 
in raising all kinds of live stock, and in both 



departments have shown themselves capable 
and resourceful. 

Neither of the Boots brothers is married, 
but they keep "bachelors" hall" on their farm, 
where they have a pleasant home and commo- 
dious buildings for the housing of their stock, 
grain, and equipment. They are members of 
the Highlanders, and Mark O. Boots also be- 
longs to the Knights of Pvthias. 



JOHN M. KRAMER is one of the late 
homesteaders of Custer coimty, and he lives 
in the Anselmo region, in which locality gov- 
ernment land was last taken. The story that 
is about to be related proves, however, that the 
late-comers, if they possessed the same in- 
domitable traits, made good almost as readily 
as did those of early days, when the best of 
land was open for homestead entry. 

John M. Kramer was born fortv-five years 
ago and is a son of Adam and Margaret 
(Kopp) Kramer, natives of Germany, who 
came to America when quite young, here pass- 
ing the remainder of their lives. The father 
died at the age of thirty-nine years, and the 
mother at the age of forty-seven years. In 
their family were four children: Mrs. Minnie 
Simmons lives in Council Bluffs. Iowa, where 
her husband is a railroad employe; Mrs. Tillie 
Cathro is the wife of an Omaha contractor; 
Mrs. Nellie Allen lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, 
where her husband is employed as a salesman : 
the fourth is the subject of this sketch. 

During his childhood and youth the educa- 
tional advantages of Mr. Kramer were 
limited, but he possessed that spirit which is 
determined to overcome all handicaps and to 
attain the object to which it aspires. Accord- 
ingly, while working in a candy kitchen in 
Omaha, he attended a night school, and thus 
he secured for himself a fundamental educa- 
tion which stands him well in hand as a busi- 
ness man and a qualified, progressive citizen. 

In 1894 Mr. Kramer married Cora Pearl, 
who has been a faithful co-helper in all his 
farming and stock-raising enterprises. In the 
Kramer family arc seven children : Amiand 
Kellogg is married and is a progressive young 
farmer in Custer county, the other children 
being Charles, Tillie, Leona, Margaret, Rosa- 
mond, and Josephine, all of whom are at 
home, and those who are old enough are pur- 
suing a course of fundamental instruction in 
the district school. The children are full of 
energy and give much promise for future 
years. 

When Mr. Kramer landed in Anselmo he 
had three cents in his pocket, but he had 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



563 



grit, energy, and determination, three things 
more valuable than money, and with these he 
backed his capital of three cents and filed on a 
homestead, northeast of Anselmo, in the hill 
country where the grass was good and cattle- 
raising an easy thing for the man who had 
the energy and ability to provide winter for- 
age. Accordingly he has succeeded. He now 
owns his land, has fine improvements, and has 
a good start in stock of all kinds. His horses, 
cattle, and hogs grade well to the best blood, 
and, withal, he is a citizen who enjoys the re- 
spect and confidence of the community. 

Mr. Kramer has entered fraternal circles 
and is a member of the Odd Fellows, the Mod- 
ern Woodmen, the Royal Neighbors. In 
these organizations he takes active part, hav- 
ing been clerk of the Woodmen lodge for the 
last twenty years. Both he and his wife be- 
long to the Milburn Christian church. 



WILLIAM G. DAILY. — This story epit- 
omizes the record of eighty-five years. It 
pertains to one of the unique characters of 
Custer county — a man of years and of varied 
experiences ; a man who has tried the fortunes 
and opportunities of most of the states between 
New York and the Rocky Mountains ; a man 
whose name is well and favorably known 
throughout Custer county ; a man who, to- 
gether with his good wife, has reared a family 
of children, all of whom are splendid citizens, 
prominent in present-day affairs and reflecting 
credit not only upon their parents and the 
home from which they came, but also consti- 
tuting a valued asset to the community of 
which they are a part. 

William Grant Daily was born in the state 
of New York, in 1833, and has traveled the 
road of many hills and deep waters during the 
eighty-five years that have succeeded that 
date. He himself constitutes the initial point 
from which this family record starts. His 
father's name and nativity are not given. Mr. 
Daily, the venerable citizen of Milburn, the 
vicinity in which the last twenty-six years of 
his life have been passed, was imited in mar- 
riage, in 1862, to Phoebe Helen Howe, a re- 
fined and cultured lady who exemplified many 
of the excellent traits of her husband. She 
left this world in 1915. having rounded out 
full four-score years. In their family were 
six children : Al'vin Daily is one of the promi- 
nent men of Custer county, well and favorably 
known throughout all the western and north- 
ern part of the county. He is one of the suc- 
cessful farmers in the Milburn region, and at 
present is manager erf the fanners' co-opera- 
tive store in Anselmo. He and his wife, a 



very intelligent lady, maintain a splendid 
home and are rated as leaders in every com- 
munity proposition. Leon is an Iowa farmer 
at the present time. He was previously a 
resident of Custer county, and while here he 
contributed to the good rq)utatioii of the 
entire Daily family. Ellen Books lives on the 
home farm. Sarah Morgan is a farmer's wife 
and lives in Iowa. Marion Stejjhen is a prom- 
inent farmer and operates land adjoining his 
father's place. Extended notice of his life 
and farm operations are noted elsewhere in 
this volume. Rose Athey lives on a ranch in 
Brown county. All of these are men and 
women of affairs and are highly respected by 
all who know them. 

Record concerning the operations of Mr. 
Daily during" former years may be briefly 
noted at this juncture. At the age of twenty- 
one years he left New York and journeyed as 
far west as Illinois, where he stayed eight 
months, and he then returned to his native 
state. After three years he again faced the 
west, and he reached Iowa on this trip. In 
the fall of 1860 he again returned to New 
York, where he voted for Abraham Lincoln 
for president. He worked the home farm 
this time for two years. He traded Iowa 
land for New York land and lived on the latter 
for four years, after which he bought a rake 
and cradle factory, of which he was manager 
for another period of four years. During this 
time his residence was in Otsego county of the 
Empire state. After selling the factory he 
worked as a carpenter for two years ; and he 
then went again to Knox county, Illinois, 
where he worked two years at the car- 
penter's trade. He then went to Iowa, where 
he devoted the next sixteen years to fanning. 
From there he went to Colorado, located near 
Sterling and went into the cattle business. It 
was from this place that he came to Custer 
county, Nebraska, twenty-six years ago. The 
shifting years of his life, his travels to and 
fro, found for him no better place than the 
Milburn district in Custer county, where he 
has his present home and where for years he 
has maintained an elegant country place. His 
sub-irrigated land was a great producer of 
alfalfa, which contributed to himself and wife 
a splendid support. By thrift and good 
management he accumulated three and one- 
half sections of land, which in part he has 
sold and in part divided among his children. 

A strange nemesis of accidents entailing 
physical injury seems to have followed Mr. 
Daily. Notwithstanding he has weathered the 
storms and ills of eighty-five years, he has been 
the victim of many accidents, and it is almost 
a miracle that he has attained this ripe old 



564 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



age. He has catalogp.ied his recurrent afflic- 
tions of this order, and the record reads some- 
what Hke this : He has had a broken leg. 
broken wrist, broken arm. shot in the ami. 
neck out of joint, one knuckle from left 
hand gone, was struck by lightning, had 
stroke of paralysis, lost the hearing of one 
ear. was bitten by a rattlesnake, and has been 
in many runaways. Yet none of these things 
launched in his direction the fatal shaft. 

This venerable gentleman is a very amiable 
and upright citizen, is a member of the 
Methodist church, is an independent voter, 
and he prides himself on having cast his first 
vote for John C. Fremont, first presidential 
candidate of the Republican party. 



PIUS CHRISTEN. — One of the very 
substantial homes in the New Helena district, 
and one that is unusually well improved, be- 
longs to Pius Christen, who is one of the 
staunch farmers of the county and who came 
into the world in the em])ire of Austria, in 
1861. He is a son of Pius and Marj' ( Cer- 
ben) Christen to whom were born three sons 
— David Christen, a banker in Anselmo : 
Frank a farmer residing in this county ; and 
Pius, the subject of this sketch. The estim- 
able parents died some time since, the father 
at the age of eighty-one. and the mother at 
the age of eighty-two years. 

Pius Christen. Jr.. chose as his wife Miss 
Hattie Pole. who. like her husband, was 
born in Europe, and whose advent occurred 
in 1867. To this union four children were 
born : Theodore, who is a young Custer 
county farmer; Theodore P., who, at the time 
of this writing, is in the National army, at 
Camp ( jrant ; Cenia Thomas, who lives on a 
farm in the vicinity of Dale church ; and Irene 
Duschek, who likewise lives on a farm in this 
county. 

In coming from Austria to the United States 
Mr. Christen felt that here he could better his 
condition ; that here young men had oppor- 
tunity, and. notwithstanding the handicap of 
poverty, if they possessed genius and energy 
they could make a place for themselves in the 
world and accumulate a competence for them- 
selves and their families. He first settled in 
Iowa, where he stayed eight years. Still feel- 
ing that the opjiortunities of a new country 
would be better for him, he came to Nebraska 
and located in Custer county. Since that time 
he has been an example of industrT,- and thrift 
in the neighborhood where he is located. To- 
day his large holdings attest the financial suc- 
cess he has achieved. His farm consists of 
1,300 acres. He has 100 head of cattle which 



grade high to white Herefords. It would be 
hard to find a classier bunch of Duroc-Jersey 
hogs than are found in his yards. The horses 
are good. The implements are the latest and 
of the most approved pattern. Everj-thing on 
the Christen farm is strictly first class and 
up-to-date. 

The loyalty of Mr. Christen has never been 
questioned. He has been generous in his do- 
nation to war work and liberal in his purchase 
of government securities. He is proud of the 
fact that he has one son in the service of his 
adopted country. In the community he and 
his wife enjoy a reputation for honesty and 
integrity and moral uprightness that would be 
hard for any one to surpass. Both he and his 
wife are members of the Catholic church and 
are liberal supporters of the same. He be- 
longs to the Woodmen of the World, is inde- 
pendent in politics and is one of those men 
whom every candidate delights to ally among 
his forces. Pius Christen has made good in 
America and is an honor to both the state and 
county in which he claims citizenship. 



CHARLES W. DEAL. — In the various 
activities to which men devote their energies. 
there are certain vocations which seem to go 
hand in hand, so that an individual may be 
found engaged in both at the same time. But 
it is only the ones who possess superior ability 
who can attain to success in three separate 
fields of endeavor, and it is for this reason 
that more than passing mention should be ex- 
tended- to the accomplishments of Hon. Charles 
W. Beal. of Broken Bow. a leading member of 
the Custer county bar, a veteran newspaper 
man of brilliance and infiuence. and a leading 
figure in the political and public life of his 
section for many years. 

Senator Beal was born April 25. 1860. in 
.\udrian county. Missouri, and is a son of 
William H. and Jane ( Stout) Beal. His grand- 
father. Lewis \V. Beal. was an early settler 
of Indiana and died in Missouri. William H. 
Ileal was born in Switzerland county. Indiana. 
January 28, 1828, and was married at \'evay, 
that state, to Jane Stout, who was born at 
Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1838. In 1856. one year 
after their marriage, they migrated to ^Iis- 
souri. settling in Andrian county, where Mr. 
I Seal paid the government twelve and one-half 
cents an acre for his homestead. He proved 
up on his property, passed many years in agri- 
cultural pursuits, and finally retired from act- 
ive labors. He died at Mexico. Missouri. Feb- 
ruary 12. 1917. his wife 'having passed away 
at Laddonia. Missouri. February 3. 1903. They 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



565 




Chaki.es V\ . Bkai. 



566 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTV, NEBRASKA 



were the parents of five sons, of wlioni two 
are living: John, who publishes the newspaper 
known as the Mexico Message, at Mexico, 
Missourr; and Charles W.. who is the sub- 
ject of this sketch. William H. Beal was a 
member of the Free Will Baptist church and 
his wife a devout Methodist. Both took an 
active part in relig-ious work. He belonged 
to the Masonic fraternity, in the work of which 
he always evinced a keen interest, and as a 
voter he supported the candidates of the Re- 
publican party. During the Civil war he was 
a strong Union man, and for a time was a 
member of the state militia. 

The public schools of ]\Iissouri furnished 
Charles W. Beal with his early education, fol- 
lowing which he spent three years in Hillsdale 
College, at Hillsdale, Michigan. He then re- 
turned to his Missouri home, where he spent 
one year in teaching school, and March 31, 
1886. he came to Custer county, Nebraska, 
and obtained a school, which he taught for 
three years. Newspaper work has always held 
out attractions for Mr. Beal. and at Broken 
Bow he found the opportunity to satisfy his 
inclinations in this direction. For nearly 
twenty years he was the editor and publisher 
of the Custer County Beacon, a journal of 
which he made a great success. In various 
ways he came prominently before the public, 
and in 1892 he was elected to the Nebraska 
state legislature, in which he served one term. 
Later he served a term in the state senate, 
starting in 1897. In the meantime he had be- 
come interested in the study of .law, and he 
■completed his course in the law school at 
Lincoln, from which he was duly graduated in 
189':'. being admitted to the bar the same 
year. From that time to the present he has 
i>een engaged in practice, and he has built up 
a splendid practice and a reputation among 
his fellow-practitioners for ability, forensic 
skill, and deep knowledge of the principles of 
law and jurisprudence. After practicing at the 
bar for some time he was elected county at- 
torney, an office in which he made a splendid 
record, and in 1915 he was again sent to the 
state senate, to w-hich he was re-elected in 
1917. He has been one of the hardest-work- 
ing members of that honored body, and after 
taking an active part on the committee ( of 
which he was chairman I which drafted the 
prohibition bill, he was made chairman of the 
legislation to enforce prohibition, this being in 
the senate's last term. Likewise he was a mem- 
ber of the judiciary and constitutional com- 
mittees. Senator Beal is a member of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which 
he has passed through the chairs, and of the 



Knights of Pythias, in which he is ]wst chan- 
cellor. He has been interested in politics and 
active therein for thirty years, and has been 
a staunch and unwavering Democrat all this 
time. With his family, he belongs to the 
Christian church. 

Senator Beal was married January 1, 1896, 
to Miss Kate Willis, who was born at Ottum- 
wa. Iowa, a daughter of John and Caroline 
Willis, who came to Custer county in 1884 
and homesteaded land, both passing away here. 
To this union there have been born two chil- 
dren : Anna Belle, who resides with her par- 
ents, is a graduate of the Broken Bow high 
school ; and Franklin C. is attending school. 



CHARLES S. TOOLEY. — Through the 
business ability, consideration and courtesy of 
its proprietor, the hardware establishment of 
Charles S. Tooley has become an important 
source of supply to the peojjle of Broken Bow- 
and the surrounding community, and has 
placed the owner among the substantial busi- 
ness men of the county seat. Mr. Tooley was 
born in Warrick county. Indiana. March 10, 
1871, and is a son of W. W. and Lucy A. 
(Parker) Tooley. 

The parents of Mr. Tooley w-ere bom in 
Kentucky, and were children at the time of 
the removal of their respective parents to In- 
diana. They met and were married in ^^'ar- 
rick county, where W. W. Tooley was en- 
gaged in agricultural pursuits until 188.^. that 
year marking his removal further west and 
his settlement in Custer county. Here he met 
with success in his fann enterprise and 
brought his property to a high state of de- 
velopment. Some time after the death of his 
wife he retired from active at?airs and since 
then has been living quietly in Broken Bow. 
Mr. Tooley is a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, to which his wife also be- 
longed. They were the parents of nine chil- 
dren, of whom seven sur\'ive. Politically a 
Democrat, he has wielded some influence in 
the ranks of his party in Custer county, and 
at various times has been chosen by his fel- 
low citizens to represent them in public po- 
sitions of responsibility and trust. 

The earlv education of Charles S. Tooley 
was secured in the public schools of Warrick 
county, Indiana, where he made his home until 
he was fourteen years of age, and after the 
family settled in Nebraska he w-as a student 
in the schools of Broken Bow. He began his 
career as a public-school teacher, and for four 
years was engaged in instructing the young 
in the rural districts, in addition to which he 
was for some time interested, as a proprietor. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



567 



in fanning ventures. In 1909, however, he 
entered mercantile affairs, when he purchased 
a hardware store at Broken Bow, and since 
that time he has been adding to his patronage 
each year. He carries a full, modern stock 
of heavy and shelf hardware, stoves, etc.. and 
the success which is his — and it is not incon- 
siderable! — has been self - gained. His 
achievement is illustrative of the rewards ob- 
tainalile through intelligently directed indus- 
try. 

In 1897 Mr. Tooley married Miss Harriet 
S. Chrisman, a daughter of Joseph M. and 
Lucy B. (Richardson) Chrisman, the former 
of whom was born in Virginia, in 1833, and 
the latter in 1840. Mrs. Tooley's parents 
were married in Virginia, lived many years 
in Missouri, and both died in Nebraska, the 
mother in 1890 and the father in 1913. In 
1883 the Chrisman family came to Nebraska 
and homesteaded in Custer county. The 
parents were members of the Presbyterian 
church, to which Mrs. Tooley belongs. Mr. 
Tooley is a member of the Masonic blue 
lodge, in which he has passed the various 
official chairs and is now master, and in his 
chapter of royal-arch Masonry he has also 
passed the official chairs, besides which he is 
eminent commander of the Knights Templars, 
and is affiliated with Scottish Rite bodies of 
the time-honored fraternity and also with the 
Mystic Shrine. In politics he is a Democrat. 
He served four or five years as a member of 
the city council of Broken Bow, his conduct 
in that body showing his desire to discharge 
his important duties in an entirely conscien- 
tious manner. In various other ways he has 
shown his public spirit, and at this writing 
he is one of the active and valued members 
of the Public Service Club. 



MARION S. DAILY. — Milburn is a 
region of substantial farmers. In the sub- 
irrigated region of Milburn, where they raise 
alfalfa and where live-stock operations are ex- 
tensive and profitable, there you will find the 
subject of this sketch and will soon learn that 
he is one of the men who have helped to make 
the rejiutation of the locality. 

Mr. Dailv was born in Louisa county, Iowa, 
in 1877, and is a son of William G. and Phoebe 
Helen (Howe) Daily, all of whose six chil- 
dren are splendid citizens and valuable ad- 
juncts to the communities in which their re- 
spective homes are located. Marion S. Daily 
received a liberal education and very early in 
life put into practice the principles of indus- 
try and economy which, as applied to agricul- 
tural pursuits, always insure success. He has 



been a farmer practically all his life and in his 
chosen profession is rated "A No. 1." 

The year 1901 recorded the marriage of Mr. 
Daily to Miss Gertrude Farley, a daughter of 
Robert Farley, who is an estimable pioneer 
and citizen of Custer county, and who is at the 
present time a memljer of the county board of 
supervisors. Into the home of Mr. and Mrs. 
Daily have come nine children, any one of 
whom is able to drive away the blues and pre- 
vent lonesomeness : Merle, seventeen years 
of age (1918), is attending school in Anselmo ; 
and Marion, fifteen years; Verne, fourteen; 
Walter, thirteen ; Theodore, eleven ; Seth, 
seven ; Irene, six ; Steven, two ; and Alvin, 
two months, are all at home and are a fine 
family of bright, healthy children. 

In the early days Mr. Daily proved up on 
a homestead, but this he sold, and he then 
purchased the farm he now owns and upon 
which he has his home. This ranch consists 
of 430 acres, of which 300 acres are under 
cultivation. The improvements are good, the 
equipments modern, the house lighted by elec- 
tricity, and everything arranged so that farm 
life is made exceedingly enjoyable. The live 
stock on the place is of best quality. The 
cattle run to roan Durhams of high degree. 
In the pork line, Mr. Daily fancies red hair 
and breeds splendid specimens of Duroc-Jer- 
seys. W'ith his general farming and stock- 
raising he combines dairying, and milks, on 
an average, about fifteen cows the year round. 
This latter enterprise, owing to the splendid 
alfalfa on the Daily ranch, is a very profitable 
business, but it spells hard work and long 
hours — "good and plenty." But it insures 
the status of after years, and the man who 
gives faithful heed and tireless effort to such 
industries in his middle life will, in the years 
of his retirement, occupy a Fifth avenue home, 
ride in a family limousine and eat pie for 
breakfast. 

The Dailys are succeeding. They belong to 
a family that have succeeded. They have the 
inborn characteristics of people who succeed, 
and accordingly they are entitled to rate among 
our first citizens. 

Mr. Daily is independent in politics, but it 
can be said of him that he is a wide reader, 
well informed in all public affairs and casts 
always an intelligent vote. He and his wife 
are members of the Christian church. They 
are hospitable, generous and, withal, are 
courteous and obliging neighbors. 



AMOS W. GANDY. — Among the resi- 
dents of Custer county who came here in the 
pioneer days and remained to assist in the 



568 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY. NEBRASKA 



development and progress that followed their 
coming, a place of honor must be accorded to 
the late Amos W. Gandy, who established a 
record for industry and good citizenship and 
whose death occurred at Broken Bow, on the 
30th of July, 1899. 

J\lr. Gandy was bom at Preston, near Cheat 
Mountain, Wayne county. West Virginia, on 
the 12th of Januarj-, 1837, at which time his 
native state was still a part of Virginia. He 
was a son of Samuel and Catherine (Mathew) 
Gandy and his mother was of German des- 
cent. In 1851 Samuel Gandy removed with 
his family to Davis county, Iowa, where he 
became a pioneer fanner and where he and 
his wife passed the remainder of their lives. 
They became the parents of twelve children, 
namely: Rollo, Amos W., William, Lemuel, 
Caroline, Ellis, Asher, Elizabeth, Jesse, James, 
Mary, and John. Samuel Gandy gave his 
political allegiance to the Republican party, 
was affiliated with the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows and he and his wife were earn- 
est members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. 

Amos W. Gandy was fourteen years of age 
at the time of the family removal to Iowa, 
where he was accorded the advantages of the 
pioneer schools and where he earned his first 
wages by siilittinsJ- hickory .sticks for mak- 
ing the bottoms of splint-bottom chairs. For 
this service he received two and one-half cents 
for each bottom — or about thirtv-five cents 
a day. The principal work of his boyhood 
and youth, however, was that connected with 
his fathers farm, and when he attained to 
maturity he chose farming as his vocation. 
At Troy, Davis countv, Iowa, on the 21st of 
July, 1859, Mr. Gandy wedded Miss Mar>' E. 
Phelps, a daughter of Harrison C). and Eliza 
(Dodds) Phelps, and a granddaughter of 
William Phelps. Of a family of eleven chil- 
dren she is the younger of the two now living, 
the elder being Alfred H., who is a farmer by 
vocation and who married Mary Hall, daugh- 
ter of George and Nancy CGandy) Hall, the 
children of this union being three in number. 

Mr. and Mrs. Gandy were living on their 
Iowa farm when the Civil war broke out. and 
five of the sons of Samuel Gandy tendered 
their services in defense of the Union, all be- 
ing accepted. Amos W.. the subject of this 
memoir, enlisted in the Third Iowa Cavalrs'. 
with which gallant command he served luuil 
the close of the war and with which he made 
a splendid record for valiant and faithful 
service. He participated in the \\'ilson raid, 
which started from Gravelly Springs : he went 
with his regiment to Jackson, ^lississippi, and 
he fought at Columbus and Baton Rouge, be- 



sides taking part in many skirmishes and 
other minor engagements. He was finally 
mustered out of the service, at Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, and duly received his honorable dis- 
charge. In connection with the Civil war few 
of the pioneer families of Custer county can 
boast of a record equal to that of Mrs. Amos 
W. Gandy. In the service of the Union dur- 
ing this climacteric conflict were her father, 
her husband, three uncles and nine cousins. 
Among these William Vermilliar was a cap- 
tain in the Thirty-third Iowa Infantrj'; Burr 
Vermilliar held the rank of lieutenant : her 
uncle, DeWitt Thomas, was colonel of the 
Ninety-third Indiana Infantr}-; and Charles 
Thomas, a cousin, was taken prisoner at Look- 
out Mountain, after which he was held by the 
enemy about one and one-half years, having 
been confined in Andersonville, Belle Isle, 
Libby, and Macon prisons. After the war one 
of the soldier cousins of Mrs. Gandy's sen-ed 
as United States marshal in Iowa, and he 
resigned at the time when Grover Cleveland 
was elected president. 

At the close of the Civil war Amos W. 
(jandy returned to Iowa, where he continued 
his active association with agricultural pur- 
suits until 1875, when he came to Nebraska 
and settled in York county. There he re- 
mained until the early '80s, when he came 
with his family to Custer county. Here he 
continued to be engaged in agricultural and 
stock-growing -enterprise with marked suc- 
cess, the while he was closely identified with 
the best civic activities of the conuuunity, 
in which connection he became well known for 
his impregnable integrity and the public spirit 
which he displayed in supporting movements 
for the general good of the community. 

Amos W. and Mary E. (Phelps) Gandy be- 
came the parents of nine children, and con- 
cerning the seven now living, the following 
brief record is given : Amanda E. is the wife 
of Lucian McCandless. who is a fanner near 
Broken Bow and a member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows and the Modem Wood- 
men of America ; they have five children. 
Jessie is the wife of George Spurgeon, a 
fanner in the state of Montana, and they have 
three children, one of whom. Paul, is at the 
time of this writing a member of the United 
States Marines, stationed at Key Point. 
Bertha M. is the wife of William L. Graham, 
who was fonnerly a prosperous merchant of 
Broken Bow but who is now a resident of the 
state of Washington, their children being two 
in number. Mary A. is the widow of James 
Preston, who died at Somers, Montana, and 
who is survived by four children. Clara Bell 
is the wife of William Blackwell, a prominent 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



569 



banker at Bucklin, Kansas, and she has one 
daughter by a former marriage — Pauline Tay- 
lor. Frank O., who is engaged in the lumber 
business at Twin Falls, Idaho, married Ida 
Griswold and they have five children. Clin- 
ton E., who upheld the military honors of the 
family name by gallant service in the Philip- 
pine Islands at the time of the Spanish-Amer- 
ican war, is now the proprietor of an auto- 
mobile garage at Black foot, Idaho. 

Practically all of the men connected with 
the Gandy family give allegiance to the Re- 
publican party, and without exception the 
members of the family belong to the Method- 
ist Episcopal church. u\Irs. Mary E. Gandy 
survives her husband and resides in Broken 
Bow, where she is an active member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, in the work of 
which she is deeply interested and in the sup- 
port of which she makes liberal contributions. 
She has a wide acquaintanceship among the 
pioneers of Custer county and can relate many 
interesting reminiscences concerning the days 
when conditions here were still crude and pri- 
mitive and when settlements were practically 
in the initiative stage. Her original American 
ancestors, who came in an early day, were 
from England, and the Phelps family has 
given in each successive generation a valuable 
element of citizenship. 



MALCOLM D. STONE, an experienced 
fanner and respected citizen of Custer county, 
is not a native of the section in which he is 
well and favorably known, but the greater part 
of his life has been spent here and he knows 
whereof he speaks when he calls Custer 
county a fine farming territorv'. 

Malcolm D. Stone was born at Grand 
Haven, Michigan, May 31, 1873, the only 
child of Lafayette and Imogene (Van Bnmt) 
Stone. His father, who was probably born 
in Canada, died in 1885, in Michigan, 
where he was engaged in practice as a veter- 
inary surgeon. The mother was born in 
Michigan and was a daughter of Leander Van 
Brunt. ]\Ir. Stone does not remember very 
much about Michigan, as he was only four 
years old when the family moved to Ottawa, 
Illinois, but he remembers being on a big as- 
paragus farm near there when he was six 
years old. Later he earned a dollar by work- 
ing for a week cutting asparagus for market. 
When seven years old he was sent into a glass 
factory at Ottawa, where bottles and glass 
chimneys were manufactured, and he worked 
there until he was eleven and then accompan- 
ied his parents to Washington, Iowa. The 
death of his father made it necessary for him 



to find a home for himself, and when four- 
teen years old he came to Custer county and 
was bound out to C. C. Biggerstaff, with whom 
he remained until he was twenty-one, in the 
meanwhile becoming a first-class, practical 
farmer. At present he is operating the fami 
of Mrs. Jennie Biggerstaff, which is situated 
north of Broken Bow. 

Mr. Stone was married January 31, 1905, at 
Kearney, Nebraska to Miss Minnie A. Eagle, 
who is a daughter of Rev. Peter and Jane 
(McCurdy) Eagle, the ancestry being Ger- 
man on the father's side and Irish on the 
mother's. Rev. Peter Eagle was educated in 
Germany and is a clergyman of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, a circuit rider. Mr. and 
Mrs. Stone have three children : Dorris I., 
Leo M., and Eleanor M. Mr. Stone votes 
independently but his father was a Republican 
in politics. 

ELLIS HANSON. — In the life record of 
Mr. Hanson are clearly set forth the advan- 
tages that America holds out to young men 
who, with nothing save their own industry, 
integrity, and self-reliance, set forth to face 
the world, with determination to gain a liveli- 
hood and eventually to build a home. 

Ellis Hanson is a scion of sterling English 
ancestry. He was born in Keighley, York- 
shire, England, on the 9th of June,^ 1859, 
and his parents, Jonas and Sarah E (Scaife) 
Hanson, were bom and reared in that same 
locality. Jonas Hanson, who was an iron 
molder. worked diligently at his trade and was 
compelled to practice strict frugality in order 
to make the desired provision for the support 
of his family and for the proper rearing of 
his children.' Of the four children, Ellis, the 
immediate subject of this review, was the 
firstborn ; Mary is deceased ; Mrs. Emma 
( Hanson) Thurman was the next in order of 
birth ; and William is the youngest of the 
number. When Ellis Hanson was a youth of 
seventeen years his father brought the family 
to America and settled at Oelwein, Iowa, and 
at this point it may consistently be noted that 
eventually the father and son came to Custer 
couny, Nebraska, in 1883, and took a home- 
stead' about three and one-half miles north- 
west of Oconto, the other members of the 
family coming to the new home in the follow- 
ing year. Thus this family is one that is en- 
titled to pioneer distinction in the annals of 
Custer county history. 

While Ellis Hanson was growing up in his 
English home, the needs of the family re- 
quired that he contribute his quota to its sup- 
port. Accordingly, when he was but seven 



570 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTV, NEBRASKA 



years of age, he began to work one-half of 
each day in a spinning factor)', while for the 
other half-day he attended school. For one 
year he received only twenty-five cents a week 
for his ser^'ices. and when he was thirteen 
years of age he was receiving the munificent 
sum of one dollar and twenty-five cents a 
week. It was at this age that he entered upon 
an apprenticeship to the trade of molder in 
an iron foundry- that was one of the great in- 
dustrial establishments of England, his ap- 
prenticeship and ser\-ice covering a period of 
five years, during which his wages ranged 
from two to three dollars a week. 'Sir. Han- 
son has appreciatively stated that at the time 
of his parents' marriage his father was work- 
ing as an apprentice and his mother was em- 
ployed in a factor}', where she received wages 
of one dollar and seventy-five cents a week. 
Mr. Hanson thinks that young people of the 
present day would hardly chance the re- 
sponsibilities of matrimony on salaries of such 
diminutive proportions. 

ICUis Hanson bore his full share of the bur- 
dens that fell upon the pioneers of Custer 
county, and here he has so ordered his affairs 
as to have attained large and worthy success. 
He and his wife have weathered the storms 
and endured the trials and hardships of the 
formati\e period in the county's histor)'. Thev 
have emphatically "made good," and they 
now have a beautiful home, with all the ap- 
purtenances that make for comfort and well- 
being. They have 1,280 acres of land, and 
every cent of the purchase price of this ex- 
tensive landed estate was obtained as the re- 
sult of well directed agricultural and stock- 
raising enterprise in this county. Mr. and 
Mrs. Hanson are out of debt, and they have 
shown their patriotism and loyalty by invest- 
ing twelve thousand dollars in Liberty bonds 
and thrift stamps within the period of the 
great world war. They have been glad to lend 
their money to their country, and were ready, 
if occasion required, to send their sons to the 
firing line — and that without murmur or pro- 
test — in order that militarism and autocracv. 
as exemplified by Germany, might be over- 
come for all time. 

On the 1st of Xovember, 1886. at Lexing- 
ton, Custer county, was recorded the marriage 
of Ellis Hanson to Miss Ida J. Simmons, who 
was bom at Bonaparte. V^an Buren county, 
Iowa, a daughter of Michael and Mary E. 

(Dorsey) Sinunons. both natives of Ohio. 
IMr. and Mrs. Hanson have four fine children, 
in whom they have everj- reason to take pride. 
The eldest is Mrs. Cora Buckner. Harley E., 
the elder son, was in the last selective draft 
and prior to the close of the war had been 



called into the nation's service. At the time 
when he was thus called to the colors he had 
$1,000 in cash, and he invested the full amount 
in war-savings stamps. In addition to this he 
has purchased and paid for the old homestead 
of his paternal grandfather, this land adjoin- 
ing that of his father. The younger daughter 
is Mrs. Annie L. Savage. Thomas S., the 
younger son, was placed in class 1, division 1 
of the last selective draft, and had been called 
into sers'ice shortly before the great European 
conflict came to a close. 



JAMES \V. HUFFAKER. — All of the 
early settlers of Custer county did not come 
from the east or the north. Once in a while 
Missouri made Custer county a contribution. 
It was -Missouri that gave James W. Huftaker 
to the major county of Nebraska. Mr. Hul¥- 
aker was bom in ^lissouri, in 1856. and is a 
son of Walter and Minen-a (Bartee) Huft- 
aker, in whose family circle were eight chil- 
dren : Elick, Payton. and Sallie are deceased ; 
Mose, who is living at Garden Home, Oregon, 
has retired from active life, in the seventy- 
third year of his age ; and Columbus, Nancy, 
James W.. and Walter are the others who 
make up the family circle. 

On the 25th day of January, 1884, James 
W. Hufi^aker married Miss Anna George, and 
their union has been blessed with eleven chil- 
dren, ten of whom are still living: Clarence, 
who married Dulcie Wolf, is a farmer and 
stock-raiser near Wild Horse, Colorado : Alice 
lives at the parental home but at present is 
teaching school at Lillian ; Bertha lives in 
Colorado ; Walter, at the time of this writing, 
is in Camp Funston. a member of the medical 
corps ; James also is at Camp Funston and in 
the same corps with his brother ; Erma lives at 
home ; Leota is teaching school at Walworth ; 
Connie is at home : Frank died in March, 
1918, in the nineteenth year of his age; and 
Ted and Claud are at home. 

Mr. and Mrs. Huft'aker have been in Cus- 
ter county ever since 1886, and in this period 
they have traveled the road of Custer county 
pioneers. They have had their difficulties, 
they have encountered their storms and have 
now come to the calm of riper years and re- 
warded toil. They were homesteaders of the 
early day and began with practically nothing, 
as compared with the ])roperty which sur- 
rounds them at the present time. To-day 
their place is well improved and their home is 
one of the monuments of the county's de- 
velopment. They have reared a family of 
whom they can justly be proud. W'ith two of 
their sons in active service in connection with 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



571 



the nation's participation in the world war, 
their daughter Bertha offered herself for 
service in the Red Cross, as army nurse, and 
all the other children are likewise a credit to 
the parental home and influence. This is a 
splendid family of good, substantial citizens. 
Mrs. HufTaker and some of her children are 
connected with the Methodist church. 



JESSE F. SHOEMAKER, who is one 
of the substantial farmers and representative 
citizens of the Oconto section, was born at 
Lancaster, Iowa, on the 11th of September, 
1861, and he is a son of Jacob and Sarah A. 
(Brunt) Shoemaker. Jacob Shoemaker was 
a contractor and builder, and in addition to 
following his trade in this way, he also gave 
his attention to farm enterprise. The ma- 
ternal grandfather of Jesse F. Shoemaker was 
a clergyman and he continued earnestly in the 
work of his high calling until he was a verit- 
able patriarch — he continued to serve in the 
pulpit until he was past ninety years of age, 
and it is worthy of note that during his entire 
ministerial career he never accepted remuner- 
ation for his services, preferring to devote his 
life gratuitously to service in consonance with 
his religious convictions. He officiated at a 
greater number of marriages, than did any 
other six or eight men in his community. 
Jacob and Sarah A. (Brunt) Shoemaker be- 
came the parents of twelve children, all of 
whom are living except Mary E. and Dewitt, 
the latter having been drowned when he was 
fourteen years of age. The surviving children 
are as here noted : William B., Mrs. Clara 
Kellogg, Albert E., Belle (who remains with 
her mother), Jesse F., Samuel, George, Mrs. 
Elva Cavender, Mrs. Anna Rathman, and 
Mrs. Edna Lennon. 

In the spring of 1871 Jacob Shoemaker 
came with his family to Nebraska and located 
in Mar)', Brown county, but one year later he 
removed to Grand Island, Hall county. In 
the following year he established his residence 
on a pioneer farm three miles west of Grand 
Island, and there his death occurred in 1896, 
his widow still remaining on the old home- 
stead, with her unmarried son and daughter. 
She and her husband bore the full weight of 
the burdens and trials incidental to the pio- 
neer days, and endured the hardships inci- 
dental to the scourge of grasshoppers. 

Jesse F. Shoemaker recalls that as a boy he 
earned his first money by dropping corn for 
his grandfather. He received five cents a 
day for this service and was ver}' proud of the 
money he thus earned. He acquired his pre- 
liminary education in the pioneer schools of 



Iowa, and was a lad of ten years at the time 
of the family removal to Nebraska, so that he 
well remembers the conditions and incidents 
that marked the pioneer period of the history 
of this state. The major part of his active 
career has been one of close identification with 
the basic industries of agriculture and stock- 
raising, and through his well ordered en- 
deavors he has gained substantial success. 

Mr. and Mrs. Shoemaker came to Custer 
county in August, 1904, and purchased 160 
acres of land, four miles northwest of Oconto. 
Here he has since continued to reside, and he 
has the satisfaction of owning one of the finest 
quarter-sections of land in the Wood river 
valley, the place being now known as Pleas- 
ant View Stock Farm. Mr. Shoemaker is 
affiliated with the Modem Woodmen of Amer- 
ica and is a member of the Oconto Home 
Guards. His wife holds membership in the 
Royal Neighbors and is a charter member of 
the War Mathers' Club of Omaha. 

March 4, 1888, recorded the marriage of 
Mr. Shoemaker to Miss Mae E. Countryman, 
who was born in Franklin county, Iowa, and 
who is a daughter of Elias H. and Eunice L. 
(Bailey) Countryman, the former a native of 
the state of New York and the latter of 
Pennsylvania, the mother having been a de- 
vout member of the Methodist church. Elias 
H. Countryman gave valiant service as a 
soldier of the Union in the Civil war. He 
enlisted at the age of fifteen years, as drummer 
bov in the Fourteenth Wisconsin Volunteer 
Infantry, and he served four years. He par- 
ticipated in several important battles, in one 
of which he was severely wounded, and after 
having been captured by the enemy he had the 
experience of being confined in Libby and An- 
dersonville prisons, the names of which are 
infamous in the history of the conflict between 
the north and the south. In the Countr}-man 
family were the following children — Walter 
A., Airs. Mae Shoemaker, Mrs. Rachel Brodg- 
den, Cora E., Lyons, and Roy L. 

In conclusion is given brief record concern- 
ing the children of Mr. and Mrs. Shoemaker. 
William H. met his death in a railway acci- 
dent at Seneca, Nebarska, while he was em- 
ployed as a brakeman on the railroad. Edna 
G. is the wife of Ernest Van Antwerp, a 
farmer near Lodi, Custer county, and they 
have three children, all daughters. Gladys M. 
is the wife of James Armour, a fanner near 
Etna, this county, and their three children are 
sons. Arthur R., who is a bachelor, is em- 
ploved as a traction engineer and he resides at 
Chico, California. Albert E., a popular young 
bachelor, gave gallant senice as an American 
soldier on the battle-fields of France — as a 



572 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



member of Battery D, Field Artillery, a coni- 
maiul which made a world record for the most 
accurate of practice-shooting, and he was 
killed in action September 21, 1918, in France. 
Myrtle E. is the wife of Arthur Weaver, a 
fanner living northeast of Oconto, and they 
have one son. Jesse H. and Cora P. remain 
at the parental home and are attending school, 
and Sarah L., youngest of the children, is 
eight years of age, in 1918, she being also a 
student in the public schools. In the death of 
Albert E. Shoemaker on the battlefields of 
France, Custer county made one more contri- 
bution to the roster of gallant young patriots 
who have given their lives in the great world 
war, and his name and memory merit enduring 
honor in the annals of Custer county and the 
state of Nebraska, as well as on the pages of 
our national historv. 



MEL\*IN K. KOLBO, who is a progress- 
ive young farmer, residing near Lodi, 
was born January 29, 1881. in Westby, Wis- 
consin. He is a son of Oliver J. and Chris- 
tina ( Lee) Kolbo, both natives of the 
rugged Scandanavian kingdom of Norway. 
Oliver J. Kolbo was a lifelong farmer and was 
a man of strong character and striking indi- 
viduality — one who was held in high po])ular 
esteem. 

Melvin K. Kolbo was but a small child when 
he came with his parents to Custer county, 
where he was reared and educated. He has 
been a farmer all his life. He began opera- 
tions in the soil at the age of ten years, and 
through his energy and thrift in later years he 
has surrounded himself with fine farm equip- 
ments on a c|uarter-section of splendid land, 
three-fourths of a mile southwest of Lodi, 
where his farming operations are so skillful 
as to mark him as an example for emulation 
in a farming communitv. 

April 13.' 1904, at 'Lodi, Nebraska, Mr. 
Kolbo wedded Miss Grace L. Johnson, who 
was born in Chicago, although she comes, like 
her husband, of sturdy Norwegian stock. She 
is a daughter of Severt and Anna (Oren) 
Johnson, who came to the United States in 
1880, and whose marriage here occurred a 
year and one-half later. They came to Cus- 
ter county in 1885 and located a claim three 
miles west of Lodi. The father died the same 
year, when the youngest son in the family was 
ten weeks old. The mother now lives in 
Seattle, Washington. 

Mr. and Mrs. Melvin K. Kolbo have six 
children — Anna C, in the eighth grade at 
school ; Fay L., in the seventh grade; S. Lloyd, 
who has reached the third grade: Bernard M.. 



Donald O., and Davie, aged respectively six, 
four, and two years ( 1919). 

Mr. and Mrs. Kolbo are fine young people, 
with many years of activity and usefulness 
still before them, and those years, pregnant 
with promise, augur well for the accumula- 
tion of property, with ease and comfort for 
the proverbial "rainy day" and for the sun- 
down of old age. 

ilr. Kolbo takes an interest in public af- 
fairs, keeps himself well informed, and gen- 
erally votes the Republican ticket. In re- 
ligious matters the family is divided, the hus- 
band being connected with the Lutheran 
church and the wife maintaining connection 
with the Baptist church. 



PERRY SLOGGETT. — One of the recent 
recruits to the farming industry of Custer 
county. Perry Sloggett has already illustrated 
tHe pMDSsession of energj' and enthusiasm for 
his chosen calling that promises to carrj- him 
far. While he has just entered this kind of 
work, it is not to be assumed that he is 
without agricultural experience, for his boy- 
hood was spent on a farm, and for seven 
years he was connected with a threshing out- 
fit. As an agriculturist upon his own account, 
he is showing the benefits of his earlier train- 
ing. 

Mr. Sloggett was born on a farm in Ogle 
county. Illinois. June 11. 1881, a son of .\lfred 
C. Sloggett. a review of whose career will be 
found elsewhere in this work. His education 
came from the country schools of Custer 
county. Nebraska, where the family had moved 
when he was a child, and the college at 
Broken Bow, where he spent two years in 
study, following which he returned to his 
father's farm and remained until he attained 
his majority. As before noted, he became 
identified with a threshing outfit, and, being 
possessed of mechanical ability and a liking 
for that kind of work, he was given the op- 
eration of the engine as his share of the work, 
and continued in that capacity for seven years. 
His love of mechanics al-so led him to accept 
a position in a garage, where for two years he 
studied the intracies of the automobile, but in 
the spring of 1918 he returned to farming, and 
has since been engaged therein, as a general 
farmer. It is a little early to speak of the 
success which he has attained in this field, but 
it may well be noted that he is using modern 
methods in a ])ractical and progressive way 
and that he brings to his new business the 
knowledge gained in his former years of ex- 
perience. At this time he is renting 368 acres 
of land, and is steadily making improvements, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



573 



with a view to making his property more pro- 
ductive, as well as to save labor. 

Mr. Sloggett was married March 29, 1915, 
to Miss Laura Jenkins, who wa.s born in Cus- 
ter county, a daughter of Charles and Minnie 
(Daniels) Jenkins, who reside seven miles 
south of Broken Bow. Mr. Jenkins was born 
in \\'isconsin and Mrs. Jenkins in Pennsyl- 
vania, and they became residents of Nebraska 
in 1895, since which year they have been en- 
gaged in farming in Custer county. They are 
the parents of twelve children, namely: Miss 
Bessie, who makes her home with her parents ; 
Laura, who is now Mrs. Sloggett ; Irene, who 
is the wife of Joy Myers of Hastings, Ne- 
braska ; Myrtle and George, who reside at 
home ; John, who is living with Mr. and Mrs. 
Sloggett ; and Ross, Leonard, Joe, Charles, 
Malvern and Evelyn, who live at home. Mr. 
and Mrs. Sloggett are faithful members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church. He is frater- 
nally affiliated with the local lodge of the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows, and is 
popular with his fellow members. His in- 
terest in politics has been confined to his cast- 
ing his ballot as a voter, and in this direction 
he reserves the right to chose his own candi- 
dates, irrespective of party lines. However, 
he is progressive in character and has always 
been a supporter of beneficial movements. 



B. A. McDERMOTT owns and operates a 
farm of 160 acres, and the place is endeared to 
him by many gracious memories and associa- 
tions, as it is the old homestead upon which 
his father located upon coming to Custer 
county, thirty-five years ago. 

B. A. AIcDermott was born in Pocahontas 
county, Iowa, December 2, 1871. His father, 
Bernard ]\IcDermott, was born in Ireland and 
was a child when his parents, James and Ann 
(Dougherty) McDermott, came to America 
and settled in Canada. As a young man Bern- 
ard McDermott married Miss Bridget Riley, 
who likewise was born in Ireland and who was 
sixteen years of age when she came to Amer- 
ica, in company with her parents, Patrick and 
Mary ( Kearns) Riley. Upon his immigration 
to Iowa Bernard McDermott settled on a farm 
in Pocahontas county, where he continued his 
residence until 1883, when he came with his 
family to Custer county, Nebraska, and took 
a homestead in section 5, township 18, range 
22. His first home was a sod house, and this 
farm was the stage of his productive activi- 
■ ties for many years. He finally sold the farm 
to his son B. A., subject of this review, after 
which he retired to the village of Anselmo, 
where he died in November, 1905, at the age 



of seventy-six years. He was a communicant 
of the Catholic church, as is also his widow, 
who still resides in this county. They became 
the parents of twelve children, of whom record 
is here given : Mary Ann is the wife of 
Thomas McDermott, of this county ; James is 
a resident of Grand Island, Nebraska : Patrick 
and Michael are deceased; John resides in the 
city of Omaha ; Margaret is the wife of James 
Milligan ; Bridget Agnes is the wife of Samuel 
Bowman, of Fremont, Nebraska ; Joseph re- 
mains in Custer county ; B. A., who owns the 
old homestead farm, is the immediate subject 
of this review ; Hugh is a resident of Omaha ; 
William resides in Custer county ; and Ella, 
who became the wife of Henry Morrissey, is 
deceased. 

B. A. McDermott was a boy of twelve years 
when he accompanied his parents on their im- 
migration to Custer county, where he gained 
his youthful quota of experience in connec- 
tions with the hardships and vicissitudes of the 
pioneer days. He assisted effectively in the 
development and varied operations of the home 
farm and he purchased the farm when his 
father retired. Since that time he has de- 
voted his energies to the ojierations and pro- 
gressive activities of the old homestead and 
is consistently to be designated as one of the 
representative farmers of the county. The 
old "soddy" has given place to a frame house, 
which proves a modern and attractive domi- 
cile, and faces that appear frequently at its 
windows are those of representatives of the 
third generation of the family to call this 
farm "home." 

As his wife and helpmeet B. A. McDermott 
wedded Miss Donna Scott, who was born in 
Indiana, and the four children of this union 
are: Thomas, Irene, Clara and Blanche. Mr. 
and Mrs. McDermott are members of the 
Catholic church, and in the community they 
ha\e a host of friends. ' 



WILLIAM S. WADDINGTON,^a .suc- 
cessful farmer and stockman of Custer 
county, was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, 
August 20, 1865, and is a son of James and 
Lydia (Boreland) Waddington, of whom 
further mention is made on other pages, in a 
sketch written for Samuel Waddington. 

William S. Waddington was the second 
youngest of a family of sixteen children and 
accompanied the family to Custer county in 
1886, making his home with his parents as 
long as they lived. He took a pre-emption on 
\Vest Table, proved up on the same and re- 
sided there several years. He then disposed 
of that property and bought the land where 



374 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTV. NEBRASKA 



he now resides, becoming the owner of 560 
acres. All of his land is under a high state 
of cultivation, and he is one of the successful 
farmers of the community. The farm is 
one of the well improved properties of the 
county, all of the buildings having been put 
here by the present owner. 

For a wife and helpmeet Mr. Waddington 
chose Miss Ara May Burris. who was bom 
at St. Mary's Kansas, a daughter of Sylvester 
and P^liza (Robinson) Burris, the former of 
whom was born in Ohio and the latter in 
F^ngland, their marriage having been solemn- 
ized in the state of Iowa. From the Hawk- 
eye state Mr. and Mrs. Burris removed to 
and settled in Kansas. On the 15th of March, 
1905. they came to Custer county, Nebraska, 
and located on the farm, in \'ictoria Precinct, 
where Mrs. Burris still maintains her home, 
as do also three of her sons and two of her 
daughters, the honored husband and father 
having passed away several years ago. Mr. 
and Airs. Waddington became the parents of 
two daughters, of whom Nellie Jaimita is liv- 
ing, the name of the deceased daughter hav- 
ing been Lydia Viola. 

Mr. Waddington has not only been an eye- 
witness of the vast changes that have taken 
place in Custer county since the family lo- 
cated here, thirty-two years ago, but he has 
also performed his part in the work of trans- 
formation and is to-day one of the substantial 
men of the county. 



HANS J. KOLBO. — The countries of 
northern Euroi>e, in their contribution to 
America, have contributed few better men 
than Hans J. Kolbo, who was born September 
7, 1851, near to the capital city of Norway. 
He is a .son of John and Carrie (Slatum) 
Kolbo, representatives of stanch old families 
in Norway, and in this sterling Norwegian 
family are eight children : May C. became 
the wife of Chris Torgenson, who was killed 
by a cattleman, in 1882, as the result of a 
quarrel about leaving open a gate oh the Olive 
ranch, near Devil's Gap. His assailant struck 
him over the head with a revolver, and he 
lived about six weeks. The other members of 
the family are: Hans J.. Christ, Martin, Mrs. 
Dinah ( Kolbo ) Johnston, John, and Barney. 

Hans J. Kolbo's father came to the 
Unted States in 1861, and located on a farm 
in Vernon county, Wisconsin. Mr. Kolbo re- 
memljers that when he was eleven years of 
age he attended his first Fourth of July cele- 
bration in this countr\'. During that day he 
earned ten cents, by nmning errands. This 
was the first money he ever earned, and it 



also constituted the sum total of what he had 
to spend at the celebration. 

"The young folks of to-day," says Mr. 
Kolbo, "expect their parents to give them 
five or ten dollars for the Fourth of July cele- 
brations, but nothing of that kind was doing 
when I was young and began to attend cele- 
brations and picnics." 

Reared on the farm, Mr. Kolbo engaged in 
all kinds of farm work, and was especially 
attracted to the threshing operation — not the 
thresiiing sometimes administered by an irate 
ancestor, or a provoked school-teacher, but a 
grain-threshing operation that called for ma- 
chinery and horses. This especially appealed 
to him, and in his boyhood years he learned 
to operate the separator and all parts of the 
machinery. He followed threshing for an 
occupation during six consecutive years, while 
yet in Wisconsin. Later he transfered opera- 
tions to Custer coimty, Nebraska, where he 
continued in the threshing business and added 
another twenty years to his experience. He 
does not advise young men to try any "get- 
rich-quick" project by leaving the farm to en- 
gage in the threshing business. 

January 8, 1878, at Westby, Wisconsin, Mr. 
Kolbo married Miss Agnette Johnson, who 
was born in Norway, a daughter of John and 
Patrene (Dahl) Johnson, representatives of 
sturdy Norwegian stock. In the Johnson 
family were twelve children. Those surviv- 
ing are: Mrs. Clara J. Stairs, Peter W., Mrs. 
Elvina Browet, Mrs. Anna Bond, John, 
Henry G.. Clarence, and Reuben. 

Clarence Johnson made readv to do well 
his part as a member of our national forces 
in the great world war, and at the time of 
this writing he is a member of Battery D. 
One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Field Ar- 
tillen,', at Fort Sill. Oklahoma. Reuben 
Johnson, youngest of the children, remains at 
home with his father. 

Mr. and Mrs. Kolbo came to Custer county 
in 1882. and located on Wood river, one-half 
mile south of Lodi. Mr. Kolbo has just sold 
his land and is preparing to buy a new home. 
He and his wife belong to the Lutheran 
church, and are honest, industrious, frugal 
])Cople who well represent the type of fann- 
ers and producers that has made Custer 
county the niightv emporium of resources that 
it is. In politics Mr. Kolbo is a Rei>ublican. 

JAMES M. INGR.VM. — The life record 
of James M. Ingram is an illustration of what 
may be accomplished by a laudable ambition 
and a determintion to succeed. From the 
modest circumstances in which he found him- 
self when he arrived in Custer county, twenty- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



575 



seven years ago, Air. Ingram is to-day the 
owner of a splendid farm and the possessor 
of a competence. 

Mr. Ingram was born in \'ermiHon county, 
lUinois, June 3, 1854, a son of Abe Ingram, 
who was born in Virginia and came to Illi- 
nois, settling in Vermilion county in 1851. 
The father married a Mrs. Huddleston, who 
bore the maiden name of Mary Kennedy. The 
parents were farming people and resided in 
Vermilion county till their death. 

James M. Ingram spent the days of his 
boyhood and youth in his native county, and 
recalls having done work for "Uncle Joe" 
Cannon when their homes were not far apart. 
On reaching manhood he became a farmer, 
and he carried on agricultural pursuits in Illi- 
nois until 1891, when he came to Custer 
county, Nebraska, with his wife and their 
two children. His worldly possessions at 
that time consisted of a team and wagon and 
one dollar and forty cents in money. Some 
friend had arranged to have a place for them, 
but when they arrived, the house could not be 
had, so they moved into a dugout in the 
canyon twelve miles from where they now 
live. They lived in this primitive home from 
March until October. For several years Mr. 
Ingram rented land, and twenty-one years ago 
he came as a renter to the land he now owns. 
To-day he owns 320 acres, all under cultiva- 
tion, having made a success of his undertak- 
ings. The sod house in which the family live 
was erected thirty-five years ago and at that 
time was the finest one in this part of the 
country ; it is still a very comfortable home. 

In Illinois, Mr. Ingram married Susan 
Davis, a native of Vermilion county, that 
state. Her parents, Reese and Lucinda 
(Rickert) Davis, were natives of Ohio and 
became early settlers of Vermilion county, 
Illinois, where they spent the remainder of 
their lives. The home of Mr. and Mrs. In- 
gram has been blessed with four children : 
Pearl married Inez Hutchinson and resides at 
Lakeside, Nebraska ; Robert married Clara 
Herman and is a farmer in Custer county ; 
Ida is the wife of Earl Meyer, a farmer of 
Custer county ; and Ollie, unmarried, is still 
with his paernts, assisting in carrying on the 
old farm. 

Mr. Ingram has a record of having been a 
farmer fifty- four years continuously, has al- 
ways been a hard-working man. The success 
w^hich has come to him is the result of good 
judgment and years of persistent labor, and 
by all who know him he is held in the highest 
of esteem. 

AIICHAEL McCarthy. — The subject 
of this record is one of the wide-awake, pro- 



gressive farmers of Custer county, where he 
owns and operates 320 acres of land. 

Michael McCarthy was born in Franklin 
county, New York, September 25, 1857. His 
father, Charles McCarthy, was a native of 
County Cork, Ireland, and was a young man 
when he came to America. In New York 
state he married Ann Haverty, who was a 
native of County Tipperary, Ireland, and who 
was a young woman when she came to the 
United States. The parents bought a farm 
in the wooded section of New York, where 
the father chopped the trees, cleared the land 
of stumps and carried on farming until 1863, 
when he removed to Hancock, on the upper 
peninsula of Michigan, and found employ- 
ment in the copper mines. When his son 
Michael was a lad of twelve years the family 
home was established on a farm in Whiteside 
county, Illinois, where the parents resided 
many years, their last days being spent at 
Grand Island, Nebraska. 

Michael McCarthy began working on a 
farm when twelve years old and received the 
magnificent wages of one dollar a week. 
When a young man of twenty years he came 
to Nebraska, and for several years he was in 
the employ of the Union Pacific and other 
railroads, having charge of a gang of men 
laying steel rails. It was while working in 
this capacity for the Burlington Railroad that 
he formed a liking for Dale valley, Custer 
county, and in 1903 he came here and pur- 
chased the northwest quarter of section 25, 
township 18, range 22, on which he has made 
extensive improvements, and recently, he has 
extended the boundaries of his holdings by 
purchasing a quarter-section adjoining on the 
north, all of which is devoted to general farm- 
ing and stock-raising. 

It seems that Dale valley had attractions 
for Mr. McCarthy other than her beautiful 
farms, for here he found a companion and 
helpmeet, when he was united in marriage to 
Miss Lizzie McGrath, a native of Kane 
county, Illinois, and a daughter of Philip Mc- 
Grath, of whom mention is made elsewhere in 
this volume. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Mc- 
Carthy has been blessed with four children : 
Philip, Edward, Mary, and Alice, all of whom 
are at home and assist in the work of the farm 
and the home. The family are communicants 
of the Catholic church and in politics Mr. Mc- 
Carthy votes the Democratic ticket. 

PHILIP McGRATH. — One of the pio- 
neer settlers of Dale valley, Custer county, 
who has been called to his reward was Philip 
McGrath, who passed away at Merna, March 
18 1916, at the patriarchal age of ninety- 
eight years. 



576 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



Philip ^IcGrath was born in County Tip- 
peran,-, Ireland, June 29. 1818, next to the 
youngest of thirteen children born to Thomas 
and Nellie (Hanley) ^IcGrath. He was 
reared and educated in his native land and 
was married there, Februarv' 1, 1848, to Miss 
Catherine Hogan, also of Irish birth. In 
July, 1848, they came to America and located 
first at Pleasantville, New York, where they 
spent six years, he being engaged in railroad 
work. In 1854 he went to Chicago, where he 
served three years on the police force, and 
they made their home in that city for several 
years. In 1861 they moved to Lily Lake. Illi- 
nois, and there Mr. McGrath carried on his 
first farming operations in America. In 1865 
they went to Lacon, Marshall county, Illinois, 
which was their home for many years. 

June 7, 1884 Mr. McGrath came to Custer 
coimty, to visit his daughter, Mrs. Terry John- 
son, who with her husband had come to Ne- 
braska in 1881 and secured a homestead in 
this county. Mr. McGrath bought a relin- 
quishment on 160 acres in section 19. town- 
ship 18, range 21, his family joining him the 
next year. Here he carried on agricultural 
pursuits for many years, and he then retired, 
in Febniary, 1900, and moved to Merna. 
Mrs. McGrath was called to her final rest 
February 11, 1907. She was the mother of 
five children : Thomas, who has not been 
heard from by other members of the family 
for some time; Mrs. Al. Thomas, of Holly, 
Colorado: Mrs. Terry Johnson, of Sargent. 
Custer county ; Mrs. Michael McCarthy, of 
this county; and Frank, a resident of Colo- 
rado. 

Mr. McGrath passed through many dis- 
couragements in his early days in Nebraska 
and had the usual experiences of pioneer life. 
He served eleven years as treasurer of his 
school district. He was a successful man in 
business and had a host of friends. He was 
one of the oldest men in Custer county at 
the time of his death. 



EMERSON R. PURCELL. — If one were 
delegated to choose the leaders of public af- 
fairs in Custer county he would name Emer- 
son Purcell almost, if not quite, the first one. 
Since an early date he has been so actively 
identified with all matters of public interest, 
and so prominently before the public, that he 
is known throughout the entire country, and 
his acquaintance and rejjutation, not to lie con- 
fined Ijy county lines, extend throughout the 
state. He is editor and proprietor of the Cus- 
ter County Chief, a pai>er so marked and dis- 



tinguished among publications of its kind that 
further mention of it will follow later. 

Emerson R. Purcell was born September 9, 
1866. and is a son of the late George Purcell 
and Marietta ( Root ) Purcell. who still sur- 
vives, and who during a long life has been 
an exceedingly devoted and careful mother. 
The father, George Purcell. was born in Dub- 
lin, Ireland, lulylO, 1832, and died in Broken 
Bow, March 3, 1918. The mother was bftrn 
in Connecticut, of old colonial stock. The 
parents were married in Cincinnati. Ohio, in 
1854. and their gracious companionship, cov- 
ering a period of sixty-three years, was sev- 
ered only by the death of the father. The 
celebration of their golden wedding was one 
of the largest gatherings of its kind ever held 
in Custer county. 

In early life George Purcell was a carriage- 
painter. In later years, after his sons. Enier- 
son R. and William G. Purcell. established the 
Custer County Chief, he had charge oi the 
binding department of that establishment for 
several years. He came to Custer county in 
the spring of 1884. and he homcsteaded and 
entered a tree claim north of ]\Ierna. He 
proved up on both of these places and one of 
tliem is still in the possession of the family. 

George Purcell and his two sons. William 
G. and Edward H. Purcell, all took land north 
of Merna in 1884. and on their claims they 
erected three sod houses, which belonged to 
the mansion class of their day. George Pur- 
cell lived five years on his land, and later 
moved to Broken Bow, where he died on the 
date above recorded. In the immediate family 
of George Purcell and his good wife were four 
children : William G., whose home is in Broken 
Bow and who has individual mention else- 
where in this volume ; Edward H. who lives 
in Broken Bow ; Ella, who is deceased : and 
Emerson R.. who is the subject of this sketch. 
George Purcell was a communicant of the 
I'rotestant Ei)iscopal church, and was very de- 
voted and liberal in its support. He was a 
(|uiet. unassuming man of sterling character, 
and had many friends in Broken Bow. The 
widow is a devout communicant of the Epis- 
copal church and is revered by all who have 
come within the sphere of her gentle and 
gracious influence. 

Essentially the entire career of Emerson R. 
Purcell belongs to Custer county. His early 
education was received in the district schools 
of Saline county, this state, and the public 
schools of Crete, that county, where later he 
finished at Doane College. His first work was 
done in a printing office at Crete, .-\fter 



HISTORY OF- CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



^77 




Emerson R. Purcell 



578 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



coming to Broken Bow he secured a position 
in the okl sod printing house in which the 
Custer Conntx Republican was then published. 
He Hved with his parents on the claim near 
^lema. and he and his brother. William G.. 
worked for R. H. Miller, on the paper just 
mentioned. They had to undergo some hard- 
ships, but they were equal to the emergency. 
They brought their "grub" from home every 
^Monday morning, and made sleeping apart- 
ments in the office. They had breakfast and 
supper in their room and took their dinner at 
the old Commercial hotel. This is the way 
they made their start in the printing and pub- 
lishing business. 

The year 1886 found William G. and Emer- 
son R. Purcell established in a job-printing 
business of their own. in the building next 
to the sod Republican office, and as they look 
back now to that office, the dimensions of 
which were seven and one-half by sixteen feet, 
they feel that they have no occasion to despise 
the day of small things. A few weeks after 
the establishment of business for themselves. 
they built an additiop on their office, twelve 
by sixteen feet, and this was their first ex- 
pansion, as well as the beginning of business 
growth. In this place they did a large busi- 
ness. This was the year of the coming of 
the railroad and in the fall they established 
the first newspaper in the town of Merna. 
Emerson R. Purcell, who had not as yet 
reached his majority, assumed charge of the 
new venture, which was named the Merna 
Record, and the first issue was given to the 
public Thanksgiving day. He conducted this 
paper five years, during which time William 
G. conducted the job-printing business in Bro- 
ken Bow. After disposing of the Alerna 
business. Emerson R. returned to Broken Bow, 
and in April, 1892, the two brothers estab- 
lished the Custer County Chief. They con- 
tinued as partners for fifteen years after the 
establishment of the Chief, and in 1907 the 
business had grown to such an extent that 
they found it advisable to divide the business. 
William G. taking over the job business and 
Emerson R. continuing the publication of the 
Chief. 

The Custer County Chief has a larger 
weekly edition than any other country weekly 
in the state. It came into prominence as a 
weekly paper back in the ■90s and. by the push 
and persistence of its editor, kept on increasing 
its patronage and influence until, in 1914. it 
reached the highest point in circulation of all 
weekly papers of its class in the state. Its 
present circulation is more than 4.200. and 
aside from standing at the head of the circu- 



lation list in the state, it occupies fourth or 
fifth place among the country weeklies of its 
class in the United States. 

December 23, 1896. recorded the marriage 
of Mr. Purcell to Grace Cox, of Broken Bow, 
she being a daughter of W. H. Cox, who came 
to Custer county in 1890, and served a number 
of years as manager of the Chicago Lumber 
Comjjany. Mr. Cox was a tinner and jilumber 
and eventually established a business for him- 
self at Broken Bow. 

In the Purcell family to-day are five child- 
ren : Helen, who finished her education in the 
Broken Bow schools, later became secretary 
to the supervisor of playgrounds in \\'ashing- 
ton, D. C. : the other children are Josephine, 
.\lice. Emerson R.. Jr.. and Harry Cady. Mrs. 
Purcell is a member of the Episcopal church. 
Mr. Purcell is high in Masonic circles, being 
a past master of the Masonic blue lodge, a 
Royal Arch Mason, a Knight Templar, a 
member of the Scottish Rite bodies and affili- 
ated with the Ancient .Arabic Order of the 
Xobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a 
past grand of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows. 

.A. Democrat in politics. Mr. Purcell was, in 
November, 1918, elected to the Nebraska legis- 
lature from the Fifty-eighth district, and in the 
thirty-seventh session, which convened early 
in 1919. was an able member of that body. 
For many years he has been active in the 
Nebraska State Press Association and is now 
vice-president of that organization. He was 
identified with the Custer County Fair for 
many years, holding the position of both sec- 
retary and president at different times, and his 
success as a fair manager attracted such fa- 
vorable attention in the state that he was elec- 
ted, and for the past seven years has been, a 
member of the Nebraska State Board of Agri- 
culture. He has been a recognized factor in 
the promotion and success of the great Ne- 
braska State Fair and for the past three years 
has been one of the board of managers of that 
institution. 

He has served his county and his community 
in too many capacities to warrant the enumer- 
ating of them here, but among his activities 
which are appreciated by his home town are 
his services as a member of the board of edu- 
cation, and his lone: tenn of sen-ice on the 
library Iward of the city. He served in the 
city council and was twice elected mavor of 
I'.roken Bow without opjwsition. It was dur- 
ing his term as mayor that municipal owner- 
ship of the present city waterworks plant was 
acquired bv Broken Bow. He and his family 
are valuable assets of both the town and the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



579 



county, and the name of Emerson R. Purcell 
will always be linked in a most substantial 
way with the history of Custer county. 



GEORGE W. SIMMONS. — Over in the 
vicinity of Milburn lives a successful farmer 
who is coming to the time of his retirement 
from hard work and active life. He has been 
successful, and has around him a good show- 
ing for his Custer county years of toil. 

Mr. Simmons was born in the year 1858, 
and his good wife, Alice (Barber) Simmons, 
was born in the same year. Mrs. Simmons is 
a daughter of Philo and Sarah Jane Barber, 
her father having died in the sixtieth year of 
his age and the mother when in her fortieth 
year. Philo Barber was a railroad man and for 
a number of years he maintained the family 
home at Aurora, Hamilton county, Nebraska. 
He and his wife became the parents of eleven 
children, and of the number five are living in 
addition to Mrs. Simmons : Isaac is a farmer 
in the state of Washington ; Tom is a Kansas 
fanner ; Walter lives in Iowa and is retired 
from active work ; John lives in Colorado, 
where he works at the carpenter trade ; and 
Mrs. Susanna Mencer lives at Jersey Shore, 
Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Simmons is a son of John Simmons, 
and his mother's maiden name was Elizabeth 
Hazen. John Simmons, a man of general 
versatility and good education, turned his 
hand to several occupations. He served 
several years as sheriff of Sullivan county, 
Pennsylvania, and for a time taught school 
in that state. He at one time operated a 
blacksmith shop, and in these callings, varied 
as they might seem to be, he was rated as very 
successful. 

George W^ Simmons, the subject of this 
sketch, came to Custer county in 1879 and 
bought out a relinquishment, on which he filed 
a homestead entry. To this original home- 
stead, by hard work and stringent economy, 
he has added until his landed possessions now 
consist of 640 acres, all well improved. On 
his ranch are to be found good blooded 
horses, a fine grade of shorthorn cattle, and 
Poland-China hogs of good and fancy grade. 
After his arrival in the county Mr, Simmons 
spent his first seven years working on a ranch. 
For four years he made his home in Seneca, 
where he was in the employ of the railroad 
company. He has had the varied experiences 
of the Custer county pioneer. He began with 
primitive improvements on his pioneer farm, 
these tentative improvements including a sod 
house, and he added to and rei)laced them until 
he has to-day the present excellent equipment. 



Most of the life of Mr. Simmons has been 
spent in bachelorhood. It was only four years 
ago that he married the gracious wife and 
helpmeet who now makes for him a comfort- 
able home. 

Mr. Simmons is in good standing as a mem- 
ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
and delights in attending all of the meetings 
of the lodge. In politics he is independent, 
selects his own principles, and votes for the 
man above reproach. Both he and his wife 
belong to the Christian church, and are lib- 
eral contributors to its maintenance. Very 
excellent people, and rated among the best in 
the vicinity of Milbum, is the estimate placed 
on this worthy couple by the Milburn coni- 
munitv. 



ANTON P. DOBESH, one of the most 
widely known men of Custer county, Ne- 
braska, belongs to a representative family, and 
one that is highly respected wherever known. 
He is a man of business ability and energy, be- 
ing progressive in his ideas and actively in- 
terested in all measures tending to advance 
the general welfare and prosperity. 

Mr. Dobesh was bom in the village of 
Rouchorany, Moravia, a part of Bohemia, 
January 13, 1861, and was next to the eldest 
of thirteen children born to Thomas and 
Josephine (Job) Dobesh. The parents were 
bom, reared and married in Moravia and came 
to the United States in the spring of 1871, 
sailing from Bremen to Baltimore in the "Co- 
lumbia," it is believed, and spending nineteen 
days on the water. With their six children 
they first located on a homestead which the 
father secured in Saunders county, Nebraska, 
and there several children were born. There 
were seven sons and six daughters in the 
family. One daughter, Annie, now Mrs. 
Poland, lives on the old home farm. Two sons 
and one daughter live in Custer county and 
one son and two daughters live in Butler 
county, Nebraska. The mother of these chil- 
dren died in Saunders county, in 1884, and 
the father died in 1916, at the age of eighty- 
five years. He had retired from farm life 
and lived in Weston, Saunders county. He 
was highly respected as an unright and reli- 
able citizen and had many friends. 

Anton P. Dobesh accompanied his parents 
to America when he was ten years old and as 
a youth helped with the work on the farm 
in Saunders county, where he received a 
common-school education. In the spring of 
1879 he came to Custer county for the pur- 
pose of looking the county over, thinking to 
locate here. In due time he took a homestead 



580 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COl'XTV. NEBRASKA 



and a timber claim in sections 18 and 19, town- 
ship 14, range 18. His nearest neighbor was 
four miles distant and the nearest trading 
point was Kearney. He is one of the home- 
steaders to retain possession of his original 
farm throughout the years to the present time 
and has been closely identified with the pro- 
gress and development of the region. He has 
made a specialty of stock-raising and ships 
several car-loads of cattle to market each year. 
He is a self-made man and has passed through 
the various periods of hai'dship and privations 
that have been the lot of the old settlers in 
Custer county. He has made a specialty of 
Durham cattle and during later years has 
raised a large amount of grain. He owns 
1,600 acres of rich farming land and is one of 
the successful fanners of central Nebraska. 
In Saunders county, on March 19, 1882, Mr. 
Dobesh was united in marriage to Mary Tom- 
sicek, daughter of Joseph and Mary (No- 
vacek) Tomsicek, who came to America in 
the spring of 1875, sailing from Bremen to 
Baltimore. Mr. and Mrs. Dobesh have five 
living children : Anton K. is married, lives 
in Custer county and has five children ; Frank 
is farming ; Josephine is at home ; Thomas is 
farming and is individually mentioned on 
other pages ; and Mary is at home. These 
children were all bom on the homestead and 
attended the public schools. 

Anton P. Dobesh was reared in the Cath- 
olic faith and is a member of the Ancient 
Order of United \\'orkmen. In politics he 
has been a staunch Republican and at one time 
was one of the only two members of his party 
in his jjrecinct. 

The hard times of the early '90s bore 
severely on the settlers, several years of drouth 
and hail succeeding each other with little in- 
termission. In 1894 Mr. Dobesh harvested 
but little fodder and two years later lost 
everything by hail. As before stated, Kearney 
was their nearest market in the early years 
of settlement here, the trip requiring three or 
four days of travel. Deer and antelope were 
to be seen on the prairies in great numbers, 
but soon disapjicarcd. ^Ir. Debosh has now 
retired and is living in .Ansley. 



FRANK JELINEK is another young 
fanucr in whose veins courses foreign blood 
of fine extraction and who is living in the 
vicinity of Mason City. He was boni on July 
8, 1883. His father, Joseph Jelinek, was a 
native of Bohemia and died, in Nebraska, at 
the age of forty-five years. The mother. 
Mary (Hiak) Jelinek, was also Bohemian by 
birth and lived just half a centur>-, ending her 



days in this countrj'. In the family were 
nine children. Aside from Frank, the family 
roster reads as follows : Josie Howell, Mary 
L. Davis, both of whom are married to Custer 
county farmers ; Fannie Fries, who lives in 
the vicinity of Elm creek ; Hannabel, who is 
deceased : Barbara Smith, who lives in Al- 
liance : Clara Senate, who lives on the old 
homestead ; and Joseph and Fred, who are at 
the old home. The father first located in 
Wahoo, Saunders county, Nebraska, from 
which place he came to Custer county when 
twenty-one years of age and located home- 
stead and timber claims. The place now con- 
tains 520 acres, on which are good buildings, 
and the farm land is developed into a high 
state of cultivation. 

Frank Jelinek was married November 8, 
1914, to Elvina Wagner, who is a member of 
a fine family and is a very estimable lady who 
is doing everything in her power to make a 
happy home and to contribute to the material 
advantages of fann life. 

]\Ir. Jelinek has splendid live stock, owns 
his farm implements and is laying the founda- 
tion of a very successful career, when he shall 
have reaped the full benefit of the work he is 
now doing. He began life in a sod house, but 
for prosperous farmers the sod house only 
served the day of beginning, and something 
better soon came to take its place. This fam- 
ily was no exception. 

Mr. Jelinek is a Republican in politics, is 
affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees 
and he and his wife are members of the Evan- 
gelical church. ]\Irs. Jelinek carries insur- 
ance in the W'oman's Accident Company. The 
energ)- they are displaying will insure a com- 
jtetency for the years of retirement and win 
them a reputation as industrious and desirable 
citizens. 



JOSEPH H. CHERRY, JR. — Down in 
the Cumro section, by the winding South 
Loup, where the river valleys of fertile soil 
make corn and alfalfa prolific, and where the 
outlying hills graze fine herds of cattle, lives 
Joseph H. Chern.-, Jr.. a young farmer who 
was born in the old commonwealth of Wiscon- 
sin, thirty-five years ago. He is a son of Jo- 
sei)h and Mary (Williams) Cherry, both of 
whom are deceased. The father died December 
('). 1017, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. The 
mother died in the forty-second year of her 
age, in Nuckolls .county, Nebraska. In the 
fnniiiv of Joseph Cherry were eleven children, 
five of whom are living at the present time — 
Mrs. Elizabeth J. Watts, who is living in Cus- 
ter county : Joseph H., Jr., who is the subject 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



581 



of this review; Hester Ann, who Hves with 
her brother Joseph H. ; and Mrs. Mary A. 
Morgan and John W., both of whom live in 
this county. 

The migrations of ^Ir. Cherry have been 
rather extensive, and he has shifted about in 
seeking the land of promise, but found noth- 
ing to his liking until he struck Custer county. 
Born in Wisconsin, in the public schools of 
which state he received his early education, he 
moved from there to Iowa, then to Brown 
county, Nebraska ; from there to Box Butte 
county, where he located a homestead ; from 
Box Butte county to Custer county ; then to 
Nuckolls county, whence, after a residence of 
five years, he returned to Custer county, and 
finally made up his mind that this was the best 
place he had found in his travels. 

Mr. Cherry owns 240 acres of land, which 
he purchased, and upon which are good im- 
provements and a fruit orchard. The house 
is of frame construction, is cozy and com- 
fortable within, and will answer the purpose 
of the home domicle until such time as a 
larger and more pretentious building shall 
take its place, which time cannot be long, when 
we reckon with the thrift and energy dis- 
played by Mr. Cherry. 

Air. Cherry is independent in politics, claims 
affiliation with no^ party, votes for the man 
whom he considers the best suited for the 
position, and thus discharges his obligation to 
his country. The family are connected with 
the Presbyterian church, and, withal, are good 
people of a substantial character, respected 
by the wide circle of friends and neighbors in 
their community. 



LUCIAN McCANDLESS. — A resident 
of the same homestead property in Custer 
county for a period of thirty-six years, Lucian 
McCandless during this time has established 
himself firmly as one of the substantial and 
dependable men of the Broken Bow com- 
munity. At the time of his arrival his capital 
was largely bounded up in self-faith, deter- 
mination and a willingness to work sturdily 
and perseveringly ; so well did he invest this 
capital that to-day he is possessed of 295 
acres of some of the best and most productive 
land in the county, and of a recognized place 
in the esteem and confidence of his fellow 
citizens. 

Mr. McCandless was born June 25, 1854, in 
McDonough county, Illinois, and is a son of 
Samuel Harper McCandless and Delia (Reed) 
McCandless. The family is of Scotch origin, 
but has lived in the United States for many 
years, William McCandless, the paternal 



grandfather of the subject of this review, 
having been a Pennsylvanian by birth. In 
that state also, in 1816, was born Samuel Har- 
per McCandless, a man of superior education 
and fine intellectual attainments, who in 
young manhood went to Illinois. He followed 
farming as a vocation, but also took a prom- 
inent part in public and political affairs, and 
in 1860 he was sent to the Illinois state legis- 
lature, where he made a splendid record for 
accomplishment and legislative ability. His 
death occurred on his Illinois farm, in 1861, 
when he was at the height of his career. In 
the Prairie state Mr. McCandless met and 
married a young school-teacher, Delia Reed, 
who was born in New York, in the year 1821, 
and who had lived for several years in 
Ohio. They became the parents of four 
children, of whom two are living: William 
Reed, of York, Nebraska; and Lucian, of this 
review. Mrs. McCandless died in 1900, in 
the faith of the Presbyterian church, of which 
her husband was a member. He was a Re- 
publican in his political views. 

Lucian McCandless was reared and edu- 
cated in Illinois and his youth was not one in 
which he was given numerous advantages, for 
his father had died when he was but seven 
years of age and it was necessary that he do 
his share in the support of the family. He 
left the home community in 1882 and came di- 
rect to Custer county, where he settled on the 
homestead that has since been the stage of his 
agricultural operations. Mr. McCandless is 
now the owner of 295 acres of productive 
land, situated within one mile of Broken Bow, 
and here he makes a specialty of dairying, 
with a good grade of Holstein and Durham 
cattle and some Swiss Jerseys. He is doing 
well also in hog-raising and in general farm- 
ing, and his operations are all carried on along 
modern, progressive lines. Mr. McCandless 
has erected a handsome set of buildings, in- 
cluding a commodious, comfortable and well 
furnished residence, and the other improve- 
ments on the property are fully in keeping 
with these structures. 

In 1878 Mr. McCandless was married, in 
Illinois, tO' Miss Emmeline Gandy, daughter of 
Amos W. Gandy, who came to Custer county 
in 1882 and fanned here until his death, his 
widow being now a resident of Broken Bow. 
jMr. and Mrs. McCandless became the parents 
of eight children, of whom five are living: 
William L. is cashier of the Berwyn State 
Bank, and in November, 1918, was elected 
treasurer of Custer county ; Raymond B., who, 
in August, 1917, became a lieutenant of Com- 
pany B, One Hundredth and Twenty-seventh 
Machine Gun Batterv, was stationed at Camp 



582 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Deming. New Mexico, at the time this sketch 
was written. Harrison P., Man,- Belle, and 
Charles W'., remain at the parental home. Mr. 
and Mrs. McCandless and their children are 
members of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
and he is fraternally affiliated with the local 
lodge of the Indejiendent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows. As a rule he is a Republican in his 
political views, although inclined to be inde- 
pendent, and he has served acceptably in the 
capacities of justice of the peace and member 
of the board of county commissioners. As an 
agriculturist, business man and public official, 
as well as personally, his record is an excel- 
lent one, fully entitling him to the marked 
respect and esteem in which he is uniformly 
held bv his fellow citizens. 



ROBERT FARLEY. — One of the big 
men in the Milburn district, physically and in- 
fluentially, is Robert Farley, a retired farmer 
and Custer county pioneer, who is known 
throughout the entire north region of the 
county, and who is a man of blameless char- 
acter — one who by long residence and public 
activity has proven his worth. 

Mr. Farley is a retired farmer, and has well 
earned the rest he enjoys in his declining 
years. He was born in Platte county, Mis- 
February 14, 1844, and is a son of 
and Nancy (Mason) Farley. His 
was a native of Tennessee, and was 
1 1812. His mother was a native of 



souri, 
Josiah 
father 
born i 

Kentucky. When still a young man the 
father moved to Missouri, where he was mar- 
ried in the spring of 1841. In the home of 
Josiah Farley were bom eight children, only 
two of whom now survive,- — the subject of 
this sketch, and his brother, James E. Farley, 
of Milburn, this county. Josiah Farley died 
in Kansas, in 1857. having removed to that 
state with his family in the spring of the same 
year. His wife survived until 1872. 

Robert Farley was educated in the common 
schools of Missouri, and from boyhood on he 
followed farming until he was eighteen years 
of age. In 18f)2 the call of the west over- 
whelmed every other youthful inclination, and 
an o]iportunity which came to him to wield 
the bull whip over the backs of freight oxen 
could not be resisted. Accordingly, he drove 
ox teams in hauling freight from Leaven- 
worth, Kansas, to Denver, Colorado, the trip 
each wav takine three months. Later, in 
1883, he freighted with oxen between Leaven- 
worth and Fort L'nion, New Mexico, hauling 
government supplies. H'e seemed to like the 
trail, and the camp had for him a peculiar 



fascination. In 1864 he made a trip with 
oxen in an ox train from Fort Leavenworth 
to Salt Lake City. The caravan started from 
Leavenworth about the middle of August, 
1864, and reached Fort Laramie, Wyoming, 
where they remained during the winter, and 
in the spring of 1865, they proceeded to Salt 
Lake City, which destination they reached 
July 24th. From Utah Mr. Farley drifted 
back into Missouri, where he farmed until 
1868. Then the call of the trail came again, 
and he went to Texas, in quest of cattle which 
he and other cattle men were to drive to Abi- 
lene. In the spring of 1869 he helped 
take a herd of 2,000 cattle from Abilene to 
Spot Trail Agency, in South Dakota, and in 
1871 he made that trip again with cattle. This 
outdoor, in-the-saddle and in-the-tent life had 
its fascinations, and the cattle business es- 
pecially api>ealed to him, so he contiinied in 
the same occupation until 1880, when he came 
to Custer county, Nebraska, and homesteaded 
in section 10, township 20, range 21. He had 
been in Custer county on a previous trip, two 
years before this, which makes his advent into 
the county date from 1878. It was the same 
year, 1880, that he married Miss Ellen Car- 
penter, of West Union, a very estimable lady 
who became a faithful, companionable wife, 
and the mother of his six children. Concern- 
ing the children the following brief record is 
availal)le: Nina, who was bom May 13. 1881, 
is now the wife of F. R. Dryden, of Bed Rock, 
Colorado : Mar\-, who was bom September 16, 
1882, is the wife of John T. Hufifman. a Custer 
countv fanner ; Gertrude, who was born 
March 28, 1884, is the wife of M. S. Daily, a 
prominent Custer county farmer who resides 
in the vicinity of Milbum; Ellen Frances, who 
was born December 14, 1885, is the wife of 
John Barton, of Dunning, Nebraska ; Arthur, 
who was bom July 20, 1887, is married and 
resides on the father's home place, and with 
him and his family Robert Farley makes his 
home ; and Rubv, the voimgest of the children, 
was bom May 24. 1898. 

To the homestead holding the Farleys 
added other land adjoining, until they had a 
considerable section of very valuable river- 
valley land. Recently some of this land has 
been sold, but the home is maintained on the 
old homestead. 

Mr. Farley is one of Custer county's su- 
pervisors at the present time, and is a man 
somewhat advanced in years, — one who en- 
jovs the confidence and respect of all his 
friends. His wife passed away Ai)ril 4. 1901. 
Since that time his active labor has not been 
of the strenuous character that marked his 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



583 



earlier manhood years. In politics Mr. Far- 
ley is a Democrat. He is a member of the 
Christian church. 



HARRY F. B^RNHAM. — Among the 
widely known residents of Custer county few 
are more highly considered than Harry Burn- 
ham, who has extensive fann and stock in- 
terests in the county and is prominent and 
trustworthy in public affairs. He has been a 
resident of Custer county for almost fortv 
years and has been identified with its remark- 
able development along many lines. 

Harry- F. Burnham was bom October 9, 
1875, at Norway, in Oxford county, Maine. 
His parents were Horace and Lizzie (Frost) 
Burnhan, of well known old New England 
families, the father having been born at 
Augusta, Maine, and the mother at Norway, 
that state. Harry F. Burnham has four 
brothers : Frank, Eugene, Sumner, and Silas, 
and two half-sisters, Lizzie and Addie. Dur- 
ing all of his active career the father of Mr. 
Burnham carried on farming and dealing in 
live stock. He was a staunch Republican in 
his political opinions, and after coming to 
Nebraska, in 1877, he became affiliated with 
the Modern Woodmen of America. His 
death occurred in Custer county, March 7, 
1902. The mother of Harry Burnham died 
February- 21, 1889. 

When the parents of Harry F. Burnham 
moved from Maine to Nebraska he was only 
two years old ; hence he has no recollection of 
what was then a journey of some magnitude. 
The family located in Lancaster county and 
lived there four years. Removal was then 
made to Custer county, where the father home- 
steaded, and since then the Burnhams have 
all belonged to this section. Harry Burnham 
attended the public schools, including the high 
school, and subsequently he completed a 
course in the Lincoln Business College, in the 
capital city of Nebraska. Mr. Burnham was 
brought up with the idea that educational 
training never comes amiss, and to his other 
acquirements, in the course of time, he added 
knowledge of the scientific methods that have 
made modern fanning and stock-raising so 
much more profitable than ever before in this 
country, and this knowledge has been success- 
fully applied in his extensive agricultural op- 
erations. It has been to intelligent farmers 
and stock-raisers that the country has looked 
for relief in time of war stress. Mr. Burn- 
ham's farm lies in section 28, township 35, 
Custer county, and because of his excellent 
methods of land treatment, his acres are grow- 
ing more valuable day by day. 



At Westerville, Nebraska, January 13, 1901, 
Mr. Burnham married Miss Alaggie Copsey, 
who is a daughter of Alonzo and Annie (Wal- 
Jin) Copsey, and they have two sons, Frank 
and Harr)'. j\Ir. Burnham has been a prom- 
inent factor in Republican political circles for 
a number of years and has served frequently 
in local offices of marked responsibility. He 
was supervisor of District No. 1 during the 
construction of the new court house, and was 
chairman of the county board during 1913 and 
1914. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity 
and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
in which latter organization he is very con- 
spicuous and has held high offices. 



ANSON T. MASON. — The man whose 
life's sketch is here appended belongs to a well 
known family of progressive, enterprising 
Cumro people — a family that in every pos- 
sible way has made good in every undertak- 
ing, and has been an asset and a credit to Cus- 
ter county. 

Anson T. Mason is a native of Illinois, where 
he was bom in the county that bears his name, 
in the year 1863. He is a son of Elias and 
Mar\- ( Kane ) Mason, of whose six children, 
five are still living, and have rendered valuable 
services to the localities in which they have 
their homes : Warren was born in Cumber- 
land county, New Jersey ; Isaac died in Cus- 
ter county ; Ella is the wife of Casper Thomp- 
son, a farmer living in New Jersey ; Benajah 
is a Custer county farmer; the fifth born is 
Anson T., the man of whom we write; Mehet- 
able married Charles Griffin and lives on a 
farm in Colorado. 

The Mason family of which Anson T. is a 
representative came to Custer county in 1885 
and homesteaded here. The boys took home- 
steads of their own, and all began operations 
in the new country- with practically no capital. 
They were thrifty and industrious, and have 
at different times had extensive land holdings, 
equalling at least four sections at different 
times. In the family holdings are now one 
half-section of well improved land. 

In 1911 Anson T. Mason married Mary 
(Rumbaugh) Mason, his brother's widow. 
Mrs. Mason's father came from Ohio and her 
mother from Pennsylvania, though she her- 
self is a native of Michigan. At the time of 
her second marriage she had five children by 
Isaac Mason, her former husband : Ida is the 
wife of Nelson True, who has a home in Cus- 
ter county ; Delbert is deceased ; Charles is a 
farmer and resides in this county ; Lucy is the 
wife of John Cherry ; and Harris Mason lives 
at Cumro, Custer county. 



CO.) 

Jo-1 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



In the earl\- days the Mason home was a 
dug-out. Later a sod house was built, in 
which they lived until sixteen years ago. 
When through with his first building opera- 
tion, the young proprietor had besides his 
landed possessions, just fifty cents with which 
to face the world. In 1878 he moved into 
Saline county, where his father I)ought a 
quarter-section of land, and where the family 
lived for seven years, then nioving to Custer 
county, where they now reside. 

The Masons are among the best people of 
the community, and are devoted communicants 
of the Baptist church. Mr. ]\Iason is inde- 
pendent in politics, selecting the candidate ac- 
cording to his standing and reputation. 



FRANK H. DOBESH is a young, progres- 
sive and respected farmer, and is a member of 
a large family, all of whom have honored the 
family name. He is hard-working and ener- 
getic and has developed a farm which ranks 
well with the Custer county farms, the while 
he maintains a home that for the years of its 
existence equals the record of any. He is a 
son of Anton P. and Mary (Tomsicek) Do- 
besh, both natives of Bohemia, a definite men- 
tion of them appearing on other pages of this 
^•olume. 

Frank H. is essentially and in fact a Custer 
county product, all his life having been spent 
in the county. He was married January 10, 
1912, to Miss Cleo Kna])p, who is a daughter 
of John Knapp, an implement dealer in Ans- 
ley. Into the Frank Dobesh home the passing 
years have brought four children — John, 
Marius, \'alaire. and Gwenivere. all at home 
and constituting a happy quartet of promis- 
ing children. 

The land operated by Mr. Dobesh consists 
of 320 acres — a result of his purchase — and 
on the pro])erty are good improvements and a 
splendid home. He has fine horses, a good 
grade of cattle, and hogs of high breeding. 
He conducts general farming, raises all kinds 
of grain, dejiends upon corn and alfalta and 
by practical application of good judgment and 
shrewd management makes every department 
of the farm pay profit. His wife, a very ex- 
cellent lady, co-operates with him in ever)- 
activity and does her part to maintain the high 
standards of the home. .Aside from the im- 
mediate circle of his own family domicile<l 
under his own fami roof, Mr. Dobesh has four 
brothers and sisters. Anton K. and Thomas 
both reside in this county, and both are indi- 
vidually represented elsewhere in this work ; 
Josie is a bookkeeper in Omaha; Alary is at 
home in Anslev. 



Mr. and Mrs. Dobesh are ven^ agreeable, 
kindly neighbors, obliging under all conditions, 
and have high rating among their acquaint- 
ances and the large circle with whom thev have 
dealings. In politics Mr. Dobesh subscribes 
to the principles of the Republican party and 
is one of the leaders and counselors in the 
local ranks of the party. 



JAMES J. LEE has been prominent 
among the citizens of Berwyn for a number of 
years, in various capacities. He has been suc- 
cessful in the stock business, has been man- 
ager of a grain elevator, and has served as a 
public official. At the present time he is here 
one of the most progressive of the exponents 
of agricultural industry. Mr. Lee was born 
in Hall count)', Nebraska, November 11, 
1880, and is a son of John and Margaret ( Con- 
cannon) Lee. 

On both sides of the family .Mr. Lee comes 
of Irish ancestors, both his paternal and ma- 
ternal grandparents having died in the Emer- 
ald Isle. • The parents of Mr. Lee were bom 
in Ireland and their marriage was solemnized 
in Louisville, Kentucky. They came to Ne- 
braska after several years of residence else- 
where. In 1886 John Lee secured a position 
in the sen'ice of the Chicago, Burlington & 
Quincy Railroad, and two years later he was 
made a section foreman, a position which he 
has held at Berwyn during a period of thirty 
years, and in which he has established an ex- 
cellent record for fidelity and capable discharge 
of duty. His life has been a successful one. 
as he has not only taken care of his responsi- 
bilities in a manly and efficient manner, but has 
also been prosperous in a material way. He 
is now the owner of a good farm and other 
property. He is a staunch Democrat in his 
political allegiance, and his religious faith is 
that of the Catholic church, of which Mrs. 
Lee also is a devout member. Of their six 
children, three are living: James J., of this 
review, and John W. and Mary, who reside 
with their parents. 

James J. Lee was given good educational 
advantages in his youth, attending first the 
common schools and later Grand Island Col- 
lege. After leaving the latter institution he 
was for a time engaged in the stock business, 
but disposed of his interests therein to take 
charge, as manager, of the Central Granaries 
elevator. He handled this enterprise in a cap- 
able wav. but eventually turned his attention 
to farming, and he has since been successful in 
the accumulation of a good property and the 
building up a reputation for capability in a 
section that does not lack skilled men. He has 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



585. 



good buildings and up-to-date equipment and 
carries on his operations in a manner that 
leaves no doubt as to his progressiveness and 
his knowledge of his vocation. 

Mr. Lee was married in 1909 to Miss Jennie 
Geeseman, who was born in Butler county, 
Nebraska, and who is a daughter of Orrin E. 
and Elizabeth A. Geeseman. Mr. Geeseman 
was a native of Ohio and an early settler of 
Nebraska, where he rounded out his life in 
farming and stock-raising.. To Mr. and Mrs. 
Lee there have been bom three children — 
Margaret, Elizabeth, and Berenice. Mr. Lee 
has invariably used his own judgment in sup- 
porting candidates for political offices, recog- 
nizing no i)arty ties, and therefore he may be 
termed an independent voter. He has ren- 
dered excellent service to his community in the 
various public offices to which he has been 
elected by his fellow citizens, having been jus- 
tice of the peace and town clerk, as well as a 
member of the board of county commission- 
ers. At the present time he is acting as a 
member of the board of school directors. Mrs. 
Lee was postmistress of Berwyn for three and 
one-half years. 



FRANK AIILLER. — During a period cov- 
ering the last quarter of a century Frank 
Miller has been engaged in the elevator busi- 
ness at Berwyn, where he is known as a pro- 
gressive and industrious man and as one who 
has made his own way in the world. He has 
been a resident of Custer county since 1889, 
in which year he came here as a comparative 
stranger, without capital or other favoring in- 
fluences. To-day he is one of the substantial 
men of the community, owning not only his 
successful grain-elevator business, but also a 
modern automobile garage, although his pros- 
perity has not led him to change his mode of 
activity, and he is still industrious and strictly 
applied to his business responsibilities. 

Mr. !\Iiller was born in Lee county, Illinois, 
October 27, 1855, a son of Daniel and Cleo 
(Gittinger) Miller, the latter born in 1831, in 
Ohio. Daniel Miller was born in Pennsylva- 
nia, in 1822, and was a young man when he 
went to Ohio, in which state he was married. 
He reinained there until 1855, in which year 
he moved westward to Illinois and took up a 
farm in Lee county. Mr. Miller had been a 
hard-working man, but various causes had com- 
bined to make him unfortunate, and when he 
started life anew on the Illinois prairies, it 
was with a debt of $1,000 hanging over him. 
However, he made a great success of his life, 
not only clearing ofif his indebtedness, but also 
accumulating a competency which enabled him 



to spend his declining years in comfort. His 
death occurred in 1910, when he had reached 
the advanced age of eighty-eight years, and 
liis wife was si.xty-eight years old when her 
death occurred, in 1899. They were faithful 
members of the Lutheran church, and were 
the parents of nine children, of whom eight 
are living. Mr. Miller was a Republican. 

Frank Miller was the fourth in order of 
birth of his parents' children, and as the fam- 
ily was in rather modest circumstances during 
his boyhood, he did not enjoy any special ad- 
vantages in the way of schooling, the while 
he was early called upon to do a man's work 
in the field. In 1878, when he was twenty- 
two years of age, he left the Illinois home and 
came to Nebraska, his first place of settlement 
being York. There he remained two years, 
following which he went to Colorado, where 
he spent the next five years in various pursuits. 
In July. 1885, he came to Custer county, where 
for a short time he worked in an elevator, and 
he then turned his attention to the grain busi- 
ness, still as an employe. By the year 1893 
he had accumulated sufficient capital to permit 
him to engage in business on his own account, 
and during the years that have followed he 
has succeeded in building up a large and pros- 
perous trade, his business relations and activi- 
ties extending over a wide radius of the sur- 
rounding countryside. In 1917 Mr. Aliller ex- 
tended the scope of his business interests by 
building a large and up-to-date garage at Ber- 
wyn, and this also has attracted a large pat- 
ronage. He does all kinds of repair work, 
and numbers among his customers not only 
the residents of Berwyn, but many who travel 
through this place from far-distant points and 
who have confidence in his integrity and work- 
manlike ability. 

Mr. Miller's life has been one in which he 
has worked hard and in which he is still con- 
tinuing to be industrious. He has always ap- 
])reciated the dignity of labor, and has found 
that the best . rewards in life come to those 
who have won their own way rather than those 
who have been the beneficiaries of the results 
of another man's labors. He is a Republican, 
but his interests have kept him busy to the ex- 
clusion of other affairs, and he has never cher- 
ished a desire for public preferment, at either 
the hands of political party or his fellow 
citizens. 

BERNIE D. HORNE. who is one of Custer 
county's representative citizens and intelligent 
and enteqirising farmers, has spent almost his 
entire life in Nebraska and has been identified 
with much of the development that has taken 



586 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



place in the state. Mr. Home was born near 
Cedar Rapids. Iowa. September 9, 1879. His 
parents are Fred F. and Elizabeth ( Speck) 
Home, the latter of whom was early left an 
orphan and was adopted and reared by her 
uncle. James Speck. Fred F. Home was born 
near JJeilford. Pennsylvania, a son of Jacob 
and Man,- E. { Smith ) Home, who lived near 
Friendly Cove, that state. Mr. Home is a 
retired business man of Marshalkown. Iowa. 
He and his wife are members of the Methodist 
Episcoi)al church, and in political matters he 
gives his support to the Prohibition party. 
They have three children: Mrs. Zulu Xelson, 
Bessie, and Bernie D. 

Bernie D. Home was four years old when 
his parents brought him to Nebraska. They 
located in Saunders county, two miles east of 
Ceresco. and there his boyhood was spent, his 
parents continuing to reside in that county for 
a number of years. In a successful man's ca- 
reer it is interesting to recall his first efforts 
looking to independence, and ^Ir. Home be- 
lieves the first money he ever really earned was 
when he hauled water to residents of Ceresco, 
who had no wells at that time, making many 
trips in carrying the precious fluid in buckets 
on his sled. He went to school with the sons 
of other pioneers and years later enjoyed better 
educational advantages, taking a business 
course and attending the Wesleyan University 
at Lincoln, Nebraska. He remained with his 
father until he was twenty-two vears old and 
then engaged in farming for himself. For sev- 
eral years after his marriage he rented farm 
land, with the purchase of a nice home in view, 
however, and his cherished ambition was grati- 
fied when, in 1917, he and his estimable wife 
were able to buy the beautiful farm of J. T. 
Cole, containing 360 acres, which is favorablv 
located just three one one-half miles north of 
Broken Bow. in Tappin valley. In the spring 
of 1918 they located here and this is a liome of 
which they can be justly proud. 

Mr. Home was married February 25. 1903, 
in the Pleasant Hill Methodist Episcopal 
church, near Ceresco, to Miss Myrta Nicode- 
mus. who is a daughter of Reuben F. and 
Mary ( Boydston ) Nicodemus. and a grand- 
daughter of Jacob and Margaret ( Fouse I 
Nicodennis and Burris B. and Rachel ( Berge ) 
Boydston. For eight years prior to her mar- 
riage Mrs. Home taught school in Nebraska 
and for six of these years she drove ten miles 
a day, back and forth, through the heat of 
summer and storms of winter. The compe- 
tency she thus earned she invested with her 
husband in their present beautiful farm. She 
is widely kudwn and very highly thought of 



as a teacher. Mr. and Mrs. Home have three 
chiUlren : G. Marie, V. Ardis, and B. Gaylord. 
Mr. Home has never been very active in poli- 
tics and is an independent voter. He and his 
wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. 



ALBERT BADER. — An American farmer 
of German lineage, patriotic and loyal in his 
allegiance to this, his native country. Albert 
Bader, a representative farmer and citizen 
whose story is here recorded, equals in thrift 
and industry the best of whom the county 
boasts. 

Mr. Bader was bom in Illinois. July 2. 1882. 
He is a son of Stephen and Monika Bader. 
both natives of Germany. The parents immi- 
grated to the United States about 1880 and 
settled in Illinois, where their marriage was 
solenmized the same year. The father followed 
farming in the state of his ado])tion until the 
year 1887, when with his family he came to 
Custer county and took a homestead in section 
21, township 20, range 21. The mother died in 
1905, and the father remarried. In 1911. with 
his second wife, he returned to Germanv. where 
he now makes his home. In the father's fam- 
ily, aside from Albert, were two sisters — 
Anna, wife of George Fleishman, of Mema, 
Custer county, and Emily, wife of Charles Mc- 
Graw, of Gates, Nebraska. 

In his youth Albert Bader received the ad- 
vantages of the public schools, and after his 
graduation in the high school at W'ahpeton, 
North Dakota, he put his acquirements to 
practical test and utilization by turning his at- 
tention to pedagogic endeavors. In this con- 
nection he made an excellent record during 
the two years that he was engaged in teaching 
in the public schools. In Custer county Mr. 
Bader has proved himself a progressive and 
successful exponent of agricultural and live- 
stock industry, and few in his community can 
be credited with the attainment of a greater 
measure of prosperity. His characteristics of 
thrift and industry have been so directed as 
abundantly to reward his toil. He is the owner 
of 760 acres of land in this county, and carries 
on a general agricultural and stock-raising busi- 
ness, keeping on hand at all times at least 100 
head of cattle and many hogs. Evervwhere 
on the premises is the evidence of prosperity. 
The stock looks fine, and the horses are well 
fed and adverti.se the good care they receive. 
The buildings on the place are adequate for 
all needs and show that they receive the atten- 
tion of a painstaking manager. 

In politics Mr. Bader is independent. His 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



587 



religious affiliation is with the Roman Catholic 
church. He is a member of the Woodmen of 
the World, and, withal, is a substantial citizen 
upon whom the commonwealth can depend in 
every emergency. He has been liberal with his 
contributions to all demands. 

June 23. 1909. recorded the marriage of Mr. 
Bader to Aliss Marie Jestrabek. and they have 
three children — Clara, Irene, and Leo. 



SAMUEL W. J ACO BY. — Strict attention 
to business and undaunted faith in his ability 
to succeed, have been foremost factors in the 
rise of Samuel W. Jacoby. who is now the 
prosperous projjrietor of a soft-drink parlor at 
Broken Bow. In whatever circumstances or 
whatever capacity he has found himself, he has 
never lost self-confidence, and his ready adapt- 
ability has made it possible for him to succeed 
where others might have failed. Mr. Jacoby 
was born at Burlington, Iowa, September 17, 
1868. and is a son of William and Elizabeth 
( Laux ) Jacoby. 

William Jacoby was born in Germany, and 
at the age of seventeen years, in order to es- 
cape military service, he ran away from home 
and made his way to America, taking up his 
residence at Burlington. Iowa. For some years 
he was section boss on the Chicago. Burlington 
& Quincy Railroad, but his life was cut short 
in its prime and he was not allowed to taste the 
fruits of success. He and his wife both passed 
away at Burlington and were laid to rest in the 
graveyard of St. John's Catholic church, they 
having been lifelong members of that faith. 
They had four children : Michael, who died at 
the age of forty-four years; Airs. Elizabeth 
Gavette. a widow, of Los Angeles, California ; 
Mrs. Alarie Warren, of Dnluth, Miimesota, 
wife of the general superintendent of the Dn- 
luth Street Railway Comjjany; and Samuel W. 

At the birth of Samuel W. Jacoby his mother 
died, and he was only two years of age when 
he lost his father in death, and at that time an 
uncle, Sam Laux, undertook to rear him. He 
did so until l;he lad was seven and one-half 
years of age, at which time he began making 
his own living, and from that time to the pres- 
ent everything that he has had has been self- 
gained. By accepting such odd employment as 
presented itself, he managed to gain an educa- 
tion in the Burlington public schools, after leav- 
ing which he spent four years in the employ 
of Henry Fogle, at Middletown, with whom he 
learned the trade of carpenter. This he fol- 
lowed as a journeyman at various points, and 
during the latter '80s and early '90s he spent 
several vears in California, where he went for 



his wife's health. He was young and strong 
then and earned five dollars a day — considered 
remarkably good wages for a mechanic at 
that time. When he gave up his trade, it was 
to engage in railroading, starting at Burling- 
ton, Iowa, whence he was later transferred to 
Alliance. Nebraska. For twenty-three years 
he acted in the capacities of fireman and en- 
gineer, and his record as a railroad man was 
an excellent one. He resigned, with a clean 
card, April 24, 1912, and engaged in a retail 
liquor business at Ravenna, Nebraska, con- 
tinuing therein until the state went dry, when 
he came to Broken Bow and, August 13, 1917, 
opened a soft-drink establishment. He has 
made a decided success of this venture, and 
his establishment has already become one of 
the most popular in the city, counting among 
its regular patrons some of the most repre- 
sentative families of the community. He has 
established a reputation as a man of good 
business ability and one who is faithful to his 
engagements, the while he has laid the foun- 
dation for many lasting friendships. 

Mr. Jacoby was married in 1889 to Miss 
Jennie Speigle, who was bom at Burlington, 
Iowa, where her mother still lives, her father 
being deceased. Mrs. Jacoby received her ed- 
ucation in the public schools and resided in 
her native city until her marriage. She and 
her husband are consistent members of the 
Lutheran church. He belongs to Washington 
Camp No. 1, Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows, of Burlington, in which he is past noble 
grand. In politics he takes an independent 
view, voting rather for the naan than for the 
])art_y which the candidate represents. 

L. H. MASON. — One of the substantial 
citizens to be found in the Georgetown vicin- 
ity, where good men are far from being scarce, 
is the man whose name appears in the above 
title line. Modest in disposition, his life story 
should be modestly told, and its recital will 
pay a simple tribute to a worthy, honest, up- 
right man who was reared in Custer county 
and who has made the county his home during 
the major portion of his lifetime. 

Mr. Mason was born in 1875, and is a son 
of W. T. and Mary E. (Griffin) Mason. In 
the family of the fath'er and mother were six 
children, of whom the subject of this sketch 
is the eldest. J. H. is in the employ of 
( )s;ar Thompson, in Custer county: F. il. is 
himself a farmer in this county: J. L. is an- 
other Custer county farmer: Mabel G. Horn 
has her honie in this county : Grace Robinson 
lives in Ansley, this county. The father home- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



589 



steaded in Custer county in 1884, the same 
year that he moved here, and, with nothing 
for a foundation capital, he provided for his 
family and made for himself a home. 

From a lad of nine years, L. H. Mason 
grev^r up in Custer county, and here he re- 
ceived his education in the public schools. Here 
he learned the art of western farming, and 
here he learned to handle and feed all kinds 
of stock, and to do it successfully. Here he 
started for himself and established his first 
home. It was here that he led to the marriage 
altar Miss Jennie Smith, who is his splendid 
helpmeet and the mother of his children. To 
them have been born three children : Jennie 
E., L. H., Jr., and Dorothy, all of them at 
home and contributing to the cheerfulness and 
brightness of the household. 

At the present time Mr. Mason is employed 
on the Ed. Gould ranch, and is giving splendid 
satisfaction. Reliable and competent, the world 
has a demand for many just such men. He is 
a member of the Woodmen lodge,, in which 
he takes an active part, and in politics he af- 
filiates with the Republican party. 



GEORGE F. PALMER. — The life of the 
late George Fremont Palmer was one in which 
there was illustrated the value of industry 
in labor and honesty and integrity in business 
transactions. Through the former, combined 
with his ability, he gained material position 
and accumulated a satisfying competence ; 
through the latter he \Von and held the re- 
spect and confidence of his fellow citizens. 
There were few men better known in the field 
of horse-buying, and at Broken Bow, where 
he made his home for twenty-seven years and 
where his death occurred February 10, 1915, 
no man was held in higher esteem. 

Mr. Palmer was born in Bradford county, 
Pennsylvania. June 15, 1855, a son of Freeman 
and Mary (Raught) Palmer. His parents wete 
Pennsylvania farming people who never left 
that state, and George F. Palmer there re- 
ceived his early education in the district 
schools, while he had his earl)' training along 
the line of agricultural work under the pre- 
ceptorship of his father. He grew up to sturdy 
manhood and was married, in 1874, at Lacey- 
ville, Pennsylvania, to Miss Harriet Pierce, 
who was born at Middletown, that state, a 
daughter of Joseph and Hannah (Rowley) 
Pierce, the former a native of Pennsylvania 
and the latter of New York. There were four 
children in the Pierce family, as follows : Mrs. 
Palmer : Edith, who died at the age of eighteen 
vears ; Addie, who became the wife of S'am 



Brewster, and resides in New York ; and \'ere 
\V., who for twenty years has 'been identified 
with a shoe factory at Johnson City, New 
York. Mr. and Mrs. Pierce, who were farm- 
ing people, both passed away in Pennsylvania. 

In 1878 Mr. and Mrs. Palmer changed their 
residence to St. Paul. Nebraska, and it v^-as 
there that Mr. Palmer engaged in business as 
a horse-buyer. For three years he resided at 
Grand Island, and also for a time lived at 
Omaha, but in 1888 he came to Broken Bow, 
which continued as the stage of his activities 
and his successes during the remainder of his 
life. At one time during his career, in ad- 
dition to his main business, he was engaged 
for three years in buying and selling hogs, in 
])artnership with J. J. Wilson, but his prin- 
cipal enterprise was dealing in horses, and in 
his particular field there were few who were 
more successful and none better informed. He 
made a careful study of his business, which 
he found an interesting and congenial one, and 
thus he was able in many ways to outrank 
his competitors ; but while he was shrewd and 
far-seeing, with an eye toward opportunity, 
his dealings were always honest and above- 
board, and his associates not only had the 
greatest of confidence in his judgment but also 
in his integrity. 

Mr. and ]\Irs. Palmer became the parents 
of three children — Elton F., who is an ex- 
press messenger at Broken Bow ; Edson ^L, 
whose death occurred in 1907 ; and Hiram, 
who is assistant postmaster at Broken Bow. 
Mr. Palmer was a popular member of the local 
lodg'e of the Benevolent and Protective Order 
of Elks. He was a Republican, and took an 
interest in political and civic affairs, but his 
only office was that of deputy United States 
marshal, in which position he served three 
years. His religious connection was with the 
liaptist church. Mrs. Palmer, who survives 
her husband, holds membership in the Metho- 
dist Episcopal church. While she resides at 
Broken Bow, where she has numerous appre- 
ciative friends, she is the owner of a valuable 
and well developed farm of 320 acres, -seven 
miles from Broken Bow, and also has several 
pieces of city property. 

COE KILGORE, whose story is related in 
this review, is a native of Bradford county. 
Pennsylvania, where he was bom March 3, 
1836. He is one of the oldest settlers in Cus- 
ted county and had to do with the early for- 
mation of county affairs and the initial days 
of county development. His name often ap- 
pears in the official record of the early days 



590 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



and he is one of the men upon whom the 
honors of pioneer times and later day develop- 
ments justly rest. 

His father was John H. Kilgore and his 
mother's maiden name Lydia Haines. Both 
parents were natives of New Jersey. The 
father, who lived to be eighty-four years of 
age, was a tailor by trade but also farmed in 
Pennsylvania, where the subject of this sketch 
was born and spent his childhood years. There 
were nine children in the John Kilgore fam- 
ily: Robert lives in Elmira, New York, and 
is a successful farmer; Harriet is deceased; 
Coe is the subject of this sketch ; William was 
a farmer and early-day settler in Custer 
county ; the other children being Raymond, 
Sarah. Ellen. Anne, and one child who died in 
infancy. 

In 1858 Coe Kilgore married Miss Libbie 
Lord : and to this estimable couple three chil- 
dren were born — Etta, who became the wife 
of Joshua Wood, one of the pioneer characters 
of this county ; Willie, who died in infancy, 
in 1861 : and Ellen, who married Tom Blunden. 

Mr. Kilgore was again married, in 1883, 
when Anna Peterson became his wife. She is 
a daughter of Thomas C. and Anna Peterson. 
who came from Denmark in 1863, and walked 
most of the way from Ontario to Salt Lake 
City, hauling their goods with an ox team. 
Thev settled at Huntsville, where Mr. Peter- 
son entered the mercantile business. They 
were connected with the Church of Latter Day 
Saints. There were no children by this second 
marriage. 

In 1871 Mr. Kilgore came to Nebraska and 
settled at Gibbon. Buffalo county, but a year 
or so later he came to Custer county and at 
once entered upon his pioneer career. He 
homesteaded a fine piece of land and began 
operations in handling cattle and in stock-rais- 
ing, in which enterprise he was very suc;ess- 
ful. In relating his experiences he says that 
he went "dead broke" when fifty years of age ; 
but with loss of money he did not lose his 
pluck, nor was his indominable spirit broken. 
He commenced again, and the same thrift and 
shrewdness which fastened the first success 
proved equal to the occasion the second time, 
and he is now well and comfortably fixed. He 
has enough to provide comfort and ease for 
the rest of his days. He re:ently sold an eighty- 
acre tract of land for ninctv dollars an acre. 



W. W. WILLIAMS. — The energetic and 
well directed efforts of W. W. Williams, of 
Broken P>ow. have within three years resulted 
in the building u]) and development of a pros- 
perous milk business and the placing of its 



founder in a position of comparative financial 
independence. Mr. Williams was born in \'ir- 
ginia, February 11. 1877, a son of Hazel and 
^Iary (Karnes) Williams, both natives of the 
Old Dominion. 

Hazel Williams was engaged in agricultural 
l^nrsuits and was a man of some standing and 
influence in his community in Virginia, where 
he served for a time as constable. However, 
he felt that he could better himself by coming 
to the west, and in October. 1885. he brought 
his family to Nebraska and took up a pre- 
emption claim of 160 acres in Custer county. 
After proving up on this property he continued 
to cultivate it for some time, making develop- 
ments and improvements, and eventually he 
sold it and moved to a tract located south of 
New Helena, that being his home until the 
.spring of 1918. when he once more sold, this 
time going to Anselmo. this county, his present 
place of residence. Mrs. \\'illianis died in 
July, 1914, in the faith of the Baptist church. 
Mr. Williams is a Democrat politically. All 
of the thirteen children of this couple survive 
and all are living in Nebraska. W. W. having 
been the second in order of birth. 

W. W. Williams received his education in 
the Custer county public schools and was reared 
as a farmer, being given a good training by 
his experienced and skilled father. He con- 
tinued to follow the pursuits of the soil in a 
general way. but finally came to a realization 
of the opiX)rtunities offered to one who would 
establish a well conducted milk business, and in 
January. 1916. he initiated the venture that has 
since developed into substantial success. At 
that time he bought four acres of land at the 
limits of Broken Bow. where he installed a 
first-class dairy, having had everything planned 
out in the way of sanitation and expediency 
in handling the product. He now has large 
and conimodious buildings, the most modern 
and highly improved equiiiment. inchuling 
milking machines, and everything else that goes 
to make up an up-to-date plant of this kind. 
His product, delivered in bottles, has found 
favor with the people of Broken Bow and the 
surrounding country, because of its purity and 
high (|ualitv. and his business has continued to 
grow and exi>an<l until he is now doing between 
$800 and $900 a month. He milks an average 
of fifty cows, his fine herd of Holsteins being 
we'l kept and contented, and the service that he 
renders in the way of delivery is expeditious 
and gratifying to his customers. This is a bus- 
iness which has been built u]) entirely through 
the iti'tiativc and industry of its owner, and 
Mr. \\'illiams may therefore be accounted one 
of I'.roken Bow"s self-made men. 

In November. 1807. Mr. Williams married 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



591 



Miss Eva Roberts, who was born in Illinois, a 
daughter of Timothy Roberts, a farmer near 
New Helena. Nebraska. To this union there 
have been born six children : RoUie, who is 
his father's assistant in the milk business ; and 
Charles, Lester, Mabel, Mary, and Ruth, all 
of whom are at home. Mr. Williams is a 
member of the Odd Fellows' lodge, in which 
he is very popular, and is a Democrat in poli- 
tics. He has served efficiently as assessor of 
iVictoria precinct, and in other ways has dem- 
onstrated his good citizenship and willingness 
to bear his share of the responsibilities of com- 
munity life. 



FRANK KULHANEK. — Custer county 
can well be proud of her younger sons, proud 
of those young farmers who were born within 
her borders and who are devoting to her in- 
dustries the strength of their manhood years. 
A man of that kind is named in the title line 
above. He was born in the county and this 
has been his home until the present time. He 
conies of fine Bohemian extraction and be- 
longs to a family widely known throughout the 
south and east regions of the county. He 
dates his nativity August 12, 1885. and belongs 
to the family of John Kulhanek, whose life 
sketch is recorded elsewhere in this volume. 
It was in the Custer county public schools that 
Frank Kulhanek received his early education 
— an education which, augmented by wide 
reading, has made him a well informed and 
competent citizen. It was here he began his 
agricultural pursuits and developed that facility 
in soil culture that makes him one of the pros- 
perous farmers of the section in which he re- 
sides. 

In 1910 Mr. Kulhanek was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Gladys Jones, who. like her hus- 
band, descends from a well known and reputa- 
ble family. Two children have blessed their 
home and union, the first, Violet, adds much 
of life and energy to the household ; the second. 
Dorothy, is deceased. Mr. Kulhanek bought 
his home farm about nine years ago and began 
operations in the farming line for himself. He 
owns 320 acres of well improved land and 
aside from being a careful, painstaking farmer 
he is an excellent judge of stock and is to be 
rated as one of the American food producers 
upon whom much has depended in the recent 
strenuous days of war activities and in mak- 
ing further provision now that the great war 
has terminated. 

The Kulhaneks appreciate the advantages of 
this country, have a patriotic disposition, are 
loyal to the cause for which the country has 



been at war and have been promoters of and 
contributors to all the various war drives so 
far inaugurated. Mr. Kulhanek belongs to the 
Knights of Pythias, in which order he main- 
tains good standing. 



WILLIAM R. TENNANT. — When he 
first came to Custer county, in 1888, the world- 
ly possessions of William R. Tennant were 
represented by the span of mules which he had 
driven through from Missouri. He had the 
world before him. a cheerful outlook on life 
that goes with the individual just passing from 
youth into manhood, and inherent faith in his 
own ability to accomplish something, a faith 
that no discouragement could dim. This self- 
confidence has been more than justified, for 
to-day Mr. Tennant is one of the leading busi- 
ness citizens of Berwyn, the owner of a suc- 
cessful creamery and light-hardware business, 
and the possessor of a valuable farm which 
pays substantial dividends. 

Mr. Tennant was born in Columbia county, 
Wisconsin, February 10, 1867, a son of John 
and Jennette (Tennant) Tennant, the former 
born in Canada in 1844 and the latter in 1846. 
The parents were married in Wisconsin, 
whence they moved to Missouri, and during 
the seven years that they lived in the latter 
state John Tennant prospered in his affairs. 
In 1874 he decided to try his fortune in Kan- 
sas, whose opportunities he had heard loudly 
praised, and accordingly he settled in that 
state, on a school section. This proved to be 
an ill starred move, for he almost immediately 
met with reverses which swept away his small 
fortunes, and his death occurred there in 1879, 
his wife having passed away the previous year. 
They were meml>ers of the Presbyterian 
church, and Mr. Tennant was a Republican in 
his ix>litical views. Of the six children in the 
family, but two are now living: William R., 
and Almeda, the wife of James Maddox, a 
farmer of Hanson, Nebraska. 

William R. Tennant received a somewhat 
limited education in the country schools of 
Missouri and Kansas, and after the death of 
his parents, he and his sisters returned to the 
former state, where he was variously emploved 
until he was twenty-one years old. .\t that 
time he struck out for himself, driving his 
greatly valued span of mules across the country 
until he arrived in Custer county, where he 
secured a homestead and in due time proved 
up on the same. For a number of years he 
was engaged in farming, and his success may 
he noted in the fact that he is to-day the owner 
of the old Evans farm, of 154 acres, located 



592 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



one-half mile east of Berwyn. on which are car- 
ried on general farming Gi)erations, although 
Mr. Tennant supervises the operations rather 
than taking any active part in them. He has 
been successful in the raising of thoroughbred 
Jersey cattle, of which he ships a large num- 
ber to the market each year, and he has been 
successful also in raising hogs. He is thor- 
oughlv informed in every branch of farming 
and stock-raising, and his long residence in 
Custer county has given him a reputation that 
makes him akin to an authority. In 1914 Mr. 
Tennant turned his attention to mercantile 
lines. For a time he was engaged in the im- 
plement business at Berwyn, but after his store 
and stock had been destroyed by fire he 
changed his line and is now conducting a 
creamery and light-hardware business, a field 
in which he has displayed marked ability for 
the affairs of trade and commerce. Just as his 
farm is beautifully improved with fine buildings 
and modern machinery, so is his store made 
attractive by a full line of superior stock of 
the latest manufacture. He has built up a gcn-A 
trade, in the develo]>meht of which his pleas- 
ing personality has pla\-ed a large part. 

Mr. Tennant was married first to Miss \'iola 
^IcRae, who was born in Indiana, and she died 
in 1894, leaving three children: Effie, the 
wife of Dr. H. C. Nichols, a practicing physi- 
cian and surgeon of Carson, Iowa ; Charles W'.. 
a member of the I'nited States RegT.dar Army 
and now stationed at New Orleans ; and John 
Leonard, engaged in farming in Custer coun- 
ty. Mr. Tennant was again married in 1898, 
when he was united with Miss Maggie E. Mc- 
Cullough, who was bom in Iowa, and who is 
a daugiiter of John W. and Nancy McCullough. 
The parents are now residents of Custer coun- 
ty. Mr. and Mrs. Tennant have three chil- 
dren — Eva, who works for her father : and 
Gracie and Howard W., at home. The family 
belongs to the Baptist church. Mr. Tennant 
is a Republican in politics, and his fraternal 
connections are with the local lodges of the 
]Modern Woodmen of America and the Inde- 
jiendent ( )rder of Odd Fellows, in the latter 
of which he has passed through the various 
official chairs. 



JOHN A. JENNINGS. — The name in this 
title line belongs to a man who has been emin- 
ently successful in the accumulation of this 
world's goods and who, as a soldier in the 
Civil war, rendered to his country the highest 
possible service that can cither be demanded 
or rendered. 

John A. Jennings was born in Warren coun- 



ty, Illinois, in 1840. He was the first-born son 
of Zachariah and ]\Iary ( Morris) Jennings. In 
the immediate family of his father and mother 
were ten children, of whom only six are living 
at the present time. The second lx)rn was Jo- 
seph, who was a minister in the United Breth- 
ren church and who pursued his calling in the 
state of Iowa ; Jane Gage is deceased ; David 
is living in Iowa : Edward is a retired farmer 
in the Hawkeye state ; Sarah Fitzsimmons is 
the widow of an Iowa farmer and maintains 
her home at Arlington, Iowa ; George lives in 
Wadena, Iowa. 

Reverting to the military record of John A. 
Jennings as a valiant young soldier in the Civil 
war, it is to be recorded that his name appeared 
on the roster of Company A, Twenty-eighth 
Iowa \'olunteer Infantry. He served through 
the entire war and was in the last charge at 
lilakely. He was also in the \'icksburg cam- 
paign and earned a record of being a s])lcndid 
.soldier. 

The first marriage of Mr. Jennings occurred 
in 1861, at which time he led to the marriage 
altar Lucinda Newton, who thus became the 
wife of his youth, the home-maker of his active 
years and the mother of his eight children, 
concerning whom a brief record is here en- 
tered : Lydia is the widow of the late Joe 
Cherry, Mary married Fred Durvain and is 
living at Milton, Nebraska, in a good farm 
home: .Anna and Emma died in infancy: Ben- 
jamin IS. is the subject of an individual sketch 
on otlier pages of this work : Sadie married 
Ed Robinson and they reside in Milton, Ne- 
braska ; John is deceased. 

Mr. Jennings retired from active life about 
ten years ago and has a very comfortable home 
at Sumner, Nebraska. He is an active mem- 
ber of the Grand Army of the Republic, .\bout 
fifteen years ago, the wife of his youth was 
called to the life eternal. In 1903 Mr. Jen- 
nings contracted a second marriage, when he 
wedded Rachel Wheeler, who is now the com- 
panion of his declining years and who enjoys 
with him the home and reputation they have 
acquired. They have a large circle of friends, 
wlio are delighted to see them surrounded by 
comfort and plenty in the days of their retire- 
ment. Their accumulations have been the re- 
sult pf hard work and careful planning. When 
Mr. Jennings canje to Custer county, in 1883, 
and pre-empted a quarter-section of land, he 
had three ponies, which constituted the l>ulk 
of his worldly possessions, and with these he 
commenced his farming operations. The first 
home was a dugout, the .second a sod house, 
and in each of these the family lived for sev- 
eral years. The present landed ])ossessions of 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



593 



Mr. Jennings are of a valuable order and 
represent the splendid reward of tireless efifort. 
What better praise does a county need than 
such an achievement on the part of one of its 
prominent citizens ? 



BENJAMIN B. JENNINGS. — This name 
belongs to a young farmer who was born in 
Custer county and who is here operating in 
the region of Cumro, where he has already 
demonstrated his farming ability and estab- 
lished a home. He is following in a very pro- 
fitable way the occupation of his choosing and 
is forcing the soil to pay him lucrative tribute. 

Mr. Jennings was born May 12, 188.\ on 
the home place of his father. John A. Jen- 
nings, of whom individual mention is made on 
other pages of this volume. His entire career 
to the present time has run its course within 
the confines of Custer county. Here he passed 
his boyhood years and searched for knowledge 
in the common schools — a search which was 
rewarded in such a way as to make him a good 
business man and an intelligent citizen. 

In 190.S, two days after Christmas, Mr. Jen- 
nings led to the marriage altar Miss Matie 
Overton, who was born March 18, 1888, and 
who presides over his home and who has been 
unto him a companionable wife and valuable 
assistant. Domestic in her inclination, Mrs. 
Jennings has been a good homemaker and is 
the fond and careful mother of their two sons, 
Everett A., born June 22, 1908. and Raymond 
R.. born January 14, 1911. These energetic 
lads, full of romp and life, are contributing 
to the happiness of the home. 

Mr. Jennings is farming 160 acres of land 
which belongs to his father and on which is 
maintained a splendid set of buildings ample 
to meet the requirements of all the operations 
of a farm of this size. General farming, in 
which croDS are rotated and cereals of all kinds 
featured, is energetically conducted. 

Mr. and Mrs. Jennings are highly respected, 
have the confidence of a large circle of friends 
and neighbors and, as the years go by, their 
toil and eff^ort will bring the reward and the 
emoluments which shall bless the years of 
their retirement. 



GORDON THOMAS'. —Another young 
farmer living in the vicinity of Ansley, from 
which place the rural route brings his mail, 
is Gordon Thomas, who was but two years 
old when he came with his parents to Custer 
county. 

He was born November 19, 1883, in Pike 



county, Missouri, and is a son of George 
Thomas, whose life sketch is a matter of rec- 
ord in this volume. Since he was but two 
years of age when he came to Custer, it goes 
without saying that here Mr. Thomas ran the 
gamut of his boyhood years and received his 
education in the public schools. On May 29, 
1907, he and Nella Miller plighted their for- 
tunes and joined their lives at the marriage 
altar. The bride, who came to Custer county 
when one year of age, is a daughter of J. C. 
Miller, a Custer county citizen who came with 
his family from Greene County, Iowa, in 1883. 
He has been a resident of this county since 
that times and still lives on his homestead near 
Ansley. 

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas have had but one 
child, which died in infancy. The splendid 
home Mr. Thomas maintains is the direct re- 
sult of his own energy. He commenced oper- 
ations when young, and by good judgment 
and exceeding diligence now owns a well im- 
proved farm of 334 acres, on which he does a 
profitable farming business. The main feature 
of the stock-raising part of his operation is 
hogs. He specializes in fat, blocky porkers 
and they have been in the last few years a 
source of great profit. 

To-day Mr. Thomas would be rated as well- 
to-do and prosperous, but he has seen pioneer 
days and remembers the hard times of 1894, 
at which time his people moved back to Pike 
county, Missouri, in a covered wagon. Those 
days, however, are past and gone ; they will 
never come again ; the development of the land 
and .its resources have provided for the present 
generation and secured them against any repe- 
tition of fonner calamities. 

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas are members of the 
Grange and in the matter of politics Mr. 
Thomas exercises his own judgment. They are 
a very excellent couple, held in high respect 
and esteem throughout their community. 



GEORGE H. HART. — The mercantile in- 
terests of the prosperous little city of Berwyn 
are well represented by George H. Hart, who 
has here been the proprietor of a thriving es- 
tablishment since 1906. Mr. Hart belongs to 
the energetic, enthusiastic class of business 
men, and has a wide acquaintance in Custer 
county, where he has been a resident for 
thirty years. 

Mr. Hart was born in Harrison county, In- 
diana, January 19, 1876, and is a son of John 
W. and Maggie (Walter) Hart, both born in 
Indiana. His father was for many years a 
merchant in the southern part of the state, and 



594 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY, NEBRASKA 



was well alonsf the highway toward success 
when death overtook him. He was a Catholic 
in his religious view, and was a man imitormly 
esteemed and respected in business and social 
circles. While he never held public office, he 
was a staunch Democrat. He and his wife 
became the parents of three children : Katie 
J. is the wife of J. M. DeVolt, of Custer 
county ; George H., of this review ; and John, 
a farmer of the Berwyn community. After 
her first husband's death Mrs. Hart married 
George W. McRae, now a successful retired 
farmer of Berwyn, a sketch of whose career 
will be found elsewhere in this work. 

George H. Hart received his education in 
the public schools of Indiana and Custer 
county, having been brought to the west by 
his mother in 1888. Upon attaining years of 
maturity he engaged in farming, and continued 
to be so occupied until 1906, when he turned 
his attention to commercial affairs, and since 
then has been busily engaged in building up 
a lucrative and representative patronage among 
the people of Berwyn and the surrounding 
country. Air. Hart carries an attractive and 
well arranged stock, selected in accordance 
with the needs of the people of the locality, 
and his good business management has en- 
abled him to make a decided success of his 
undertaking. He is a Republican in politics 
and takes some interest in local government 
atTairs. but his only public office has been that 
of member of the school board, he having 
been on that body for ten years. Fraternally 
he is a well known Woodman and Odd Fellow, 
and has passed through the chairs in both 
lodges. His public-spirited citizenship is well 
known among his fellow citizens. 

Air. Hart was married in I'^OO to Miss .An- 
drea Christen.sen, who was born in Denmark, 
a daughter of Jens Christensen, an early set- 
tler of Custer county. Mrs. Hart died June 
3, 1918, in the faith of the Lutheran church, 
leaving three children : \'era. Howard, and 
Harold. 



WTLLIAAI O. BOWLEY was one of the 
first settlers of Custer county, arriving here 
but one year after the first j^ermanent settle- 
ment was made, and it is fitting that in this 
publication be entered a tribute to his memory. 
A native of West \'irginia. he was born in 
Monroe county, December 18, 1838. His 
parents were Presley and Kancy (Fair) Bow- 
ley, who were natives of the Old Dominion, 
and who there moved in an early day to what 
is now West \irginia, where they si>ent the 
remainder of their lives in Monroe countv. 



Williame O. Bowley was reared on a farm 
in his native county and December 26, 1867, 
he was united in marriage to Aliss Ena Calla- 
way Alinerva Jane Huddleston, who was born 
in the state of West Virginia, her natal day 
being Alarch 22, 1847. Her parents, Abra- 
ham and Leah ( Bowyer) Huddleston, were 
natives of \'irginia. the Huddleston family 
having beeti founded in that historic common- 
wealth more than 300 years ago. 

In the spring of 1875 Air. and Airs. \\'illiam 
O. Bowley started for the far west, coming 
by rail to Kearney, Nebraska, and there paying 
forty dollars for transportation to Loup City, 
where they remained from Alay until Septem- 
ber. They then purchased an o.x team and 
wagon and came on to Custer county, where 
they secured a homestead in section 20, town- 
ship 19. range 21. On this embr}-onic fami 
they erected a log house with a dirt roof and 
dirt floor and became permanent settlers of 
the county — neighbors of Charles R. 
Alathews, who was the first to locate here, 
only one year before. Pioneer conditions were 
on every hand, hardships and privations were 
to be endured, but these early settlers were 
people of determination, and obstacles were 
met and overcome with that fortitude which 
is possessed by no people in greater measure 
than the pioneers of a new coimtry. The 
nearest trading point was Loup City, but when 
anything worth while was needed the Bowleys 
had to go to Kearney, and it was not till 1880 
that they secured the lumber for a floor in 
their house. There was an abundance \of 
cedar trees growing in the canyons and from 
these they hewed the logs for the house which 
was the home of the family until was built 
the frame hou.se which still stands on the old 
farm. .\ tree claim was added to the old home- 
stead, and here was the scene of activities of 
this pioneer couple until 1909. when Air. and 
Airs. Bowley left the farm and retired to .An- 
selmo. Here on the 6th of .April. 1913. Air. 
Bowley was called to his final rest, and in his 
passing his family lost a loving husband and 
father and the county a loyal citizen and hon- 
ored pioneer. 

Air. and Airs. Bowley were the parents of 
si.K children, as follows : James R. resides at 
Taylor, Loup county. Nebraska : D. G. is a 
farmer north of Merna. Custer county; Oscar 
resides at Taylor. Nebraska ; .Annie is the wife 
of I'urt Garrison and they reside in Custer 
county : John is operating the home farm ; 
and DeWitt is a business man of Broken Bow. 

Airs. Bowley still owns the old farm but. 
resides in Alerna. Many are the interesting 
stories and incidents related bv her. and some 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



595 



of these have a place in the general history of 
Custer county. A few of the personal experi- 
ences of this pioneer family will not be out 
of place in a sketch of this kind. 

In the fall of 1880 ;\Ir. Bowley made a trip 
to Kearney for provisions, and he had started 
with a load when an awful blizzard came on, 
and for ten miles he stopped at every house 
and asked for accommodations in the way of 
shelter from the storm. At last he stopped 
at a house where some little children were at 
home, but the parents, who had gone on a 
visit or were absent for some other reason, 
were not at home. The oldest of these chil- 
dren, a girl of about fourteen years, realized 
how bad the storm was and let Mr. Bowley 
come in. He was there five days before the 
storm abated enough for him to continue his 
journey. The family who played the good 
Samaritan were Norwegians or Swedes and 
impressed their guest as being very pious. 
Whenever they sat down to a meal all would 
bow their heads and each child would say a 
few words of thanks. At night before retir- 
ing the oldest girl would read a chapter from 
the Bible and each child would repeat a prayer, 
all in a language foreign to the stranger. 
Though not a member of any religious organ- 
ization, Mr. Bowley was much impressed with 
the religious fervor of the family and often 
told the story. It was fortunate that enough 
of the real early settlers are still with us and 
can tell of the hardships and experiences of 
those pioneer days, as they will in years to 
come be a source of real inspiration to future 
generations. 

^Ir. Bowley accepted religion before his 
death and Mrs. Bowley has been a Methodist 
for twenty years. Though past the psalmist's 
allotted span of three score years and ten, Mrs. 
Bowlev still manages her own household duties 
and finds time to assist in Red Cross work, 
by knitting for the soldiers. The historian 
would be remiss in his duties did he not enter 
on the pages of this Custer county history the 
life record of such sterling pioneers as Mr. and 
Mrs. Bowley. 



CHARLES RICHARD MATHEWS.— 
One of the unique characters of the present 
day is the venerable citizen whose full name 
is paraded in the title line, but who is widely 
known throughout the county as Judge 
Mathews, a title which he earned in his offi- 
cial capacity as county judge in an early day. 
The honor of being the first settler of the 
county lies between Judge Mathews and Lewis 
R. Dowse, of Comstock, and Judge Boblits, of 



the South Loup. These three, and perhaps a 
few more, constituted the advance guard and 
are deserving of all the honors to which their 
early-day sacrifices entitle them. 

The Judge is a native of Pocahontas county, 
Virginia, now West Virginia, at which place 
he was born March 11, 1838. His father was 
Samuel G. and his mother Neoma (Hudson) 
Mathews, both natives of Virginia and the 
father a direct descendant of Governor 
Mathews who was the colonial governor of 
\'irginia, in 1660, and for whom Mathews 
county, Kentucky, was named. Scotch-Irish 
blood flows in the Judge's veins and imparts 
to him the characteristics of that ratio com- 
bination. 

His boyhood days were spent in his native 
state, where he attended the public schools and 
later finished his education in Washington Col- 
lege, an institution which was burned during 
the Civil war. His people were well-to-<lo when 
the war broke out, but the region in which 
they lived was a sort of "no man's land" or 
a buffer strip of territory between the con- 
tending forces. 

The Judge was one of a family of seven chil- 
dren. One brother entered the Confederate 
army and served with distinction, being 
promoted to the rank of captain. This broth- 
er is now a resident of Greenbrier, Mrginia, 
where he has accumulated a small fortune. 
The Judge himself was exempt from military 
duty because of physical disability — a white 
swelling in one of his limbs made him a life 
cripple and has handicapped his activities dur- 
ing all his residence in Custer county. 

In Alay, 1874, the Judge landed in Custer 
coimty. He was carried across the Loup river 
on the back of Harve Andrews, and with a 
party of friends made his way into the New 
Helena district, where he located his present 
homestead and built on it the house he occu- 
pies at the present day. At that time the 
county was unorganized, had no schools, no 
postoffices, and none of the present-day or- 
ganized conveniences. The Judge, however, 
was 3'oung and ambitious and, having received 
a liberal education, was looked upon as a 
leader. He probably wrote the first petition 
that ever requested the organization of a 
school district. This was presented to the Val- 
ley county superintendent of public instruction 
and secured the organization of the New Hel- 
ena school district. lUit for a protest on the 
part of a man named Merchant, this would 
have been the first district organized in the 
county. As it turned out, however, it became 
school district No. 2. The Judge also wrote 
the first petition presented to the supervisors 



596 



HISTORY- OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



of the new county after its organization, in 
whicli he and his neighbors joined in asking 
for a voting ]3recinct in the vicinity of New 
Helena, which was granted them. The Judge 
also holds a commission as postmaster, signed 
by the postmaster-general under President 
Grant and designating him as postmaster at 
New Helena in Kountz county, Nebraska, by 
which name the county was known before it 
was organized and christened Custer. The 
Judge took a hand in early-day politics and in 
those early days when political affiliations were 
little heeded he was one of the leading spirits 
in all public affairs. He was the third county 
judge elected to serve in Custer county and 
held the office for two terms, with credit to 
himself and with valuable service to the county. 
His homestead, on X'ictoria creek, was one 
of the best in the county. Low ground and 
fertile soil made it especially prolific in the 
production of trees and, consequently, one of 
the largest groves in the county flanks either 
bank of the little stream and surrounds his 
picturesque log cabin. He has retained but 
eighty acres of his homestead, which has al- 
ways been rented, owing to the fact that he 
was not able to work it himself. His habita- 
tion is unique. Two cedar cabins, made of 
solid cedar logs, are, perhaps, twelve by four- 
teen feet, and stand close together, with doors 
facing each other in genuine southern style. 
The only thing lacking to complete the south- 
ern architecture is the providing of a roof over 
the passage-way between them. Here for for- 
ty-four years, like King E>avid. the Judge has 
lived in a house of cedar and here, no doubt, 
he will end his days. Every pioneer of Custer 
county will attend his obsequies and bury with 
honors the Custer county pioneer. 

On the Judge's farm is a mineral spring 
which is said to l>e the only mineral spring in 
the state of Nebraska. A few years ago he 
built a warehouse, provided bottling machinery 
and commenced to ship the mineral products 
of the spring out into the markets of the world, 
but owing to his lameness and physical in- 
ability to look after the business, he discontin- 
ued the operation. 

The Judge is a man of rare qualities, with 
artistic and classic mind. He is a genius with 
the pen and writes a hand that closely re- 
sembles steel ])late. His drawings of birds and 
flowers, scrolls and escutcheons, engrossed with 
Latin mottoes and embodying lofty sentiments, 
are very remarkable and have attracted the 
attention of all his friends. He has a genius 
for literature and has written very commend- 
able poetry, some of which embodies his liberal 
religious views and high ideals of morality. 



One of his short poems is published in an- 
other chapiter of this volume and pays splendid 
tribute to the womanhood of the west. His 
literar)' ideals are artistic and inclined to the 
classic. His conversation, as well as some of 
his writings, discloses very readily to the care- 
ful observer that the Judge has been a careful 
stu<lent of Pope's "Essay on Man." 

Withal. Custer county has had no more re- 
markable citizen and one who has rendered 
more valuable assistance in the development 
of the county. His political tendencies to-day 
are toward the Democratic party, with which 
he affiliates on most national and state propo- 
sitions, but locally' the Judge has friends in 
both parties and his sense of justice and honor 
stimulates him to weigh the individual planes 
of local candidates and cast his vote accord- 
ingly. 

The family from which the Judge descends 
has held the faith of the Presbyterian church 
and has been very closely allied to the fine old 
aristocracy of the Mrginia planters. Conse- 
quently, the blood of the Cavalier flows in the 
veins of our distinguished citizen and finds ex- 
pression in his open-hearted hospitality and 
courtly manners. Any man, woman, or child 
who ever met Judge IMathews was heartily 
welcomed, delightfully entertained, and has 
ever since that time been his staunch friend. 



WILLLAM H. KELLY is one of the enter- 
prising farmers of Custer county and is a 
citizen who well merits recognition in this 
history. 

W'illiaTn H. Kelly was born in Grundy 
county, Illinois. November 2. 1867, and is a 
brother of R. J. Kelly, of Merna. who has fur- 
nished data for the sketch of the Kelly family, 
which will be found elsewhere in this volume. 
William H. Kelly was reared on a farm in Iro- 
quois county, Illinois, where his parents located 
when he was a child. He and two brothers 
remained at home and operated the farm until 
the death of the parents, when the estate was 
divided and the brothers came to Custer county 
and bought land. 

Mr. Kelly is the owner of the southeast 
quarter of section 31, township 18, range 21. 
also 160 acres east of ^lerna, and 320 acres 
in the north part of the county, this last being 
used for [xisture land. 

In Illinois Mr. Kelly married Miss Frances 
Spitz, a native of Iroquois county, that state, 
and they have six children — Olive, Bemice, 
Walter. Robert, Lawrence, and Margaret — 
all of whom are still at home. 

Mr. Kelly is the owner of a splendid proper- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



597 



ty. with a first-class set of improvements, the 
vahie of the land being enhanced by its proxi- 
mity to the village of Merna, the corporate 
limits of which it adjoins. The family are 
members of the Catholic church and Mr. Kellv 
is a Democrat in politics. 



EBER BARBER, than whom Custer county 
has no better known or more highly respected 
pioneer resident, has been identified with the 
development of this section for almost forty 
years and has done his full part in bringing 
about the substantial conditions which make 
Custer county one of the most desirable parts 
of Nebraska. Mr. Barber comes of old New 
England stock, and was born at South Kings- 
ton, Rhode Island, September 1, 1848. His 
parents were James C. and Elizabeth ( Sher- 
man ) Barber, and his grandparents were 
Moses and Sarah Barber and Eber Sherman, 
all of South Kingston. Farming has been the 
general family occupation, and the principles 
of the Democratic party have been adhered to 
for generations. The parents of Mr. B.arber 
were members of the Free Will Baptist 
church. The names of their children are here 
given : George, Pardon, Mrs. Mary Fielden, 
Airs. Elizabeth Dulphy, Mrs. Patience Coon, 
Eber, and Sarah. 

Eber Barber was but nine years old when 
his father died and little provision had been 
made for the widow and children beyond the 
income from the Rhode Island farm, and Eber. 
as soon as possible, assumed the responsibility 
of caring for his mother and youngest sister, 
beginning to work for wages when very young 
and being elated over the suni his grandfather 
gave him for picking apples. He remained 
on the home farm until he was twenty-eight 
years of age, carrying on its various industries 
as best he could and in the meanwhile he at- 
tended school as opportunity offered. In 1879 
he came to Nebraska and located a very valu- 
able claim, which is now known as the old 
Krutzen ranch, on the South Loup river, and 
which is now the home place of Judge Eugene 
J. Boblits. Mr. Barber sold his claim by re- 
linquishment in 1882 and located the land he 
now owns, six miles northeast of Broken Bow. 
Here he has 477 acres, 175 of which are under 
cultivation. All his land is substantially fenced 
and cross-fenced and among recent improve- 
ments made, at a cost of $3,000, is a handsome 
residence that cost $1,200. An adopted son, 
George Barber, operates the farm, Mr. Barber 
and his wife having retired some time since 
to Broken Bow, where both have many friends. 
In addition to his other business affairs, Mr. 



Barber operated a livery barn at Broken Bow 
during 1889-90. 

Mr. Barber was married in April, 1872, at 
South Coventry, Rhode Island, to Miss Fannie 
Place, a stepdaughter of Orville Belknap, who 
came to Nebraska and settled at the forks of 
Wood river. To that marriage one daughter 
was born, Alice E. Barber. Mr. Barljer's sec- 
ond marriage took place at Broken Bow, Alarch 
10, 1890, when Mrs. Elizabeth Meade became 
his wife. Her parents were Nathan and Can- 
dace S. (W^ard) Whipple, who were natives 
of Vermont. Mr. and Mrs. Barber are mem- 
bers of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. 
Barber retains a lively interest in the early 
days of Custer county and can relate many 
interesting incidents of those times, now all 
passed away, although they should not be for- 
gotten, for it was through the hardships and 
privations of pioneer days that the present 
prosperous and peaceful ones have come. 



FRANK H, WEISENVEDER, whose busi- 
ness foresight and large acreage of productive 
land make him one of Custer county's sub- 
stantial capitalists, is a native of Nebraska and 
was born near Aspinwall, in Nemaha county, 
December 15, 1875. His parents are Edward 
and Wilhelmina (Rothenberger) Weisenveder. 
His father was born in Germany and his moth- 
er in ]\Iissouri. They had three children : 
Adelia, who is the wife of Louis E. Higgens, 
was born in Nebraska prior to the admission of 
the territory as one of the sovereign states of 
the LJnion ; Minnie is the wife of John H. 
Morehead : and Frank H. The parents are 
members of the Roman Catholic church. The 
father has been a merchant and also a farmer, 

Frank H. Weisenveder attended school at 
Aspinwall and was fifteen years old when the 
family came to Custer county and located at 
Broken Bow. When questioned as to how 
he earned his first money, Mr. Weisenveder 
explained that it may have been made through 
hoeing sunflowers out of a neighbor's field, 
and while he does not recall the amount he 
received, he believes he earned all that came 
to him. While this may not have been the 
actual foundation of his fortune, it proves 
that he was industrious in boyhood and this 
industrious habit has always prevailed, as 
shown by the fact that to-day Mr. Weisen- 
veder personally superintends all his business 
affairs. Within the past twenty-two years he 
has become the owner of great tracts of land, 
which include 1,100 acres situated one and one- 
half miles west of Broken Bow, a half-interest 
in 1,200 acres situated eight miles north of 



598 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Broken Bow, and 27^ acres that he devotes to 
the production of alfalfa. This alfalfa farm 
is very profitable, as the alfalfa can he cut 
three times a year with an average crop of 
from 500 to 700 tons. As mentioned above, 
Mr. Weisenveder keeps the management of 
this large estate in his own hands, and through 
good judgment and business enterprise he is 
not only setting a good example but is also 
adding to his substance. Mr. Weisenveder is 
a Republican in his political views and frater- 
nally is an Odd Fellow. 

Mr. Weisenveder was married Mav 12, 1898, 
at Broken Bow, to Miss Rita Herbert, who is 
a daughter of Mitchell G. and Martha 
( Simms j Herbert, and a granddaughter of 
George Simms. Mr. and Mrs. Weisenveder 
have two children, Edwin H. and Louise R. 



ALBERT L. JUKER. — Two generations 
of the Juker family have contributed to the 
development of the handsome farm, near 
Berwyn, which is now the property of Albert 
L. Juker, a resident of Custer county since his 
eighth year, when his pioneer father, the late 
John Juker, brought him to a new homestead. 
During the thirty-six years that have followed, 
numerous changes have taken place on the 
farm, its owners having kept fully abreast of 
the developments being made throughout the 
county along all lines. 

Albert L. Juker was born in Adams county, 
Indiana, October 22, 1874, a son of John and 
Anna ( Summers ) Juker, natives of Switzer- 
land. The parents were married in their na- 
tive land, following which they lived there for 
two years, and within that time one child was 
born to them. Coming then to the L'nited 
States, they settled in Indiana, where, in 
Adams county, the father followed farming. 
Mr. Juker had the industry and thrift of his 
race, and worked hard and managed his affairs 
carefully, but in spite of his be.st efforts he did 
not make progress that was satisfactorj- to him- 
self, and eventually he came to the conclusion 
that in the west better opportunities were to 
be found for the establishment and building 
up of a home and the making of a position. 
In 1882 he brought his family to Custer 
county, where he took up both a timber claim 
and a homestead and started in to build up his 
fallen fortunes. At the time of his arrival he 
was possessed of nothing in the way of mate- 
rial capital, but his energ\' and ambition were 
sufificient to make up for -his lack of means, 
and after some years of discouragement he 
began to make progress, with the result that 
at the time of his death he was one of the 



substantial men of the community, the owner 
of a good farm, and known as a man who had 
overcome obstacles and gained success in an 
honorable and straightforward manner. Mr. 
Juker was a Democrat, but not a politician, 
and public life never held out any inducements 
to him. He and Mrs. Juker, who survives 
him, were the parents of nine children, six of 
whom are deceased, the survivors being: 
Sarah, who is the widow of George W. Dear- 
doff, and lives in Custer county : Emma, also 
a widow, who lives with her brother on the 
homestead : and Albert L. 

Albert L. Juker was eight years of age when 
he accompanied his parents to Custer county, 
and here he secured his education in the pub- 
lic schools. Reared as a farmer, he adopted 
that calling when he reached years of matur- 
ity, and at the present time he is the owner of 
160 acres of good land, a part of the original 
homestead. Mr. Juker at one time was the 
owner of a full section of good Custer county 
soil, but he has recently disposed of a three- 
quarter section. He carries on general fann- 
ing, and is well versed in all branches of his 
business, so that he has always received ample 
returns from his labors and has made his land 
pay him in full measure for all the work he 
has expended upon it. In more recent years 
Mr. Juker has spent much time in making im- 
provements. When the family first settled 
here the only habitation was a sod house, and 
other improvements were of the most primitive 
kind. ]\Ir. Juker has erected substantial barns 
and outbuildings, provided good fences and 
other equipment, and has just completed the 
building of a beautiful home. 

Mr. Juker is a bachelor. He is a Republican 
in his political views, and his main connection 
of a social character is found in his member- 
ship in the local Grange. 



FRANK BAKER. — One of the prominent 
and truly representative men of Custer county 
is Frank Baker, who is president of the Fann- 
ers State Bank at Ansley, and who has other 
large and important interests in the county. 
He belongs to an early pioneer family and has 
spent almost all his life in Nebraska, to which 
state his devotion is as sincere as if he were a 
native son. He was born August 18, 1866, in 
Poweshiek county, Iowa, and is one of a 
family of twelve children. 

When Frank Baker accompanied his parents 
to Nebraska he was about six years old. They 
settled at first in York county, where he had 
early school opportunities, and in 1878 the 
family came to Custer county, where the father 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



599 



homesteaded and lived until his death, in 1918. 
Mr. Baker has continued to live on the home- 
stead all through its devlopnient from a wild 
piece of land to a richly cultivated tract which 
he devotes to mixed farming, while his valu- 
able stock graze over many acres of other land 
that he has acquired from time to time. For 
a number of years Air. Baker has been a lead- 
ing financier in the county, and as president of 
the Farmers State Bank of Ansley, he enjoys 
the confidence of the public generally. He has 
taken an active interest in other local enter- 
prises of recognized merit and his public spirit 
has many times been sufficiently exercised to 
warrant his reputation as an earnest and able 
citizen of the county. For the past ten years 
he has been treasurer of Westerville school 
district No. 39. 

At Westerville, Nebraska, March 16, 1890, 
Mr. Baker was united in marriage to ]\Iiss 
Margaret Gardner, who is a daughter of 
Thomas and Mary (Allen) Gardner. Mr. and 
JNIrs. Baker have the following children : 
Lizzie, who was born May 26. 1891 ; Tina, 
who was born March 4, 1893 ; Herbert, who 
was born January 6, 1907, and who was killed 
by accident September 27, 1918 ; Glenn, who 
was born March 28, 1911; and Wade, who 
was born March 30, 1913. Mr. Baker and his 
family belong to the Methodist Episcopal 
church. In politics he is a Republican and fra- 
ternally is an Odd Fellow and has served in 
the offices of the lodge at Ansley, while Mrs. 
Baker is a member of the auxiliary order of 
the Daughters of Rebekah. 



ANDREW F. ALLEN. — That so rich and 
productive a section as Custer county, Nebras- 
ka, should ever have entailed hardships on its 
early settlers seems scarcely possible now, but 
records of the pioneer days of the early '80s 
prove that sturdy qualities belonged to the men 
and women who came here and remained. The 
Allen family belonged to this class and it is the 
Allen farm, situated in section 16, township 
17, range 18, Custer county, that is declared 
to be one of the best improved and most valu- 
able in the township. Its present owner, An- 
drew F. Allen, is one of the extensive farmers 
and stock-raisers in this section, and is a high- 
ly respected citizen. 

Andrew F. Allen was born May 22, 1879, 
in the city of Dublin, Ireland. His parents were 
Andrew and Sarah (Foster) Allen, the father 
being a native of Ireland and the mother of 
Scotland. They had six children, namely : 
Mattie, who is talented and highly educated, 
is a teacher in the L'niversity of Nebraska, at 



Lincoln ; George, who married Dolly Gager, 
is a rairoad contractor and lives in Denver ; 
Margaret resides in Denver ; Lena remains 
on the Allen homestead ; Andrew F. is the im- 
mediate subject of this sketch; and William 
carries on farming operations on the old place. 

The parents of Andrew F. Allen came to 
the United States with their children and in 
1880 settled seven miles east of Lincoln, Ne- 
braska, where they remained three years. In 
1883 they came to Custer county and they soon 
made comfortable the little sod house that was 
their first home and that was situated on school 
section No. 16, the father also prudently se- 
curing a tree claim. At first there were few 
school privileges possible, but by the time An- 
drew F. Allen reached school age he was not 
deprived of educational advantages. Industry 
and thrift were household slogans, and through 
persistent elifort, and in spite of hardship and 
privation, the parents lived to enjoy the fruits 
of their work. The father passed away in Sep- 
tember, 1905, and the mother is still living 
on the old farm. 

December 30, 1906, recorded the marriage 
of Andrew F. Allen to Miss Edna Mills, one 
of a family of thirteen children born to Fabius 
D. and Louisa (Copsey) Mills. Mr. and Mrs. 
Allen have the following children : Margaret, 
who was born May 12. 1909; Hazel, who was 
born April 21, 1911; Clarence, who was born 
February 1. 1913 ; and Frank and Lucile, twins, 
who were born January 30, 1917. Mr. Allen 
and his family belong to the Methodist Epis- 
copal church. In politics he is not identified 
with any party but does his own thinking, and 
votes accordingly. He has always been an 
advocate of good roads and of all those things 
which promote good government, good feeling, 
and neighborlv interest and harmonv. 



FRANK KALOUS is one of the sterling 
citizens contributed to Custer county by the 
fine old province of Bohemia, and from this 
source our county has had much to gain and 
nothing to lose. Nowhere can be found a 
better type of progressive, hard-working peo- 
ple than those in whose veins flows the red 
blood of historic Bohemia. Sixty-three years 
ago. in Bohemia. Frank Kalous was born, and 
his first papers in application for citizenship 
in the United States were filed in the year 
1882. He is a son of Joseph and Frances 
(Kadevish) Kalous, honest and industrious 
folk who immigrated to America in 1882 and 
became pioneers in Nebraska. The father en- 
tered claim to a homestead in Box Butte 
county and after perfecting his title to this 



600 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



601 



property he finally transferred his residence 
to Custer county, where both he and his wife 
passed the remainder of their lives, he having 
seen seventy-seven years at the time of his 
death and his widow having; passed away at the 
age of seventy-nine years and nine months. 
The remains of both were laid to rest in a 
cemetery in Dawson county. 

Krank Kalous was reared to manhood in his 
native land, and in his determination to find 
wider opportunities for the winning of inde- 
pendence and prosperity he found in the United 
States a veritable land of promise. He has 
pioneer distinction as a resident of Nebraska 
and is one of the highly esteemed citizens of 
Custer county. He maintains his home in the 
village of Sumner, and here most pleasing 
family reunions are held at intervals. He is a 
stone-mason and plasterer by trade and voca- 
tion, and is known as a proficient workman 
in this field of enterprise, in which he controls 
a prosperous business. Mr. Kalous, as a loyal 
citizen of the land of his adoption, takes lively 
interest in public afifairs, and while a resident 
of Box Butte county he served as road over- 
seer and school director. He is at the present 
time a member of the Sumner Home Guards, 
and is actively affiliated with the local lodge 
of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He 
and his family hold earnestly to the faith of 
the Catholic church, and constitute a valuable 
asset in the community life. Of the children 
of the first marriage of Mr. Kalous three are 
living — Frank, Jr., who is married and who 
resides in Sumner, Nebraska ; Mrs. Anna 
Omara, who resides on a farm in Colorado, as 
does also Mrs. Fannie Ouigle. 

On the 17th of Jufv, 188.S, Mr. Kalous 
wedded Mary Kudera. who was bom in Bo- 
hemia, and concerning the children of this 
union the following brief record is entered : 
Mary is the wife of Samuel Radcliff and they 
reside in York county, Nebraska ; Mrs. Grace 
Caloup resides at Alda, Hall county: Mrs. Vic- 
toria Erwin is a resident of Eddyville, Dawson 
county ; Elmer is a farmer in Colorado : Joe, 
who entered service as a soldier in the ranks 
of those preparing to take part in the world 
war, is now at the parental home : Mrs. Emma 
Sheldon, twin sister of Joe, resides at Eddy- 
ville, Dawson county. 



GEORGE T. BAILEY is a sterling pioneer 
who has been a resident of Custer county 
since 1884 and who has established a name 
and reputation as one of the foremost citizens 
of the north Arnold territory, the while he 



and his good wife have reared a family of 
children of whom they may well be proud. 

George T. Bailey was born in Spencer 
county, Kentucky, on the 13th of December, 
1855, and is a son of George W. and Winifred 
(Hite) Bailey, both of whom were likewise 
born in the fine old Bluegrass state. The 
maternal grandparents of George T. Bailey 
also were Kentuckians, and thus he may claim 
a full share of the excellent blood that has 
made that favored commonwealth one of great 
historic importance and interest. Mr. Bailey 
was the third in order of birth in a family of 
seven children — Airs. Mary Sands, Mrs. 
Amanda Green, George T., John S., Henry E., 
Lorenzo, and Mrs. Courtney B. Philpott. Dur- 
ing the most of the boyhood and youth of the 
subject of this review his parents maintained 
their home in Davies county, Kentuckv, and 
there he acquired his early education in the 
public schools of the period. It was there 
also he earned his first money — a fifteen-cent 
scrip piece which he received in compensation 
for work in his uncle's barn. He invested this 
stupendous capital in a "Barlow knife," and 
it may be said that it will probably require an 
"old-timer" to make perfectly clear to the ris- 
ing generation what a Barlow knife was. The 
knife thus acquired by Mr. Bailey was soon 
lost, however, and by it not much damage was 
done in whittling operations on the home or 
schoolhouse furniture. 

When Mr. Bailey had attained the age of 
twenty years he decided that it was time for 
him to take unto himself a wife, and accord- 
ingly, on the 16th of January, 1876. in Daviess 
county, Kentucky, was solemnized his marri- 
age to Miss Elizabeth Green, a daughter of 
Jackson and Lucinda (Phillips) Green. The 
parents of the bride were Kentucky people, 
and so the new Bailey household was to be 
formed by a confluence of Kentucky blood 
flowing in frQm both ancestral courses. Mrs. 
Bailey is one of a family of five children and 
is one of the two now living, her brother, James 
K., being a resident of Dewey, Oklahoma. 
One sister, Mrs. Lucinda Shoemaker, was a 
resident of Custer county at the time of her 
death. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bailey have always maintained 
an attractive and hospitable home — a home 
in which the fine southern hospitalitv as ex- 
emplified in Kentucky has at all times been in 
evidence. They became the parents of nine 
children, all of whom are living except one 
daughter, Leona A., who died in infancy. Con- 
cerning the surviving children it is pleasing to 
made a brief record at this juncture. Walter 



602 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



S. married Josephine Porter and they have five 
children. They are members of the Christian 
Union church. James H., who is a rural mail 
carrier, resides at Arnold. He is affiliated with 
the Masonic fraternity and he and his wife 
are members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. He married Miss Wilda Hurless and 
they have three children. Lou is the wife of 
Bert Nelson, of Buckley, Washing^ton, and 
they have three children. They are Presby- 
terians in their religious affiliations. Winifred 
E. is the wife of Henry Strassburg. a farmer 
near Arnold, and they are the parents of five 
children. They hold membership in the Meth- 
odist church. Mamie is the wife of Fred 
Hircock. a farmer on the West Table in Cus- 
ter county, and they are members of the 
Christian Union church. They have four chil- 
dren. Mabel is the wife of George Kruser, a 
farmer near .\rnold, and they have four chil- 
dren. They hold the faith of the Methodist 
church. Lida is the wife of Charles S'eaney. 
another of the prosperous farmers of the Ar- 
nold community, and they have one child. 
They are members of the Methodist church. 
Burton married Miss Ruby Zimmerman and 
they reside on a farm near Lantry. South Da- 
kota. They have three children. 

In 1884 George T. Bailey came with his 
family to Custer county and located on a 
home.stead seven miles distant from the pres- 
ent village of Arnold. Here he still maintains 
his residence and here he has recently erected 
one of the best farm houses on the Arnold 
edge of the East Table. He is the owner of 
320 acres of good land and has accumulated 
his property principally through his operations 
in the raising and handling of live stock. He 
is inclined to the belief that in this field of 
industrial enterprise hogs have been more 
profitable than cattle or other stock. The 
Baileys are known far and wide for their up- 
right, religious lives, and the hospitality of 
their homes. Mr. Bailey is proud to relate 
that one of his great-grandfathers. Rev. Mr. 
Hickman, was a clergyman of the Baptist 
church and that as such he preached the first 
Baptist sermon ever delivered in Kentucky. 
He delivered this earnest address in the open 
air, under an elm tree, and special reference 
to and record of the event appear prominently 
in the history of the Baptist church of that 
state. It can be consistently said that in Custer 
county one may ride all day and not find better 
people than the Baileys. 



ROBERT C. TALBOT, M. D. — For many 
years Dr. Talbot has been identified with the 



professional and agricultural interests of Cus- 
ter county and he has established a lasting 
reputation for medical skill, agricultural abil- 
ity, business integrity, and personal probity. 
In the evening of life he is living somewhat 
in retirement, and during the last seven years 
the greater part of his time has been spent in 
California, but no record of Custer county and 
the accomplishments of its representative men 
would be complete that did not include a review 
of his career. 

Dr. Talbot was born at Danville, Indiana, 
March 16, 1847, a son of Willis and Nancy 
( McCoun) Talbot, and a grandson of Louis 
Talbot, a native of Virginia, who spent the 
greater part of his life as a farmer in Ken- 
tucky. The maternal grandfather was Robert 
McCoun, a stock dealer, who died in Indiana. 
The parents of Dr. Talbot were born near 
Paris, Kentucky, where they were married, and 
on horseback they started from their home in 
the Bluegrass state for Indiana, eventually set- 
tling in Hendricks county, where they passed 
the remaining years of their lives as farmers. 
Mrs. Talbot was a member of the Baptist 
church, and while her husband was not affili- 
ated with any denomination he was a believer 
in religion and a supporter of church move- 
ments. He was a Republican in political be- 
lief. Of the ten children of this worthy couple, 
four are living: Robert C. ; Charles W., an 
attorney and surveyor of Hanford, California; 
Scottie, the wife of Charles Sheetz, a farmer 
of Danville, Indiana; and Florence, the widow 
of John English, of Indianapolis, Indiana. 

After attending Danville (Indiana) Acade- 
my, Robert C. Talbot enrolled as a student at 
Miami Medical College, Cincinnati, Ohio, 
where he was duly graduated with his degree, 
in 1870, and he at once began the practice of 
his profession at Syivania. Indiana, where he 
remained for five years. Later he spent a like 
period at Pittsboro, Indiana, but in 1879 he 
came west to Nebraska, taking up a homestead 
near Berwyn. a property which he still owns. 
In 1884 he moved to Broken Bow, having been 
elected county treasurer, and that city contin- 
ued to be his home for a number of years. 
One of the earliest physicians of Custer county, 
he practiced over a wide territory, winning the 
confidence, regard, and affection of a large 
clientele and steadily advancing to a place of 
prominence in his profession. He was a lead- 
ing member of the Custer County Medical So- 
ciet)', of which he served as president for sev- 
eral years, and belonged to the Nebraska State 
Medical Society, among the members of which 
he was held in the highest esteem. In 1911 
Dr. Talbot retired from the practice of his 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



fm 



profession and since that time he has passed 
the greater part of his time in Cahfornia. Dur- 
ing the time that he was practicing medicine 
and surgery with so much success, Dr. Talbot 
was not neglecting his farming interests, and 
his faith in the future of Custer county took 
the form of investment in prop^erty. He ac- 
cumulated large tracts, solely through his own 
efforts, and until recently owned 840 acres of 
land, but he has just disposed of 400 acres. 
Mrs. Talbot also is one of the landowners of 
the Berwyn locality, where she holds 240 
acres. 

Dr. Talbot was married December 25, 1869, 
to Miss Hattie Warrick, who was born at 
Pittsboro, Indiana, and to this union there 
were born three children : Willis E., a grad- 
uate of the Omaha Medical College and now 
with the medical staff of the American Ex- 
peditionary Forces in France, with the rank 
of major ; Claris, who is carrying on opera- 
tions on the homestead farm near Berwyn ; 
and Mrs. H. F. Kennedy, of Broken Bow. 
Dr. and Mrs. Talbot are consistent members 
of the Baptist church. He has always been 
a supporter of the principles of the Republi- 
can party, and frequently has been called upon 
by his fellow citizens to represent them in of- 
fices of public trust. In addition to having 
served as county treasurer for four years, he 
was a member of the board of trustees of 
Broken Bow during the early days, and ren- 
dered valuable service as a member of the 
board of school directors, for eight years. 
The Doctor's militar)' record consists of 100 
days' service during the Civil war, when he 
was a private in Company H, One Hundred 
and Thirty-second Indiana Volunteer Infan- 
try. 



CHESTER A. KLINKMAN, who is a 
substantial and prosperous young farmer of 
Custer county, belongs to Nebraska by birth, 
rearing, and education, and is a fine specimen 
of the type of young manhood of which the 
state is justly proud. Mr. Klinkman was born 
in Polk county, Nebraska, September 21, 1890. 
His parents are Frank and Caroline E. 
(Timm) Klinkman, the former of whom was 
born in St. Joseph county, Michigan, and the 
latter in Wisconsin, their children being as fol- 
lows : Chester A., Edith, Mrs. Mattie Book- 
er, Lillie, Roy and Ruth (twins), Vida and 
Vera (twins), Harold, and Ivan. 

Chester A. Klinkman grew up on the home 
farm and obtained his education in the public 
schools. His early and practical training on 
the home farm has been of great benefit and 



he is considered one of the most capable and 
enterprising young agriculturists of Cusfter 
county. He came here with the family when 
his father located, in 1905, in the northeastern 
part of Wayne township, and went right to 
work improving the homestead and taking a 
deep interest in developing this section. He 
now owns 320 acres of fine land, devoting it 
to grain and stock, and has made an admirable 
showing of what intelligent industry along 
agricultural lines can accomplish. His activi- 
ties now provide him with a large income, but 
he remembers when the money he received as 
a boy, for shocking corn and cutting sunflow- 
ers, was very acceptable and very carefully 
expended. 

Mr. Klinkman has never been very active 
politically and has never desired public office. 
Nevertheless he has taken note of all that is 
occurring in his own and in other countries and 
stands ready to do his patriotic part when duty 
calls. He was reared in a Christian family 
and from principle lends his influence in favor 
of temperance, education, and religion — 
proved agencies working for the general wel- 
fare. Mr. Klinkman is still arrayed in the 
ranks of eligible young bachelors in Custer 
county. 



ADOLPH PETERSON. — Few of the set- 
tlers who came to Custer county in the early 
'80s have done so well as Adolph Peterson, 
who now lives retired from active work, and 
whose present beautiful and comfortable home 
is in Gothenburg, Dawson county. Many 
others came to the county in 1884, but not all 
of them were as industrious as Mr. Peterson, 
nor did all possess the same foresight and good 
judg^ient in making investments. Mr. Peter- 
son is one of the county's heaviest land-own- 
ers, and his agricultural operations were al- 
ways carried on with the extreme care and 
frugal methods that he learned in his native 
country. Mr. Peterson was born in Sweden, 
August 27, 1853. His parents were Peter 
Erickson and Stina (Grita) Peterson, who 
had three children. John and Adolph surviving. 

Adolph Peterson was only six months old 
when his father died. He was three years old 
when his mother married again, and he worked 
for his stepfather and later for himself, re- 
ceiving wages of fifty cents a day for farm 
work, exclusive of board, the ploughing being 
then done with oxen. Labor conditions were 
not satisfactory to a young man with ambition, 
and this led ^Ir. Peterson to think of immi- 
grating to the United States. In the year fol- 
lowing his marriage he and wife crossed the 



604 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



ocean and came as far west as Chicago. In 
that city he worked at different occupations, 
but, as he was anxious to secure land and en- 
gage in agricultural pursuits, he found that 
if he were to realize his ambition he must go 
farther west. In 1884 he came to Custer coun- 
ty, Nebraska, and located two miles west of 
Etna postofifice, on the Odencrantz Table. He 
was able to secure this homestead for a rea- 
sonable price and he still owns the property, 
although tempting offers have frequently been 
made for it. He continued to live on that 
place until 1909, when he retired, on account 
of failing health, and at that time he removed 
to Gothenburg. Mr. Peterson is fortunate 
enough to have well trained farmer sons, and 
they have ever since capably managed 555 
acres. He owns 1,920 acres and a school sec- 
tion. When he bought this land he paid from 
three to ten dollars an acre, and in 1917 he was 
offered fifty dollars an acre for the land that 
had no improvements whatever except fencing. 
Adolph Peterson was married October 4, 
1879, to ^Nliss Ida Johnson, who was the third 
in order of birth of the four children Ixjrn to 
John and Louise (Carlson) Johnson, the other 
ciiildren being: P. A., Wolfrey, and Emma. 
Mr. and Mrs. Peterson have six children : Mrs. 
Nannie Erickson is a widow; William G., who 
lives on his own farm situated east of Etna, is 
still a bachelor; Elmer, who operates land for 
his father situated two miles west of Etna, is 
likewise a bachelor; Arthur, who is a farmer 
four miles southwest of Etna, married Anna 
W'eathers ; Harry is operating his father's 
land in association with his brother Arthur ; 
and Louise has been a school teacher for the 
last four years. Mr. Peterson and his family 
are members of the Swedish Mission church, 
and they are people who command the highest 
respect and esteem. Though they have never 
been very active in political matters, the father 
and sons in their voting have always supported 
sturdy and honest candidates for office. 



JOHN P. ANDERSON. — A resident of 
Custer county for thirty years, John P. An- 
derson now belongs to the retired colony at 
Gothenburg, Dawson county, after a career 
characterized by industrious cultivation of the 
soil, active participation in the developing 
movements of this part of Nebraska, and good 
and public-spirited citizenship in the matters 
that have been factors in the community's 
civic, educational, and moral growth. Mr. 
Anderson is a native of Sweden, born at West- 
ervik, Gothland. February 3, 1855. a son of 
Andrew A. and Elizabeth M. f Nelson) Ander- 



son, natives of the same country. There were 
four children in the family: Alfretl N., Mrs. 
Sopha Jacobson, John P.. and Charles W. 

John P. Anderson received a common-school 
education in his native land, where he began 
to work for his father on the home farm, at 
the age of twenty-one years, and he continued 
as a wage-earner for several years after his 
marriage. In May, 1888. ]\Ir. Anderson, who 
in his native land had not made all the pro- 
gress that he desired, immigrated to the Lhiit- 
ed States and at once came to Custer county, 
where he had been preceded by a number of 
his countrymen. He had some small capital, 
which, with his native thrift, he had been able 
to save from his earnings — enough at least, 
to make a substantial payment on 160 acres of 
railroad land, situated five miles south of Etna. 
There he continued to be engaged in farming 
for many years, cultivating his land with care 
and skill, adding improvements from time to 
t'me and erecting new buildings, and eventual- 
ly converting what had been useless and value- 
less property into one of the finest cultivated 
farming estates in the southwestern part of 
Custer county. Mr. Anderson, continuing as 
a general farmer and stock-raiser, managed 
his business affairs with such success that he 
was able to add to his holdings from time to 
time, and he now has 800 acres, in addition to 
various other investments. While he is p'rac- 
tically retired from active pursuits, he is still 
ready and capable of giving excellent service, 
and liolds himself in readiness to assist his boys 
whenever assistance is necessary. Among the 
citizens of Custer counts- Mr. Anderson is 
known as an industrious man of high princi- 
ples, excellent business ability, and utmost per- 
sonal probity. He has their respect for what 
he has accomplished and the manner in which 
he has achieved it. Public life has never been 
attractive enough, nor political rewards strong 
enough, to take his attention from the cultiva- 
tion of the soil, and he has been contented to 
carry his career straight through as a represen- 
tative of the agricultural interests of his com- 
munity. 

Mr. Anderson was married, in Sweden, June 
7, 1879, to Miss Augusta Nelson, who was 
born in that country, daughter of Nels and 
Mary (Moseberg) Nelson, natives of that 
country. To this union there were born four 
children : Mrs. Anna O. Anderson lis de- 
ceased ; Fred J. is a stock-raiser and farmer, 
who is renting a part of his father's land, and 
he is an energetic and progressive agricultur- 
ist ; Charles E., a successful and skillful farm- 
er and stock-raisei', one and one-half miles 
.southeast of Etna, married Hattie E. Peterson, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



605 



a daug-hter of Henry Peterson, and they have 
one daughter ; and Ezekiel F. is more fully 
mentioned in the concluding paragraph of this 
review. The parents hold membership in the 
Lutheran church. 

Ezekiel F. Anderson was born in Custer 
county, January 6. 1893, and passed his boy- 
hood on his father's farm, dividing- his time 
between attending the district school and as- 
sisting his father and brothers in the cultiva- 
tion and development of the soil. After his 
graduation from Boyle's Business College, at 
Omaha, he was for several months bookkeeper 
in the Gothenburg Bank, but eventually he 
returned to farming, and he now owns and 
operates 320 acres of land, of which he is 
giving ninety acres to wheat, the crop which 
proved so essential in winning the great war. 
Mr. Anderson was in the selective draft and 
was ready to do his part as a soldier of the 
nation, but the world conflict came to a close 
before he was called to the colors. 



CHARLEY LONGFELLOW. — The sub- 
ject of this record was born on the old home- 
stead in Custer county, November 10, 1885. 
He was reared on the farm and attended the 
public schools, assisting his father in the oper- 
ation of the old place until four years ago, 
when he rented land and engaged in farming 
independently. He is a Republican and a 
member of the Broken Bow camp of the Mod- 
ern Woodmen of America. He was past 
thirty-one when the draft was made June 5, 

1917, but under the draft of September 12, 

1918, he was registered and stood ready to 
offer his sen'ices whenever his country needed 
him. He is a son of John R. Longfellow, of 
whom mention is made elsewhere in this 
volume. 



OLAF G. ANDERSON represents the 
sturdy, progressive type of citizens which has 
been furnished Custer county by Sweden. 
When he first came to this community he had 
little experience in agricultural industry and 
was forced to work out his own problems, 
but he possessed willingness and the inherent 
ability, and so well did he direct and manage 
his affairs that in 1911 he was able to retire, 
when still in the prime of life, with a satisfy- 
ing competence. He is now accounted one of 
the substantial citizens of Gothenburg, in the 
adjacent county of Dawson, where he is the 
owner of a beautiful home. 

Mr. Anderson was born in Sweden, No- 
vember 14, 1858, a son of John Anderson, 



and was one of a family of four children, of 
whom three sons survive. He received a com- 
mon-school education and resided with his 
parents on the home farm until he reached 
the age of twenty-one years, at which time 
he immigrated to the United States and lo- 
cated in Rock Island county, Illinois, where 
for one year he worked on a farm. For si.x 
years thereafter he was engaged in coal-min- 
ing, and in 1884 he came to Custer county, 
Nebraska, and purchased one-half section of 
land, in section 21, about two miles north- 
west of Etna, a village whose site at that early 
date was about six miles east of the present 
town. Later, in May, 1888, he brought his 
family here and located on a homestead ad- 
joining the property named. There he lived 
five years, during which time he experienced 
all the hardships incident to a life on the fron- 
tier, the hauling of the greater part of his 
water a distance of nine miles being only one 
of the many things which made existence hard 
during those days. After five years, when he 
had perfected title to his homestead. Mr. An- 
derson moved to the purchased land, on which 
he erected a beautiful and commodious resi- 
dence and also other substantial farm build- 
ings, besides making other improvements. He 
continued to be engaged in the raising of live- 
stock and in general farming until 1911, in 
which vear he and his wife retired from active 
pursuits and moved to Gothenburg, where they 
now reside, surrounded by every comfort and 
by a wide circle of friends and well-wishers. 
They had passed through the days when the 
merest conveniences were not to be thought 
of, and it was necessary that the children 
drive three miles to school, but Mr. and Mrs. 
Anderson were determined that the children 
should have good educational advantages be- 
yond those implied in the rudimentary branch- 
es. Thus the children were so well prepared 
that they all became school teachers, and all 
were also given musical education. Mr. and 
Mrs. Anderson, in addition to their property 
at Gothenburg, are the owners of 960 acres 
of valuable Custer county land. 

Mr. Anderson was married May 27, 1887, 
at Ro:k Island, Illinois, to Miss Hilda E. J. 
Rosell, daughter of John F. and Eva G. 
(Bergstrom) Rosell, who were members of 
the Lutheran church, and who came from 
Sweden to the L'nited States in 1867, settling 
at r>erlin (now Swedona), Illinois, where Mr. 
Rosell followed the occupation of bridge-build- 
er. There were nine children in the Rosell 
family, of whom eight are living: Alfred, 
Mrs. Hilda E. J. Anderson, Mrs. Cecelia E. 
Bursche, Mrs. Emma S. Burke, Mrs. Sadie 



606 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



A. Anderson, Arthur. Mrs. ^linnie M. Eng- 
strom, and Lawrence E. Mr. and Mrs. An- 
derson became the parents of five children : 
Mrs. Mand E. Peterson died August 5. 1912, 
at Gothenburg; Minnie M. is the wife of 
Michael H. Rosentratcr, a farmer near Etna 
postoffice. and they have a son and a daugh- 
ter: Emma C. Anderson is the wife of Albert 
Anderson, a farmer two miles northwest of 
Etna, and they have two daughters and one 
son: Miss Sadie E., who has been a teacher 
in the public schools for five years, resides 
with her parents at Gothenburg; and Robert 
G. is deceased. 

Mr. Anderson has not sought public office, 
but is a man who has been indifferent to no 
call for support of worthy public movements, 
and his status in his community is that of a 
reliable, constructive, and public-spirited citi- 
zen. 



WILLIAM C. HUFFMAN, who has lived 
in Nebraska since 1875, is one of the intelli- 
gent, enterprising farmers and well educated 
men of this state and owns and operates the 
old Charles Shell homestead, which is situated 
six miles northeast of Broken Bow. He comes 
of sturdy old Pennsylvania-Dutch stock and 
was born near Muncy. in Lvcoming countv. 
Pennsylvania, .\ugust 1.^. 1870. the eldest of 
the four children of Martin F. and Amanda 
(Shell! Huffman. The mother of Mr. Huff- 
man was born near Turbotsville. Pennsylvania, 
a daughter of Jonas Shell, and she died in Ne- 
braska, in February, 1917. Martin F. Huff- 
man was born near Muncy. Pennsylvania, a 
son of Daniel C. and ?klary (Frymire) Huff- 
man. He has always been a farmer and when 
he came to Nebraska, in 1875. he settled with 
his family on railroad land, near Aurora, 
where he still lives. He is a faithful member 
of the Methodist Episcopal church, as was 
also his wife. Thev became the parents of 
four children — William C. Ella L.. Guy E., 
and Maizie. 

William C. Huffman was four and one-half 
years old when his parents brought him to Ne- 
braska and he grew up in Hamilton county. 
In boyhood he attended the common schools 
and later he spent one year in the Wesleyan 
University, for one year was a student in 
the normal school at Lincoln, and also took a 
business course. Mr. Huffman has found his 
education very helpful in solving agricultural 
problems and has built up a substantial repu- 
tation as a progressive and judicious farmer. 

Mr. Huffman was married February 10. 
1915. at Columbus. Nebraska, to Miss Mar\- 



E. Pendell. who is a daughter of Willianj L. 
Pendell, the family name of her mother hav- 
ing been Slonecker. Mr. and Mrs. Huffman 
have no children. They attend the Methodist 
Episcopal church. In politics, like his father, 
^Ir. Huffman is an independent thinker and 
voter, and he affiliates with the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows. 



JOHN R. LONGFELLOW, a well known 
and highly respected retired farmer living at 
Broken Bow. was for many years active in 
agricultural industries in Custer county and 
still retains the ownership of his original 
homestead farm. He is a native of Illinois, 
born in De Witt county, July 11. 1855. His 
parents were Moses R. and Alalinda (Br^^e) 
Longfellow, his father being a native of Ohio 
and his mother of Indiana. All his life his 
father was a farmer and both parents were 
members of the Methodist Episcopal church. 
They had five children — John R.. J. Edward, 
Mrs. Mary Thomas, Mrs. Ella Bryan, and 
Moses N. 

John R. Longfellow lived in De Witt and 
Logan counties, Illinois, in his boyhood. His 
advantages were meager in every wav. as his 
father was an invalid for many years and thus 
heavy responsibilities fell on the oldest son. 
He attended school whenever he could be 
spared from home duties, and made the best 
of his opportunities. It was in 1882 that his 
attention was called particularly to Custer 
county, Nebraska, and in the spring of that 
year he came here and settled on the fine 
place which he still owns and which is sit- 
uated six miles west of Broken P.ow. There 
he lived continuously for thirty-three years. 
During this time he has not only improved 
and developed his own property but has also 
taken a good citizen's interest in comity af- 
fairs generally. He votes the Republican 
ticket. 

Mr. Longfellow was married June 12. 1884, 
at Aurora, Nebraska, to Miss Catherine Philip- 
sen, who is a daughter of John J. and Mary 
(Stone) Philipsen. the paternal grandparents 
having been Abraham and Rcnettie ( Seick) 
Philipsen. Mrs. Longfellow's father was 
born in Germany, but her mother was born in 
\\'abash county. Illinois, a daughter of Her- 
man and Catherine ( Besley) Stone. Mrs. 
Longfellow was the firstlx)rn of fourteen chil- 
dren, nine of whom grew to maturity, as fol- 
lows : Catherine is the wife of the subject 
of this review; Augusta is the wife of George 
Harget. a laborer living at Seward. Nebraska, 
and they have three sons and one daughter, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



607 



the eldest son, John, being, at the time of- this 
writing, a soldier in the national army ; Ed- 
mund F., who is farming in Custer county, 
iour miles northwest of Broken Bow, mar- 
ried Phoebe Freels and they have six daugh- 
ters and three sons : Elizabeth, who died in 
July, 1915, was the wife of Joseph Dagan, a 
saw-mill worker at Portland, Oregon, and 
they had one son, Cornelius ; John is married 
and is a farmer near Scottsbluff, Nebraska ; 
Rosettie Hannah is the wife of Roy Hannah, 
a ranchman, and they have three children, 
their eldest son being in the United States 
navy at the time this article is written ; Irene 
is the wife of John Hannah, a farmer, and 
they have five children ; William, who carries 
the mail between Dunning and Brewster, mar- 
ried Ethel Wymore and they have one son ; 
and Anna is the wife of Albert Brown, a farm- 
er, and they have three children. Mr. and 
Mrs. Longfellow have seven children : Mrs. 
Daisy Kindness, Charley. John R., Jr., Mrs. 
Lillie Brong, and Alice, Florence, and Esther. 
The last two are at home. Charley is indi- 
vidually mentioned on another page of this 
work, and Alice is employed in the war de- 
l^artment ofifice in Washington, D. C. Mr. 
Longfellow and his family are members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church. In the fraternal 
order of the Modern Brotherhood of .America 
Mr. Longfellow is a valued member. 



DANIEL H. FISHER. — Some persons 
maintain there is nothing in a name, but Dan- 
iel H. Fisher's father seems to have believed 
otherwise, and as young Daniel grew up he 
proved by his push and energy that his father 
had named him well. While he was never 
cast in a lions' den. he overcame many diffi- 
culties that would have discouraged a less self- 
reliant and determined spirit. 

For the purnose of beginning the new year 
right. Daniel F. Fisher was born on the l«;t of 
January. 1873, the place of his nativity hav- 
ing been in Saline county, Nebraska, where 
his father had located upon coming to Ne- 
braska, from Washington. Kansas, at the 
tinie of the Civil war. He whose name 
initiates this review is a son of Frederick 
T. and Mary A. (Triplett) Fisher, the former 
having been born in \'ermont and the latter 
in Indiana. This sterling Nebraska pioneer 
couple became the parents of ten children — 
Mrs. Mary J. Holcomb ; William F. and Ar- 
mina Foster f twins), the latter being de- 
ceased : Willard J. : Linnie B. Wheeler; Daniel 
H., the immediate subject of this sketch; Gay- 



ther F. ; Guy E. : Carrie M. Kaiser : and Molet 
M. Kaiser. 

The early educational advantages of Daniel 
H. Fisher were those afforded in the rural 
schools, and as a boy and youth he gained full 
fellowship with the work of a pioneer Ne- 
braska farm. He has stated that as a boy he 
dreamed of gaining fame as a "Little Buck- 
shot" or a "BuiTalo Bill" of the wild and wooly 
west, but as time passed, he conformed his 
views to the circumstances by which he was 
governed and made his ambition one of pro- 
ductive achievement. In 1896, by his thrift 
and industry, he had accumulated sufficient 
money to come to Custer county and initiate 
independent operations as a farmer. Here he 
rented land for three years, and thereafter 
he purchased 320 acres in Rose valley, east of 
Broken Bow. He made this the stage of his 
activities and marked his possession of the 
property by efifective and progressive manage- 
ment. Eventually he sold this land in Rose 
valley, and he now owns a valuable tract of 
465 acres of fine land, in what is known as 
Dutchman valley, four miles east of Broken 
Bow. Here he and his good wife are enjoy- 
ing the comfort and pro.sperity which are 
justly their due — a fitting reward for former 
years of earnest toil and endeavor. Mrs. 
Fisher has done her share in the developing 
and upbuilding of this beautiful farm home. 
She has efficiently marketed the surplus pro- 
duce from the garden, as well as butter and 
eggs in excess of the amount demanded in 
the home, and thus has defrayed a large part 
of the cost of groceries and other current ex- 
penses, the while her husband has given his 
attention to raising corn to fatten cattle and 
hogs and to producing crops that aided him 
in paying for his land. Mr. Fisher to-day is 
rated among the substantial farmers of the 
countv' and is always found ready to lend his 
co-operation and support to any public enter- 
prise advanced for the betterment of the com- 
munity in which he lives. 

On 'the 8th of January, 1899, at Broken 
Bow, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Fisher to Aliss Mary A. Adams, who was 
born in Iroquois county, Illinois, and who is 
a daughter of Thomas and Ellen (Burke) 
.Adams, both natives of Ireland. At the time 
of the Civil war Mr. Adams and his future 
wife came, with their respective parents, on 
the same ship to the United States, and their 
acquaintanceship culminated in their subse- 
quent marriage. They became the parents of 
six children — William H. (deceased): Mrs. 
Mary A. Fisher, James J., Mrs. Nellie Wood- 



608 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. XEBRASKA 



ward, John B.. and Thomas, the last named 
having been in service as a member of the 
United States Army in connection with the 
great world war and having been at Camp 
Funston at the time this sketch was prepared. 

Thomas Adams came with his family to 
Custer county in 1885. and he located on a 
pioneer farm northeast of Broken Bow, where 
he and his family gained a plethora of pioneer 
experience, in which they endured the trials 
and hardships incidental to the settling and 
development of a new country. The experi- 
ence of Mr. and ]\Irs. Adams was similar to 
that of hundreds of others pioneer settlers in 
Custer county, and under these conditions 
were forged enduring bonds of sympathy and 
friendship that bound the old-time residents 
together in gracious ties of mutual interest 
and friendliness that do not seem to exist in 
these latter days, with their urge of varied 
activities and their insistent demands. 

^fr. and Mrs. Fisher may count themselves 
favored in that they have four sturdy and 
vital young sons who are destined well to up- 
hold the prestige and honors of the family 
name. The eldest son, Marion T., is at the 
time of this writing a student in the eleventh 
grade in the Broken Bow high school, and his 
next younger brother. William J., is likewise 
attending the same high school ; Royal D. is a 
student in the eighth grade of the public 
schools : and Master Glenn A., five years of 
age, completes the fine quartet of sons. 



CHARLES J. SLOCGETT, who carries on 
general farming in Custer county, Nebraska, 
is interested in a valuable tract of 302 acres, 
which is situated four and one-half miles 
southwest of Anselmo. Mr. Sloggett was 
born at Polo, Illinois, April 10, 1886, and his 
parents are Alfred C. and Emma (]\Iiller) 
Sloggett. Alfred C. Sloggett, who is a re- 
tired farmer, was born in Granby village, in 
Canada, a son of William and Bethena (Ho- 
mer) Sloggett, born in the city of London, 
England. He married Emma Miller, who 
was born near Polo. Illinois, a daughter of 
Emanuel and Elizabeth ( Hulinger) Miller, 
who were natives of Pennsylvania. Eight 
children were born to .■\lfred C. Sloggett and 
his wife, as follows: Perry F., Mrs. Bessie 
Lloyd, George A.. Charles '].. Mrs. Edith M. 
Roessler, Mrs. Hattie V. Bates. Harvey M., 
and Everett M. Harvey M. of the above fam- 
ily is a soldier in the national army, and is in 
France at the time of this writing, in the au- 
tumn of 1918. 

Charles J. Sloggett remained with his par- 



ents until he was thirty-one years old, in the 
meanwhile attending school and farming. 
From choice he has always devoted himself to 
farm pursuits and thereby has acquired inde- 
pendence. He began early and earned his 
first money by gathering potatoes for a neigh- 
bor. When he started out for himself he 
went to Oelrichs, South Dakota, and took up 
a homestead in the Fall River county, — a 
property of which he still owns. Mr. Slog- 
gett is a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. In politics he is a Democrat and fra- 
ternally is an Odd Fellow. His father be- 
longs to the Woodmen order. He was mar- 
ried September 14, 1918, to Ella Laughlin, 
daughter of George and Amanda Laughlin, of 
Custer countv. 



MILES D. CALLEN, a well and favorably 
known citizen of Custer county, has resided 
for the past twenty years on his valuable farm 
of 200 acres, which is situated four and one- 
half miles northeast of Broken Bow. Mr. 
Callen was born on a farm near Lacon, Mar- 
shall county. Illinois. His parents were Will- 
iam and Catherine (Grife) Callen, the former 
of whom was born at Pittsburgh, Pennsyl- 
vania, and the latter in Germany. The pa- 
ternal grandfather of Mr. Callen was David 
Callen, whose father, a native of Ireland, 
fought in the American Revolution. His ma- 
ternal grandfather was Daniel Grife. In 1848 
AMlliam Callen located in Marshall county, 
Illinois, and from that state he enlisted for 
service in the Civil war, after which he was 
identified with the Grand Army of the Repub- 
lic until his death, which occurred May 8, 
1900, at Grand Island, Nebraska. His voca- 
tion was farming, in politics he was a Re- 
publican, and both he and wife were members 
of the Methodist Episcopal church. They had 
eight children, namely: Elliott N.. Mrs. Cyn- 
thia Kerns (deceased); Mrs. Mary Belding, 
Frank M. (deceased), Charles W., Miles D., 
Airs. Anna Perkins, and Mrs. Emma Edgell. 

Miles D. Callen was reared on his father's 
pioneer farm in Marshall county. Illinois, and 
a sport of his boyhood was setting traps for 
the gophers, which were ver\- destructive at 
that time on new land, with the result that a 
certain price was paid him for all he captured. 
This, probably, was his first business transac- 
tion. He remained on the home farm until 
he was twenty-one years of age. his birth hav- 
ing taken place May 23. 1839. and then started 
out for himself as a farmer. In 1895 he came 
to Custer county and located on Spring creek, 
eight miles north of Callawav. where he re- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



609 



sided until he came to his present fine farm, 
near Broken Bow. He has carefully devel- 
oped this place, until its value at present is 
equal to that of any in this section, and he not 
only has a paying property but also a com- 
fortable and attractive home. He has taken 
a great deal of interest in agricultural develop- 
ment in the county and has encouraged such 
movements as the Grange, of which he is a 
member, besides which he belongs to the Mod- 
ern Brotherhood of America. In politics he 
is a Republican and he is a great friend of the 
public schools, in which he received his own 
education back in Marshall county, Illinois. 

Mr. Callen was married March 2. 1895, at 
Denver, Colorado, to Miss Cora Patterson, 
who comes of American ancestry. Her par- 
ents are Hiram B. and Abigail (Harkness) 
Patterson, and her maternal grandparents were 
James P. and Maria (Waters) Harkness. Mrs. 
Callen has two sisters and one brother, as 
follows : ]\Iinnie is the wife of John Maurer, 
who is a soldier in the National army, having 
enlisted in 1918, from St. Louis, Missouri ; 
Frank L., who is employed in the city water- 
works of Los Angeles, California, resides 
there with his wife and four children ; and 
Grace is the wife of Roy Sage, who is an au- 
tomobile machinist at Los Angeles, and they 
have two children. Mr. and Mrs. Callen have 
an adopted daughter and son. ]\Iaud and Frank 
E. 



CHARLES C. KOOZER. — That farming 
in connection with stock-raising can be made 
a very profitable business is the idea of Charles 
C. Koozer, who is a practical farmer and who 
has purchased 480 acres of land situated four 
miles northeast of Broken Bow, where he in- 
tends to make his future home. 

Mr. Koozer was born at Geneva. Fillmore 
county, Nebraska. His parents, now residents 
of Custer county, are John L. and Katherine 
( Brust) Koozer, both of whom were born near 
Springfield. Illinois. The maternal grandfa- 
ther, Conrad Brust, moved from Ohio to Illi- 
nois. John L. Koozer is a farmer living five 
and one-half miles northeast of Broken Bow, 
and there he is a man of social standing. He 
and his wife have three children — Mrs. Ber- 
tha M. Hall, of Merna, this county: Lela M., 
at home with her parents: and Charles C. of 
this review. 

Charles C. Koozer attended the public 
schools and subsequently completed a com- 
mercial course in the Broken Bow Business 
College. Thus he was prepared for other than 
agricultural life, but preferred farming to a 



business life. He is still a young man, but 
has witnessed many changes in price fluctua- 
tions since he worked for M. D. Callen for 
fifty cents a day, when a load of hay would 
bring alx>ut two dollars and a fifty-pound sack 
of flour could be Iwught for eighty-five cents. 
Mr. Koozer was married August 28, 1912, 
at Broken Bow, to Miss Lula M. Williams, 
who is a daughter of Hozle and Mary C. 
(Karms) Williams. Mr. and Mrs. Koozer 
have two sons — • C. Ray a sturdy little boy of 
five years, and Robert A., aged ten months at 
the time of this writing, in the autumn of 1918. 
Mr. Koozer has never given a great deal of 
attention to politics, but has always voted the 
Democratic ticket. 



ELGIN L. BEAL. — Among the men of 
prominence who came to Custer county in 
1886. was the late Elgin L. Beal, who became 
widely known through his newspaper enter- 
prise, the Custer County Beacon, in the con- 
trol of which he was associated with his broth- 
er, C. W. Beal, for many years. 

Elgin L. Beal was born in Audrain county, 
Missouri, December 28, 1858, and passed away 
at his beautiful home near Broken Bow, Ne- 
braska, ]\Iarch 10, 1914. He was a son of 
William H. and Jane (Stout) Beal, natives of 
Indiana and faithful members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. 

When Elgin L. Beal came to Custer county 
he brought his family with him from Missouri, 
and they settled on a homestead claim near An- 
sley, subsequently moving to Broken Bow 
where he engaged in the newspaper business. 
During the ten years he was connected with 
the Custer County Beacon the journal was de- 
voted to the best interests of this section. 
When he retired he bought the land his family 
still owns and here he built one of the hand- 
some residences of the county. 

In Audrain county, Missouri, on October 
21, 1882, Elgin L. Beal married Miss Mar- 
garet Poor, a daughter of Levi and Elizabeth 
( Ritchie) Poor, who were natives of Will 
county, Illinois. The following children were 
born to Mr. and Mrs. Beal: Emory S., John, 
William, Henry, Esther, Grover C, Ruth, 
Grace Maud. Prudence J., and Charles C, the 
last named residing at home with his mother. 
The eldest of the family, Emory S., is a farm- 
er living four miles northwest of Broken Bow. 
He married Edna Russom, a daughter of G. 
R. Russom, and they have one daughter. John 
Beal. who is a barber by trade, married Edna 
Waters and they reside at North Platte, Ne- 
braska. \\'illiam Henry, the third son. oper- 



610 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



ates his mother's farm of 200 acres, situated 
five miles west of Broken Bow. Esther is re- 
siding with her mother while her patriotic hus- 
band, Charles \'. Oxenford, is ser\-ing his 
country in the national army; he is a jeweler 
by trade and they have one child, Vera lone, 
who is three years old. Mr. Oxenford en- 
listed in Troop E, Twelfth Cavalry. Grover 
C, the fifth child, died at Broken Bow, August 
18, 1915. Ruth is the wife of Guy Street, 
who is a farmer, located three miles south of 
Merna, Custer county. The daughters, Grace 
and Prudence are employed in the office of 
the Burlington Railroad at Lincoln. Besides 
his immediate family, Mr. Beal is surv-ived by 
three brothers, John, Charles W., and Grant 
Beal. 



HON. JOHN REESE. — Custer county 
numbers among is valued citizens some distin- 
guished men, and of these none deserves more 
favorable notice in its history than does Judge 
John Reese, who, as soldier, lawyer, judge, 
and public official, has led a busy and honor- 
able life. 

Judge Reese was born in Clark county, 
Ohio. December 23, 1845. He is the only child 
of John and Sarah J. (Stevenson) Reese. His 
father was of Welch descent and a native of 
Ohio. He passed from this life when our sub- 
ject was three years old. and two years later 
the mother married ^\'illiam Downs, in whose 
home the boy, John, lived until he was eleven 
years old, when he hired to work for a neigh- 
boring farmer, at seven dollars a month. At 
the age of twelve years he went to London, 
Ohio, to learn the wool manufacturing trade, 
and for four years he worked as an apprentice 
in the Dennis Clark woolen mills — working 
in the summer and going to school in the 
winter. 

The Civil war broke out in 1861, and in 
.\ugust, 1862, being then only sixteen years 
of age, John Reese enlisted in his country's 
service, in Company A, of the One Hundred 
and Thirteenth Ohio Infantry. He served one 
year, when his health failed and he was hon- 
orably discharged for disability. He enlisted 
at London, Ohio, August 22, 1862, and was 
mustered out of the service July 9, 1863, at 
Nashville, Tennessee. 

After returning home the young soldier at- 
tended school at West Liberty. Ohio, for two 
years, and then he again engaged in the wool 
manufacturing business. On June 27, 1867, 
he was married to Sarah J. Piper, of West 
Liberty, Ohio, and to them three daughters. 
Dora, Eva, and Clara, were bom. Because of 



his failing health Mr. Reese was obliged to 
give up the manufacturing business. He 
moved to Bellefontaine. Ohio, where he read 
law under the direction of Judge William 
Lawrence, and he was admitted to the bar 
in 1882, by the supreme court of Ohio. In 
the spring of this same year he was elected 
mayor of Bellefontaine. and in 1884 was re- 
elected, serving two terms, with much credit 
to himself and great good for the city. 

In 1886 Judge Reese came to Nebraska and 
located at Callaway, Custer county, where he 
practiced law for one year. In 1887 he was 
elected county judge of Custer county and 
moved to Broken Bow, accompanied by his 
three daughters, who are now Mrs. A. J. 
Robertson, of Broken Bow; Mrs. W. O. 
Chapman, of Chicago, Illinois: and Mrs. Ed- 
ward McComas. of Broken Bow. 

In 1890 the United States land office was 
established at Broken Bow and opened for 
business on July 1. 1890, with Judge Reese 
as register and the Hon. James Whitehead as 
receiver — apjxiintees of President Harrison. 
The first homestead entry at this office was 
made by Charles M. Hammond, of Mema, 
Nebraska, who located on the e Yz s-w n Yz s-e 
of section 14, township 18, range 21, Custer 
count)'. These officers served one term of 
four years when, the administration having 
changed. Judge Reese returned to his law 
practice, forming a partnership with Simon 
Cameron and practicing until 1903, when 
Judge Reese again became a federal officer, 
having been appointed, by President Roose- 
velt, as receiver in the United States land 
office at Broken Bow. 

In 1906 President Rcxisevelt re-appointed 
him register, and in 1910 he was again re-ap- 
pointed, by President Taft, holding the office 
until June 24, 1916 — two years after the ex- 
piration of his term — when his successor was 
appointed, by President Wilson. 

As a federal official. Judge Reese had served 
continuously for more than thirteen vears and 
in all for eighteen years. He had been com- 
missioned by three Republican presidents, viz: 
Harrison. Roosevelt, and Taft, and had ser^'ed 
over two years under each of two Democratic 
presidents— Cleveland and Wilson. 

For two months at the close of his term he 
had the unique ilistinction of serving as regis- 
ter with his grandson. John P. Robertson, as 
receiver — the only case on record where a 
grandfather, a Republican, and a grandson, a 
Democrat, served together in the United States 
land department. 

.\t the expiration of his official career Judge 
Reese went at once to his home, nine miles 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



613 



west of Broken Bow, where he had for a num- 
ber of years been building up a stock farm, 
known as Custer Canyon Ranch. He has made 
a specialty of sheep and now owns the largest 
and finest flock in Custer county. 

February 20, 1917, Judge Reese was mar- 
ried to Miss Etta Brooks, of Beatrice, Ne- 
braska, a daughter of the late Captain Joseph 
and Nancy A. (Criss) Brooks. Mrs. Reese 
was born in Ohio, the native state of her par- 
ents. She grew up in Nebraska, was educated 
at the Nebraska State Normal School at Peru 
and taught for fifteen years. In 1904 she and 
her father took adjoining homesteads in 
Blaine county, Nebraska, under the Kinkaid 
homestead law. While living on her home- 
stead she taught school and served for two 
years as county superintendent of public in- 
struction. 

Mrs. Reese is an active member of the 
Woman's Relief Corps, having served as treas- 
urer of the Department of Nebraska two 
terms. She has also been grand recorder of 
the Degree of Honor. 

Judge Reese has been active in the affairs 
of the Grand Army of the Republic and served 
as commander of the Department of Nebras- 
ka in 1900 and 1901. He has always been 
identified with the Republican party, and for 
fifty years has been a Mason. 



HENRY A. CRAMER. — One of the men 
who has demonstrated that farming may be 
made very profitable in Custer county if car- 
ried on with vigor and good judgment, is 
Henry A. Cramer, who owns large tracts of 
land and who farms on an extensive scale. 
Mr. Cramer was born at Hennepin, Illinois, 
September 23, 1882. He was one of a family 
of six children born to Levier B. and Lucinda 
( Hartman ) Cramer, namely : Lee, John, 
Henry A., Frank, Roy. and Gilbert. 

Henry A. Cramer was two years old when 
his parents moved to Nebraska and settled at 
New Helena, Custer county, where his father 
found work as a mechanic. Henry attended 
school until he was eight years old and then 
hired out to John Simms, on Victoria creek, 
for five dollars a month, his duties being to 
herd cattle in the winter and help on the farm 
in the summer. That did not seem to offer 
any great prospect of affluence, but he was 
faithful and industrious and made friends. He 
worked for four years for the J. E. Adamson 
Telephone Company, and he continued to work 
around at odd jobs for others up to the spring 
of 190.\ when he became a farmer for G. R. 
Russoni, at that time being practically without 



capital, besides being in debt. It has been said 
by those who know, that Mr. Cramer's history 
from then on reads like a romance. During 
the year 1906 he worked for Mr. Russom, and 
he then rented land and began for himself. In 
1913 he bought 540 acres of land in Sheridan 
county; in 1915 he bought eighty acres of the 
townsite of Lodi ; in 1917 he added 400 ad- 
joining acres, following this purchase with a 
half-section of school land and the John 
Squires ranch of 1,160 acres, located south of 
Broken Bow. In the spring of 1918 Mr. 
Cramer bought the old Charley Jeffords ranch, 
containing 780 acres and situated eight miles 
west of Broken Bow. This property is valued 
at $50,000. Nebraska people are not altogeth- 
er astonished when they learn of the turning 
tide of fortune in this state, for there have been 
many examples, although few men have made 
such a notable record at his age as has Mr. 
Cramer. It is interesting to learn that his 
first business transactions, away back in boy- 
hood, was a trade in jackknives, the difference 
coming to him. 

Mr. Cramer was married March 1, 1903,, at 
Broken Bow, to Christena Simonson, who is a 
daughter of James M. and Anna (Jensen) 
Simonson, natives of Denmark. Mr. and Mrs. 
Cramer have five children : Clifford L., Em- 
ery C, Cleo R., Eva P., and Harold A., all at 
home and well provided for. 



\\'ESLEY THOMAS, who is a prosperous 
farmer and substantial, dependable citizen of 
Custer county, has resided here since the fall 
of 1883, coming to this section as an ambitious 
young man who was determined to succeed. 
He was born at Marion, Indiana, October 28, 
1860, the only son born to the marriage of 
Milton and Susanna (Dille) Weesner Thomas. 
He has one full sister, Susanna, who is the 
wife of Neleigh H. Ratcliffe. a farmer near 
Marion, Indiana. Both parents of Mr. Thomas 
were born in Indiana and spent their lives 
there and both had been married before their 
union. To the father's first marriage the fol- 
lowing children were born: Mrs. Jane Har- 
vey, Snead, Minerva, John, and Elwood Thom- 
as. To the mother's first marriage the follow- 
ing children were born: Micajah, Mrs. Lucy 
A. Banks, Elihu, Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, and 
David Weesner. The parents were members 
of the Society of Friends. 

Wesley Thomas grew up on his father's 
farm and obtained his education in the public 
schools. Before coming to Nebraska he 
worked for different farmers in his native 
state for four vears, and thus had farm knowl- 



614 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COL'XTY. NEBRASKA 



edge and experience when he started out for 
himself in a new section. Like other settlers 
in Custer county thirty-five years ago, Mr. 
Thomas met with hardships and discourage- 
ments, but he never permitted these to turn 
him back, as he soon realized that these were 
only temporary and that this section was des- 
tined to become a great agricultural territory. 
He has prospered greatly and now, with his 
wife, owns 560 acres of well improved land, 
besides having three valuable properties in 
Broken Bow. In his extensive farming oper- 
ations he has been a large employer of labor 
and can remember no occasion when he has 
paid a youth only twenty-five cents a day for 
shocking grain, for which amount he himself 
toiled in order to earn his first money. Mr. 
Thomas is a member of the Masonic fraternity. 
^Ir. Thomas was married April 29, 1888, to 
Miss ^lary J. Longfellow, on her father's 
farm, situated eight luiles west of Broken Bow. 
Mrs. Thomas is a daughter of Richard M. 
and Melinda Longfellow, and has three older 
brothers and one sister, namely : John, Ed- 
ward, and Richard M.. and iNIrs. Ella Bryan. 
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas have two daughters: 
Ola. who is the wife of Albert Beckman, a 
substantial farmer residing fifteen miles north- 
west of Broken Bow, has one child ; and Su- 
sanna, remains with her parents. 



OTIS J. WEESXER, who is a general 
farmer of Custer county and owns well im- 
proved land situated nine and one-half miles 
west of Broken Bow, has prospered since com- 
ing to Nebraska, of which state he has been a 
continuous resident for twenty-two years. He 
belongs to a fine old family of Indiana, staid 
farming people, and Quakers in religious faith. 
He was born in Grant county, Indiana, July 
18. 1872, and is a son of David and Jennie 
( Thomas ) Weesner, and a grandson of David 
and Susanna (Dillie) Weesner. 

Otis J. Weesner remained with his parents 
until he was twenty-one years of age. going 
to school in the meanwhile, during the winter 
seasons, and making himself generally u-cful 
during the rest of the year on the home larm 
and in the glass factory at Marion, Indiana. 
About that time he became interested in the 
opportunities offered homeseekers in Nebraska, 
and, after making proper investigation, he 
decided to come to this state. Accordingly, 
in 1896. he located on his present farm in Cus- 
ter county. He has 160 acres, which projierty 
he has developed and so improved that he is 
justly proud of one of the beautiful homes of 
Custer county. As a good citizen he takes an 



interest in public aflFairs and gives his political 
support to the Republican party, but he is not 
a seeker for office. 

Mr. Weesner was married, at Broken Bow, 
Nebraska. January 26. 1907. to Miss Clara A. 
Wakefield, a daughter of Daniel and Ginevra 
A. (Burton) \\'akefield. Mrs. Weesner died 
May 11, 1911, leaving one son, Orville. 



PETER M. CASE, who has lived in Custer 
county for thirty years, has made his home in 
the neighborhood of the present prosperous 
town of \\'eissert, and still owns land here. 
Mr. Case was born in Lawrence county, In- 
diana, March 7, 1848, a son of Jacob and Mary 
(Cox) Case. 

In 1853 Peter 'SI. Case accompanied his 
parents to Iowa. The first year was spent in 
Decatur county, but in 1854 removal was made 
to Ringgold county. At that time that section 
of Iowa was practically a wilderness, there 
being only fifteen families in the whole county. 
Jacob Case, like his few and widely separated 
neighbors, entered government land, which he 
developed and improved, and farming was his 
main business throughout his life. His ster- 
ling character soon impressed itself upon oth- 
ers and in many ways his fellow citizens came 
to depend upon him in the general adjustment 
of aflfairs, and he served as postmaster at Ring- 
gold. In his later years he voted with the 
Republican party. Both he and wife were 
faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. They were the parents of twelve 
children and of the number five survive, name- 
ly: Sarah, who is the widow of Thomas Pit- 
man, lives at Mount Ayr, Iowa; Peter M. is 
the subject of this sketch; William, who is 
in the insurance business, married Myrtle 
Wiley and they live at Shenandoah, Iowa; 
Martha is the wife of Frank Kirby. a carj^enter 
by trade, and they reside at Mount .Ayr. Iowa ; 
and Lincoln, who married Rosa Johnson, is a 
farmer near Newkirk, Kay county, Oklahoma. 

Peter M. Case was reared in Iowa and at- 
tended the first public school in Ringgold 
countv. He assisted his father and was con- 
sidered a good farmer when he left that sec- 
tion and came to Custer county, in 1888. Here 
he has followed farming and stock-raising, as 
vigorously as conditions have made possible, 
ever since. When Mr. Case came to the coun- 
ty he purchased a tree claim, which proved a 
rrofitable investment. His present farm lies 
in section 7. township 17, range 18, and his 
postofficc address is Weissert. 

Mr. Case was married at Chariton. Iowa, 
fanuarv 29, 1873, to Margaret Wray, who 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'NTY. NEBRASKA 



615 



died in Custer county, Nebraska, in December, 
1893. Concerning- the children of this mar- 
riage the following is brief record : Jacob M., 
who married Hattie Perkins, is a farmer living 
near Weissert; Luther, who married Alamie 
Schultz, is an ensign in the Salvation Army, 
of Chicago, Illinois, and they live at Peoria, 
Illinois; Arthur, who married Ida Leek, is a 
farmer near Monte \'ista, Colorado ; Guy Wray, 
whose home is in Denver, Colorado, and who 
married Edna Skecls, is serving at this writing, 
as an adjutant in the Salvation Army, as a 
unit in the American Expeditionary Forces in 
France. In 1897 Mr. Case contracted a secoml 
marriage, as he then wedded Mrs. Alice 
Barnes, a widow, and a daughter of Leven 
Benson. Two children were born to them • — • 
Rosa, who died at the age of nine months ; 
and Ina Minnie, who was bom March 29, 1906. 
Mrs. Case had seven children born to her first 
marriage and the following are living: Frank, 
who is a railroad engineer, lives at Lincoln, 
Nebraska; Alberta is the wife of William 
\\'ard, a fanner near Eddyville, Nebraska ; 
Ora is the wife of David Pirnie, a farmer near 
Weissert ; Ralph, who is a dairyman in Fresno, 
California, married Myrtle Bishop; Henry, 
who is a railroad man, married Mabel Hamil- 
ton, and they live at Fresno, California ; and 
Lizzie is the wife of Wesley Hopkins, a farmer 
near Berwyn, Nebraska. 

Mr. Case has always been a Republican in 
political sentiment, believing the princi])les of 
that ])arty to be the most just and honorable. 
He has frequently been elected to local offices, 
has served for years on the school board and 
for several years was road overseer. Since 
1867 he has been a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, in which he has been a 
licensed exhorter for over twenty years, and 
in other ways he has striven to exert a bene- 
ficial influence, the while he enjoys the respect 
and esteem of all who know him. 



JOHN R. LONGFELLOW, Jr. — Farm- 
ing, as it is conducted to-day, is an enterprise 
requiring close calculation and scientific man- 
agement, and when a young man is making a 
decided success in his first undertaking of this 
kind, it is worthy of notice. One of the pros- 
pering young farmers of Custer county is John 
R. Longfellow, Jr., who is independently op- 
erating land about eight miles west of Broken 
Bow. 

Mr. Longfellow was born in Custer county, 
Nebraska, January 28, 1895. His parents are 
John R. and Catherine (Philipsen) Long- 
fellow, well known residents of the county. 



He grew up on the home fami and enjoyed ex- 
cellent educational advantages at Broken Bow, 
where he was graduated in the high school as 
a member of the class of 1917. He has always 
been industriously inclined, and is somewhat 
proud of his first business transaction, when 
about ten years old, when he proved a very 
valuable assistant to a neighboring ranchman 
in driving a bunch of cattle to the place of 
shipment. Mr. Longfellow is still a bachelor. 
In politics he is a Republican, and he is an 
earnest, patriotic, dependable young man, with 
many friends whose affection and interest fol- 
lowed him when, as a selected man in Class A, 
he entered his country's service in the na- 
tional army. He left Broken Bow Tune 
27, 1918, and went to Fort Riley, Kan- 
sas, and from there, on August 24th he 
went to Camp Merritt, New Jersey. With- 
in a short time thereafter he left with his 
command for France, where he is serving at 
the time of this writing, in the autunm of 1918. 



MILTON PETERSON. — A quarter of a 
century of connection with the agricultural in- 
terests of Custer county, and particularly in 
the vicinity of Weissert, has made Milton 
Peterson one of the substantial and well known 
men of his community. A native of Denmark, 
when he came to the United States, in 1893, 
he brought with him many of the admirable 
traits of the people of that sturdy little coun- 
try, and the success that has come to him has 
been won through honorable participation in 
legitimate enterprises. 

Milton Peterson was born at Hassing, Jut- 
land, Denmark, October 23, 1874, and is a son 
of Melter and Mary (Jacobson) Peterson. He 
is a member of a well known family of Cus- 
ter county, a review of which will be found in 
the sketch of Melter Peterson, elsewhere in 
this work. As a youth Milton Peterson at- 
tended the common schools of his native land, 
while growing up on the home farm, where he 
assisted his father. He was only nineteen 
years of age when he accompanied the family 
to the United States, and at that time he had 
little to aid him in the securing of a foothold in 
the new land, as he had little knowledge of 
either language, conditions or methods. How- 
ever, he w-as quick to familiarize himself with 
both the tongue and customs of his adopted 
country, and in the vicinity of Weissert, where 
he had settled upon his arrival, he was shortly 
ready to estaljlish a home of his own. This 
was effected October 24, 1897, when, in Swiss 
Valley, he was united in marriage with Miss 
Mabel Govier, daughter of an early home- 
steader of this county. They became the par- 



616 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



ents of nine children, whose names and re- 
spective dates of birth are here noted : Hazel, 
August 24, 1898: Ivv M., Januarj' 30, 1900; 
Frank L., July 18, 1902: Amelia C, July 14, 
1904; John K., October 24, 1905; Gladys M., 
September 4, 1907; Andrew W., August 12, 
1909; Peter M, March 14, 1911; and Ruby 
P., June 7, 1913. 

Mr. Peterson has been engaged in farming 
and the raising of stock throughout his career, 
and he has met with that success which re- 
wards only the capable and industrious. He 
now has a finely cultivated and productive 
property, on which he has good buildings and 
other modern improvements. Politically he is 
a Republican, and for the past nine years he 
has served efficiently as a member of the school 
board of Weissert. He and the members of 
his family belong to the Church of God. 



PHILIP R. STRADLEY. — Among the 
comfortably situated and well contented farm- 
ing people of Custer county may be mentioned 
Philip R. Stradley and his estimable wife, who 
own two forty-acre tracts of land, one of these 
being their home farm, situated one and one- 
half miles west of Broken Bow. On this 
place they have lived since 1894, and their 
other farm is located in Hall county, four and 
one-quarter miles from Cairo. Mr. Stradley 
was bom in Fulton county, Indiana, June 9, 
1861, and is a son of Luther and Sarah J. 
(Moore) Stradley. 

Luther Stradley was boni in Fulton county, 
Indiana, and his occupation was farming. He 
enlisted early in the Civil war and was in 
seventeen battles during his service of three 
years and three months, as a member of the 
One Hundred and Twenty-seventh and the 
One Hundred and Twenty-eiehth Indiana regi- 
ments of infantry. During the g^reater part 
of the time he was under command of Generals 
Sheridan and Sherman, marching with the lat- 
ter from Atlanta to the sea. Notwithstand- 
ing his many exposures to daneer, he was 
wounded only once, when a minie ball took off 
the tip of an ear. He was a Republican in 
politics. lie married Sarah J. Moore, who 
was born in Ohio, a daughter of George 
Moore. Luther Stradley and wife died in Illi- 
nois, where they lived for many years. The 
following were the children born to them : 
George, Isaac, Charles, Philip R.. Marietta. 
John T., William N., Carrie M., and Minnie 
E., and all of them are still living. 

Philip R. Stradley was reared on the home 
farm and attended school as opportimity of- 
fered. .\t the age of nineteen years he 
started out for himself. He well remembers 
the first money he ever earned, for the ac- 



quisition of real money was something of an 
event in his boyhood, and his eood fortune 
came about by consenting to ride a horse 
around the barn floor, trampling flax. This 
work he did for his uncle, who paid him a 
dime a day. His first real employer was the 
tenant living on his father's farm, who gave 
him a trial of one month, during which he 
proved so satisfactory that the tenant rehired 
him, and he worked for the same man con- 
tinuously for three years. During his last 
year in Illinois he was engaged in tile-ditching, 
as a contractor. Mr. Stradley came to Ne- 
braska in September, 1884, and he worked on 
the railroad, at Red Cloud, until 1887, when he 
went to Cairo, in Hall county, where he 
worked for a farmer, through 1888 and 1889. 
In 1894 Mr. Stradley settled permanently on 
his farm in Custer county, where he raises 
diversified crops and is performin.o^ his duties 
and carrying on his industries as patriotically 
as possible. He has always been identified 
with the Republican party. 

Mr. Stradley was married February 3, 1890, 
at Grand Island, Nebraska, to Miss Anna M. 
Green, of Cairo, Nebraska, she being a daugh- 
ter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Smith) Green. 
Mr. and Airs. Stradley have no children. Mr. 
Stradley was reared in the Methodist Epis- 
copal church, while Mrs. Stradley is an Epis- 
copolian. He has been very prominent in the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and served 
as grand guard of the grand encampment of 
the State of Nebraska in 1917-18. He belongs 
also to the adjunct organization, the Daughters 
of Rebekah, and is affiliated with the Grange 
and the Modern Woodmen of America. 



LOUIS J. TOMES, who is a farmer and 
stock-raiser in Custer county, Nebraska, is 
one of the enterprising, progressive men who 
have made these industries profitable in this 
.section. Mr. Tomes is a native of Nebraska 
and was born in Saunders county, November 
18, 1874. His parents are Florian and Kater- 
ina (Kneidel) Tomes, the father being a na- 
tive of Austria-Hungary, and the mother of 
Bohemia. They came to the United States in 
1870, in search of better opportunities than 
their own land offered to ])eople of their so- 
cial class at that time, and they made their 
way to Nebraska. In Saunders comity, they 
secured a homestead, on which they lived until 
1889, when they came to Custer county, where 
they are now living in peace and comfort. 
They had two children, a son and a daughter, 
Louis and Mary. The latter is the wife of 
Joseph Weverka, who is a farmer, and they 
live near Westphalia. Kansas. 

Louis Tomes attended the public schools in 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



617 



Saunders county, Nebraska, and assisted his 
father in looking after the farm and stock. 
Like other early settlers in this state, the 
Tomes family met with hardships and mis- 
fortunes, but they survived them all and 
through courage, persistence and industry have 
become people of ample means. Louis Tomes 
has the reputation of being one of the best 
farmers in township 35, and his well cultivated 
land and unusually well improved property 
seem to prove it. He takes a great deal of in- 
terest in all his farm industries, keeps well in- 
formed along agricultural lines, and is a mem- 
ber of the Farmers' Union. 

January 9, 1899, Mr. Tomes married Miss 
Katie Slegel, of Valley county, Nebraska. 
She is a daughter of Paul and Anna (Skarda) 
Slegel. who had the following children : 
Michael, who is a meat dealer and lives in 
Central City, married Frances Schudel ; Al- 
bert, who is a farmer near Arcadia, Nebraska, 
married Mar)- Zadina ; Katie is the wife of 
Louis Tomes, of. this sketch; Joseph is a lum- 
ber dealer at Lavina, Montana ; Anna is the 
wife of Charles Prokop, a farmer near Spen- 
cer, Nebraska ; James is a farmer near Com- 
stock ; Mary, unmarried, remains at the paren- 
tal home ; and Barbara, is the wife of Frank 
Brim, a fanner near Sargent, Nebraska. .All 
these people are contented and prosperous and 
are respected and valued in their several com- 
munities. 

Mr. and Mrs. Tomes have two children : 
Mary was born August 13, 1900 ; and John was 
born June 25, 1903. Mr. Tomes and family 
belong to the Roman Catholic church at Sar- 
gent. He is somewhat active in politics, vot- 
ing with the Republican party, and at present 
is serving as treasurer of school district No. 
104. 



CHARLES THOMAS is one of Custer 
county's early settlers who has become a 
prosperous agriculturist and aided in the de- 
velopment of this part of the state. He was 
born in Carroll county, Illinois, January 10, 
1862. His father, Henry Thomas, was a na- 
tive of Canada and became an early settler 
of Carroll county, Illinois, where he conducted 
farming operations for many years — until 
he moved to Clarke county, Iowa, where he 
spent the remainder of his days. Mr. Thomas 
does not remember his mother's name, as she 
died when he was only one week old. He 
was one of a family of ten children, as fol- 
lows : Henr}' died while ser^'ing in the Union 
army during the Civil war; Joseph resides at 
Holly, Colorado ; Frank died in Custer county, 
where he had been one of the early settlers ; 



Al, also a homesteader in Custer county, now 
resides at Holly, Colorado; Mary is the wife 
of William Johnson, residing in the state of 
Washington; Lydia is a resident of Clarke 
county, Iowa ; Julia married Stephen Hanna 
and is a resident of Dunning, Nebraska; Len 
lives in Kiowa county, Colorado ; Ellen mar- 
ried Herman Burrow and lives in Custer 
county; and Charles is the immediate subject 
of this sketch. 

Charles Thomas remained at home until he 
was nineteen years old and came with his 
brothers to Custer county, in 1880. Not being 
old enough to take a homestead, he worked as 
a farm hand for two years and then secured, 
as a homestead, the southwest quarter of sec- 
tion 24, township 18, range 22. He erected a 
sod house, which was his home for many 
years, and endured the hardships and priva- 
tions which fell to the lot of the early settlers 
of that day. Eleven years ago he purchased 
200 acres in section 35 of the same township, 
where he has erected a beautiful country 
home, with barn and outbuildings suitable for 
successful farming. He carries on general 
fanning and is the owner of 520 acres of 
valuable land. In his own words, "Uncle Sam 
wagered me 160 acres of land against sixteen 
dollars that I could not live here five years." 
Thirty-five years have passed since he entered 
upon that task, and his success is evidenced by 
the present prosperous condition. 

Mr. Thomas chose for his wife Miss Ada 
May Lockhard, a native of Colorado, and of 
this tmion were bom five children: Roy is 
still at home, assisting in the operation of the 
farm; .A^nna is the wife of Lewis Kanigge, of 
Edgar, Nebraska; Dora is the wife of Robert 
AlcCarty, of this township; Inez and Alfred 
are still at home. The loved wife and mother 
passed away ten years ago, and her death was 
mourned not only by her own family but 
also by a host of friends in the community. 
She was a member of the Baptist church. 

Air. Thomas is truly a self-made man, 
having accumulated a competence through his 
own eft'orts, and he is still active in the con- 
duct of his farming enterprise. 

WILLIAM COUHIG. — The subject of 
this memoir was one of the very early settlers 
of Dale valley and until his death was active 
in developing a farm and assisting in bring- 
ing about present-day improvements. 

William Couhig was a native of Ireland 
and was a young man when he came to the 
United States and found employment as a 
coal-miner. In 1869, at Fort Dodge, Iowa, he 
was united in marriage to Miss Bridget 



618 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



Downey, a native of Ireland and a sister of 
John J. Downey, who has furnished for this 
volume a record of the Downey family. 

In the spring of 1880, in company with the 
Downey and AlcCarty families, William Cou- 
hig came to Custer county, and he secured as 
a homestead the northwest quarter of section 
23, township 18, range 22. Not a furrow had 
been turned and not an improvement of any 
kind had been made, but with characteristic 
energy he set about to make it a home for the 
family. His first dwelling was a primitive sod 
house, in which the family lived till a frame 
house was erected, several years later. In this 
old sod house was held, by Father Phelan, of 
Grand Island, the first mass celebrated in Dale 
valley. 

The first well bored in Dale valley was put 
down on this farm, by C. R. Krantz, in the 
spring of 1880, with a six-inch auger, and it 
was fifty-seven feet deep. The nearest mar- 
ket place was Kearney, and Mr. Couhig made 
the trip several times, the journey requiring 
seven or eight days. In all the pioneer ex- 
periences and hardships he bore his full 
share, and he resided on the old homestead 
until his death, in 1897, when he was fifty- 
seven years of age. His wife had preceded 
him to the home beyond, passing away in 
1894. at the age of fifty years. They were 
faithful communicants of the Catholic church 
and in politics he was a Democrat. They 
were the parents of one child, now the wife 
of John AlcCauley. Mr. and Mrs. McCauley 
have a daughter Mary, still at home. They 
own and operate the old homestead which is 
devoted to general farming. It is one of the 
finely improved properties of the township, 
all of the present buildings having been put 
here by the present owners. It is one of the 
first-settled places in the valley and for manv 
years was the scene of the activities of one of 
the sterling pioneer families well deserving 
of a place in the history of the county. 



GEORGE M. SHULTZ. — As steward of 
the Custer County Farm, George M. Shultz 
has won an enviable reputation, and the offi- 
cials of the county are to be congratulated in 
that they have been able to secure such people 
as Mr. Shultz and his estimable wife to look 
after the needs of the county's unfortunate 
poor. 

George M. Shultz was born in Rock Island 
county, Illinois, March 31, 1870. His parents. 
Eli and Mary (Rex) Shultz, were natives re- 
spectively of Ohio and Pennsylvania, and in 
the fall of 1870 they became homesteaders in 
Fillmore county, Nebraska. Later they estab- 



lished their residence in Kearney county, and 
the father is now living retired at Steele City, 
Nebraska, the mother having been called to 
her final rest four years ago. 

George M. Shultz was reared on a farm in 
Fillmore county, and when he reached his 
majority he engaged in agricultural pursuits 
on his own account. While fanning in Fron- 
tier county, Nebraska, he encountered the 
hardships and experiences incident to the 
years of drouth, and the next five years he 
spent in Wisconsin. In 1905 he came to Cus- 
ter county, where he followed agricultural 
pursuits until February, 1914, when he ac- 
cepted the superintendency of Custer County 
Farm, where he and his wife, without any 
previous experience, have established an en- 
viable reputation in managing the 160-acre 
farm for the county's dependents. While the 
task is often unpleasant, yet the humanitarian 
spirit that prompts them to duty, enables them 
to render better service than if the monetary 
remuneration was all that was considered. 

Mr. Shultz was married, in Fillmore county. 
Nebraska, to Miss Anna Wright, a native of 
Illinois, and they have four children: Lloyd, 
at the time of this writing, was in a training 
camp, preparing for duty overseas in the 
national army ; Mildred is the wife of W. C. 
Robertson, a fanner on the West Table in 
Custer county: Cecil was in the last draft and 
was subject to call for ser\ice in the great 
world war: and Kenneth is still under the 
parental roof. 

Mr. and Mrs. Shultz are members of the 
Christian church, but as there is no place of 
worship of that denomination in the neighbor- 
hood, they attend and contribute to the sup- 
port of the United Brethren church at Menia. 

Mr. Shultz is of German descent but is 
American through and through — as intrinsi- 
cally loyal and patriotic as was his father, 
who ser\-ed four years and three months as a 
Union soldier in the Civil war. 

Mr. Shultz has every reason to be proud of 
the showing he has made in the management 
of the county fann, and those in position to 
know are loud in their praises of the ability 
manifested and the service rendered by Mr. 
and Mrs. Shultz in the period they have had 
charge of the county fann — almost five years. 



PHILIP H. LEININGER, who for the 
past twenty years has been engaged in the 
live-stock business at Sargent. Nebraska, is 
one of the pioneer settlers of Custer countv 
and has been continuously identified with 
Custer interests since 1887. He is of staunch 
old Ohio stock, both parents being natives of 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



619 



the Buckeye state, and he was born in Mercer 
county, Ohio, October 25, 1856. His father, 
John Leininger, was bom in Stark county, 
and his mother, Salome (Fennig) Leininger, 
was born in Holmes county, that state. 

John Leininger engaged in farming in Mer- 
cer county, Ohio, until 1885, and became a 
man of considerable prominence in his com- 
munity. For many years he served as town- 
ship treasurer. He led in the political coun- 
cils of the Democratic party party and was 
always considered a man of superior business 
judgment. In 1885 he came to Valley county, 
Nebraska, following the death of his first wife, 
in 1884, and for five years he lived at Arcadia, 
Nebraska. He then moved to The Dalles, in 
Wasco county, Oregon, and there his death 
occurred in 1905. He was thrice married and 
was the father of thirteen children. Those 
born to his first marriage were : Samuel, now 
deceased, was a farmer in Mercer county, 
Ohio. He married Leah Meyers. Philip H. 
was the second son. John died at the age of 
two years. William, who is a farmer near 
Arcadia, Nebraska, married Ella Jones ; Mary 
is the wife of James Sterling and they live in 
Idaho. George died in Indiana, at the age of 
twenty-two years. Jacob, who died at Town- 
send, Montana, married Alice Roberts, and she 
lives near The Dalles, Oregon. Permelia is 
the wife of Perry Morgan, a farmer near 
Portland, Oregon. Salome is the wife of 
Eugene j\Iace, a farmer near Bickleton, Wash- 
ington. The second marriage of John Lein- 
inger, was to Mary Bird and they had three 
children, two of whom are living — -Lawrence 
and Martha, who live near The Dalles, Ore- 
gon. The third marriage was to a Mrs. 
Roberts and they had one son, Harley, who 
lives in Oregon. 

Philip H. Leininger was reared on his 
father's farm in Mercer county, Ohio, and at- 
tended the district schools. It was not imti! 
1884 that he came to Nebraska, and in the 
same year he homesteaded in Valley county, 
securing eighty acres near Arcadia, which land 
he subsequently developed into a valuable 
property. Mr. Leininger, however, has de- 
voted special attention to the live-stock in- 
dustry and in continuing and vigorously push- 
ing forward this business at the present time 
he is performing a patriotic service to his 
country. 

Mr. Leininger was married December 24, 
1889. to Hattie Austin, who died January 24, 
1891. They had one son, Clyde, who died at 
the age of seven months. The second mar- 
riage of Mr. Leininger took place February 
10, 1897, when Mrs. Delia Carter became his 
wife, she having had one son by her first 



marriage, William Carter. He was born Feb- 
ruary 4, 1891, and at the time of this writing 
is in the national army, in training at Camp 
Dodge, Iowa, where he is attached to a di- 
vision of heavy artillery. Mr. and Mrs. Lein- 
inger have four children. Earl and Pearl, 
twins, were born October 22, 1897, the former 
being a druggist at Sargent, and the latter 
being employed in a Sargent dry goods store. 
Fern, who was born August 2, 1899, is a stu- 
dent in the Nebraska Normal School at Kear- 
ney, and Hattie was born January 27, 1906. 

In politics Mr. Leininger is a Democrat and 
has always been more or less active in party 
affairs. For two years he was a member of 
the city council of Sargent and in every way 
is a man of reliability. He belongs to the 
order of Royal Highlanders. 



HAROLD I. PERRIN, who is a prosperous 
business man and thoroughly respected citizen 
of Sargent, Nebraska, may lay claim to pio- 
neer ancestry, as his father came among the 
earliest settlers to Custer county. ]\Ir. Pcr- 
rin was born at Sargent, this county, October 
3, 1886, and has spent practically his entire 
life here. His parents are Similien L. and 
Sophia (Tobias) Perrin. 

Similien L. Perrin was born in Louisiana. 
Forty-one years ago he came from Iowa to 
Custer county, Nebraska, and settled near the 
present site of the busy little city of Sargent. 
He actually broke the land on which Sargent 
now stands. He simultaneously secured a tree 
claim near Sargent and he continued to live 
on his land until 1899, when he moved into 
the town. For several years thereafter he was 
interested in the Beatrice Creamery Companv. 
An ardent Republican, he was frequently 
mentioned for political preferment, and finally 
he was appointed postmaster at Sargent. In 
this position he served seven years and then 
retired. Both he and wife are members of 
the Methodist Episcopal church. Mrs. Perrin 
is a native of Illinois. Of their four children 
three survive, namely: Harold I.; Louis E., 
who is manager at Arnold, Nebraska, for the 
Dierks Lumber Company, married Lorene 
Rassmussen ; and Watt W., who is a farmer 
near Sargent, married Gladys Ruse. 

Harold I. Perrin was educated in the Sar- 
gent schools and at Bradley Polytechnic, 
Peoria, Illinois, spending thirteen months in 
that institution, after which he went to Chey- 
enne. Wyoming, and passed a year there. In 
the fall of 1907 he engaged in the jewelr}' 
business at Sargent, and he has built up a 
large business in this line — probably the 
largest in Custer county. He carries a care- 



620 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



fully selected stock of all goods pertaining to 
this trade and is so favorably known in large 
centers that he can expeditiously fill any order 
for special goods or designs for suitable gifts 
for any occasion. Notwithstanding some busi- 
ness depression occasioned by the world war, 
he has continued to do a normal business. 

Mr. Perrin was married January 5, 1910, to 
Miss Allona Wood. Her mother, Mrs. Mi- 
nerva Wood, survives and lives at Sargent. 
Mr. and Mrs. Perrin have two children — 
Virginia L., who was bom May 28, 1916; and 
Robert H., who was born August 19, 1917. 

In political opinion, IVIr. Perrin is a Repub- 
lican, a thorough believer in the basic prin- 
ciples of this party. For some years he has 
been a Mason and is identified with the blue 
lodge at Sargent. He and his wife are mem- 
bers of the Methodist Episcopal church. 



FRANK L. HICKS, who is a substantial 
retired business man of Sargent, came to Ne- 
braska in early manhood and for over forty 
years was identified with the drug trade. 
Before his retirement he was the leading drug- 
gist in this section of the country'. The old 
settlers' organizations include him in their 
membership and few men are more widely 
known in Custer and Cedar counties, while 
none is more highly esteemed. Mr. Hicks has 
always done his part in the upbuilding of 
pennanent enterprises of general value, and 
has willingly co-oj>erated with other trust- 
worthy men in furthering movements for the 
benefit of state and county. He was born 
September 27, 1850, in Jones county, Iowa, 
and is the eldest of the ten children bom to 
Frank M. and Frances A. (Little) Hicks, both 
of whom were bom in New York. 

In 1848 Frank M. Hicks removed with his 
family to Iowa, and that state continued to 
be the family home until his death. In the 
meanwhile he had served in the Civil war, as a 
member of Company H, Thirty-first Iowa 
Volunteer Infantry, and was honorably dis- 
charged June 11, 1865. In the first year of 
the war, on June 7, 1861, he was appointed a 
captain in the Iowa State militia. For a num- 
ber of years he was largely interested in the 
Monticello (Iowa) National Bank. In politics 
a Republican, he served in public capacities 
and for several years was sheriff of Jones 
county. Both he and wife were members of 
the Congregational church. Their children 
were as follows: Frank L. is the subject of 
this review; Ophelia is the wife of Fred 
Penneman and they live in Louisiana ; Harrv 
T. is a farmer in Alamosa county, Colorado ; 
Eben G., who is a retired farmer of Monti- 



cello, Iowa, married Ella Jewett ; Elmer E. is 
a retired merchant of Monticello; Grant is a 
physician at Tacoma, Washington ; Ernest, 
who is a lawyer and is practicing his profes- 
sion in Chicago, Illinois, married Cora Far- 
well ; Laura, who is the widow of Fred Koop, 
resides at Monticello, Iowa; Archibald G. is 
a dentist and is practicing in Tacoma, Wash- 
ington ; and Charles was accidentally killed 
when a boy. 

Frank L. Hicks attended the public schools 
of ^lonticello and, as the eldest son of the 
family, assisted his father in his various en- 
terprises. In the meanwhile he studied phar- 
macy and, after some experience, he engaged 
in business as a druggist, in 1872. With the 
exception of two years spent on farms in 
eastern Iowa, he continued in the same line 
without change until 1914, when he retired. 
Twenty years of this time were passed at 
Coleridge, in Cedar county, Nebraska, and 
the remaining years at Sargent. Custer county. 
Honorable and upright in all his business re- 
lations, and careful and conscientious in his 
particular line, Mr. Hicks built up a reputa- 
tion creditable in the extreme. 

Mr. Hicks was married June 6, 1876, in 
New York, to Miss Vina E. Weller, and four 
children were bom to them, two of whom sur- 
vive : Roy W., who is a druggist at Sargent. 
married Lulu Livermore ; and F. Ray, who is 
the government mail carrier between Ansley 
and Sargent, married Mate Livemiore and 
they live near Sargent. Mr. Hicks and his 
sons are Republicans and take part in impor- 
tant campaigns. Mr. Hicks is past master of 
the Masonic lodge at Sargent and at the 
present time is secretary' of the lodge. He 
has had business and personal relations with 
many of the men who have become distin- 
guished in Nebraska histor\- and his remi- 
niscences are exceedingly interesting. 



IVAN L. LEECH, who is one of the enter- 
prising young agriculturists of Custer county, 
operating a fine farm near Ansley. in section 
32, township 35, is universally respected in 
his community, as are all other members of 
his family. He comes of county pioneer stock, 
his parents having settled in old Custer over 
thirty years ago. He was born near Wester- 
ville, this county, Nebraska, April 6, 1892. 
and is the youngest child of Corydon T. and 
.\nna D. (Risley) Leech. 

The father of Mr. Leech has long been a 
leading man in Custer county, a substantial 
farmer and stock-raiser, and many times a 
public official. He was born in Mercer county, 
Illinois, and from tliere came to Nebraska in 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



621 



1874, shortly after his marriage to Anna D. 
Risley, who was born at Aledo, Illinois. Thev 
still reside in Custer county and have the fol ■ 
lowing children : Cora, Floy, Nellie, Nina, 
Don R., Ralph R., Elsie, and Ivan L. 

Ivan L. Leech completed the common-school 
course in Custer county and then spent two 
years of study in the Nebraska Wesleyan 
University at Lincoln, following which he 
was for one year with the Davey Tree Expert 
Company, at Kent, Ohio. In addition to his 
general agricultural activities, Mr. Leech con- 
tinues to some extent his special line of scien- 
tific study, being greatly interested in and na- 
turally well qualified for this work. 

At Wayne, Nebraska, August 23, 1916, Mr. 
Leech was united in marriage to Miss Gladys 
Gaston, who is a daughter of Rev. William L. 
and Eleanor (Taliaferro) Gaston. Mrs. 
Leech has one sister and one brother: Elea- 
nor, who is the wife of Joseph Kern, assist- 
ant cashier in a bank at Vallejo, California, 
and Orv'in B., who lives with his parents. The 
father of Mrs. Leech is pastor of the Baptist 
church at Broken Bow, Nebraska. Mr. and 
Mrs. Leech have one child, a son, Wayne 
Hillard, who was bom in Custer county, 
October 28, 1917. Mr. and Mrs. Leech at- 
tend the Methodist Episcopal church at West- 
erville. In politics Mr. Leech, like his hon- 
ored father, is a Republican. He has never 
accepted political recognition of any kind, but 
is ever ready to co-operate with his fellow 
citizens when matters of moment to county, 
state, or nation are under consideration. 



CORYDON T. LEECH. — One of the 
representative men of Custer county who has 
honorably and usefully filled numerous public 
offices in his township and community during 
the thirty-two years he has been here, is 
Corydon T. Leech, who still resides on the 
homestead he acquired in 1886. A pioneer in 
the county, he, like others in the early times, 
encountered adventures, accidents, depriva- 
tions, and hardships. In looking backward to 
those days, Mr. Leech feels that not all the 
heroes the country has known have fallen in 
battle, for the title of hero ought to be given 
to the early Nebraska settlers who with quiet 
courage lived through grasshopper scourges 
and water famines that meant blasted hopes of 
crops and that threatened starvation for wife 
and children on the devastated prairies. It 
is but simple justice to strive to preserve the 
names and histories of these "pathfinders" in 
the annals of the state and county for which 
they have done a great work. 

Corydon T. Leech was born March 30, 



1848, in Mercer county, Illinois, to which sec- 
tion his father, John H. Leech, had gone, as a 
pioneer farmer and cabinetmaker, from his 
birthplace, in what is now West Virginia. 
John H. Leech married Eleanor Robinson, 
who was born in Maryland, and they had 
eight children, four of whom are living — 
Adolphus M., Leonidas M., Corydon T., and 
Virginia Caroline. The parents were people 
of real worth and from the naming of their 
children it might be justly inferred they were 
intellectual and well read. To this fact, per- 
haps, may be attributed the academic educa- 
tion afforded Corydon T. Leech, who sup- 
plemented his common-school training with a 
course in Aledo (Illinois) Academy. After 
his marriage, in 1874, Mr. Leech came to Ne- 
braska and located in Nemaha county, where 
he lived for eight difficult years, coming then 
to Custer county. He brought enough capital 
to enable him to buy a homestead right and 
he acquired also a tree claim. He gradually 
brought his land under cultivation and greatly 
improved it, and for many years he continued 
to farm and raise stock. He finally sold the 
old homestead and bought his present farm. 
With the exception of about four years passed 
in California, Mr. Leech has lived continu- 
ously in Custer county. 

Mr. Leech was married at Aledo, Illinois, 
September 3, 1874, to Miss Anna D. Risley. a 
daughter of Thomas T. and Jane (Hollowell) 
Risley, and they have eight children — Cora, 
Floy, Nellie, xMina, Don R., Ralph R., Elsie, 
and Ivan L. 

A Republican in politics, Mr. Leech has 
always been a loyal party man, but in local 
matters he has never permitted political bias 
to sway him in the administration of the 
various public offices he has held. For many 
years he has been a school director and town- 
ship trustee, and he has served in other 
capacities also. He is a strong advocate of 
good roads and remembers how all the opera- 
tions of the settlers in early days were ham- 
pered by lack of the same, when commodities 
of every kind had to be transported from 
Grand Island and Kearney. Mr. Leech and 
his family belong to the Methodist Episcopal 
church, of which he is a trustee. 



JAMES E. WERBER. — Among the many 
pleasant and progressive towns that have been 
developed in Custer county, Sargent is one 
that has taken the lead in many ways — part- 
ly, perhaps, because of the solid character of 
its foremost business men, among whom may 
be mentioned James E. Werber. Mr. Werber 
has spent many years in Custer county, is 



622 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 




3 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



623 



widely known, and perhaps no citizen is con- 
sidered more trustworthy. He was born De- 
cember 11, 1869, at East Peoria, Illinois, a son 
of John C. and Mary E. (Hoctor) Werber. 

John C. Werber was bom in the city of 
Hamburg, Germany. When eighteen years 
of age he came to the United States and set- 
tled first in Bureau county, Illinois. He 
thence removed to Iowa, where he worked at 
the trade of baker. Later he returned to 
Illinois, and there he was employed in the 
railroad shops at Bureau Junction until 1883. 
In the meanwhile he had married Mary E. 
Hoctor, who was born in Ireland and who 
died in Illinois, in 1880. They had five child- 
ren — Nellie is the wife of William Cramer, 
a farmer near Edwards, Illinois ; John S., 
who is a farmer near Burwell, Nebraska, mar- 
ried Sophia Guggenmos ; James E. is the sub- 
ject of this sketch; Rudolph G., who lives at 
Allis, Colorado, married Lillian Nightengale ; 
and Mary D. is the wife of John Cramer, a 
fanner near Hanna City, Illinois. After the 
death of his first wife, John C. Werber mar- 
ried Maggie Hendrickson, and two children 
were born of that marriage — -Harry, who 
lives in Ohio, married Rena Brannon ; and 
Carl is a soldier in France at the time of this 
writing. John C. Werber died in 1897. In 
1883 he had come to Custer county and se- 
cured a homestead north of Sargent. 

James E. Werber attended the district 
schools and assisted his father on the pioneer 
farm after coming to Custer county. There 
were few of the settlers of that date who es- 
caped hardship and privation for a time, not 
because of their lack of foresight and good 
judgment, but because of unpreventable na- 
tural causes, and, with the others, the Wer- 
bers saw some hard times. Courage, industry, 
and never-failing hope finally had their re- 
ward and a fine farm was developed — one 
that has been listed with the most productive 
in this section. James E. Werber continued 
his farm industries until 1902, when he came 
to Sargent and engaged in the grain business, 
handling a commodity that he had success fullv 
grown for many years. In 1914 he added deal- 
ing in live stock to his grain business and in 
both lines he has made a business record. 

Mr. Werber was married June 15, 1895, to 
Miss Nellie Laughlin, the adopted daughter of 
William and Harriet (Brown) Laughlin, and 
they have one son, Fern L., who was born 
January 3, 1896. He is an accomplished and 
reliable young man and at present holds a po- 
sition with the L'nited States Shipbuilding 
Company, at Pascagoula, Mississippi. 

In politics Mr. Werber is a Republican and 



works intelligently and conscientiously for his 
party, but no political bias influences him in 
his services to the public as a member of the 
Sargent town council, an office he has held 
for two years. He is prominent in several 
fraternities, being a thirty-second-degree Ma- 
son and a Shriner. He has passed all the 
chairs in the local lodge of Odd Fellows and 
belongs also to the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen. 



RICHARD E. BREGA, who is one of the 
representative citizens of Custer county, where 
he has lived since he was seventeen years of 
age, is one of the county's largest land-owners 
and heaviest taxpayers. He is prominent in 
business circles at Callaway, in the line of 
real estate and farm loans, and for many years 
has been one of the county's ablest lawyers. 
His many interests have given him a wide 
acquaintance, and his personal integrity has 
brought him esteem and general confidence. 

Richard E. Brega was born at Brampton, 
Dominion of Canada, October 1, 1861. His 
parents were Frank B. and Charlotte (Bird- 
sail) Brega, and his maternal grandfather was 
Richard Birdsall, who was a government sur- 
veyor and acquired large holdings of Canada 
land, which he purchased when the price was 
but fifty cents an acre. The same land now 
sells for $100 an acre. The father of Mr. 
Brega was born in West Virginia and the 
niother at Peterboro, Canada. Of their family 
of children, the following survive: Richard E.. 
whose name introduces this sketch ; William 
P., who is a foreman in the Cudahy packing 
plant at Kansas City ; Charlotte, who is the 
wife of Frantz S. Dolph, a ranchman and 
stockman of Louth, Kansas; and Fannie L.,' 
a popular and talented actress, who for ten 
years has appeared on the stage under the 
name of Hope Latham. 

In 1878 Frank B. Brega came with his 
family to Nebraska, and he located on judi- 
ciously selected land which lies twelve miles 
northwest of Callaway. This land, which has 
undergone thorough development and im- 
provement, has remained in the family for 
forty years and now belongs to Richard E. 
Brega. Through wise investments Mr. Brega 
has acquired hundreds of other acres and is 
counted one of the most extensive land-own- 
ers in Custer county. Plis early education 
was completed before coming to Nebraska, 
but his law studies were prosecuted here and 
in 1892 he was admitted to the Nebraska bar. 
His professional career has been one of great 



624 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTV, XEHRASKA 



success and one creditable in every way. He 
has secured a place as a representative mem- 
ber of the bar of this section of the state. 

Richard E. lirega was married December 
4, 1884. at Westerville, Nebraska, to Miss 
Milly Varney, who is a daughter of Edgar 
and Amelia (Tiffany) Varney. The \"arneys 
were among the very earliest settlers in Cus- 
ter county and Edgar Varney was one of the 
first merchants. Mr. and Mrs. Brega have 
four children — Emily M., Irene V., Valair, 
and Richard E., Jr. The eldest daughter, 
Emily M., is the wife of Ray B. Bennett, who 
is in the banking and life insurance business 
at Kearney, Nebraska, and who belongs to 
the Masons and Odd Fellows. Mr. and Mrs. 
Bennett have five children. Irene \'., the 
second daughter, is the wife of John Balliet 
and they have four children. Mr. Balliet is a 
banker at Appleton, Wisconsin, and is also 
in the insurance business. He is identified 
with both the Masonic fraternity and the Odd 
Fellows. \'alair, the third daughter, is the 
wife of Henry C. Johnston, who is a merchant 
in David City. Nebraska, and they have one 
child. Richard E., Jr.. the only son of the 
subject of this review, is an appointee of Con- 
gressman Hitchcock to the United States 
Naval Academy, at Annapolis, Maryland. 

In politics Mr. Brega is a Democrat and a 
very loyal party man, but he has never accepted 
|)olitical office for himself. He was reared in 
the faith of the Episcopal church and this 
church has often been the medium through 
which he has dispensed his charities. He is 
affiliated with the IndeiJendent Order of Odd 
Fellows and the Modern Woodman of 
America. 



CLARENCE METCALF, who since 1911 
has been the proprietor of a thriving and con- 
stantly growing implement business at Sar- 
gent, has been a resident of Custer county 
since 1883. Mr. Metcalf is one of those who, 
having their early training on the farm, de- 
serted the soil to enter commercial pursuits, 
and have found success and prosperity there- 
in. It is not alone in business circles, how- 
ever, that Mr. Metcalf has been prominent, 
for his services to his community in public 
offices have been of a decidedly efficient and 
helpful character. 

Mr. Metcalf was born in Wyoming county. 
New York, October 17, 1870, and is a brother 
of Plin L. Metcalf, a sketch of whose career 
will be found elsewhere in this work. As a 
lad he was taken liy his parents to Ohio, where 
the death of the father occurred. The 



mother, left with a family to support, came 
in 1883 to Custer county and located on a 
homestead, and in this community Clarence 
Metcalf supplemented, in the public schools, 
the education that he had commenced in Ohio. 
Mr. Metcalf remained on the homestead place 
until 1911, in which year, seeing an oppor- 
tunity, he removed to Sargent and established 
himself in the implement business, a venture 
that has since grown to large and important 
proportions under his capable management and 
untiring industrj'. He carries a full and up- 
to-date stock of all articles connected with an 
establishment of this kind, and courteous 
treatment, absolute fidelity to engagements, 
reasonable prices and expeditious service have 
combined to attract to his store a trade that 
extends over a wide stretch of the surround- 
ing countryside. His standing in business 
circles is an excellent one, and rests upon 
seven years of honorable and straightforward 
dealing. 

Mr. Metcalf is a progressive citizen, and as 
such has always taken a keen and active inter- 
est in public affairs. His fellow citizens long 
ago realized his fitness for office, and as a re- 
sult he has been called upon to act in a num- 
ber of official capacities. For nine years he 
has served as township clerk, for a like period 
was a member of the school board of district 
No. 70, and he has also sened three years on 
the Sargent school board. His service has al- 
ways been satisfactory and constructive and 
his official record is an excellent one. 

Mr. Metcalf was married August 19, 1914, 
to Miss Abbie Fenstermacher, daughter of C. 
A. and Margaret (Hill) Fenstermacher, and 
a member of a family which is reviewed else- 
where in this work, in the sketch of Dr. C. H. 
Fenstemiacher. Mr. and Mrs. Metcalf be- 
came the parents of one child: Verne H., 
who was born January 16, 1918, and who 
passed away November 29, 1918. Mr. Met- 
calf is a stalwart Republican in politics, and 
he and his wife are consistent members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church. 



J. M. KNOX. — The story of J. M. Knox 
reveals the fact that he has lived in many parts 
of the country', that in moving from one place 
to another he has found no better place than 
Custer county and that with all his migrations 
he managed to have all his children, with one 
exception, born in Custer county. Mr. Knox 
is a native of Iowa and is a son of James and 
.\nna ( Mason) Knox, both of whom were born 
in Ireland and both of whom lived to ripe old 
age, the father being eighty-three and the 
mother ninety-two years of age at the time of 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



625 



death. They were the parents of four chil- 
dren, J. M. being the eldest. The others are: 
Mrs. Emma Van Nortwick, whose husband is 
a retired farmer; Mrs. Anna Reed, of Aurora, 
whose husband, likewise is a retired farmer ; 
and William, who is engaged in general farm- 
ing near White Sulphur Springs, Montana. 

J. M. Knox was an infant when his parents 
came to Nebraska, and he lived for a time in 
Nebraska City, where he knew J. Sterling 
Morton. In fact, he helped to put up hay 
on the J. Sterling Morton place, and hence be- 
came well acquainted with the author of the 
Nebraska history contained in the first volume 
of this historical set. In 1870 he went to 
Thayer county, where he lived for twenty- 
seven years. From there he moved to Daw- 
son county, locating in the western part of the 
county and making it his home for six years. 
Then he went to Idaho, where he lived two 
years ; then, in 1902, to Custer county, Ne- 
braska, where he lived five years ; then to New 
Mexico, where he remained two years ; then 
back to Custer county, remaining six years ; 
then to Dawson county, where he still resides. 

Mr. Knox married Aliss Clara Marquiss, 
and to them have been born seven children : 
Ray is married and lives in New Mexico, 
where he is employed by an irrigation com- 
pany ; Paul lives on part of the old Black 
ranch in Custer county ; Wayne also has part 
of the Black ranch ; Mark lives in Round Val- 
ley, Custer county; Laura Richards lives at 
home ; Anna Marsh lives in_ Custer county ; 
Hazel is at home and is a school girl in the 
country schools, she being the only one of the 
children not born in Nebraska, as she was born 
in Idaho. Mr. and Mrs. Knox own city prop- 
erty, make their home in Sumner and are rated 
among the prominent and influential people 
of the place. They are members of the 
Methodist church. He afifiliates with the Re- 
publican party, and has filled, with great ac- 
ceptability, such local offices as school trustee 
and road overseer in the communities where 
he has lived. 



JOHN A. KENYON. — One of the repre- 
sentative business houses of Sargent which 
has been built up to appreciable proportions 
through the honorable conduct and honest in- 
dustry of its proprietor, is the furniture and 
undertaking establishment of John A. Ken- 
yon. A Custer county homesteader of 1885, 
Mr. Kenyon was for more than a quarter of 
a century identified with agricultural inter- 
ests, and the prosperity which attended his ef- 
forts as a tiller of the soil has been equalled 



by the success which he has gained in his 
present business since its founding, in 1912. 

Mr. Kenyon was bom near the present lo- 
cation of St. Paul, Minnesota, April 14, 1855. 
and is a son of Ralph A. and Emerette (Nut- 
ting) Kenyon, natives of Rutland, Vermont 
The father took his family to Illinois about 
1850, and in 1852 moved to Minnesota, where 
he homesteaded on 400 acres of land. Sub- 
sequently he traded his farm for a saw mill 
at Bradford, Iowa, that industry being in a 
flourishing condition at that time, but this 
proved an unfortunate move, as the saw mill 
was destroyed by fire and Mr. Kenyon lost his 
all. About this time the Civil war came on, 
and Mr. Kenyon enlisted, in April, 1861, in 
the Fourth Iowa Cavalry. During his service, 
under General Grant and other noted officers, 
he was never wounded, but at one time he was 
captured by the enemy. He came through the 
war safely and established a splendid record. 
Always a man of great industry and energy, 
and quick to take advantage of opportunities, 
while in the service he began making pies, 
cakes and other delicacies for the soldiers, and 
this venture proved so profitable that when he 
received his honorable discharge, in October, 
1865, and returned to his family at Bradford, 
Iowa, he had saved enough to buy the best 
house there and to establish himself as pro- 
prietor of a farm. Later he sold this prop- 
erty and came to Gage county, Nebraska, 
where he homesteaded a tract near Adams. 
He continued to opearte this until his retire- 
ment, when he disposed of his interests and 
moved to Red Cloud, Kansas, where his death 
occurred in 1905. Originally a Whig, Mr. 
Kenyon later affiliated himself with the Re- 
publican party. He was a Mason, and he and 
his wife were members of the Christian 
church. They were the parents of six chil- 
dren, of whom five are living: George, who 
is now retired, was identified with the Swift 
Packing Company at St. Joseph, Missouri, for 
twenty-five years ; John A. of this sketch, 
was next in order of birth ; Wallace B. is en- 
gaged in farming near Sargent ; Helen is the 
wife of Val Johnson, a farmer near Enid, 
Oklahoma; and Rest is the widow of Mr. 
Sides, formerly a retired farmer of Hastings, 
Nebraska. 

John A. Kenyon was given excellent edu- 
cational advantages in his youth, first attend- 
ing the public schools of Gage county and sub- 
sequently the normal school at Peru, this state. 
When he entered upon his independent career 
it was as a Gage county farmer, and that 
county was his home for approximately ten 
years. Within this time, on September 12, 



626 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY. NEBRASKA 



1875, he married Miss Isabel Fuller, and in 
1885 they came to Custer county and settled 
on the homestead, four miles from Sargent, 
on which they resided for twenty-seven years. 
In this period, through industry and good man- 
agement, Mr. Kenyon achieved marked suc- 
cess and a position among the leading agri- 
culturists of his locality. In 1912 he disposed 
of his landed interests there and came to Sar- 
gent, where he entered the furniture and un- 
dertaking business, and by honest, and earnest 
work he has built up an important business in 
both branches. His name is one honored in 
business circles as that of a man of the strict- 
est integrity and highest principles. 

Mr. Kenyon is prominent in Masonic af- 
fairs, having held several offices in Swastika 
Lodge, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, at 
Sargent, and he is affiliated also with the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a 
Democrat in his political views, and he and 
Mrs. Kenyon are members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. They are the parents of 
seven children : Maude is the wife of Frank 
Sutton, a farmer six miles west of Sargent ; 
Oscar is married and is a resident of Hast- 
ings, Nebraska : Edith is the wife of Walter 
Sutton, of Sargent, who enlisted in the United 
States Anny and is now a police guard in 
Missouri; Lulu is the wife of Charles Ford, 
a fanner near Sargent : Ralph, of San Fran- 
cisco, is married and is a member of the United 
States Navy; Miss Nellie remains with her 
parents ; and Hugh, who enlisted in the 
L'nited States Navy, is stationed at San Frar.- 
cisco, California, at the time of this writing. 



WILLIAM V. SPURGEON. — Mingled 
with the old settlers and extensive farmers of 
the south Loup country is a fine array of 
young men who are in the first flush of farm- 
ing activities. These are the men ui)on whom 
the future must depend ; they are the ones 
moving rapidly to the center of the stage and 
must soon take the place of the stalwart pro- 
ducers who to-day by their production are 
meeting the demands of the consuming class. 
William \'. Spurgeon belongs to this coterie. 

Mr. Spurgeon was born in Johnson county, 
Nebraska, and is a son of .Albert \'. Spurgeon. 
who is still active, and who is conducting a 
general fanning and stock-raising business in 
MofTet county, Colorado. In the father's fam- 
ily were three children : Mattie Van Wcv, 
whose husband is a plasterer, is living in Kear- 
ney, Nebraska ; William V., whom this story 
concerns, was the second born ; and Merle 
lives on a farm in Dawson county. 

William V. Spurgeon was married in 1912, 



at Burroak church, to Ruth McSherry a 
daughter of Mrs. McSherry Wodnitif. They 
have one child, Bruce, who was bom in Custer 
county. 

The first farming operations of the Spur- 
geons were in Johnson county. From there 
they went to Missouri, and then to Louisiana, 
where they resided three years, and where 
the subject of this review had some exper- 
ience in raising rice. From the south they 
moved to Kearney, Nebraska, and from Kear- 
ney to Custer county. At the present time 
Mr. Spurgeon is located on a ranch of 500 
acres, where every department of general 
farming receives attention. Hogs of a high 
grade, belonging to the Duroc variety, come in 
for special attention ; the cattle also are of a 
fine quality ; the horse power by which ranch 
work is carried on is provided by horses of 
a fine type. The grade of stock and the care- 
ful cultivation of the land insure prosperity, 
and in a few more years this young farmer 
will rank with the most substantial in the 
community. Mr. Spurgeon is independent in 
politics and both he and his wife belong to the 
Presbyterian church. 

Custer county is a splendid home for such 
young people ; it is the land of opportunity, 
and with their energy and fnigality they are 
bound to succeed. 



JOSEPH FORTIK. Jr.. the vigorous young 
farmer whom this sketch concerns, is fast 
building for himself a modest fortune, in for- 
tifying himself against that proverbial day in 
which much rain is supposed to fall. His his- 
tory is not hard to tell and is closely identified 
with Nebraska, which has been his home from 
the time of his birth. He was fonnerly en- 
gaged in fanning south of Ansley, Custer 
county, but now resides at Overton, Dawson 
county. 

Joseph's history is not hard to tell. He was 
born in Saline county, Nebraska, in 1881. and 
is a son of Joseph Fortik, whose family his- 
tory is outlined in other paragraphs of this 
volume. The majority of young Fortik's life 
has been spent in Custer county. Here he 
graduated from the youthful experiences of 
boyhood days, here he received his education, 
here he began farming operations for himself, 
and here, too, he was married, on the 15th day 
of October. 1917. at which time he lead to the 
marriage altar Mary Stenbach. from Overton. 
Dawson county. The parents of Mrs. Fortik 
became prominent pioneers of Dawson county, 
where they are well and widelv known, foseph 
Fortik is a careful and painstaking farmer, is 
a splendid judge of live stock and is an adept 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



627 



in caring for the same. He breeds good 
strains of all kinds of stock, believing that it is 
easier and cheaper to keep good stock than 
poor, and that greater profit can be expected 
from the better grades. He operated in Cus- 
ter county a farm of 160 acres upon which are 
good improvements and which shows a high 
state of cultivation. Though still young in 
years, Joseph has gained an enviable reputa- 
tion as a farmer, and recently he has trans- 
ferred his stage of operations to Dawson 
county. 

Socially, Mr. Fortik belongs to the Modem 
Woodmen and takes great interest in its pro- 
motion and benefit. He is an independent 
voter, claiming the right to vote always for the 
candidate whom he considers to be best for 
the office. Whether that candidate is Demo- 
crat or Republican matters little to him. The 
members of he family are communicants of the 
Catholic church. Mr. Fortik and his wife are 
likable people and well esteemed in their home 
communitv. 



JOSEPH WOLNICZEK. — Down in the 
vicinity of the Clif¥ Table is the thrifty, inde- 
pendent farmer whose name heads this para- 
graph. 

Joseph Wolniczek is thirty-two years of age 
and in the full vigor of his manhood. His 
father, Matt Wolniczek was a native of Ger- 
man-Poland and he died in the spring of 1918, 
at the age of seventy-five years. The mother, 
Julia CScholzj Wolniczek, was born in Mora- 
via and still living, at the age of sixty -five 
years. The parents were married thirty- 
four years ago. at Osceola. Nebraska. The 
father came to this country and home- 
steaded 160 acres and filed on a timber claim, 
in 18<S4. He commenced with nothing. When 
he landed at Columbus. Nebraska, his first 
stopping place, his exchequer contained just 
five cents : but frugality and thrift overcame 
all difificulties and settled all questions of the 
future, so far as finances were concerned. The 
primitive house of sod has been replaced with 
a better building, and Joseph Wolniczek, who 
has lived on the old homestead from the time 
of his birth, finds himself well located to-day, 
the possessor of 950 good acres, well stocked 
with good grades of cattle, hogs, and horses, 
while Mrs. Wolniczek has a flock of pure 
blooded Wyandotts that attracts the attention 
of all passers by. All the farm machinery 
and outbuildings, fences, etc.. make a splendid 
equipment for operation. Part of the barbed 
wire with which the place is fenced came from 
the famous old Olive ranch. 

In 1911, Joseph W. Wolniczek married Ida 



Kropatsch, who since that time has not only 
been the partner of his joys and sorrows, who 
also is to be credited with much of his suc- 
cess. They have three children, all of whom 
give promise of future usefulness : Albert is 
six, Carl five, Helen three years of age at the 
time of tliis writing. 

Mr. and Mrs. Wolniczek belong to the 
Catholic church and are prominent, useful 
citizens of the community. Mr. Wolniczek is 
school director, and politically he is an inde- 
pendent voter. He and his wife maintain a 
hospitable home and he confines his farming 
operations to 250 acres, the remainder of the 
ranch being rented. 



JAMES HALOUSKA. — The people from 
Bohemia when transplanted in America make 
useful citizens — prosperous, industrious 
farmers, or comj>etent, energetic business men. 
All the tributes paid to the blood belong to him 
of whom these paragraphs are written. 

James Halouska was bom in Bohemia, in 
1845. His parents, Egdi and Theresa ( Kra- 
tochvil) Halouska, were of Bohemian extrac- 
tion for long generations. Their family con- 
sisted of four children, three sons and one 
daughter, all of whom, with the exception of 
James, are in Bohemia. 

James Halouska came to the United States 
in 1878 and located first in Butler county, Ne- 
braska, where he farmed for three years, for 
himself. The next two years he spent in 
Omaha, working in a smelter; from there he 
removed to Valley county, where he remained 
five years, and finally he came to Custer 
county, in 1888, and leased a half -section of 
school land ; of this he farms 130 acres and 
uses the remainder for pasture land. He 
keeps good horses, breeds good hogs and com- 
bines stock-raising with agricultural pursuits 
in a very profitable manner. 

Mr. Halouska's wife, whose maiden name 
was Anna Mar\^ is a native of the same home- 
land and was born the same year as himself. 
They were married June 18, 1870, and since 
that time have toiled together, meeting jointly 
the hardships and reverses and rejoicing to- 
gether over victories and successes. Into their- 
home four children were bom, all of whom 
are now middle-aged and out in the world 
making a creditable showing for themselves. 
Fred, the firstborn, is forty-six years of age 
and lives on a farm near Finchville : John, 
forty-two and Frank forty-one years of age, 
are both Custer county farmers of a verj- suc- 
cessful type; Fannie lives in Colorado, where 
her husband operates a farm. In religious 
matters Mr. Halouska rates himself as a free- 



628 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



thinker and claims allegiance to no denomina- 
tion ; his political affiliations are with the 
Democratic party, but he is a man of keen 
discernment, one who thinks for himself and 
votes according to the dictates of his best 
judgment. 



DA\ID T. AD.WIS, the extent and variety 
of whose interests make him one of the lead- 
ing business men of Sargent, came to Custer 
county with his parents in 1885. After a 
period devoted to farming he entered commer- 
cial lines, and since that time his activities have 
invaded the fields of stock dealing, grain ele- 
vators and real estate, all with equal and grow- 
ing success, while he is likewise one of the 
county's large land-holders. 

Mr. Adams was bom at Indiana, the county 
seat of Indiana county, Pennsylvania, June 
17, 1870, and is a son of Joseph W. and Eliza- 
beth R. (Jones) Adams, the former a native 
of Maine and the latter of Wales. Joseph W. 
Adams was a farmer and a minister of the 
Church of God in Pennsylvania until 1883, 
when he moved to Clay county, Nebraska. 
where for two years he was engaged in farm ■ 
ing experiments. In 1885 he brought his 
family to Custer county, where he home- 
steaded, pre-empted and took a tree claim, all 
adjoining land, and here he remained as a 
farmer until his death, about 1890. He was 
a man of strict integrity and high principles, 
of unfiagging industry' and energy. He was a 
Republican in politics and fraternally was 
affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows. Mrs. Adams, who survives, is still 
in good health and very vigorous, in spite of 
her eighty-seven years. There were ten chil- 
dren in the family : Mary is deceased ; Ocia 
is the wife of James McGlumphy, who is iden- 
tified with blast mills at IMartins Ferry, Ohio ; 
Henrietta is the wife of Emerj- B. ^'Ioore, a 
farmer of Thomas county, Nebraska; Ida B. 
is the wife of Ernest U. McCoy, a farmer of 
Spring View, Nebraska; David F. is the im- 
mediate subject of this sketch; Samuel G., who 
married Ella R. Andrews, is a liver}' owner at 
Sargent; William is deceased; James B. and 
Sylvester are twins : the former married Nancy 
B. Pcttit and is a farmer at Creigh, Colorado, 
and the latter is deceased ; and Allen L., who 
married Rhetta Hommon, is a carpenter at 
Thedford. Nebraska. 

David T. Adams was educated in the pub- 
lic schools of Pennsylvania, and was fifteen 
years of age when he accompanied his parents 
to Custer county, where he was engaged in 
farming for his father until shortly after he 
had passed his majority. He was married 



December 13, 1891, at Somerford, Nebraska, 
to Ida E. Ferris, daughter of William and 
Emmeline E. (Huntley) Ferris, and to this 
union there were born three children : Ocia 
is the wife of Charles \'. Gatliff, a farmer and 
stock-raiser near Sargent ; John Q., who also 
is a farmer and stockman near Sargent, mar- 
ried Moselle Dudley ; and Wesley E., who was 
born January 17, 1899, resides with his par- 
ents. 

After his marriage Mr. Adams was inde 
pendently engaged in fanning in Custer county 
for sixteen years, and he then changed his 
center of activities to Sargent, where he en- 
tered the live-stock business, in partnership 
with Charles Parks, under the fimi name of 
Parks & Adams. Later he purchased Mr. 
Parks' interest, but subsequently sold the yards 
to P. H. Leininger. He re-entered the busi- 
ness when he bought what were known as the 
Fred Cram yards, which he still owns. He 
entered the grain-elevator business when he 
purchased from F. A. Gustafson what was 
known as the Coburn elevator, which he op- 
erated three years, then increasing the busi- 
ness by buying the J. H. Currie elevator, which 
he still retains. During this time he also op- 
erated heavily in real estate, and he con- 
tinues to be the medium through which some 
large transactions are conducted. In addi- 
tion to the foregoing interests, Mr. Adams is 
an extensive fami owner, having 130 acres 
within the city limits of Sargent, as well as a 
ranch of 1810 acres in the northern part of 
Custer county, this being fully stocked with a 
good grade of cattle and hogs. 

Mr. Adams' status as a business man is one 
generally recognized by his associates, who 
have come to depend upon his integrity no 
less than they have upon his judgment, astute- 
ness and splendid ability. As a citizen he ha.s 
always shown himself progressive, and his 
assistance has done much to promote and carr^' 
through to a successful conclusion measures 
which have resulted in a betterment of condi- 
tions in civic affairs. His political support 
is given to the Republican party. 



WILLIAM POWERS. — In this title line 
is given the name of a ver^- successful farmer 
and one who has helped to make present-day 
conditions in Custer county — a man who has 
reared a large family and is one of the de- 
pendable spirits in his local community. 

Mr. Powers was born in Kendall county, 
Illinois, in 1851, which date brings him now 
seven years across the sixty-year line. His 
father was Luke and his mother was Ellen 
(Canfield) Powers, both natives of Ireland. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



629 



The father was married twice and by these 
unions became the father of eleven children. 
The parents came to this country and ended 
their days in Illinois. Both were adherents 
of the Catholic church. 

In 1885 William Powers led to the marriage 
altar Miss Mary Foran, who was born in Illi- 
nois and who is a sister of James, Dominic, 
and Thomas Foran, all of whom are men- 
tioned elsewhere in this volume. 

The home established by Mr. and Mrs. Pow- 
ers became the domicile of a large family of 
children : Loreta Dooley lives in South 
Dakota : Minnie Hickey lives in Custer county ; 
Fannie Snyder also lives in the county and, like 
her sister, presides over a farm home ; Rose 
Condon lives in Anselmo, this county ; Flor- 
ence Lynch lives in the county, on a farm ; 
Kate, Lizzie, and Blanche are all successful 
school teachers ; Dorothy lives at home ; 
Evelyn is at home and is attending school; 
Martin, Arthur, and Leo are all at home and 
make themselves useful on the ranch. 

In the early days of 1884 Mr. Powers lo- 
cated his homestead and began his career in 
this county. Later he took a pre-emption 
claim, and these government filings, augmented 
by land purchased, make to-day a splendid 
ranch, of which 275 acres are good farm land. 
The place is well improved and carries on an 
average 100 head of good grade cattle, aside 
from a splendid contigent of horses and hogs. 
During the early days the family occupied a 
sod house and they began their farming op- 
erations in an exceedingly modest way. They 
conquered their difficulties, however, and have 
reached the place of competency and comfort. 

For the last thirty-one years Mr. Powers 
has been a member of the local school board 
and has been rated as one of the leaders in the 
local community. The religious connections 
of the family are with the Catholic church, 
and the political affiliations of Mr. Powers are 
with the Democratic party. Mr. and Mrs. 
Powers are splendid neighbors and both en- 
joy the confidence of a large circle of friends 
and acquaintances. 



DOMINIC FORAN. — Over in the west- 
ern portion of the county the name of Foran 
is widely known and belongs to a respected, 
industrious family in which there are several 
brothers — sons of a worthy sire who has 
reared his family in such a way as to make 
the name respected and influential in local 
circles. 

The subject of this sketch, Dominic Foran. 
was bom in the famous city of Joliet, Illinois, 
in the year 1863. At the age of twenty-two 



years he came to Custer county and located 
a homestead, upon which he began his western 
career and ran the gamut of pioneer life. 
Hard work and privations could not daunt his 
courage, and to-day he has domonstrated what 
energy and good management can do. The 
homestead of 160 acres has grown into a full 
section, of which 175 acres are in cultivation. 
This, combined with the pasture land, makes 
an ideal and a profitable stock farm. The 
improvements are of a fair order and meet 
the requirements of the ranch. 

Mr. Foran took unto himself a life partner 
when he led to the marriage altar Aliss 
Alinnie McGowan, who was born in Law- 
rence, Massachusetts, in 1869. Mrs. Foran 
is a lady of sterling qualities and deserves 
much of credit for the success her husband 
has achieved. 

Denominationally, the Forans are connected 
with the Catholic church, to which they pay 
devotion commendable to themselves and 
profitable to the church. Mr. Foran helped to 
build the church in which he is a faithful con- 
stituent and contributor. Politically, the 
Democratic party lays claim to his support, 
and provided that the personnel of the ticket is 
reputable and competent, it generally gets his 
vote. He has small ambition for office ; the 
township insisted upon electing him constable 
in the last election, but the office did not ap- 
peal to his aspirations and he failed to qualify. 

The Forans are preparing to take life easy: 
they rent out most of the land, from which 
they receive profitable returns. Their neigh- 
bors and friends concede their right to com- 
fortable retirement and give them the rating 
of good and respected neighbors. 



ALFRED AMOS. — The pioneer families 
of Custer county who played their parts in 
the vital drama that has turned this section of 
Nebraska into a paradise for the homeseeker, 
developing the wilderness into busy, thriving 
communities of the country, have reason to 
hold themselves responsible for much of 
present-day progressiveness. While many of 
those who experienced the actual hardships of 
the early days have passed away, there still 
remain many who, through sheer force of 
will and energy, brought out of primeval con- 
ditions what have become twentieth-century 
actualities. Among these is found .\lfred 
.\mos, who was a homesteader of the year 
1883, and who is now living in comfortable 
retirement at his home in Sargent. 

Mr. Amos was born in Carroll county, 
Ohio. October I. 1851. and is a son of John 
and Catherine (Thompson) Amos, the former 



630 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COL'XTY. XEBRASKA 



a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of 
Ohio. The parents were married in Ohio, 
where the father was engaged in farming for 
a number of years. Subsequently he spent 
six years on a farm in Fayette county, Iowa, 
and in 1883, he came to Custer county, where 
he took up as a homestead the southeast quar- 
ter of section 21, range 18, his son Alfred se- 
curing the northwest quarter of the same sec- 
tion. The father continued to be engaged in 
farming until his retirement, when he dis- 
posed of his farm to his son Alfred and moved 
to Wescott, where his death occurred about 
1906. Mrs. Amos survived him until May 2, 
1914. They were the parents of the follow- 
ing children: Alfred is the immediate sub- 
ject of this sketch; Kirk, who married 
Belle Meyers, is a retired farmer of Sargent ; 
Zachariah, who married Ara Love, is a re- 
tired farmer of Sargent ; Angeline, who is 
deceased, was the wife of John Slates, re- 
tired, of Wyoming ; the next daughter mar- 
ried Gene Westervelt, an editor of Scotts- 
bluft'; Emma is the wife of Alexander Mc- 
Cune, a farmer of Westerville ; Nora is the 
wife of Eli Armstrong, a retired farmer of 
Broken Bow ; and William, who married Eva 
Campbell, is living retired, at Sargent. 

Alfred Amos attended the public schools 
of Ohio, where he worked on the home farm 
with his father, as he did also in Iowa, and 
when the family came to Custer county, in 
1883, he homesteaded the northwest quarter 
of section 21, township 18, range 18. He 
farmed that property about twenty years, but 
when his father retired, he took over the elder 
man's property and sold his own farm to his 
brother William. For eleven years there- 
after he continued operations as a farmer and 
stock-raiser, and through making the most of 
his opportunities, working industriously^ man- 
aging his affairs carefully, and applying all 
his knowledge to his daily labor, he succeeded 
in accumulating the competence which i>enTiit- 
ted him to retire to his home at Sargent, where 
he is surrounded by the comforts and con- 
veniences that serve to compensate him for 
the numerous hardships which he experienced 
during his earlier years, while he was en- 
deavoring to get a start. He is still the owner 
of his property, which has fine buildings and 
modern improvements, and he also has in- 
vestments in other paying propositions, into 
which he has been led by his keen business 
judgment and foresight. Mr. Amos is a 
Democrat in politics and while not an office- 
seeker is interested in his community's aflfairs. 
He is accounted both a man of public spirit 
and of integrity, — one who has the welfare 
of his locality at heart and who respects the 



rights of his fellow men. With his family, 
he holds membership in the Christian church. 
Mr. Amos was united in marriage March 1, 
1883, to Miss Carrie Carnall, who was born 
in Iowa, a daughter of James and Caroline 
(Nichplson) Carnall, natives of England, the 
former born in Lincolnshire and the latter in 
Essex. To this union there have been born 
eight children : \\'ayne L., who is on the old 
homestead, married Esther Wooters ; James 
L., who is a Custer county farmer, first mar- 
ried Ida L. Bnmer, and he later married Alma 
Giser, who died March 30, 1911; Anna S. is 
the wife of Milton Copsey, a fanner near 
Westerville; Glenn A. is a farmer in Dry val- 
ley ; Bert, who married Hazel Thompson, is 
in the remount department of the United 
States Army, and is stationed at Camp Fun- 
ston. Kansas, at the time of this writing : 
Catherine keeps house for her brother Glenn 
A. ; Caroline, twin sister of Catherine, resides 
with her parents, as does also Edith M. All 
of the children were given good educational 
advantages, and Mr. and Mrs. Amos have 
proved themselves good friends to the schools, 
each having served in the capacity of director 
of the school board, the latter for about ten 
years. 



SAMPSON GIVEN was an early settlei 
of Custer county and to-day he is probably the 
youngest-looking sixty-one-year-old man one 
would meet in many a day's travel. 

A native of West \'irginia, where he was 
born March 17, 1857, j\lr. Given is a son of- 
Robert E. Given, a record of whom appears 
on other pages of this volume. Our subject 
was a young man of twenty-one years when 
the family home was established in Fillmore 
county, Nebraska. In 1883 he came to Cus- 
ter county and took a homestead of 160 acres, 
in section 28, township 18, range 21, becoming 
one of the early, settlers of the neighborhood. 
His first home was a sod house and the pio- 
neer experiences and hardships incident to the 
opening up of a new country he met with the 
courage and determination characteristic of 
the men who ventured into this new country. 
As the years passed, he met with success in 
his efforts, bringing his fields to a high state 
of cultivation — yielding bountiful harvests 
in return for the labor he bestowed upon them. 
The old "soddy." gave way to a modern frame 
structure, and to the original tract was added 
another quarter-section of land, to the opera- 
tion of which he devoted himself for many 
years. He then sold his farm, and after a 
residence of one year in Merna. he purchased 
his present farm of 320 acres — the south 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



631 



half of section 15, township 18, range 23. 
This is a well improved property and he is 
devoting his time to general farming and 
stock-raising. 

Mr. Given was united in marriage to IMiss 
Ottie I. Reed, who was born in Illinois, a 
daughter of S. H. Reed, an early settler of 
Custer county. The home of Mr. and i\Irs. 
Given has been made happy by the birth of 
six children : Edith married A. R. Horton 
and resides at Langtry, South Dakota ; May- 
plet is the wife of Roy Cramer, of Custer 
county ; Esther Beatrice married Ed. Fox and 
they reside in Custer county ; Robert Thurs- 
ton is, at the time of this writing, in the 
national army and doing police duty on the 
Mexican border; Georgia, Mansel W., and 
Jay S. are still at home. 

Mr. Given has been an eye-witness of the 
vast changes that have taken place in Custer 
county and in the work of development has 
contributed his full share. Having resided 
within its borders for thirty-five years, he has 
a wide circle of acquaintances and is held in 
the highest of esteem by all who know him. 



FRANK S. ACKERMAN is one of the 
early settlers of Custer county and has bee a 
identified with its agricultural interests for 
more than thirty years. 

Mr. Ackerman was born in Stark county, 
Ohio, August 29, 1862. His parents, Andrew 
and Mar\' Ann (Lauver) Ackerman, were 
natives of Ohio, the fomier having been born 
in Stark county and the latter in Harrison 
county ; they were farming people and both 
passed the closing years of their lives in Stark 
county, Ohio. Concerning the name Acker- 
man, Frank S. remembers a story told about 
his grandfather, Christopher Ackerman. 
When the grandfather was a boy in school 
his teacher asked him his name and he 
answered Ackerman, giving the A the broad 
sound. The teacher told him if that was the 
way to pronounce the name it should be 
si)elled with a "u", and the grandfather always 
spelled it that way. 

The subject of this biography was reared in 
his native county and was a young man of 
twenty-four years when he came to Custer 
county. He walked from Kearney to Broken 
Bow and after paying for a night's lodging 
and a breakfast at the old Marble Top (Hull) 
hotel, his capital was twenty-five cents. Dur- 
ing a conversation in the hotel he heard the 
names of Mr. Deal and Mr. Weimer men- 
tioned, the former a minister, the latter a 
farmer, both of whom he had known in Ohio. 
Upon making inquiry and learning where Dan 



Weimer lived, he made his way there, and for 
two years he worked for Mr. Weimer on the 
farm. He then took a pre-emption of 160 
acres in section 2, township 18, range 23, prov- 
ing up on same and conducting farming op- 
erations there for several years. His first" 
home was a sod house and the hardships and 
trials of Custer county's early settlers are 
quite familiar to him. He is now operating 
400 acres of the Philip Johnson farm, having 
sold his own land. 

Mr. Ackennan was united in marriage to 
Miss Anna Johnson, who was born in Tus- 
carawas county, Ohio, a daughter of the late 
Philip Johnson, whose record is given else- 
where in this history. 

Air. and Mrs. Ackerman have three chil- 
dren : Harry married .\ddie Dutton and they 
have three children — Francis, Marquiss, and 
Orcheretta ; May is the wife of Fred Hussey, 
and they have two children — • Lloyd, and 
Opal ; and Mary is the wife of Russell Rhodes, 
their daus'hter being named Inez Laurine. All 
of the children reside in Custer countv. 



GEORGE_ JACQUOT was born on the 
farm which is now his home, and the date of 
his nativity was October 30, 1884. He is a 
son of Nicholas Jacquot, one of the early 
homesteaders of Custer county, a sketch of 
whom appears elsewhere in this histor\'. 

George Jacquot was reared on the fann and 
attended the public schools. As soon as he 
was old enough, he assisted in the operation 
of the farm; and for several years before his 
father's death he had the management of the 
place, his father being interested in other 
business enterprises, which required his at- 
tention. George Jacquot to-day operates 400 
acres of the estate, and the improvements are 
extensive and among the best in the county, 
the equipment being well adapted for general 
farming as well as stock-raising. Mr. Jac- 
quot is energetic and progressive, and meet- 
ing with good success. 

Mr. Jacquot married Miss Mary Mohatt, a 
native of Harrison county, Iowa, and they 
have four children — Harold, Cecil, Geral- 
dine. and Hubert. Mr. and Mrs. Jacquot are 
members of the Catholic church and have a 
host of friends who value them for their 
genuine worth. 



JOHN F. BAKER. — The agricultural in- 
terests of Custer county have a worthy repre- 
sentative in the person of John Finley Baker, 
who owns and operates a valuable tract of 
land. 



632 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, XEURASKA 



John F. Baker was born in Appanoose 
county Iowa. December 19, 1870. His 
father James Richard Baker, was bom in 
Davis county, Iowa, and as a young man he 
engaged in railroad work and coal-mining. 
•He resided in Iowa until 1885, when he came 
to Custer county and homesteaded in town- 
ship 18, range 25. After proving up on this 
place, he removed to township 18, range 23, 
where he purchased land. On this tract he 
"made splendid improvements, and here he re- 
sided until his death, at the age of fifty-nine 
years. In Iowa he was united in marriage to 
Miss Frances Elizabeth Powell, a native of 
Kentucky, and she passed away on the old 
farm in Custer county, at the age of sixty- 
two years. James R. Baker was widely known 
in Custer and adjoining counties as a live- 
stock auctioneer. 

John F. Baker was one of a family of five 
children. His early boyhood days were spent 
in his native county, in Iowa, and he accom- 
panied his parents to Custer county when a 
lad of fifteen years. On reaching manhood 
he engaged in farming, and he is to-day the 
owner of 400 acres. Here he carries on gen- 
eral agriculture and stock-raising. His is a 
well improved farm and the present condition 
is the result of the indefatigable labor of its 
owner. 

Mr. Baker was united in marriage to Miss 
Callie Bell Winston, who was born in Mis- 
souri, a daughter of William and Fannie 
( Maupin) Winston, who are now residents of 
Custer county. 

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Baker has been 
made happy by the birth of three children : 
Lillian Florence, Etta May, and John Rich- 
ard. The parents are members of the United 
Brethren church and in politics Mr. Baker is 
a Democrat. The family are held in un- 
qualified esteem by all who know them. 



XATHAX T. GADD, who has been a 
leading members of the legal fraternity of 
Broken Bow for nearly thirty years, has not 
confined his activities to the practice of his 
profession, but is popular in fraternal circles 
and has been ])rominent in public life. He is 
a native of Blakesburg. Iowa, and was born 
December 7, 1856. being a son of Dr. Joseph 
and Susanna (Rush) Gadd. 

Joseph Gadd, the paternal grandfather of 
Nathan T. Gadd, was born in New Jersey, 
whence at an early date he moved to Ohio, 
settled on a new farm and continued to be 
engaged in agricultural pursuits until his 
death, which was caused by the fall of a tree. 
On the Ohio fami Dr. Joseph Gadd was born 



in 1822. and in his native community he met 
and married Susanna Rush, also born in the 
Buckeye state, a daughter of Ezekiel Rush, 
who was a pioneer to Ohio from Pennsyl- 
vania. Dr. Joseph Gadd attended the Eclectic 
Medical College at Cincinnati and completed 
his professional preparation at Rush IMedical 
College, Chicago. Sometime during the '40s 
he migrated to Iowa, where he practiced for 
a number of years at Blakesburg. became a 
leading member of the medical fraternity in 
his state, and assisted in the organization of 
Keokuk Medical College, with which he was 
coimectcd for some years. As a religious man, 
he belonged to the Methodist Episcopal 
church, and his fraternal connections were 
with the Masons and Odd Fellows, while his 
political inclinations made him a Republican. 
In his later years he moved to Davenport, 
Iowa, near which city his death occurred, 
in 1887. Mrs. Gadd, born in 1824, survived 
until 1899. They were the parents of eleven 
children, of whom four are living: Anna, the 
wife of A. J. Rastenbach. a shoe merchant 
of Davenport : Nathan T. ; J. P., principal of 
the Dipsomaniac Hospital at Knoxville. Iowa; 
and Kate, the wife of James Myers, a mine 
owner of Buffalo, Iowa. 

Nathan T. Gadd attended the public Schools 
of Iowa, and prosecuted his law studies in 
the offices and .'under the preceptorship of 
Francis Murphy, Judge Benson, and W. A. 
Foster, all of Davenport, in which city he 
was admitted to the bar in 1879. He at once 
began practice there, but in the following 
year he came to Nebraska and first established 
himself in practice at Beatrice, where he re- 
mained until 1889 — the year of his removal 
to Broken Bow. Since the year mentioned 
Mr. Gadd has continued in the general prac- 
tice o,' law, in which he has attained a full 
measure of success, being accounted one of 
the leaders of his profession in Custer county. 
Plis practice has been interrupted on several 
occasions wlien he has been called to fill pub- 
lic office, he having been city attorney of Bro- 
ken Bow for six years, and having been elec- 
ted prosecuting attorney in 1908 — an office 
in which he served two years. Various enter- 
prises for the civic and general welfare have 
attracted his attention and had the benefit of 
his valued talents : at the present time he is 
president of the Public Service Club (1918). 
Mr. Gadd was married in August. 1880. to 
I\Iiss Sarah Miller, who was born in Madison 
county, Iowa, daughter of Joseph and Mary 
Miller, the former a successful famier and 
blacksmith. Three children have been born 
to this union : Ray is a farmer near Dedham, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUX'TY, NEBRASKA 



633 




^=^^: f^C^^r— ^~e^ 



634 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Wisconsin ; Charles is with the One Hundred 
and Ninth Engineers, a volunteer in the 
United States service, and is stationed at Camp 
Cody, New Mexico, at the time of this writ- 
ing; and Eva is the wife of D. C. Wilson, 
chief electrical engineer of the Union Pacific 
Railway, at Omaha. Nebraska. Mr. Gadd and 
the members of his family belong to the 
Methodist Episcopal church. He is a member 
of the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent 
and Protective Order of Elks, and is chan- 
cellor commander of General Custer Lodge, 
No. 23, at Broken Bow. His political allegi- 
ance is given to the Republican party. 



FRANK CRAMER. — Fanning, combined 
with stock-raising, is a profitable industry in 
Custer county, if good business ability is 
shown in its management, and this has been 
conclusively shown by Frank Cramer, who 
has been exceptionally successful for the time 
he has been in this line of enterprise and who 
has extensive farm and stock interests in this 
section. Frank Cramer was born at New 
Helena, Custer county, Nebraska, in 1888, a 
son of Levier and Louisa (Hartman) Cra- 
mer. 

During the first thirteen years of his life, 
Frank Cramer lived at the parental home, and 
afterward he made himself useful to the farm- 
ers in the neighborhood until his school days 
were over and he was eighteen years of age. 
Then, with his brother Henr)^ he began farm- 
ing on three-quarters of a section of land be- 
longing to J. D. Ream, situated five and one- 
half miles northwest of Broken Bow. The 
brothers soon added stock to their other in- 
terests and during the three years they con- 
tinued in partnership they had wonderful suc- 
cess ; later they bought a half-section of land 
together. Both Mr. Cramer and his brother 
seem to have remarkable foresight as to pros- 
pects and land values, and they soon sold 
their half-section at a substantial advance over 
the price they paid. Frank Cramer then 
bought the A. J. Routh farm, of 320 acres, 
situated northeast of Broken Bow, and four 
3-ears afterward he sold it at a good profit. 
He then bought 440 acres adjoining the J- 
D. Ream property on the north, paving the 
sum of $20,000, in 1917, just before the sharp 
advance in real estate in Custer county. Mr. 
Cramer takes much pride in this beautiful 
property and has continued to improve it. the 
while he has added modern conveniences to 
the residence imtil it ranks with the most de- 
sirable in the county. 

Mr. Cramer was married December 25, 
1908, to Miss Mable C. Routh. who is a daugh- 



ter of Douglas I. and Jennie (McDonald) 
Routh, tthe latter of whom died when Mrs. 
Cramer was very young. Mr. and Mrs. Cra- 
mer have two children : Alarjorie G. and 
Cloyd. Mr. and Mrs. Cramer are members of 
the United Brethren church. Mr. Cramer is 
affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of 
America and in politics he is a Republican. 



BENJAMIN F. SOMMER, who is one of 
the enterprising farmers of the younger gen- 
eration in Custer county, is show-ing excellent 
judgment and discretion in the management 
of his land and the handling of live stock. Mr. 
Sommer was born near Merna. this county, 
Februar}^ 16, 1892. His parents are Andrew 
and Melissa (Keedy) Sommer. who live on 
the place they homesteaded near Merna. The 
father is a native of France and the mother 
was born in Illinois. They have five children : 
Perr}', Almore, Mrs. Eva Cole, Benjamin F., 
and Elizabeth. Andrew Sommer came to Cus- 
ter county early in its settlement. He in- 
vested wisely and he retained is land-holdings 
when some of his neighbors grew discouraged, 
with the result that now he owns numerous 
valuable farms. 

Benjamin F. Sommer remained with his 
parents until he reached manhood, assisting his 
father in the meanwhile and attending school. 
He has been well trained in agricultural in- 
dustry and at present is very successfully con- 
ducting one of his father's farms near Merna. 
yir. Sommer was married March 13, 1915. at 
Broken Bow. to Miss Nora Sharp, who is a 
daughter of Benjamin and Louisa (Zachary) 
Sharp. 



ERNEST N. EMBREE is a native son of 
Custer county, where he was boni January- 21, 
1892. in the township where he now makes 
his home. He is a son of Frederick C. Em- 
bree, whose record as a homesteader and suc- 
cessful farmer appears elsewhere in this vol- 
ume. 

Ernest N. Embree was reared on the home 
farm and after duly attending the district 
schools he completed his education in the 
Menia high school. His first business ven- 
ture was the purchase of a quarter-section of 
land on West Table, but after holding this less 
than one year he sold the property at a profit 
of S4.80d. He then purchased ' a tract of 
eighty acres, which, with land he rents from 
his father, is devoted to general farming. 
Though a young man. he has demonstrated his 
business ability and there is no doubt but that 
the future holds bright prospects for him. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



635 



Mr. Embree married Miss Fern Cantrell, 
who was born in Hamilton county, Nebraska, 
a daughter of Jesse Cantrell, now a resident 
of Custer county. Mr. and Mrs. Embree have 
one child, Bernard Charles. They are mem- 
bers of the United Brethren church and in 
politics Mr. Embree reserves the right to vote 
independently, casting his ballot for men and 
measures, regardless of party ties. 

The" opportunities for a young man were 
never better in Custer county than at the pres- 
ent time, and while we are giving credit to the 
early settlers who blazed the trail and endured 
the pioneer hardships, and whose persistent 
labors made possible our present-day con- 
ditions, we must not be unmindful of the part 
being played by the younger generation, who 
have the courage and foresight to attempt 
greater things than the older settlers of Cus- 
ter county ever dreamed of. Among the 
young men of the county who have proven 
themselves possessed of a large amount of 
good judgment and business acumen, none is 
more deserving than Ernest N. Embree. 



JERRY HICKEY, Jr. — Write the name 
of Jerry Hickey in prominent characters on 
the roll of successful young farmers who are 
making a reputation for Custer county. Jerry 
has made good, and he is entitled to all the 
emoluments incidental to the success he has 
achieved. 

Jern,- Hickey, Jr., is a native born Custerite 
and is now thirty-one years of age; here he 
has spent his entire life ; here he received his 
education in the common schools ; and here he 
learned the rudiments of practical farming 
and stock-raising. He is a son of Jerry and 
Lena (Michel) Hickey, very estimable peo- 
ple, who still reside in this county. There 
were seven children in the father's family, and 
all were taught the principles of thrift and in- 
dustry. The father, Jerrv Hickey, S'r., be- 
longs to the Catholic church. 

In 1908 was recorded the marriage of Jerry 
Hickey, Jr., to Mary Ellen Powers, a daugh- 
ter of William Powers, of whom a life sketcli 
is given on another page. In the comfortable 
home of Mr. and Mrs. Hickev are three bright 
and promising children. Cecil, aged nine 
years, and Leona, aged seven, are both pursu- 
ing the course of the country school ; while 
William, aged two years, is the sole dictator 
and manager of the home. 

Mr. Hickey owns 280 good acres of land, 
upon which are maintained good improve- 
ments that have been provided by Jerry him- 
self, and on which a fine grade of live stock 
is kept the year round. Mr. Hickey depends 



largely upon stock, and believes that there are 
few places where stock farming is more profit- 
able than in this county. Mr. and Mrs. Hickey 
have been on this farm for ten years and if 
they maintain the same rate of progress for 
the next ten years they will have secured a.n 
ample competency, upon the basis of which 
they can retire from hard work. Socially, they 
are prominent in the community. They are 
communicants of the Catholic church and Mr. 
Hickey is affiliated politically with the Demo- 
cratic contingent. They are rated as splendid 
people and obliging neighbors. 



JAMES V. MILLIGAN. — The subject of 
this record is one of the progressive citizens of 
Custer county and since the early days he has 
been an influential factor in the aiifairs of his 
adopted county. 

lames V. Milligan was bom at Port Huron, 
Michigan, January 13, 1862. His father, Will ■ 
iam Milligan was born in Ireland and was left 
an orphan when quite young. When sixteen 
or seventeen years of age William Milligan 
ran away and sailed for America. He located 
in Canada, and there later he married Eliza- 
beth Burton, a native of Canada. Upon com- 
ing over into the United States they located in 
Alichigan. In Macomb county, that state, 
William Milligan opened up a new farm, and 
there he and his wife spent the remainder of 
their days, he passing away at the age of 
seventy-six years, in 1893, and his wife hav- 
ing been called to eternal rest in the year 1890. 

James Milligan was one of eight children and 
was reared on a farm in his native state. He 
remained under the parental roof imtil he had 
attained the age of seventeen years, when he 
found employment at farm labor, working by 
the month. At the age of nineteen he came 
to Nebraska, and he and a partner purchased 
160 acres of land in Lancaster county. In the 
fall of 1883 he came to Custer county and took 
a homestead in section 30, township 18, range 
22, his first home being a dugout. He wit- 
nessed and shared in the hardships and priva- 
tions of those pioneer days, proved up on his 
homestead, purchased a tree claim and devoted 
himself to developing and improving the new 
farm. Some years ago he sought a change of 
location and moved to Kansas, where he re- 
mained five years, but it is sixteen years since 
he returned to the old place. 

Mr. Milligan has followed progressive meth- 
ods in his agricultural pursuits, has brought his 
land to a high state of cultivation, and the 
place is improved with one of the finest sets 
of buildings to be found in this part of the 
county. 



636 



HISTCJRV UF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



In 1886, in Custer county, was solemnized 
the marriage of James .Milligan to Miss Mar- 
garet McDermott. who was born in Canada, a 
daughter of the late Bernard McDermott, who 
was one of the pioneers of Custer county and 
a record of whom appears eleswhere in this 
history of Custer county. Mr. and Mrs. ^lilli- 
gan became the parents of three children — 
Blanche and Joseph, who are still under the 
parental roof, and Lyle, who died in infancy. 
The family are members of the Catholic 
church and are people who have the unquali- 
fied respect and esteem of all who know them. 



JOHN H. McDERMOTT. — The Irish- 
Americans always succeed. Whether on the 
public rostrum, where they seem possessed of 
golden speech ; behind the counter, where busi- 
ness acumen counts for capital : or on the farm 
or ranch, where energy and thrift are in de- 
mand, the Irish-American always succeeds. 
Mr. McDermott is an Irish-American ; his 
father and mother, estimable people, were na- 
tives respectively of Ireland, and Canada, but 
he himself first saw the light of day in Cal- 
houn county. Iowa, where he was bom on the 
22d of August, 1873. In the family of his 
father, Thomas McDermott. were four chil- 
dren, of whom John H. is the eldest : Frank is 
a street-car conductor in Omaha ; Catherine is 
deceased : and Benjamin J. is a locomotive en- 
gineer, living in Omaha. ' The father. Thomas 
]McDermott, came to Custer county in 1888. 
Here he homesteaded a quarter-section and 
made timber entry on another 160 acres. 

His wife, Mary A. McDermott. was born 
in Canada, as before stated, and their mar- 
riage was solemnized in 1872. in Pocahontas 
county, Iowa. From that time thev have 
maintained a creditable home, for which hard 
work has provided all comforts and necessities. 
The cutivated land on their Custer county 
farm consists of 115 acres, while the rest is iii 
pasture land and is really a ven- profitable 
portion of the ranch. John McDermott put on 
all the improvements and owns a full con- 
tingent of farm machinery. The live stock is 
of a good grade and constitutes a very profit- 
able department of the ranch operation! 

Locally Mr. McDermott is rated as one of 
the leading factors in his community, and is 
counted an obliging neighbor and dependable 
citizen. For twelve years he has been treas- 
urer of his school district and in all the war 
activities in Custer county after our nation be- 
came involved in the great world conflict he 
was one of the active promoters ; he has been 
a contributor to all war appeals and in every 
possible way has displayed a loyal and pa- 



triotic spirit. His political affiliations are with 
the Democratic party. He is a staunch sup- 
porter and respected member of the Catholic 
church. Meet Mr. McDermott, talk to him in 
his home, note the home premises, take counsel 
of his neighbors — and the truth of the decla- 
ration at the beginning of these paragraphs, 
"Irish-Americans always make good," be- 
comes apparent. 



DAVID McGUGIN. — In noting the rep- 
resentative men of Custer county who qualify 
as earliest settlers, there are few who came 
here with more determined purpose to secure 
a permanent home in a section which seem- 
ingly otl'ered rich opportunities. Undoubtedly 
a number of the early settlers came to the 
county in search of adventure, and later many, 
passed on to other fields, but after a man has 
served for three years in battling for his coun- 
try he scarcely looks for the excitements and 
adventures of life, even if he subsequently 
meets with many. In this way respectful at- 
tention is called to David McGugin, who now 
lives in comfortable retirement at Sargent, Ne- 
braska, a pioneer of 1879. 

David McGugin was bom August 31, 1839, 
in Washington county, Pennsylvania, one of 
a family of twelve children born to James and 
Matilda (Campbell) McGugin. Both parents 
were bom in Washington county. The 
father was a farmer and died on his farm in 
Pennsylvania, in 1865. He was a man of 
sterling worth, and both he and wife were 
members of the Presbyterian church, in whicli 
he was a trustee for many years. Five ff 
their children are living, namely : David, 
whose name introduces this sketch ; Lee. who 
is the wife of John Clark, a farmer near Cam- 
bridge, Ohio; William Milton and Margaret 
C, both of whom live at Burgettstown, Penn- 
sylvania ; and Angelina, who is living at Hick- 
ory, Pennsylvania, and is the wife of John 
Carlisle. 

In boyhood David McGugin had district- 
school advantages, mainly in the winter sea- 
sons, and during the summers he assisted on 
the home fann. He thus continued until the 
outbreak of the Civil war, when he enlisted in 
a Pennsylvania regiment. The long period of 
peace secured for the country by the soldiers 
of 1861-5 was not won without danger, strug- 
gle, and suffering, and during his service of 
three years and one month, Mr. McGugin 
bravely bore his part, besides which he carried 
a wound from one of the big battlefields. He 
was honorably discharged, returned to his 
home and, after full recovery, resumed his old 
vocation. It was in 1879 that he came to Ne- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



637 



braska, and in September of that year he ac- 
quired his homestead in Custer county. It 
was a lonely section in which it was located, 
there being but one house north of the river 
and Comstock at that time, so his neare-^t 
neighbor was far away, but he had not ex- 
pected the comforts of civilization, and imme- 
diately set about developing his land, in Lil- 
lian towpship, accepting the inevitable hard- 
ships that pertain to pioneering, with the for- 
titude of a sensible, hopeful, practical man. As 
years passed, his condition constantly improved, 
and the time came when his was numbered 
with the valuable farms of the county and his 
farming and stock-raising were prosperous 
industries. Mr. McGugin continued on his 
farm until 1912, when he retired from active 
labor and moved to a comfortable home m 
Sargent. 

Mr. McGugin was married November 27, 
1884, to Miss Jennie A. Robinson, a daughter 
of Henry and Jane (Barnard) Robinson, resi- 
dents of Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania. Mr. 
and Mrs. McGugin have no children, but they 
have a very wide circle of attached friends. 
They are faithful members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, Mr. McGugin being one of 
the first movers in the matter of establishing 
church and school in his neighborhood. He 
served a number of terms as school director of 
school district No. 13, Lillian township, and 
also as township treasurer. He is a Republi- 
can in politics but in local matters has always 
acted with some independence when affairs 
affecting the welfare of the whole community 
came under the consideration of the leading 
citizens. Mr. McGugin is known all over the 
county. 



JOHN C. MILLS, farmer, stock-raiser and 
public official, is a representative of one of the 
earliest pioneer families in Clear Creek val- 
ley, Custer county, and has lived here since 
he was ten years old. Mr. Mills was born in 
Crawford county, Wisconsin, December 24, 
1869. His parents were Fabius D. and Louisa 
(Copsey) Mills, his father being a native of 
Mercer county, Ohio, and his mother of Dane 
county, Wisconsin. 

Fabius D. Mills was an educated, able man, 
and while living in Crawford county, Wiscon- 
sin, he was engaged in the practice of law, be- 
sides which he also served as county superin- 
tendent of schools. After locating in Custer 
county he continued his law practice to some 
extent and also wrote insurance, while carry- 
ing on farming as his main business. He was 
foresighted also in business. He came to Cus- 
ter county in 1878 and bought his first farm 



for five dollars an acre, this property having 
been subsequently sold by him for $100 an 
acre. In 1879 he brought his family to the 
farm near Westerville, and he also took a 
tree claim about this time. While the Mills 
family found pioneer life a little easier, per- 
haps, than did many others, this was because of 
the resourcefulness of Mr. and Mrs. Mills and 
their ability to adapt themselves to existing 
conditions. However, they also had a share 
of deprivation and hardship. Like all the first 
settlers, their earliest home was a sod house, 
which under certain conditions was a comfort- 
able dwelling, but sometimes was not reliable 
as a shelter. Mr. Mills tells of one occasion 
when the evening meal was about to be eaten 
and all the family had assembled, when the 
sod roof gave way and fell on the table, but 
fortunately injured no one. It was difficult to 
provide a healthful variety of food at first, the 
only meat procurable being that bought from 
hunters who killed elk and deer, and an oc- 
casional catch of fish from Clear creek. De- 
termined to get a few pwtatoes planted, so that 
they would have an opportunity to mature, 
Mrs. Mills cut the heavy sod with a carving 
knife, for the first potato hills. To her energy 
and industry the family was indebted also for 
a plastered wall in their first house, although 
she had patiently to lay on the plaster with no 
better tool than a case knife, no emergency 
seeming to be too great for her to meet. Her 
many children all recognized how much was 
due her in the upbuilding of the home and 
the subsequent preservation of home ideals. 

To Fabius D. Mills and his wife the follow- 
ing children were born : John C. is the im- 
mediate subject of this review ; Douglas, who 
married Ollie Gardner, is a farmer near Lee 
Park; Ella is the wife of John Robbins, who 
is a stock-raiser in Sheridan county, Nebraska ; 
Blanche and Arthur both died in infancy ; 
Aris was drowned in Clear creek, when he 
was twelve years old ; Bessie is the wife of 
Dennis Leman, a stockman in Douglas county, 
Wyoming; Edna is the wife of Andrew Al- 
len, a farmer near Westerville ; Milton died in 
infancy; Mabel is the wife of Dr. Mc.>\rthur, 
a physician at Broken Bow, Nebraska ; 
Charles, who married Ollie Runner, is a 
farmer near Westerville, Nebraska ; Roscoe, 
who married Tina Baker, is a farmer near 
Westerville; Alice is the wife of M. E. God- 
dard, a fanner north of Westerville ; Frank 
is in the American army in France at 
the time of this writing; Bayard, who likewise 
is a soldier in the national army, is in France ; 
Sylvia is a school-teacher in Custer county; 
and Edward R. resides with his brother 
Charles. The parents of the above family 



638 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



were members of the Methodist Episcopa] 
church. In politics Mr. Mills was a Demo- 
crat. He and H. N. Hopkins were the men 
who located the trail from Westerville to 
Broken Bow, which was known as the Hog 
Back Trail. Mr. and Mrs. Fabius D. Mills 
are both deceased. 

In his lx)yhood John C. Mills attended 
school near the home farm and later he took 
a course in the Nebraska Weslyan college at 
Lincoln. Farming and stock-raising have 
mainly engaged his attention all of his life, 
thus far, but he has not permitted his personal 
affairs to make him unmindful of public du- 
ties, and occasionally he has accepted local of- 
fices. At the present he is sening usefully as 
a member of the Westerville town board. He 
gives his political support to the Democratic 
party. 

Mr. Mills was married April 2, 1905, to 
Lulu Slingsby, a daughter of William and 
Mary (Smith) Slingsby, and thev have five 
children : Walter, born Tanuarv 16, 1906 ; 
Ellis, born April 12, 1907"; Mabel, born May 
11, 1909; Grace, bom September 1, 1914, and 
Lloyd, born November 28, 1917. A twin 
brother of Ellis died at birth. The family be- 
longs to the Methodist Episcopal church at 
Westerville in which Mr. Mills has been class 
leader for twenty years. 



JAMES W. LUNDY, who has been prom- 
inently known in business circles of Sargent 
for a number of vears as a realty man, fur- 
niture dealer, and undertaker, and who prior 
to his advent in the city had carried on large 
oi>erations as a ranchman in Custer county, is 
now engaged in an enterprise which, when 
completed, will be of iminense commercial 
value to Sargent and the entire surrounding 
community as a public utility. This is a 
hvdro-electrical plant at Doris, which will pro- 
vide light and power in great quantity, and 
Mr. Luiidy is deserving of the appreciation of 
the whole comiriunity for his progressiveness 
in working out a plan for something that can- 
not fail to be an asset of incalculable benefit. 

James W. Lundv. or "Bill," as he is fa- 
miliarly known to his numerous friends, was 
born at .Atalissa, Iowa, October 30, 1872, a 
son of Ira J. and Maria G. (.\dv") Lundv, na- 
tives of the same place. The father, a farmer 
in Iowa, brought the family to Custer countv 
in 1882, on September 12th of which year he 
took up a homestead in Cumminc-s Park, sec- 
tion 9. township 20, range 19. There he con- 
tinued to be engaged in farming and stock- 
raisine until his death. He also operated a 
threshing outfit for many years, and, being a 



man of industry, business capacity and good 
judgment, he succeeded in the making of a 
comfortable home. He was a Republican in 
politics. There were four children in the 
family: James W. is the subject of this 
sketch; Benjamin W., who married Grace 
Barnes, is the operator of a dray line at Sar- 
gent ; Ada M. is a resident of Davenport, 
Iowa ; and Vinton A., a member of the United 
States Army, is stationed at Camp Pike, 
Arkansas, at the time of this writing. 

James W. Lundy received his early educa- 
tion in the public schools of Custer county and 
grew up on the home farm, but his first am- 
bition was to become an educator, and in 
order to prove himself capable, he passed the 
second teacher's examination. His career as 
a teacher lasted only six months, however, 
during which time he had .a school in district 
No. 189, and he then returned to farming, with 
which basic industry he continued to be 
actively identified until about 1906. That he 
still has large ranching interests is shown in 
the fact that he is the owner of 1,600 acres 
of splendid Custer county land. When he 
left the fami Mr. Lundy located at Sargent, 
where he entered the furniture and undertak- 
ing business, and later he became interested 
in the real-estate business, with H. A. Sher- 
man as partner. They have built up a large 
business and have figured prominently in 
many large deals. 

It has been only recently that Mr. Lundy has 
been engaged in the building of his hydro- 
electrical plant at Doris, which will furnish 
Sargent and the entire vicinity with light and 
power. The power now to be completed as 
the first unit will develop 225 horse-power, us- 
ing a Leiifel turbine wheel, and a ICiO-kilowatt 
generator. The old power plant was pur- 
chased by Mr. Lundy from R. G. Carr, in 
1912, Mr. Carr having been a pioneer in the 
flour-milling business here but using a seventy- 
horse-power drive and out-of-date wheels. 
The flume of the new plant has a twelve-foot 
head, one and one-half feet of concrete for a 
flooring, sixteen feet Wakefield piling, a steel 
re-enforced side way fourteen feet high, three 
feet at the base and twelve inches at the top. 
The pit of the turbine is seventeen by twenty- 
three feet, and ten feet deep, with two-foot 
side walls and back wall, while the floor of the 
pit rests on 35-25-foot piling of cedar. In 
this unit of the fx)wer house there have been 
used 36,000 feet of yellow-pine dimension 
lumber two inches thick; 110 25- foot cedar 
piling; 13,000 pounds of steel re-enforce- 
ment; 1,650 sacks of cement and 350 vards of 
gravel. The side gates contain 28.000 feet of 
Wakefield piling of yellow pine; fifty-six 25- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



639 



foot cedar piling; 550 sacks of cement; 150 
yards of gravel ; and 4,000 pounds of steel re- 
enforcement. Mr. Lundy has a patent to take 
care of sand that fills up the head and in or- 
dinary cases causes a great deal of trouble and 
expense. He also has forty-two 30-foot pil- 
ing, with a 14-inch top, which is to prevent ice 
from clogging up the head-gates, and guaran- 
teeing a full flow of water all winter. Here- 
tofore, ice protectors have never been used 
anywhere in the state. There are 24,000 feet 
of lumber used in the headgates, and the head- 
gates, and side-gates are large enough to fur- 
nish water for two more units of 200-horse- 
power each when demand requires it, which 
will be the goal the owner is working toward. 
The power unit consists of 56-inch Letter 
special turbine, Samson rope drive. Wood- 
ward oil governor, 100-kilowatt A. C. gen- 
erator and switch-board. In addition, this 
plant has a hydraulic ram which will furnish 
water at an elevation of 125 feet for fountain, 
irrigation and stock use. The power house 
will be covered with steel lath and cement. 
The mill race is one and nine-tenths miles long, 
the mill dam fourteen feet high, and the river 
is the most even of any place in the world, be- 
cause of its sand land on each side of head 
waters and the fact that it is fed by springs, 
the volume of flow being 600-second feet per 
minute. Mr. Lundy has been fortunate in 
employing men of marked capacity in this 
great enterprise and much credit rests with 
Harry Gardner, foreman, and John WykofT, 
assistant foreman. Of this fine plant further 
mention is made in the general historical sec- 
tion of this volume, where also appear illus- 
tration of the plant. 

Mr. Lundy was married October 31, 1894, 
to Miss Laura E. Anderson, daughter of Frank 
and Rebecca Anderson, homesteaders of Loup 
county in the year 1881. Mr. and Mrs. Lundy 
have four children: Sadie A., Alpha D. and 
Lela M., all of whom reside at home with their 
parents ; and Albro L., who in 1918 enlisted in 
the United States Army and who is, at the time 
of this writing with the Forty-eighth Regi- 
ment, Battery t)., C. A. C, in France. 

Mr. Lundy is a man who does large things 
in a large way. He is a leading factor in every 
important, public-spirited movement promul- 
gated and his high standing in business circles 
makes his influence a valued and valuable oire. 



WESLEY N. BAKER. — Among the 
prominent and progressive farmers and stock- 
raisers of Custer county, there are found a 
number who make a specialty of certain de- 
partments of agricultural work, believing that 



in this way they reap the greatest amount of 
success from their labors, in tliat they are able 
to centralize their energies and attention upon 
one definite thing. In this class is found 
Wesley N. Baker, of the vicinity of Ansley, 
who, while he follows general farming to some 
extent, has for a number of years past made a 
specialty of raising sheep. He is accounted 
one of the energetic and progressive men of 
his community and belongs to a family which 
is well known in Custer county, and a review 
of which will be found elsewhere in this work, 
in the sketch of Frank Baker. 

Wesley N. Baker was born February 15, 
1881, and has the distinction of being a native 
son of Custer county, his birth having occur- 
red on the family homestead near Westerville, 
on Clear creek. The public schools of that 
community furnished him with his early edu- 
cational training, and during the summer 
months he assisted his father and brothers in 
the fields, while being trained in all the arts 
and methods of agriculture as practiced in 
this locality. His choice of an occupation 
when he reached years of maturity rested upon 
farming, and this he has followed in a method- 
ical, careful and practical way, adopting mod- 
ern methods only when they have proved 
worthy. His long experience in the business 
of raising sheep has made him more or less of 
an authority upon the subject, and he is fre- 
quently called upon by his associates for coun- 
sel and advice. Politically a Democrat, poli- 
tics and public affairs have had a small share 
in his career, but his actions have always 
shown him to be a public-spirited citizen, 
ready to support good measures. He and the 
members of his family belong to the Methodist 
Episcopal church. 

Mr. Baker was married February 21, 1907, 
at Westerville, Nebraska, to Miss Amy Cop- 
sey, daughter of A. H. and Anna (Wallin) 
Copsey, and to this union there have come two 
children: Irene, born January 1, 1908; and 
William J., born January 20, 1909. The 
pleasant home of the Baker family is located 
in section 21, township 35, where are to be 
found modern buildings and other improve- 
ments of an up-to-date character. 



CHARLES A. WORRELL, a retired 
farmer of the Arnold section, has made good 
in more ways than one. He has run the 
gamut of pioneer experiences and has ac- 
cumulated a competency by farming and stock-, 
raising in the good old county where his home 
has been for many years. 

Charles A. Worrell was born April 20, 
1857, in Hancock county, Illinois, and is a son 



640 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



of John and Alan,' (Butler) Worrell, the for- 
mer a native of Baitimore, Alarj'land, and the 
latter a native of the Buckeye state. John and 
Mary Worrell became the parents of six chil- 
dren, all of whom are living — Abarilla Wonc- 
man, Matilda E. Hunt, Charles A., Ida A. 
Hunt, Eva Clark, and W'illiam H. The par- 
ents were of the old-time and substantial fami- 
lies, and the father w-as a farmer. The en- 
tire family were connected with the Baptist 
church. The father moved to Davis county, 
Iowa, when his son Charles was eisjht years old, 
and there the boy had his first introduction to 
fanning as it was conducted in that part of the 
central west. His first money was made by 
husking corn, and in this manner he earned 
enough to buy a suit of clothes. In addition 
to this clothing enterprise he worked long 
enough to buy 100 pounds of flour, and as 
wheat flour was very scarce in those days, this 
hundred weight of white flour was utilized for 
making the biscuit which made the larger por- 
tion of the Sunday dinner, while some of it 
was used for white bread for the children's 
school luncheons. 

Charles A. Worrell worked at home until 
he was twenty-one years of age. January 22, 
1882, recorded his marriage to Miss Mar>' J. 
Bybee, who was bom in Iowa, a daughter of 
John H. and Frances J. (Clark) Bybee. Her 
father and mother were Kentuckians. Her 
family, like her husband's, were Baptists and 
the family circle numbered six children — 
Drury S.. William H., John J., Sarah E. At- 
wood. Mar}' J. Worrell, Izey C. Stoak. 

Mr. and Mrs. Worrall have maintained an 
excellent home, for which even*' provision pos- 
sible has been made. They have three sons in 
their family circle : John H. lives on a farm of 
his own, near Stapleton. He married Effie 
Marrs and they have one son and three daugh - 
ters. They belong to the Baptist church. 
William H. married Frances Goodyear and 
owns his father's old farm which was home- 
teaded on the Tallin Table. They have no 
children. C. Alva likewise farms his own 
land. He married Elva Goodyear, and they 
have one daughter. 

Mr. and Mrs. \\'orrell came to Custer 
county in the fall of 1885, and, in the spring 
of the next year they located a homestead on 
the Tallin Table, eleven miles south of Arnold. 
At that time Mr. Worrell's worldly posses- 
sions, after he had paid for a relinquishment, 
consisted of a team of horses, one cow and 
$7.50 in cash. This was the capital upon 
which he began his farming career. Many 
hardships had to be endured. There was no 
fuel obtainable except corn stalks, and to ob- 
tain these he often had to wade through the 



snow and cut the stalks with the com knife. 
At one time a sleet, which lasted several days, 
covered the stalks with ice and made them 
very fnjor fuel. Water was another difficult 
proposition of the early days. For five years 
Mr. W'orrell hauled all the water for house 
and stock use. The distance water had to be 
hauled ranged from one and one-half to eleven 
miles, but all this has been overcome and the 
Worrells are now well fixed, and prepared to 
take life more easily than in former years. 
After giving each of his sons a good 160 
acres of land, Mr. \\'orrell still has 490 acres 
in the home tract. He and his wife have now 
retired from the farm and are living on a ten- 
acre tract in Arnold. They have a nice home 
and are substantial, respected citizens of the 
community. They belong to the Baptist 
church. During all the years of his residence 
in Custer county, Mr. Worrell has been active 
and foremost in community affairs, and he 
has serv'ed on the school board and as road 
overseer for a number of years. The family 
are to be rated among the best people of the 
county. 



U. GRANT BROWN. — Down in the 
region south of Ansley is the home place on 
which this splendid citizen lived his life, ap- 
pVied his ability and energies, established his 
home, and finally responded to the call which 
removed him from the earthly sphere of action 
to that "undiscovered countrs' from whose 
bourne no traveler returns." 

Mr. I'rown was born May 31, 1871, in In- 
diana. His parents were Dr. John G. and 
Martha ( Tucker i Brown. The father was a 
native of Indiana, where he was born August 
10, 1840, and he was one of a family of eleven 
children, in all of whom were the predominat- 
ing traits of thrift and integrity, inherited 
from their worthy parents. In the fall of 
1872, when L'. Grant Brown was but one year 
old. his parents moved to Danville. Illinois, 
and from that place they came, in 1883, to 
Polk county. Nebraska, where they grazed 
their cattle for two years. They then contin- 
ued their journey to the promised land of 
Custer. In 1885 they settled here, securing 
a home in Loup township where they resided 
until the father's death, eight years later. Dr. 
r.rown was one of the able and honored physi- 
cians of Custer county, and his services are 
well remembered by his contemporaries of the 
pioneer days. He was influential in commun- 
ity affairs and served two terms as county 
coroner. 

I'. Grant Tirown homesteaded in 1893, l)e- 
ing a practical farmer all his life. He made 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



641 




U. Grant Brown 



642 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



a success of his farm developments and farm- 
ing activities. Like his father, he was a use- 
ful citizen, active in all local affairs, and 
supporting every enterprise that tended to up- 
build the community. 

On Cliristmas day in 1895 ^Ir. Brown was 
united in marriage to Anna Fortik. a daughter 
of Joseph and Anna (Cline) Fortik. (See 
sketch of Anton Fortik.) To this union were 
born four children: Guy Floyd, the firstborn, 
is at home and operating the home farm ; and 
Mary Ruth, Charles William, and Dorothy 
May are all at home. The earthly career of 
^Ir. Brown ended on the 19th day of March, 
1918, on the home place, and thus ended the 
career of a widely known and useful citizen. 

The family are keeping the estate intact and 
are conducting the farming operations much 
as the father directed. Mr. Brown, the man 
who endured the hardships, who experienced 
the privations of pioneer life, who was dom- 
iciled in a sod house and called it home, has 
left behind him a splendid monument in the 
well improved place which he named Cat 
Creek Ranch, and upon which he himself made 
the fine imjjrovements. He rendered the com- 
munity a good service and it might be said none 
could have done better for his family than 
did he. 

He was a member of the Christian church. 
was independent in politics, and he served a 
number of years in the office of road overseer. 
He leaves a memory and example which are 
a valuable heritage to his children, who are 
coming on to walk in the paths he had marked 
for them. 



The office was then removed to the village 
of Dale and Daniel Lohr became postmaster. 
The Catholic church still stands on the site of 
that village. James Daley lived in Custer 
county for thirty- four years to a day, his death 
occurring May 10, 1916. His widow survived 
until Januarj' 5, 1917. They were highly es- 
teemed people in every relation of life and 
were faithful members of the Presbyterian 
church. James Daley gave his political sup- 
port to the Prohibition party. 

E. Budd Daley grew up on his father's farm 
and attended the public schools. He has al- 
ways been interested in fanning and stock- 
raising and his operations in these industries 
are extensive. He owns 760 acres of fine 
land, included in which is the old family home- 
stead of 320 acres, and he cherishes the hope 
that his sons will develop like tastes and, after 
they have been thoroughly educated, make this 
old valley homestead their preferred home. 
In addition to his agricultural activities, Mr. 
Daley has prominence in the banking field and 
is vice-president of the Farmers' Bank of 
Merna. 

Mr. Daley was married April 14, 1897, in 
Ortello \'alley, this county, to Miss Eliza A. 
Jones, a daughter of John D. and Amelia (Ed- 
wards) Jones, and a granddaughter of Thomas 
J. Edwards. Mr. and Mrs. Daley have three 
children : Gladys E., who is a graduate of the 
Merna high school ; James R., who is attend- 
ing school ; and Elden R. Mr. and I\Irs. 
Daley are members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. In politics he is a Democrat, and fra- 
ternally he is identified with the Ancient Order 
of United Workmen and the Modem Wood- 
men of America. 



ELISHA BUDD DALEY, farmer and 
financier, is one of the best known and most 
esteemed citizens of Custer county and has 
spent almost his entire life in Nebraska. He 
was born in the village of Digby, Nova Scotia, 
March 16, 1874. His parents were James and 
Marian E. (Budd) Daley, the former of whom 
was born in Ireland and the latter in Nova 
Scotia. The grandfathers. James Daley and 
James Budd, were natives of Ireland and Nova 
Scotia, respectively. E. Budd Daley had one 
brother. Ernest, who died December 6, 1886. 
The father's vocation was fanning and it was 
in the hope of extending his agricultural ac- 
tivities profitably that he brought his familv to 
the United States and, in the spring of 1880, 
secured a homestead beautifully located in Dale 
valley, Custer county. Nebraska. This he de- 
veloped into a valuable property. He was one 
of the earliest settlers in that section and he 
served as postmaster of Dale \'alley in 1884-5 



ZACHARIAH THOSTESEN, a member 
of the retired colony of Broken Bow, is one 
of the sturdy sons of Denmark who came to 
this community when it was still new and here 
lived through the period of development. As 
a farmer and stock-raiser he maintained 
through many years a high standard of pro- 
ductive industry, and now, as a retired citi- 
zen, he is accounted one of his community's 
helpful and constructive representatives in 
civic movements. 

Mr. Thostesen was born in Denmark, May 
31, 1848. a son of Ove and Barbara (Jesper- 
daten) Thostesen and a grandson of Thost and 
Bodil Thostesen, there being nine other chil- 
dren in the family. He is one of five surviv- 
ing children, the other four being- Claus. Chris- 
ten. Mrs. Bodil Jessen and IMiss .\nna M. 
Zachariah Thostesen. the tenth of his parents' 
children in order of birth, was educated in the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



643 



public schools and remained on the home farm 
until he was eighteen years of age, his first 
money being earned by mowing grass for a 
neighboring fanner. In 1866 he gathered to- 
gether what small resources he could accumu- 
late, and set out alone for the United States, 
eventually arriving at his destination, the town 
of Dwight, Illinois. He had no knowledge of 
the English language or of the customs of the 
country, but he was strong, eager and willing, 
had no trouble in finding employment, and in- 
dustriously applied himself to whatever work 
opportunity placed in his hands, the while he 
gradually learned the language of his adopted 
land and began to make progress. By 1870 he 
was ready to establish a home of his own, and 
on April 7th of that year he married Miss 
Anna Miller Nielsen, daughter of Peter and 
Marie (Jepsen) Nielsen, and a sister of Peter 
Nielsen. To their union there were born six 
children: Ove N., who is a railroad man of 
Bridgeport, Nebraska, married Catherine 
Reeder, a daughter of Henry Reeder, and fol- 
lowing is given a brief record concerning their 
children : Marenus B., who is a retired miner 
of Seattle, Washington, married Edith John- 
son, and they have one son and one daughter; 
Barbara is the wife of John A. Meryes, a 
farmer twelve miles southwest of Merna, Cus- 
ter county, and they have one son and six 
daughters; Marie, is the wife of Peter A. 
Hartvigson, of Ephrata, Washington, and they 
have one son and one daughter ; Florence 
married Frederick Cram, of Bridgeport, Ne- 
braska, who died in 1914. leaving a son, 
AV'ayne ; and John, who is an engineer on the 
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, living 
at Bridgeport, Nebraska, married Esther 
Swanberg, and has one daughter. The mem- 
bers of this family belong to the Lutheran 
church, and at elections Mr. Thostesen's sup- 
port is given to the candidates of the Repub- 
lican party. 

Following his marriage, Mr. Thostesen 
continued to follow farming in Illinois, with a 
measure of success, until 1883, when he came 
to Custer county, and on September 28th of 
that year he located on Cliff Table, twenty- 
four miles west of Broken Bow, this being a 
pre-emption claim. After proving up, he toolc 
a homestead, on which he resided from 1884 
until 1900, in which latter year he retired from 
active pursuits and moved to Broken Bow, 
where he now has what is considered one of 
the most beautiful homes of the county seat. 
He is still the owner of his old pre-emption 
claim on Cliff Table, a tract of 160 acres of 
valuable and highly cultivated land which is 
being operated by a renter. 



JOHN TALLIN. — The blood originated 
in Sweden, but its exhibition of thrift was 
transferred to America, and in the regions 
south of Arnold, on the famous Tallin Table, 
it has been demonstrated that Scandinavian 
thrift makes good in the middle west of the 
great American republic. 

Mr. Tallin's native land was Sweden, in 
which country he was born October 15, 1852. 
His parents Peter, and Carrie (Erickson) 
Tallin, were of long Scandinavian lineage, and 
they came to the United States in 1868, when 
their son John was sixteen years of age. 
Their first residence was in Burlington, Iowa, 
where one year later the father died, leaving 
the mother with four children, of whom John 
was the eldest, the others being Alec, Peter, 
and Louis. After the death of his father, 
much responsibility fell upon the shoulders of 
John Tallin. The family must be supported, 
and accordingly he applied himself. His first 
money was' made by trapping or snaring wild 
turkeys. In the paths of the wooded section 
he placed the snares, arranging brush on either 
side, so that the fowls had to confine their 
meandering to the path which lead them over 
the traps or into the snares. This was very 
profitable. He worked the farm in the sum- 
mer time and put in the winter cutting cord 
wood. In 1870 the lure of the west got the 
better of him, and he and the rest of the fam- 
ily came to Nebraska, settling in Burt county, 
on rented land. By this time his younger 
brother was able to assist in the farming op- 
erations, and things went fairly well. All the 
family necessities were obtained and the 
foundations of thrift and energy were deep 
laid in the character of young John. Four 
years later, in Omaha, he took unto himself 
a wife, by his marriage with Ida S. Nelson, 
a daughter of Peter and Caroline Nelson, both 
of whom were of Swedish extraction. With 
the establishment of their own home, Mr. and 
Mrs. Tallin began the earnest and well di- 
rected efforts that resulted in the accumula- 
tions of the present time. Their home was 
blessed with two children — Carrie is the wife 
of Robert Blackburn, a farmer living near 
Armode, Washington, and they have three 
children ; Mabel is the wife of Axel Nordland, 
a farmer living in Alberta, Canada, and they 
have two children. 

Mr. and Mrs. Tallin became residents of 
Custer county in the spring of 1884, when they 
became the first settlers on the table which 
now bears their name, twelve miles south of 
Arnold, and here Mr. Tallin has been a pio- 
neer resident since that day. The shadows 
sometimes fell upon the home. In April, 



644 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



1885, Mrs. Tallin was called to the life eter- 
nal, leaving her husband with two small chil- 
dren. His mother came to his aid and for a 
time made her home with him. caring for the 
little girls. August 3, 1892, Mr. Tallin mar- 
ried Miss Minnie Nelson, a daughter of Lar- 
son and Carrie (Johnson) Nelson, and since 
that time this good lady has presided over the 
destiny of affairs and made for him a splendid 
home. He farms a half-section of land and 
conducts a general stock-raising industry in 
connection with his agricultural pursuits. 
From these oj)erations he has been enabled tj 
equip the farm with splendid improvements 
and contribute to all the calls of the war-time 
days through which all have so lately passed. 
He and his wife are favorably known and 
highly rated in the community. Their relig- 
ious affiliations are with the Swedish mission 
of their locality. America, with her oppor- 
tunities and boundless resources, is indebted 
to northern Europe for many such stalwart 
citizens as ^Ir. Tallin. 



LYMAN PIERCE. — Down in the Arnold 
region, where farming and stock-raising con- 
stitute the chief industry, lives the subject of 
this sketch, Lyman Pierce, who operates a 
splendid fann and holds precedence as a suc- 
cessful agriculturist and stock-raiser. 

Mr. Pierce was born March 12, 1865, in 
Crawford county, Wisconsin, and is a son of 
Samuel and Lucinda ( Smith ) Pierce, the 
father a native of Massachusetts and the 
mother of Illinois. In the father's family 
were three children, the other two being Ada 
(deceased) and Helen Wells. The mother 
died .\pril 5, 1887, and the father later con- 
tracted a second marriage, when he wedded 
Adaline Lathrop. Of this union were born 
six sons and one daughter. 

The youthful years of Lyman Pierce were 
spent on the home farm in Wisconsin where 
he assisted in the arduous task of cutting tim- 
ber from the farm and thus clearing up the 
land so that it could be cultivated. It was 
here that he received his education in the 
country schools, and to this preliminary disci- 
pline he has constantly been adding, by exten- 
sive and well directed reading. He made his 
first appearance in Custer county in 1882. He 
remained two years, and then went to LaSalle 
county. Illinois. In 1887 he returned to Cus- 
ter county, and here he located ten miles 
southeast of Arnold, where he has lived ever 
since. His wedded life dates from Novem- 
ber 30, 1893. when at (?iOthenburg, Nebraska, 
he led to the marriaee altar Miss Ada Hans- 
berry, a gracious and pojiular young lady of 



Pawnee county. Mrs. Pierce is a daughter of 
Albert and Marj- (Hainning) Hansberrj-. In 
her father's family were six children — Mary 
Pierce, William, (Jlo Tabor, Charles, Lemuel, 
and Ray. 

Immediately following their marriage .Mr. 
and Mrs. Pierce established a home which in 
many ways has been ideal. Into the family 
circle the years have brought two sons, L. 
Loyd, who is now fanning for himself. He 
married Edna Gion, and they have one daugh- 
ter, Signa Doris, who, in addition to her higl> 
school education, has had a two years' course 
in the Grand Island Business College. The 
younger son. A. Hugh, an eligible young bach- 
elor, lives at home and farms on his father's 
place. Mr. Pierce has 960 acres of good land 
to show for his work in Custer county. This 
is sj)lendidly improved and well stocked. He 
has a fine home and his farm is well equipped 
for profitable operations. All that he has ac- 
cumulated represents the result of toil and 
splendid judgment. 

Recalling the early days, Mr. Pierce states 
that his first money was made by catching cat- 
fish in the Kickapoo river and selling the same 
for ten cents apiece. At the time they were 
caught, the fish weighed from six to ten 
pounds each. What they weigh now depends 
upon the dimensions of the fish in the stor\- 
^Ir. Pierce has to match. Mr. Pierce has long 
been regarded as one of the prominent, sub- 
stantial farmers of his community. He has 
made a decided success of his chosen occupa- 
tion and in a social way enjoys the confidence 
of a large circle of friends and neighbors. His 
political affiliations are with the Republican 
j)arty, and he is a man well informed in cur- 
rent events, and thinks for himself. 



ALVm M. SCHUDER. —One of the 
prosperous and busy men of Sargent, Ne- 
braska, is Alvin M. Schuder, carpenter and 
builder, who has resided here for thirty years 
and has watched and helped in the develop- 
ment of this bustling town from a grain field 
to its present ])roportions and varied inter- 
ests. He was born September 28, 1856, in 
Marshall county, Indiana, and is one of four 
children born to his parents. Simon B. and 
Margaret B. (Alms) Schuder. 

Simon B. Schuder was born in Montgomery 
county, Ohio, and in early manhood moved 
to Indiana, where he was engaged in fanning 
when the Civil war broke out. In response to 
President Lincoln's first call, he enlisted in 
Companv V.. Seventy-fourth Indiana Volun- 
teers, and during his first tenn of service he 
was with the armies of Grant and Rosecrans. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



M5 



He re-enlisted, and continued a brave and 
courageous soldier in the ranks until just be- 
fore the end of the war, being wounded and 
incapacitated in one of the last battles, and he 
was honorably discharged. Despite the hard- 
ships of military life, the exposure and the 
wounding, he recovered his nomial health, and 
to-day. when eighty-five years old, is an ex- 
ample of vigorous old age. After the war he 
resumed work at the carpenter trade, which 
he had previously followed in connection with 
farming, but later he removed to a farm in 
Indiana and lived there until he retired. He 
now resides in Columbia City. Indiana. For 
his first wife he married Margaret B. Alms, 
who was born in Pennsylvania, and who died 
in 1865. They had the following children : 
Alvin M., whose name initiates this sketch ; 
William H., who is deceased : and Minnie M. 
and Susannah E.. both of whom live at Joliet, 
Illinois. During early manhood the father of 
Mr. Schuder was a Democrat, but the issues 
of the Civil war changed his opinions and he 
became a staunch Republican. He is a mem- 
ber of the Church of God, and the mother of 
Mr. Schuder belonged to the ^lethodist Epis- 
copal church. 

Alvin M. Schuder had fair school advan- 
tages in his youth and had both fami and 
mechanical training in his native state. In 
September, 1884 he came to Custer county, 
driving over the country from Greenwood, 
Nebraska, to Broken Bow. He pre-empted a 
half-section of land north of West Union, and 
also secured a timber claim. Through all the 
hardships of pioneer times, he preserved his 
holdings, and several years ago he disposed of 
his half-section to great advantage. When he 
recalls Sargent's beginnings, he remembers the 
waving grain that once covered its site. The 
land was owned by E. P. Savadge and J. W. 
Thomas, the latter of whom is a banker in 
Omaha. In the early days Mr. Schuder was 
engaged in freighting quite extensively, and 
before the railroad reached this section he car- 
ried freight, with more or less danger, to al- 
most all the surrounding towns. His remi- 
niscences of those days are full of interest, and 
prove how rapid and substantial may be the 
growth of a community when practical and 
enterprising men take sufficient interest. In 
Custer county Mr. Schuder has done a large 
amount of carpentering and building that 
stand to his credit, and he still keeps active 
in his chosen vocation. In politics he is a 
Democrat. He is not married. 



HENRY TIETJENS. — Ever and again 
the .American citizen must take off his hat to 



the thrift and prosperity of the foreign-born. 
Written above is the name of a prosperous 
and substantial farmer in whose veins flows 
the blood of frugal German parents and who 
himself was born in the German empire, so 
that his discovery of America, as well as his 
residence here, was an act of his own volition. 

Mr. Tietjens was born July 18, 1848, and is 
a son of Henry and Anna A. (Hoelweig) 
Tietjens, representatives of long lines of ster- 
ling German ancestry. Henry Tietjens is the 
eldest in a family of four children, the others 
being Rebecca, Andrew, and Jacob. In ad- 
dition, Mr. Tietjens had two step-brothers 
and two step-sisters. His father was a 
farmer and hotel keeper in Germany. 

The first eighteen years of the life of Henry 
Tietjens were spent in Germany, where he 
received a creditable education and earned 
his first money as messenger boy, running er- 
rands for the guests in his father's hotel. 
When he was eighteen years of age, the call 
of America brought him to this country, 
and from the seaboard he made his way di- 
rect to Holt county, Missouri, where he 
worked for two years on a farm. Then he 
came to Nebraska and settled in Madison 
county. In this county, on December 10. 1876, 
he married Miss Catherine Peck, who was 
born in Iowa, a daughter of George and Anna 
( Ruck ) Peck, natives of New York and 
Pennsylvania, respectively. In the Peck fam- 
ily were four children : John, Scott, Earl, and 
Catherine. The members of this family be- 
long to the Lutheran church. 

The family history of Mr. and Mrs. Tiet- 
jens, as connected with their own home circle, 
give the following record of their children : 
George, who is a plumber living at Bow, 
Washington, married Lizzie String, and thev 
have three sons and one daughter. Anna is 
the wife of Moses Irvin, who runs a restaur- 
ant at Arnold, and they have one child. 
Nanna. who married Roy Nansel. and has since 
been divorced, has one child, a little daughter 
named Vera. Jacob is a bachelor and lives at 
home with his parents. Lenore is the wife of 
Charles Woodward, who is in the navy, and 
located at Norfolk, Virginia, at the time of this 
writing. Mr. Woodward was formerly on a 
submarine carrier and went around the world 
with the Roosevelt fleet. Scott is at Camp 
Funston, in Company H, Twentieth Infantr}'. 

Mr. and Mrs. Tietjens located in Custer 
county in 1889. Their first home was in 
Merna, where they conducted a hotel about 
two years. Then they located eight miles 
southeast of Arnold. Mr. Tietjens now owns 
1.680 acres of good land and is rated as one 
of the prosperous ranchmen of the county. He 



646 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



has made good and is well and favorably 
known among the people of the community. 
Always ready to assist any worthy enterprise, 
he has contributed to the betterment of the 
community in which he lives. Politically he 
affiliates with the Republican party, believing 
that it represents the principles of a common 
democracy in which the burden of government 
rests upon the intelligent voter. 



DORCAS HOGUE LEO. — Here follows 
the story of a woman who has had a remark- 
able career; who has experienced the hard- 
ships and privations of pioneer days ; who, as 
the mother of a large family of children, has 
done well her part in the years that have 
passed : and who has contributed largely to 
the present-day development of the county's 
resources. Hers has been an active and use- 
ful life. 

Mrs. Leo was born August 4, 1860, in Pike 
county, Missouri. She was the last born of 
the children of Andrew and Jane (Wilkison) 
Hogue, both of whom were native Kentuck- 
ians. Aside from herself, the children of 
these parents were: Hardin, and Susan, both 
of whom are deceased ; Shannon A. ; and Alice 
Kruser. In his younger days, Andrew Hogue, 
the father, lived in Clarksville, Missouri, 
where he had a small grocen*' store. When 
Mrs. Leo was nine years old her parents 
moved to Lincoln county, Missouri, where her 
father engaged in farming and where her 
mother died, leaving Mrs. Leo motherless at 
the age of twelve years. Later her father 
married Mrs. Jennie Nally Blackmore. To 
this union three children were born : Myrtle 
King, Zella M. (deceased), and Andrew J. 
Mrs. Leo received a common-school education 
and after experiencing the common lot of 
young wommanhood in the rural districts of 
those days, she was united in marriage, in her 
twenty-first year, at Ellensburg, Missouri, to 
Henry W. Leo. Mr. Leo was bom in Ger- 
many, coming of sturdy Gemian ancestry. 
He was a member of a large family, in which 
there were fourteen children. He came to 
America when twenty-one years of age and 
located in a small town in Indiana, where he 
opened a blacksmith shop and worked at the 
trade for several years. With his wife he 
came to Custer county in 1885 and located 
southeast of Arnold, on the South Loup river, 
where he and his young wife had their first 
induction into pioneer experiences. Selling 
his relinquishment, they moved to Dale, a little 
town in Ortello valley and there Mr. Leo built 
a sod l)lacksmith shop and again worked at 
his trade. Later when the principal business 



interests of Dale moved to the new town of 
Merna, Mr. Leo re-established his shop in the 
new town and here the family home has been 
maintained for twenty-five years. 

Mr. and Mrs. Leo became the parents of 
eleven children, nine of whom are still living. 
Rollie F. is the eldest. Stella A. is the widow 
of Charles Grissom, who was an employe of 
the Standard Oil Company, at Wood River, 
Illinois, at the time of his demise, which oc- 
curred December 16, 1916. He is survived by 
his wife and two children — Leo, twelve years 
of age, and Lillian, nine years old. Russell 
A. married Leona Cash, who lived only a few 
months thereafter. He is a farmer near 
Gap.-, South Dakota. Joseph A. was a ser- 
geant in Company M, Fifth Regiment Ne- 
braska National Guard, and died at Grand Is- 
land, this state, July 2, 1917. Mar>- F. is de- 
ceased. Wilhelmina is the wife of Lawrence 
Welton, su{>erintendent of the Standard Oil 
Company's refinery at Casper, Wyoming 
Helen is single. Theresa is the wife of Walter 
Shoemaker, and they reside at Lincoln, Ne- 
braska. They have one daughter, Deetta, 
eight years old. Henry A. is single and works 
on a farm near Arnold. Bernard A. also is 
single and an Arnold farmer. George ]M. is a 
student in the Arnold high school. Mrs. 
Stella Grissom and Miss Helen Leo, daughters 
of Mrs. Leo, are operating an up-to-date eating 
establishment in the town of Arnold and their 
mother, who is an adept in that line, has 
charge of the culinary department. Mrs. 
Leo comes from a family who were connected 
with the Baptist church. Her husband was a 
Catholic and accordingly her children incline 
to the faith of that church. 



WILLIS M. STEBBINS not only owns 
a large body of valuable and well improved 
land in Custer cotmty but is also a leading 
business man at Gothenburg, Dawson county, 
and has been prominently identified with pub- 
lic affairs in the latter county. He was born 
near Wattsburg, Pennsylvania, on the 20th 
of January, 1863, and is a son of John C. and 
Polly J. (Swatland) Stebbins, the former a 
native of Yates county. New York, and the 
latter of Chautauqua county, that state, the 
jiarents having returned from Pennsylvania to 
Chautauqua county. New York, when the sub- 
ject of this review was but six months old. 
On the maternal side Willis M. Stebbins is 
a grandson of Silas and Abigail (Rose) 
Swatland. natives respectively of Connecticut 
and \'emiont. Mr. Stebbins has three 
brothers — Monroe D., Laveme G., and Virgil 
A. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



647 



Willis M. Stebbins completed his education 
in Sheniian Academy, at Sherman, New 
York, and practically his start in life may be 
dated from 1884, when he came to Nebraska 
and took a homestead claim near Famam. 
Dawson county. He proved up on this claim, 
and in 1889 he moved to Gothenburg, where 
he engaged in business, which has since been 
expanded to include dealing in hardware, 
agricultural implements and real estate. For 
many years he has owned section 9, township 
64, range 25, Custer county, and he is very 
proud of this land, because of its fine loca- 
tion, remarkable fertility, and superior im- 
provements. 

Mr. Stebbins was married January 1, 1891. 
in Hastings, Nebraska, to Miss Avis W. Wil- 
cox, who was born at Albany, New York, a 
daughter of Schuyler C. and Olivia H. 
(Cheeney) Wilcox. Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins 
became the parents of five children : Verna 
A. is the wife of Professor Arthur Greenslit, 
superintendent of schools of Baxter, Iowa, 
and they have one daughter, Kathr\'n ; Guy 
L. died September L< 1914; Willis Earl 
sened eight months at Liana Grande, Texas, 
on the Mexican border, as a member of Com- 
pany L, of Gothenburg, and after his com- 
pany was called into the service of the United 
States, July IS, 1917, he was made mess ser- 
geant : as a soldier in the national army pre- 
paring for foreign service, Willis L. Stebbins, 
on February 8, 1918, entered the aviation 
school at Austin, Texas, and in August, 1918, 
he was commissioned second lieutenant pilot : 
Alice I. and Virge W. remain at the parental 
home and are attending school. 

When Mr. Stebbins came to Dawson county 
he not only showed an interest in forwarding 
his own enterprises, but immediately identi- 
led himself also with public affairs, as be- 
comes a progressive citizen, this attitude soon 
winning to him the confidence and esteem of 
his fellow citizens, which he has never lost. 
He has been prominent in civic matters at 
Gothenburg and has contributed time and 
money to make this a business center and a 
desirable residence location. In 1911 he was 
elected to represent Dawson county in the 
state legislature, his public services meeting 
with such approval on the part of his consti- 
tuency that he was returned in 1913 and again 
in 1915. He has always been identified with 
the Republican party. Mr. Stebbins is well 
known in Masonic circles in the state, has at- 
tained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish 
Rite, and is also a member of the Mystic 
Shrine. With his family he belongs to the 
Methodist Episcopal church, and at all times 
he has been liberal in his charities. 



MERLE M. RUNYAN, deputy clerk of 
the district court of Custer county, has the 
distinction of having been the first white 
child born at J\Iason City, this county, which 
accounts for his middle name being Mason. 
He is one of the energetic and progressive 
young men of his locality, is a lawyer by pro- 
fession and for several years has been prom- 
inent in public affairs. During the time that 
he has thus been before the people he has con- 
ducted himself in a way that has won him uni- 
form esteem and confidence. 

Mr. Runyan was born at Mason City, Ne- 
braska, May 23, 1886, and is a son of George 
and Medora H. (Amsberry) Runyan. George 
Runyan located at Mason City in 1878, being 
the first postmaster of that village, and for 
some years he was prominent in its mercan- 
tile affairs and in the agricultural life of the 
community. He became successful as a 
farmer and accumulated a substantial prop- 
erty. He is now living retired from active af- 
fairs, his home being situated at Broken Bow. 
He is a stanch Democrat in politics, and he 
and his wife are consistent members of the 
Baptist church. They are the parents of 
seven children: Ira G., Mrs. Ada Watson, 
William A., Glenn E., Mrs. Blanche Rumery, 
Merle Mason, and James W. 

The early education of Merle M. Runyan 
was secured in the public schools of Mason 
City, and when he was not employed at his 
studies he assisted his father, while at times 
he worked out among the neighbors, besides 
earning odd sums by selling roasting ears of 
corn to the people of the surrounding villages. 
He completed his course at the Mason City 
high school in 1906, following which he went 
to the Grand Island Baptist College, where 
he completed the curriculum of five years. 
Returning to his home, he was engaged for a 
time in the real-estate business, and while thus 
occupied he became interested in the law — ■ 
first in order that it might assist him in his 
business ventures and later that it might serve 
as his profession. For nearly four years he 
studied in the ofifice of N. Dwight Ford, a 
well known Mason City attorney, and after 
duly passing the examination he was admitted 
to the Nebraska bar in 1915. He had already 
settled down to practice, however, when, in 
1915, he was appointed deputy county clerk 
of Custer county and moved to Broken Bow to 
assume his duties of office. So capably were 
these discharged that he made a distinctly 
favorable impression upon the minds of the 
people, and in 1918 he was appointed deputv 
clerk of the district court of Custer county, 
a position which he still retains. Mr. Run- 
yan has been conscientious in handling the re- 



648 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



sponsibilities of his jxisition and all matters 
coming before him have been treated in a 
thorough, al)le and expenditious manner. He 
is one of the influential nieml>ers of the Demo- 
cratic party in Custer county, but is popular 
with those of other political belief, and has 
many warm friends in both large parties. 

On November 26, 1913, at Broken Bow, 
Mr. Runyan was united in marriage to Miss 
Grace Duke, a daughter of Charles W. Duke, 
and to this union there have been born two 
sons — Byron D.. and Howard G. 



JOHN CAMERON, who for thirty years 
has been a resident of Custer county, resides 
on his farm near Callaway and is well known 
throughout the county, having taught s:hool 
for eight years, in different neighborhood.s, 
and having done his part in furthering the 
various developing agencies that have changed 
a sparsely settled wilderness into a wealthy, 
prosperous, and intelligent community. John 
Cameron was born at Wellsville, Ohio, De- 
cember 25, 1869. On the paternal side he is 
of Scotch ancestry, his father, David Cameron, 
having been a native of Scotland. After com- 
ing to the United States and locating in Ohio, 
David Cameron married Elizabeth Figgins, a 
native of that state, and of their eight children 
the survivors are the following: Simon D., 
David F., John, and William. The parents 
were members of the Presbyterian church. 

John Cameron was reared in Ohio, was 
well educated in the public schools and was 
variouslv employed until he was nineteen 
years old, when he came to Nebraska, to which 
state manv young men in the east were turn- 
ing their eyes at that time, for here land was 
to be easily secured and great rewards were 
offered for thrift and industry. When Mr. 
Cameron came to Custer county he bought 
160 acres of land adjoining the Brighton 
ranch on the north, and set about it develop- 
ment. But he lacked the ex]:)erience that 
Would ])r()l)ably have made his venture profit- 
able, and after three years of effort he sold 
his land. His next purchase was more care- 
fully made and consisted of 160 acres about 
six miles .southeast of Callaway. When he 
bought this land, in 1891, there was not a 
tree to be seen on the |)lace, and Mr. Cameron 
has done a wonderful amount of improving, 
his comfortable liachelor home being now sur- 
rounded by orchards and shade trees. 

While Mr. Cameron has devoted much time 
and attention to his agricultural indu.stry and 
land improvement, he has served the county 
in the capacity of school teacher, bis labors 



in this direction covering eight years. Mr. 
Cameron has accumulated a comfortable com- 
petency through steady industry, for he has 
never, as have some of his acquaintances, l>een 
led into land or other speculation. In this 
connection he relajtes an experience of his 
youth that opened his eyes to the uncertainty 
of the "sure thing." As a boy he was obliged 
carefully to regulate his expenses in conso- 
nance with his income, and there never was 
any great surplus. In the hope of overcom- 
ing this condition, at one time he was per- 
suaded to invest his sole capital of five dollars 
in oil stock. From that time on he has never 
been tempted to pay any attention to the allur- 
ing promise of oil, land, or mining stocks. 
As a thinking and educated man, ^Ir. Cam- 
eron occupies an established place in public 
affairs, but he has accepted no political office. 
He votes the Republican ticket, is affiliated 
with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
and is a member of the Presbvterian church. 



HARRY JACOBSEN, who is a substantial 
farmer of Custer county, owns 380 acres of 
some of the finest land in this part of the 
state, the same being located four miles east 
and south of Merna. He is a native of Ne- 
braska, and is a scion of a sterling pioneer 
family that was here established in the terri- 
torial days — about one year prior to the ad- 
mission of Nebraska to the Union. Mr. 
Jacobsen was born in Saline county. May 3, 
186.S, and is a son of John and Sarah (Cooj)er) 
Jacobsen, the former of whom was born in 
Ohio and the latter in Maryland. John and 
Sarah (Cooper) Jacobsen gained territorial 
pioneer distinction in Nebraska by immigrat- 
ing to this now opulent state in the spring of 
1866. They made the overland journey from 
Rutland, LaSalle county. Illinois, with team 
and covered wagon, and they took a home- 
stead near the W^est Blue river in the north 
part of Saline county. There they bravely 
faced the problems and trials of pioneer life 
and there they proved valued members of 
the community, the while they bent their ener- 
gies to the reclamation and development of the 
frontier farm. It is worthy of record that 
John Jacob,sen assisted in the organization of 
the first school district in Saline county, the 
same having been designated as district No. 
1. The name of John Jacobsen merits endur- 
ing ])lace on the roster of the honored pioneers 
of Nebraska. He and his wife became the 
parents of seven children, concerning whom 
brief record is here offered : Lawrence E., 
who is a farmer near Genesee. Louisiana, has 
four sons ; Harry, of this review, was the next 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



649 




loHN Cameron 



650 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



in order of birth ; Frank A., who is unmarried, 
is a school teacher near Hammond, Louisiana, 
and is a member of the Episcopal church; 
Ross, who is overseer of a large farm near 
Rutland, La Salle county, Illinois, married 
Susan, a daughter of George H. Fougerson, 
and they have on daughter ; Lydia, who died 
in 1900, was the -wife of George Willis, and 
they had three daughters ; Paul, who lives in 
Louisiana, is married, and he and his wife, 
Maggie, have four sons and one daughter ; 
and Frederick A., who is a carpenter and 
famier, is married and has one son. The 
father of the above family died in 1879, and 
the mother subsequently married John Imhoft. 
Two daughters of this second marriage are 
living — Lillie D., and Bertha. Miss Lillie 
D. Imhoflf became a skilled stenographer and 
in that capacity worked for eight years in 
the government agricultural department at 
Washington, D. C. She then became the wife 
of Paul Anderson, who is connected with the 
govennnent printing office, and they have one 
son. Bertha Imhotif also is married and is 
the mother of four daughters, and they all 
live at Osyka, Mississippi. 

Harry Jacobsen was eleven years old when 
his father died and he was largely thrown 
on his own resources — industrious habits and 
natural thrift enabling him to overcome many 
disadvantages. He began early to help on 
the farm and believes the first money he 
earned and received was fifteen cents a day 
paid him by a neighbor for plowing corn, with 
a double-shovel plow and one horse. Mr. 
Jacobsen has made farming his life work, 
lie came to Custer county in 1906 and bought 
320 acres on East Table, near Merna, and 
this he has developed into a fine property. His 
residence, on the edge of the table, is beauti- 
fully situated and it can be seen from a dis- 
tance of many miles in several directions. 

Mr. Jacobsen was married April 30, 1890, 
in Saline county, Nebraska, to Miss Mary 
Elizabeth Fougerson, a daughter of George H. 
and Mary K. (Landon) Fougerson, and a 
granddaughter of Munson Landon. Mrs. 
Jacobsen's father was bom near Buffalo, New 
York, December 8, 1836, and her mother 
January 18, 1840. Mr. and Mrs. Jacobsen 
have nine children : Edna G. is the wife of 
Wendell Cosner; John II., at the time of 
this writing, is serving his country as a soldier 
in France ; George .\., who is operating on a 
large ranch near Rushville, Nebraska, nr.r- 
ried Grace Mauck, a daughter of Daniel 
Mauck. and they have one child ; Ross E. is 
the home fanner ; Charles V. also lives at 
home and assists on the farm ; Hazel E. was 
a member of the graduating class of 1918 in 



the Merna high school ; and Elmer E., Mil- 
dred, and Elsie B. are all doing well in their 
classes at school. The eldest daughter, Mrs. 
Cosner, a very talented lady, has been secre- 
tary of the Nebraska State Grange for five 
years. She was thoroughly educated along 
business lines and after completing a course 
in the Grand Island Commercial College went 
into the stenographic field and for some years 
was identified, as a stenographer, with such 
important business concerns as the Old Trusty 
Incubator Company, at Clay Center, the 
Broken Bow Abstract Company, and the 
Farmers Mercantile Company at Anselmo, 
Nebfaska. She resides eight miles northeast 
of Merna, where Mr. Cosner is engaged in 
farming. 



HERMAN BURROW, who is well known 
over Custer county, has carried on general 
farming here for many years and owns -440 
acres of fine land, with a beautiful home 
situated three-quarters of a mile southeast of 
Merna. Mr. Burrow was bom in Germany, 
August 1, 1854, and is a son of Christian and 
Anna ( Hebbe) Burrow. His father was 
born in Germany, February 12, 1809, and died 
September 3, l907. His mother was bom in 
Germany, February 20. 1812. and died April 
9, 1874. They had six children, namely: 
William C, Christian, Gustave, Julius, Her- 
man, and Mrs. Christena Kniger. They were 
members of the Lutheran church. The 
father was a farmer all his life. 

Herman Burrow remained with his parents 
in Germany until he was seventeen years old, 
when he came to the United States, where he 
has lived here ever since, and for thirty-six 
years he has been a resident of Custer county. 
He first found work on a farm near Sauk City, 
Wisconsin, and continued there for two years. 
He then went to Illinois, where for four years 
he worked on farms, with good wages. From 
Illinois he went to Osceola, Iowa, and in the 
fall of 1882, he came to Custer county and lo- 
cated two and one-half miles northwest of 
Merna. Through his industry in his earlier 
years, he is now able to live at ease, his sons 
taking care of the hard work, although Mr. 
Burrow continues general supervisor. 

;\Ir. Burrow was married July 15, 1880, at 
Osceola, Iowa, to Helen Thomas, a daughter 
of Henry and Johanna ( De Marse) Thomas, 
and they became the parents of three daugh- 
ters and two sons, as follows : Cora is the 
wife of Kearney G. Kellenbarger ; Dorris is 
the wife of William Hannah: Eum'ce became 
the wife of Claude James, who died Novem- 
ber 20, 1918, and she passed to eternal rest 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



651 



only a few days later, her death having oc- 
rurred on the 29th of November, 1918; and 
Henry and Homer, conduct their father's 
farming operations. The surviving daugh- 
ters all have comfortable homes of their own. 
Mrs. Burrow is an excellent housekeeper and 
not only looks after her domestic af¥airs but 
also takes a great deal of interest in her 
poultrj' yard. The family attend the Method- 
ist Epicopal and Lutheran churches. Mr. 
Burrow has always given his political support 
to the Democratic party, and he is affiliated 
with the Alodern Woodmen of America. 



WILBER M. SPEER, was possessed of 
two teams and the sum of seven dollars and 
fifty cents at the time of his arrival in Custer 
county, in 1889 ; to-day he is one of the well- 
to-do men of his community and a citizen who 
at various times has been called upon to fill 
public offices. His rise has not been spec- 
tacular, but has been steady and consistent, 
for his success has been gained through hard 
and persistent industry and not through any 
sudden, lucky chance or circumstance. 

Mr. Speer was born at Rutland, Dane 
county, Wisconsin, December 20, 1861, and is 
a son of John D. and Sarah J. (Lockwood) 
Speer, the fonner a native of Michigan and 
the latter of Vermont. The father, who was 
a blacksmith by trade, enlisted in the Union 
army in 1862, and not long after his entrance 
into the war he was wounded in battle, and 
after being captured by the enemy he con- 
tracted black measles, his death having oc- 
curred on the boat that was carrying him to a 
southern prison camp. He was but twenty- 
two years of age at this time, and Wilber M. 
was his only child. Mrs. Speer later married 
Amasa J. Parker, who was a farmer of the 
Rutland community, and there Mrs. Parker 
passed away. Mr. Parker now lives at Ona- 
way, Iowa. They became the parents of six 
children, of whom four are living: Ida May, 
who married George Hook and lives at Whit- 
ing, Iowa ; Mary A., who married James 
Hook, of the same place; Evelyn, who mar- 
ried Charles Waterman and resides at Onawa, 
Iowa ; and Jay M., who is also residing at 
Whiting, and who is married and has a fam- 
ily. 

Wilber M. Speer was educated in the pub- 
lic schools at Rutland, where he passed 
through the eighth grade, and at the age of 
sixteen years he started to learn the black- 
smith trade, a predilection for which he had 
probably inherited from his father. He spent 
two years and three months as an apprentice, 
following which he worked at his trade about 



one year and he then engaged in railroad work, 
following that vocation for three years, dur- 
ing a part of which time he was employed 
on farms during the summer months. In 1889 
he came to Custer county, with the small 
capital noted above, and shortly after his ai;- 
rival he traded one of his teams for a tree- 
claim right. His experiences during the early 
days were full of excitement, and he also had 
his full share of difficulties and discomforts, 
but eventually he got a start and began to 
make money. He continued to be engaged in 
farming until 1894, when he moved to the 
town of Wescott and engaged in the black- 
smith business in an independent way. He 
continued the business until 1899, at which 
time his health failed and he was compelled 
to give up his trade. For one year he was 
in the livery business at Sargent, and then he 
moved to the Douglas Grove district, where 
he resided until 1911, having served in all the 
township and school offices within the inter- 
vening period. In 1911 he located at Com- 
stock, where he has since been engaged in the 
blacksmith business, and he now has two 
large and well equipped establishments, in ad- 
dition to which he is contemplating the erec- 
tion in the near future of a garage and black- 
smith shop, 50 by 100 feet, to be modern in 
every feature and department. He enjoys at 
present a large and prosperous trade, all of 
which has been attracted by his expert, ex- 
peditious, and reliable work. 

Since coming to Comstock Mr. Speer has 
been prominently identified with civic matters, 
having served in the capacities of member of 
the village board and justice of the peace, and 
his public record is an honorable and credit- 
able one. He is a member of the local lodge 
of Odd Fellows, and Mrs. Speer belongs to 
the Christian church. Mr. Speer is the owner 
of a farm of 176 acres, near Comstock, on 
which his son is now carrying on extensive 
and profitable agricultural and stock-raising 
operations. On this farm Mr. Speer, several 
years ago, was in the business of raising race 
horses, but he finally retired from that line of 
enterprise. 

In 1879 Mr. Speer was united in marriage 
to Miss Edna C. Warner, at Paoli, Wisconsin, 
and they became the parents of one son : 
Joseph A., who graduated in all branches from 
the public schools at the age of seventeen 
years, and is now a traveling salesman with 
headquarters at Butte, Montana, and he is 
married. Mr. Speer's first wife died, and 
in May, 1883, he married Miss Katie M. 
Owens, at Rutland, Wisconsin. Her parents, 
natives of Wales, were early settlers of Wis- 
consin, where they passed the remainder of 



652 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COLXTV, NEBRASKA 



their lives. Mr. and Mrs. Speer have had 
six children : Cora, who died in November, 
1916, was the wife of Clifford I. Roth, a 
farmer; Percy W., who is a farmer and 
blacksmith of Comstock, married Eva Wood ; 
Elza, who is a drayman at Comstock, married 
Leona (loodner; John E.. who is a farmer of 
Douglas Grove, married Alice Squier ; Frank 
E., who is a farmer near Comstock. married 
Sylvia Ohme : and Zella L. is the wife of Ira 
Rickett, a garage proprietor at Comstock. 



CHARLES L. SMITH, of Broken Bow. 
has more than a local reputation as a shrewd 
stock-buyer, and has been a farmer and dealer 
in stock in this county for the last thirty years. 
Mr. Smith was bom at Covington, Virginia, 
June 11, 1866. His parents, who were also 
bom and who still live at Covington, are 
Josiah and Mary J. (Andrews) Smith. Of 
their nine children the following survive : 
Charles L., of this review ; Wright, a resi- 
dent of Hot Springs, \'irginia ; and Elizabeth, 
the wife of George Smith. 

Charles L. Smith lived at home with his 
parents until he was twenty-one years of age, 
the while he worked on the farm in the sum- 
mer and went to school in the winter until 
he was sixteen years old, when he went to 
vork in a saw mill, in connection with which 
he continued his labors two yeai's. He taught 
school during the winter of 1886 and in the 
spring of 1887, he came to Custer county and 
went to work for his uncle, Harvey B. An- 
drews, near New Helena. There he learned 
the cattle business, in which he has met with a 
large measure of success. Mr. Smith is 
credited with the possession of an almost un- 
canny amount of correct conjecture when he 
judges a load of cattle or hogs, and this wis- 
dom has not only been helpful in his business 
but has also caused his friends to lielieve that 
it is a natural gift. In support of this theory, 
Mr. Smith tells the story of his earliest trad- 
ing exploit. He was only a boy when he 
earned his first money, twenty-five cents a day 
for four days of plowing with an ox-team. 
In place of cash he consented to take oats at 
fifty cents a bushel, and he then traded the 
oats for a ])air of shoes worth twice as much. 
Without doubt the trading instinct is a gift 
that every dealer does not have. 

Mr. Smith was married July 15, 1891, at 
Burwell, Nebraska, to Miss Rosa McGraw, a 
daughter of James and Frances (Walker) 
McGraw, and the following children have 
been born to them: \'^elma is the wife of W. 
E. Heaps, a farmer in Custer county, and they 
have three children ; Zelma, who resides at 



home, is pL teacher; Henrietta is the wife of 
Leroy Snyder, a railroad man, and they have 
one child; John is a Custer county farmer; 
and U'illiam E., Louanna, and Aubrey remain 
at the parental home. The family belong to 
the Episcopal church. Mr. Smith ii a Demo- 
crat in politics and is affiliated with the Ma- 
sonic fraternity and the Modern Woodmen of 
America. 



LEWIS NEVE. — Tlie agricultural inter- 
ests of Custer county have a worthy repre- 
sentative in the subject of this record, who 
owns and operates a valuable farm of 200 
acres, on West Table. 

Lewis Neve was bom in Juneau county, 
Wisconsin, September 3, 1873. His father, 
Samuel Neve, was a native of England and 
came to America when a boy of fourteen 
years. He became a farmer, and resided in 
\\'isconsin until 1883, when he came to Cus- 
ter county and took a homestead on West 
Table, where he spent the remainder of his 
days, and where he passed away at the age of 
seventy-five years. In Wisconsin he mar- 
ried Roxy Ackers, a native of that state, and 
there she passed away. For his second wife 
Samuel Neve chose Miss Jane Drew, who is 
still a resident of Custer county. 

Lewis Neve was a son by the first marriage 
and was reared in Wisconsin until the family 
came to Custer county, where he joined them 
in the fall of 1883. He remained in his 
father's home until he reached vears of ma- 
turity, when he became a fanner, renting 
land for a few years. He v.-as successful and 
acquired sufficient capital to justify the pur- 
chase of a farm of his own. His holdings 
consist of 200 acres, in section 27, township 
18. range 23. and his land is in a high state of 
cultivation. 

For a companion and helpmeet Mr. Neve 
chose Miss Laura Butler, who was born in 
Illinois, a daughter of Marion and Millarin 
Butler, who came to Custer county in 1882. 
Mr. and Mrs. Neve have one child. Clarence, 
a young man who is assisting in the operation 
of the farm. Both Mr. and Mrs. Neve rep- 
resent carlv families of Custer county and 
they are held in high esteem bv all who know 
them. 



FRED C. WARNEMUNDE, who is man- 
ager of the Gilcrist Lumber Company, at 
Oconto. Nebraska, was born at Plau. Ger- 
many. March 13. 1891. a son of Fred C. and 
Ida (Sellman) Wamemunde. the father be- 
ing a representative farmer near Winside, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



653 



Wayne county, Nebraska. Of the other chil- 
dren in the family the following brief record 
is consistently entered : William is thirty- 
two years of age at the time of this writing, 
in the autumn of 1918 ; Ema, aged twenty-nine 
years, is the wife of O. Roland, of Hoskins, 
Wayne county; Antonie, aged twenty-tive 
years, is the wife of Fred Rathman, of Dal- 
ton, Cheyenne county ; Henry is nineteen years 
old ; and Erwin is a lad of fourteen years. 

Fred C. Warnemunde is a somewhat recent 
acquisition to Custer county, coming here in 
1915. He was reared in Wayne county and 
remained on his father's farm until he was 
nineteen years of age. Thus he understands 
all the industries connected with ranch life 
in Nebraska and he earned his first money 
by herding cattle. He has had excellent edu- 
cational training and was graduated in the 
Fremont Business College, June 10, 1912, hav- 
ing earned the money to pay his tuition. 
After completing his business course he 
plowed corn for one week for his brother and 
then accepted work with the Nye, Schneider, 
Fowler Lumber & Grain Company, at Em- 
met, Nebraska. He continued with that con- 
cern until September 13, 1915, when he came 
to Oconto and became foreman for the F. H. 
Gilcnst Lumber Company. This is a large 
business concern that has lumber yards in fif- 
teen towns in Nebraska and not only handles 
lumber but also machinery, and implements. 
Mr. Warnemunde is manager of the com- 
pany's business at Oconto. 

December 2, 191't, at Rushville. Nebraska, 
Mr. Warnemunde wedded Miss Olga M. Roh- 
wer, a daughter of Claus Rohwer, and they 
have one son, Fred E. 



JOSEPH D. KENNEDY, who is cashier 
of the Oconto State Bank, at Oconto, this 
county, has been identified with this financial 
institution since coming here, in 1910, and is 
held in high esteem in banking circles over 
the state. Mr. Kennedy was born at Osceola, 
Iowa, October 15, 1867, and is a son of Ed- 
win R. Kennedy. 

The Oconto State Bank was founded in 
1903, with a capital of $5,000, the first officers 
being: M. F. Paul, of St. Paul, Nebraska, 
president : George Mary, vice-president ; and 
S. A. Robinson, cashier. Banking was car- 
ried on at first in a building which was the 
only available one at the time and the dimen- 
sions of which were sixteen by twenty-four 
feet. The banking company leased quarters 
here, but as it was also the court room of T. 
B. Buckner, justice of the peace, it was some- 
times necessary for the bank to suspend busi- 



ness while the judge held court. In the fol- 
lowing year, however, a bank building was 
erected, with dimensions of twenty- four by 
forty-two feet. As the bank became a flour- 
ishing institution, changes came about and 
greater expansion ensued, and on June 15, 
1910, the bank was reorganized and the capi- 
tal stock increased to $25,000, a paid in capi- 
tal, with surplus of $5,000. The present bank 
ofiicials are: G. E. Stuckey, president; 
George Mary, vice-president ; Joseph D. Ken- 
nedy, cashier; and George Mary, Jr., assistant 
cashier. All deposits in this bank are pro- 
tected by the depositors' guaranty fund of 
the state of Nebraska, there being a law 
which provides that deposits in the state banks 
of Nebraska shall be protected by the de- 
positors' guaranty fund of the state of Ne- 
braska, which fund the state of Nebraska 
shall levy and collect from the state banks of 
the state. This is called the Nebraska guar- 
anty law. The bank at present is housed in 
a spacious new building that was erected in 
1913. . It is of brick construction, with di- 
mensions of twenty-four and one-half by 
fifty-eight feet, and with every modern com- 
fort, convenience and bank appliance, its cost 
haying been $7,200. The old frame building, 
which was moved to the north side of the lot, 
was for a time used as a postoiifice building, 
and it is now utilized as the township hall. 

Mr. Kennedy was married August 19, 1892, 
at Lexington, Nebraska, to Miss Mamie E., a 
daughter of Thomas Watkinson. 



EVENS BARRETT. — Among the suc- 
cessful farmers of Custer county is Evens 
Barrett, who was bom in Montgomery 
county, Iowa, September 14, 1872. Hi's 
father, Hercules Barrett, was born in Eng- 
land and when a young man came to the 
United States. In Jackson county, Iowa, 
Hercules Barrett married Miss Julia Kinsey, 
a native of that county. They later moved 
to Montgomery county, Iowa, where they re- 
sided until 1891, when they came to Custer 
county, Nebraska, and purchased the farm on 
which they spent their remaining days, the 
father having been one of Custer county's 
successful agriculturists and at his death hav- 
ing been the owner of 320 acres of land. 
They had a family of seven children: The 
eldest, Frank, is deceased ; John resides in 
Custer county; Evens is the subject of this 
record ; Hulda is the wife of James Butler, of 
Montana; Henry and Sylvester remain in 
Custer county ; and Susan is the wife of Carl 
Fitz, of this county. 

Evens Barrett was reared in his native state 



654 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



and was nineteen years of age when he ac- 
companied his parents to Custer county. 
When twenty-two years old he began an in- 
dependent career. After working for others 
for three years he engaged in farming on his 
own account. Fourteen years ago he pur- 
chased his present farm, which at that time 
was but slightly improved, having a sod 
house, etc. To-day the place is improved 
with good buildings, and the air of neatness 
which per\'ades the premises bespeaks the 
progressive spirit of the owner. 

Mr. Barrett chose for a wife and helpmeet 
Miss Anna Butler, who was bom in Illinois, a 
daughter of Martin and Anna (Huffman) 
Butler, early settlers of Custer county. Mr. 
and Mrs. Barrett have one child, a son named 
Lloyd, who assists in the operation of the 
farm, and who was registered for military 
service at the time when the great world war 
came to a close. 

The family are members of the Christian 
church and in politics Mr. Barrett is a Re- 
publican. By diligence and progressive 
methods Mr. Barrett has made a success of 
agriculture and is one of the substantial men 
of his community. 



JOHN T. BRIDGES, who is postmaster at 
Oconto, is a leading business man of this 
place and is one of Custer county's dependable 
and patriotic citizens. Mr. Bridges was born 
at Ramsey, Illinois, April 16, 1863. His par- 
ents were James I. and Sarah J. (Sturgeon) 
Bridges, and his maternal grandfather was 
Simpson Sturgeon. James I. Bridges was 
born near Louisville, Kentucky, and in later 
life removed to Illinois. Here he married 
Sarah J. Sturgeon and the following children 
were born to them: Mrs. Ellen Wear, Will- 
iam T., John T., Edward F., Mrs. Minnie Van 
Schick, Isaac T., Eugene H., and Mrs. Ida 
Smith. 

John T. Bridges may justly be called a self- 
made man. He left the parental roof when 
he was about twelve years old. and from that 
time on he provided for his own necessities 
and showed good judgment in making bar- 
gains with his employers, mostly farmers in 
his earlier career, as he was able to attend 
school in winter and even secured high-school 
training. He also learned the art of teleg- 
raphy, and in 1884 he worked as a telegrapher 
for the Clover Leaf Railroad, in Illinois. 
From 1888 to 1890 he was in the service of 
the Rock Island Railroad, in Kansas, and after 
telegraphic work at different points on the 
Black Hills branch of the Union Pacific Rail- 
road, he was agent at Lodi, Nebraska, from 



1892 to 1904, at the same time being post- 
master for six years and also having charge 
of the local business of the Omaha Elevator & 
Grain Company. When he came to Custer 
county, in 1890, he bought 400 acres of land 
at Lodi. In 1904 he moved to Oconto and 
established his present hardware and furni- 
ture business, and since April, 1917, he has 
been postmaster. Mr. Bridges, although 
thrown upon his own resources in early boy- 
hood, has proved a good business man, 
possessing perhaps a natural faculty in that 
direction, as is indicated by a little story he 
tells of the way he "turned over" his first 
earnings, when a little boy on the home farm. 
He worked at planting corn, for twenty-five 
cents a day, and when he had accumulated 
enough he bought a pocket knife, later trad- 
ing the same for a goat, and he then traded 
the goat for two pigs, which he proudly, no 
doubt, carried in his arms a distance of three 
miles to his home. This amusing story illus- 
trates the principle by which many a man has 
won affluence. 

Mr. Bridges was married November 5, 1893, 
at Mexico, Missouri, to Miss Lena A. Far- 
rah, who was bom at Rush Hill, that state, a 
daughter of William and Jane (Mofifit) Far- 
rah, whose children were: Everett, William, 
Charles. Cora. Alice, Lena, and Lulu. Mr. 
and Mrs. Bridges have two children : Marie 
O., who is in school at Le Mars, Iowa : and 
John A., who has attended the St. James 
School at Kearney, Nebraska. Mr. Bridges 
has been shown many marks of public con- 
fidence in relation to the citizenship responsi- 
bilities occasioned by the world war, and at 
the time of writing (1918) he is serving Oc- 
onto as federal food commissioner, as recruit- 
ing officer for the army and navy and as chair- 
man of the four-minute speakers on patriotic 
subjects. 



THOMAS CHRISTEN SEN was born in 
Saunders countv, Nebraska, July 22. 1875. His 
father, Christ Christensen, was born in Schles- 
wig-Holstein, which was then a province of 
Denmark. He came to America when a 
young man and secured a homestead in 
Saunders county, Nebraska, where he became 
a successful farmer. His last days were 
spent at the home of his son Thomas, in Gree- 
ley county, where he passed away at the age 
of seventy-two years. The mother of our 
subject was Maria (Thompson) Christensen, 
who was born in Jutland, a province of Den- 
mark, and, who came to America when a 
young woman. She, too, resides at Merna, 
Custer county. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



655 



Thomas Christensen spent his boyhood 
days on a farm in Saunders county and when 
a young man of twenty-one years, he began 
fanning for himself, operating his father's 
farm a couple of years. He then went to 
Greeley county and purchased 240 acres, which 
he improved and on which he carried on agri- 
cultural pursuits until eight years ago, when 
he came to Custer county, where he is to-day 
the owner of 800 acres, well improved, and 
devoted to diversified agriculture and stock- 
raising. 

Mr. Christensen married Miss Anna Jen- 
sen, who was born in Custer county, a daugh- 
ter of M. C. Jensen, an early settler whose 
record appears on other pages of this volume. 
Two children have come to brighten the 
home of Mr. and Mrs. Christensen, and their 
names are Eleanor and Thomas Pershing. 
The parents are members of the Lutheran 
church and in politics Mr. Christensen casts 
an independent vote. Though a resident of 
the county only eight years, he is fast making 
a place for himself as a progressive and sub- 
stantial citizen. 



JOSEPH P. McCORMICK. — Custer 
county has a wealth of young farmers upon 
whom it can depend to maintain its well 
earned reputation as a county of progress and 
great production. This story concerns one 
of them. 

Joseph P. McCormick was born in Poca- 
hontas county, Iowa, in 1873, and is a son of 
James and Nora (Flynn) McCormick. The 
father was a Canadian by birth and the mother 
a native of Ireland. James McCormick was 
a prominent member of the community in 
which he lived, occupied a position as road 
overseer, and was prominent in the afifairs of 
the Catholic church. Concerning his children 
the following brief data are available: Rosa, 
Anna, and Mary are deceased ; Mrs. Nora 
Harlow resides on a fruit farm in the state of 
Washington ; Michael and James are deceased ; 
Frank is a farmer in McPherson county, Ne- 
braska ; and Joseph P., is the subject of this 
sketch. 

On the 5th of February, 1908, was solemn- 
ized the marriage of Joseph P. McCormick to 
Miss Anna Nolan, a native of Kansas, who 
comes of splendid family and who has been a 
very dependable helpmeet in her husband's 
fortunes, sharing the trials and hardships in- 
cidental to establishing a home on a Nebraska 
ranch. Mr. and Mrs. McCormick became the 
parents of three children : Joseph died at the 
age of three years ; Theresa is six years old ; 
and Violet is four years of age (1919), both 



being bright little girls who add much to the 
joy and sunshine of the home. 

The McConnick ranch consists of 760 
acres, of which 158 acres are in cultivation, 
the rest being pasture land. The foundation 
of this ranch consisted of an original 160- 
acre homestead, to which were added 240 
when the Kinkaid homestead act became effec- 
tive. The rest of the tract was acquired by 
purchase. The improvements are of first 
order. A new farm home has just been 
erected and makes a creditable showing, as 
well as affording convenience and comfort to 
the family. In his stock-raising operations 
Mr. McCormick inclines to the best blood ob- 
tainable and maintains always a high grade 
in his cattle production. He claims the best 
are the most profitable ; likewise, his taste, as 
well as his judgment, runs to good horses, with 
the result that the horses found on his ranch 
are blocky specimens of the best types. 

He owns his own farming machinery and is 
well equipped for extensive operations. He 
and his wife are highly respected in their home 
community, where they have a host of friends. 
They are faithful devotees of the Catholic 
church and are counted among the supporting 
constituency of that denomination. In politi- 
cal affairs Mr. McCormick generally trains 
with the Democratic party, but he reserves the 
right to exercise his own judgment. 



OREL JONES, who has just completed a 
term of five years as a member of the Ne- 
braska state board of pharmacy, is the pro- 
prietor of a drug store at Oconto, which he 
has been conducting since 1910. Mr. Jones 
was bom at Malvern, Iowa, February 6, 1877, 
and is a son of Norvel Jones, a Civil war 
veteran who now resides on the old fami 
which was his home, near Galesburg, Illinois, 
when he entered the Union army, in 1864. 

Orel Jones was reared on his father's farm 
and attended the country schools until he was 
twelve years old. In 1887 he came to Madi- 
son county, Nebraska, and in 1893 he was 
graduated in the Madison high school. Dur- 
ing the next five years he taught school 
during the winters and worked on the fann 
in the summers, besides which he was, for 
a season, a clerk in a dry goods and clothing 
store. In 1899 he entered Highland Park 
College of Pharmacy, Des Moines, Iowa, 
and in this institution he was graduated in 
1900. Subsequently, in company with his 
brother, Newell Jones, he bought a drug store 
at Madison. Nebraska, his brother having been 
employed in this store for four years pre- 
viously. The brothers conducted this store in 



656 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTV, NEBRASKA 



partnership for two years and then sold, New- 
ell Jones entering a medical school in the city 
of Chicago, and Orel Jones becoming a clerk 
in a drug store at Sheridan, Wyoming. In 
1910 Mr. Jones established himself at Oconto, 
as above stated. 

At Little Sioux, Iowa, on the 6th of June. 
1904, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Jones to Miss Eva P. Hope, who is a daugh- 
ter of William Hope. Mrs. Jones was gradu- 
ated in the Highland Park College of Phar- 
macy, as a member of the same class in which 
her husband was graduated, that of 1900. 



WALTER M. HENDERSON. — Forty- 
one years ago a traveler could journey many 
miles over Custer county without finding even 
a settler's hospitable "dugout" or seeing evi- 
dences of fami activities, and ^^^alter M. Hen- 
derson, an early pioneer here, mentions that 
when his parents came and located on Lillian 
creek, there were no houses between the home 
of Captain Comstock and J. L. Oxford's place 
— a distance of twenty miles. As habitations 
were few and far apart, social intercourse was 
not general, and with no schools and no 
churches, and with a natural cessation for a 
time of political agitation and ambitions, the 
very early settlers were largely thrown upon 
their own resources. Fortunately the coun- 
try settled rapidly and civilizing conditions 
were brought about that have continued in in- 
creasing volume to the present day, when 
Custer county takes a front rank in steady 
progress with all other counties in the state. 

Walter M. Henderson was born in Harrison 
county, Missouri, January 21, 1861. His par- 
ents were John F. and Mary J. (Williams) 
Henderson, the former of whom was born at 
Paterson, New Jersey, and the latter in 
Muskingum county, Ohio. John F. Hender- 
son was a cooper by trade but turned his 
thoughts toward farming when it became pos- 
sible to secure a homestead in so desirable a 
section of the country as Custer county, Ne- 
braska. He came here with his family in the 
fall of 1877 and homesteaded on Lillian creek, 
but in the spring of 1879 he received an in- 
jury that crippled him. In 1882 he sold his 
interests, and afterward, until the time of his 
death. May 9, 1914, he lived with his son 
Walter M. He was widely known in the 
community and was highly respected. In re- 
ligious faith he was a Universalist, while his 
wife belonged to the Presbyterian church. 
They had five children, two of whom sur- 
vive : Walter M. and Frank E., the latter of 
whom conducts a produce market at Comstock, 



the maiden name of his wife having been 
Martha Smith. 

Walter M. Henderson was seventeen years 
old when he accompanied his parents to Cus- 
ter county. He had been well educated in the 
public schools of Harrison county, Missouri, 
and had determined to make fanning his vo- 
cation. Four years later he secured his pres- 
ent homestead, which is situated in section 32, 
township 19, range 17, Custer county. Here 
he has resided ever since, becoming financially 
independent through well advised methods of 
farming and stock-raising and being now num- 
bered with the county's substantial citizens. 
In his early political life he was a Republican 
and for a time he was interested in the doc- 
trines of the Populist party, but for a num- 
ber of years he has been identified, as was his 
father, with the Democratic party. He has 
never been anxious to serve in political ofifice. 
although just such intelligent and trustworthy 
men as Mr. Henderson might well be chosen 
when public interests are at stake. 

Mr. Henderson was married December 22, 
1881. at New Helena. Nebraska, by Justice C. 
R. Mathews, to Miss Emma G. Greenwood, a 
daughter of G. B. Greenwood, of Weissert. 
this county. Mrs. Henderson passed away 
May 3, 1912. They became the parents of 
three children : Walter L., who is a farmer 
on the homestead, married Myrtle Henderson : 
Elmer F.. who was formerly a farmer, and 
who is now traveling representative of the 
Williams-Murphy Mercantile Company, of 
Omaha, married Katie Applegarth : and Ethel 
B. is the wife of G. H. Todd, who is a black- 
smith and engaged in business at Westerville, 
Custer county. 



ROLLAND T. BAKER. — Among the 
men whose long and industrious careers have 
been devoted to agricultural pursuits and 
whose labors have been so well directed and 
ably prosecuted that they are now able to 
pass their declining years in the peace and 
comfort of retirement, one who was for thirty- 
seven years a farmer of Custer county and 
who is now a highly respected citizen of Bro- 
ken P>ow is Rolland T. Baker. Mr. Baker 
was born Feliruary 15, 1849, in Jackson 
county. Indiana, a son of Martin and Mar- 
garet (Spall) Baker and a grandson of Sam- 
uel Raker. 

The boyhood of Rolland T. Baker was one 
in which lie ac(]uired a thorough education in 
tlie school of hard work and experience, for 
his father died wlien he was but nine vears 
of age and it was necessarv that he contribute 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY, NEBRASKA 



657 




Mr. and Mrs. Roll-anu T. Baker 



658 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



to the family support. When he was cwelve 
years of age he was earning his first money 
in the harvest fields of a neighboring farmer, 
and during such time as he could be spared 
from his duties he attended the district schools. 
He remained at home until he was twenty 
years of age and March 6, 1869. in Jennings 
county, Indiana, he married Margaret J. Mc- 
Clain, daughter of John and Elizabeth Mc- 
Clain. Mrs. Baker has two sisters living: 
Mary, the wife of George King, a Minnesota 
farmer, with a son and daughter ; and Anna, 
the wife of John Irwin, a fanner of Iroquois 
county, Illinois. 

For several years after his marriage, Mr. 
Baker continued to work on the farm during 
the summer months and in the winter seasons 
entered the timber and made staves for a bar- 
rel factory. Tiuis he acquired some small 
capital, and in 1877 he removed to Iroquois 
county, Illinois, where he engaged in farming. 
Not securing the measure of success that he 
felt should reward his efforts, he decided to 
try his fortunes still further west, and in 1888 
he came to Nebraska, settled in Custer county, 
and acquired a farm about ten miles west of 
Anselmo, on which he resided about five years. 
Subsequently he removed to Clear creek, north 
of Broken Bow. and during a long period was 
engaged in successful operations there, being 
for nine years a resident of the Brenizer ranch. 
He retired from active labors in March. 1917, 
and came to Broken Bow, where he has since 
lived quietly, in the enjoyment of the comforts 
that have rewarded his long career of indus- 
trious labor. During his life, through his 
honorable conduct and integrity, Mr. Baker 
has established and retained an excellent rep- 
utation, and his good citizenship has been 
exemplified in many ways. He belongs to tha 
Modern Brotherhood of America, a fraternal 
organization in which he has numerous 
friends. .'\s a voter he staunchly supports the 
])riiiciples and candidates of the Democratic 
party, although he has not been an office- 
seeker. Mr. and Mrs. Baker are consistent 
members of the Broken Bow Baptist church. 
To them have been born seven children, as 
follows : William .\lbert, a carpenter in Bro- 
ken Bow: Syrenus M., a farmer seven miles 
west of this city: Bessie, the wife of Dr. J. D. 
Wilson, who is, at the time of this writing, in 
the medical service of the national army ; Ern- 
est, a farmer in Custer county; Lillie, the 
wife of E. L. Tooley, a farmer of this county: 
Ruby, the wife of Floyd Holcomb, a farmer 
and garage man who is individually mentioned 
on another page of this work : and Edward, 
who is at Camp Funston, as a member of the 



Two Hundred and Tenth Engineers, at the 
time of the preparation of this article. 



VENCEL KRIKAC. — The beautiful land 
of Bohemia, famed for its picturesque valleys, 
silvery streams, romantic mountain scenes, and 
its handsome, gay and music-loving people, 
has sent to the United States, some of its most 
industrious, loyal and constructive citizens, 
among whom, in no small degree of promin- 
ence, stands Vencel Krikac, of Comstock. 
When he arrived in this country Mr. Krikac 
was a youth with an ordinary education, un- 
learned in our language or customs, in modest 
circumstances, and with only his own am- 
bitions to aid him. It speaks much for his 
determination, ability and industry that to- 
day he is one of the leading citizens of his 
community, president of the Farmers and Mer- 
chants Bank, a prominent and successful 
operator in real estate, and the owner of much 
valuable Custer county land. 

Mr. Krikac was born in Bohemia, Decem- 
ber 29, 1865, a son of Bartholomew and Mary 
(Fiala) Krikac, natives of Bohemia. The 
family immigrated to the United States in 
1883 and located in Valley county, Nebraska, 
on a homestead, where the father continued 
to be engaged in farming op)erations until his 
death, about the year 1896. He was a car- 
penter by trade, and in his native land had 
served two years in the army, during which 
service he had contracted an illness from 
which he never fully recovered. While car- 
pentry was his trade, he became a skilled 
farmer and raiser of stock, and if his life had 
been spared he would no doubt have made a 
success of his career. In politics he was a 
Democrat, and his religious faith was that of 
the Catholic church, to which his widow, who 
resides on the homestead, also belongs. They 
were the parents of eight children, of whom 
five are living: Andrew, who is engaged in 
the confectionery business at Butte, Boyd 
county, Nebraska ; Joseph T., who follows the 
real-estate business at Chico, California; 
Frank T., who is a farmer in V'alley county, 
on the old family homestead: Vencel, whose 
name initiates this review : and Catherine, who 
is the wife of J. J. Waldmann. living in Val- 
ley county. Of the other children it may be 
recorded that Thomas died in Valley county, 
at the age of thirtv years : Mary died in child- 
hood ; and one child died in infancy. 

Vencel Krikac received his early education 
in the public schools of Bohemia, and was 
variously employed until accompanying his 
parents and the other children to the United 
States, in 1883. Here he was taught the rudi- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



659 



ments and principles of farming, which he 
adopted as a vocation, but the work was slow 
and hard, for he also had to learn a strange 
tongue and assimilate methods and customs 
entirely foreign to what he had known. How- 
ever, he proved that he was possessed of the 
ability to overcome these obstacles, and he 
steadily rose in fortune until he became the 
owner of a large and valuable property of his 
own and had a comfortable income from his 
operations. In 1909 he was made president 
of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Corn- 
stock, in recognition of the abilities he had 
shown as a financier and business man, and 
two years later he ceased active labor as a 
farmer and moved to Comstock, to engage in 
a general real-estate, loan and insurance busi- 
ness, with which he has since continued to be 
identified. In this direction he has been un- 
usually successful in building up a large and 
important business in all departments, and 
his many connections with big deals have 
brought him to a position where he is justly ac- 
counted one of the leading men in his line in 
this part of the county. He has interested 
himself in matters of a civic character, and 
at all times has given his support to public- 
spirited measures, movements and enterprises. 
In 1891 Mr. Krikac was united in marriage 
to Miss Josephine Klima, and they became the 
parents of five children, of whom one died in 
infancy: Vencel, Jr., is assistant cashier in 
the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Com- 
stock ; Miss Emma is bookkeeper in that in- 
stitution : Miss Rosie is a teacher in the pub- 
lic schools ; and Edward is attending school. 
'The members of the family belong to the 
Catholic church. 



DANIEL THOMAS. — Representing the 
vouneer element of Custer county farmers, 
Daniel Thomas has already demonstrated the 
possession of qualities which should gain him 
success, and is further adding to the reputa- 
tion for solidity, worth and integrity estab- 
lished by his pioneer father. He was born 
October 13, 1893, three miles from Berwyn, 
Custer county, and is a son of Henry J. and 
Catherine (McMackin) Thomas. 

Mr. Thomas is one of a familv of eieht 
children, the others being: Samuel A.; John 
T. ; Tames P. : Mrs. Anna Schamow ; Mrs. 
Marv Brownell ; Elizabeth, who is single and 
resides with her parents ; and Ellen, who is 
single and taking a nurse's course at the Gen- 
eral Hospital at North Platte, Nebraska. 

Daniel Thomas, or "Dan" as he is famil- 
iarlv known, was educated in the schools of 
Broken Bow, and was reared amid agricul- 



tural surroundings. When still a lad he was 
given the opportunity of earning some extra 
money, driving a stacker team for Judge Sulli- 
van. The Judge had promised him a wage 
of fifty cents a day, but was so pleased with 
the lad's work that he added twenty-five cents 
a day to the sum, and young Thomas thus 
earned eight dollars — sufficient to buy a new 
suit of clothes. Mr. Thomas has always fol- 
lowed fanning, and there are few among the 
younger generation who have been more pro- 
gressive and enterprising. At the present 
time he is not only the owner of 160 acres of 
his own but also has the management of the 
160 acres owned by his father, and on both 
of these properties he is achieving splendid 
results. 



CLAY D. READ. — For many years the 
late Clay D. Read was held in high esteem in 
Custer county. He came here when a youth 
of nineteen years and until his death, Febru- 
ary 27, 1915, was identified with the agricul- 
tural development of this section, the while he 
was recognized as a man of sterling character 
and of useful and loyal citizenship. Mr. 
Read was born at Oxford, Johnson county, 
Iowa, and his parents were Charles J. and 
Charlotte Brown Read. 

Charles J. Read, who was born in Edin- 
burgh, Scotland, left home when he was fif- 
teen years of age and entered the British 
army, in which he served as a soldier for three 
years, and subsequently he was in the Crimean 
war. After coming to the United States he 
served as a soldier in the Civil war, until it 
closed, and during three years of this time 
he was in the United States navy. For eleven 
years after the war he was a railroad man. 
He married Mrs. Charlotte Brown, who, by 
her first marriage had one son, Albert Brown, 
who is still living. Mr. and Mrs. Read had 
but one child, the late Clay D. Read, the sub- 
ject of this memoir. 

Clay D. Read remained with his parents in 
Oxford, Iowa, and attended the public schools. 
He was born August 3, 1874, and in 1893 he 
came to Custer county, Nebraska, where he 
made his home during the rest of his 
life. He followed farm pursuits and event- 
ually acquired a large prooerty, which he de- 
veloped and improved. He was industrious 
and enterprising, and was very practical 
withal, so that in carrying on his agricultural 
industries he knew how to make them profit- 
able. 

Mr. Read was married December 25. 1902, 
at the home of the bride, situated four miles 
southwest of Oconto, Nebraska, to Miss Elva 



660 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



O. Narragon. She is a daughter of Lyman 
J. and Mary E. (WilHson) Narragon. Her 
father was born in the state of New York and 
his occupation was lumbering. Her mother 
was born in Ohio. They were early settlers 
in Custer county, where they became well 
known and were highly respected. Mrs. Read 
has four brothers and two sisters, namely : 
Austin A., William S., Elisha L., Charles C., 
Mrs. Rosa A. Miller, and Mrs. Eula F. Toby. 
Mr. and Mrs. Read became the parents of six 
children — Ralph V., Leota M. (deceased), 
Mary O., Charles L., Florence E., and Law- 
rence L. The Read homestead, consisting of 
265 acres and situated two and one-half miles 
north of Oconto, is the family home, and its 
industrial activities are carried on under the 
supervision of Mrs. Read. 

ARVID GUSTAFSON, who is one of the 
enterprising farmers and dependable citizens 
of Custer county, owns an extensive, well 
developed property in the vicinity of Broken 
Bow. He was born in Sweden, March H, 
1860. In Sweden his father's name was 
Gustaf Bearstrom and the maiden name of his 
mother was Eva Samuelson. On both sides, 
the family is notable for marked longevity, 
the father, born in 1809, living to the age of 
ninety- four years, and the mother, born in 
1823, dying at the age of ninety-two years. 
The father had seven children by his first 
marriage and three by his second. Eight of 
his children came to America, but all do not 
live in the same section. Arvid Gustafson 
is the only one living in Custer county. Ne- 
braska, but Charles and Andrew live in Lan- 
caster county : Carolina ]\Iadsen lives in Kear- 
ney county and Clara Smith lives in Dawson 
county. .Anna Johnson lives in Kansas, and 
Theda Jacobson lives in Illinois. The chil- 
dren were all reared in the Lutheran faith. 

.-\rvid Gustafson was thirteen vears o'd 
when he accompanied his half-brother to the 
L^nitcd States. He had attended school in 
his native Irn^d and afterward had school op- 
portunities in both Illinois and Nebraska. 
In 1877. when he came first to Nebraska, he 
found a home at Lincoln, and in that vicinitv, 
he at first worked on farms, but event'ia'b- he 
boueht land, on which he resided until 1884. 
when he decided he could better his prosjiects 
bv moving to Custer county. He came into 
this county with a was^on load of household 
goods, a span of mules and $200 in cash as the 
sum of his worldly wealth, and while that was 
a fortune when coiu|)are<l with the property 
of many other early settlers, it by no means 
satisfied Mr. Gustafson. He secured a home- 
stead of 160 acres, and through hard work and 



good judgment he has added to the original 
tarm until he now has 320 acres of fine land, 
together with more than merely comfortable 
home surroundings. 

At Lincoln, Nebraska, August 4, 1884. .Mr. 
Gustafson married Miss Matilda Bowman, 
who was ten years old when she came with 
her parents from Sweden to the United 
States. Mr. and Mrs. Gustafson have one 
daughter, Minnie, who is the wife of Herbert 
Hall, of Broken Bow. Mr. and Mrs. Hall 
have two sons : -Arvid Victor, and Vernon 
Kichard. In politics Mr. Gustafson is a 
Democrat and fraternally he belongs to the 
Woodmen and the Odd Fellows. He is a 
member of the United Brethren church. 



FRANCIS X. MOHATT. — As a follower 
of one of the oldest occupations known to the 
human race, Francis X. Mohatt has achieved 
that success which comes to a man who finds 
his work congenial and who invests it with 
determination, enthusiasm and natural abil- 
ity. The agriculturist has ever before him 
the chance of making himself an enormously 
useful factor in a community, and a realiza- 
tion of this fact has come to Mr. Mohatt in 
Custer county, where he has maintained his 
home since his fourteenth year. 

Mr. Mohatt was born on a farm in Douglas 
county, Nebraska, November 29, 1870, a son 
of Peter and Anna (Nason) Mohatt. natives 
of New York state. As young people, the 
parents of Mr. Mohatt went to Iowa, where 
their acquaintanceship was formed and thev 
were married at Council Bluffs, that state, 
after which they located on land owned by the 
young husband. Peter Mohatt served for a 
short time as a soldier in the Civil war, in 
1865, and at its close he returned to Iowa, 
but subsequently he came to Nebraska and lo- 
cated on a farm in Douglas county. In later 
years he made a short stay in Iowa, but in 
1884 he came again to Nebraska — this time 
to make a permanent home. He honiesteaded 
a tract in Custer county, in addition to which 
he purchased other land. He was successful 
in his operations and at the time of his death, 
in 1895, was the owner of an entire section, 
ui)on which had been made numeorus improve- 
ments of a valuable character. He was a 
Democrat in politics, and he and his wife were 
earnest communicants of the Catholic church. 
Mrs. Mohatt was a woman of sujicrior intel- 
lectual attainments, was widely read, had been 
a teacher prior to her marriage, and at her 
death, in 1912, she left many friends to mourn 
her loss. There were six children in the fam- 
ily, and of the number five are living: John 
B. and lames P., of Council Bluflfs, Iowa; 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



661 



Francis X. ; J. R., a Canadian farmer : and 
A. P., of Council Bluffs. 

Francis X. Mohatt was educated in the pub- 
lic schools of Pottawattamie county, Iowa, and 
came to Custer county, Nebraska, when he was 
fourteen years of age. He was reared as a 
farmer, and when he reached man's estate he 
adopted as his vocation the basic industry in 
which he had been trained and in which he has 
since met with substantial success. He is now 
the owner of one-half section of land, of 
which he farms 200 acres, and he has also suc- 
ceeded well with his cattle. His property is 
well improved with good buildings and re- 
flects the progressive nature and good business 
ability of its owner. 

Mr. Mohatt was married in February, 1899, 
to Miss Cecelia AlcLean, daughter of Hugh 
McLean, a pioneer of Custer county, an Irish- 
man by birth and a former sailor. To this 
union there have been bom four children : 
Ella, Esther J., Reta, and Francis. Mr. Mo- 
hatt is a Democrat but not a jxylitican. He 
and Mrs. Mohatt are members of St. Joseph's 
Catholic church at Broken Bow, in the work 
which they have been very active. 



FRED W. BECKLER. — The Hfe record 
of Fred W. Beckler illustrates what can be 
accomplished by untiring industry when 
coupled with good judgment. Mr. Beckler 
was born in Germany, October 31, 1855. He 
was reared and educated in his native land and 
when a young man of twenty years he came 
to the United States. After living in New 
York for a time he made his way to Mil- 
waukee, and he resided in Wisconsin until 
1882, when he came to Custer county, Ne- 
braska, and secured a homestead on section 
32, township 18, range 23, becoming one of 
the first settlers on West Table. His first 
home was a sod house, and in this he lived 
until fifteen years ago. when the present house 
was erected, the same being a very comfort- 
able building that is made of cement blocks. 
The place is equipped with good barns and 
outbuildings and for many years Mr. Beckler 
successfully carried on general farming. His 
holdings now embrace a half-section of val- 
uable land, all in one body and in a high state 
of cultivation. 

In Clay county, Nebraska, Mr. Beckler was 
united in marriage to Miss Mary Herzog, a 
native of the same province of Germany as 
her husband, and they have four children : 
Ella is the wife of G. L. Luce; Rosa is the 
wife of Frank Holuska ; William married 
Emma Schmidt; and Benjamin B., a bachelor, 
is still at home. The father of this family is 



now living retired, while the sons operate the 
land. 

The family are members of the Christian 
church and in politics Mr. Beckler is a Repub- 
lican. He has seen Custer county grow and 
develop from a wilderness to a country dotted 
with innumerable farms and thriving towns 
and villages, and to the work of progress such 
men as Mr. Beckler were the main contribu- 
tors. 

In recording the lives of the men and 
women who have made Custer county what 
it is to-day, the historian would be remiss in 
his duties if he failed to give a prominent 
place to Mr. and Mrs. Fred W. Beckler. 



ROY L. LONGMORE. — The subject of 
this narrative was bom October 12, 1884, in 
Henry county, Iowa, and is the sixth son of 
a family of nine children. His father, Will- 
iam B. Longmore, is a native of the Buck- 
eye state, and his mother, whose maiden name 
was Martha Runyan, was born in the state of 
Iowa. The children in this estimable family 
are: Mrs. Hallie Shaffer, Ray R., Alva J., 
Henry B. and Louis C. (twins), Roy L., Mrs. 
Grace Cudaback, William, and Mrs. Minnie 
M. Hanes. The father, who was a farmer, 
came to Custer county in 1884, and located 
on a claim six miles northvvest of Mason City. 

When Roy L. Longmore was a small boy he 
ran away from home and helped Ben Morris 
load hay, for which service he received eleven 
cents. This tangible recompense he carried 
proudly home, and asked his father's counsel 
as to what could be done with so much money. 
Mr. Longmore does not state what final dis- 
position was made of the eleven cents, but it 
is safe to say that it was properly invested and, 
for all we know, may have become the comer- 
stone of Mr. Longmore's present-day posses- 
sions. He has always been a farmer and, it 
might be added, a very successful one. 

On October 3, 1906, Mr. Longmore married 
Miss Jennie M. Miller, whose father, William 
L. Miller, is a resident of Brown valley, this 
county. In 1899 Mr. Longmore moved to 
Callaway, where for eight years he was a 
renter. He proved himself a hard worker 
and frugal manager, and by virtue of these 
characteristics he was enabled to buy the 
Thomas Goodyear farm, one mile west of 
Callaway. 

In the community where Mr. Longmore re- 
sides he is regarded as. a "live wire" — an 
active, progressive, enterprising citizen, as 
well as a successful farmer and stock-raiser. 
He is still young; the years of a successful 
career are still before him. The past makes 



662 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



this statement more of a declaration than of a 
prophecy. The family is connected with the 
Evangelical church, to which they are liberal 
contributors. Politically, Mr. Longmore is 
affiliated with the Democratic party, but he is 
neither hide-bound nor partisan, as he care- 
fully selects the man, and votes according to 
his convictions. 



JAMES DAVIDSON. — Incomplete would 
be any list of the leading citizens and success- 
ful farmers of Custer county which did not 
contain the name of James Davidson, whose 
splendid farm and place of residence is lo- 
cated in the vicinity of Berwyn. A resident 
of this county since liS82, in which year he 
came here to take up a homestead and blaze 
the way for those who came after, his suc- 
cess has been marked, and his position as a 
prominent figure in the agricultural fraternity 
here is generally recognized and acknowl- 
edged. 

Mr. Davidson was born in Waukesha 
countv, Wisconsin, November 14, 1855, a son 
of Nathaniel and Margaret (Otto) Davidson, 
nati\es of Scotland, who emigrated to the 
United States separately when young people. 
■ Nathaniel Davidson was born in 1828 and in 
his youth learned the trade of stone-mason, 
which he followed in his native land. On lo- 
cating in .America he settled in Wisconsin, 
where, in Waukesha county, he met and, in 
1854, married Margaret Otto, who was born 
in Scotland, December 7, 1831. Mr. David- 
son continued to follow his trade at odd times 
in \\'isconsin but engaged more and more in 
farming, and in 1882 he came to Custer 
county, Nebraska, wliere he secured a home- 
stead. He thereafter resided on his farm until 
his death, in 1892. He possessed the sturdy 
and reliable traits of character peculiar to his 
race, and was a man of marked industry and 
thrift — one who worked hard for what he 
had and who at all times maintained an in- 
tegrity and probity that gave him standing 
and reputation. He was a supporter of the 
candidates of the Republican party, was a 
member of the Masonic fraternity, and in his 
religious faith was affiliated with the Pres- 
bvterian church. Mrs. Davidson, who sur- 
vives him, belongs to this church, and she now 
resides at the home of a daughter, at Ana- 
mosa. Iowa, being nearly eightv-seven years 
of age (1918). Mr. and Mrs. Davidson were 
the parents of ten children, of whom sevcTi 
are living: James, of this review; Jennie, the 
wife of J. M. Elwood, of Custer county ; Mag- 
gie, the wife of J. C. Hunnicutt, a stone- 



mason of Anamosa, Iowa ; Henrj', engaged in 
farming at Conway, Missouri ; Minnie, the 
wife of A. D. Johnson, a farmer of Alema, 
Nebraska: Aggie, the wife of J. D. Ander- 
son, a farmer and banker of High River, 
Canada ; and Charles, employed in a mercan- 
tile establishment at Broken Bow, Nebraska. 
James Davidson received his education in 
the public schools of Iowa, where he was 
taken as a child, and there he began his career 
as an indejiendent farmer. In 1879 he there 
married ^liss Mary A. \\'obeter, who was 
1xirn in Bohemia and who was brought to the 
United States as a child. They became the 
parents of five children, of whom three are 
living; Nathan is residing at home and is his 
father's assistant in the operation of the 
broad acres ; James, of Berwyn, is working 
on a farm; and Arthur lives at home and 
assists his father and brother. ]\Ir. Davidson 
was gradually making a success of his efforts 
in Iowa, but in 1882 he decided to come to 
Nebraska and trj* his fortunes as an agricul- 
turist of Custer county. He accordingly se- 
cured a homestead, not far from Berwyn, and 
from that time forward his progress was rapid 
and consistent and he began accumulating 
land in large tracts. At the present time he 
has 1,120 acres, the greater part under culti- 
vation, upon which he has a fine home and 
many improvements. For the greater part he 
does mixed farming, but he has also met with 
success in his efforts as a stock-raiser and has 
a herd of full-blood Hereford cattle. Mr. 
Davidson is a Democrat in politics, but has 
not sought public office. 



CHARLES E. BLAKEMAN. — The gen- 
tleman whose name introduces this paragraph 
is one of the well known fanners and stock- 
men of Custer county — one who from a 
humble beginning has become one of the large 
land-owners and successful men of this part 
of the state. 

Charles E. Blakeman was born in Lake 
county, Indiana. November 28. 1836, and is a 
son of John and Lucinda ( Williams) Blake- 
man. l)oth of whom were natives of the Buck- 
eye state. They were married in Ohio and 
became pioneer settlers of Lake county, In- 
diana, where they purchased land at seven 
dollars an acre. John Blakeman hauled 
freight to old Fort Dearborn and saw the 
city of Chicago grow from a small village. 
He was the owner of a farm in Lake county, 
Indiana, devoted his life to agricultural pur- 
suits, and there passed away at the age of 
eightv-seven vears. He ser\'ed in the Civil 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



663 



war, with an Indiana regiment. His wife also 
passed away on the old farm, more than thirty 
years ago, at the age of fifty years. 

Charles E. Blakeman was one of a family 
of five children and has a sister living in Cus- 
ter county, Mrs. Charles Hepsley, of Broken 
Bow. He was reared on a farm, attended the 
public schools in the acquirement of an edu- 
cation, and when a young man went to Chi- 
cago and found employment with a railroad 
company. 

In 1884 he came to Nebraska and foimd 
employment in Saunders county. Early in 
1885 he married and came to Custer county, 
where he secured as a homestead the north- 
west quarter of section 6, township 17, range 
22. His first home was a sod house, and all 
the experiences of those early days are quite 
familiar to him. Water had to be hauled from 
a considerable distance, until a well could be 
provided. His second house was likewise 
built of sod, and was located on land he pur- 
chased in section 36, township 18, range 23. 
Here he later erected the present commodious 
frame dwelling, and the improvements to-day 
are among the best to be found in the county. 
Mr. Blakeman dealt extensively in cattle and 
has become one of the large land-owners of 
the county, where he has 2,700 acres at the 
present time. 

February 3, 1885, Mr. Blakeman was united 
in marriage to Miss Josephine Teeple, a na- 
tive of the same county in Indiana as her 
husband. Her parents, Philip and Margaret 
( Pringle) Teeple, were natives of Canada and 
both are now deceased. 

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Blakeman has 
been blessed with six children : John married 
Julia Smith and owns a ranch in Custer 
county ; Howard is assisting in operating the 
home farm ; Homer C. also is engaged in 
farming ; Wallace is married and is operating 
one of his father's farms ; Otto C. is in the 
national army at the time of this writing ; and 
Bessie is still at home. 

When working at railroad work in Chicago, 
an old foreman who did not own a home and 
was probably too old a man ever to expect to 
own one, advised young Blakeman to go west 
and get a home of his own. Mr. Blakeman 
often thinks that the words of the old fore- 
man were not bad advice. While those early 
years meant hardships, yet by hard work and 
good management he is to-day one of the 
prominent men of the county, and his success 
is the due reward for patient industry and 
judicious investment. In politics he is inde- 
pendent and has never aspired to public office. 
He remembers the first election of his pre- 
cinct, when there were but twenty-three 



voters. He has taken commendable interest 
in those movements which promote progress 
and development and is a member of the board 
of directors of the Security State Bank of 
Broken Bow. He has contributed his full 
share to make his adopted coimty what it is 
to-day and he and his family are held in the 
highest of esteem wherever they are known. 



LEVI W^ HUFFMAN, a man who con- 
tributed the best years of his life to this 
county and who was an industrious, hard- 
working pioneer, departed this life on August 
4, 1907, leaving behind a record of which 
anyone might well be proud, and a family 
that does honor to his name. 

Mr. Huffman was born June 24, 1856, in 
Vermilion county, Illinois, and was a son of 
Jacob and Mary (Rudlidge) Huffman, a 
splendid couple of native-born Americans. 
They had six children, all of whom grew to 
maturity — John C, William, Levi W., Alice 
Neth, George W., and Charles W. 

When Levi W. Huffman was but nine years 
of age his father died and left the mother 
with the care of the family. The mother still 
lives on the same farm in Vermilion county. 
It was here that she reared her six children, 
and it is recorded to the credit of Levi that he 
stayed at home and rendered his mother 
valuable assistance until he was twenty-one 
years of age. He did all kinds of work and 
earned his first money when a mere lad, by 
riding a horse on the threshing floor where 
they were tramping out wheat in the old-fash- 
ioned way. 

Early in the spring of 1882 Mr. Huffman 
found his way into Custer county, where he 
located a claim in section 9, township 15, 
range 22. He worked on the Brighton ranch, 
breaking sod and building fences, at the time 
when Virgil Allen was the foreman. In this 
way he made the money which paid for the 
improvements on his place. He often walked 
to Broken Bow, a distance of twenty miles, 
for provisions, and when he was lucky enough 
to get them he sent them to his home with 
some ranchman. He helped to haul lumber 
for some of the buildings in the county seat 
and in so doing made the trips to Lexington, 
time and again. Gradually "bachelor's hall" 
began to lose its attractions. Six years was 
all that he could stand. When 1888 brought 
the June time, he claimed a June bride. Miss 
Emma Dixon became the partner of his life 
and fortune and during the remainder of his 
life was a faithful companion and helpmeet. 
Mrs. Huffman is a daughter of James and 
Catherine (Cook) Dixon, very excellent 



664 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, XEBR.ASKA 



people, from whom she inherited enviable 
characteristics. 

The Huffmans made a pleasant home, and. 
with all the courage and heroism of young 
people, girded themselves for the enterprise 
of farm develo]iment. The years brought 
them four children : Jesse A., who married 
Miss Ollie Sipes, a daughter of Edward Sipes, 
faniis a part of his mother's place, and he 
and his wife have three children. Leona is 
the wife of Joseph John, who also is farming 
part of the mother's farm, on the South Loup. 
They have two children. Hazel B. is a high 
school graduate of Callaway, and after teach- 
ing school three years she accepted a position 
as cashier in a bank at Tyron, Nebraska, 
where she now makes her home. Opal M. is 
at home with her mother and in the eleventh 
grade of her high-school course. 

Levi W. Huffman departed this life August 
4, 1907. During his life he had been a kind 
and loving husband and an affectionate father 
who counted nothing a sacrifice that was done 
for the family. After his death Mrs. Huff- 
man resided on the farm for nine years, and 
by her native pluck and energy she added to 
the farm improvements until to-day they have 
a valualjle, well improved ranch of 4S0 acres. 
This makes a beautiful home and as she looks 
back over the years of trials and hardships, 
endured for the sake of the family, the pioneer 
days seem like a dream and the experiences 
often come back in the reveries of the present 
day. 

Mrs. Huffman remarried July 26, 1915, and 
is now the wife of Joseph Van Emans, a rail- 
road man of good standing and excellent re- 
pute. In order to finish the education of her 
younger children, Mrs. Huffman-VanEmans 
makes her home in Callaway, where she runs 
an up-to-date millinery store, but she expects 
some day to move back on the farm. 



NORMAN DWIGHT FORD has been a 
resident of Custer county since VK)7 and has 
not only gained distinct prestige as one of the 
representative members of the bar of the 
county but has also given thorough proof of 
his professional ability and judicial acumen 
by his able and timely service as county judge. 
He was first elected to ])rcside on the bench 
of the county court in the autumn of 1014. 
and re-elections to this office have since testi- 
fied to the estimate placed upon him by the 
citizens of the county. He is retained on the 
bench of this tribunal at the present time, 
through re-election in Novemlier. 1918. It is 
needless to say that Judge Ford is a man of 



prominence and wide influence in Custer 
county, and his unequivocal personal popular- 
ity is based on worthy characteristics and 
worthy achievement. It has consistently been 
said that "His list of personal acquaintances 
will equal that of any man w^ho has resided 
in the county from the time of its organiza- 
tion, and that the number of his friends is 
limited only by that of his acquaintances." 

Norman Dwight Ford was born at Oak Hill, 
Greene county, New York, on the 21st day 
of February, 1878, and is a son of Emerson 
and Addie L. (Carpenter) Ford, both likewise 
natives of the old Empire state, where the 
mother stood as a representative of a patrician 
family long established in that commonwealth. 
Emerson Ford was a prominent and successful 
merchant in New York, and was a sterling 
citizen who commanded unqualified popular 
confidence and esteem. Both he and his wife 
are now deceased. Judge Ford is the elder 
of the two children and the younger, Ernest 
Emerson Ford, is now a resident of New 
York. 

After having duly availed himself of the 
advantages of the public schools of his native 
place. Judge Ford completed a course in the 
Albany Business College, in the capital city 
of New York. In this institution he was 
graduated in 1896, and thereafter he was 
graduated in Greenville Academy, at Green- 
ville. New York. In the meanw-hile he had 
formulated definite plans for his future career 
and in consonance with these plans he began 
the work of preparing himself for the legal 
profession. In 1904 he passed the technical 
examination of the regents of the state of 
New York, and was thus enabled to enter the 
celebrated Albany Law School, wdiich is the 
law department of L^nion l^niversity. In 
this institution ho was graduated in May, 
1906. with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, 
his admission to the bar of his native state 
having been recorded in the following Septem- 
ber. Thereafter he served his jirofessional 
novitiate by opening an offi.'e in the citv of 
Albany, where he continued in practice about 
one year. In February. 1907. Judge Ford 
came to Nebraska and established himself in 
practice at Ansley, Custer county, his admis- 
sion to the Nebraska bar having occurred in 
March of the year just mentioned. His am- 
bition and thorough technical preparation 
gave the future jurist excellent reinforcement 
for the successful work of his chosen profes- 
sion, and within a short time he had gained 
a substantial and representative clientage. 
That he made a most favorable personal and 
professional impress needs no further voucher 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



665 




Norman Dwight Ford 



666 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



than the statement that in November. 1914. 
he was elected to the bench of the county 
court. In assuming his judicial functions 
Judge Ford, as a matter of course, removed 
to Broken Bow, the county seat, and his ad- 
ministration on the bench was such that he 
proved the logical candidate for rerclection. 
He was thus re-elected for a second term, and 
that without opposition, and in November, 
1918. he was again elected, this being an ad- 
ditional testimonial to his ability and personal 
popularity. On the bench his rulings have 
been marked by the true judicial attitude and 
by an accurate knowledge of the law. so that 
few of his decisions have been reversed by 
courts of higher jurisdiction. The Judge had 
no opposing candidate when he was re-elected 
for his third successive term. 

Admirably fortified in his political convic- 
tions. Judge Ford is a strong and loyal ad- 
vocate of the principles and policies for which 
the RepubHcan party stands sponsor, but he 
has not consented to become a candidate for 
any office save in line with his profession. In 
the time-honored ^lasonic fraternity he has 
received the thirty-second degree of the An- 
cient Accepted Scottish Rite, the while he 
is likewise active in the York Rite bodies and 
the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of 
the Mystic Shrine. He is past master of his 
lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, 
is a valued member of the commandery of 
Knights Templars at Broken Bow, and is 
past grand patron of the Nebraska grand 
chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. In 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows he is 
past noble grand ; he is past grand chancellor 
of the Knights of Pythias, is past venerable 
consul of the Modern \\"oodmen of America, 
and past high priest of Horeb chapter. Royal 
Arch IMasons. at Broken Bow. In patriotic 
service in connection with the great world 
war. Judge Ford has been specially earnest 
and zealous and has been in constant demand 
as. a platform speaker and as committee ad- 
viser. Under his direction was organized the 
Custer county legal board to render service to 
men of the draft age, in connection with the 
filling out of their questionaires. and this 
board gave most effective service until the 
signing of the historic armistice brought a 
close to the war. 

In the suburbs of Broken Bow Judge and 
Mrs. Ford maintain a beautiful home, and the 
same is known for its gracious hospitality, 
with Mrs. Ford as its popular chatelaine. He 
and his wife are members of the Presbyterian 
church. 

At Oak Hill, New York, on the .^^th of 



September. 1899. was solemnized the marriage 
of Judge Ford to Miss Millie B. Mackey, who 
was born and reared in that state and who is 
a daughter of Omar and Nora (Bear) ^lackey, 
both likewise natives of the Empire state. Mrs. 
Ford is the elder of two children, and her bro- 
ther. Perry Richard Mackey. is a resident of 
.Albany. New York. Judge and Mrs. Ford 
have two children : Theodore Lionel, who was 
born on the 13th of May. 1902. is. in 1918. 
a student in the Broken Bow high school, and 
the younger child, Kathleen Elizabeth, was 
born on the 9th of Februarv, 1918. 



L. NOLAN STEEL. — One of the active 
citizens upon whom rests heavily the respon- 
sibility of food production in these days of 
wars and armies and who is responding to the 
demands made upon him in a very creditable 
way is L. Nolan Steel. Mr. Steel is essen- 
tially a Nebraska product. It was in this best 
state of the central west that he made his 
debut into life and present-day activity. 

He was bom at Western. Saline county, 
Nebraska. ]\lay 26, 1879. His father. Samuel 
Steel, was then a substantial farmer of that 
vicinity and is to-day a resident of the same 
place. Samuel Steel was born in Pilot Grove, 
Iowa, and in 1872 he came to Saline county, 
Nebraska, and took a homestead near Wes- 
tern. There he was united in marriage to 
Abbie Chamberlain, a native of Illinois. They 
became the parents of six children. L. Nolan 
was the firstborn. His brothers and sisters 
are Edward O., Blanche H. .\kins, Zola (a 
teacher, who makes her home with her par- 
ents ) , Fred, and Everett. 

Young Nolan Steel grew up under the fam- 
ily roof and had the advantages of the com- 
mon schools and the Western high school. It 
was on his father's farm that he learned the 
first principles of agriculture by practical ap- 
plication. In February, 1902. at Daykin. Jef- 
ferson county, he was united in marriage to 
Miss Ellen Marsh, an attractive young lady, 
who was bom in Nebraska and who is a 
daughter of Henrj' and Catherine (Mj-ers) 
Marsh. The story^ now turns to Mrs. Steel's 
family. Two children were bom into the 
Marsh home. Mrs. Ellen Steel and Mrs. Jen- 
nie Backes. September 1. 1883. Airs. Marsh 
died, and a few years later the father was 
again married, this time to Caroline Carl. Of 
this second marriage three children were 
born — Frank, George H., and Leola M. The 
last mentioned is living at home with her 
parents, at Callaway. 

Mr. and Mrs. Steel were no sooner married 
than they began preparations to establish their 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



667 



home in Custer county, and in the fall of the 
same year they landed in Merna and moved 
on to land that Mr. Steel's father had bought 
the year before, and here they have resided 
continuously until the present time. As an 
indication of the thrift and prosperity that 
have attended their labors in Custer county, 
it might be stated that they own a half interest 
in 480 acres of land, which brings in a tine in- 
come, as it rarely fails to produce good crops. 
They have seventy-five head of cattle, forty 
head of horses, and a splendid complement of 
the high-prized porkers which in these days 
contribute so materially to profitable fanning. 

Nolan Steel tells us that when a boy he 
used to feed stock and grease a windmill once 
a week for an old gentleman and that for this 
service he received twenty-five cents a week. 
This was the initial money earned by Mr. Steel 
and was, perhaps, the foundation of his pres- 
ent accumulation. 

Mr. and Mrs. Steel have but one child, 
Cecil F., a son, who is fifteen years of age, in 
1918, and who is in his first year of the high- 
school course, while he is ambitiously looking 
forward to an agricultural course at Lincoln 
and also a business-college course. 

Mr. and Mrs. Steel are fine people, highly 
respected in the community, and members of 
the Methodist church. Mr. Steel is affiliated 
with the Modern Woodmen of America, and 
in connection with political aft'airs he generally 
votes the Democratic ticket. 



CHARLES H. SANDERSON. — In the 
famous Powell canyon of Custer county there 
resides, near Arnold, a sterling and popular 
citizen who has the distinction of having been 
born in Sweden but who is not of Scandina- 
vian lineage, as a glance at the family record 
clearly indicates. On the contrary Mr. San- 
derson is a scion of a fine line of staunch New 
England ancestry. It may thus be conjectured 
that the shrewdness and thrift of the subject 
of this review come to him as a heritage from 
this worthy New England stock. When it is 
stated that Mr. Sanderson was born in Swe- 
den, the significance of the notation, from a 
pure American standpoint, is enforced by the 
fact that the Sweden which he thus claims as 
the place of his nativity is a thriving town of 
that name in the countv of Oxford, Maine. 
At that place in the old Pine Tree state he was 
born on the 10th of May, 1857, and he is a 
son of Edwin and Betsey (Warren) Sander- 
son, both of whom were likewise born in 
Maine. The respective families were earlv 
founded in New Eneland. that gracious cradle 
of much of our national history, and the pa- 



ternal grandfather of Charles H. Sanderson 
was Stephen Sanderson, his maternal grand- 
father having been Daniel Warren. Edwin 
and Betsey (Warren) Sanderson became the 
parents of six children — Marion (deceased), 
Mrs. Marilla Kneeland, Eugene E., Stephen 
F., Charles H., and John B. Edwin Sander- 
son was a sturdy New England farmer and 
was true and loyal in all of the relations of 
life. His political support was given to the 
Republican party, he was affiliated with the 
Masonic fraternity, and he and his wife were 
earnest members of the Congregational church. 

Charles H. Sanderson was but four years 
old at the time of his mother's death, and as a 
boy he began to learn the dignity and value of 
honest toil and endeavor. He duly availed 
himself of the advantages of the common 
schools and supplemented this discipline by 
attending Bridgeton Academy, at Bridgeton, 
Maine, and later Dover Academy, in the state 
of New Hampshire. In pursuing his studies 
in Dover Academy Mr. Sanderson defrayed 
his expenses through funds which he earned 
by working Saturdays and during vacation 
periods. In this connection it may be noted 
that he earned three dollars a week by caring 
for the horses of a local jeweler in the town 
where he was attending school. 

After leaving school Mr. Sanderson was for 
several years in the employ of the Berlin Lum- 
ber Company, of Berlin, New Hampshire, and 
at intervals his services for this company were 
required in the Dominion of Canada. The 
major part of the monev which he earned 
while he was thus engaged, was sent home to 
his father, to aid in the support of the family. 
Later Mr. Sanderson was employed three 
years in the drug store of his brother Stephen, 
at Rochester, New Hampshire, and finally he 
made his way to Chicago, Illinois, where he 
was for three years in the employ of the Deer- 
ing Harvester Comjianv. At that time the 
late L. H. Jevvett, who later became well 
known in Custer county, Nebraska, was cash- 
ier for the Deering Company, and a close 
friendship was fonned by Mr. Jewett and Mr. 
Sanderson — a friendship severed only bv the 
death of Mr. Jewett. In 1884 the two' friends 
came to Nebraska and numbered themselves 
among the pioneer settlers of Custer county. 
Mr. Sanderson succeeded in acquiring a home- 
stead claim, a timber claim and a pre-emption 
claim in the Powell canyon, these claims being 
adjacent and being situated six miles northeast 
of the present village of Arnold. Mr. Sander- 
son vigorously set himself to the task of re- 
claiming and improving his land, and he con- 
tinued to reside on the pre-emption claim for 
thirty vears, the while success attended his 



668 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



earnest and well directed efforts. At the 
present time he is giving special attention to 
the improving of his original timber claim, 
with the intention of developing the same as 
his model farm home. The Sanderson ranch 
comprises 560 acres, and Mr. Sanderson owns 
also a valuable tract, of forty acres, adjoining 
the town of Arnold. His accumulations and 
substantial prosperity represent the direct re- 
sults of his successful enterprise along the 
lines of fanning and stock-raising, and while 
he has made a success of raising both cattle 
and hogs, he has given a greater preference 
to the latter branch of animal industry. He 
has contributed his quota to the civic and in- 
dustrial development of Custer county and is 
one of the well known and highly esteemed 
pioneer citizens of this favored sectioiT of the 
state. He has been definitely progressive and 
public-spirited and has been influential in com- 
munity affairs, as shown by the fact that he 
has been a member of the school board of his 
district for nearly thirty years. He gives his 
allegiance to the Republican party and he and 
his family are affiliated with the Christian 
church. 

At Morganville, Clay county, Kansas, on 
the 5th day of April, 18S9, was recorded the 
marriage of Mr. Sanderson and Miss Mary C. 
Conkright, of Jacksonville, Illinois. Her 
father, James C. Conkright, was a native of 
Kentucky, and was two years of age at the 
time of his parents' removal to New Salem, 
Illinois, where he remained until his early 
manhood. He married Miss Clarinda Mace, 
who was born at Bowdoinham, Maine, and 
their two children were Hannah and Mary C. 
For several years Mr. Conkright operated an 
iron foundry in Illinois, and thereafter he be- 
came one of the early pioneer settlers of Wil- 
son county, Kansas. In the Sunflower state 
he had his full share of the hardships entailed 
by the scourge of grasshoppers, for during 
those memorable years he was there engaged 
in farm enterprise. Finally he established liis 
residence at Morganville, Kansas, where for 
many years he was a prominent figure in both 
private and public life. He served many years 
in ofiices of public trust, including those of 
judge, and assessor, and he was one of the 
honored and influential men of his commun- 
ity. 

The genealog>' of Mrs. Sanderson, on both 
the i)aternal and maternal sides, traces back 
to sturdy New England origin. Edwin, the 
only child born to Air. and Mrs. Sanderson, 
died at the age of fifteen months, but in their 
home they have reared an adopted son, Valen- 
tine P. Sanderson, who remains with them and 
accords to them true filial solicitude. 



J. M. BATES. — Few families of Custer 
county are better or more favorably known 
than that which bears the name of Bates. Its 
members have been prominently identified 
with the various interests of central Nebraska 
ever since the general early settlement of this 
locality — as fanners, stock-raisers, large 
landholders, merchants, and public officials — 
and men bearing the name are listed among 
some of the wealthiest in the state. A worthy 
representative of the family is J. M. Bates, of 
Berwyn, for a long period identified with large 
aft'air.s, particularly in the line of agriculture, 
but now living in retirement. 

Mr. Bates was bom in Windsor county, 
\'ermont, August 19, 1850, and he is a son of 
James O. and Louisa Amanda (Martin) 
Bates, natives of the same county, where the 
former was born September 4, 1825, and the 
latter August 24, 1831. The parents were 
married in Vermont, in 1849. James O. Bates 
in early life was a school-teacher, but he sub- 
sequently turned his attention to merchandis- 
ing, and finally became a farmer and stock- 
raiser. In 1866 he removed to New Hamp- 
shire, where he made his home until 1879, in 
which year he turned his face toward the west, 
with C)maha, Nebraska, as his destination. In 
the vicinity of that city he farmed for four 
years, but in 1883 he disposed of his interests 
there and came to Custer county, where his 
death occurred in 1895, his widow sur\-iving 
until 1904. Three daughters also died on the 
homestead, and only the two sons now re- 
main : J. M., of this review, and Claude E., 
of Lillian, Nebraska, a bachelor, who is re- 
puted to be the third wealthiest man in Custer 
county. The parents were originally members 
of the Baptist church, but in later years joined 
the Congregational church. A Republican in 
his political views. James O. Bates was post- 
master at Lillian for a number of years, and 
at his death he was succeeded by his widow, 
who served as postmistress until her death. 
The ofifice was later held by a daughter of 
J. 'SI. Bates, and when she died it was taken 
over by her brother, who now acts in that 
official capacity. 

J. AI. Bates attended the public schools of 
Vennont and New Hampshire and went to 
college for two or three terms, graduating in 
bookkeeping and also studying commercial 
law. As a youth he was variously employed, 
principally on his father's farms, but after 
coming to Nebraska he became a collector for 
a wholesale house of C)maha, a position which 
he held for several years. Later he entered 
mercantile pursuits at Clarks, in Merrick 
county, where he was thus engaged for eight 
years, and he was engaged also in the grain- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



669 



buying business for four years. As his in- 
terests grew and succeeded, he began invest- 
ing his capital in land and gradually accumu- 
lated a good farm property in Custer county, 
on which he carried on operations both as 
farmer and breeder of stock for a number of 
years. This land, consisting of 800 acres, he 
now rents, his home being located at Berwyn, 
where he also has large, important and val- 
uable interests, including real estate to the 
value of $40,000. All that he owns to-day he 
has accumlated through the medium of his 
own efforts. He has been the pioneer in a 
number of movements that have demonstrated 
his progressive spirit, and has ever been one to 
foster and promote beneficial enterprises. 
When he rode a mule into the newly formed 
town of Broken Bow, this animal was the 
first that was ever "put up" as a transient in 
that community, where it was housed in an old 
sod blacksmith shop. Mr. Bates it was who 
hauled the first lumber to erect a house at 
Sargent. As a citizen he has been public- 
spirited and as a business man his reputation 
is of the best. He is a Republican in politics 
and he and his family belong to the Christian 
church. 

In 1875 Mr. Bates married Miss Elizabeth 
Page, who was born at Orford, New Hamp- 
shire. She is a daughter of Albert Page, who 
was a resident of Nebraska for five years, but 
later went to New Jersey, where he died. 
Mrs. Bates died in 1884, having been the 
mother of two children : Fred, postmaster at 
Lillian, and a prominent business man, whose 
interests approximate $100,000 ; and Helen, 
former postmistress at that place, now de- 
ceased. Mr. Bates was married again in 1884, 
to Miss Frances Simpson, who w'as born in 
Pennsylvania, a daughter of Jotham Simpson, 
whose death occurred in the state of California. 
Six children were born to this imion : Clyde, 
who is engaged in farming on his father's 
property nine miles north of Broken Bow ; 
Clemens, who is engaged in farming and rais- 
ing stock in the vicinity of Lillian ; Amy, who 
is the wife of George Howell, who carries on 
agricultural operations on one of her father's 
farms in Custer county : Zelma, who is the 
wife of George Raymond, farming on a prop- 
erty six miles southwest of Broken Bow ; Jes- 
sie, who is unmarried and resides with her 
parents at Berwyn ; and Verne, who is fann- 
ing five miles southwest of Broken Bow. 

ELMER V. WILKERSON. — One of the 
substantial men who are conducting success- 
ful operations in the Callaway vicinity is 
Elmer V. Wilkerson, who was born March 
31, 1878, in Lvnn countv, Missouri. He is a 



son of Aaron J. and Mary (Gooch) Wilker- 
son, the former a native of Missouri and the 
latter a native of the Blue Grass state, famous 
for good horses and beautiful women. In the 
family of Aaron J. Wilkerson were five child- 
ren, all of whom grew to maturity, namely: 
John F., Florence Fore, Katherine Salee. 
Harvey (deceased), and the subject of this 
sketch. The parents by religious faith were 
Presbyterians and were counted as substan- 
tial people in the community of their resi- 
dence. 

Young Elmer V. Wilkerson worked at 
home, attended school, improved his oppor- 
tunities and by being unusually studious, be- 
came so far advanced in his studies that he 
was able to teach school during the winter 
time from the time he was sixteen years old. 
Farming became the order of the day, w^ork 
during the summer, teaching school during 
the winter. He recalls that one summer he 
pitched hay for fifty cents a day, but he has 
always believed that the work was worth 
more money. By this means he secured 
enough money to attend the Missouri Nonnal 
School at Chillicothe, for a year and one-half. 
He continued to reside at home, working and 
teaching, until he reached his majority. 

October 22, 1899, at Meadville, Missouri, 
was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Wilker- 
son to Miss Esther W. Sidebottom, who was 
born and reared in that town and who is a 
daughter of William W. and Mary (Ogan) 
Sidebottom. Mr. and Mrs. Wilkerson then 
established a home of their own, and they 
have maintained it in comfort and plenty dur- 
ing the years that have followed. They have 
three sons : Lawrence W'ayne is a graduate 
of the high school at Wheeling, Missouri ; 
Dayton W.. eleven years of age ; and Ray- 
mond Earl, six years of age, are both in school 
and are candidates for higher education. 

During the first part of his independent 
career. Air. Wilkerson made his home on a 
farm. He farmed during the summer, handled 
some stock and taught school in the winter 
time. This was the program until the winter 
of 1917, when he gave up the last part of an 
unexpired term of school and came to Custer 
county and purchased part of the old Penn 
ranch, on Spring creek. This he has recently 
sold, making a splendid profit on his invest- 
ment. He is well pleased with the county and 
expects to reinvest his monev in other land in 
this county. Mr. and Mrs. Wilkerson are fine 
people, and the citizens of Custer countv will 
be glad to have them remain and here make 
their future home. They are members of the 
Methodist church and Mr. Wilkerson is af- 
filiated with the Knights of the Maccabees. 



670 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



His political allegiance is given to the Repub- 
lican party. 



WESLEY MILLER, uho is numbered 
among the prominent representatives of the 
farming and stock-raising interests of Custer 
county, and who is now the owner of the 
homestead secured by his father in 1885, has 
made his entire career within the borders of 
the county. He is a native of Linn county, 
Iowa, and was bom August 10, 1869, being i 
son of William and Loretta (Hagey) Miller, 
both natives of Westmoreland county, Penn- 
sylvania. His paternal grandfather was 
Michael Miller, a blacksmith by trade, who 
died in Linn county, Iowa, while his maternal 
grandfather was Adam Hagey, who was born 
in Pennsylvania and who moved to Iowa and 
spent his last years in farming. 

William Miller was born in 1830 and was 
educated in the public schools of the Key- 
stone state, where, in Westmoreland county, 
he learned the trade of blacksmith. About the 
year 1861 he moved to Iowa, where he fol- 
lowed his trade, as he did also after coming to 
Nebraska, in connection with carrying on 
farming- on his homestead, in Custer county. 
on which he settled in 1885. Later he tumed 
his entire attention to farming and the raising 
of live stock, and he was so engaged at the 
time of his death, in 1902, although at that 
time he was a resident of Oklahoma. Origin- 
ally a Republican, in his later years he trans- 
ferred his allegiance to the Populist party, 
and he held several local public offices. Mrs. 
Miller, who was bom in 1833, died in Greene 
county. Iowa. September 10, 1887. Thev were 
members of the old line Presbyterian church, 
and had eight children, of whom seven are 
now living, Wesley having been the seventh 
in order of birth. Only one other child lives 
in Nebraska : John C, who is engaged in 
farming in the vicinity of Anslev. 

Wesley Miller was educated in the public 
schools of Greene county. Iowa, and Custer 
county, Nebraska, and from his vouth has 
been engaged in famiing. He remained on 
the homestead, which he secured by purchase 
from the heirs of the estate after his father's 
death, in 1902. and at the present time he is 
the owner of 440 acers of good land, all ac- 
cumulated through his own efforts. From 
time to time he has made modern improve- 
ments on his property, which now has a set of 
good buildings, including his pleasant home, 
erected by him in 1909, and a large bam. built 
in 1911, as well as substantial outbuildings. 
In addition to general famiing. he has always 
carried on stock-raising, and in each direction 



he has met with well desened success. Fra- 
ternally Mr. Miller is well known, being a 
member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows and the Modem Woodmen of Amer- 
ica, and he is now serving his third term as 
master of the local Grange. He is an inde- 
pendent Democrat in politics. As a citizen he 
has been a staunch and generous supporter of 
public-spirited movements, and has fulfilled 
his responsibilities in an efficient manner in 
the offices of constable for several years and 
justice of the peace one term. 

In September, 1892, Mr. Miller w^as united 
in marriage to Miss Anna L. Littler, who was 
bom at Lincoln, Nebraska, a daughter of 
Oliver Littler, who conducted a transfer busi- 
ness in Lincoln for a numljer of years and 
who died in that city. Two children have been 
bom to Mr. and Mrs. Miller— Myron W., 
who is, at the time of this writing, with the 
.\merican E.xpeditionar}' Forces in France; 
and Elnora, who is residing with her parents 
and is one of Custer county's successful 
school-teachers. 



CHRIST HELMUTH. who is a prosper- 
ous and well contented farmer living in Cus- 
ter county, Nebraska, where he owns several 
valuable properties and has a fine home, has 
lived here for thirty- four years and is highly 
respected in his neighborhood. Mr. Helmuth 
was born in Germany, February 10, 1860, a 
son of John and Mary Helmuth, whose child- 
ren were : William, John, Christ, and Carrie. 

Christ Helmuth was fourteen years old 
when he accompanied his mother, his sister 
Carrie, and August Wirshing, who was a half- 
brother, to the United States. His people be- 
longed to the working class and, as the law 
provided, he was given three hours of school- 
ing in the forenoon of each day. Thus, al- 
though not acquainted with any language ex- 
cept that of his native land, he was a well in- 
lonned youth when he came to .America. 
Agricultural conditions, however, were not 
encouraging at that time in Germany, and 
thus the family sought a new home in a land 
where their industry would be certain to be 
rewarded by a chance to secure farm land. 
When Mr. Helmuth and his mother, sister and 
half-brother reached Illinois, they stopped in 
Jo Daviess county, and all went to work on 
farms. In February, 1884, the Helmuths 
came to Lexington. Dawson county, Nebraska, 
and immediately afterward located claims on 
the Buffalo Table, eight miles west of Oconto, 
Custer county. At that time it was a some- 
what arid region and there was considerable 
hardship endured for a period, because of 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



671 



lack of water. John Helmuth secured the 
first well on the Buffalo Table, in 1890, and in 
the same year Ernest Snyder also found 
water. Other settlers also sunk wells, and 
the critical situation of those early years 
passed away. Mr. Helmuth remembers haul- 
ing water for drinking purposes a distance of 
about five miles during a period of six years, 
securing water for other purposes from Buf- 
falo wallows and lagoons. This lack of water 
interfered with farming and stock-raising in- 
dustries for a time, but the Helmuths were not 
discouraged. They held on to their land and 
the old homestead now belongs to Christ Hel- 
muth, who still lives on the place, and is 
prosperous and satisfied. He has always been 
a hard and steady worker, and through his 
industry has secured a second farm, of 160 
acres, besides which he has everything com- 
fortable around him. He earned his first 
money when he was ten years old, by working 
on a farm in Germany, his wages being five 
cents for a half-day. 

Mr. Helmuth was married May 4, 1889, to 
Miss Barbara Snyder, a daughter of Ernest 
and Johanna (Kape) Snyder, natives of Ger- 
many, who had the following children : Ern- 
est, Mrs. Lillie Helmuth, Mrs. Barbara Hel- 
muth, George, John, Lawrence, Mrs. Maggie 
German, Mrs. Susie Helmuth, Mrs. Anna 
Helsel, and Mrs. Louisa Lewis. Mr. and Mrs. 
Helmuth have five children, as follows : Mary 
L. is the wife of Robert Robison, of Mathers- 
ville, Illinois, and they have one daughter ; 
George C, who has been his father's helper, 
was looking forward to service in the national 
army, in the world war at the time when the 
great conflict came to a close ; Matilda D. is 
the wife of Raymond Badgley, a farmer living 
three miles west of Oconto, and they have one 
son ; and Carrie G. and Daisy R. are attending 
school. Mr. Helmuth and his family belong 
to the Lutheran church. He is an independent 
voter and is affiliated with the Modem Wood- 
men of America. 



CHARLES L. MOUGEY, a retired farmer 
of Custer county, now residing at Kearney, is 
a well known and much esteemed citizen and 
is a worthy representative of that sturdy band 
of settlers and homeseekers that came into the 
county in 1883. He was bom in Scioto 
county. Ohio, August 30, 1855. His parents 
were Charles C. and Eugenia (MagneUi 
Mougey, the father a native of France and the 
mother of Ohio, bom of French parents. 
Charles C. Mougey and wife had the follow- 
ing children: John, Peter, Mary, Joseph \\'.. 
Mrs. Catherine Powell, Charles L., Mrs. Ma- 



tilda Deaver, Edward J., Eli. Mrs. Josephine 
Baker, George, Mrs. Bertha Schlistamier, 
Mrs. Ellen Mougey, and Lewis and Ezra, both 
of whom died in infancy. 

Charles L. Mougey came to Custer county 
thirty-five years ago and located one mile 
south of Lodi. He developed a fine farm 
there and lived on the place until within re- 
cent years, when he moved to Kearney. He 
has since lived retired from business activity 
but still owns the homestead. He was mar- 
ried, at Mount Pleasant, Nebraska, Decem- 
ber 24, 1884, to Miss Flora Bird, on her 
twenty-first birthday. Her parents were 
Lewis and Emeline (Currant) Bird, and she 
has five sisters, namely : Rachel J. and Re- 
becca A., twins, their wedded names being 
Webster and Moffit, respectively ; Mrs. Olive 
M. Searles, Mrs. S. Margaret Mougey, and 
Mrs. Osta E. Eddy. 

Mr. and Mrs. Mougey have had four child- 
ren : Raymond, Bird, Orpha, and Florence. 
Raymond, who now operates the old home- 
stead farm, married Margaret E. Nichols, and 
they have four children, Margaret, Maurice, 
Arthur, and Eleanor Jean. Raymond Mou- 
gey and his family belong to the Evangelical 
church. In politics he is a Democrat, like 
his father. The second son. Bird, is a cement 
contractor, engaged in business at Manhattan. 
Montana. He married Eloise Whitaker and 
they have two children, Lloyd E. and Flora- 
bird. He and his wife are members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church. Orpha died at 
the age of three years. Florence, the youngest 
of the family, is a highly educated young ladv. 
she being a graduate of the Kearney hieh 
school and the Kearney State Normal, with 
the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Mr. and 
Mrs. Mougey are members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. Wherever known, the fam- 
ily has high social standing. 



AUSTIN A. NARRAGON, who is a well 
known citizen and successful farmer, has been 
a resident of Custer county for thirty years, 
and during this time has witnessed wonderful 
progress along every line. He was born near 
Anamosa, Jones county, Iowa, October 5, 
1866, and is a sqn of Lyman J. and Mary E. 
(W'illison) Narragon, the foniier of whom 
was born near Oswego, New York, and died' 
in Nebraska, in August, 1913, and the latter 
of whom was bom in Ohio, seventy-six years 
asjo: since the death of her husband she re- 
sides with her son, William Narragon, in 
Custer county. Of the ten children the fol- 
lowing survive : Austin A., William S.. Elisha 
L., Charles C. Mrs. Rosa Miller, Mrs. Elva E. 



672 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



Read, and Mrs. Ula Toby. By trade the 
father was a millwright, and the building of 
mills called him to ditYerent sections. 

In his early boyhood Austin A. Narragon 
went to school in his native county. In 1874, 
when he was eight years old. his parents moved 
to western Iowa and two years later they 
went to Crystal Lake, Michigan. It was while 
living there that young Austin consummated 
what was probably his first business transac- 
tion, which consisted of picking blackberries. 
carr)'ing them four miles and receiving three 
cents a quart for them thus delivered. It was 
over ten years later that the family came to 
Custer county, in 18<S<S, and located on Elk 
creek, ten miles south of Mason City, where 
the father rented and operated land for one 
year. In 1890 Lyman I. Narragon and his 
sons Austin A. and William S. came to the 
neighborhood of Oconto and located three 
claims, five miles southwest of the village, all 
this land being valuable at the present time. 
Austin A. Narragon remained at home with 
his parents, looked after them in their declin- 
ing years and has never married. He is a 
Republican in his political principles, as was 
his father, and he was reared in the faith of 
the Evangelical church. 



Nc GEORGE, who is one of the substan- 
tial and representative farmers of the South 
Loup countr}', is numbered among the well 
known and influential pioneer citizens of Cus- 
ter county, within whose borders he has main- 
tained his residence for more than forty years, 
so that his personal experience covered vir- 
tually the entire period marking the develop- 
ment and progress of this now favored section 
of Nebraska. 

Mr. George claims the historic old Bav state 
as the place of his nativity. He was born in 
Danvers, Essex county, Massachusetts, on the 
31.st of May. 1852, and is a son of Lorenzo 
D. and Harriet (Gilford) George, the former 
of whom was born in Carroll county. New 
Hampshire, and the latter of whom was born 
and reared in Massachusetts. !Mr. George is 
a scion of staunch \\'elsh ancestr\-, and it may 
consistently be said that he has inherited nianv 
of the predominating characteristics that have 
"always made the renresentatives of the Welsh 
stock leal and loyal, sturdy and upright, in 
all of the relations of life. Mr. George is the 
eldest in a family of five children, and con- 
cerning the others the following brief record 
may consistently be entered: Mrs. Ella Trew 
was the second in order of birth and she and 
her husband are residents of Custer countv ; 



Mrs. Ida Sleeth. the third child, is a resident 
of the state of Washington ; Cora Jane, re- 
cently deceased, was the wife of AUie L. ^lor- 
gan, who resides not far distant from the 
George homestead in Custer county; and Mrs. 
Flora Silvernail, who resides in Milltown, 
\\"ashington, is the widow of Frederick Sil- 
vernail, who was engaged in lumbering op- 
erations in that state. 

Nc George is indebted to the common 
schools of ]\Iassachu5etts for his early educa- 
tional discipline, which included that of the 
high school, and as a youth he gained a due 
quota of experience in connection with farm 
enterprise in his native state. The year 1871 
recorded the arrival of Mr. George in Nebras- 
ka, and he passed the first two years in the 
vicinity of Gibbon. Buflfalo county. In 1873 
he married, and about two years later, in 1875, 
he and his wife numbered themselves among 
the pioneer settlers of Custer county. Here 
Mr. George filed entry on a homestead and 
forthwith began the development and im- 
provement of the pioneer farm, his operations 
being along both agricultural and live-stock 
lines. As the years passed, his well directed 
industrial activities, in which he received the 
assistance of his wife and his sons, were 
marked by cumulative success, and thus was 
laid the foundation for the substantial material 
prosperity which is his at the present time. 
He and his wife endured their full share of 
of the discouragements and trials that marked 
the pioneer era in Custer county history, but 
the gracious rewards of later years have made 
these hardshi]xs and frontier experiences but 
matters of pleasing reminiscence. In the his- 
torical department of this publication mention 
is made of an interesting incident in the career 
of Mr. George, and the same may well be re- 
peated in this immediate connection. In the 
pioneer days he applied for appointment to 
the position of postmaster of a newly estab- 
lished postoffice in the vicinity of Georgetown. 
In his petition he signed his name Nc George. 
The postoffice authorities in Washington mis- 
took his first name for initials and wrote that 
he must supply his full name. He found it 
impossible ' to convince the postoffice depart- 
ment that he had no other personal or Chris- 
tian name save that indicated by the two con- 
sonant letters, and thus the appointment was 
denied him. It may further be stated that 
the town of Georgetown was named in honor 
of the subject of this review. 

Mr. George has long been a progressive and 
successful exponent of agricultural and live- 
stock cnteq)risc in Custer county and has been 
one of the influential and valued citizens of the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



673 




Nc George and Family 



674 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



ccminiinity in which he has maintained his 
home for more than two score years. His po- 
Htical allegiance is given to the Republican 
party and he is well fortified in his opinions 
concerning public policies. He has been called 
upon to serve as precinct assessor and for a 
number of years he held the office of town- 
ship clerk, though he has never been imbued 
with any ambition for political preferment 
and in his service has been animated only by 
civic loyalty. He is affiliated with the Modern 
Woodmen of America and he and his wife 
are zealous members of and liberal contrib- 
utors to the First Eudell Baptist church, at 
Cumro. They were instrumental in effecting 
the organization of the Old Settlers' Associ- 
ation of the South Loup country and have 
been prominent and influential in its subse- 
quent maintenance and social activities. It is 
interesting to record that this association holds 
its annual picnics on the George homestead. 
Mrs. George is a woman of distinctive literary 
ability an dsome of her papers, read at the 
old settlers' picnics and at church meetings. 
have attracted much attention and favorable 
comment, the while they constitute a valuable 
contribution to the historic and general litcr- 
ture of the county. It may well be said that 
Mr. George and his wife are known to virtual- 
ly all of the pioneer citizens of Custer county 
and that tJie circle of their friends is limited 
only by that of their acc|uaintances. They have 
been prominent in public and social affairs 
and have done well their part in furthering 
the civic and material prosperity of their home 
county and state. 

In 1873 was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. George to Miss Ruth Emogene Allen, a 
daughter of Josiah X. and ^Nlary Allen, who 
were at that time residents of Gibbon, Ne- 
braska. In conclusion is entered brief record 
concerning the children of Mr. and Airs. 
George: Llewellyn D. is a prominent anrl 
highly esteemed citizen of Broken Bow ; Ethel 
is the wife of Walter B. Curtis, and they re- 
side in the vicinity of Anselmo, this county ; 
Ralph, who is condurting successful operations 
on a Custer county farm, married Mrs. Viola 
(Barr) Lesh, and their pleasant home is a 
center of generous hospitality: Eunice is the 
wife of Rev. W. F. McNiell, a clergyman of 
the Baptist church, and they reside in the 
city of Chicago : Clarence remains at the pa- 
rental home and is his father's coadjutor in 
the work and management of the farm ; Ar- 
thur, who married Miss Ruby Nichols, at 
Grand Junction, Colorado, their home being 
now in the city of Lincoln, Nebraska, became 
associate editor of the Xcbniska Ruralist and 



field man, but he entered the nation's mili- 
tary service in connection with the world war 
and at the time of the close of the great con- 
flict he was stationed at Camp Pike, Arkan- 
sas, and is now commissioned second lieuten- 
ant of reserves, and honorably discharged : he 
has resumed his duties with the Nebraska Ru- 
ralist; Bertha is the wife of Hervy Hinote, who 
is a carpenter by trade, and they reside on 
the George homestead ; Vincent, who married 
Miss Marian Gillespie, of Polk county, is 
a teacher of mechanical engineering in the 
L'niversity of Wisconsin at the time of this 
writing, in the winter of 1918-19; and Mar- 
guerite, the youngest of the children, is attend- 
ing school in the city of Chicago, she being a 
young woman of talent and engaging per- 
sonality. 



FELIX BERNERT, who is one of the 
most extensive and prosperous farmers in his 
part of Custer county, is not one who has had 
fortune and property thrust upon him by in- 
heritance and, perhaps, increased it by care- 
ful management. (Jn the contrar\-. his large 
competency, his valuable properties and his 
high and substantial standing as a citizen, 
have been acquired by individual force of 
character, by industry, perseverance, and in- 
telligent elifort, founded upon the strictest 
honor. Starting as a simple homesteader, 
about thirty-three years ago, he is now the 
owner and active operator of 1,120 acres of as 
fine land, on the whole, as can be found in 
Custer county. 

Mr. Bernert was bom in Moravia, Austria, 
March 19, 1857, a son of Joseph and Josepha 
( Witche ) Bernert. His father was a brick- 
burner in .Austria, which country he never 
left, nor did his wife or the other ten childreii 
of the family. Felix Bernert, the youngest of 
his parents' children, was educated in the pub- 
lic schools of his native land, and was various- 
ly employed there until he reached his twenty- 
fifth year. At that time he immigrated to the 
L'nited States, and February 26, 1882, he 
settled in Cook cotmty, Illinois, w'here for two 
years he was employed by the day as a farm 
laborer. Thus he \yas able to secure a start 
and to save a small amount of capital, with 
which he came to Nebraska in 1884, locating 
in Thayer county, where he v>orked on a farm 
for another vear. In 1885 he came to Custer 
county and filed on a homestead, which prove-l 
the nucleus for his present larsre property, and 
which he still owns and holds for his home 
property. .\t the time of his arrival he erect- 
ed a sod house of the same type as those used 
l)v other early settlers, but, along with other 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



675 



misfortunes, he lost this place of habitation, 
in a cyclone. He built a more pretentious 
abode to replace the one destroyed in 1890, 
and this was his residence until 1909, when he 
erected the modern house in which he now 
hc.s all the comforts and conveniences of civi- 
lization. Mr. Bernert has added to his im- 
provements, his buildings and his general 
equipment as the years have passed, and the 
prosperity of the present day compensates him 
for all the hardships that he passed through 
before he was able to get his start. He fol- 
lows general farming, in which he has met 
with remarkable success, probably because of 
his skilled management and his knowledge of 
his vocation, together with his unceasing in- 
dustry and an intelligent use of modern meth- 
ods and appliances. He has been successful 
also in raising live stock, and at this time he 
has ninety-nine head of cattle, at the head of 
his held being a thoroughbred Hereford indi- 
vidual. He also has 119 head of hogs of a 
good grade, and is accounted a good judge of 
live stock. 

Mr. Bernert is a Democrat in politics, but 
while he is a loyal and progressive citizen he 
has never sought public office. He is a friend 
of education and constructive civic move- 
ments, and has given his support to worthy 
enterprises tending to advance the general 
welfare. Reared in the faith of the Catholic 
church, he has remained true to its teachings, 
and his wife and their children likewise ad- 
here to the faith of this great mother church 
of Christendom. 

In 1887 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Bernert to Miss Clara Drechsler, who was 
born in Moravia, Austria. She is a daughter 
of Edward Drechsler, who came to Custer 
county, Nebraska, July 20, 1890, and who here 
passed the rest of his life in farming. To Mr. 
and Mrs, Bernert there have been born nine 
children, of whom six are living: Frank re- 
sides at home and assists his father in the 
work and management of the farm opera- 
tions ; Mary is the wife of H. Langer, of Cus- 
ter county : Joseph, who was twenty-six years 
of age, enlisted October 5. 1917, in the United 
States service, and was killed on the 6th of 
October, 1918, while a member of a regiment 
with the American Expeditionary Forces in 
France: Felix. Jr., is the owner of a farm 
near that of his father ; and Carl and John 
reside with their parents. 



EUGENE M. WEBB was born in Buffalo 
county, Wisconsin, on the 18th of December, 
1859, and is a son of Alfred P. and Ellen J. 
(Olds) Webb, the former a native of the state 



of New York and and the latter of Connecti- 
cut. The two children bom to the parents are 
Eugene M. and Bertina M. Pardoe. Alfred P. 
Webb was a gallant defender of the Union in 
the Civil war, in which he served on the flag 
ship of Admiral Farragut. 

In 1870 Eugene M. Webb came to Ne- 
braska in company with his widowed mother, 
and here he attended school for a year, after 
which his mother located on a homestead in 
Butler county. There she taught school for 
several years — until her son had completed 
his education and attained to his legal ma- 
jority. Mr. Webb earned his first money by 
dropping corn by hand for a German farmer, 
but he did not manifest much predilection for 
farm life in those days. Being of studious 
disposition, he became imbued with a desire 
to enter the field of journalism, and at the age 
of twenty-one years he became an apprentice 
in the office of the Butler County Press, where 
he learned the printer's trade under the in- 
struction of Hon. C. D. Casper, one of the 
oldest and best known newspaper writers in 
Nebraska. 

After being graduated from Mr. Casper's 
office, Mr. Webb became editor of the Brain- 
ard Enterprise, and in 1886 he established the 
Ulvsses Herald, which he conducted until the 
fall of 1888. He then located in Broken Bow 
and launched the Nebraska Citizen, a pioneer 
reform sheet which preached the old Green- 
back gospel and was a potent factor in blazing 
the way for the Farmers Alliance and the first 
Populist victory in Custer county. Mr. Webb 
claims the distinction of having written the 
first editorial ever written by a Nebraska 
editor in favor of independent political ac- 
tion. He attended the first Populist conven- 
tion and was a strong supporter of Kem in 
his first race for congress, being at that time 
a partner of Hon. C. W. Beal in the publica- 
tion of the Custer County Beacon. Two years 
later he established the Custer County Inde- 
pendent, at Callaway, and for six years this 
was recognized as one of the most aggressive 
Populist newspapers in Nebraska. Within 
that period, in 1896, Mr. Webb was elected a 
member of the state legislature, as representa- 
tive of Custer and Logan counties. After 
concluding his term as a legislator, he re- 
turned to Callaway and resumed the editorial 
management of the Independent. He vigor- 
ously opposed the fusion policy which had 
been forced upon the Populist party bv its 
leaders, and warned the rank and file of the 
party against the political machinations of the 
politicians who had bartered principles for 
office, at the party's expense. The politicians 
and office-holders retaliated bv a withdrawal 



676 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



of patronage from the Independent, in an ef- 
fort to force the paper out of business, but 
the paper waxed hotter as the patronage grew 
less. 

In the spring of 1898 Mr. Webb entered a 
homestead eight miles southwest of Callaway, 
but he continued the Independent and his 
fight against fusion, setting the type for the 
editorial pages in "the little old sod shanty" at 
night, after a hard day"s work in the field, 
and on publication day making the trip to 
Callaway with the type, which was placed in 
the forms and "shot into the enemy"' on much 
the same plan that Mark Twain's poetrj- was 
shot into the Indians. And thus the Inde- 
pendent eked out its existence until the fall 
of 1898, when Mr. Webb retired from news- 
paper work. He has since devoted his ener- 
gies to the development of his farm and the 
raising of live stock. 

In 1912 Mr. Webb was elected overseer of 
the Nebraska State Grange, and he is serving 
his sixth year in that capacity. He has al- 
ways been an active worker for the advance- 
ment of the agricultural interests of the 
county and state. 

At Bellwood, Butler county. Nebraska, on 
the 3d of August, 1884, Mr. Webb was united 
in marriage to Miss Lily May Freiday, a 
daughter of John G. and Pauline (Postman") 
Freiday. Mr. and Mrs. Webb have three 
children, concerning whom the following brief 
data are entered in conclusion of this review: 
Eugene M.. Jr., who is a farmer by vocation, 
married Miss Grace Province and they have 
two sons and three daughters : Alfred Vernon 
Webb, who likewise follows the basic indus- 
tries of farming and stock-raising, married 
Miss Gertrude Ashley ; and Thomas M. Webb, 
the youngest son, also is to be found arrayed 
with the sturdv yeomen who are actively 
identified with farm eiiterprise. 



JAMES V. DEVINE. — The financial in- 
terests of any live and growing community 
are among the most important, because upon 
these rest the possibility for progress or the 
probability of retrogression. Therefore those 
communities that are possessed of sound 
financial institutions are those best fortified 
for constructive growth and substantial de- 
velopment, and for this reason conservative 
banking houses are among the most valuable 
assets of anv city or town. The thriving com- 
munity of Oconto is fortunate in the posses- 
sion of such a reliable financial institution as 
the Farmers Bank of Oconto, which is now in 
its fourteenth vear. and the growth of which 
has been steady and consistent, in just pro- 



portion with the confidence in which it has 
been held by the people of the community. 
Since the time of its organization this bank 
has had the service of sound and well in- 
formed officials, among whom has been since 
its inception its present and only cashier, 
James V. Devine. 

Mr. Devine has been a resident of Custer 
county for nearly thirty years, during which 
time he has become, in several capacities, well 
known to the people here. In 1889 the De- 
vine family located not far from Broken Bow, 
settling on a homestead farm, and the boy- 
hood and youth of Mr. Devine were passed 
amid agricultural surroundings, his training 
being one in which were impressed upon 
him the dignity of labor, the value of industr}' 
and the necessity of honesty and integrity. He 
received good educational advantages in his 
youth, as he attended the public graded 
schools and the high school, and eventually 
was graduated from the Fremont Normal 
school. On the completion of his studies he 
turned his attention to business and financial 
matters, and when he entered the Farmers 
Bank of Oconto, at the organization of that 
institution, in 1905, he had considerable ex- 
perience of a valuable character behind him 
to assist him in familiarizing himself with his 
new and important duties. He has remained 
as cashier of this banking house to the present 
time, and much of its success may be justi- 
fiably accredited to his judgment, foresight, 
financial acumen and general popularity and 
afYability. He has numerous important con- 
nections in big business interests, and is ac- 
counted one of the substantial business men 
and public-spirited citizens of his community. 

Concerning John A. and Bridget A. De- 
vine, the parents of James V., individual men- 
tion is made on other pages of this work. 



BENJAMIN L. NICHOLAS, a practical 
and eiUerprising fanner and stock-raiser of 
the Mason City community of Custer county, 
owns and operates 880 acres of land, consti- 
tuting one of the valuable and highly improved 
farms of the locality. These possessions 
have been acquired through the medium of the 
efforts of Mr. Nicholas and the members of 
his family and as the resuh of his consecu- 
tive endeavor he has won a place among the 
substantial citizens of his adopted county- 
Mr. Nicholas was bom on Holowav farm, 
near Nasberth. Wales. March 10. 1856. He 
is a son of Thomas and Martha (Lewis') 
Nicholas, and a grandson of Edward Nicho- 
las and Evan Lewis, all of whom passed their 
entire lives in Wales. Thomas Nicholas was 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



677 



a successful farmer, a well known and highly 
esteemed citizen, a tiberal in politics, and he 
and his wife were faithful members of the 
Calvanistic Methodist church. Of their eight- 
een children, six are living, and Benjamin L. 
was the only one to come to the United States. 
Benjamin L. Nicholas was given a liberal 
education in his youth, including attendance at 
the high school,- and was a bright scholar with 
a quick and retentive mind, samples of his 
penmanship at the age of thirteen years, as 
preseiwed in a beautiful book kept by himself, 
giving evidence that he was greatly advanced 
at that time. He was reared on his father's 
farm, and on February 28, 1881, he wedded 
Miss Margaret Beynon, who was born at 
Merthyr Tydvil. South \\'ales, August 28, 
1857, a daughter of Rev. John and Ann (Will- 
iams ) Beynon, the father having been a min- 
ister of the Congregational church. Rev. John 
and Ann (Williams) Beynon became the 
parents of four children — Edward, who is 
deceased ; Mary, who died in infancy ; David 
John, who is a clergyman of the Congrega- 
tional church and who is at the time of this 
writing a resident of Southampton, England; 
and Margaret, who is the wife of Benjamin 
L. Nicholas, the subject of this review. Al- 
most immediately after their marriage, Mr. 
and Mrs. Nicholas sailed for the United 
States, and within the year 1881 they arrived 
in Kansas, where they homesteaded a tract of 
eighty acres. This they subsequently relin- 
quished, to come to Custer county, Nebraska, 
where, in 1884, they pre-empted a quarter- 
section of land. At the time of their arrival 
they had but two cows, and their first resi- 
dence was a sod house, but Mr. Nicholas' 
ability, industry, and perseverance, with the 
assistance of his worthy wife, succeeded in 
overcoming all obtsacles, and he kept adding 
to his land until he now has 880 acres. The 
sod house was abandoned for a more commo- 
dious and comfortable dwelling, and the build- 
ings are now all modern in character, while 
the other improvements are of the latest type. 
Around the residence are numerous shade- 
trees, which greatly add to the attractiveness 
of this country estate, and which were planted 
by Mr. Nicholas himself. He carries on gen- 
eral farming in the main, and also raises all 
kinds of live stock, and he has been very suc- 
cessful in both departments of farm enter- 
prise. As a citizen he has taken an active 
part in the life and government of the com- 
munity, having been justice of the peace for i 
time and a member of the board of county 
commissioners for six years, in addition to 
which he has rendered valuable service to the 
community as a member of the school board. 



In this connection it may be said that he has 
always been a great friend of education, and 
that all of his children are high-school gradu- 
ates, while some have taken normal-school 
courses. Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas are members 
of the Baptist church. He is affiliated with 
the Mason City blue lodge of the Masonic 
fraternity, and with the Modem Woodmen of 
America. Concerning the children of Mr. and 
Mrs. Nicholas the following brief record is 
consistently entered : Martha Ann is the wife 
of E. G. Burrows, of Mason City. Mary 
Theodosia is the wife of Nels Peterson, man- 
ager of the Burrows store at Mason City. 
Margaret Britannia is the wife of Carl G. 
Bunnell, who is in the service of the Standard 
Oil Company, at Fargo, North Dakota. Sarah 
Jane, a talented teacher of music, is now at 
the parental home. Alice Ursula, who was 
formerly a popular teacher in the public 
schools of Mullin and Broken Bow, on the 
1st of October, 1918, went to Fort Riley, Kan- 
sas, in the capacity of Red Cross nurse. 
Gwendolyn Irene is the wife of W. J. Beachy, 
who was formerly superintendent of the pub- 
lic schools at Ansley, Custer county, and who 
for two years thereafter held the position of 
superintendent of the schools at Davenport, 
this state : he then took a radio course, in 
preparation for service in connection with the 
nation's participation in the world war, and at 
the time when the great conflict came to a 
close he was attached to the Forty-sixth Corps, 
in California. Elizabeth Marion is the wife 
of John C. Eloe, a prosperous fanner in Cus- 
ter county. John Thomas, who was graduated 
in the Alason City schools and who later 
passed one year as a student in the Grand 
Island Baptist College, was a member of the 
Students Army Training Corps at the Ne- 
braska State Normal School in Kearney at the 
time when the war closed. William Lewis, 
who likewise was graduated in the Mason City 
high school, remains at the parental home. 



WILLIAM J. RICE. — If the Civil war re- 
vealed nothing more, it certainly did make 
manifest the fact that the American people on 
either side of Mason and Dixon's Line were 
men of hearts, brains, and heroism. Among 
those who bore the brunt of conflict and toiled 
and suffered in camp and on the march, in be- 
half of the Union, is Mr. Rice, who is now 
engaged in the peaceful pursuit of farming. 

William Jasper Rice was born in Adair 
county, Missouri, March 20, 1844. His father, 
Erastus Rice, was born in Westmoreland 
county, Pennsylvania, and served as a soldier 
in the Mexican war. He located in Missouri, 



678 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



where he became a farmer and where he 
spent the remainder of his days. His wife 
bore the maiden name of Amanda Mason and 
was a native of Missouri, in which state she 
spent her entire Hfe. 

Wilham J. Rice was reared on a farm in 
his native county, where he attended the pub- 
He schools, and he was only a boy when the 
Civil war burst upon the nation. Watching 
the course of events, his patriotic spirit was 
aroused, and when past nineteen years of age 
he enlisted, in August. 1863, at Centerville, 
Iowa, in Company L, Eighth Iowa Cavalry, 
in which he served till the close of the war, 
when he was honorably discharged, at Clinton, 
Iowa. He passed through the Atlanta cam- 
paign and was with \\ilson on the raid 
through Georgia, taking part in the important 
battles of Franklin and Nashville, besides 
many mionr engagements. At the close of the 
war, having made a creditable military record, 
he returned to Missouri, and November 18, 
1866, in Putnam county, he was united in 
marriage to Miss Sarah A. Mullins. a native 
of I\Iissouri. Her father. Matthew Mullins. 
was born in North Carolina and died in Mis- 
souri, in 1871. Her mother, whose maiden 
name was Nancy Guinn. was bom in Tennes- 
see and died in Missouri, in 1879. Mrs. Rice 
had two brothers, Thomas B. and John W.. 
who served in the Eighth Iowa Cavalry, and 
Thomas B. was a prisoner at Andersonvilk 
for three months. 

Mr. and Mrs. Rice spent several years in 
Missouri, and in 1887 they came to Custer 
county, Nebraska, where he homesteaded 160 
acres, in section 7, township 17. range 23, be- 
sides pre-empting a tree claim adjoining. A 
sod house was his residence for many years, 
and pioneer conditions were still to be found 
on every hand. His farm to-day is equipped 
with a good set of buildings, the present frame 
house having been erected in 1909. Mr. Rice 
was actively engaged in farming for many 
years, but the work of the fields has been 
shifted to younger shoulders, though Mr, Rice 
manages his alTairs and finds time to handle 
fire insurance, as agent for the Columbia Fire 
Insurance Company, of Omaha. 

Mr. and Mrs. Rice have had eight children : 
Mar)' L. is the wife of Daniel Maupin. of 
Colorado : Martha F. is the wife of William E 
Wardrobe and resides in Custer countv : M. 
E. is a bachelor and remains at the parental 
home: Amanda E. is the wife of D. D. Shaw, 
residing in Custer counuty : James R. is a 
farmer in township 17, this county : Laura B. 
and Elmer arc at home ; and J. C. remains in 
Custer countv. 

Mr. Rice has been active in politics, as an 



advocate of principles endorsed by the Re- 
publican party. He has held various town- 
ship offices, has been a member of the Repub- 
lican county central committee and at the 
primaries in August. 1918. he received the 
nomination of his party as a candidate for the 
lower house of the state legislature. It was 
well known that were he to be elected he 
would serve with credit to himself and his 
constituency, but he met defeat through nor- 
mal political exigencies. 

As a soldier, citizen, husband, father, and 
friend, Mr. Rice is one who can always be 
depended upon, and any enterprise which 
means the betterment of the community is as- 
sured his support. 



HENRY L. LOWRY. — This is the story 
of a life that has been lived, of a ser\-ice that 
has been rendered and of which the record is 
made. All the friends who knew Mr. Lowry 
in life say that the record is creditable and 
that he well deserves a tribute in this volume. 

Henry Lewis Lowry was born near Roches- 
ter. Minnesota. August 1. 1856. and died in 
the hospital at Rochester. September 18. 1908. 
having at the close of his life rounded a circle 
by returning to the place of his birth. Hi.s 
story, as it concerns Custer county, begins in 
1877. at which time he moved to this western 
domain and established his residence. On the 
2d day of January'. 1888. he was united in 
marriage to Susie May Thorn, who was born 
in Napoleon, Ohio, a daughter of Cline an<l 
Augusta (Morris) Thorn. Her father was a 
native of New Jersey, but later lived in Ohio 
and Michigan for a number of years. He is 
now retired and lives with his son. near the 
present home of Mrs. Lowry. After their 
marriage Mr. and Mrs. Lowrj' established a 
home of their one — one that in many respects 
was an ideal home, in that it contained com- 
fort and cheer, and brave hearts to meet the 
joys or sorrows of life as they came. Into 
this home were born two children — Earl 
Curtis Lowry works for his mother on the 
farm, where he is manager and mainstay ; 
Ella Mae Lowry was educated in the schools 
of Ansley and Litchfield and has been one year 
at the University of Nebraska : she has taught 
school in the home district for four vcars. 

Mr. Lowry moved to Litchfield. Nebraska, 
in 1896 and was en-aeed in the general mer- 
cantile business until 1902. when he moved to 
Lincoln. From that city he went to Richfield, 
Nebraska, where he again engaged in the 
general merchandise business. This he con- 
tinued imtil February. 1904. when he returned 
to Litchfield to take care of his father and 



HISTURY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



679 



mother. His health faihng, he went to Ro- 
chester, Minnesota, and there, in the famous 
hospital of the Mayo Brothers, he was oper- 
ated on by Dr. W. J. Mayo, for cerebral em- 
bolism. This was in September, 1908, and he 
never recovered from the operation but died 
in the hospital. 

Socially, Mr. Lowry was a member of the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen and the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in each 
of which he was a prominent factor in the 
lodges with which he affiliated. Prior to his 
death Mr. Lowry sold the old homestead upon 
which he filed in 1878 and which was his home 
for a number of years, but since his death 
Mrs. Lowry has bought another place, which 
she and her son are now managing. She has 
210 acres of good land, upon which they do a 
general farming and stock-raising business. 
Mrs. Lowry possesses those qualities with 
which every woman should be endowed who 
is forced to face the world alone. In her case, 
however, it is not quite true that she faces the 
world alone, for both her son and daughter 
are charged with much consideration for their 
mother and together their operations are quite 
successful. The family have always borne a 
good name and are rated high by their friends 
and neighbors. 



THOMAS FORAN. — Young blood and 
energy combined with Custer county climate 
and soil always spell success. Opportunity 
for youth and activity is everywhere in evi- 
dence. The young farmers of no country 
have better opportunity and no farmers are 
doing more to make opportunity than are the 
members of the young generation of soil tillers 
right here in this good county. 

Thomas Foran hails from the state of Illi- 
nois, where he was born in 1882, and he gave 
to his native state the first years of his child- 
hood. His fapiily record is set forth in detail 
in another sketch published elsewhere in this 
volume. He came with his parents to Custer 
county in 1886, and here he grew from child- 
hood to manhood, experiencing the usual in- 
cidents common to the youth of the central 
west. Here he obtained a liberal education in 
the common schools, and he has put into prac- 
tical oneration what he learned bv actual ex- 
perience on farm and stock ranch. 

To become the partner of his joys and sor- 
rows and add felicitv to domestic life, Mr. 
Foran led to the marriage altar Miss Elizabeth 
Hickey, on January 16. 1907, at Anselmo, this 
county. The bride was a young lady of gra- 
cious personality and well suited to preside 
over the home which it was their pleasure to 



establish and maintain. Mrs. Foran is a na- 
tive of Kansas, where she was born in 1885. 
Into the Foran home circle five children have 
made their advent : Ambrose Charles is ten 
years of age (1918); Delia Irene is eight; 
Philip James has seen six summers ; Delbert is 
four ; and Lena Mary is only two. All the 
children are at home and the first three named 
are attending school and are candidates for 
Custerites of unusual energ)'. The two 
younger children, while awaiting their turn at 
school, make the home interesting and banish 
lonesomeness. 

Tom Foran, as he is familiarly called, 
bought 160 acres and made it the foundation 
of his farming operations. To this, other land 
was added until to-day 800 acres comprise his 
landed estate, of which, 175 acres are in culti- 
vation. He put on his own improvements, 
owns his own machinery, and has a splendid 
start in live stock, which consists of hogs, 
horses, and twenty-four head of cattle. All of 
this is the result of his own energy and fru- 
gality, in which, of course, the good wife had 
a large share. He availed himself of the 
primitive sod house and resorted to economi- 
cal measures in securing the nucleus of what 
is bound to be a comfortable competency, suf- 
ficient to protect him and his wife from the 
encroachments of discomfort in their declin- 
ing days. They are faithful members of the 
Catholic church and generally attend church 
services in Anselmo, which is their nearest 
town. Mr. Foran generally votes the Demo- 
cratic ticket, provided that, in his opinion, thi 
Democratic candidate measures up to his 
standard of eligibility. The Forans are a fine 
family and enjoy the respect and confidence 
of their neighbors. 



JOHN L. WILLIAMS. — During a long 
and varied career, John L. Williams has ex- 
tended his abilities to numerous lines of busi- 
ness endeavor, in each of which he has made 
a success. In turn preacher, farmer, ranch- 
man and real-estate and insurance agent in the 
south and west, he has now settled down per- 
manently in the restaurant business, and is the 
proprietor of the leading establishment of this 
kind at Broken Bow. Sir. Williams was born 
in Huntington countv, Indiana. June 13. 1862. 
and is a son of Dr. W'illiam H. Williams. 

Dr. William H. Williams, the seventh son of 
John and Sarah ^^'illiams, was born in Fay- 
ette county, Indiana. February 28. 1819. and 
in his youth acquired his early education in 
the common schools of his native county. He 
early displayed a predilection for a profes- 
sional career, and for his primarv studies in 



680 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 







HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



681 



the profession of medicine he placed himself 
under the preceptorship of Dr. P. S. Silvey, a 
well known physician of Fayette county, with 
offices at Everton. He made rapid progress in 
his chosen field of endeavor, and while located 
at Everton he met a young lady of that place. 
Miss Susan Fox, to whom he was married 
October 4, 1837. Three years later he began 
his practice at Everton, but in the following 
spring he moved to Huntington county and 
located at Warren, where he lived and carried 
on his professional labors for thirteen years, 
building up an extensive practice and gaining 
the confidence of his fellow-citizens, whom he 
served not only as a physician but as justice 
of the peace as well. November 1, 1853, he 
moved with his family to New Lancaster, In- 
diana, and he was living there when the Civil 
war came on. Enlisting in 1863, he served 
gallantly for two years and ten months, dur- 
ing which time he took part in some heavy en- 
gagements, including Nashville and Franklin 
and all those of the Atlanta campaign. He 
received his honorable discharge, at Indian- 
apolis, Indiana, July 3, 1865, and returned to 
his home at New Lancaster, where he con- 
tinued his professionl work until 1878. He 
then removed to Antioch, where he enjoyed 
an extensive practice until his death, in 1891. 
During his residence at New Lancaster, he 
was frequently called upon for public service. 
For four years he was notary public and for 
nine years justice of the peace. He and his 
wife were the parents of the following child- 
ren : Mrs. Sarah A. Beal and Mrs. Loretta 
Beal, who still reside in Huntington county. 
Indiana : Napoleon B., of Indiana ; Dr. Orland 
B., a skilled physician who practiced medicine 
and surgery for years before his death, at 
New Lancaster; H. Jerome; John L. ; Arnold 
A., a fanner near Ng^ Lancaster; and Dr. 
O. B., a practicing physician at New Lancas- 
ter. 

John L. Williams received his education in 
the public schools, and his first vocation was 
performing the duties of ofifice-boy in the 
offices of his father and brother. Subse- 
quently he was engaged in farming for sev- 
eral years, and then he developed a gift for 
pulpit oratory and for a period traveled 
through the south, where he was' very suc- 
cessful in preaching and in establishing 
churches, particularly in Alabama. His first 
visit to Custer county was made in 1887, and 
while he remained only a short time, the im- 
pression created in his mind was strong, and 
in 1895 he was irresistably drawn back to 
this country, this time to make a permanent 
residence here. In the year mentioned he 
took up a homestead, and after proving up on 



the same he later repeated the operation. For 
a number of years he devoted himself to secur- 
ing and proving up on claims. In this way he 
came into close connection with the real-estate 
business and eventually he established himself 
in that line of enterprise at Broken Bow. One 
of his accomplishments at that time lay in his 
taking numerous homeseekers to Wheatland, 
Wyoming, where he placed them in the midst 
of prosperity and found them comfortable 
places of residence. He was also much in evi- 
dence in handling realty in and around Alli- 
ance. Another venture in which Mr. Williams 
was interested was the Omaha Health & Acci- 
dent Insurance Company, of which he was a 
charter member and a member of the first 
board of directors. In the spring of 1917 Mr. 
W'illiams left the real-estate business to be- 
come the proprietor of his present enterprise. 
Aided by Mrs. Williams, through industry and 
good management he has succeeded in de- 
veloping the leading business of its kind at 
Broken Bow, and one which has become ex- 
tremely popular, not only with the people of 
the county seat but also with the general 
traveling public as well. In addition to this 
business, Mr. Williams is the owner of a farm 
of 240 acres in central Missouri and a com- 
fortable, modern home and other realty at 
Broken Bow. 

In 1880 Mr. Williams married Miss Katie 
Fisher, who was born in Huntington county, 
Indiana, and they became the parents of five 
daughters : Ina, who became the wife of J. T. 
Hillman, a farmer of Broken Bow ; Etta, the 
wife of William Waft'en Smith, a well man at 
Menia, this county ; Mamie, who married 
Robert Winchester, a farmer near Broken 
Bow ; Isa, who married E. R. Davis, an oper- 
ator at Hulsey, Nebraska; and Nondic Nova, 
who married B. Carter, residing near Kear- 
ney, Nebraska. The family belongs to the 
Baptist church. 

JOSEPH T. COLE, who is one of the sub- 
stantial citizens of Custer county, for many 
years a heavy land-owner and cattle-grower, 
has been a resident of Nebraska since 1902. 
Mr. Cole was born at Kewanee, Illinois, July 
28. 1862. He comes of honest, sturdy old stock. 
His parents were Joshua and Susan ( Hoppock) 
Cole. His father was born at Athens. Ohio, 
from which place he moved to Kewanee. Illi- 
nois, in 1851. buying land in Henry county 
and continuing to cultivate the same during 
the rest of his active life. The mother of I\Ir. 
Cole was born at Trenton, New Jersey, and 
was an admirable woman in every relation of 
life. There were eight children in the faniilv 



682 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



— Mary C, Joseph T.. Elton G., William H., 
Wesley E., ^iartha M. (Cole) Keneval, Ernest 
O., and Otis R. These children were carefully 
reared in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. 

Joseph T. Cole attended the country schools 
in Henry county and had three years' training 
in the Kewanee high school. In the meanwhile 
he had been useful to his father on the farm 
and under his father's strict supervision 
learned farm methods thoroughly. In his boy- 
hood and in his section of the country, there 
was little opportunity to make much of a for- 
tune outside the regular business of farming, 
but Mr. Cole relates in a very amusing way 
one of his hopeful early attempts. A neighbor, 
an old Scotch farmer, was much annoyed by 
the gophers that persisted in making free with 
his crops, and his offer of five cents each for 
even,' trapped "varmint" looked like a paying 
proposition to Joseph T. and he accepted the 
terms. Although he was paid in the script 
then in common use, he earned one whole 
dollar and believes that was his thrift founda- 
tion, to use a term in general parlance to-day. 
He realized then, for the first time, what he 
believes every boy should learn early, that to 
earn a dollar is a much bigger proposition 
than to spend it. 

After reaching the age of twenty-one years 
Mr. Cole started out for himself, for three 
years afterward working for farmers by the 
month. He was careful and saving with his 
money but when he contracted to buy a 160- 
acre farm that pleased his fancy, he found that 
his accumulated savings would not be sufficient 
of themselves to cover the price of fifty dollars 
an acre. He was a young man of excellent 
standing in the community, however, and thus 
had no trouble in borrowing the amount re- 
quired. In a few years he had worked him- 
self out of debt and six years later sold his 
farm very advantageously. Mr. Cole not only 
Jiad industry and perseverance as helpful fac- 
tors in his career, but he early showed the 
enterprise that has, at various times, brought 
him ample returns along other than agricul- 
tural lines. With his brother, Elton G. Cole, 
he embarked in a lumber and grain business 
at Toulon, Illinois, which was continued for 
seven year„. It was during this period that 
the brothers built the first telephone line, 
nearly fifty miles in extent, in Stark countv. 
This bit nf enterprise proved a fortunate un- 
dertaking:. In 1902 Mr. Cole moved to Platte 
county, Nebraska, where for four years he was 
engaged in growing seeds for the great seed 
house of D. M. Ferry & Company, of Detroit. 
Michigan, and because of the thorough man- 



ner in which he carried this business to con- 
clusion it proved exceedingly profitable. One 
carload of seeds shipped within this time 
brought Mr. Cole the comfortable sum of 
$6,000. 

In 1906 Mr. Cole moved with his family 
to Custer county and bought 360 acres of fine 
land in the Tappin valley, on which he erected 
a spacious residence and otherwise so greatly 
improved it that he was able to sell it, ^larch 
1, 1918, for eight-five dollars per acre. In as- 
sociation with two sons, Mr. Cole yet owns a 
ranch of 4,000 acres, situated near Anselmo, 
on which he and his wife purpose to pass their 
summers happily, assisting in looking after 
their fine herds of cattle, while their sons carry 
on the business of farming. Their winters will 
be spent in their handsome modern residence 
at Broken Bow. 

At Kewanee, Illinois, on August 22, 1883, 
Mr. Cole was united in marriage with Miss 
Sarah E. Frazier, who was lx)rn at Blooming- 
dale, Ohio, a daughter of George and Anna 
( Crawford ) Frazier, the latter coming of Eng- 
lish ancestry. George Frazier was a lumber- 
man and operated a saw mill. Mrs. Cole was 
the fourth born of her parents' children, the 
others being: Mrs. Margaret M. Copeland, de- 
ceased ; James C, deceased; Mrs. Ella M. 
Busby; Mrs. Mary J. Dutton ; Thomas B. ; 
William: and John \\'., deceased. Mr. and 
Mrs. Cole have four children : Orren L., who 
is a successful farmer of Custer county, near 
Broken Bow, married Miss Pearl Martin ; 
Walter E. is a farmer and stock-raiser ; Arthur 
.\., who is also associated with his father, is 
a farmer and stock-raiser near Broken Bow ; 
and Olive attended the Broken Bow high 
school, took a business course in the State Nor- 
mal school at Kearney, and later completed a 
course in the Nebraska Agricultural College, 
at Lincoln. Mr. and Mrs. Cole are members 
of the Baptist church. In his political opinions 
Mr. Cole is an independent thinker and casts 
his vote according to the dictates of his own 
excellent judgment, which faculty has served 
him well for manv vears. 



DANIEL W. CORY. — This paragraph 
names one of the veterans of the county, one 
of the veterans of the Grand .\rmy of the Re- 
public, and one of the veterans among Custer 
county homesteaders — a man who has reached 
the years of his retirement and who finds life 
bright at eventide. 

Mr. Cory was born January 18, 1841, in 
Boone county, Indiana. His parents were Jer- 
emiah and Marv (Miller) Corv, both natives 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



683 



of Ohio and both excellent people who trans- 
mitted to their children the characteristics that 
made them substantial citizens. There were 
eight children of the father's family, six boys 
and two girls, but Daniel W. is the only sur- 
viving child. For his second wife the father 
married, in 1845. Mary A. Bennett, a native 
of \'irginia. To this union eight children were 
born, four of whom are still living — Isaac L., 
Emma H. Adams, Chester, and Charles M. 
Charles M. Cory has been county judge for 
twenty-five consecutive years in Noble county, 
Alinnesota. 

The first money Daniel W. Cory earned 
went into the family coffers to help support 
the family, his services being required during 
all his early years and being ungrudgingly 
given. When twenty years of age he went to 
Wabash, where he entered college, intending to. 
take a full six years' course, but after six 
months the Civil war broke out and interfered 
with his plans. He enlisted in the Eleventh 
Indiana \'olunteer Infantry and served four 
years and three days. He was mustered out at 
Baltimore, Maryland, on July 26. 1865. Dur- 
ing his service he was in twelve different en- 
gagements — among them being Donelson. 
Shiloh, Vicksburg, Jackson, Mississippi, Cedar 
Creek, etc. 

Mr. Cory's married life dates from February 
25, 1866. when, in Boone county, Indiana, he 
married Miss Nancy M. Fall. Mrs. Cory was 
born in the same county where she was mar- 
ried, and her parents were Joseph C. and Lu- 
cinda (Mize) Fall. The father was a native 
of Carolina and the mother was a Virginian. 
Mr. and Mrs. Cory became the parents of nine 
children, five of whom still survive : Nora O. 
is deceased. Thorley E.. who married Mollie 
Hawkins, is a carpenter by occupation and 
lives in Indianapolis. Indiana. Mattie is the 
wife of Charles M. Street, a farmer living 
northwest of Anselmo. Custer county. Eva 
H. is the wife of Frank Jacquot and lives in 
Merna, this county. Charles E. married Daisy 
Dixon, and is a farmer living in Indiana. 
Josie E. is the wife of A. Logan Thomas, of 
Custer county. 

Mr. Cory came to Custer county from Mich- 
igan, in the spring of 1885. and took a pre- 
emption claim ten miles west of Broken Bow. 
On this he lived for seven years, and he then 
moved to a point ten miles northwest of An- 
selmo. where he homesteaded and where he 
lived for five vears. after which he sold the 
homestead and bought a nice property in 
Merna. A shadow fell across his life June 
13, 1912. when his wife was removed from 



the home on earth to the one "not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens." He now makes 
his home with the children, where "Grandpa" 
is always welcome. He and his wife were 
both well and favorably known throughout the 
Merna and Anselmo districts, where they mer- 
ited the good reputation they enjoyed. They 
were always connected with the Methodist 
church, and Mr. Cory votes generally the Re- 
publican ticket. 



BENJAMIN F. WELCH. — In noting the 
qualities that have raised Benjamin Franklin 
Welch from humble beginnings to his position 
as one of the substantial farmers of Custer 
county, one is forced to renew appreciation of 
courage, industry, and perseverance, for his 
life has not been without its discouragements 
and what he has attained has been gained 
through his own efforts. 

Mr. Welch was born in Peoria, Illinois, 
September 26, 1854, and is a son of Ezra B. 
and Adelia E. (Fisher) Welch, who were na- 
tives of New York and who went to Illinois 
as young people and were there married. Later 
they moved to Jasper county, Iowa, where 
Ezra B. Welch became the owner of a farm, 
and where, through industry and strict appli- 
cation to business, he made a success of his 
efforts. He was a Republican, and on several 
occasions was the incumbent of township of- 
fices. There were thirteen children in the fam- 
ily, of who three are now living — I. S.. a re- 
tired citizen of Omaha, who served three 
years as a Union soldier during the Civil war, 
within which time he was confined in Ander- 
sonville prison for eighteen months ; C. E., also 
a retired resident of Omaha : and Benjamin F. 

Benjamin F. Welch was educated in the 
public schools of Prairie City. Iowa, and for 
several years was engaged in farming in that 
state. In 1870 he came to Sarpy county. Ne- 
braska, where he was married, in 1876. and in 
1888 he went to Box Butte county. He first 
came to Custer county in 1891 and bought a 
farm near Ansley. where he remained about 
twenty years.and in 1911 he moved to Broken 
Bow. where he now owns 160 acres of well 
improved land, in section 12.. For a time he 
was largely engaged in feeding cattle, but at 
the present time he devotes his time princioally 
to general farming. The obstacles which have 
appeared in his path have been overcome, and 
he now owns a valuable and well improved 
prooertv, on which he has modern liuildings 
and splendid equipment. Mr. Welch is a 
citizen who has the respect of his community 



684 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, XEBR-\SKA 



and has assisted in progressive movements. He 
is a Democrat, and his fraternal affiliation is 
with the Modern Brotherhood of America. 

In 1876 Mr. \\'elch married ]\Iiss Maggie A. 
Weeth, who was born at Hyde Park, Ilhnois, 
a daughter of George Weeth. an early home- 
steader of Sarpy county. Nebraska, where he 
owned a good farm at the time of his death. 
Four sons have been born to Mr. and Mrs. 
Welch — Ernest E., who is studying for the 
medical profession, at Omaha; L. F.. who is 
engaged in farming in the vicinity of Berwyn, 
Custer county ; H. G., who is a switchman at 
Ravenna, Nebraska ; and Earl A., who is em- 
ployal in the United States government ship- 
yards at Portland, Oregon. 



CHARLES O. HUNNELL. — Among the 
well known agriculturists of the Broken Bow 
community of Custer county whose careers 
have been especially remarkable for enterprise, 
perseverance, and tenacity of purpose, is 
Charles O. Hunnell, the owner of 200 acres 
of well improved land in section 2. Mr. Hun- 
nell was born in Hamilton county, Nebraska, 
November 12, 1875. and is a son of James and 
Sarah ( Baker) Hunnell. natives of Wisconsin 
and both now deceased. 

Frederick Hunnell. the paternal grandfather 
of Charles O. Hunnell. was born in Germany, 
whence he immigrated to the United States in 
young manhood and settled in Wisconsin, 
where his death occurred. The maternal 
grandfather. Theron Baker, a native of New 
York, migrated to Wisconsin, and thence to 
St. Charles. Illinois, where he died when near- 
ly 100 years of age. James Hunnell was reared 
in Wisconsin, and when the Civil war came on, 
he left home and went to Iowa, where he en- 
listed in Company D, Forty-sixth Iowa Vol- 
unteer Infantry. He served two years with 
that regiment, when he was incapacitated by an 
injury to his heel — an injury that troubled 
him throughout the remainder of his life. 
When he received his honorable discharge he 
returned to Wisconsin and married, and in 
1870 he came to Nebraska and located on a 
pioneer homestead in Hamilton county. He 
proved up on his claim and continued to carry 
on operations there until within one year of 
his death, when he went to Henderson. .After 
his demise his widow returned to the farm, 
where she passed the remainder of her life. 
They were attendants of the Methodist Epis- 
copal church, and Mr. Hunnell was a Mason. 
A Republican in politics, Mr. Hunnell was one 
of the prominent and influential men of his 
communitv and served as countv commissioner 



and county judge. Of the seven children in 
the family, six are living: Mrs. Lennie Segrist, 
the wife of a carpenter of York county, Ne- 
braska ; Charles O. ; Airs. Edna Ely, wife of 
a Custer county farmer; Mrs. Alattie Lape, 
whose husband farms in Gage county ; Cora, 
the wife of E. R. Deal, who is a farmer of 
Custer county and a sketch of whose career 
appears elsewhere in this work; and Mrs. 
Nina Murphy, the wife of a farmer and sheep- 
man of Thedford, Nebraska. 

Charles O. Hunnell was educated in the 
public schools of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin 
State University, which he attended two years. 
Returning to Hamilton county, he farmed for 
a time, but after the death of his parents he 
turned over his share of the family estate to 
his brothers and sisters and struck out for him- 
self, with hands practically empty. Going to 
Wyoming, he worked as a cattle-herder for 
nine years, and he then returned to Nebraska 
and settled on a homestead in Thomas countv. 
About this time he engaged in the cattle busi- 
ness, buying and selling, and in partnership 
with his brother-in-law he leased thirty or 
forty sections of land — a project in which he 
was able, through industry and good business 
management, to accumulate enough capital to 
give him an individual start. In 1909 he pur- 
chased a farm in Custer county, section 2, and 
in July, 1913, he sold his Thomas countv place 
and came to the Custer county farm, where he 
now has 200 acres of g-ood land, devoted to 
general farming. In addition he owned 198 
acres of land in Gage county, which later he 
sold. Mr. Hunnell is one of the progressive 
agriculturists of Custer county and has evi- 
denced his belief in modern methods, while as 
a citizen and a business man his rating is high. 
He is a Republican voter, and holds member- 
ship in the Masonic fraternity. 

In March, 1917, Air. Hunnell was united in 
marriage with Miss Grace Paylor. who was 
born in Missouri. They have one son, Henry 
Charles, who was born June 26, 1918. 



BENJAMIN K, SMITH. — This sketch is 
written of a man who makes no house-top 
proclamation, who has followed the even tenor 
of a Custer county career with modest de- 
meanor, but who has made a host of friends 
and given a valuable contribution to both his 
community and his county. 

Mr. Smith was born November 7, 1856, near 
Mount Pleasant. Iowa. He is a son of John 
F. and Rebecca A. (Clemmons) Smith, the 
former a native of Vermont, and the latter of 
Ohio. In the familv of Tohn F. Smith were 



HISTORY .OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



685 



four children, of whom Benjamin F. was the 
last born, the others being Jennie Ferree, Me- 
lissa, and Ida, deceased. The parents of Mr, 
Smith moved to Clairmont, Ohio, when Benja- 
min was six months old. John F. Smith was 
a farmer by occupation and after a short resi- 
dence in Ohio he moved to Richland county, 
Illinois, where his wife died. He then moved 
back to Ohio, where young Benjamin worked 
on the farm and attended school in winter 
time, but as there was no school until corn 
was husked and none after the sugar camps 
opened, in February, it will be seen that the 
school term was somewhat abbreviated. He 
made the best of his opportunities, however, 
and secured the education by which he has been 
enabled to conduct effectively all kinds of busi- 
ness transactions. His first money was earned 
by selling Seymour c& Blair badges in a red- 
hot presidential campaign. 

After reaching his majority he faced the 
world for himself and went to work on a farm 
by the month, in ]\Iason county, Iowa. Here 
he worked four years. August 10, 1882, at 
Clinton, Illinois, he married S. Katherine Reed, 
and time has proved that he could have made 
no better selection for a life companion and 
helpmeet. Mrs. Smith is a daughter of George 
W. and Margaret A. (Schenck) Reed, and in 
her father's family were eleven children — S. 
Katherine Smith, Lida A. Sauter, Lettie Man- 
ion, Hannah J. Barber, George W. Reed, 
Henry T. Reed, Cora L. Vance, Lucy B. Mc- 
Connell, Dora McConnell. Clara (deceased), 
and Myrtle B. Mills. 

To the newly established home of Mr. and 
]\Irs. Smith came happiness and sunshine 
through the birth of children, three of whom 
have blessed the union : Walter R. is operating 
a farm for himself, near Arnold. He married 
Hattie Douglas and they have one son and one 
daughter. He is a member of the Odd Fellows 
lodge, and both he and his wife are connected 
with the Christian church. Earl L. is single 
and is "Somewhere in France" at the time of 
this writing. He is a private in Company E, 
Three Hundred and Thirteenth Engineering 
Corps, American Expeditionary Forces in 
France. Lonnie A. also is in France and is 
a member of Battery C, Three Hundred and 
Thirty-ninth Artillery, with the American Ex- 
peditionary Forces. 

Mr. and Mrs. Smith came to Custer county 
in 1886 and located on a pioneer farm four 
miles south of Arnold. On this place they 
lived twenty-five years, and they endured the 
ordinary privations and hardships incident to 
the pioneer life of that day. They now own 
320 acres and, so far as this world's goods 



are concerned, they are considered well to do. 
All lias been made by farming and stock-rais- 
ing. They belong to the Christian church 
and the ^lystic Legion, and Mrs. Smith, or 
"Aunt Kate," as she is known among her ' 
friends, is a member of the Daughters of Re- i 
bekah lodge and the Degree of Honor. Con- ; 
cerning the early days Mrs. Smith gives an 
account of one of the dances given irv the set- ' 
tlement, somewhere along in 1888. This dance 
was given in the building now occupied by ' 
Grissom & Leo as a restaurant. Early in the 
evening the settlers began coming in and the 
decks were cleared for action. Most of the 
people brought their children with them and 
with quilts made beds for them in the rear of 
the hall. Here the youngsters were packed 
away like sardines in a box. Aunt S'arah Finch 
seemed to have been on the pie committee, for 
she brought a stack of them so large that it 
is said one had to stand on his or her toes to 
see over it. It is said that dancing and feed- 
were alternated throughout the evening — it 
was dance and eat then dance and eat some 
more. The food consisted of chicken, turkey, 
roast beef, roast pork, and all kinds of pies 
and cake. With such provisions on hand and 
such entertainment, it is small wonder that the 
dance lasted till morning. It seems, too, that 
their home-made wine of an extraordinary 
brand added joy to the occasion and helped to i 
wash down the edibles. Historical annals con- i 
tain no data of this wine, other than that it '. 
was furnished by the R. E. Allen and every- ' 
body pronounced it good. Music for these ] 
primitive dances was furnished by the Finch ' 
band. 

This is the story of a pioneer and his wife 
who have passed through the stirring scenes 
and times of former years and who are now 
privileged to enjoy the result of their labors 
and sacrifice. 

ED. P. McEVOY. — Prior to coming to 
Custer county, in 1912, Ed. P. McEvoy had 
gained considerable experience as an operator 
of land in the Missouri valley of Iowa, but 
it was not until he took up his home in Ne- 
braska that he tasted the full fruits of success. 
At the present time he is the owner of a hand- 
some property of 480 acres, lying two miles 
west of Berwyn, upon which he is carrying ! 
on operations in a manner that at once desig- 
nates him as a man of superior ability and a 
farmer of practical and progressive ideas. 

Mr. McEvoy is a native of Canada, and was 
born March 16, 1868, a son of Ed. and Mary 
(Kelly) McEvoy, who were born in that coun- 
try, and both of whom are now deceased. Ed. 



686 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




2 

< 



o 
o 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



687 



McEvoy, a lifelong farmer, brought his family 
to the United States in 1872 and settled in the 
Missouri valley of Iowa, where he purchased 
a farm and operated it until 1890. In that 
year he moved to Adair, Iowa, and engaged 
in the general mercantile business. He made 
a success in commercial fields, as he had done 
in his agricultural efforts. He retired some 
years before his death, and passed away in the 
faith of the Catholic church, of which his wife 
also was a devout member. He was a Demo- 
crat in politics. Air. and Mrs. McEvoy were 
the parents of eleven children, of whom eight 
survive, but Ed. P. is the only one now living 
in Nebraska. 

Ed. P. McEvoy was but four years when 
brought by his parents to the L'nited States, 
and the rural schools of Iowa furnished him 
with his early education, while he was growing 
up on the home farm. Trained to all manner 
of agricultural pursuits, he was fully prepared 
to enter upon a career of his own when he 
reached man's estate, and farming was his 
choice of a vocation. In Iowa he acquired 
land, which he cultivated successfully, and 
he became one of the community's well-to-do 
and influential citizens, being elected to sev- 
eral township offices, but in 1912 he disposed 
of his property in the Missouri val'ey and took 
up his residence on a farm near Callaway, Cus- 
ter county, Nebraska. Subsec|uently he sold 
this property and moved to his present farm, 
two miles west of Berwvn, where he has 480 
acres of fertile and productive land. This he 
devotes to mixed farming, having had more 
than ordinary success in his work as a stock- 
raiser. Mr. McEvoy is known as one of his 
communitvs progressive men. The farm, in 
section 18, has been splendidly improved, and 
the modern buildings include a large and com- 
niodious residence, as well as suitable and well 
ec|uiDPed structures for the shelter of his stock,' 
machinery, and grain. 

.\ Republican in politics, Mr. AIcExoy is 
somewhat interested in local government af- 
fairs, but not to the extent that he looks for 
personal preferment at the hands of his fellow 
citizens or his party. His fraternal affiliation 
is with the Knights of Columbus, and he and 
the members of his fimilv be'ong to the St. 
Joseph's Catholic church of Broken Bow. 

In 1895 Mr. McEvoy was united in marriage 
with Miss .-Mice Gilniore, who was born in 
Harrison county. Iowa, a daughter of Charles 
Gilmore, an early settler of Iowa and a farmer 
there for many years. Mr. and Mrs. McEvoy 
became the parents of six children : Miss Ber- 
tha, who resides with her parents : Thomas, 
who died while in the military camp at Au- 



gusta, Georgia ; and Eva, Anna, Charles, and 
Joseph, who are at home. 



OWEN C. MURPHY. — There are prob- 
ably not many names better known in Custer 
county than that of Murphy, belonging, as it 
does, to pioneer settlers here and to their nu- 
merous descendants who make up some of the 
county's best citizenship. Owen C. Murphy, 
who for many years was prominent in the 
stock industry, came to Custer county in 1884 
as a homeseekcr, and established himself on 
land that he occupied continuously for thirty- 
four years. Mr. Murphy was born in Mc- 
Henry county, Illinois, January 9, 1858. His 
parents were Owen J. and Emma ( Chenoweth) 
Murphy, the former of whom was born in 
Calhoun county. West Virginia, and the latter 
in Braxton county, that state. Of their seven 
children six survive, namely : Mrs. Minerva 
Clapsattle, Mrs. Melvina Elliott, Mrs. Emma 
Charles. Mrs. Sarah Crow. Owen C, and Mrs. 
Ida Winters. The father of Mr. Murphy moved 
to AIcHenry county, Illinois, in 1838 and lived 
there, respected and esteemed, until his death, 
in 1892. 

Owen C. Murphy was reared in a home 
where ample provision was made for comfort 
as well as necessities, and he attended the pub- 
lic schools. Thus in boyhood he was less ham- 
pered than many farmers' sons, his father not 
only recognizing the need of but being also 
able to provide, to a reasonable extent, for the 
recreations that seem so important in the eyes 
of youth. Air. Murphy remembers that his 
first independent business transaction was buy- 
ing stock on a small scale. As the investment 
turned out well, he was encouraged and thus 
gradually he became more and more interested 
in the stock business. It is possible that this 
led to his coming to Nebraska, in 1884, when 
twenty-six years old. He located seven and 
one-half miles northwest of Callawav, Custer 
county, where he eventually accumulated 1,080 
acres and where, for more than thirty years, he 
carried on an extensive stock-raising business. 
In later years, before retiring, he was a very 
successful breeder of Galloway cattle. He con- 
tinued active in the live-stock field until 1917, 
when he sold his ranch and stock and bought 
twenty acres of land adjoining the town of 
Callaway. On this land he has erected a hand- 
some, modern residence, thorougly equipped 
to invite ease and repose. While, in the main, 
Mr. Murphy has been unusuallv successful in 
all his business undertakings since coming to 
Custer county, he has lived through seasons 
of great discouragement — notably the hard 



688 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COL'XTV, NEBRASKA 



times of 1894 — but, thanks to a naturally 
cheerful disposition and to listening to the 
practical, common-sense advice of his admir- 
able wife, he held on to his interests in the 
county when any number of his neighbors 
"abandoned the ship." 

^Ir. Murphy was married, at Woodstock, 
Illinois, August 25, 1881, to Miss Elsie Couse, 
who was born in IMcHenry county. Illinois, 
and is a daughter of Andrew and Ellen ( Ful- 
ton) Couse. The father and mother were both 
born in Xew York, and Mrs. Ellen ( Fulton ) 
Couse was a representative of the same family 
as was Robert Fulton, the inventor of the first 
steamboat. Eight children have been born to 
]\Ir. and Mrs. Murphy and of these the follow- 
ing survive : Ida D., who resides with her par- 
ents ; Elsie, who is a graduate of the Nebras- 
ka State Normal school at Kearney, and who 
is teaching school at Idaho Falls, Idaho ; Clara, 
who is the wife of William E. Arnold, a 
farmer located six miles northeast of Callaway; 
Ellen, who is principal of the Callaway high 
school, and is a graduate of the Kearney State 
Normal School ; and Maud L. and Margaret, 
both of whom are students in the Kearney 
Normal School. These young ladies are all 
exceptionally intellectual. Mr. ^lurphy and 
family belong to the Evangelical chnr;h. Po- 
litically he maintains an independent attitude, 
having no desire for any public office and be- 
lieving that the best man should be elected, 
irrespective of party affiliations. He has long 
been a member of the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows. 



FREDERICK W. MORRISON. — Down 
near Callaway Frederick W. Morrison operates 
a splendid Custer county farm and makes his 
contributions to Custer county ijroduction. He 
was born May 27. 1868, and has been a resi- 
dent of Nebraska since his early childhood. He 
is a son of William F. and X'irginia I Lichten- 
berger) Morrison, the former of whom was 
born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and 
the latter of whom was a representative of a 
very estimable farmily whose name is well 
known in Custer county. William F. and \'ir- 
ginia (Lichtenberger ) Morrison became the 
parents of ten children: Harry L. (deceased), 
Ednnmd W., Charles O., Samuel .\.. Josiah 
E., Frederick W., '.Alfred E., Leon H.. .Anna 
V. (deceased), and George A. The religious 
faith of the family is that of the Christian 
church. 

In .\ugust, 1870, with team and wagon, 
\\'illiam F. Morrison drove through from 
the state of Illinois, to York coiuitv. Ne- 



braska, and in this pioneer journey to the new- 
state of Nebraska he was accompanied by his 
wife and their seven children. \\'hen he ar- 
rived in Nebraska his cash capital was repre- 
sented in the sum of two dollars and forty 
cents, and this was the very nominal monetary 
reinforcement with which he initiated his wes- 
tern career. For one year the family lived in 
a dugout on Lincoln creek, this primitive 
dwelling having no window, and a strip of old 
carpet having constituted the door. Frederick 
W. Morrison relates an incident of the early 
days, when the father and an uncle went into 
the Fort Kearney region, where they hunted 
and killed buffalo. \\'hen thev arrived at the 
home, about midnight, the children were so 
hungry for meat, after having lived so long 
on corn bread and white gra\'^% that the mother 
called them from their beds and fried for them 
all the buffalo meat thev could eat. 

Frederick \\'.^Iorrison earned his first money 
by herding cattle, for ten cents a day. With 
his earnings he bought a pig. and before his 
father realized what was happ>ening. that pig"s 
progeny had so increased that Frederick was 
claiming most of the hogs on the place, so 
that the father called a halt on the hog deal. 
Like other country boys, young Frederick 
worked on the farm in the summer season and 
attended school in winter. He came to Custer 
county in 1900 and purchased 400 acres of 
land, besides filing homestead entry on an ad- 
joining tract of 160 acres. North of Callaway 
he now owns a valuable landed estate of 400 
acres, the same being situated on what is 
known as the Fairview Table. His accumula- 
tions are such as to entitle him to classification 
among the well-to-do and substantial men of 
the county, and through energy and enterprise 
he is constantly adding to his possessions. He 
and his wife rank among the best of Custer 
county people, and theirs is a typical Custer 
county home, while their achievement is a |)rac- 
tical demonstration of what may be won 
tlirough thrift and industry. Mrs. Morrison 
has always been her husband's energetic and 
faithful helpmeet, and has given him valuable 
assistance in every enterprise pertaining to the 
farm and home. 

In ]iolitics Mr. Morrison is aligned in the 
ranks of the Republican party, but he is al- 
ways careful to see that his vote is cast for 
those whom he believes to be worthv of public 
trust. He maintains affiliation with the Ma- 
sonic fraternity. 

.\t the home of the bride's iKircnts, on Sjiring 
creek, this county, was solemnized. May 1, 
1907, the marriage of Mr. Morrison to ^liss 
Lulu M. Hough, who was born in Illinois and 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



689 



who is a davighter of Preston W. and Martha 
( Pierce) Hougli, her father having- been born 
in North Carolina. Mrs. ^Morrison has three 
brothers — WilHam E., Carl W., and Earl P. 
— and on other pages, in the sketch of the ca- 
reer of her eldest brother, are given further 
data concerning the Hough family. Ivlr. and 
Mrs. Morrison have three children, all bright 
and happy, and all lending cheer to the attrac- 
tive home. The names of the children, with re- 
spective ages in the fall of 1918, are here 
noted: Ralph P., ten years; George E., six 
vears ; and Rov T., four years. 



BENJAMIN F. KIKER, a general mer- 
chant who is doing a large and increasing bus- 
iness at Comstock, this county, has had ex- 
perience in other lines, including banking and 
agricultural enterprise. He has spent many 
years in Nebraska and is well and favorably 
known in dififerent sections of the state, hav- 
ing always been identified with substantial en- 
terprises in every community in which he has 
had his home. 

Benjamin F. Kiker was born June 17, 183.3, 
in Ohio county, West \'irginia. He is a son of 
Joseph and Amanda (Christwell) Kiker. His 
father, who was born in Germany, came to 
the United States in 1857 and located in Illi- 
nois. He has been a farmer all his life and 
still lives on his old homestead in Illinois. The 
mother of B. F. Kiker died in 1898, and he 
is the eldest of the three living children. He 
has two sisters : Emma, who is the wife of 
Douglas Tankersley. a farmer in Scott county. 
Illinois ; and Annie, who is the wife of John 
McCarty, also a farmer in Scott county. The 
mother of Mr. Kiker was a member of the 
Baptist church. The father is a strong sup- 
porter of the Democratic party. 

After his school period was over, Benjamin 
F. Kiker came to Hamilton county, Nebraska, 
where he followed farming for twenty-four 
years and became a man of local prominence 
and influence. He then came to Custer county 
and for six years lived near Sargent. Within 
this period he was elected president of the 
Farmers State Bank of Sargent, in which of- 
fice he continued three vears, at the expiration 
of which he moved to Boulder. Colorado. Mr. 
Kiker remained at Boulder during the next 
four years and then returned to Custer county 
and settled on a ranch west of Comstock, 
where he remained two years. Business acu- 
men then led him to change his occupation and 
he traded his ranch for a stock of general 
merchandise and located at Phillins, Hamilton 
county. One year later, in search of a wider 



field, he moved his stock to Comstock, where 
he somewhat enlarged the scope of his busi- 
ness and where he now conducts one of the 
leading mercantile establishments of this sec- 
tion of the county. 

January 29, 1880, at Aurora, Nebraska, Mr. 
Kiker married Stella New, who died Novem- 
ber 29, 1881, leaving no children. On June 
27, 1886, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Kiker to Sarah F. Green, and of this union 
eight children have been born, as follows : 
Stella is the wife of John A. Grant, who is, 
at the time of this writing, in the engineering- 
department with the American Expeditionary 
Forces in France ; Roy C, who is a member 
of Company A, Seventh United States En- 
gineers, is with the United States army in 
France; Joe, who is his father's general man- 
ager, married Ora Pullian-i ; Claude H., who is 
a soldier in the United States army, is at Fort 
Riley ; Grace and Cora, both of whom are 
school-teachers, reside at Boulder, Colorado ; 
Mary is deceased ; and Sada remains with her 
parents. Mr. Kiker is not active in politics 
but he is a good citizen and does his part in 
prompting worthy enterprises and assisting 
public-spirited movements that give assurance 
of being practical and permanent. 



GEORGE L. McCREA. — Among the 
farmers of Custer county who have passed 
their entire lives on the properties which thev 
now operate, George L. McCrea is one whose 
efiforts have served to assist in the upbuilding 
of the community and the development of ag- 
ricultural interests. The owner of a good farm 
in the Berwyn locality, he has shown progress- 
iveness and public spirit and in the working 
out of his career has displayed personal char- 
acteristics that have gained him respect and 
esteem among his neighbors. 

Mr. McCrea was born on the homestead 
place in Custer count-v, June 26, 1881, and is 
a son of James and Diana (Barnes) McCrea, 
natives of Michigan. The father is now de- 
ceased and the mother is a resident of Massa- 
chusetts. The parents were married in Michi- 
gan, where for about twelve years they made 
their home thereafter, and in 1880 they came 
to Custer county, Nebraska, where the father 
secured the homestead on which George L. 
McCrea now resides. James McCrea fought 
as a soldier of the Civil war, having been for 
three years and six months connected with a 
battery of Michigan light artillery. He had 
an excellent record for brave and faithful ser- 
vice and passed through many of the decisive 
and hard-fought engagements of the struggle, 



690 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COL'XTY. NEBRASKA 



on one occasion, at the battle of Chickamau- 
ga, being captured by the enemy, but benig 
soon released by exchange. Just as he was 
a dutiful and courageous soldier, so was he 
an honorable and industrious farmer and busi- 
ness man, and the record which he established 
as a civilian (.'(|ualled that which he made as a 
wearer of his country's uniform. Politically 
he was identified with the Republican party, 
but only as a voter and a worker in behalf of 
his friends. He was a Dimkard in religion, 
which faith his widow shares. Of their two 
children. George L. McCrea is the survivor. 

The district schools of Custer county fur- 
nished George L. IMcCrea with his early edu- 
cation, and after he has attended up to the 
ninth grade of the public schools at Berwyn, 
he settled down to agricultural pursuits on the 
home farm which he had always known as his 
place of residence. His training as a farmer 
was comprehensive, and on attaining his ma- 
jority he became associated with his father, 
at whose death he assumed management of 
the home property, which he has continued to 
conduct and operate in a capable and highly 
prosperous manner. His farm is now modern 
in every way. When he took charge of the 
property the residence was a sod house, or 
"soddy," but this he replaced with a nice 
frame home, in which he has modern e(|uip- 
ment : and the other buildings have been either 
replaced, enlarged, or repaired until now they 
give the farm attractiveness and added value, 
with a general air of prosperity which speaks 
for the owner's progressiveness. His stock is 
of a good grade, and in every respect he is a 
typical representative of the su:cessful class 
of central Nebraska farmers. 

Mr. McCrea was married May 29, 1904, to 
IMiss Nellie M. Perkins, who was born in 
Lancaster county, Nebraska, and to this union 
there have been born five children, all at home 
and attending the public schools of Berwyn — 
Ruth. Ray, Rex, Doris, and Thaine. Mr. Mc- 
Crea is fraternally affiliated with the Modern 
AN'oodmen of .America. He is a Re]niblican 
politically, and has served his communitv as a 
member of the school board. 



CHARLES SCHMIDT. — The career of 
the substantial citizen whose name introdures 
this sketch began in Poland and ended in Cus- 
ter county. He was a man upon whose shoul- 
ders rested the stern responsibilities of life, 
who did well his part, and sixteen vears ago 
was called from the scene of his lalxirs to that 
long home which awaits mankind. 

Mr. Schmidt was born in Poland, in 1848, 



and came to this country in 1878. Here he 
began at once a life of hard work, which, re- 
inforced by rigid economy, provided well for 
his family. Having received a liberal educa- 
tion in the old country and having there es- 
tablished the habits of industry, he found that 
both served him well in the new land of his 
adoption. He worked at anything he could 
find to do. Anything to make an honest dollar 
that would help to support his family or add 
to the equipment with which he started farm- 
ing for himself, was just the thing that he was 
ready to do. He worked in the Dakotas. If 
work was not obtainable in one place, he went 
to another, where work could be obtained. He 
was married in 1878. to Henrietta Rhodes, 
a tlaughter of J. T. and Mrs. M. E. Rhodes. 
Mrs. Schmidt is a native of Illinois and is a 
very estimable lady. They reared a large fam- 
ily of children, all of whom have been a credit 
to the name : Charles lives on a farm in Custer 
county : Robert married and went to Colorado, 
where he is engaged in farming: Bert, Alfred, 
and Clarence are working on the home farm ; 
May Bassett lives in Canada : Alvina McDer- 
mott lives on a farm in this county; Etta 
Bales lives on a farm near Seneca ; Zelma is 
at home ; Paul died in infancy. The father 
homesteaded \(>0 acres of land and later bought 
another quarter-section, which made him a 
splendid farm. After his death, which oc- 
curred in 1902, the boys continued to run the 
place and they put on the present-day improve- 
ments, all of which are the result of their toil. 
They have done splendidly in maintaining the 
farm and making stock-raising profitable. They 
have a good grade of cattle, hogs, and horses. 
They own their own machinery and have the 
l)lace in a high state of cultivation. The fa- 
ther belonged first to the Lutheran church but 
later, in this country, united with the Christian 
church. The nearest town is Merna where 
the boys are to-day well and favorably known 
and held in high respect as men of integrity 
and dejiendabilitv. Looking nt their premises 
to-day. one would hardly believe that their 
father began with nothing, lived in a sod 
house, and made his first money by husking 
corn down in Dale valley, and that for years 
it was a hani struggle to make ends meet and 
get the start with which profitable farming 
could be conducted. 



LEE CORNISH. — Down in the Lodi .sec- 
ction of the Wood River valley. Lee Cornish, 
with his young wife and child. lias his splendid 
farm home. Mr. Cornish was born June 29_ 
1881. in C~)tsego county. New York. Ilis par- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



691 



ents, Lyman W. and Eunice A. (Lowe) Cor- 
nish, were likewise born in Otsego county. 
Lvnian W. Cornish was an industrious New 
York farmer, was a man of sterHng character ; 
was a communicant of the Baptist church and 
was affihated with the Masonic fraternity. In 
the Lyman Cornish family were three children, 
two sons and one daughter : Arthur B. Cor- 
nish is a resident of the Lodi vicinity in Cus- 
ter county. Mrs. Louisa L. Johnston is de- 
ceased. The third is Lee Cornish, the subject 
of this sketch. 

In 1884 Lyman W. Cornish came with his 
family to Custer county and settled on a claim 
that had 'been previously entered by Jacob 
Ingraham, who sold his relinquishment to Mr. 
Cornish. This claim was located about three 
and one-half miles from the present site of 
Lodi. The family had the usual experiences 
in:ident to early pioneer life. All freight had 
to be hauled from Kearney or Lexington, for 
those were the davs when no railroads reached 
the county. In 1890 Mr. Cornish put down 
the first hydraulic well in the west end of the 
Wood River valley, and for many years set- 
tlers hauled water from this well to the Red- 
fern Table — some hauling as far as eight or 
ten miles. The neighbors at this time were 
F. E. Van Antwerp, S. N. Pierce, Jonas Han- 
son, C. L. Mougev. and others. Lee Cornish 
states that his sister. Mrs. Louisa I Cornish ) 
Johnston, was the first school-teacher on the 
Red fern Table, and boarded in the home of 
James Whitehead. 

Lee Cornish was married February 5, 1914. 
to Miss Florence Trexler, an amiable and 
competent voung woman. Mrs. Cornish is a 
daughter of Filbert Trexler, who was a native 
of Pennsylvania. Her mother, whose maiden 
name was Lela Perkins, wa^ a native of New 
York. Mr. and Mrs. Trexler were people of 
sterling worth and were staunch members of 
the Presbyterian church. Mrs. Cornish is a 
member of the same church. In the Trexler 
family were five children, two sons and three 
daughters — ■ Harrison was the firstborn : 
Floren:e is the wife of Lee Cornish, subject of 
this review: Mrs. Esther H. Butts (whose 
hsuband is "somewhere in France " at the time 
of this writing ) ; Burton R.. a young bachelor, 
is serving his country in Company A. Tenth 
Engineering Forest Division, somewhere in 
France ; and Helen I. is the youngest of the 
chi'dren. 

Lee Cornish is a member of the Baptist 
church and is one of the faithful constituents 
of the little church at Lodi. Notwithstanding 
Mr. and Mrs. Cornish divide their religious 
affiliation, they are a fami'v of sterling worth 



and of commanding influence in the commu- 
nity. They have one child, a bright boy who 
is named after his maternal grandfather, Fil- 
bert Trexler. 

Mr. Cornish bought the interests of his 
brother and sister in the old home estate, and 
that is now his home. It consists of 640 acres, 
with a school lease on an adjoining 160 acres. 
Thus the old original Cornish homestead still 
remains in the family. The present home, 
however, is vastly difTerent from the primitive 
habitation of the pioneer days, and is one of 
which Mr. and Airs. Cornish may well be 
proud. 

Mr. Cornish is rated as a very successful 
farmer and stock-raiser, and as one of the citi- 
zens of whom Custer county is justly proud. 
When one looks at the Cornish farm, with its 
broad acres, its splendid equipment, and splen- 
did invoice of live stock, it is interesting to 
remember that years ago Mr. Cornish made 
his first money by herding hogs for a neigh- 
bor. With his first money he intended to make 
his first investment — in a circus ticket. That 
was perhaps the first circus that ever visited 
Callaway. He arrived late, however, and 
found that the circus was not as promising as 
had been advertised, so he invested the circus 
money in a curry-comb, with which he after- 
ward improved the appearance of his saddle 
pony, and from which, no doubt, he obtained 
more genuine satisfactory than he would if he 
had attended the show. 



CHARLES E. HIMMELRIGHT. — Since 
1892 Charles E. Himmelright has been a sub- 
stantial and valued citizen of Custer county, 
and to him and his good wife are to be credited 
one of the splendid home of which the county 
boasts. 

Mr. Himmelright was born in Iroquois 
county, Illinois, April 8, 1870, and is a son of 
Thomas and Louisa (Billings) Himmelright, 
the former a native of Ohio, and the latter of 
the Hoosier state, where their marriage was 
solemnized. The father enlisted in an Indiana 
regiment and served in the L'nion army for 
eighteen months in the Civil war. He came 
to Custer county with his family in 1892, 
bought land here, and here established his 
home. He is still a resident of the county. 
The mother, however, has passed to her re- 
ward in the realm beyond. In the father's 
family were five children — Retta Kelly, of 
Mason City: Maggie, the wife of John Cole, 
residing in Colorado: Charles E., the splendid 
citizen of whom we are writing: Gertie, mar- 
ried and living at St. Joseph, Michigan; and 



692 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, XEBR.\SKA 



Alfie, a resident of Ansley, Custer county, 
where he is engaged in the well-digging busi- 
ness. The family hold the faith of the Chris- 
tian church, and the father is an honored mem- 
ber of the Grand Army of the Republic. 

Charles E. Himmelright received his early 
education in Illinois, where in the public 
schools he qualified himself for the transaction 
of business and for useful citizenship. In 1882 
he went to Kansas, where he remained nearly 
five years, coming in 1887 to Aurora. Nebras- 
ka, from which place he removed to Custer 
county in 1892.' Here he bought a farm of 
200 acres and established his home. He de- 
veloped the farm, put up good buildings, and 
has made it a very attactive and comfortable, 
as well as profitable, place. 

October 3. 1898. recorded the marriage of 
Mr. Himmelright to Mrs. Ella Ritenour. a 
sister of Benjamin P. ^lorris. who is well and 
favorably known in Custer county and a re- 
view of whose career appears on other pages 
of this volume. The first marriage of ]\Irs. 
Himmelright was with W'illi,^ Ritenour. and 
by this union she had four children — John, 
Anton, Ada. and Newell — -all residing in .\ns- 
lev except Newell, who entered the military 
service of his country when the nation became 
involved in the great world war and who was 
on active duty in France at the time when the 
war came to a close. Mr. and Mrs. Himmel- 
right have three children — Floyd. Twila. and 
Ina. and they are cheery members of the 
pleasant home circle. 

~Slr. and Mrs. Himmelright are members of 
the Christian church, and in a fraternal way 
he is activelv aflfiliated with the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Wood- 
men of America. His political allegiance is 
given to the Republican party. 

On the home place ^Ir. Himmelright is 
doing a ereneral farming and stock-raising bus- 
iness. Hogs and cattle are given special atten- 
tion, and he has a small herd of Short-horn 
resjistered cattle from which he is breeding a 
s])lcndid type of Ix^ef and milk stock. When 
on the place you look around and see the im- 
provements and the representation of wealth 
and labor, vou Would scarcely realize that this 
energetic farmer began with nothing and has 
accumulated all by his own eflforts. 



JOSEPH MORONEY. — The agricultural 
and stock-raising industries of Custer county 
have a worthy representative in the subject of 
this review and he is accounted one of the 
public-spirited and substantial men of his com- 
nnmity. 

Joseph Moroney was born at Trenton, New 



Jersey, November 2, 1866. His father. Martin 
Morone\', was a native of County Clare. Ire- 
land, and when a young man came to the 
United States and found employment as a 
"nailer," in the days when nails were made by 
hand. In New Jersey he married Miss Mary 
Daugherty. also a native of Ireland, and in 
1876 they become residents of Grundy county, 
Illinois. In 1885 Martin Moroney became a 
settler of Custer county, where he secured a 
homestead of 160 acres — the northeast quarter 
of section 4, township 18, range 22 — and pre- 
empted the northwest quarter of the same sec- 
tion. Pioneer conditions were to be found on 
every side, and the first home of the' Moroney 
family was a primitive sod house, this having 
been the family domicile for many years. On 
this farm Martin ^loroney and his good wife 
spent the remainder of their days, passing 
away when well advanced in years — both hav- 
ing reached the age of eighty years when 
called to their final rest. They became the 
parents of five children, two of whom died in 
infancy. Those living are: John, whose 
whereabouts afe unknown ; Joseph, of this 
sketch ; and Mary, the widow of Thomas Con- 
don. 

Joseph Moroney accompanied his parents to 
Custer county and the old homestead has al- 
ways been the scene of his activities, first as 
a young man assisting his father in the opera- 
tion of the farm, and. after the death of his 
father, by his coming into possession of the 
property. He has added to the original acreage 
and is to-day the owner of 580 acres. The sod 
house has been replaced by a modern frame 
dwelling, erected two years ago. equipped with 
electric lights, pipeless furnace heat, and hot 
and cold water. It is a beautiful countr}- home 
and speaks well for the progressive spirit of 
its owner. 

In Custer county, on the 9th of November, 
1898. ]Mr. Moroney married ^liss Elizabeth 
Farritor. a native of Pennsylvania, and a 
daughter of James and Ann ( McDonald ) Far- 
ritor. of whom further mention is made on 
other pages of this history. Mr. and Mrs. ^lo- 
roney have become the parents of five children, 
all of whom are still at home. Their names 
are: John F.. Monica Marie. Josephine Eliza- 
beth. Coletta Angela, and Thomas J. 

The family are communicants of the Catholic 
church and in politics Mr. Moroney is a 
Democrat. 



CHRIS NELSON. — This is the story of 
one of the very early settlers, the man who 
had hair-raising experiences and pas.sed 
through all the hardships and privations inci- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



693 




-..T-g^l* ' 



■ "^■y-T VK. 




(Above) Home of Joseph Moroney. (Below) Old Home of Martin Moroney 



694 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY, NEBRASKA 



dent to the first days and who is a reliable 
farmer of Danish extraction. 

Chris Nelson was born February 1, 1849, 
in Denmark. His father was Nels Christen- 
sen and his mother Anna M. Nelson, each 
descended from a long Danish line, and they 
had four children : Rasmus, Christina. Chris, 
and Anna. Nels Christensen, the father, came 
to the United States when young Chris was 
so small that he cannot remember. It was the 
intention of the father to make money as fast 
as he could, but things did not go as well with 
him here as he expected. When the Civil 
war broke out, he enlisted in a cavalry regi- 
ment under General Crook, as a substitute for 
a rich man's son, and he served three years, 
rendering valuable service. Just before being 
mustered out, he was one of the guards that 
held the Lincoln assassins. He received a 
wound at Vicksburg. After the war, the little 
money that he had he was persuaded to invest 
in an oil proposition, which proved to be a 
kind of "get-rich-quick" scheme that worked 
only one way, and that way was not in the 
direction of the investor. The investment was 
lost and there was no money to send for the 
family. The mother worked hard, kept the 
little family together, gave them the advan- 
tages of school and Chris kept himself busy 
and managed to learn the blacksmith trade, 
by the time he was twenty-one. Then he and 
his mother, one brother and one sister, came 
to America and joined the father at North 
Platte, after a long separation. They came 
to Custer county in 1877 and Chris located 
about five miles northwest of Callaway. Paul 
S'yerson came at the same time and located 
in the same locality. The two were neighbors 
and worked together at most anything that 
came to their hands. They went into a can- 
yon and cut and stacked hay for their stock. 
Then trouble with cattlemen ensued. Cow- 
boys came to interview the settlers, asked 
what they were doing and what they intended 
to do with the hay they were putting up. Nel- 
son and Syerson declared it was for their own 
use. and that they expected to start farming. 
The cowboys then issued the verdict that thev 
could not farm in that locality and that they 
would starve to death if they tried it. .\fter 
they were gone. Nelson remarked that some- 
thing was up. "but I cannot tell what it is." 
They decided to take precautions, and kept 
their stock tied and were prepared to receive 
"visitors" most any time — and sure enough 
they came. One night, about ten or twelve 
o'clock, the cowIx)ys came riding down the 
canyon, and when they found that Chris and 
his friend Paul Sver.son were both at home. 



they pretended to be lost and tried hard to 
separate the two by getting one of them to 
go and show them the way down to the Gas- 
man ranch. But the ruse did not work. They 
were finally told by Chris that he knew what 
. they were there for and that they were not 
lost, but that they would be. if they hung 
around there any longer. This had the de- 
sired effect, and the cowboys rode off. 

Chris' father was a trapper and at that time 
was trapping near the ranch where the cow- 
boys were employed. The morning after their 
episode with Chris Nelson, the father dropped 
in at the ranch house to get warm and the 
boys told him that he should have been with 
them last night, as they had been out trying 
to scare a couple of grangers out of the coun- 
try, but failed to get them separated and that 
one of them was a young husky who didn't 
scare very well. 

In November. 1879. at North Platte. Chris 
Nelson was united in marriage to Julia 
Schreyer. a native of Wisconsin, and a daugh- 
ter of John G. and Sofia Schreyer, both of 
whom were natives of Germany. The young- 
couple established their home, faced the dif- 
ficulties of the day. overcanie the handicaps 
of the frontier and have made a success of 
everything they have undertaken. Eleven 
children have come to the home : Mrs. !Mary 
Kelly is living at Tacoma. Mr. Kelly is a 
bookkeeper for a transportation company. 
They have five children. Rosetta is the wife 
of Jesse Woodward, a farmer living near Cal- 
laway, and they have five children. Sofia is 
the wife of John Carlson, a lumberman in 
\\'ashington. and they have three children. 
John is living on a farm of 320 acres, twelve 
miles west of Callaway, and he and his wife 
have two children. Anna is the wife of Elmer 
Nicholson, a farmer living in the vicinitv of 
Callaway, and they have two children. Tina 
is the wife of Del Butler and they live on a 
farm near Finchville ; they have four children. 
Ray married .\nna Sorensen and is a farmer 
near Milldale. Margaret is the wife of Will- 
iam Lyons and they live on a farm near ]Mill- 
dale : they have one child, .\gnes is the wife 
of .Asa Ryan, who is a farmer living five and 
one-half miles northwest of Callaway, and 
they have one child. Willis, fourteen, and .Al- 
bert, twelve years of age, are at home with 
their parents and are in school. 

Mr. Nelson earned his first money when a 
boy seven years of age. by watching and 
changing picketed cows in his native country. 
He there contracted the industrious habits and 
power of close ap]:)lication that have made his 
success in Custer county possible. He has a 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



695 



good farm, a splendid home, has made his 
money by farming and stock-raising, and in 
all his activities Mrs. Nelson has rendered 
valuable assistance. They have reared a fine 
family of children and are rated well in the 
community. Politically, Mr. Nelson affiliates 
with the Democratic party. 



FRED NORDEN. — Domiciled in one of 
the comfortable homes in Custer county, with- 
in range of the Ansley postoffice, is one of 
Custer county's farmers who, being of Gerr 
man descent, is one of the best citizens as well 
as one of the most thrifty farmers to be found 
in any part of the county. 

Fred Norden is a native of Germany, where 
he was born February 16, 1861. His parents, 
Johaan and Eldra ( Myer) Norden, were both 
German people of strong characteristics, ener- 
getic and frugal. The mother died in Ger- 
many ; the father came to the United States in 
1882 and settled at Victor, Iowa, where he 
remained until the time of his death. In the 
immediate family of Johaan Norden were 
seven children. Three of them, Fred, Her- 
man, and Henry, at the present time are living 
near Ansley, where they are conducting farm 
operations. All were formerly members of the 
Lutheran church, but they are now affiliated 
with the Methodist church. 

Fred Norden lived in Germany until 1882, 
when he came to the United States with his 
father, making Iowa his first home. From that 
state they immigrated to Custer county in 
1887. Fred Norden pre-empted and home- 
steaded a quarter-section of land and entered 
at once into the varied experiences of a Cus- 
ter county farmer and pioneer. The first home 
was a sod house, in which he and his family 
lived until they built the present comfortable 
farm house, in 1889. 

The same year that he came to Custer 
county Mr. Norden married Anna Lohman, 
who was a native of Germany and who proved 
his faithful helpmeet and home companion 
until her death. Mr. and Mrs. Norden became 
the parents of five children : Edward lives at 
the parental home: Mary is a Red Cross nurse 
at Little Rock, Arkansas ; Fred lives at North 
Loup, Nebraska, where he conducts farming 
operations; and Frieda and Minnie are still 
under the parental roof. 

Mr. Norden has 480 acres of fine land which 
. he leases and operates in connection with his 
own holding, which makes a farm of a total 
area of about 1,000 acres. Mr. Norden com- 
menced with nothing, and all of his posses- 
sions have been acquired by the work of his 



own hands and by his own efforts, so .that in 
this he offers a good illustration of what pluck 
and energy can do when applied in the right 
direction on a Custer county farm. He is a 
member of the Methodist church, as was also 
his wife, who passed away May 9, 1917. 



FRANZ KOBL. — The blood of Moravia, 
Bohemia, flows in the veins of some of the 
staunchest citizens of Custer county. They 
have been pioneers and among the first and 
best of our citizens. One of these is the ster- 
ling citizen whose name is recorded above. 

Mr. Kobl was born in Moravia in April, 
1837, and he is a son of Wincil and Sarah 
Kobl, who spent their entire lives in Moravia. 
They became the parents of five children, but 
Franz was the only one who ventured so far 
from home as to come to the L^nited States. 
He landed in this country in 1881, and came 
directly to Custer county, where he at once 
selected a homestead. Here he lived in a sod 
house for sixteen years, after which time he 
was able to build the splendid farm residence 
the family now occupies. 

In 1882 Mr. Kobl married Marie Jelenek, 
and of the children of this union eight are liv- 
ing : Fannie is the wife of Joseph Kopecka, 
living in Oklahoma ; Mary is the wife of Frank 
Tomselek, a Custer county farmer ; Frank is 
at home ; Anna is the wife of Vincel Kucera 
and they are living in Oklahoma ; Rosa is the 
wife of Joseph Malear and they reside in Mon- 
tana ; Julia is the wife of .\ustin Martin, of 
Tecumseh, Nebraska ; and Joseph and Edward 
are at home. 

This home place of Mr. Kobl comprises a 
half -section of good land, upon which a gen- 
eral farming and stock-raising business is 
transacted, and the farm presents the appear- 
ance of thrift and success, both of which are 
attributed to Mr. Kobl. The family belong to 
the Catholic church, and in ])olitics Mr. Kobl 
generally votes the Repul)lican ticket. 



HARDY B. KLUMP. — One of the repre- 
sentative farmers of Custer county, in the full 
vigor of middle life, with blood of German 
extraction flowing through his veins, energized 
by birth and residence in the free land of 
America, is the man designated above. Hardy 
B. Klump was born in Willow, Illinois, in 
1878, and is a son of Jacob B. and Jane (Par- 
kison) Klump. The father was of German 
birth, a man of strong character who has ac- 
cumulated a respectable fortune and is spend- 
ing the years of a comfortalile retirement in 



696 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Broken Bow. The father came to this countn,- 
as a youth and later enHsted in the service of 
the Union, and was a vahant soldier during 
the Civil war. The mother, who was a native 
of Illinois, died in 1896. The father has since 
remarried. In the family circle to which Hardy 
B. Klump belongs were nine children : Sophia 
Bertrand lives on a farm near King City, Mis- 
souri : Herman lives on a farm near Ringgold, 
Nebraska ; Julia Halliwell lives on a farm near 
Merna; Fred, like his brother Herman, is on 
a farm near Ringgold; May lives near Merna; 
Ruby Hackbeth lives at Hershey, Nebraska ; 
Olive is in the state of Washington, where she 
is engaged in teaching; Hardy B. was the sev- 
enth child ; and August is farming near Gandy. 

Hardy B. Klump received a good education 
and during the war of 1898 enlisted in the ser- 
vice of the government and served in the First 
Nebraska Regiment, in the Philippine Islands. 
This was the first money that he earned. Dur- 
ing his war service he spent about one year in 
Manila and its vicinity. 

In Custer county Mr. Klump homesteaded 
160 acres of land and then secured a lease on 
a section of school land. This makes him a 
very large and protluctive farm, with practical- 
ly 440 acres under cultivation. He maintains 
a good grade of horses and hogs, and has put 
on all the improvements himself. When the 
property came into his possession there were 
only two small frame shacks on the land. Ev- 
erything now to be seen on the premises is 
the product of his toil. Mr. Klump's disposi- 
tion is to make himself generally useful. While 
he is an inde])endent voter, he is always con- 
cerned for his friends and anxious to see the 
man of best qualifications elected. He has 
been a road overseer of his district a number 
of years and also a school director, and in these 
local ofiices he has charged himself with fos- 
tering the best interests of the community. 
It can be truthfully said that he is a represen- 
tative Custer county farmer — one of indus- 
trious habits, one who is a good manager and 
has discerning judgment. 



WILLIAM E. WARDROBE. — The sub- 
ject of this record has been identified with the 
agricultural interests of Custer county for 
many years, and has seen the county develop 
from a pioneer district to one of beautiful 
homes and farms, with here and there thriving 
villages and towns. 

William E. Wardrobe was born at Milwau- 
kee. Wisconsin. Octolier l.\ 1861. His parents. 
James and Margaret (Thompson) Wardrobe, 
were natives of Scotland, in which country 



they were married, and in 1851 tliey immigrat- 
ed to America, settling at Milwaukee, Wiscon- 
sin. The father who was a machinist by trade, 
later moved to Dane county, and he continued 
to reside in Wisconsin until 1877, when he 
came with his family to Nebraska and lived 
in Fillmore county. In 1883 he came to Custer 
county and secured a homestead in township 
18, range 23, where he lived for many years, 
and for a long time he was postmaster at Rest 
• — ■ until advanced years compelled him to write 
to ^\'ashington and get released from the po- 
sition. He passed awaj' at the home of his 
son James, in Logan county, at the age of 
eighty-seven years, and his wife also spent 
her last days in Logan county. They were de- 
vout Christian people, well versed in the Scrip- 
tures, and they were members of the Presby- 
terian church until past seventy years of age, 
when they changed their views on some of the 
doctrines of that denomination and were bap- 
tised in and united with the Baptist church. 
They were among the early settlers of their 
community and had their share of privations 
and other hardships. They were the parents 
of three children : Ann was born in Scotland 
and became the wife of John Schmitz, an early 
settler of Custer county: they were married in 
Wisconsin and she is now a widow, residing 
on the old homestead ; James is a farmer and 
resides in Custer county ; and William E. is 
the subject of this review. 

NMlliam E. \\'ardrobe was reared on a farm 
in Dane county. Wisconsin, and the home fami 
in Fillmore county. Nebraska. The next year 
after his father came to Custer county William 
E. likewise came to the county, where he se- 
cured a homestead — the northwest quarter of 
section 4. township 17, range 23. The land 
had been surveyed, but the first wagon tracks 
made on the north and west sides of this sec- 
tion were made by Mr. Wardrobe when he 
drove up to the the spot where he erected his 
sod house and cast in his lot with the first 
settlers on West Table. The securing of water 
for stock and family use was a serious propo- 
sition in those early times, and it was necessary 
to go 400 feet or more to strike water. The 
machiner\- and methods of boring and fighting 
quicksand, were of jirimitive order, and a well 
was a luxury. Mr. \\'ardrobe hauled water 
thirteen years before he had a well on his 
place. liut the men and women who dared 
venture into a new country were of such cali- 
ber that hardships were made easy, and ob- 
stacles were overcome to the extent that by 
persistent eflfort and good management those 
who had the courage and foresight to stay in 
Custer countv have reached the goal of success. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



697 



For a wife and helpmeet Mr. Wardrobe 
chose Aliss IMartha F. Rice, who was born 
in Missouri, a daughter of Wilham J. Rice, 
who is mentioned on other pages of this vol- 
ume. Mr. and Mrs. Wardrolie have become 
the parents of five children: William J. mar- 
ried Sarah Beardsley and they are residents of 
Custer county ; ^Margaret is the wife of Frank 
Seevers, a farmer of Custer county ; Lessie is 
the wife of Ernest Stinespring, and they are 
residents of Custer county ; Hazle is the wife 
of Ray Stupplebeen, of Custer county ; and 
Elva is still with her parents . 

Mr. and J\Irs. Wardrobe are members of 
the Baptist church, and in politics Air. Ward- 
robe is a liberal Democrat, voting for men and 
measures regardless of party ties. ]\Ir. Ward- 
robe has watched the development of Custer 
county and is enthusiastic over the agricultural 
opportunities to be found here. He has been 
successful in his undertakings and is the owner 
of three quarter-sections of good farming land. 
The old sod house has been replaced with a 
frame structure, and William E. Wardrobe is 
one of the substantial men of his community. 



GEORGE RIMPLEY. — The blood of 
thrifty German stock flowing through the veins 
of the Custer county ranchman and stockman 
whose name is displayed in this title line, has 
enriched Custer county and paid generous 
tribute to its productions. George Rimpley 
was born in Germany April 18, 18-k5. He is 
a son of Frederick and Mary M. Rimpley, in 
vvhose family were the following named chil- 
dren : Carl, Frederick, Theodore, George, 
]\Iarv, Lota, Annie, and Louise. 

Young George Rimpley came to America 
and landed in New York in 1855. He was 
accompanied by his uncle. Here he found his 
first employment as a gardener, and he worked 
for one dollar a month and board. Later he 
made his way to Burlington, Iowa, where he 
worked on a farm for two years, after whi:h 
he secured a position in the Burlington flour 
mills. He soon found himself foreman in the 
mill and in six months he was running the 
engine. He followed the work for nine years. 
and then enlisted in Company A, Thirteenth 
New York Infantry, in 1864. He served one 
year and eleven months, under General Sher- 
inan, and he was mustered out at Richmond. 
\'irginia. He had part in engagements at 
City Point and in front of Petersburg. After 
leaving the army he found employment as en- 
gineer in a paper mill at Cedar Rapids. Iowa. 
There he stayed four years, and he then went 
to Des Moines, for the same company. 



While in Cedar Rapids he was united in 
marriage, November 4, 1873, to Miss Etta 
Parkus, a daughter of Franklin and Sara A. 
Parkus. The Rimpley home has never been 
lonesome. Fifteen children have been born 
into the family circle. Letta Alatan lives with 
her husband at Prosser, Nebraska, and they 
have one son and four daughters. They are 
members of the Methodist church. Charles, 
who is a farmer living near Logan, Nebraska, 
married Alice Kimberling, and they have two 
sons and one daughter. They are members of 
the Baptist church. Frederick, who is living 
on a farm near Arnold, married Evelyn Phil- 
pot, and they have three daughters. The fa- 
ther and mother belong to the Methodist 
church. Man,' is the wife of Oral Gunter, a 
farmer living near Arnold, and they have one 
daughter and two sons. They are members 
of the Baptist church. Carrie married Chester 
Blakesley, a farmer living near Lomax. Will- 
iam married Ises Smith and lives on a farm 
near Arnold, and they have two daughters. 
Sadie is the wife of Walter Holt, a farmer 
living on the West Table, and they have one 
son and one daughter. They are members of 
the Nazarene church. Aaron married Beulah 
McGee and lives on a farm near Arnold. They 
are members of the Methodist church. Arthur 
is single and is farming part of his father's 
land. Anna is the wife of Emmett O'Brien, 
of Hoagland, Nebraska. Everett lives at home 
and is attending school. Florence is a school 
girl, living at home. 

Mr. and Mrs. Rimpley date their residence 
in Custer county from the spring of 1883, at 
which time they located two miles southwest of 
Arnold, which place has been their home for 
thirty-five years. Mr. Rimply made his money 
by farming and stock-raising. For several 
years he has handled two thousand dollars' 
worth of hogs, hauling them in wagons to 
Merna. He is one of the pioneers who have 
made good, who tested the resources of the 
county, and who, by thrift and good manage- 
ment, has become the owner of 600 acres of 
valuable land. He and his good wife enjoy 
the confidence of their friends and neighbors, 
and are well and favorably known by a large 
circle of friends. He has thoroughly proved 
his loyalty to his adopted land. He served as 
a valiant soldier of the Union in the Civil war, 
and in connection with the great world war 
he has been a liberal contributor to the Red 
Cross and the Young ]\Ien's Christian Associa- 
tion, as well as a heavy^ purchaser of Liberty 
bonds and war stamps. Every one of his boys 
was in the draft age, but, because of the com- 
ing of peace, their services were not required. 



698 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Locally he has served as school director and 
road overseer for a number of years. He is 
connected with the Indep>endent Order of Odd 
Fellows, and he and his wife are Lutherans 



in religious affiliation. 



FREDERICK L. HOFFMAN. — This 
paragraph presents the name of a man widely 
known throughout the southern portion of the 
county as a stockman and rancher — a man 
who has given some time to business and in 
many ways can be referred to as one of the 
substantial citizens of Arnold and vicinity. 
"Lace" Hoffman, as he is familiarly known, 
was born October 22, 1871, in Fairmont. New 
Jersey. He is the second born of the children 
of Frederick P. and Mary ( Cannedy ) Hoff- 
man, the former a native of New Jersey and 
the latter of Illinois. In the immediate family 
of Frederick Hoffman were nine children : 
Anna May, Frederick L., Elizabeth L. Knox, 
Philip K.. Rosella Woo<l, Margaret Long. Oritt 
L.. Willie W. (deceased). Silas B., and Paul 
H. The parents belonged to the Presbyterian 
church, of which they were prominent and de- 
voted members — persons uniformly respected 
and highly rated in the communities where 
they were known. In 1884 Frederick P. Hoff- 
man came with his family to Dawson county, 
Nei)raska, where he located upon a homestead. 
Here it was that Frederick L. Hoffman passed 
his boyhocKl days and ran the gamut of the 
I ublic schools, in which he received a funda- 
mental education that has served him well in 
the business transactions of his active life. He 
worked on the farm until he was about eigh- 
teen years of age, and then he secured work 
with the ranchmen of that locality. It was 
thus that he formed his early predilections for 
the stock business, in which he has since be- 
come an adept. Shortly after being thrown 
upon his own resources Mr. Hoffman firgan- 
ized a hay outfit and in the summer and fall of 
those early years he put up hay on contract, 
for Dan Haskell and other stockmen, some- 
times putting up as many as 100 tons in a dav. 

On April 29, 189<). at Broken Bow, M'r. 
Hoffman led to the marriage altar Miss E^olia 
Lowe, the marriage ceremonv being performed 
by the Rev. S. C. Cad well, a well known Ba])- 
tist cler_g}man of the pioneer days. Mrs. Hoff- 
man is a native of Adrian, Michigan, and is a 
daughter of Burlin W. and Fannie E. ( Gay- 
lor) Lowe, both of whom were natives of the 
Empire state. Baptists by church connection 
and highly connected with local societies. In 
her father's family, aside from herself, were 
the following named children : Eber C, Ethel 



C., Arnott E., and Elroy P. oince their mar- 
riage Mr. and Mrs. Hoffman have maintained 
always a very comfortable and hospitable 
home. Whether on the ranch or in the town 
of Arnold, where their present home is lo- 
cated, they have always been surrounded with 
the comforts of life and into their home have 
been born three bright children, Florence AL, 
who at present is a high-school student in Ar- 
nold ; and Weir and Maxine E. 

Air. Hoffman has been a resident of Custer 
county since 1887. His first location was eight 
miles southwest of Lodi, and'there he engaged 
in the stock business, which has been the major 
occupation of his entire career. The cattle 
business comes naturally to him. He can see 
the merits or demerits of the bovine species 
half way across a thousand-acre pasture. The 
cattle business has served him well and been 
profitable. He commenced in a small way. The 
first money he earned was by cracking peach 
stones for twenty-five cents a basket, and it 
required a good, long day to crack one basket 
full. The first team he owned was purchased 
on time, from the First National Bank of Lex- 
ington. To-day Mr. and Mrs. Hoffman are 
secure in the comforts of life and well pro- 
vided for any emergency that may arise. They 
have 3,000 acres of land, 150 head of cattle, 
thirty horses, and over 100 head of hogs. The 
main ranch which Mr. Hoft'man operates is 
located six miles east of Arnold, in the Powell 
canyon. The Hoffmans are well comiected 
socially and are members of the First Baptist 
church of Arnold. Highly respected in the- 
community, they deserve the esteem in which 
they are held by their wide circle of friends. 



HENRY T. MICHELE, who is one of the 
extensive land owners and progressive farmers 
of Custer county, is a native son of Nebraska, 
his birth having occurred in Saline county. He 
is a son of Christopher and Gertrude ( Stangl) 
Michele, who were born in Germany, where 
their marriage occurred and where they made 
their home until 1863, when they came to the 
I'nited States. They resided in Iowa a few 
years and then became pioneer settlers of Sal- 
line county, Nebraska. There they fallowed 
agricultural pursuits until 1883, when they 
came to Custer county and purchised a home- 
stead claim of 160 acres — the southeast quar- 
ter of section 9, township 18, range 22. Their 
first home was in keeping with the times and 
was constructed of sod. this serving as the 
home of the family till the death of the father. 
The mother passed away at .\nselmo. Mr. 
and Mrs. Christopher Michele came to Custer 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



699 




Kksihence of Henry T. AIichei.e 




Pioneer Residence of Christopher Michele 



700 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COL'XTY. NEBRASKA 



county at a ])criod when settlers were few 
and far betweL-n, when but little improvement 
had been made, and when the usual pioneer 
hardships and privations were to be endured. 
They were among the worthy pioneers who 
were not afraid to venture and whose labors 
have made Custer county a better place in 
which to live. They were the parents of eight 
children and were faithful communicants of 
the Catholic church. 

Henry T. Michele was a lad of eight years 
when he accompanied his parents to Custer 
county. His boyhood days v/ere spent in the 
usual manner of farm lads, and as his years 
and strength increased he assisted in the oper- 
ation and development of the homestead. When 
he became a man he acquired from his father 
title to the home place and engaged in farming 
for himself. That he has been successful is 
evidenced by the fact that he has extended 
the boundaries of his possessions by the pur- 
chase of another quarter section of land, all 
of which, together with a quarter which he 
operates under lease, he is devoting to general 
farming and stock-raising. He also operates 
a threshing outfit, which adds materially to 
his income. 

On February 7, I'^OO, was solemnized the 
marriage of Henry T. Michele to Miss Anna 
Fleishman, who was born in Wisconsin. Mrs. 
Michele is a daughter of Con Fleishman, who 
was an early settler of Custer county and 
whose record is to be found elsewhere in this 
volume. Mr. and Mrs. Michele have become 
the parents of eight children, all of whom are 
still under the parental roof. Their names are 
Leo, Raymond, George, Paul, Frances, Irene, 
Catherine, and Gertrude. 

As an evidence in the change in conditions 
in Custer county, the old sod house has given 
place to a beautiful frame dwelling, which Mr. 
Michele has erected since he came into pos- 
session of the old home. The familv belong 
to the Catholic church and in politics Mr. 
Michele is a Democrat. He has taken an 
active interest in those things which have to 
do with the uplift of the communitv and has 
served on the school board since a young man 
of twenty-one j'ears. 



WILLIAM C. BELTZ. — The .story of 
William C. Beltz reveals a varied experience 
and discloses the fact that during his younger 
years he was somewhat of a traveler and turned 
his hand to a good many occupations. That 
he made good at most of them is evidenced l)y 
the fact that he is to-day a property owner, 
a man of substantial influence, and prepared to 



live under conditions of comparative ease. He 
was born September 25, 1858, in Bedford 
county, Pennsylvania. His parents, John A. 
and Sophia ( Xycum ) Beltz, were natives of 
Pennsylvania and members of the German Re- 
formed church. In their family were seven 
children of whom \\'illiam C. is the eldest, the 
others being: Elizabeth (deceased), Laura B. 
Ruddy, John S., Bruce B., Harvey A., and 
Burton E. The father was a soldier in the 
Civil war, in which he served three years in 
a Pennsylvania regiment of volunteers. In 
the Battle of the Wilderness he was severely 
wounded. The home place where young Will- 
iam C. Beltz received his early training was 
near Manns Choice, Bedford county, Pennsyl- 
vania, where his father died. William stayed 
under the home roof until 1884, when he came 
directly to Custer county and secured a po- 
sition in the livery barn of William Xycum, 
of Arnold. In the spring of 1885 he accom- 
panied Chris Hazlebaker to the headwaters of 
the Dismal river and helped him to locate a 
claim. That winter he hired out as "cow 
puncher" on the T. L. \ . ranch, some eighteen 
miles northwest of Arnold. He was employed 
on this ranch three years, then made a trip to 
L'tah, and later he returned to Xebraska and 
took a course in the Grand Island Business 
College. From Grand Island he returned to 
.\rnold. and he reports that when he arrived 
at Arnold he was broke. He and a young man 
named Charlie Kuhns, now living in Maxwell, 
formed a partnership for the summer and 
handled Singer sewing machines. In the fall 
their assets consisted of a bunch of broncos 
worth from ten to fifteen dollars each, and a 
big board bill. After this ex])erience Mr. 
Beltz again tried his luck on the T. L. ^^ 
ranch, where he worked eighteen months. 
.\bout this time his thoughts turned to matri- 
mony, and in the spring of 1893, at Arnold, 
he was united in marriage to Miss Emma S. 
Burk, who was born in Illinois, and who is a 
daughter of James F. and Martha (Crabb) 
Burk. Since their marriage, Mrs. Beltz has 
been her husband's faithful helpmeet and a 
splendid home-maker. In the father's family 
were six children: John B., William. Laura 
Rogers, Flattie Xeedham, Emma S. Beltz, and 
Albert. 

In the home Mr. and Mrs. lieltz estab- 
lished, plenty and comfort have always pre- 
vailed. In their family circle are three chil- 
dren: Loyd S., who is "soiuewhere in France" 
at the time of this writing, is a corporal in 
Company H. Three Hundred and Fifty-second 
Infantr)-, Eighty-eighth Division, A. P. O. 
795, American Expeditionary Forces. He is 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



701 



a graduate of the Arnold high sciiool. Harry 
R. and Hazel are still under the parental roof. 
Hazel is a graduate and Harry is a student of 
the Arnold high school. For eight years Mr. 
and Mrs. Beltz lived in Mills X'alley, where 
they rented a farm and followed agricultural 
pursuits. After this they came to Arnold, 
where he conducted a hardware business about 
two years. Then he purchased 160 acres ad- 
joining Arnold on the west, which is his pres- 
ent home. It is a well improved, valuable 
piece of land, and to-day he is prepared to take 
life easy. He laughs at the hardships of the 
pioneer days and thinks that this is a pretty 
fair country for a man who has any ambition. 
He has filled several local offices — was asses- 
sor three years, town clerk several years — 
and he is a member of the Masonic lodge and 
the Christian church. He affiliates politically 
with the Democratic party. Mr. and Mrs. 
Beltz are good neighbors and have a host of 
friends. 



JOHN MORAN, who has been identified 
with important business enterprises in Custer 
county for more than thirty years, has been 
one of the leading factors in the upbuilding 
of the progressive town of Callaway. Mr. 
Moran was born in the city of Boston, Massa- 
chusetts, February 11, 1855. His father, Pat- 
rick Moran, was born in Ireland, and his moth- 
er, Mary Moran, was born in Scotland, and 
they were married in New Foundland. From 
there they immigrated to the United States and 
the father, who was a machinist and black- 
smith, found work in Boston, Massachusetts. 
The mother died soon afterward, leaving three 
children: John, who was then an infant, is the 
subject of this sketch; Patrick H. is deceased; 
and Anna is tlie wife of James McGarrigle, a 
stock dealer living in a suburb of Boston, and 
they have five children. 

John Moran was six years old when his fa- 
ther died, and then he went to live with a 
cousin, William McGlaughlin, who sent him 
to school and took care of him until he was 
about ten years old, when the boy began to 
provide in part for his own necessities. He 
worked up a newspaper route and for two 
years delivered the morning and evening edi- 
tions of the Boston Herakl, a copy of which 
sometimes reaches him and in these later years 
naturally possesses much interest. John was 
about twelve years old when he secured a job 
in a custom tailoring shop, in which he worked 
two years. He than became a clerk in a cloth- 
ing and furnishing store, where he gained 
mercantile experience that was of great value 



to him. In 1875 he went to Ottumwa, Iowa, 
as a member of a surveying crew for the Bur- 
lington Railroad, and afterward he was a 
brakeman for two seasons. Then promotion 
followed — he served as a freight conductor 
and finally was made passenger conductor. 
When the company took on the new branch 
lines, Mr. Moran's ability and fidelity were 
given recognition, in his appointment to the 
office of assistant superintendent of the Humes- 
ton & Shanando Railroad, and he had entire 
charge of the construction until the line was 
finished. 

At that time Mr. Moran conceived the idea 
of going into the cattle business in Nebraska, 
and in October, 1883, he came to Custer county 
with that intention. After further investiga- 
tion, however, he changed his mind and de- 
cided to engage in the mercantile business, in 
which he had had experience. He formed a 
partnership with Harry E. O'Niell and they 
put in a large stock of general merchandise 
at a point then bearing the name of Olax, 
where a postoffice had been established. This 
embryonic town was situated thirty-five miles 
north of Pluni Creek, and is now the town of 
Lexington. Later, in 1885, the firm estab- 
lished a branch store at the postoffice village 
of Delight, the original name of Callaway. 
The above partnership continued until 1886, 
when it was dissolved, Mr. O'Niell taking up 
the practice of law. Mr. Moran continued the 
business at Olax for a short time and then sold 
that store to the firm of Crossett & Johnson, 
who moved the building to Oconto, where it 
is utilized at present by George Mary as a 
hardware store. In the course of time the 
tow^nsite of Callaway was platted and the post- 
office name was changed, the name of Delight 
being now almost forgotten. As Callaway, 
through capital and enterprise, became an im- 
portant shipping point, Mr. Moran assisted in 
the general progress by enlarging his business 
interests, and he continued the leading mer- 
chant until he retired from that field of en- 
terprise, in 1914. He then engaged in the in- 
surance, real-estate, and farm-loan business, 
handling life, health, accident, fire, tornado, 
hail, automobile, and live-stock insurance. He 
is a Knight Templar ]\Iason and a Sliriner 
and is past worthy patron in the Order of the 
Eastern Star. 

Mr. Moran was marrietl September 10, 
1885, at Ottumwa. Iowa, to Miss Minnie Ko- 
nantz, of that place, who is a daughter of Jo- 
seph and Margaret (Lunkley) Konantz, the 
former of whom, a railroad man, was born in 
Germany, and the latter of whom was bom 
in Illinois. Air. and Mrs. Moran have four 



702 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COL'XTY, NEBRASKA 



children; Rol)€rt E., John O., Walter E., and 
Cora A. This is a patriotic family, and at the 
time of this writing two of Mr. Moran's sons 
are in the service of their country, while the 
third son is preparing for sen-ice. The eldest, 
Robert E. ^loran. is a graduate of Boyle"s 
Business College. Omaha, and before enlisting 
in the national army he was manager of his 
father's large department store, besides hav- 
ing been assistant postmaster for eighteen 
months. He is now in France and is a cor- 
poral in the Three Hundred and Eighteenth 
Engineer Corps. John Moran. Jr., attended 
Creighton University for six years, was grad- 
uated in the law department and was employed 
as one of the legal stalT of the Union Pacific 
Railroad for one year, after which he openetl 
an office for general practice. \\'hile with the 
Union Pacific he had become acquainted with 
officials of the Oregon Short Line, who were 
impressed with his legal ability, and he was 
engagefl by that road as a specialist on inter- 
state commerce law. A bright professional fu- 
ture undoubtedly was interrupted when, from 
a loyal sense of duty he enlisted, June 28, 1918. 
making choice of the marine branch of the 
United States navy, ^^'alter E. Moran is a 
graduate of the Callaway high school and con- 
tinued with the Callaway Telephone Company 
until such time, as a selective, he should be 
called to the colors. Cora A., the only daugh- 
ter of ]\Ir. and Mrs. Moran, is the wife of 
Arthur R. Young, clerk in a hardware store 
at Callaway, and they have one daughter, 
Margaret A. 



MRGIL ALLYN, who is probably one of 
the best known cattlemen in western Nebras- 
ka, has a beautiful home and large ranch in- 
terests near Callaway. He is a pioneer of the 
county, which has been his home for fortv 
years. Mr. Allyn was born in Posey county, 
Indiana. December 17, 1849. His parents were 
Philo H. and Sarah A. (Welborn) Allyn, the 
latter a daughter of Moses Welborn. who was 
a native of North Carolina Virgil Allyn was 
the firstborn of the family of six children, the 
others being: Joseph. Mary, and \\"illiani. all 
of whom are deceased : Julia A., who is the 
wife of James W. Thompson, a professional 
accountant at Denver. Colorado; and Charles 
H., who is a ranchman near Denver: he mar- 
ried Minnie Tesch and the)' have one son. 

Virgil Allyn was four years old when his 
parents moved to Missouri and settled near 
St. Joseph, where he was reared and attended 
school. His first land was bought with the 
nionev he earned while working with his fa- 



ther in buying and feeding stock. This pur- 
chase was one of eighty acres of prairie, and 
with the proceeds of the sale of the land he 
went into the mule business at St. Joseph, be- 
ing then twenty-three years old. He continued 
this first mule market in that city for eighteen 
months, shipping to St. Louis, and then he 
went to Chicago and for the next four years 
bought cattle for Swift & Company. In 1878 
Mr. Allyn came to Custer county and located 
on the South Loup river, eighteen miles south- 
west of Broken Bow. He organized the 
Brighton Ranch Cattle Company, with an in- 
vestment of $180,000. 7.200 acres of land, 
5.000 head of cattle, and 100 head of horses. 
Mr. Allyn was manager, and had charge of 
operations about ten years, by which time Cus- 
ter county had become so thickly settled that 
it was deemed best to close operations. Many 
cattlemen in Custer and other counties remem- 
ber the palmy days of the business on the 
South Loup river and recall Mr. .Allyn as a 
princely host. He still owns 720 acres of the 
old ranch, and has 280 acres west of Callaway, 
150 acres of which he has in alfalfa. 

In June. 1877, Mr. Allyn married Miss Mary 
Jane Mintun, of Chicago, Illinois, and she died 
on the home ranch, in 1888, leaving no chil- 
dren. Mr. AUyn's second marriage took place 
in 1889. when Miss Arvilla Kern became his 
wife. She is a daughter of William and Ma- 
rinda ( Bennett) Kern. Mr. and Mrs. Allyn 
have had three children : \'irgil is deceased : 
Winnie is the wife of Jesse May, a farmer 
whose land joins Mr. .\llyn's on the north, 
and they have two children; and Marjorie. 

It is worthy of special note in this sketch, 
as a matter of historic interest, that Mr. Al- 
lyn was the first to introduce, in 1882, in Cus- 
ter county the propagation of alfalfa, he hav- 
ing secured the seed from California. He also 
brought into the county the first white-face, 
short-horn .Angus cattle, in Tanuarv. 1883. 



JOHN F. WESTCOTT. — The value of a 
useful and essential trade and of making one's 
eflforts count, are exemplified in the career of 
John F. Westcott. one of the well known citi- 
zens of Comstock. where he has been eng"aged 
as a carpenter and builder for a luuuber of 
years. He is one of the substantial and reliable 
men of his community, a skille<l artisan and 
mechanic, and one who values high principles, 
and endeavors to live up to all the rules of 
business and good citizenship. He is a native 
of Green county. Wisconsin, where he was 
born June 29. ISfA. and is a son of John and 
Matilda (Fort) Westcott. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



703 



The parents of Mr. \\'est:ott were born at 
Saratoga Springs, New York, the former Sep- 
tember 26. 1825, and the latter August 6, 1825, 
and there they were reared, educated and niar- 
I ied. In 1855 they migrated to Wisconsin, 
where Mr. Westcott bought government land- 
in Green county. There lie was industriously 
engaged in both farming and following his 
trade as a cabinetmaker until the Civil war 
came on to interrupt his activities. While re- 
siding in New York he had been a member of 
the state militia, rising from the rank of cor- 
poral to that of second lieutenant, and in 
Wisconsin, in March, 1865, he enlisted in 
Company I, Forty-sixth Regiment, Wisconsin 
\'olunteer Infantry, with which he served un- 
til he received his honorable discharge, in Sep- 
tember, 1865. During his army service he 
contracted in camp a disease from which he 
never recovered, it finally causing his death 
in February, 1867. • He was a Republican in 
politics, but never held or cared for office. 
His widow survived him by many years, pass- 
ing away in the faith of the Presbyterian 
church, in October, 1897, when seventy-two 
years of age. They were the parents of the 
following children: Eda and Ada are twins, 
the former being the wife of George Houder, 
a farmer in the vicinity of Dunning. Nebras- 
ka, and the latter the widow of Robert Cooper 
and a resident of Walworth, Custer countv ; 
John F., of this review, was the next in order 
of birth; Eliza C. taught school in Wisconsin 
for two years and then came to Nebraska, 
where she has been teaching for thirty-five 
years, the last twenty years in the public 
schools of Omaha: and Kate, deceased, was 
the wife of the late Newton Taylor, they hav- 
ing been prominent pioneers of Custer county 
and their only son, John, being, at the time of 
this writing, in service with the American Ex- 
peditionary Forces "somewhere in France." 

John F. Westcott was educated in the public 
schools of Wisconsin, and as a youth showed 
much mechanical ability. ])robably inherited 
from his father. However, when he entered 
upon his career he elected to follow the voca- 
tion of agriculturist, and accordingly home- 
steaded a tract of land south of the town of 
Wescott. On this place he resided seventeen 
years. The location of the railroad changed 
the destinies of .Wescott and Comstock. the 
latter being the favored town, and to this com- 
munity Mr. Westcott came, here establishing 
himself and seeking business as a carpenter 
and builder. Patronage was not long in com- 
ing to him, as he showed himself reliable, 
trustworthy, capable, and industrious, and with 
the passage of the years he has succeeded in 



building up an excellent custom among the 
people of Comstock and the surrounding com- 
munities, where there are many structures to 
show evidence of his skill and good workman- 
ship. Mr. Westcott is a Republican, but not 
a politician, and his only public service has 
been as a member of the board of directors 
of school district No. 1. which was the first 
schoolhouse erected in Custer county. 

Mr. Westcott was married July 20. 1892, to 
Mi.ss Lillian L. Cleaveland, at Wescott. she 
being a daughter of Elias and Alma ( Hutch- 
inson ) Cleaveland. who are natives of the state 
of IMaine and who came to Custer county in 
1883 : here they bought land and secured tree 
claims, and both are now residents of Com- 
stock, after many years of successful agricul- 
tural effort. Mr. and Mrs. Westcott have no 
children. 



JOHN B. SCHMITZ. — One of the early 
settlers of Custer county, a man wiio was 
faithful to every trust and who spent the best 
years of his life in helping to make his com- 
munity a better place in which to live, was the 
honored pioneer whose name initiates this 
memoir. 

John B. Schmitz was born in Waukesha 
county. AMsconsin, January 16, 1847, and was 
a son of Henry and Gertrude (Krumhultz) 
Schmitz. The parents were natives of Ger- 
many and came to America in 1845, locating 
in Wisconsin, where they spent the remainder 
of their lives. They had four children, the 
second youngest being John B. 

John B. Schmitz was reared on-a farm, at- 
tended the public schools in the ac<|uirement 
of his early education and when a young man 
became a farmer. C)n the 15th of March, 
1869, at Brookfield, Wisconsin, he was united 
in marriage to Miss Ann Wardrobe, a native 
of Scotland. She is a sister of William E. 
Wardrobe, who has furnished data for a gen- 
ealogical record of the family given elsewhere 
in this volume. 

Soon after their marriage John B. Schmitz 
and his wife moved to Dane county, Wiscon- 
sin, where they continued to reside until 1880, 
when they came to Nebraska and established 
their home in Fillmore county. In 1884 they 
came to Custer county and secured a home- 
stead in section 33. township 18. range 23. 
This tract was wholly unimproved, and in the 
passing years Mr. Schmitz made it one of the 
valuable farm properties of the township. He 
shared in all the hardships and privations of 
the pioneer days, but eventually the old sod 
house was replaced with a good frame build- 



704 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



ing and other improvements were made, in 
keeping witli the development of the country. 
On this farm, December 2, 1917, Mr. Schmitz 
was called to his eternal rest, and his passing 
was a severe loss to his family and friends. 
He was active in all affairs of his commimity, 
served as a director of the school board and 
was a public-spirited and useful member of 
society. 

Mr. and Mrs. Schmitz became the parents 
of eleven children: Anna M. is the wife of 
J. M. Ford; Isabel B. is the wife of L. E. 
Fish ; Agnes F., who died on the 12th of 
January, 1918, was the wife of William Smith ; 
Gertrude is the wife of J. R. Rice ; Walter E. 
is a resident of Custer county ; Elizabeth J. is 
the wife of Bryan Leonard, of Callaway, this 
county: William C. married Ethel Stockham 
and they reside in Custer county ; John J, 
married Ada Waddington, and they likewise 
reside in this county : Laura A. is the wife 
of C. E. Whitney : Henry G. married Nellie 
WHiitman. and their home is maintained in 
Custer county : and Irene is the wife of Homer 
Beardsley. 

Mrs. Schmitz is making her home on the old 
farm and is one of the revered pioneer women 
of Custer county, within whose borders she 
has resided thirty-six years. 



ELRAY H. KRUSER. — The subject of 
this sketch belongs to the young contingent 
of Custer county farmers who are moving 
along the line and into the places that mark 
the success of their fathers and the generation 
before them. 

EIray H. Kruser was Ixjrn in Lincoln coun- 
ty, Missouri, in 1883. He is a son of Henrv 
Kruser, a widely known farmer and prominent 
citizen of Cus-ter county. Elray H. Kruser 
has for some time maintained a home of his 
own and been responsible for the cultivation 
of his father's ranch. His early years, for 
. the most part, were spent in this county, and 
here he received a liberal education and formed 
the habits of a careful, painstaking, business- 
like fanner. He was married, in Indiana, to 
Maud Seaney, of Richmond, that state, and 
since that time she has not only shared the 
comforts of the home but has also, in a large 
measure, helped to provide them. All the ef- 
forts of her husband have been ablv sccowled 
by her intelligent companionship and co-opera- 
tion. Mrs. Kruser is a native of Indiana, and 
is a daughter of Jacob and Nancy Seaney. of 
Richmond. Mr. and Mrs. Kruser have three 
children — Garner, Borgia, and Donzel — and 
the two older children are in school, treadinsr 



the educational maze that lies before all young 
Americans. 

As previously stated, Elray H. Kruser oper- 
ates his father's farm, and here he has demon- 
strated his ability as a farmer. This is a 
good ranch, with excellent improvements, and 
Elray sees to it that the grade of live stock is 
maintained in high type. He cultivates 200 
acres in rotated crops and aside from hogs 
and cattle is paying some attention to sheep, 
of which, at the present time, he has 145 
head on the place. During the war just end- 
ed, Elray has been an active spirit and liberal 
contributor in every drive and in every possible 
way has shown his lovaltv to his native coun- 
try. 

Arnold is the nearest town and is the trad- 
ing point for the family. Here they are well 
Ivnown and have a splendid rating with the 
business men. Independent in politics, Mr. 
Kruser votes for the man whom he deems best 
fitted for the office. 



ROLLY C. LEACH. — This record of Mr. 
Leach is to be credited to Arnold. He be- 
longs to the retired farmer list and well de- 
serves the pleasure of the retirement he is 
now able to enjoy. He was born in Iowa 
January 3, 1862, and is a son of Hiram and 
Miriam ( Chillcotte ) Campbell Leach. The 
mother was twice married and her children by 
the first marriage were Sylvia E. Campbell 
Pierce; Mary P. Powell (deceased) ; and Leo 
L. Campbell. Of the three children of Hiram 
and Miriam Leach the subject is eldest, the 
others being John R. and Carrie \'an Horn. 

The early years of Mr. I^each were spent in 
Iowa, where he received a liberal education in 
the schools of S'eymour and Promise City. He 
came first to Custer county in December, 1883, 
and located in section 34. township 18, range 
24. This claim was commuted in 1886 and in 
the next year he removed to Holyoke county, 
Colorado, where he worked at the carpenter 
trade till 1889, after which he moved to Den- 
ver where he followed the same trade for five 
more vears. While in Denver he was married 
May 30. 1889, to Brittle M. Payne, who was 
born in Davis county, Missouri, and who went 
from Holvoke. Colorado, to Denver, that state, 
in December. 1888. Mr. Leach having gone to 
that city in March, 1889. and their marriage 
having occurred about two months later. Mrs. 
Leach is a daughter of Reuben L. and Nancy 
( Folley) Payne. Mrs. Leach came of a splen- 
did family, well connected Kentucky people of 
sterling f|ualitv. In the Payne family were 
five children. John, Marv E. Harris. W. Na- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



705 



than, Anna Foster, and Brittie M. Leticli, wife 
of the subject of this sketch. 

Mr. and Mrs. Leach have six children: Brit- 
tie L. is the wife of EHhu O. Alexander, a 
garage man of Arnold, and they have one 
daughter and two sons. They belong to the 
Methodist church. Charles R., unmarried, was 
educated in the common schools and took a 
course in the York Business College. He is a 
land-owner in South Dakota. He is a member 
ofthe Methodist church, is a fourteenth degree 
Scottish Rite Mason and is also a member of 
the Order of the Eastern Star. Erma P. is 
at home with her parents. She is a member 
of the Methodist church and also the Eastern 
Star. Carrie E. is a clerk in a mercantile es- 
tablishment at Arnold, and she makes her 
home with her parents. Sarah M. is still un- 
der the parental roof and is a student at school. 
Swain M. also is pursuing an educational 
course in the Arnold schools. 

Mr. Leach returned with his family to Cus- 
ter county in the fall of 1893 and here he 
rented land, which he farmed for the next ten 
years. He then bought 720 acres, which he 
farmed and upon which he and his wife made 
their home until the spring of 1918. Then 
they sold the property and moved to Arnold, 
where they purchased a beautiful home and 
where Mr. Leach is now retired from active 
life. He and his wife are well and favorably 
known, and are members of the Methodist 
church. 

Mr. Leach is prominently affiliated with the 
time-honored Masonic fraternity, in which he 
has received the thirty-second degree of the 
Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, besides being 
identified with the Mystic Shrine, and being 
worthy patron of the local chapter of the Order 
of the Eastern Star. In addition to his social 
duties, he is the teacher of a large Bible class 
in the Methodist church. Mrs. Leach holds 
the chair of worthy matron of the Eastern 
Star, is president of the Ladies" Aid Society 
of the church, and is secretary of the War Sav- 
ing Society No. 2. Three of their children, 
Reuben, Erma, and Carrie, also are members 
of the Eastern Star. The Leaches are an in- 
fluential and popular family. 

LOL'IS C. LONGMORE. — If you are fa- 
miliar with the Callaway country, you have 
often heard the name of Longmore. There 
the subject of this sketch, a prominent young 
farmer, operates about a thousand acres of 
land for the landlord of a familiar name, and 
exercises an energy and skill which put him 



well to the front among the food-raisers and 
producers of the county. 

Louis C. Longmore was born May 6, 1882, 
in Marion county, Iowa, and is a son of Will- 
iam and Martha ( Runyan) Longmore, both 
natives of the old Hoosier state. In this ex- 
cellent Indiana family were nine children, the 
names of whom are given in the biographical 
sketch of Roy L. Longmore. elsewhere in this 
volume. 

When Louis C. Longmore was a lad of five 
years his parents came to Custer county and 
located north of Mason City, where they re- 
sided for perhaps nine years, when they sold 
out and moved to Missouri. Four years in 
Missouri proved a sufficiency of experience in 
that state, and the Longmore family came 
again to Custer county, where at this time lo- 
cation was made in the favored section of Cal- 
laway, in which locality the Longmores have 
resided most of the time since. 

Louis C. Longmore received a common- 
school education, learned the rudiments of 
farming by practical experience and also very 
early in life received a training in the care of 
his stock — a general discipline that has done 
him splendid service in the years of his active 
life. He became a benedict February 18, 1906, 
at which time, in the home of the bride's par- 
ents, in Triumph township, Miss Mary Etta 
Schreyer became his wife. Mrs. Longmore 
was born in Custer and is a daughter of Al- 
fred and Addie (Mnlvany) Schreyer, the for- 
mer a native of Wisconsin and the latter of 
Indiana. In this branch of the Schreyer fam- 
ily were found the pioneer spirit and the po- 
tential home development. Accordingly Mrs. 
Longmore has been an invaluable assistant to 
her husband. Thev have four oright children, 
all of whom give fine promise for the future, 
their names and respective ages, in 1918, be- 
ing as here noted: Irvin H., twelve years; 
Lois Irene, ten years ; Ena Alarguerite, eight 
vears ; and Grant Elwood, six years. 

Mr. Longmore is operating a farm of 1,000 
acres, on which are splendid improvements, in- 
cluding good buildings,, wells, fences, wind- 
mills, etc. He is conducting a very profitable 
business and is rated as one of the successful 
farmers and stockmen of Custer county. Po- 
litically he affiliates with the Democratic party, 
vet the Democratic candidate who receives his 
vote must possess the characteristics of ef- 
ficiencv and morality or else there is "nothing 
doing." He insists that the man is the first 
consideration. In their home community Mr. 
and Mrs. Longmore are rated as good neigh- 



706 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY. NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



707 



bors — kind and obliging, and generous to 
every ap])eal. During the war activities their 
patriotism has expressed itself in all the com- 
mon avenues in which Mr. Longmore has 
been able to respond. 

CHARLES W. FODGE. — When he ar- 
rived in Custer county. May 28, 1880, Charles 
W. Fodge had been through the experience 
of having twice secured a start upon the high- 
way to success and twice had seen the result 
of his laborious efforts swept away by mis- 
fortune. He was in depressed financial con- 
dition, and had a growing family to support, 
but in Custer county he found the means at 
hand which gave him the opportunity of ex- 
ercising his industry and real ability to good 
advantage, and the resut is tliat he is to-day 
one of Broken Bow's most substantial retired 
citizens. Mr. Fodge was born in Clayton 
county, Iowa, May 19, 1856, and is a son of 
David and Martha (Mansfield) Fodge. 

David Fodge was born in Indiana, was there 
reared as a farmer, and was educated in the 
public schools. In his native state he married 
Miss Martha Mansfield, daughter of James 
Mansfield, who passed away in Missouri, in 
1869. About the year 1854 Mr. Fodge re- 
moved to McGregor, Iowa, in which vicinity 
he remained about two years. His next set- 
tlement was in Putnam county, ^Missouri, but 
subsequently he returned to Iowa and took up 
his residence on a valuable farm in Wayne 
county. He was just getting well established 
in life when the Civil war came on to interrupt 
his career, for after three and. one-half months 
in the Union service, as a private of Company 
G, Twenty-fourth Regiment, Iowa Volunteer 
Infantry, he contracted pneumonia and died. 
He was a member of the United Brethren 
church, was a Republican in politics, and for 
several years had served as justice of the 
peace. He and Mrs. Fodge, who later joined 
the Christian church, were the parents of three 
sons and three daughters, the sons being: J. 
M.. engaged in the insurance business at Bro- 
ken Bow ; J. R.. a carpenter of Thedford. Ne- 
braska, a vocation which he has followed for 
thirty years; and Charles W. 

Charles W. Fodge commenced his education 
in the district schools of Iowa and completed 
it in Nebraska, to which state he had accom- 
panied his mother, in 1871, in which year she 
took up a homestead in Hamilton county. Mr. 
Fodge developed this land for his mother, 
and as all the government land was by that time 
e.xhausted in Hamilton countv, he became a 



pioneer of Custer county, taking up a home- 
stead near Merna. His property was located 
from ninety to one hundred and ten miles 
from a railroad, and he was forced to 
haul his necessary supplies from a far-dis- 
tant point. After five years he had the 
satisfaction of finding himself in better cir- 
cumstances, a railroad line having been built 
through this locality. At the time of his ar- 
rival he was $200 in debt and had a wife and 
two children to support, his earthly possessions- 
consisting of a cow, a team, and $10 in money. 
To-day he is the owner of a valuable and 
highly-productive farm of 320 acres, located 
northwest of Broken Bow, where he has made 
a specialty of alfalfa, which he has grown, 
with grain, during the past seventeen years. 
Mr. Fodge removed his family from the farm 
to Broken Bow in March, 1914, but continued 
to conduct operations himself, with hired help, 
until the spring of 1918, when he leased his 
property and took up his residence at the 
county seat. As a pioneer of two counties of 
the state, and one who experienced all the 
difficulties and discouragements of the early 
settlers, he is able to speak authoritatively in 
regard to conditions here, and the greater part 
of the work of development and progress has 
passed under his eye. 

Mr. Fodge was married February 23. 1878, 
to Clara A. Brotherton, daughter of Noah and 
Mary Brotherton. Mr. Brotherton was a mem- 
ber of the Twenty-fourth Iowa Infantry, from 
Lucas, count}'. Iowa, during the Civil war. but 
after two years was honorably discharged, be- 
cause of eye affliction. In 1871 he came with 
his family to Hamilton county, Nebraska, 
where he homesteaded a farm aiid passed 
the rest of his life. Mr. and Mrs. Fodge have 
ten children, all of whom are in splendid cir- 
cumstances. They are: Orpha M., who taught 
school prior to her marriage, is the wife of 
Jesse St. Clair, who formerly was in charge 
of two ranches, but is now a merchant of Cal- 
gary, Canada : Blanche G. is the wife of A. A. 
Shaw, a farmer near Broken Bow ; Estella, 
who taught school before her marriage, is the 
wife of E. G. Scott, a farmer near Ord, this 
state: Aurella A. is the wife of E. G. Todd, 
who is in charge of Standard Oil interests at 
Anselmo, Nebraska; Pearl I), is the wife of 
John Kerns, who is engaged in the vulcan- 
izing business at Broken Bow ; Dorothea is the 
wife of Asa C. Furrow, a well driller and re- 
pairer, of Wild Horse, Colorado ; Flora is the 
wife of Walter F. Haefele. a farmer near Co- 
zad. this state; Alberta Fern has taught in the 
public schools for six years; Beryl W. is a 



708 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTV. NEBRASKA 



farmer near Anselmo. Custer county ; and 
Charles E. is, in 1918, a junior at the Broken 
Bow high school. 

Mr. and Mrs. Fodge and their children are 
members of the Christian church, and he is 
affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of Amer- 
ica and the Modern Brotherhood. He is a 
Democrat in politics and has taken quite an 
active part in local public affairs, having 
served as town clerk and assessor and as con- 
stable of his township, while still residing on 
the farm. 



ERXEST R. DEAL. — It is to such ener- 
getic and progressive young farmers as Ernest 
R. Deal that the great advance in agriculture 
and stock-raising during the past few years is 
due, and it is to such as he that Custer county 
looks for a continuation of her present un- 
paralleled prosperity. Mr. Deal, who owns 
160 acres four miles southwest of Broken Bow, 
in section 11, was born June 18, 1885, on a 
farm in Hamilton county, Nebraska, and he is 
a son of H. E. and Nettie ( Mitchell) Deal. 

H. E. Deal was born in Wisconsin, and as a 
young man came to Hamilton county, Nebras- 
ka, where he subsequently had an agricultural 
career in which he won success only after 
many discouragements. At one time, after 
amassing a comjsetency, he saw it swept away 
by misfortune, but he possessed the courage 
and resiliency necessary for a new start, and 
he is now one of the well-to-do retired citizens 
of Aurora. He is a Democrat in politics, and 
belongs to the Christian church. Mr. Deal 
was married in Hamilton county. Nebraska, 
to Nettie Mitchell, who was born in Iowa, and 
they became the parents of nine children, of 
whom seven are living: Ernest R. is the im- 
mediate subject of this review ; Guy is in the 
L'nitcd States Army: Ed. is identified with 
the telei>hone business in .Aurora : Irma is the 
wife of Christ Miller, a railroader of .\urora : 
Marvin is in the United State Army : .-Xnnis 
is the wife of C. \'. Evans, a farmer of Custer 
county ; and Lyle is the youngest of the num- 
ber. 

Ernest R. Deal received his early education 
in the public schools of Aurora, Nebraski. and 
was reared to agricultural pursuits, wliich he 
has always foUowefl. He was twenty-three 
years of age when he first came to Cu'^er 
county, in 1908. but after two years he dis- 
posed of his interests here and went to Thomas 
county, where he honiestcTded a tract and re- 
mained for six years. Selling his claim at 
the end of that period, he returned to Custer 



county and bought a quarter-section near 
Merna, and when he sold that propertv he 
bought his present place, in section 11. four 
miles southwest of Broken Bow. Here he 
has installed modern improvements of an at- 
tractive and useful character, and erected sub- 
stantial buildings. He does a general farm- 
ing and stock-raising business, and is a stu- 
dent of his vocation, being an active member 
of the local Grange, of which he is master. 
.\ Democrat in politics, he is not an office- 
seeker, but he has always displayed a lively 
and intelligent interest in local atTairs. and at 
present is a member of the school board. 

yir. Deal was married in 1905 to Miss Cora 
Hunnell. who was born in Hamilton county, 
Nebraska, daughter of James Hunnell, an 
early homestea<ler of that county and a mem- 
ber of the board of county commissioners for a 
number of terms. Mr. and Mrs. Deal became 
the parents of two children: Robert H., who 
was born March 11, 1906, died at the age of 
two and one-half years ; and the surviving 
child, Virgil, was born June 16, 1914. 

PHILIP C. ZOERB is a substantial young 
farmer in the vicinity of Callaway, and has 
inherited a wealth of thrift and energy- from 
German ancestry, while by his industrious hab- 
its he is achieving a well earned success in 
practical farming. 

His natal day was January 24, 1879, and 
Germany is his native land. His father, Philip 
Zoerb, Sr., and his mother, .Anna (Miller) 
Zoerb. were sterling German ])eo])le and were 
the parents of five children — Anna Ryun ( de- 
ceased). Christina Butler (deceased), Philip, 
William, and John. 

Philip C. Zoerb was but two years of age 
when his parents decided to try their fortunes 
in America. Their first home in this countrv 
was in Cincinnati, Ohio, where they staved 
three years. They then came to Custer coun- 
ty and, in the spring of 1884, located on the 
South Loup river, about one and one-half mile 
east of the present site of Finchville. Young 
Philip stayed at home until he was twenty-four 
years of age. and he and his two brothers then 
rented the father's place, which thev worked 
about six yenrs. 

June 10. 190S. in St. James. Missouri. Phi'ip 
C. Zoerb wedded 1^'is Anna A. Reissans. who 
was born in Wisconsin, and who is a daughter 
of Charles and Ida (Silz) Reissans. both na- 
tives of Germany. In the family of Charles 
Reissans were the following chi'dren. .Anna 
A. Zoerb. Elsise Zoerb. Clara. Paul. .Adolph. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



709 



Ida Forester, Lottie Anderson, and Emma who 
died November 20, 1918. Mrs. Reissans died 
November 28, 1917. 

The Zoerb home has every evidence of 
thrift and prosperity. Plenty and comfort 
mark the habitation. Mr. Zoerb owns 160 
acres of his own and in addition to this he 
farms 320 acres of his father's land. He is a 
hard-working, substantial young- farmer and 
makes g'ood in every enterprise he undertakes. 
He and his wife have a fine family of six chil- 
dren — Marvin P., Ada, David, Alfred, Wal- 
ter J., and Marie A. 

Mr. and Mrs. Zoerb are held in high es- 
teem and are counted as obliging neighbors 
and dependable citizens. He belongs to the 
Royal Mystic Legion, and partisan politics has 
small attractions for him. He votes independ- 
ently and selects well the candidate for whom 
he votes. 



S. NETH. ■ — Self-acquired prosperity, lib- 
eral ideas, ideals expressed in promoting agri- 
culture, education, and sim])licity of living, as 
well as unquestioned pubilc and private in- 
tegrity, constitute the fundamentals upon which 
rests the enviable standing of S'. Neth, who 
became a pioneer of Custer county in Septem- 
ber, 1882. 

Mr. Neth was born in Wurtemberg, Ger- 
man}-, January 17, 1857, and was sixteen years 
of age when he came to the L'nited States. He 
is a son of Conrad and Abbie (Mang) Neth, 
the former of whom was born February 17, 
1829, and the latter December 24, 1830, both 
in Wurtemberg. There were .six children in 
the family, of whom four are living — John, a 
farmer of Fairbury, Illinois ; S., of this re- 
view ; and Conrad and George, farmers in Ger- 
many. 

For three months after his arrival in Amer- 
ica, S. Neth lived in Ohio, and he then went 
to Illinois, where he resided until 1882. In 
that year he paid a visit to Custer county, 
where he secured a homestead. He returned 
to Illinois, but March 4, 1883, he came back 
to this county, where he has since remained. 
His original home was a tract of 160 acres, in 
addition to which he had a tree claim of a like 
acreage, and when he had these put under cul- 
tivation and in a productive shape he started 
to add to his holdings. He continued to fol- 
low this wise policy and is now the owner of 
1,200 acres, all accumulated through his own 
industry and able management of afifairs. Mr. 
Neth has always been a general farmer, but 
of late years has made somewhat of a specialty 
of breeding: full-blooded Shorthorn cattle and 



full-blooded Poland-China hogs. In addition 
to selling at home he ships to the large cities 
and finds a ready and profitable market for 
his Hve stock, for he has established a reputa- 
tion as a man of the strictest integrity and one 
at all times honorable in his transactions. The 
fact that he is an able stock-raiser is shown by 
the premiums which his animals have won in 
Custer county fairs, and he is frequently called 
upon for advice by his less well informed fel- 
low-stockmen. Until 1897 Mr. Neth resided 
in his original sod house, but in that year he 
erected a pleasant and comfortable frame home 
on his farm, and he has added other buildings 
which contribute to the attractiveness and value 
of his property. He has taken an active and 
helpful interest in the afl^airs of the commun- 
ity and has been the incumbent of public of- 
fice on several occasions, having served as a 
member of the board of county commissioners 
in 1892, 1893, 1894, 1898, and 1899. Mr. 
Xeth's mother died in Germany, in 1894, but 
at the time he last heard from him, in 1917, 
his father was still living. 

Mr. Neth was married in Illinois, to Miss 
Alice Huffman, who was born in that state, 
a daughter of Jacob Huffman. Her father, a 
farmer for many years in Illinois, died there, 
and her mother still survives. Seven children 
have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Neth : Frank, 
who is engaged in farming in Custer county ; 
Homer, who resides at home and is assisting 
his father in his farming and .stock-raising 
operations ; Mary, who is the wife of Frank 
Jenkins, a farmer of Custer county; Carl, who 
is farming near his father's place : Irene, who 
is the wife of D'. C. May, a farmer of this 
county; Belle, who is the wife of Floyd Rapp, 
also a Custer county farmer; and Raymond, 
who still remains on the homestead. In poli- 
tics Mr. Neth is a Democrat, with independent 
inclinations. 



WILLIAM MILLER. — Here is a young 
man upon whom the responsibilities of pres- 
ent-day activities rest heavily, and who, re- 
sponding nobly, is to be rated as one of the 
efiicient food producers and substantial men of 
afifairs. Those who know him well know him 
favorably, and in every day parlance they will 
transpose the more sedate "William" into 
"Willie," so that far and near in his neighbor- 
lioofl community, he is known as Willie Miller. 

Mr. stiller is a native of Nebraska, having 
been born in Franklin county, Anril .i, 1882. 
His parents, Henry and Doris (Minso) Miller, 
were born in Germany, and transmitted to their 
progeny the frugal characteristics of the thrifty 



710 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



German people. The father's home shel- 
tered the following children: Henry. Albert 
and George I twins j, and Willie, the fourth 
born and youngest of the family. The first 
three sons were born in Germany, but Willie 
is fortunate in being able to claim America as 
his native land and to have his home in the 
very heart of America — Nebraska. 

When William Miller was but three years 
of age his parents came to Custer county and 
settled on the Redfern Table. It was here 
that Willie grew up, here that he had his boy- 
hood experien:es, and here that he received 
his education in the public schools — a general 
discipline that has qualified him for the bur- 
dens and responsibilities of the present day. 
When twenty-one years of age he took a home- 
stead, and on that same tract of land he has 
his home at the present time. 

In 1912 Mr. Miller married Miss Esther 
r^Iorris, who was born in Custer county, in the 
vicinitv of Sargent. She is a daughter of 
James and Edith ( Fry ) Morris, very excellent 
people of English descent. Mrs. Miller is one 
of a family of five children, only three of whom 
are living, the other two being Amos and Mrs. 
Mabel Zoerb. 

The Millers maintain a splendid home, are 
endowed with peace and prosperity, and they 
have three happy, promising children — Fred- 
erick and Louis, and a baby who is but five 
months of age at the time of this writing. The 
thrift and energy of Mr. Miller and his good 
wife are indicated in the statement that follows : 
They own 1.200 acres of good land, well im- 
proved and splendidly adapted for profitable 
farming and stork-raising lines of enterprise 
through which thcv have made the money that 
has paid for their land and home. They have 
gone through the hardships and privations of 
early years. They know the way of success 
in Custer county, and they are now preoarcii 
to appreciate the good things that are coming 
their way. They have a splendid neighbor- 
hood rating, are courteous and obliging, and 
the neighbors depend on them for every public 
enterprise that will help and uplift the com- 
munity. Mrs. Miller is a member of the Epis- 
copal church, and the Woodman lodge afifords 
a medium for Mr. Miller's social activities. 



CURTIS B. BENGER. — There is no bet- 
ter known breeder of registered Hereford cat- 
tle in Custer county than Curtis B. Benger. a 
young man whose career has been one of 
marked success. Even before he had left his 
studies at the Nebraska State University he 
had entered activelv into the stock business. 



and since leaving that institution he has been 
increasingly progressive in the directing of his 
business interests, his standing among the 
stockmen of the state being shown by the fact 
that he is secretary ^of the Nebraska Hereford 
Breeders' Association, a position which he has 
held for the past eight years, besides being 
sales manager for that vigorous organization. 

Mr. Benger is one of Custer county's sons 
who has made a place for himself among the 
men who are accomplishing real results. He 
was born at Callaway. June 1. 1888. his parents 
being George O. and Clara B. ( McCreary ) 
Benger, the former a native of England and 
the latter of Ohio. The parents were Episco- 
palians and the father was a member of the 
Knights of Pythias. Besides Curtis B. there 
was but one other child : Gladys, who is now 
the W'ife of Harry Lamb, cashier of the Seven 
\'alleys Bank, and who has one son. 

Curtis B. Benger early showed an inherited 
predilection for the stock business, his father 
having been a well known stockman. The lad, 
while on a visit, earned his first money by 
taking care of a bunch of hogs for a neighbor. 
Securing a little pig. he raised it to maturity, 
and with the money he received from the sale 
of this animal he Ixiught more pigs, and thus 
he started himself in business in a small wa}-. 
Finding how the lad's inclinations lay. his par- 
ents sent him to the agricultural college at the 
State L'niversity. after he had left the Calla- 
way schools. At that time his father was a 
member of the firm of Benger & Derker. deal- 
ers in hardware and implements and breeders 
of registered Hereford cattle, and in the spring 
of 1909 Curtis B. Benger bought the interests 
of Mr. Decker in the stock business and became 
his father's partner, an association which con- 
tinued successfully until the death of the hon- 
ored father, April 1. 1916. The son then bought 
the estate's interest in the stock business, which 
he has continued with constantly increasing 
success. One-quarter of a mile west of Cal- 
lawav he has ')40 acres of vallev land under a 
high state of cultivation, with 113 acres devoted 
to alfalfa and 240 acres of farm land. Here 
has has a beautiful residence, and his other 
buildings are substantial and handsome, while 
his general farm ecuiioment is of the most mod- 
ern order. Included in Mr. Benger's ninety 
head of full-blooded registered Herefords have 
been several chanr ion prize-winners, notably 
his present individual. "Beau Carlos." No. 
496658. first prize-winner at the Denver stock 
show of January. 1916. As previously noted. 
Mr. Benger has for the past eight years been 
secrctarv of the Nebraska Hereford Breeders' 
Association, and sales manager for tliat organ- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUxNTY, NEBRASKA 



711 



ization. Aside from his cattle, Mr. Benger 
raises from 250 to 300 Poland -China hogs an- 
nually, as well as large black hogs. He is ener- 
getic and progressive, is alive to all opportun- 
ities, and in his absolute integrity he has firmly 
impressed those with whom he has had deal- 
ings. 

Mr. Benger was married June 1, 1909, at 
Callaway, to Miss Lydia Hebbel, daughter of 
Detelef Hebbel, and they are the parents of 
two children: Mabel E. and Ruth H. Mr. 
and Mrs. Benger are members of the Episcopal 
church. He maintains the right to independ- 
ent views in regard to political matters. 



PRESTON W. HOUGH. — In the life of 
Preston W. Hough, one of the well known and 
prosperous farmers and stockmen of Custer 
county, is presented a lesson for the youth of 
any land — something encouraging to the 
young aspirant who, without friends or for- 
tune, is struggling to overcome obstacles in his 
efforts to acquire a comfortable competence. If 
not absolute wealth. 

Mr. Hough was born June 13, 1865, near 
Williamsburg, North Carolina, a son of Will- 
iam and Elmira W. (Howell) Hough, natives 
of that state, and on the maternal side he is 
a grandson of James and Juda ( ^iloore ) 
Howell. His parents were farming people of 
North Carolina and were members of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal church. His father, although 
not an office-seeker, was a staunch Democrat. 
There were fourteen children in the family, 
but onlv five survive — John K.. William T.. 
Joseph 'M., David S.. and"Preston W. In 1869 
the family removed to Hancock county, Illinois, 
where, in the vicinity of Carthage. Preston W. 
received his early education in the public 
schools. He earned his first money plowing 
for a neighbor, at the wage of twenty-five 
cents a day, which amount he turned over to 
his father to buy clothes with. When he was 
thirteen years old he began to fend for himse'.f, 
and he was variously employed until his mar- 
riage, at Augusta, Illinois, to Martha Pierce, 
who was born in Adams county, Illinois, a 
daughter of Edwin B. and Jane A. (McNulty I 
Pierce, natives of that state. Mr. and Mrs. 
Pierce were farming people, were members of 
the Evangelical church, and Mr. Pierce was a 
Republican and a member of the Masonic fra- 
ternity. 

In 1886 Mr. Hough decided to try his for- 
tunes in Nebraska, and he arrived at Wood 
River, Hall county, with the sum of two dollars 
and fifty cents in cash. He was willing and 
energetic, and he secured employment with 



Chauncey .\bbott, for whom he went to work 
in the fall. During the next few years he had 
his ups and downs, like other young men striv- 
ing to gain a foothold, but he was industrious 
and persevering, and, with the aid of his worthy 
wife, by 1906 he had accumulated sufficient 
of this world's goods with which to con\e to 
Custer county and purchase 480 acres of land, 
known as the E. E. Switzer farm. On this 
place were an old sod house and other prim- 
itive improvements, but these have since dis- 
appeared, having been replaced by a modern 
home, strongly-built barns and other t'arm 
buildings, and, with up-to-date equipment and 
machinery, the projjerty now presents an at- 
tractive and prosperous appearance. Mr. 
Hough has his original purchase under a 
high state of cultivation, raising bumper crops, 
and has recently comiileted the purchase of 
160 acres additional. He believes in modern 
methods in his work and makes a careful 
study of the business of agriculture, with the 
result that he is gaining marked success in 
both farming and the raising of good types 
of live stock. In line with his progressive 
spirit, he has been a supporter of all worthy 
movements which his judgment has told him 
would benefit the community, and educational 
and good-road projects have his assistance 
and co-operation. In political matters he is a 
Republican, but his home and farm duties 
have kept him busy to the exclusion of out- 
side matters, and he has not cared for public 
office. 

^Ir. and Mrs. Hough have five children: 
Lulu M. is the wife of F. VV. Morrison, a 
Custer county farmer, and they have three 
sons ; William E., who entered the national 
army, and was stationed at Camp Dodge, was 
later given an honorable discharge, on account 
of disabilities ; Carl W., a graduate of the 
Broken Bow Business College, was assigned 
to class 1 of the selective draft, but had not 
yet been called for service at the time this 
sketch was prepared ; Earl P.. a graduate of 
the Broken Bow Business College, is now 
taking a three years' course at Western Union 
College, at LeMars, Iowa, preparing himself 
for the ministry of the Evangelical church ; 
and Cecil, an adopted daughter, is nine years 
old and still attending public school at Calla- 
way. 



WILLIAM L. STEVENS, who is a pros- 
perous farmer in Custer county and owns a 
large acreage of valuable land, came with his 
parents to this county in 1889 and here he has 
lived during the entire intervening period. 



712 



HISTORY UF CUSTER COL'XTV, XEBRASKA 




William G. Plrcell 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



713 



Mr. Stevens was born in Bradford county, 
Pennsylvania. November 29, 1874, and is one 
of four children born to Levi and Cordelia 
E. (Lyon) Stevens. The other son, Charles, 
is deceased; and the daughters are Mrs. Ethel 
M. Johnson and Mrs. Edith Whitman. 

L'pon coming to Custer county Levi Stevens 
located a pre-emption claim four and one-half 
miles southeast of Callaway, and this property 
is now owned by his son, William L., of this 
review, who owns also the old Oscar Gore 
place, situated but a short distance northwest 
of Devil's Gap canyon, this place being some- 
what noted in local history and consisting of 
160 acres. Mr. Stevens did not have the edu- 
cational advantages he is giving his own chil- 
dren, but he went to the country schools when 
opportunity offered and grew to respected 
young manhood, not confining his activities to 
the farm entirely. He worked in lumber yards 
from 1898 until 1913, and most of the time 
was foreman for the Dierks Lumber Company 
which operated at Anselmo, Ord, and Calla- 
way. He filled that position for fifteen years 
prior to turning his attention to agricultural 
pursuits. Since then he has made wheat- 
growing somewhat of a specialty and his wheat 
crop in 1918 proved to be unusually heavy. 

Mr. Stevens was married May 9, 1897, at 
Broken Bow, Nebraska, to Miss Anna Doug- 
lass, a daughter of John and Emma (More- 
head) Douglass. Mrs. Stevens has two sis- 
ters and one brother: Jennie is the wife of 
George B. Mair, who now lives retired in 
Oakland, California, but for si.xteen years 
was clerk of the Custer county court ; Ethel 
is the wife of Edward Pinnell, who is a car- 
penter living at Grand Island, Nebraska ; and 
Curtis D., who is secretary of the Long Oil 
& Gas Company, of Kansas City, Missouri, 
married Luella Fritz. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens 
became the parents of five children : Leone. 
who was a clerk in the postoffice at Callaway. 
was the first from Custer county to enlist as a 
nurse, and was sent to Wilmington, Delaware, 
where she is working in a government hos- 
pital, at the time of this writing: Sadie M. 
remains at the parental home ; William D. is 
deceased; and E. Louise and Helen E., aged 
respectively ten and seven years (1918), are 
very engaging children and are still in school. 
Mr. Stevens is one of the solid, representa- 
tive men of his neighborhood and is ever 
ready to prove his good and earnest citizen- 
ship, but he has never been specially active in 
politics and seeks no public office. 



WILLL\M G. PURCELL. — The following 
narration offers an epitome of the life activities 



of and the useful service rendered by one of 
Broken Bow"s most substantial citizens. Will- 
iam G. Purcell belongs to a family known 
throughout the entire county and most of the 
state — a family who have rendered every pos- 
sible public service demanded of thein, a fam- 
ily who have been qualified to serve in a public 
and useful capacity in almost every department 
of official or social life. 

William G. Purcell was born in Ravenna. 
Ohio, June 5, 1857. He is a son of the 
late George Purcell. whose family record will 
be found in the biographical sketch of Emer- 
son R. Purcell. on other pages of this volume. 
Early in his career the family of which William 
G. Purcell is a member, settled in Illinois, and 
the subject of this narrative received a practical 
education in the public schools of Springfield, 
tlie capital city of that state. He began his 
active life in the printing office, and has fol- 
lowed that vocation practically until the pres- 
ent time. 

Imbued with the pioneer spirit, Mr. Purcell 
came to Custer county in January. 1884. and 
located upon a homestead in the vicinity of 
Merna. Later on he and his bnother bought 
a job-printing office of R. H. Miller and they 
began its operation in 1886. Since that time 
printers" ink of some color has constituted the 
brand that discloses without announcement his 
vocation. More extended notice of his busi- 
ness connection with his brother is detailed 
in the biographical sketch of Emerson R. Pur- 
cell. During the early years of their partner- 
ship they were publishers of the Mcrna 
Leader and Custer County Chief. Later, to 
better farilitate business, their plant was di- 
vided, William G. taking over the job-printing 
department, which he operates at the present 
time, and in which he is rated as one of the 
best job printers in the central portion of the 
state. 

October 27, 1880, Mr. Purcell married Miss 
Fannie Scherr, of St. Louis. Missouri. They 
established an ideal home, in which were all 
the comforts to be obtained in that day, and 
to which every convenience was added as the 
years went by and modern conveniences were 
obtainable. Mr. and Mrs. Purcell have three 
children. The first, Caroline, is the wife of 
J. P. Hayden. a prominent citizen of Peters- 
burg, this state, and they have one child, 
Emma Walker. The second child and only 
son, Theodore, maintains a home of his own, 
and his wife, who presides graciously over the 
home, was formerly Miss Margaret Orr, of 
Broken Bow. In their home is one child, 
Elizabeth. Theodore learned the printer's 
trade in his father's establishment, but at the 
present time has forsaken the "art preserva- 



714 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUNTY, XEBR.\SKA 



ti\e" and is farming his father's place, where 
he has developed into a practical and success- 
ful farmer. The younger daughter, Marietta, 
is a trained nurse. She began her career at 
Kearney, but is now with Dr. Ramsey in the 
Lincoln Hospital, where she has had charge 
for several months. She will soon go to St. 
Louis. Missouri, where she will finish her 
training course. 

The family are members of the Episcopal 
church, faithful and ardent supporters upon 
whom the church depends for much of its 
active service. As a prominent Odd Fellow, 
Mr. Purcell is past grand patriarch of the 
Nebraska grand encampment, and past grand 
representative of the sovereign lodge. He 
is connected also with the Highlanders, in 
the circles of which he has been prominent for 
a number of years. He is a Republican in his 
Ijolitica! affiliations, but has never aspired to 
any political position in the gift of any jiarty. 
He has been a member of the school board, 
and has served in other official capacities in 
a minor way. He has a splendid business at 
the present time, and is rated in Broken Bow 
as one of the substantial and dependable citi- 
zens. The Purcells are fine people and Custer 
county is deeply indebted for the services they 
have rendered. 



ARINCE T. HILLMAX. — In recounting 
the men who have come from other states and 
have acquired substantial standing in Nebras- 
ka, attention may be called to Arince T. Hill- 
man, who is a heavy landowner in Custer 
county and one of the responsible citizens 
of Broken Bow. In business operations cov- 
ering many years, he has built up a reputa- 
tion for business astuteness as well as for 
personal integrity. 

Mr. Hillman was born in Johnson county, 
Indiana, March 10, 1878. His parents were 
Nelson and Eliza (Alderson) Hillman, na- 
tives of Mercer county, Kentucky, and farm- 
ing people all their lives. They had three 
daughters and t\vo sons, and two of the 
daughters are deceased. The family survivors 
are: Arince T., whose name introduces this 
review: Sixton. who is a farmer in Moragn 
county, Indiana, and a soimd Democrat in 
IKililics; and Malvina. who is the wife of El- 
mer Wing. Mr. \\ ing is a farmer, located 
eleven miles southwest of Broken Bow. He 
is a Democrat in politics and belongs to the 
Brotherhood of American Yeomen. Mr. and 
^Irs. Wing have one daughter, Mary, who is 
five years old. By a former marriage Mrs. 
Wing had three sons: Herman, Carl, and 
Robert Krembzow. 



Arince T. Hillman attended the pub'.ic 
schools in boyhood and was reared on his 
father's farm, remaining with his parents un- 
til he was nineteen years old. In February, 
1897, he was united in marriage, at Broken 
Bow, to Miss Ina B. Williams, who was born 
in Indiana, a daughter of John L. and Cath- 
erine (Fisher) Williams, and a gran<ldaugh- 
ter of John P. Williams. Mrs. Hillman has 
four sisters, namely : Etta is the wife of 
William WafTensmith, a well known business 
man of Merna, Nebraska, an Odd Fellow, and 
a Democrat, and they have three children : 
Isa is the wife of Leish Davis, who is tele- 
graph operator at Hazard. Nebraska, an Odd 
Fellow and Democrat, and they have three 
children : Nondice is the wife of Albert Car- 
ter, who is a farmer near Gibbon, Nebraska, 
and is a Democrat ; and Mamie is the wife of 
Robert Winchester, who is a farmer and a 
Republican, and they have two children. Mr. 
and Mrs. Hillman have five children, namely: 
Lawrence D., who is a farmer and lives at 
home ; John R., who works on a farm claim 
but still lives with his parents ; Nelson and 
Kenneth, both of whom are students in the 
Broken Bow high school, and Floyd, who is 
yet in the graded school. 

Mr. Hillman not only owns 500 acres of 
valuable land, well adapted to both farming 
and grazing, but he also has one of the most 
attractive residences in Broken bow. the fam- 
ily residing here mainly in order to give the 
children the best of educational advantages. 
\\ bile never very active in ]X)litics and al- 
ways declining every suggestion of holding 
public office, Mr. Hillman has always been a 
thoughtful and earnest citizen ever ready to 
do his full duty to country, state and com- 
nuuiitv. 



WILLIAM IHLOW. — The Ihlow farm, 
in the eastern part of Custer county, may be 
said to constitute one of those landmarks on 
which may be found evidence of almost every 
phase that has marked the progress of agri- 
cultural industry in Custer county during the 
past thirty-seven years. This fine landed es- 
tate now comprises 6-10 acres — an entire sec- 
tion — and it includes the old homestead on 
which the present owner located when he 
came as a jiioneer to this county. In addi- 
tion to fulfilling its mission as a medium of 
financial profit, this farm property has been 
developed to a state in which it compares most 
favorably with any other Custer county landed 
estate likewise accumulated through pioneer 
courage and deterniination. The owner of 
this i>roperty is William Ihlow, who is now 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



"15 



one of the sterling and honored pioneer citi- 
zens of Ansley. in which pleasant village he 
has maintained his home since the time of his 
retirement from the farm, in 1915. 

William Ihlow was born in Brandenburg, 
Germany, on the 14th of May, 1855, and is a 
son of Alichael and Louise Ihlow, who passed 
their entire lives in that part of the empire of 
Germanv, the father having been a shepherd 
by vocatioii. Michael and Louise Ihlow be- 
came the parents of two children, of whom 
the subject of this review is the younger, his 
sister, Amelia, born in 1853, being the wife 
of August Coody, a resident of Nebraska City, 
Nebraska. The family name of the second 
wife of ^Michael Ihlow was Walter, and they 
had three children, all of whom are deceased. 
The religious faith of the family in Germany 
was that of the Lutheran church. 

William Ihlow received in his youth the 
advantages of the schools of his native land, 
and he early learned the lessons of practical 
toil. As he grew to maturity he found em- 
ployment at various occupations — principal- 
ly as a brick-maker and farm hand. In his 
native land was solemnized his marriage to 
Miss Louise Wittkey, and concerning their 
children brief record may consistently be giv- 
en at this point: Bertha is the wife of Roger 
Zummerille, a farmer in Buffalo county, Ne- 
braska ; Frank is engaged in agricultural and 
stock-raising enterprise in South Dakota ; 
Fred is a prosperous farmer in Custer county ; 
William is secretary of the Young 'Meu'is. 
Christian Association at Aurora. Nebraska ; 
John has active management of his father's 
farm, in Custer county : Charles is engaged in 
farming operations in South Dakota ; and 
Ruby, the younger daughter, remains at the 
parental home. 

Determined to avail himself of the greater 
advantages that America offered to the young- 
man of ambition, in 1881 Mr. Ihlow, in com- 
pany with his wife and their infant daughter, 
immigrated to the LInited States, and within 
the same year the little family arrived at Riv- 
erton, Fremont county, Iowa. In 1884, as a 
pioneer, Mr. Ihlow settled ou a homestead, in 
Custer county, amidst primitive surroundings, 
and he and his devoted wife bravely fortified 
themselves for the meeting of the trials and 
hardships of life on the frontier. Like other 
pioneers, Mr. Ihlow had to overcome many 
obstacles during those early years, but he did 
not falter in courage, persistence or self-re- 
liance, with the result that he gradually made 
his way forward to the position of success 
and definite prosperity. As returns from his 
vigorous activities as an agriculturist and 



stock-grower justified such action, he grad- 
ually added to the area of his landed estate 
until he had accumulated an entire section of 
as fertile and valuable land as can be found 
in this favored section of Nebraska. On the 
property he erected good buildings and made 
other excellent improvements of a permanent 
order, and through his individual achievement, 
as well as his civil loyalty and liberality, he 
contributed his due quota to the development 
and progress of his community and the county 
in general. 

In 1915, feeling that he had done his part 
in the work of social and material develop- 
ment and advancement, Mr. Ihlow retired from 
the active labors that had long challenged his 
energies, and has since lived in comfortable 
and well earned retirement in his pleasant 
home in the village of Ansley. Aside from 
his valuable farm property and interests Mr. 
Ihlow has other important capitalistic invest- 
ments, and he is president of the Security 
State Bank of Ansley, the policies of which 
he has effectively directed in his executive 
capacity. As a man of broad experience and 
mature judgment he has done much to foster 
the success of this substantial financial insti- 
tution. 

In politics Mr. Ihlow is found aligned with 
the Republican party, and while he has had no 
desire for the honors of public office, his civic 
loyalty has prompted him to give characteris- 
tically efficient service in the various school 
offices to which he has been elected. He and 
his wife are members of the Baptist church, 
and as sterling pioneer citizens of Custer 
county it may consistently be said that their 
circle of friends is limited only by that of 
their acquaintances. Mr. Ihlow has proved 
himself a man of inviolable integrity, and is 
known as a citizen of intense public spirit. 



CHARLES JARUSEK, the proprietor of 
a flourishing hardware business at Comstock, 
has shown during his comparatively short bus- 
iness career the possession of qualities which 
are rapidly placing him in the ranks of the 
successful merchants of this thriving locality. 
He is a native Nebraskan. having been born in 
\'alley county, January 28, 1894, and exempli- 
.fies in his daily activities the true western 
spirit of progress and energy. 

The parents of Mr. Jarusek, Frank and 
Mary (Nenaskal ) Jaru.sek, natives of Bohemia, 
were early pioneers of Valley county, where 
the father settled in .1884. He located first at 
Ord, in which neighborhood he worked faith- 
fully by the month and saved industriously un- 



716 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTV, NEBRASKA 



til he had enough to purchase a farm. Since 
then he has been engaged in farming and stock- 
raising, his ventures having placed him in the 
well-to-do class of citizens. He has also made 
a place for himself among the representative 
men of his locality, and his worth and integrity 
have been appreciated by his fellow citizens, 
who have electe<l him as director of the school 
board and member of the road commissioners 
on several occasions. The family belongs to 
the Catholic church. Mr. and Airs. Jarusek 
have had four children : Charles, who is the 
subject of this review ; Mary, who is the wife 
of Joseph Novak, a farmer of X'alley county ; 
one child who died in infancy: and Miss Alice, 
who remains with her parents. 

Charles Jarusek received his early education 
in district school No. 53, this discipline being 
supplemented by one year's attendance in a 
business college at St. Paul. Nebraska. He 
remained at home and assisted his father un- 
til he reached the age of twenty-one years, 
and after leaving business college he entered 
mercantile pursuits by accepting a clerkship 
in the hardware store of J. T. Arthur. In that 
capacity he thoroughly informed himself in all 
details of the business, and August 17, 1918, 
he bought out his employer's interest and be- 
came proprietor of the establishment. Dur- 
ing the short time that he has been at the 
head of the business he has accomplished 
much in the way of securing new business, 
and now presents to a large patronage a clean, 
attractive and up-to-date stock of shelf and 
heavy hardware, complete in every particular. 
It would seem as though this progressive and 
energetic young man is in a fair way to be- 
come one of Comstock's substantial men of 
business. 

At Sidney, Nebraska, February 14, 1917, 
Mr. Jarusek married Miss Madge Yarmon, a 
daughter of Richard and Sadie (Gage) Yar- 
mon, early settlers of Howard county. Ne- 
braska. Mr. Jarusek has been to some extent 
handicapped in his rise by the state of his 
healtli, which in the past has not been all that 
it should be, but in large measure he has ben- 
efited his condition by taking long automobile 
trips, and in this way ha.** covered practically 
the entire state of Nebraska. 



OLRI'.R j. KOLP.O. — When compilers 
of the real history of Custer county go to old 
settlers like ( )liver J. Kolbo, who has lived 
on his farm south of Callaway for the past 
thirty-five years, they learn at first hand of 
the struggles and hardships that attended the 
pioneers here, when settlers were few and far 



apart, when the land was entirely undeveloped 
and when crops were lost and stock died be- 
cause of lack of water. Mr. Kolbo knows all 
about it, for he came here in November. 1883. 
He was born in Nanstad, Norway, December 
22. 1853. His parents were John and Karen 
(Statum) Kolbo. also natives of Nanstad. 
Norway. In 1860 they immigrated to the 
United States w^ith their children, and settled 
in Coon Prairie, near Westby, Wisconsin, 
where the father was engaged in farming 
during the rest of his life. His children were 
as follows: Mrs. Mary E. Mohlmann, Hans, 
Oliver J., Martin, Christen, Mrs. Dena John- 
son, John, and Berant. 

Oliver J. Kolbo lived at home with his par- 
ents until he was twenty-five years of age. 
In boyhood he had district school advantages 
to some extent, but his time was mainly taken 
up with work on the home farm. In those 
days prairie chickens and quail were plentiful 
in Coon Prairie, and he became quite skillful 
in trapping them, thereby earning ])ocket 
money, for he could always find purchasers. 
Farming has been his occupation all his life, 
and in following it, carefully, persistently, and 
intelligently, he has become possessed of amp'.e 
means and owns a half-section of as fine land 
as can be found in Custer county. 

Mr. Kolbo was married December 29, 1878, 
in the Lutheran church in Coon X'alley, \'er- 
non county, Wisconsin, to Miss Christena 
Lien, who w-as born in Norway. Her parents 
were Peder and Marit (Toreson) Lien. Mrs. 
Kolbo had two brothers, Peter, who is de- 
ceased, and Frantz. wdio lives in Norway. 
Ten children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Kol- 
bo. namely: Melvin C, who is a farmer near 
Lodi. Nebraska, married Lillian Johnson and 
they have six children. They attend the 
United Lutheran church. Hilmer E.. who 
conducts a garage at Callaway, married Flossy 
P. Maze and they have four children. They 
attend the Evangelicil church. Paul G.. who 
is a farmer in the neighborhood of Lodi. Ne- 
braska, and who belongs to the \\'oodmen 
lodge at Lodi, married IvOrene Simonsen and 
they have three children. Julia is the wife of 
John Olson, who is a farmer and stockman 
near Paso Robles. in San Luis Obispo coun- 
ty. California, and they have three children. 
Mr. and Mrs. Olson belong to the Lutheran 
church. Selmar N.. who is sales manager for 
the Sample & Hart Motor Company. Omaha, 
married Eva E. Willv. and they have two chil- 
dren. They attend the Lutheran church. Ru- 
dolph N., who is a soldier in the national 
army, was at Camp Funston at the time 
when this sketch was written. T. .'\., remains 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



717 



at the parental home. The other children 
died in infancy. Mr. Kollx) and his sons vote 
the Republican ticket. He and his wife are 
of the Lutheran faith and all the children have 
been well instructed religiously and are church 
members. 



THOMAS T. VARNEY, whose standing 
as a citizen of Custer county is very high and 
who has been intimately identifiecl with the 
material growth and industrial and financial 
development of the county for many years, is 
now a resident of Ansley. Mr. \'arney is well 
known to the people of this community, hav- 
ing been before them as merchant, postmaster 
and bank cashier, in each of which capacities 
he established a reputation for integrity and 
conscientious performance of duty, but he is 
now retired from active pursuits. He is a 
native of Corinth, Saratoga county, New York, 
and was born May 2, 1872, a son of Edgar and 
Mary Amelia ( Tiffany ) \'arney. 

Edgar \'arney was born in Saratoga county, 
New York, June 30. 1839, a son of Hosea and 
Anna ( Conklin ) Varney, who passed their 
lives within the confines of the Empire state. 
Edgar \arney was educated in the public 
schools of his native place, where he was 
reared to manhood, and in 1864, at Saratoga 
Springs, he married Miss Mary Amelia Tif- 
fany, who was born in Saratoga county, Octo- 
ber 1. 1847, a daughter of Thomas and Ar- 
villa ( Hogle ) Tiffany, natives of New' York 
and farming people all their lives, as well as 
devout members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. 
\'arney continued to live in New York until 
1871, in which year they came to Nebraska 
and settled in Hall county, where they located 
on a homestead and engaged in farming for 
a period of eight years. In 1879 they came 
to Custer county, Mr. Varney becoming pro- 
prietor of the first store at Westerville, and 
later being the pioneer merchant at Ansley, 
where he remained in business until his re- 
tirement, eighteen years prior to his demise. 
Mr. \'arney was a Mason and a member of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and both 
he and his wife belonged to the Order of the 
Eastern Star. They were faithful members 
of the Methodist Episcopal church and in poli- 
tics he was a Republican. His death occurred 
September 23, 1908. ^Mr. and Mrs. \'arney 
were the parents of eight children : Etta is 
the wife of Judare Armour, of llroken Bow; 
Millie is the wife of Richard Brega, a well 
known attorney of Calloway ; Lavina is the 
wife of .\nthonv Wilkinson, a retired ranch- 



man of Grand Island, Nebraska; C. E. resides 
at Thermopolis, Hot Springs county, Wyom- 
ing; Thomas T. is the subject of this review; 
Seth is engaged in the barber business at Ans- 
ley ; James is engaged in merchandising ; and 
Clara is the wife of E. P. Gaines, a banker at 
Ansley. 

Thomas T. Varney received his education 
in the public .schools of Ansley, where he was 
brought as a lad, and he supplemented this by 
a commercial course in the Lincoln Business 
College, at Lincoln. He began his business 
career in a commercial way, as a merchant at 
Ansley, where he conducted a general store 
during 1892 and 1893. From that time for- 
ward for ten years he was postmaster, an of- 
ficial position in which he did much to improve 
the postal service in this locality, and he then 
became cashier of the First National Bank of 
Ansley, now known as the State Bank of Ans- 
ley. He continued about fifteen years in that 
capacity, but in July, 1916. he disposed of his 
interests, and since then he has lived in retire- 
ment. Mr. \'arney has been somewhat active 
in local political affairs, as a Republican, and 
on various occasions has been called to public 
office, in which he has demonstrated the pos- 
session of marked executive ability and a de- 
sire and ability to perform his duties conscien- 
tiously and in such a manner as to benefit the 
community. He was for several years a mem- 
ber of the town council, and he served also as 
a director on the school board, and as city 
treasurer and township treasurer. His official 
record is a splendid one. He is a thirty-sec- 
ond degree Mason and a Shriner, and is past 
master of his Masonic blue lodge. With Mrs. 
\'erney. he belongs to the Christian church 
and supports its movements liberally. 

Mr. \'arney vvas married June 15. 1895, to 
Miss May Sargent, who was born at Maynard, 
Iowa, a daughter of John S. and Laura 
(Rich) Sargent, the former a native of Tileigs 
county, Ohio, and the latter of Belvidere. Illi- 
nois. Mr. and Mrs. Sargent were married in 
Fayette county, Iowa, where Mrs. Sargent 
had been taken as a child of five years, while 
her future husband was four years of age 
when taken to Delaware county, Iowa. Mar- 
ried in December, 1875, they came to Custer 
county, Nebraska, in 1883. Here they settled 
on a homestead farm, Mr. Sargent having al- 
ways been engaged in his present occupation 
of tilling the soil. He was ver}' prominent in 
local politics during the early days, was inde- 
pendent in vote, thought, and action, and in 
1889 was sent by his fellow citizens to the 
Nebraska state legislature, in which he made 
a good record. He and IMrs. Sargent are 



■18 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COLXTY, NEBRASKA 



members of the Christian church and take an 
active part in the various movements which 
make for higher education, cleaner moraHty 
and better citizenship. They have three chil- 
dren : May. who is now Mrs. Varney : Allie, 
who is the wife of J. A. ]\Ioore. of Pasadena, 
California: and Sarah, who is the wife of 
Frank Hawk, of Custer county. Mr. and 
Mrs. Varney are the parents of two children: 
\ivian and Thomas T., Jr., aged sixteen and 
thirteen years respectively : they are attending 
school. 



J.KMES IJXDLY. — The gentleman whose 
name introduces this record is one of the pio- 
neers of Custer county who arrived within its 
borders when the work of development had 
hardly begun, and during a period of nearly 
forty years he has not only been a witness of 
the changes that have taken place but has also 
contributed his full share in the work of trans- 
formation and development. James Undly 
is a native of the neightx)ring state of Iowa, 
where he was born, in Jones county, .A.pril 2, 
1846. His parents, Amasa and Mary J. ( Gar- 
ison) Lindly, were natives of Ohio, their mar- 
riage occurred in Indiana and they became 
earlv settlers of Jones county. Iowa, their ad- 
vent there being before railroads had entered 
that new country and when Iowa was still a 
territory. The mother of our subject passed 
away in Jones county in 1853, and the father's 
death occurred in 1908. when he had reached 
the age of eighty-four years. Of the four 
children, James and .\lbert are the only sur- 
vivors. 

Reared on a farm in his native county, 
James Lindly was not yet nineteen years of 
age when he ran away from home and enlisted 
in Companv G, Seventeenth Iowa \'ohmteer 
Infantry, on the 6th of March, 1865, and he 
served until the close of the Civil war, being 
mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky, and re- 
ceiving his discliarge at Rock Island. Illinois. 
His older brother, .\lbert, had enlisted in the 
fall of 1863. in Company G, Thirty-first Iowa 
\'olunteer Infantry, and he served until the 
close of the war : he now resides in Marion 
county. Iowa. 

.•\fter the war James Lindlv returned to 
Iowa and he was engaged in farm work in 
Cedar countv until the spring of 1866. when 
he obeyed the call of the west and came to 
Omaha. Nebraska, thence to Grand Island, 
and for several months found emplovment 
with the L'nion Pacific Railroad. Returning to 
Omaha, he became a driver of ox teams. 



("deck hand on a bull train," as it was joking- 
ly called ) freighting across the plains to Den- 
ver, Colorado, where he remained from Au- 
gust, 1866, to December 15, 1867, when he 
went to Cheyenne, Wyoming, then a mush- 
room town of shacks, the terminal of the 
L'nion Pacific Railroad. From there he re- 
turned to Cedar coimty. Iowa, and resumed 
farming. He tliere married Charlotte Wood, 
a daughter of George A. and Martha 
(Laughery) Wood, pioneers of Iowa. They 
were married in the fall of 1868 and the fol- 
lowing spring moved to Marion county. Iowa. 
That year Mr. Lindly. with his wife and one 
child, came to Lancaster county. Nebraska, 
he driving through with team and his wife and 
child coming on the train. He traded for land 
in Lancaster county, but in 1874 the grass- 
hoppers took the crop and he returned to Iowa, 
where he remained until 1878. He then came 
again to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he re- 
mained till August. 1880. His wife died in 
Lincoln, in the fall of 1879, leaving one child, 
two others having died in infancy. 

In September, 1880, Mr. Lindly came to 
Custer county and took a pre-emption in 
township 19, range 22. and also filed on a tree 
claim in the same township. In 1883 he took 
a homestead in this townshi]i and he is one of 
the few — if, indeed, there be anv other — 
who proved up and took a patent on pre-em])- 
tion. tree claim, and homestead. In the fall of 
1880 Mr. Lindly went to Iowa, where he mar- 
ried Mrs. Mary J. Busby, wdio had three chil- 
dren by a former marriage. They were married 
February 3, 1881. and on Mar:h 17th they 
started for their Nebraska home, with a team 
and wagon. This was a strenuous trip and 
on the 22d of .\pril they arrived at the pre- 
emption claim. They were unable to cross 
the Missouri river by ferry-boat, owing to the 
overflow, so they were compelled to cross on 
transfer train over the L'nion Pacific bridge 
between Council Blutfs and Omahti. They 
were among the real early settlers of this part 
of the county and for a time Mr. Lind!y op- 
erated the farm of Judge C. R. Mathews, be- 
ing penniless when he landed here and having 
spent his last dime for tobacco, at Westerville. 
From this humble beginning, at a time when 
hardships and ])rivations were at hand. Mr. 
Lintlly weathered all storms and by fliligence 
and good judgment has become one of the 
successful farmers and extensive land-owners 
of Custer county. Instead of the primitive sod 
house, his home to-day is among the best to 
be found in the community. His farm is named 
"Pilgrim's Rest," as for years it was the stop- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



"19 




James Lindly 



720 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



ping place for travelers going from the Dismal 
river and beyond to Kearney and Grand 
Island. 

As a reminder of those days of hardship a 
few reminiscences may not be out of place. 
A storm in November. 1884, almost cut the 
Lindly family off from their transit from their 
dugout to the corn crib, which served as sleep- 
ing quarters, the snow having been three or 
four feet deep. Mr. Lindly and three friends 
were caught away from home and weathered 
a severe blizzard, with the temperature close 
to forty degree below. 

On January 12, 1888, Mr. Lindly was out 
in his yard and observed the windmill, against 
which a warm southwest wind was blowing, 
suddenly whirl in the opposite direction. He 
knew at once a storm was on, and looking to 
the north he saw the wall of frozen mist bear- 
ing down upon them. Taking a supply of 
wraps, he started for the schoolhouse. one and 
one-half miles away, to get the children. Find- 
ing them safely housed at the home of a neigh- 
bor, he followed others until they reached 
home and then made his way to his own home, 
facing the suffocating blasts for more than a 
mile and a half. Few men were out so long 
during that storm and survived. During that 
winter the family burned corn for fuel. 

In the dry year of 1894 Mr. Lindly planted 
five bushels of potatoes and gathered three 
pecks. But all obstacles were met and over- 
come, and James Lindly has become one of the 
well-to-do men of the county. The following 
is a record of the children of thi.s ])ioneer 
family: Charles and Rosella May died in 
childhood ; Albert is married and resides in 
Custer county ; GrSce is the wife of G. E. 
Lewis, of Niagara Falls, New York ; l\Iabel is 
the wife of Fred .Anderson, of Custer county ; 
Maud is the wife of E. E. Bell, of Custer 
county : Fred G. and Leonard \'. are married 
and are farming in Custer county. Mrs. Lindly 
has three children by a former marriage : 
Alice is the wife of Lewis Karnes, residing in 
California; Luclla married Harry G. Karnes, 
and thev are residents of Seattle. Washington : 
and John resides in Idaho. 

For years Mr. Lindly believed in the prin- 
ciples of the Republican party, but he is now 
an advocate of those of the Non-Partisan 
League, believing the best interests of the 
farmer can be served by the doctrines of that 
party. Fraternally he is a Mason, and he and 
Mrs. Lindly are members of the Order of the 
Eastern Star. Mr. Lindly has taken much in- 
terest in the development of the town of .An- 
sclnio and he there erected the building oc- 



cupied by the Farmers" Mercantile Company, 
and also the drug-store building. 

With good foresight and abounding faith in 
the increasing value of Custer county land, 
Mr. Lindly has made judicious investments 
and holds title to nearly 2,000 acres. He has 
made a success of farming and stock-raising 
and is not only one of the county's venerable 
pioneers but for many years has also been one 
of its substantial citizens. 

Believing that the life record of such men 
as Mr. Lindly will serve as an mspiration to 
coming generations, the publishers of this 
volume take pleasure in according him the rec- 
ognition he justly deserves and richly merits. 



LINDLEY M. PICKETT. — This is the 
name of a man who is a leader in his commu- 
nity, a man who takes a deep interest in all 
public affairs and who is a worthy descendant 
of a very early pioneer family. Lindley M. 
Pickett was born in 1867, and is a Hoosier by 
nativity. He is a son of Dr. C. Pickett, well 
and favorably known in the early days of 
Broken Bow. His mother. .\nn ( Pember- 
ton) Pickett, is still living, at the ripe age of 
seventy-six years. Dr. Pickett died in 1908, 
and is survived by six children : Celesta Per- 
shall is living on a homestead in the state of 
Washington; Lindley M. is the second born; 
Luther E. is operating an elevator at Genoa, 
Nebraska; Mary F. ^IcMurphy lives at An- 
tioch. Nebraska ; Edwin C. is professor in the 
Mullen school and was superintendent at 
Arnold for nine years; and Mrs. C)llie G. AIc- 
Dermott lives on a Blaine county ranch. I>r. 
Pickett located a homestead in Blaine county 
but died before making final proof. The pat- 
ent on the land- was issued to his widow. Dr. 
Pickett brought his family to Custer county 
in 1888. He was a Republican voter and was 
an enterprising and progressive citizen of fine 
ability. He was for a time a member of the 
faculty of the medical college at Lincoln, and 
was a member of the pension board in Broken 
P)Ow for, several years. He was affiliated with 
the Masonic fraternity and the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows. His widow lives with 
her son Edwin, at Mullen. 

Lindley M. Pickett was married in 1892, to 
.Anna M. Rusk, who was born in Illinois and 
who is a daughter of David and Catherine 
Rusk. Air. and Airs. Pickett have four chil- 
dren — Thirza J. Holmes, whose husband at 
the present time is serving in the marine corps 
of the government; Katie .M.. who is teaching 
school near .Arnold ; and ( )tis E. and Lloyd 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



"21 



E., who are at home. ]\[r. Pickett has Hved 
on a Kinkaifl homestead for the last thirteen 
years and has 100 acres under cnUivation. He 
has the place well stocked with a good grade 
of cattle. The farm carries about fifty head 
of cattle the year around. He breeds the 
Duroc-Jersey hogs and has made them fairly 
profitable. He has fine horses and mules, and 
the improvements of the place speak well for 
his management. All that he has is the pro- 
duct of his own labor and the able assistance 
given by his good wife. The first money he 
ever made was by carrying bundles to the 
shock, for twenty-five cents a day. He is a 
Republican voter and has long been promuient 
in local affairs. He has served as township 
clerk, census enumerator, road overseer, and 
school trustee, and in many other ways has 
contributed a valuable service to the commun- 
ity. The Picketts deserve well the good things 
their neighbors say of them — they are ac- 
commodating, courteous, and hospitable, and 
the community is better for their residence 
therein. 



STEWARD B. MATHON is one of the 
successful farmers of his community and has 
been a resident of Custer county since pioneer 
days. He was born in Pennsylvania Novem- 
ber 26, 1849. His father, John B. Mathon, 
was a native of Pennsylvania, where he spent 
his entire life, and his mother, whose maiden 
name was Rebecca Carey, was a native of 
Pennsylvania, of German parentage. The pa- 
ternal grandfather, John Mathon, was a native 
of Ireland. 

Steward B. Mathon was reared in his na- 
tive state and at the age of twenty-three years 
he started for the west. For four years he 
worked at farm labor in Indiana, receiving 
thirteen dollars per month. In that state he 
married Miss Fannie Shankland, a native of 
the Hoosier state, and soon after their mar- 
riage they came to Nebraska. He was en- 
gaged in farming in Hamilton countv until 
1883, when he came to Custer county. Here 
he secured a homestead, and after proving up 
on the same he sold it and pre-empted a tree 
c'aim. This claim he later homesteaded. and 
this has been his home ever since. He had 
the experience of living in a sod house, of 
hauling water for thirteen years, and of en- 
countering all of the hardships incident to the 
early davs. But by di'igence he has pros- 
pered. The sod house h^s been replaced by 
one made of cement blocks, to his original 
tract of land has been added another quarter- 



section, and general farming is carried on with 
good success. 

Mr. and Mrs. Mathon have had five chil- 
dren, two of whom are living: Lizzie is the 
wife of Delbert Lewis, of Custer county ; and 
John, a bachelor, is still at the parental home. 
The family are members of the Methodist 
church and in politics Mr. Mathon is a Dem- 
ocrat. He has seen pioneer conditions give 
way to those of the present day, and in the 
work of development he has contributed his 
full share. 



CHARLES N. DRAPER, a progressive 
reprsentative of agricultural industry in Cus- 
ter county, has had a somewhat varied career, 
in which he has won his own way to success 
after several discouraging set-backs in his for- 
tunes. Two occupations, mining and farming, 
have been engaged in by him, but the latter 
has been the more successful, and to it he is 
devoting his time at present, being the owner 
of 160 acres of land near Ansley. 

Mr. Draper was Ixjrn in Illinois, near Saint 
Louis, Missouri, January 29, 1866, and is a 
son of Riley and Sarah E. (Hunt) Draper. 
His paternal grandfather, Albert Draper, was 
one of the earliest settlers of Huntington coun- 
ty, Indiana, where for years he was engaged 
in operating a saw mill, his death occurring 
in that state. Stephen Hunt, the maternal 
grandfather of Mr. Draper, was a Baptist 
minister who preached the Gospel in Indiana 
and other states, and whose career came to a 
close in Missouri. Riley Draper was born in 
1839, the first white child born in Huntington 
county, Indiana, ami the log cabin in which 
he came into this world was considered of suf- 
ficient historic interest to be exhibited at the 
great Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. 
Louis, where it attracted much attention. He 
received a common-school education, which he 
supplemented by self-instruction, including 
wide reading and much study, and he became 
a pioneer school teacher in Indiana. There 
he married Miss Sarah E. Hunt, who was 
born in that state, in 1843. In the '60s they 
removed to Illinois and settled not far from 
the Missouri state line. There Mr. Draper 
continued his educational labors, as did he also 
in Missouri, for a number of years, and he 
finally removed to Colorado, where likewise 
he gave etTective service in instructing the 
voung. In his declining years he retired, and 
his death occurred in 1911, at Greeley, that 
state. He was a Republican in politics and 
was a member of the Baptist church, as is also 



722 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL-XTV. NEBRASKA 



his widow. They were the parents of thirteen 
children, of whom seven survive, but Charles 
X. is the only one living in Nebraska at this 
time. 

Charles N. Draper received instruction un- 
der his father and attended the schools of 
Clark county, Missouri, completing his educa- 
tion by three weeks' attendance in the Ansley 
schools. As a young man he accompanied 
his parents to Colorado, where he became a 
miner, a vocation which he followed ten years, 
but in 1890 he came to Nebraska and_ engaged 
for a time in farming. He next returned to 
Colorado, but in 1898 he came back to Custer 
county and began farniing again, this time as 
a renter. He worked industriously and intel- 
ligently, and saved his earnings, and in 1910 
he was able to jjurchase his present property, 
a tract of 160 acrSs, which he has brought to a 
high state of cultivation. Mr. Draper is en- 
gaged in mixed farming and has made a suc- 
cess of his ventures, showing himself to be 
possessed of agricultural knowledge and skill. 
He has always maintained a high reputation 
for integrity in business dealings, and per- 
sonally his circle of friends is virtually coinci- 
dent with that of his acquaintances. 

In 1892 Mr. Draper married Miss Effie 
Clay, who was born in Lawrence county, Ohio, 
a daughter of W. H. and ^Mary ( Rucker ) 
Clay, and a direct descendant of Henry Clay. 
Her father was born in Kentucky and during 
the Civil war became a member of the Fifth 
X'irginia \'olunteer Infantry, with which he 
served four years. He was severely wounded 
at the battle of Shiloh, and was carried off the 
battlefield by his father. John Clay, but he re- 
covered and rejoined his regiment, with which 
he fought until peace was declared. After 
the war he went to Ohio, where he was en- 
gaged in milling and where he married. In 
1871 he removed to Missouri, where he con- 
tinued in the same line of business. In 1888 
he came to Custer county and homesteadetl 
the property now occupied by his son-in-law, 
Mr. Draper. Here he continued to farm until 
his death, in 189<), his widow still surviving 
and making her home on the same iiroperty. 
Mr. and Mrs. Draper have two children : Al- 
den was on the homestead in Colorado, and 
finally he entered the United States service hi 
connection with the world war; and Rosil, 
who was in training in the camp at New Lun- 
don, Connecticut, was later assigned to duly 
on a submarine chaser. Mr. and Mrs. Draper 
are rearing Frank Willis, a son of Mrs. Drap- 
er's sister. The family belongs to the Methodist 
Episcopal church, and fraternally Mr. Draper 
is identified with the Independent Order of 



Odd Fellows, in which he has passed the offi- 
cial chairs, and the ^lodeni XN'oodmen of 
•America. He maintains an independent stand 
upon political questions and reserves the right 
to give his vote and support to the candidate 
whom he deems Ijest qualified for office. 



MARIUS C. JENSEN. — Among the 
names of the early pioneers of Custer county 
will be found that of the subject of this re- 
view, and there are few more worthy of recog- 
nition in this history than Marius Charles 
Jensen. 

Mr. Jensen was born in Denmark, June 2. 
1862, and is a son of Carl and Anna Jensen, 
who spent their entire lives in their native 
land. Marius C. Jensen came to America 
when a youth of eighteen )-ears, and after a 
short time spent in Story and Shelby counties, 
Iowa, he came to Nebraska, where he found 
work as a farm hand, in Kearney county. In 
1884 he came to Custer county and secured a 
homestead in section 17, township 17, range 
22>. He was among the early settlers of West 
Table and had the usual experiences of those 
times. His first home was a sod house, and 
when this was worn out it was replaced with 
another one, which is still in use. Water had 
to be hauled for a considerable distance, until 
a well could be dug on the place, but with 
characteristic energy Mr. Jensen overcame ob- 
stacles, and as the years passed he met with 
success. He is to-day the owner of three quar- 
ter-sections of land, and he recently sold a 
quarter-section to his son. 

Mr. Jensen married Miss Elsie Clausen, a 
native of Denmark, who came to America 
when a young woman and who ])re-enipted 1(')0 
acres in Custer county, where she located in 
1884. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Jensen has 
been blessed with seven children : Christ, Claus, 
Stella, and Lena are still at home ; Dewey had 
become a member of our national army at the 
time this article was written; Anna is the wife 
of Thomas Christensen, of Custer county; and 
Serene is the wife of John J. Christensen, of 
this county. 

Mr. and .Mrs. Jensen are members of the 
Lutheran church and maintain a home at }*Iin- 
den, Kearney county, where they spend most 
of their time, the sons conducting the farm. 



AUGUST JAEGER. — The Jaeger geneal- 
ogy runs far back in (lermany, but the family 
line touched .America at last, and it has con- 
tributed wealth and energy to Custer county in 
the vicinity of Callaway, where the practical 



PIISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



723 



farmer and stock-raiser of whom we are writ- 
ing has his residence and maintains his 
interests. 

It was without consultation or even with his 
consent, that Germany became the birthplace 
of August Jaeger, who was born December 6, 
1859. He inherited from staunch German jjar- 
ents the splendid thrift and energy that show 
forth everywhere upon his ranch to-day. If 
Germany was the land of his birth, .America 
was the land of his choice, and here most of 
his life has been spent thus far, while here the 
tribute of his labors has been rendered. He is 
one of the six children of .\dolph and Eufron- 
sia { \\'eber ) Jaeger — Fredericka T.. Litterst, 
.Anna (a nurse), .\ugust, Leo, .Anna (de- 
ceased ) , and Sigmund. 

The early years of August Jaeger were 
spent in Germany, where he attended school 
until he was fourteen years of age. Then he 
was called upon to render manual service, and 
at seventeen, according to the custom, was 
placed as an apprentice, to learn the wagon- 
maker's trade. He worked eighteen months for 
the first man, to whom his father paid sixty 
dollars, besides the labors contributed by the 
boy. He started in as a journeyman workman 
and worked for different masters, having to 
carry a book of recommendations from one 
employer to another, and this book was de- 
posited in the court house, with the clerk, where 
it was held until he had finished his job; then 
the employer added his testimonials to the 
book, as to efficiency, good moral character, 
etc.. and thus it was to be carried on to the 
next prospective employer. 

The New World called Mr. Jaeger, and in 
1882 he crossed the .Atlantic and settled at 
-Atlantic, Iowa, where he had his first, intro- 
duction to ways and customs of this country. 
He commenced working at his trade. .After 
his first two weeks" work his employer became 
bankrupt, and he lost half of his wages. He 
staved in .Atlantic eighteen months and then, 
in the spring of 1884, he come to Custer 
countv, and located on the farm where he now 
resides and maintains his pleasant home. 

The domestic life of Air. Jaeger began June 
18, 1886, when, at North Platte, Nebraska, he 
led to the marriage altar Miss Magdalena 
Bieser, a daughter of Haver and Helen ( Hu- 
ber ) Bieser. Mrs. Jaeger had but one brother 
and he is now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Jaeger 
became the parents of four children, but only 
one of the number has been spared to them 
until the present time. She is Ida, the wife of 
Rudolph Thanel, a farmer living near 
Stapleton. 

The Jaeger farm consi.sts of 1.020 acres, and 



is one of the best improved places in Triumph 
township. When he landed in Custer county 
Mr. Jaeger had but $200. All that you see on 
the Jaeger premises has been the accumulation 
of the years since that time. He raises cattle, 
hogs, corn, and other crops, tends strictly to 
his business, and few men in the county de- 
serve more credit for the showing made than 
the subject of this review. It is to be remem- 
bered, too, that the years have not all been 
prosperous. Mr. Jaeger remembers that he 
once hauled wheat forty miles and sold it for 
thirty-five cents a bushel, that he sold hogs for 
two and one-half cents a pound, and corn for 
ten cents a bushel. He is a Mason in good 
standing, is a Democrat in politics, and the 
family belong to the Catholic church. 



LINN S. DOWNING. — One of the sub- 
stantial farmers and live-wire community pro- 
moters of the xArnold district is the man whose 
name forms the caption above. He came to 
Custer county subsequently to pioneer days, 
and his present activities entitle him to rank 
among the real producers of the day and age 
in which he lives, the while he is thus consti- 
tuted a most desirable citizen. 

Air. Downing is one of the really young 
farmers. He did not make his advent into this 
world until July 29, 1882, at which time he 
selected Abilene, Kansas, as his native city. 
He is a son of Joseph R. and Rebecca (Ham- 
mond ) Downing, who were born in Blair 
county, Pennsylvania, and who became the par- 
ents of six children, (^f the children three are 
living — Edward, Linn S., and Wilkie J. Linn 
S. Downing arrived in Custer county in 1903. 
One year prior to this time he led to the mar- 
riage altar Miss Lucinda E. English. Not- 
withstanding the marriage was solemnized in 
\'ersailles, Illinois, Mrs. Downing was bom in 
Custer county, Nebraska, a daughter of Rev. 
Nathan and Emma (Alills) English — very 
e.xcellent people, highly esteemed by all who 
knew them. 

The Downings established an ideal home 
and since that time four children have brought 
sunshine into the home — W. Nelson, Ken- 
neth L., Margaret, and Herchel. Three of the 
children are in school at the present time, while 
the voungest is winsomely serving in the capa- 
citv of home dictator. 

The Downing farm is located three and 
three-fourths miles northwest of Arnold. The 
initial tract was 160 acres, and upon this, by 
intensive cultivation and good management, Mr. 
Downing succeeded in raising the hogs, cattle, 
and corn with the returns from which he 



724 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY. NEBRASKA 



bought adjoining land, and then still more ad- 
joining land, until to-day he owns in fee simple 
1,600 good acres, well improved, with all nec- 
essary outbuildings and machinery equipment. 
He has demonstrated his ability both as a 
farmer and money-maker. He relates that when 
a boy, he saw a goat which a man wanted to 
sell for fifty cents and that he "rustled" rags 
and old iron until he had accumulated the 
necessarv' fifty cents, which he invested in the 
goat. Later he sold the goat for $2.50 and 
this constituted the capital on which the young 
lad began his life operations. The transac- 
tion of the goat has been repeated in other 
kinds of stock a good many times since that 
day and the results are told by the accumula- 
tion to be found on the Downing premises. Re- 
cently Mr. Downing has rented his ranch and 
he and his brother, forming a business part- 
nership, have bought the Long & S'tockham 
hardware stock and business in Arnold, where, 
in connection with hardware and farm machin- 
ery and implements, they handle furniture anrl 
conduct an undertaking business. 

The family are prominent in the community 
and are counted as active promoters of every 
progressive enterprise. Mr. Downing is affili- 
ated with the Masonic fraternity attd he and 
his wife hold the faith of the Methodist church, 
in which denomination they are counted as 
very substantial constituents. .Arnold boast of 
no better family, and all prophesy well de- 
served success for the Arnold brothers in 
their business enterprise. 



HENRY SCHMID. who is at present a re- 
tired citizen of Ansley, has been one of the 
industrious men of Custer county, linking his 
name with all that is admirable in farming, and 
wise and progressive in individual life, and 
bearing the distinction of being thoroughly and 
completely self-made. He is a native of Swit- 
zerland, and was born February 18. 1864, a 
son of John and Barbara ( Merc) Schmid, who 
passed their entire lives in Switzerland, where 
the father was connected with a manufacturing 
plant. They were faithful members of the 
Reformed church. Of their seven children si.x 
survive : Mary is the wife of John Ward, an 
Illinois farmer: Ida is the widow of a Swiss 
farmer and resides in her native land: Henry, 
of this sketch, was next in order of birth : Mrs. 
Elsie Hamer is the wife of a retired fanner of 
Apple River. Illinois : Barbara is unmarried 
and is a resident of Switzerland ; and Jacob 
resides in the L'nited States. 

Henry Schmid receivetl his education in 
Switzerland, and was but seventeen years of 



age when he immigrated to the L'nited States, 
courageously seeking his fortune in a strange 
land, though he was i^enniless, and ignorant of 
the customs and language of his new home. 
When he arrived in Jo Daviess county, Illi- 
nois, he not only vvas possessed of no funds, 
but also owed the money for his passage to 
this country, but as he was willing, strong, and 
ambitious, he had no trouble in securing em- 
ployment as a farm hand, with the result that 
lie soon had his debt liquidated and began to 
make headway. After seven years spent in Illi- 
nois, Mr. Schmid had accumulated a little 
capital, which he brought to Custer county in 
1888 and invested in a relinquishment. His 
start, necessarily, was a modest one, but as 
time passed and he was able to realize money 
from his labors, he added to his equipment, 
made improvements, and enlarged the scope of 
his operations, and then began adding to his 
acreage. The result is that to-day he is the 
owner of 480 acres of land in the county, in 
addition to owning town property, and has 
numerous business connections, including a 
directorship in the Security State Bank of Ans- 
ley. His farm, which he still owns, is a hand- 
some property, with substantial buildings and- 
other improvements, and lies on ]\Iuddy creek, 
three and one-half miles northwest of Ansley. 
In 1917 Mr. Schmid retired from the farm and 
moved to .An-sley. where he has since lived 
quietly, in the enjoyment of the many ct)mforts 
that his industry has brought him. Mr. Schmid 
is a Republican, but has never been interested 
in politics to the extent of seeking public of- 
fice. He is a member of the Ansley lodge of 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and at 
the time of this writing is noble grand of the 
same. 

In 18">0 Mr. Schmid was united in marriage, 
in Xeiiraska, to Miss .\my Billeter. who was 
Ixjrn in Switzerland, and to this union there 
liave been born five children : Henry, who is 
carrying on operations in his father's farm ; 
Lottie, who is the wife of Herman Bailer, a 
farmer of York county, Nebraska : Jacob, who 
also is operating on his father's big farm ; 
Emma, who is tlie wife of L. Tennent. a farm- 
er near Berwyn : and Clara, who is at home. 
Mrs. Schmid is a member of the Baptist church 
and is actively interested in its work. 



GEORGE H. SMITH, who is the owner 
and operator of a 480-acre stock farm situated 
seven miles southwest of Oconto, has been a 
resident of Custer county since 1887. and has 
been a witness of and participant in the great 
development that has changed the face of the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



■25 



country during this period. Mr. Smith, hke 
numerous other Custer county residents, is a 
native of Wisconsin, and was born in Sauk 
county, July 24, 1859, a son of Humphrey L. 
and Diana (Clark) Smith. 

Humphrey L. Smith was born in Otsego 
county. New York, and his wife near Coopers- 
town, that state, and there were nine children 
in the family: Mrs. Sarah Rood, Albert T., 
j\Irs. Ella W'ulfert, Alonzo, Mrs. iMary Shew, 
George H., Mrs. Diana Rood, Jay D.. and 
Clark A. The family belonged to the Baptist 
church. The father of George H. Smith was 
a wagonmaker by trade, and followed that vo- 
cation in early life in New York, as did he also 
to some extent in his later years, although af- 
ter moving to Wisconsin he was variously en- 
gaged — following farming, lumbering, and 
other vocations. 

The district schools of the timber country 
of Sauk county furnished George H. Smith 
with the rudiments of an education, which he 
has since supplemented by observation, read- 
ing, and study, and his youth was passed in 
hard work, in which he learned the value of 
money and the wisdom of industry and thrift. 
An incident of his boyhood is readily recalled 
by him, for at a time when money was a de- 
cidedly scarce commodity the earning of one's 
first negotiable currency was an event of im- 
portance. He was working on his father's 
timber farm when a stranger visited the home- 
stead, buying sheep pelts. When he had com- 
pleted his transaction he secured the services 
of the boy George to guide him to the nearest 
road, paying him ten cents and apologizing for 
the fact that it was not more, his excuse being 
that the elder Smith had driven too close a bar- 
gain as to the pelts. To the youth, however, 
entirely unaccustomed to handling money of 
his own. it was a sum of magnitude, amply 
sufficient for the service rendered. It was 
the invariable custom of the time and commu- 
nity for the farmers' sons to remain under the 
parental roof at least until they were twenty- 
one years of age, but Mr. Smith made an agree- 
ment with his father to clear four acres of 
timber land and thus secure his release one 
year earlier. This was done, and when he was 
twenty years old he found himself a free agent. 
He began his independent career by working 
on farms during the summer months and cut- 
ting wood during the winter tenns. 

^larch 1, 1882, at Baraboo, Wisconsin, Mr. 
Smith was united in marriage to Mary L. 
Hazen, who was born at Waterloo, Wisconsin, 
a daughter of John and Emily (Barnum) Ha- 
zen. To this union there were born ten chil- 
dren : Alaude, the wife of Ross Kitch, a well- 



man of Wagner, Nebraska, with a son and 
daughter; Delia, the wife of Homer Zingling, 
a carpenter of that place, with three sons and 
four daughters.; Earl R., who enlisted in Au- 
gust. 1918, as a sharpshooter of Company M, 
Twentieth Infantry, and is in the United 
States service at Camp Funston at the time of 
this writing; James N.. a "Kinkaider" of 
Logan county, Nebraska, who married Rose 
Draper and has one daughter; Nora E., the 
wife of Bud Jarmin, of Platteville, Colorado, 
a farmer, with two sons and a daughter ; Le- 
ora, the wife of Columbus Shields, a farmer 
of Arnold, Nebraska, with one son ; Harley G. 
and Frederick M., who are single, residing at 
home, and assisting their father; Stella M., 
who resides at home and is an eighth-grade 
student in the public schools; and William A., 
living at home, an overseer on his father's 
farm. 

George H. Smith came to Custer county 
April 1. 1887, and first located in Deer creek, 
near Georgetown. Subsequently, in 1891, he 
homesteaded seven miles southwest of Oconto, 
his present home, where he is the owner of 
a stock farm Consisting of 480 acres. During 
the years that he has been a resident of this 
locality he has not only gained material success 
and established one of the valuable and pro- 
ductive properties of this section of Custer 
county, but at the same time has also built up 
a personal reputation for integrity in business, 
industry in the daily atTairs of life, probity as 
to personal habits and character, and public 
spirit as a citizen of his community. 



GEORGE ROBERTSON. — The sons of 
Scotia have always been men of thrift and in- 
dustry, wherever they have elected to make 
their homes, and are practically without ex- 
ception found to be an asset to any commimity ; 
their sturdy traits of racial character contrib- 
uting to their locality's development and com- 
mending them to the regard of their fellow 
men. One of the men of Scotch birth residing 
in Custer county, one who is well, known as 
the representative of a worthy family, and as 
a fanner and stockman who is deveolping large 
interests, is George Robertson, of the Redfern 
Table community. Mr. Robertson was bom in 
Scotland, in Noveml>er. 1875. and is a son of 
Walter and Martha (Johnston) Robertson, 
natives of that country. He is one of a family 
of five sons — John. Walter. Gavin. George, 
and William. John is carrying on operations 
on his father's former homestead farm in Cus- 
ter county, and William is deceased. 

George Robertson was but five years of age 



726 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, XEBR_\SKA 





HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



727 



when his parents immigrated to the United 
States, the family settling in the coal-mining 
community of Clark City, Illinois, the father 
having followed the vocation of mining in his 
native land. Here the youth grew up and re- 
ceived his education in the public schools, and 
here also it was that he earned his first money. 
by hauling oat-straw for the miners to fill their 
bed ticks with, at a standard price of twenty- 
five cents per tick. In the spring of 1887. when 
George was eleven years old, the family came 
to Custer county, Nebraska, the first location 
being on Cottonwood creek, north of Redfern 
Table. That continued to be the family home 
and scene of operations until 1898, when the 
father bought 160 acres of land on Redfern 
Table. There the mother died in January, 
1914, at which time the eldes.t son, John, took 
over the homestead, the father removing to Al- 
berta, Canada, where he took up 320 acres of 
land, on which he still makes his home. 

George Robertsoii completed his education 
in the public schools of Custer county, and 
when not engaged at his studies he assisted his 
father and brothers in preparing the home 
fields for the plow. He was reared to all man- 
ner of agricultural pursuits and thoroughly 
trained therein, and farming and stock-raising 
have constituted the vocation to which he has 
given his interest and energies. He has suc- 
ceeded in the accumulation of 720 acres of 
good land, lying west of the property now op- 
erated by his brother John. Here Mr. Robert- 
son has a fine set of buildings, good equipment 
of all kinds, and a high grade of stock. He is 
making a decided success of his work, so that 
he is commg to be looked upon as a well-to-do 
and substantial citizen. ?klr. Robertson is a 
Democrat in politics, but is not a politician, 
taking merely a public-spirited part in civic 
affairs. Mrs. Robertson and her children be- 
long to the Lutheran church. 

Mr. Robertson was married February 12, 
1898, at Broken Bow, Nebraska, to :\Iiss' Car- 
oline Lang, who was born in Denmark, daugh- 
ter of Theodore and Anna Lang, natives of 
that country. To this union there have been 
bom three sons and two daughters : Walter, 
an eighth-grade student ( 1918) , resides at 
home and assists his father on the farm : Marie 
also is an eighth-grade student ; Gavin and 
William are attending school : and Eva, aged 
five years, is recognized as queen of the 
familv circle. 



JAMES M. LOWRY. — A representative 
of one of the first generations to settle in 
Custer county, many of whom are passing to 



their reward, was the late James Monroe 
Lowry, who was widely known throughout 
the eastern section of the county as a splendid 
and valuable citizen. He was a son of Alelvin 
and Malinda ( Batington) Lowry, who were 
natives of Illinois and who came to Custer 
county in the early days of 1878. Here they 
homesteaded. and here they made their 
home until their death. They were the par- 
ents of six children, only two of whom are 
living at the present writing — Mrs. Anna 
Nave, a widow living in t)klahoma, and Le- 
ander, also a resident of that state. At the 
death of James Monroe Lowry, which occurred 
December 30, 1912, a Broken Bow paper pub- 
lished the following comprehensive and ap- 
preciative sketch of his life : 

"Tames Monroe Lowry was born near 
Springfield, Illinois, October 10, 1848. At 
the age of eight years he moved with his 
parents to Rochester, Minnesota. Here he re- 
ceived his education in the common schools 
and in the university at Red Wing. As a very 
young man he took up the profession of an 
educator, which he followed about twelve 
years, during which period he taught in five 
different states, varying from cold Minnesota 
to sunny Texas. March 17, 1877, he came to 
Custer county and located on a homestead 
in Clear Creek valley, where he continued to 
maintain his home until his death. October 
11, 1879, he was united in marriage with 
Hattie A. Thompson, at Kearney, Nebraska. 
To this union seven children were born, four 
of whom survive. 

"At the time of his death Mr. Lowry was 
Clear Creek's oldest settler, having been a con- 
tinuous resident for more than thirty-five 
years. He witnessed the passing of the oxen 
and the dugout ; he saw the antelope, the deer, 
and the elk fade away before the flow of im- 
migration : he saw the rolling prairies slowly 
transformed into waving fields of grain ; he 
saw the coming of the railroads, and the build- 
ing of towns and substantial farm dwellings. 
Yes. he more than saw — he was a factor, at 
least in his community, in developing this new 
country. At an early date he established a 
nursery, from which scores of settlers of Cus- 
ter and adjoining counties procured trees for 
their timber claims. Of his own homestead 
he made a veritable arbor of forest and fruit 
trees. 

".■\s a rather extensive farmer and stock- 
raiser he faced the brightest and darkest days 
that came to the county, overcame opjxjsing 
conditions and reverses, anrl accumulated a 
a comfortable competence. Mr. Lowry was an 
admirer of intellect rather than brawn, a stu- 



728 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COrXTV. NEBRASKA 



dent of the worlfFs greatest minds, and an 
ardent lover of nature. His views were ever 
progressive, and often in advance of the times. 
He believed in the religion of humanity. Hon- 
est and consistent, his life was above reproach. 

"During the month of February. 1912. he 
contracted a severe cold, which grew rapidly 
worse, resulting in a complication of lung, 
heart, and dropsical trouble, from which he 
died, at the Clarkson Memorial hospital, in 
Omaha, at seven p. m., December 30, 1912, 
aged sixty-four years, two months, and twenty 
days. Funeral services were conducted from 
his home, at Huxley, Thursday, January 2d, 
and interment was made at the Lone Elm cem- 
etery. Judge Sullivan, of this city, delivered 
the obituary address. He is survived by a 
wife, three sons, and one daughter — \"ictor 
and Maurice, of Purdum. Nebraska ; and Ir- 
ma and Lawrence of Huxley. He is survived 
also by one brother. Leander J. Lowry, of 
Blanchard, Oklahoma, and by two sisters, Mrs. 
Anna A. Nave, of Perry, Oklahoma, and Mrs. 
Ellen Welch, of New Plymouth. Ohio." 

Continuing the family history, it is to be 
recorded that Mrs. Lowry is a daughter of 
P. H. and Sarah (Lewis) Thompson, both of 
whom were born in England, where their mar- 
riage was solemnized and whence they came 
to the United States, where, in the state of 
Wisconsin. Mrs. Thompson died in 1875. 
Three years later Mr. Thompson came to Cus- 
ter county and settled on a homestead near 
Westerville. There he passed the remainder 
of his life. His daughter. Mrs. Lowry. owned 
the old homestead until 1911, when she sold 
the property. 

In the Thompson home were seven children, 
four of whom are still living: Mrs. Lowrv. 
who is the widow of the honored subject of 
this memoir; John, who is living somewhere 
in the west ; Elizabeth, who is the wife of 
Emerson Stafford, their home being in Wis- 
consin ; and Caroline, who is the wife of D. A. 
Coguel, of Cody, Wyoming. Mrs. Thompson, 
the mother of Mrs. Lowry. was a devoted 
member of the Piaptist church. 

Mrs. Lowry received her early education in 
the public schools of \\'isconsin and later took 
a course in the Wisconsin State Normal School 
at Waukesha. In 1876 she began teaching in 
Wisconsin, where she taught several years. 
After coming to Custer county. Nebraska, she 
taught the first school in the Westerville dis- 
trict. The schoolhouse and furniture were 
both somewhat primitive. There was no floor, 
one kitchen chair was provided for the teacher, 
but the seats were the cheapest kind of hewed 
benches. Mrs. Lowrv and her husband, as 



noted in the foregoing obituary statement, be- 
came the parents of four children : \'ictor E. 
and Maurice T. are now ranching in Cherry 
county ; Irma \'. married Glenn Smith and 
they live with her mother. Mr. Smith having 
charge of Mrs. Lowry's farm ; Lawrence E. 
was a volunteer in the service of the United 
States Navy, in which he enlisted in January, 
1917, and at the time of this writing he is on 
transport duty, as signal officer. 

Mrs. Lowry still operates the farm, doing 
a general farming and stock-raising business. 
She has also been a stock-feeder to a consider- 
able extent, and has furnished and is furnish- 
ing much beef and pork for the market. The 
stock is high grade and shows the cultivated 
strain of long lineage. The splendid farm 
home is the germane descendant of the regu- 
lation sod house which was so common in the 
pioneer days and in which Mr. and Mrs. 
Lowry began their domestic life. 

In 1879 the p)ostoffice of Huxley was located 
by Mr. Lowry in his farm home, and for three 
months he himself carried the mail on horse- 
back from ]\Iyrtle postoffice. which is now dis- 
continued. The Huxley office at the present 
time is located in a building near Mrs. Lowry's 
home and receives mail daily from the .Ansley 
postoffice. 



PHILIP W. LYNCH, who has long been 
one of Custer county's substantial men and de- 
pendable citizens, conducts large farming op- 
erations and has heavy live-stock interests. 
Forty years ago Mr. Lynch first came to Custer 
county and he has not only had much to do 
with the agricultural development of this sec- 
tion, but also, as a man of good judgment, has 
freeiuently been called upon when i)ublic-spir- 
ited movements were being furthere<l and gen- 
eral improvements initiated. Mr. Lynch was 
born October 12, 1858, in Oswego count>'. New 
York, the fourth of a family of seven children 
bom to Patrick and Margaret (McDermott) 
Lynch. The parents were natives of Ireland, 
whence they immigrated to the United States 
prior to their mariage. They finally settled in 
Oswego county. New York, where the father 
became a farmer. They had the following 
children : Catherine. Mary E., Joseph P.. Phil- 
ip W., Thomas L.. John A., and Margaret. 
When Patrick Lynch first came to the United 
States he worked at his trade, that of black- 
smith, in the government navy yard at Brook- 
lyn, and after his marriage and location on a 
farm, he continued work at his trade. 

Philip W. Lynch attended school in Oswego 
countv until he was about sixteen years of 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



729 



age, when he was entrusted with the driving 
of one of his father's teams that hauled hem- 
lock bark, hides, and leather for a tannery, and 
this was his work for four winters, while his 
summers were given up to farm industry. In 
1878 he came to Custer county, Nebraska, and 
during the first winter he worked for Joseph 
Murray, at Lee's Park. In 1879 he took a tim- 
ber claim in that section, but thereafter he 
went to Leadville, Colorado, where he was em- 
ployed in silver-mining, besides which he was 
for two years employed as a mason for the 
Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. It was a hard 
and adventurous life in that region at tliat time, 
and Mr. Lynch gave it up and returned to 
Custer county. Here he settled on his timber 
claim and began to clear his land. He utilized 
his two yoke of steers in prejjaring for farm- 
ing. His nearest neighbors were Joseph Mur- 
ray, to the southwest of him, and Nelson 
Potter, to the west. He continued farming 
and retained his Lee's Park holdings until 
1902, when he sold the property. He then 
bought railroad land on Buffalo creek, in the 
same year. In all his investments Mr. Lynch 
has evidenced excellent business judgment, 
and he now owns section 17, township 13, 
range 22. He has 225 acres under cultivation 
and raises Shorthorn cattle and Poland-China 
hogs, all registered. He has comfortable and 
attractive home surroundings, with a hand- 
some, modern farm residence. 

Mr. Lynch was married January 12, 1884, 
in Loup City, Nebraska, to Miss Catherine V. 
McEtowell, who was born in Lincolnshire, 
England, a daughter of Bernard and Mary 
( Hughes ) McDowell, her father a native of 
Ireland, and her mother of New Orleans, Lou- 
isiana. Mr. and Mrs. Lynch have six chil- 
dren : Philip L. is a farmer five mile^ southwest 
of Oconto. He is a member of the Catholic 
church, and is affiliated with the Royal High- 
landers and the Knights of Columbus. He 
married Florence Powers, and they have two 
sons and one daughter. Patrick F. C, who 
has been farming his father's land, was ready 
to answer his country's call and to serve as a 
member of the United States army in the world 
war. Bernard is deceased. Ignatius M. is 
farming for his father. Katherine V., who re- 
sides at liome, is a school-teacher, and in 1917 
she was graduated from the Catholic academy 
at Hastings. James J. is attending school. 

Mr. Lynch and his older sons are indepen- 
dent voters, and while he has never been will- 
ing to accept public office, his practical and 
mature judgment as at all times been accepted 
by his fellow citizens. .A.S far back as 1879, 
he was one of the petitioners for a postoffice 



at Lee's Park, and he was one of the leading 
early settlers that signed the first petition in 
reference to the line, between Custer and Val- 
ley counties, that split Lee's Park in the center. 
He and his family are all members of the Ro- 
man Catholic church and he is identified with 
the Knights of Columbus and the Royal High- 
landers. 



JOHN W. GRIFFIN. — One of the native 
sons of Custer county, John W. Griffin belongs 
to the younger element of agriculturists upon 
whom the county depends in the future to de- 
velop its interests and maintain the high stan- 
dards set by those who settled the county and 
established precedents. He was born on his 
father's homestead place, five and one-quarter 
miles southwest of Callaway, September 28, 
1888, and is a son of John and Lydia 
( Roderick) Griffin. 

John Griffin was born in Canada, and was 
left an orphan by the death of his parents when 
he was ten years of age. He was adopted by 
an Illinois farmer and taken to the latter's 
home, in the vicinity of Springfield, where he 
was educated and grew to manhood. He re- 
mained in the Prairie state after he had at- 
tained his majority, and was there married to 
Lydia Roderick, a native of Illinois. Several 
years after his marriage he decided to make a 
new start, in the west, and accordingly, in 1885, 
he came to Custer county, where he located on 
a homestead situated five and one-quarter miles 
southwest of Callaway, a property which is still 
owned by his heirs. He was a man of indus- 
try, and, aided by his faithful and energetic 
wife, he succeeded in the accumulation of a 
liandsome and well cultivated property, the 
while he reared his large family of children 
to lives of honor and usefulness. He had the 
unqualified respect and esteem of his fellow 
citizens, and was a citizen who assisted in good 
movements. He and his wife were the par- 
ents of ten children, of whom nine are living, 
as follows: Frank G., William E., Oliver S., 
and Charles V., all of whom are engaged in 
agricultural pursuits in Custer county ; John 
W., who is the subject of this review; Goldie, 
who is deceased; Mrs. Dolly Hunnell : Mrs. 
Sadie Bryner ; Jennie, who is single, and lives 
with her brother Charles V. ; and Pearl, who 
still attends school and lives with her brother 
Charles V. 

From the time that he earned his first money 
by planting potatoes for John Stillman, in the 
Roten valley, John W. Griffin has been identi- 
fied with some branch of agriculture. He re- 
ceived his education in the district schools of 



730 



HISTORY OF CrSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



the vicinity of his home, and when old enout^h 
to make a decision he chose farming as his vo- 
cation, an occupation which he has steadfastly 
followed to the present time. He is now an 
owner of part of the estate left by his father, 
a rich and valuable tract, but his present ac- 
tivities are devoted to the cultivation of the 
Charles Martin farm, a tract of 320 acres, ly- 
ingf in the Roten valley. Air. Griffin carries 
on both general farming' and stock-raising, and 
is making rapid progress in both departments, 
being considered one of the progressive and 
energetic young agriculturists of this locality. 
On July 2, 1914, Mr. Griffin was united in 
marriage with Miss Efifie M. Bartlett. who was 
born in Polk county, Nebraska, daughter of 
Kellogg C. and Mary S (Smith) Bartlett, the 
former a native of Elgin. Illinois, and the lat- 
ter of Pennsylvania. There were eleven chil- 
dren in the Bartlett family, namely: Airs. 
Esther I. Luft ; Earl B.. who, at the time of this 
writing, is in training for the national army, 
at Camp Codv. Deming, New Alexico ; Airs. 
Abbie B. AIcKellip ; Mrs. Effie M. Griffin, 
Dolly AL, who is single and resides with her 
parents at Primrose, Nebraska : Roscoe E. ; 
Anna AI.. Fannie F., and Edith E., who reside 
at home; and \'ernon C. and Fay J., who are 
attending school. To. Air. and Airs. Griffin 
tw'o children liave been born : Rosa A., in 1915 ; 
and Walter A., in 1917. 



WTLLIAAI A. RUNYAN. who is becom- 
ing well and favorably known in banking cir- 
cles of Custer county by reason of his connec- 
tion, as assistant cashier, with the Farmers 
State Bank of Alason City, is also identified 
with agricultural matters here and has various 
other interests. He belongs to a family which 
has been located in central Nebraska for many 
years, and he w-as born on the family home- 
stead, three miles northeast of Alason City, 
Custer county, April 25, 1889. His parents 
were George and Aledora H. ( .Amsberry ) 
Runyan, the latter a sister of D. AI. Amsberry, 
who was elected secretary of state of Ne- 
braska in the fall of 1918, and a sketch of 
whose career appears elsewhere in this work. 

William A. Runyan was educated in the dis- 
trict schools of his native community and for 
two months was a student in the Baptist Col- 
lege at Grand Island. When he left that insti- 
tution he engaged in farming on the home 
place, continuing to be thus occupied until 
taking a ])osiiion with the Farmers State Bank 
of Mason City, in 1914. He has since won 
promotion through a display of ability and 
fidelity and the excercise of the banking talents 



which he undoubtedly possesses. While the 
main part of his attention is devoted to his 
duties at the bank, he also has interests of an 
agricultural character, being the owner of a 
fine farm property of (AO acres, in Custer 
county. He stands high in the estimation and 
confidence of his associates and of the [people 
among whom his life has largely been spent. 
January 1, 1913, Air. Runyan married Aliss 
Lowa F. Wood, a daughter of John T. Wood. 
She was well educated in the public schools 
of Broken Bow, subsequently became the 
assistant of her father, who was serving as 
register of deeds of Custer county, and con- 
tinued with him for fifteen months. Just be- 
fore her marriage she was employed in the 
abstract office of J. G. Leonard, for four 
months. Like her husband, she at present is 
acting as an assistant cashier of the Farmers 
State Bank. Air.- and Airs. Runyan are the 
parents of one son: Roger, born June 6, 1917. 
Airs. Runyan is a member of the Christian 
church and Air. Runyan is a Baptist. His 
political faith is that of the Democratic party, 
which he supports energetically. 



ALBERT AIILLER, a solid, steadfast citi- 
zen of Custer county and a farmer of many 
vears experience, is a member of that pioneer- 
ing band that came here in 1886 and, notwith- 
standing hardships and discouragements in the 
early days, never lost faith in the ultimate 
value of their lands and are to-day people of 
i;idependent fortune. Air. Aliller was born in 
Adams county, Indiana, one of the four chil- 
dren of William and Clarissa (Bristol) Miller, 
the former born in Germany and the latter in 
New- York. Albert Aliller has one brother. 
Reuben Aliller, who lives in Indiana. William 
Aliller was twenty years old when he, with 
many other young men, embarked on a sailing 
vessel for America, all desiring to escape serv- 
ice in the German amiy. They had a stormy 
passage, at one time adverse winds driving 
their vessel back almost to the point of sailing, 
but finally, after six weeks at sea. the pas- 
sengers were safely landed in the harlior of 
New York city and on this following day Will- 
iam Miller obtained work on a farm. Later 
he moved to Indiana, where he followed farm- 
ing. He had been married nine years when he 
enHsted for service as a soldier in the Civil 
war, becoming a niemlx-r of the Fifty-ninth 
Indiana A'olunteer Infantry, and a year and 
three months later he died in service, in a hos- 
pital at Louisville, Kentucky. His death oc- 
curred just three weeks after President Lin- 
coln was assassinated. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



731 



\ 



Albert AKller was reared in Indiana and at- 
tended the public schools. In answering the 
question as to the first money he ever saved, 
Mr. Miller states that it was a "cold prop- 
osition," as the securing of the dime offered, 
necessitated his wading into a swamp to his 
middle, late in the fall of the year, and bring- 
ing out to its owner a horse that had stalled 
there. This spirit of courage and determina- 
tion has never left Mr. Miller, and in part it 
explains his subsequent success in life. He 
remained with his mother until he was twenty- 
one years of age and then went to work on 
another farm, where he continued four years. 
In the meanwhile he married, and two years 
later, in March, 1886, he came with his fami- 
ly to Custer county, Nebraska, locating in 
section 28, township 13, range 23, on West 
Buffalo creek, where he has lived on the same 
place for the past thirty-two years. During the 
first three months Mr. Miller hauled, for a dis- 
tance of three miles, all water used in his 
household, but in June he found water in his 
well, at a depth of 135 feet. The lack of water 
during the long drouth period was not the only 
hardship to be endured, Mr. Miller recalling 
that at one time he drove 100 miles to get 
flour. The old-home folks in Indiana urged 
the Millers to abandon their Nebraska land 
and return east, but Mr. Miller did not give 
way, and the present prosperity of this whole 
region fully proves his wise foresight. He 
owns 600 acres of fine land and still is actively 
engaged in fami pursuits, few men being bet- 
ter qualified for the business of operating 
profitably. 

Mr. Miller was married June 9, 1884, in 
Wells county, Indiana, to Miss Mary Foust, 
who was born in that county, a daughter of 
Daniel and Margaret (Householder) Foust, 
natives of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Miller has one 
brother, John Foust, and one sister, Mrs. Ma- 
linda Bowers. Mr. and Mrs. Miller have four 
sons and two daughters, as follows: William 
H., who is a farmer located eighteen miles 
south of Callaway, this county, married Grace 
Copass ; Arthur, who farms his father's prop- 
erty on West Buffalo creek, married Mae Ash- 
ley: Samuel, who was sent to Camp Grant, 
Illinois, and while there, about the last of Sep- 
tember, 1918, he suft'ered an attack of Spanish 
influenza, from the effects of which he died, 
on the 5th of October, his remains being 
brought home for burial ; Charles is at home 
at the time of this writing, as is also Clara J. : 
and Viola is the wife of Harry Pierson, who 
is a soldier in the national army and stationed 
at Camp Dodge, Iowa, at the time of this writ- 
ing. Mr. Miller and members of his family 



belong to the Methodist Episcopal and Evan- 
gelical churches. He votes independently, tut 
his eldest son is a Democrat in politics. 



JOHN MATZ, ranchman, who is one of 
Custer county's heavy landowners and substan- 
tial citizens, has lived continuouslv mi this 
county since he came here in 1884, with the ex- 
ception of four years. Mr, Matz is widely 
known through his extensive and successful 
live-stock interests. He was born in Scioto 
county, Ohio, January 27, 1861, one of a fam- 
ily of three sons and four daughters born to 
John and Dora (Tchel) Matz, both natives of 
Germany, the mother having been born in the 
province of Mecklenburg. In their early mar- 
ried life the parents immigrated to the United 
States, and the father was an iron-ore miner 
near Portsmouth, Ohio, for eighteen years, 
after which he bought a farm near Harrison- 
ville, that state. He lived on his farm during 
the rest of his life and there his death occurred 
in April, 1896. His widow then came west, 
where she lived with her children until she 
passed away, in April, 1909. The children were 
seven in number — Mrs. Eliza Miller, Charles 
(died January 20, 1916), John, Gustavus A., 
Mrs. Anna Bonzo, and Sarah A. and Emma 
(both deceased). 

As a boy and youth John Matz remained 
with his parents and assisted in the work of the 
home farm, the while he attended school dur- 
ing the winter seasons. Prior to coming to 
Custer county, in 1884, he worked for two 
years as a farmer in Clinton county, Indiana. 
For a time Mr. Matz worked on the Zimmer 
ranch in Custer county, but in the spring of 
1885 he located a homestead west of Redfern 
Table, and from that time on he has kept add- 
ing to his acreage, his latest purchase being- 
three whole sections. Additionally he owns 
1,260 acres on West Buffalo creek. This is all 
fine grazing land, and Mr. Matz devotes it 
mainly to his stock interests, usually running 
from 400 to 750 cattle in summer and seventy- 
five head of horses, together with many hogs 
of the Poland-China and Duroc breeds. He 
has been very careful in handling his live stock 
and takes great pride in maintaining a standard 
quality. Mr. Matz is recognized as an able busi- 
ness man, and naturally he has often been asked 
concerning his early start. He has sometimes 
replied that the first money he ever earned 
w^as when he and his sister picked a gallon 
of blackberries and sold them for a dime, to a 
conductor on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. 
Mr. Matz was married January 3, 1894, at 
Kearney, Nebraska, to Miss Margaret E. Win- 



732 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



ter, who was born near Harrisonville. Ohio, 
and who is a daughter of Frederick and Fe- 
licia (Mag-ney) Winter. The father of -Mrs. 
Matz was born in Germany and her mother in 
France, and they liad four sons and six daugh- 
ters — Charles B., George, Frank, William 
(the last named being deceased), and Kath- 
erine, Mary. Elizabeth. ^latilda. Caroline (de- 
ceased), and Mrs. Margaret Matz. Mr. and 
Mrs. ]\Iatz have two sons. Charles L. and Roy 
W., both of whom, at the time of this writing, 
are preparing to become soldiers in the national 
army for service in the world war as good 
patriots. The sons are both in partnership 
with their father and are well known stock- 
men. Charles L. married C'ara Carlson, a 
daughter of Otto Carlson, and they are mem- 
bers of the Methotlist Episcopal church. The 
whole faniiily connection is one of high stand- 
ing in Custer county, Mr. Matz and his sons 
having the reputation of being able and enter- 
prising business men and honorable in every 
relation of life. 



STILLMAN GATES was born in Chau- 
tauqua county. New York. October 6, 1835, 
the eldest of five sons and three daughters 
born to Lorison and Salome (Felt) Gates. The 
father was born in New York and the mother 
in \'ermont. and they were married in Elling- 
ton, New York, December 4, 1834. In the 
spring of 1837 the family moved to Huron 
county. Ohio, where they lived until 1852, 
when they went farther west, and located in 
Porter county. Indiana, which was their home 
for several years. A few years before his <leath 
the father became a resident of Laporte, Iowa, 
where he passed away September 17. 1902. 
His wife had died in Porter county. Indiana, 
January 3. 18f)9. Lorison Gates was a minis- 
ter in the Christian church and held several 
pastorates while living in Ohio. 

Stillman Gates left home about the time he 
reached his majority, and was married in 
Wheatfield, Jasper county, Indiana. .April 2. 
1857. to Mary McNeal. a daughter of James 
and Hope (Gifford) McNeal. of St. Lawrence 
county. She became the mother of five chil- 
dren, and passed away in Indiana. In Jasper 
county, Indiana, Mr. Gates again married. 
There he wedded Mrs. Susan (Miller) Brown, 
widow of Preston Brown. In the spring of 
1877 they moved to Tama county. Iowa, and 
in June, 1879, he made a trip with a team to 
Custer county, Nebraska, looking for a loca- 
tion. He then made an entry on a homestead, 
in section 5, township 19, range 20, and also 
on a timber claim, after which he returned to 



Iowa. In December of the same year he 
moved with his family from the Iowa home 
to the Custer county homestead, having a four- 
horse team and a wagon, with a house six by 
sixteen feet, on wheels. They made the trip 
in the dead of winter and encountered many 
hardships before reaching their destination. 
During the early years they did their trading 
at Grand Island, making many trips over the 
road. Gates postoffice in Custer county was 
named for Mr. Gates, and for many years he 
served as postmaster. The local church and 
schoolhouse were built on his farm. He was 
one of the first settlers in his locality and for 
many years was active in the development 
and upbuilding of the community, being a 
friend of progress along all lines. He served 
for a number of years as justice of the peace 
and held other local ofiices. He had a country 
store at Gates and was one of the best known 
men in the county. He became a successful 
farmer and stockman, and is now the owner 
of 560 acres. In the spring of 1909 he re- 
tired and established a beautiful home in Sar- 
gent. In 1910 he was united in marriage to 
Mrs. Mary A. Cummings. With his fourth 
wife, who was Mrs. Lucetta Mary Bennett, 
he is now living in a beautiful home at Gar- 
dena. California. 

His five children were all born of the first 
marriage. They arc : James L., of Tulsa. Ok- 
lahoma : Herbert P., of Broken Bow ; Harry 
S.. of Gardena. California; Frederick A., de- 
ceased : and Salome Hope, the wife of Oliver 
L. Swick. of the Gates vicinity. 

Stillman Gates is a man of large stature, 
endowed with strong physical powers and en- 
durance, which stood him in good stead when 
he was called upon to meet the pioneer con- 
ditions that confronted the early settlers of 
Custer county. He is of a kindly disposition, 
with a keen sense of humor, and no one can 
better appreciate a joke than he. even though 
the joke be on himself. He is a Christian man 
and a member of the Christian Order, or New 
Lights. His name is one which will always 
be remembered by the people of Custer county, 
and to the readers of this volume is here pre- 
sented a portrait of this venerable pioneer. 



WILLIAM C. NINON. — As farmer, 
teacher, and public official. William C. Nixon 
is well known to the residents of Custer county, 
in which he has lived continuously for thirty- 
three years. He came here in 1885. along with 
such other reliable early settlers as John Matz, 
.\ll3ert iMiller. Luther Barnes, John McNa- 
mara, Arthur Romine. and J. F. Williams, and 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



72,Z 




Stiuman Gates 



734 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



with them he has ever since co-operated for the 
best interests of the whole county. Mr. Xixon 
was born in Clay county, Illinois, October 13, 
1843. His parents were Benjamin and Eliza- 
beth (Smith) Xixon, the father born in Harri- 
son county. West \irginia, and the mother in 
Henry county, Kentucky. Of their seven chil- 
dren, but two survive : W illiam C. and Lizzie. 

William C. Nixon was reared on his father's 
farm and was given such educational advan- 
tages as Clay county afforded at that time. In 
looking back to his childhood, in order to re- 
call the first money he ever earned, the memory 
comes to him of a precious dime earned by 
keeping quiet during a visit of his grandfather, 
and there is no doubt at all but that in later 
years he would, on many occasions, have cheer- 
full)- paid the same amount under similar cir- 
cumstances. He worked on the home farm 
as long as he remained there, and for several 
years he taught school in Illinois. In April, 
1885, he came to Custer county, as noted above. 
He bought railroad land, the southwest quarter 
of section 22, township 13, range 23, on the 
south border of the county, and there he lived, 
developing, improving and managing his 
landed estate, until he retired. When he came 
to the county, Delight township extended eigh- 
teen miles east and west and twenty-four miles 
north and south. In 1887 Grant township was 
organized, extending nine miles north and 
south and eighteen miles east and west. Mr. 
Nixon was made assessor of Grant township 
and served twelve terms, and for twenty-eight 
years he has been a member of the school 
board. It is worthy of special note that he and 
his son Edgar and his daughter Jessie all 
taught school in the district. 

Mr. Ni.xon was married .August 13, 1867, in 
Clay county, Illinois, to Miss Maggie Lee, who 
was born in Switzerland county, Indiana, and 
dietl in Custer county, .-Kpril 29, 1918. Her 
parents were John and Clarinda ( Davison ) 
Lee, the former of whom was bom in Indiana 
and the latter at Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. and 
Mrs. Nixon had six children : Edgar, who owns 
240 acres of fine Nebraska land, is a Republi- 
can in politics and a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church : John is at home with his fa- 
ther ; Jessie, who died September 26, 19C)4, was 
the wife of Herbert Smith, and for several 
years was a very popular and efficient school- 
teacher, she having been a member of the 
Evangelical church : Nettie B. remains with her 
father: and Olive and .Mice are deceased. 



THOMAS M. BIRNIE is one of the agri- 
culturists of Custer county who has contrib- 



uted to the general development of the Broken 
Bow community during recent years, and he 
now has a large and well developed farm in 
section 29. Mr. Birnie was born in Ireland. 
November 5, 1881, a son of John and Elizabeth 
(McLean) Bimie. 

The parents of Mr. Birnie were born in Ire- 
land and were there reared, educated and mar- 
ried, and in 1882 they came to the L'nited 
States, their first settlement being at Wahoo, 
Saunders county, Nebraska, where John Bir- 
nie followed his trade of brick-layer. He was 
an industrious and dirifty man and carefully 
conserved his earnings, so that, March 4, 1910, 
he came to Custer county and purchased a 
half-section of land. There he continued to be 
engaged in fairly successful agricultural oper- 
ations until within a short time prior to his 
death, which occurred at Merna. He was a 
Democrat in politics. Both he and his wife, 
who also died at Merna, were faithful members 
of the Presbyterian church. They had seven 
children, of whom six are living: .\nnie and 
Tillie, who reside at Merna with their brother ; 
Robert, who is a farmer in the Merna locality; 
Thomas M. and John, who are associated in 
farm enterprise : and Janet, who is engaged in 
teaching school at Columbus, Nebraska, 

Thomas M. Birnie was still a lad when 
brought to the United States by his parents, 
and his youthful education was acquired prin- 
cipally in the public schools of Wahoo. When 
he had completed his studies he turned his at- 
tention to farming. He came to Custer county 
with his parents, and here has been rewarded 
with marked success, being now the owner of 
a half-section of land, in section 29. He carries 
on general farming and stock-raising, in both 
of which departments of farm enterprise he 
has shown progressiveness and ability, and his 
propertv is finelv improved with good buildings 
and modern equipment. He is showing a good 
citizen's interest in the affairs of the commu- 
nity, although his only activity thus far in 
politics has l)een the casting of his vote for the 
candidates of the Democratic party. He be- 
longs to the Presbyterian church. 



ALBERT F. APPERSON. — One of the 
industries which is carried on in certain parts 
of Custer county, and which is profitable if 
practiced in a proper manner, is that of fruit- 
raising. In this special field .Albert F. .Ep- 
person is making a success as a raiser of cher- 
ries, apples, and pears, on his well cutivated 
property in the old town of Wescott. Mr. 
.Epperson was a homesteader of the year I88.1 
in Custer county and for a long period was 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



735 



engaged in general farming and stock-raising, 
during which time he took a substantial and 
constructive part in the development of the 
county and its interests. 

Mr. Apperson was born in Culpeper county. 
Virginia, December 9, 1836. and is a son of 
W. C. and Frances (Glasscock) Apperson, 
natives of the same county. The father, who 
followed farming throughout his life and was 
an industrious and highly respected citizen, 
fought as a soldier during the Civil war. He 
was a staunch Democrat in ]X)litics, and he 
and his wife were faithful members of the 
Baptist church. They had a family of ten 
children, of whom nine survive, but Albert 
F. is the only one residing in Custer county. 

Albert F. Apperson received his early edu- 
cation in the public schools of his native 
county, and grew to manhood in the state of 
his birth, being given a thorough training in 
the art of agriculture. He was twenty-si.x 
years of age when he came to Nebraska, 
his first place of residence being Otoe county, 
where he was variously employed, principally 
at farming, for three years. Conditions there, 
however, did not suit him, and in 1885 he came 
to Custer county, where he took a homestead, 
about five miles west of' Comstock, in section 
9. For a number of years he lived on that 
property, increasing its acreage and develop- 
ing its resources, and eventually he became 
one of the well-to-do men of his community. 
He has since sold the old homestead, but he 
is still the owner of 200 acres of valuable and 
highly productive land, which is located in the 
same vicinity, and on which he has modern 
improvements. When he retired from the 
hard labor of an agriculturist, several years 
ago. Mr. Apperson removed to the old town 
of Wescott and began the raising of apples, 
cherries, and pears, an industry in which, as 
before noted, he is making an excellent success. 
He is accounted one of his community's pro- 
gressive citizens and has gained in high de- 
gree the respect and esteem of his fellow men. 

At Arcadia. Nebraska, February 9. 1897, 
Mr. Apperson married Miss Martha Bennett. 
Her parents, who were natives of New York, 
immigrated to \'allev county. Nebraska, at a 
very early day and took up a homestead 
there; they now live in retirement at .Arcadia. 
Mr. Bennett is a carpenter by trade, and still 
follows that vocation at odd times. !\'Ir. and 
Mrs. Apperson are the parents of nine chil- 
dren, as follows: William D.. who is single 
and is his father's representative on the farm ; 
Helen, who was the first child born at Com- 
stock; and Carrie, Warren. Virginia, George. 
Rosette, Woodrow. and Walter, all of whom 



are living at home. Mr. Apperson is a staunch 
Democrat in his political allegiance, but has 
not sought public office. 



JOHN PESEK. — While the active career 
of John Pesek was passed in agricultural op- 
erations in Valley county, his farm, which he 
still owns, lies just across the county line, and 
as his home is now at Comstock, he is ac- 
counted one of the representative men of 
Custer county, so that he is fully entitled to 
recognition in this publication. Mr. Pesek is 
one of the self-made men of Custer county, 
and. like numerous others who reside in his 
community, is a native of Bohemia, where he 
was born in April, 1860, a son of John and 
Lizzie Pesek. 

The parents of Mr. Pesek were honorable 
farming people in Bohemia, were industrious. 
God-fearing and law-abiding, and their lives 
ended in a tragedy, when the home caught fire, 
and was totally destroyed, bringing death to 
Mr. and Mrs. Pesek. The fire attacked the 
barn and the resultant conflagration destroyed 
all live stock and farm equipment. There were 
six children in the family, of whom four are 
residents of the United States — two in Texas ; 
John, of this sketch ; and Mrs. Fannie Errat, 
who resides near Cummings Park, Custer 
county. 

John Pesek received his education in the 
public schools of his native land, and was 
about twenty-two years of age when he im- 
migrated to the United States. His first place 
of residence was the state of North Dakota, 
where he lived six years, and in 1888 he moved 
to Nebraska and bought land in \'alley county, 
just across the Custer county line, near Com- 
stock. He started farming operations in a 
modest way and gradually increased his ac- 
tivities and interests, as well as his acreage. 
For years he was adjudged one of the suc- 
cessful and capable general farmers of his lo- 
cality, as well as an intelligent breeder of high- 
grade cattle and other live stock. He was 
known also as a business man of ability — 
one whose word could be absolutely depended 
upon and who took no unfair advantage of 
those with whom he had transactions. After 
more than a quarter of a century of successful 
activity, he decided that it was time to shift 
the burden of hard work to younger shoulders, 
and accordingly. March 17. 1915. he retired 
from active life and took up his residence at 
Comstock. where he owns a comfortable home. 
He is still the owner of the farm, which con- 
sist of 480 acres and is in a high state of de- 
velopment, the while there are modern im- 



71G 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



provements which add to its attractiveness and 
value. 

June 28, 1885, Mr. Pesek was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Barbara Stanhonker, of North 
Dakota, who died March 16, 1916. They were 
the parents of si.x children : John, who was 
born July 26, 1886, married Mary Kukach and 
is engaged in farniiing on a part of his father's 
j)roperty in \'alley county ; Joseph, who was 
born February 28, 1888. is married and like- 
wise resides in \'alley county ; Michael, who 
was born August 25, 1889, is married and is 
engaged in agricultural operations in \'alley 
county : Frank, who was born Januar}- 6, 1893, 
is married and is engaged in farming and 
stock-raising in Valley county ; Theodore, who 
was born October 13, 1894, is a member of 
the L'nited States army, and at the time of this 
writing is stationed with his regiment in 
France; and Lewis, who was born December 
22), 1897, is a bachelor and is a farmer of \'al- 
ley county. 

Mr. Pesek is a Democrat in his political 
views, but has not cared for public office. 
However, as a friend of education he con- 
sented to serve as school-district director for 
several years, and discharged the duties of 
that position with efficiency. He is a member 
of the Catholic church, and was its treasurer 
for some time. 



RICHARD HALL. — While the connection 
of Richard Hall with the agrictiltural inter- 
ests of Custer county, reaching back only until 
1903, is not of such long standing as some 
others whose biographies appear in this work, 
his career has Ijeen sufficiently progressive to 
give him a position of prominence and pres- 
tige among the tillers of the soil and raisers 
of stock in this thriving and prosperous lo- 
cality. When he came to this community, in 
1903, he had yet to make his start ; to-day his 
industry and expert management are indicated 
l)v his possession of large tracts of valuable 
Custer county land in the vicinity of Ans'.cy. 

Mr. Hall was born in Polk county, Nebras- 
ka, May 9, 1873, and is a son of William and 
Elizabeth (Baldwin) Hall. His parents, na- 
tives of Michigan, were pioneers of Polk 
county, where they came early in the spring 
of the year in which their eldest son was born, 
taking up a homestead there and passing the 
rest f)f their lives in the development of a 
farm and the establishing of a home. The 
father passed awav in 1894. and the mother 
sun-ived until 1917. William Hall was suc- 
cessful, self-made man, and had a record for 
integrity and conscientious perfomiance of 



duty as soldier and civilian, as an agricultur- 
ist, and as a citizen and friend. During the 
Civil war he fought as a soldier of the L'nion, 
being connected fur four years with Comjany 
D, Twenty-fourth Regiment, Michigan Vol- 
unteer Infantry, and he thus continued the 
family military' record, his father having been 
a soldier in the war of 1812. His mother had 
the distinction of having lived to the remark- 
able age of ninety-eight years. William Hall 
was a Democrat in his political views, although 
not a man to seek office at the hands of his 
party, and his fraternal connection was with 
the Masonic order. With his family, he be- 
longed to the Methodist Episcopal church. He 
and his wife were the parents of eight chil- 
dren : Richard, who is the immediate subject 
of this review ; Nellie, who is the wife of 
Chris Anderson, a retired farmer of Mason 
City, this county ; Dave, who carries on a 
teaming business at Seattle, \\'ashington ; 
John, who for some years resided on his fa- 
ther's farm in Custer county ; Mar}-, who is 
the wife of Charles Kinniston, of Seattle, 
Washington, an early settler of Polk county, 
Nebraska, and at one time president of the 
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers ; Frank, 
who is engaged in farming near Ansley : Fred, 
who likewise is a Custer county farmer ; and 
Edna, who is the widow of Floyd Gaylord, of 
Ansley, and who is now residing with her 
brother. 

Richard Hall was educated in the public 
schools of Shelby, Polk county, Nebraska, and 
was reared to the vocation of farming, which 
he adopted upon the attainment of his ma- 
jority. He did not seem to make much prog- 
ress in his native county, and in 1903 he came 
to Custer county, where he purchased a farm 
of eighty acres. In order to secure this land 
he had to go into debt, and his first few years 
were marked by constant struggle, but his 
faithful endeavors were finally rewarded, and 
he not only has his property free from debt, 
but is also the owner of 560 acres northeast 
of his home place. He is engaged in general 
farming and the raising of cattle and has been 
remarkably successful in both directions, while 
his standing as a business man is firmly es- 
tablished, having been built up through years 
of honorable and straighforward transactions. 
Mr. Hall is a thirty-second-dcgrec Mason and 
he is verv poi)ular in the ranks of the time- 
honored fralernity. In politics he supports the 
principles and cantlidates of the Democratic 
partv. 

In 1897 Mr. Hall married Miss Birdie 
Harpster, who was born in Missouri, a daugh- 
ter of John Harpster. ^Ir. Harpster was for 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



737 



a number of years a resident of Custer county, 
where he took up a homestead and farmed 
successfully during a long- period. Mr. and 
Mrs. Hall are the parents of three children : 
Leone, John, and Elizabeth, all at home. The 
family belongs to the Christian church. 



GEORGE WILLIAM BAILEY is a repre- 
sentative young farmer who belongs to a fam- 
ily widely known on the West Table, which is 
famous all over the middle west for its fine 
farms and practical, substantial farmers. Mr. 
Bailey hails from Kentucky and possesses the 
inborn characteristics of the native Kentuck- 
ian, who, in addition to accommodating gal- 
lantry, is very hospitably disposed. He was 
born in 1890, by which it is seen that he is 
a young man on the sunrise side of thirty 
years and just started upon his life career. 
He is a son of John Samuel and Susie (Lane) 
Bailey, both of whom are Kentuckians, but 
they have been pioneer citizens in Custer 
county for several decades and now make their 
home in Arnold. The father was born in 1858 
and the mother in 1862. They have two chil- 
dren, and aside from George William. Homer 
is the other member of the family. John Sam- 
uel Bailey located his homestead in the spring 
of 1884 and in those days ran the gamut of 
pioneer experiences. He and his wife had their 
share of trials and hardships. They had to 
haul water from the Loup river, ten miles 
away, and there they took the family washing, 
in order to save the hauling of the water. A 
big prairie fire once swept down upon them, 
and Mr. Bailey saved his corn from destruc- 
tion by the water he had hauled from the 
Loup. The hail destroyed his crops for three 
years in succession. He picked corn for two 
cents a bushel, and took his wages in corn, 
this work being done nineteen miles distant 
from his home. He hunted a full week on 
one occasion to find a fat hog that he could 
purchase to supply the family larder. He final- 
ly located the desired hog in what was then 
Plum Creek, now Lexington. After proving 
up on the claim here, he and his family moved 
to Kentucky, but after a short time they re- 
turned to Custer county and resumed their 
residence here. Thev know all concerning life 
in the early years. They lived in a sod house 
with a brush roof and used cedar stumps for 
chairs, so that they realize how many things 
there are in use to-day without which people 
can get along. Mr. and Mrs. John Samue! 
Bailey are now living in Arnold, where they 
are enjoying comfortable retirement. 

George William Bailey, who is more famil- 



iarly known by his second personal name, 
William, is living on his father's farm — the 
northeast quarter of section 31, township 18, 
range 24. February 28, 1912, recorded the 
marriage of Mr. Bailey to Miss La Verna 
Wilcher, who was born and reared in Custer 
county, a representative of a splendid family, 
and who is a gracious young wife and mother 
who is doing well her part in maintaining the 
attractive and hospitable home. The oppor- 
tunities that are afforded this popular young 
couple are being fully improved and appre- 
ciated by them, and the home is made the 
more attractive by the presence of their win- 
some little daughter, Luda Marie, who is six 
months old at the time of this writing. 

The fine farm which is the stage of the 
operations of ]\Ir. Bailey comprises 160 acres, 
as previously intimated, and virtually the en- 
tire acreage is under effective cultivation. He 
maintains a high grade of live stock, and he 
has made many excellent improvements on the 
place, including the erection of good buildings, 
the while he has provided the best of equip- 
ment and accessories for furthering his oper- 
ations in both departments of his farm enter- 
prise. In short, Mr. Bailey has stated that 
his equipment includes everything from a 
hammer to a farm truck. In politics he main- 
tains an independent attitude, gives his sup- 
port to men and measures meeting the approv- 
al of his judgment and is not amenable to 
mere partisan dictates. 



JOHN C. HENDERSON, whose experi- 
ence in agricultural pursuits in Custer county 
covers a period of twelve years, and who is 
now the owner of a valuable and well im- 
proved farm of 320 acres, is another of the 
men who have been the architects of their own 
fortunes. He was born in Mercer county, Illi- 
nois, December 16, 1868, and is a son of John 
and Nancy (Milligan) Henderson. 

The Henderson family is of Scotch origin 
and the American progenitor was a sturdy 
S'cotsman who became an early settler in Ohio, 
where John Henderson was born, the paternal 
grandfather of John C. Henderson. He was 
a farmer by vocation and in his later years 
moved to Illinois, where his death occurred. 
The maternal grandfather, David Milligan 
was born in Pennsylvania, later became a resi- 
dent of Illinois, and rounded out a useful ca- 
reer in farming. John Henderson, father of 
John C, was born in Ohio, in 1835, and as a 
young man he moved to Pennsylvania, where 
he married a young woman who was a native 
of that state. Subsequently he went to Illi- 



738 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



nois and located in ]\Iercer county. After 
farmint^ there for a number of years, he came 
with his family to Saunders county, Nebraska, 
in 1883, and there the rest of his life was 
passed in tilling the soil, his death occurring 
in 1897. Originally a Republican, in later 
years he transferred his allegiance to the Dem- 
ocratic party. He belonged to the United 
Presbyterian church, of which Mrs. Hender- 
son, who survives him and resides at Lincoln, 
is a member. They were the parents of four 
children — Nettie, the wife of F. A. ]\Iason, 
of Greenwood, Nebraska, formerly a contrac- 
tor at Lincoln for twenty-five years ; Ed, a 
traveling salesman for the Hebb Automobile 
Company, of Lincoln ; John C, of this review ; 
and Zena, the wife of C. i\I. Dodds, a farmer 
near Brule. Nebraska. 

John C. Henderson was educated in the puli- 
lic schools of Illinois and eastern Nebraska, 
and was reared on his father's farm, where he 
developed a fondness for horses and expert 
skill in handling them. So proficient did he 
become in the latter direction that he was re- 
tained for some years by prominent horsemen 
as a jockey and piloted his mounts to victory 
in a number of important events. When he 
settled down to farming it was as a renter in 
Saunders county, and this continued to be his 
status for ten years, for success did not come 
easy, and during the poor years of 1894. 1895, 
and 1896, lie was not able to make even enough 
from his land to pay his rent. However, he 
was persevering and determined and was final- 
ly rewarded with success. In 1906 he came 
to Custer county, where he bought a farm of 
480 acres. This land was only partly improved 
at the time, its main building being a sod house, 
but each year Mr. Henderson has added to 
its equipment, and he now has a comfortable 
and attractive home and good buildings for 
all farm purposes, in addition to which his 
equipment is of the most modern character. 
Mr. Henderson is equally at home in each de- 
partment of agricultural work and has gained 
his knowledge at first hand, in the hard school 
of experience. His standing in the community 
is an e-xcellent one. and he has served his town- 
ship as treasurer for four years. His political 
belief is generically that of the Democratic 
party, but he has independent inclinations, and 
his fraternal affiliation is with the Knights of 
Pythias. 

In 1894 Mr. Henderson married Aliss Lillie 
Stevens, who was born in Saunders county, 
Nebraska, a daughter of Cal Stevens, for manv 
years well known as the village blacksmith at 
Weston. Seven children have been born to 
this union — Erciell, LeRoy, Lenore, Edgar, 



John Cal, Orville, and ,Max. All of the chil- 
dren are at home except LeRoy, who died at 
the age of two years, and Erciell. the eldest 
son, who attained to his legal majority on the 
4th of July, 1918, and who on the following 
day enlisted in a United States engineering 
corps, for service in France. ]Mrs. Henderson 
is a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church, and like her husband has many friends 
in the communitv of their home. 



JOHN E. GRINT is one of the best known 
stock-raisers of his part of Custer county, as 
proprietor of the Prairie Home Stock Farms, 
and is also prominent in a business way, 
through his presidency of the Crownover Tel- 
ephone Company, of Sargent. During his 
thirty-five years of residence in this county he 
has proved a decidedly active and helpful citi- 
zen whose public spirit has been demonstrated 
in a number of ways, and at all times his own 
interests have been held subservient to those 
of the general welfare. 

Mr. Grint was born in County Norfolk, 
England, in the hamlet of Mileham, .^pril 27, 
1857, his parents being John and Sarah 
(Twite) Grint, who never left their native 
land, but spent their lives, until retirement, in 
farming. Both passed away in the faith of 
the Church of England. There were three 
children in the family : Elizabeth, of Hull. 
England, the widow of Job Miles; John E.. of 
this review ; and William, emploved in the 
government dock-yards of England. 

The early education of John E. Grint was ob- 
tained in a private grammar school of England, 
and he was still a young man when he em- 
barked in mercantile ventures on his own ac- 
count. He was married in his native land, in 
1880. and about three years later he embarked 
for the L'nited States. Upon his arrival he at 
once came to Custer county, Nebraska, where 
he settled on a homestead in close proximity 
to Sargent. From modest beginnings he has 
built up a large and important industry in 
the breeding and sale of Short-horn cattle and 
Poland-China hogs. Mr. Grint was compelled 
to teach himself the bu.siness of farming and 
stock-raising, for he had had no experience 
in these lines prior to coming to the United 
States, and his success is therefore all the more 
remarkable and commendable. He has also in- 
terested himself in business matters, having a 
ni.mber of important and valuable investments 
and connections, and is president of the 
Crownover Telephone Company, at Sargent. 
His reputation is a most enviable one in busi- 
ness circles, and he is known as one who honors 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



739 




John E. Grint 



740 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



and respects the liighest business ethics and 
principles in his dealings with his fellow men. 

Mr. Grint was married January 15, 1880, 
in England, to Miss Alice Hutchins, who was 
born in that country, and they became the 
parents of eight children, of whom six are 
living: Ada, born in England, makes her home 
with her parents ; Jessie is the wife of Harry 
Bentley, living east of Sargent; Howard J., 
who married Inez Sturm, was conducting a 
dairy farm near Chicago at the time of his 
death, which occurred December 16, 1918; 
Mabel is the wife of Charles Roe, a farmer 
northwest of Sargent ; Harold A. is at the time 
of this writing a sergeant in the American 
national army in France ; Sidney and Ernest 
are at home and are assisting their father in 
his farming operations. 

Mr. Grint joined the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows when he was but eighteen years 
of age, in England, and before he had reached 
the age of twenty-one years had held all the 
chairs and become noble grand of the order. 
He still belongs to that fraternity and takes 
a great deal of interest in the local lodge at 
Sargent. He is independent in his political 
views and has been active in civic affairs. He 
has been a member of the township board for 
fourteen years and for four years was a mem- 
ber of the county board of supervisors. Mrs. 
Grint also has been before the public in an 
official capacity for a number of years, having 
been, as at present, a member of the school 
board for twelve years, and, prior to its can- 
cellation by the government, having been for 
more than fourteen years postmistress of the 
postoffice at Phillipsburg. 



NICHOLAS :\I. MORGAN. — The year 
1880 saw the arrival in Custer county of Nich- 
olas M. Morgan, a man who was in the prime 
of life and who had already made good prog- 
ress along the road to success, as he had de- 
veloped self-confidence through participating 
in many of the battles of war and peace. In 
Custer county Mr. Morgan found the op\x)r- 
tunities with which to round out a successful 
and prosperous career, and at the present 
time he is living in honorable retirement at 
Callaway, where he enjoys the material con- 
forts won through a life of industry, with the 
objective respect and confidence that mark 
due popular ajiprcciation of his sterling integ- 
rity in all of the relat'ons of life. 

Mr. Morgan was born at Kalniar, Sweden. 
August 28. 1836. a son of Samuel and Stena 
(Keyse) Morgan, and a grandson of Nels 
Keivse. His father, who was a farmer in the 



old country, was an industrious and able man, 
but was in moderate circumstances. There 
were five sons and four daughters in the fam- 
ily, and of the number three survive ; Nicholas 
M.; Swan, a resident of Olds. Iowa: and 
Clara, the wife of John Carlson, of Olds, Iowa. 

Nicholas M. Morgan attended the public 
schools of his native community, grew up in 
an agricultural atmosphere, and earned his 
first money by hauling wood on a sled for his 
father, with whom he remained until he was 
eighteen years of age. He was an ambitious 
youth, and saved his money carefully, so that 
in 1854 he had accumulated a sufficient amount 
to bring him to the United States. When he 
arrived in New York city his total financial 
reinforcement was represented in the sum of 
two dollars, after his passage had been paid, 
but he was fortunate in meeting a minister. 
Rev. Mr. Wallstrom. vi'ho managed to secure 
him a position with a friend. He recommended 
the young immigrant to the countryman, who 
gave the youth a position on his farm, at a 
wage of six dollars a month. When the year's 
contract had expired. Mr. ^lorgan had all ex- 
cept about ten dollars of his wages, his habits 
of thrift having not forsaken him, and a part 
of this money was spent in traveling to Chi- 
cago, and later to Alinnesota City. In the 
latter community he secured employment on 
a farm, and there he remained about three 
years, having had several employers in the 
meantime. In 1859 Mr. Morgan enliste<l in 
Company L, Second Regular L'nited States 
Artillery, and he was stationed at Fort Ridge- 
ley, Minnesota, his command being engaged in 
keeping the Sioux Indians in check and order. 
In the following spring he was ordered to 
Fortress Monroe, Mrginia. to attend a school 
of practice, and when the Civil war came on, 
in 1861, his command went to Washington, 
D. C. in 1862 his company formed a part of 
a contingent sent to the stage of conflict in \'ir- 
ginia, and during the time that he was in ser- 
vice he took part in twenty-one distinct battles, 
aside from numerous skirmishes, forages, etc. 
Among his engagements may be mentioned: 
Chickahominy. June 27. 1862; Malvern Hill. 
July 1-5; Fairfax Court House. September 3; 
South Mountain. September 13: Antietam, 
September 17 ; Shepherdson, September 20 ; 
Halltown, October 3 ; Warrenton, November 
5: Chancellorsville, May 2-3. 1863; Beverly 
Ford. lune 9; Frankstown. Julv 6; Falling 
Waters. July 14; Chester Gap. July 22; Bran- 
dy Station, .\ugust 1-4; Morton's Ford. Oc- 
tober 12; CuliK'per. October 15; and Oak 
Shades. Octolx-r 1}<. 

Mr. Morgan was given his honnrable dis- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



741 



charge from service at the expiration of his 
term of eiiHstment. in 1864, and he then went 
to Iowa, where he again found employment in 
farming. In that state, on the Beverly farm, 
near Mount Pleasant, he was married Decem- 
ber 2, 1869, to Miss Lucinda A, Bailey, daugh- 
ter of Silas Bailey, and to this union there 
were born three daughters and a son : Jose- 
phine A. is deceased; Elsie A., who is the 
wife of L. Phillip, a farmer fifteen miles south 
of Callaway, has one child, and is a member 
df the Evangelical church ; Hattie C. is de- 
ceased ; and Harry W., who is still a bache- 
lor, is a resident of Louisiana, where he owns 
a great acreage of land. Five years after their 
marriage Mr. Morgan's first wife died, and 
on the 9th of June, 1876, at Burlington, Iowa, 
he wedded Miss x\nna C. Johnson, daughter 
of John and Hannali Johnson. Five children 
were born to this union — Laura ; Alvin S. ; 
Otto D. ; Lillian (the wife of Fred Payton) ; 
and Charles. Charles Morgan, the youngest 
son, is a bachelor and is now employed by the 
United States government, at Washington, 
D. C. 

Nicholas M. Morgan came to Custer county, 
Nebraska, in 1880, and settled on the north 
side of Callaway, where he owns a beautiful 
home and 767 acres of land adjoining the 
townsite. During a long and active career 
he has gained prosperity and many friends, 
and he is now enjoying the comforts of life, 
after having borne the heat and burden of the 
day and proved himself one of the world's 
productive workers. 



JENS P. NELSON. — One of the time- 
honored business interests is that which has 
had to do with the sale of harness, which has 
occupied the energies of able men since the 
earliest times. This business is capably and 
honorably represented at Mason City by Jens 
P. Nelson, who has successfully conducted his 
present establishment for more than a quarter 
of a century. He is a native of Denmark, 
and was born November IS, 1848, a son of 
Nels and Celia (Petersen) Jensen. 

Nels Jensen, a native of Denmark, and a 
shoemaker by trade, immigrated to the L'nited 
States with his family in 1874 and first settled 
at Chicago, or near that city, and for a time 
followed his trade. While living there he 
lost his wife and three of his children by 
death, and, becoming discouraged he returned 
to his native land, where he remained six 
years. However, he had become attracted to 
this country and eventually, in 1880, he re- 
turned, and homesteaded a tract of land in 



Custer county, where he engiged in farming 
and continued to follow that vocation until 
his death. He and his wife were people who 
always merited the high regard in which they 
were held by their neighbors, and were faith- 
ful members of the Lutheran church. They 
had twelve children, of whom five survive, but 
Jens P. is the only one now living in the 
county of Custer. 

Jens P. Nelson received his early education 
in the public schools of his native land, and 
as a youth adopted the trade of his father, 
that of shoemaker, which he mastered under 
the instruction of the elder man. He was 
industrious, skilled and willing, and found 
ready employment, although he also, at times, 
worked as a coachman and gardener for 
prominent families, and likewise served in the 
army school in Denmark for seven months. 
He was married there, in 1868, to Miss Anna 
Mary Nelson, who was born in Denmark, and 
they became the parents of the following chil- 
dren : William, of Fairfield, Nebraska, is en- 
gaged in the shoe business; Celia is the wife 
of Pete Hanson, a section foreman on a rail- 
road at Clarks, Nebraska ; Hannah is the wife 
of S. M. Chase, who is engaged in the general 
store business in Mason City ; Marv is the 
wife of Leonard Cady, living on a farm north 
of Mason City; Christina is the wife of Art 
Mortenton, a traveling salesman of Lincoln ; 
Christ is associated in business with his fa- 
ther; and Edna is the wife of C. K. Duke, a 
railroad brakeman of Alliance, Nebraska. 

Jens P. Nelson remained in the LTnited 
States when his father returned to Denmark, 
and for some years was variously employed, 
principally at his trade, in which he made 
money and saved it. Finally he saw an op- 
portunity to become the proprietor of a busi- 
ness of his own, and in 1893 he came to 
Mason City and founded his present store, 
which has been a distinct success from the 
start. He carries a full line of all kinds of 
harness, whips, etc.. and has attracted and 
held a good custom at Mason City and in the 
surrounding community. His business repu- 
tation is an excellent one, and as a citizen he 
is held in high esteem. Mr. Nelson is a 
Democrat, and on several occasions he has 
been called upon to fill school and township 
offices, in which he has acquitted himself ad- 
mirably. With his family, he belongs to the 
Danish Lutheran church. 

It should be a matter of special record in 
this article than on the 27th of November, 
1918. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson had the privilege 
of celebrating their golden-wedding anniver- 
sary, the occasion being marked by appropri- 



742 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



ate observation of social order, and the ven- 
erable couple received congratulations and 
greetings from their many friends in the 
home community. In their half-century of 
devoted companionship Mr. and Mrs. Nelson 
have encountered their share of both clouds 
and sunshine, but the latter has predominated 
and they rejoice in the many blessings that 
have attended them during the fleeting years. 



GEORGE J. PELKEY. — Among the 
farmers of Custer county the results of whose 
operations render a good account of husban- 
dry, is George J. Pelkey, who came here in 
1891. He was born in Iowa, January 27, 
1868, and is a son of Joseph and Alary (Ar- 
thur) Pelkey. 

The parents of Mr. Pelkey were born and 
reared in Canada, where their marriage was 
solemnized, and shortly afterward they re- 
removed to Iowa, where for several years 
Mr. Pelkey was engaged in farm enterprise, 
as was he later in Polk county, Nebraska. He 
finally came with his family to Custer county 
and settled on a homestead. He passed the 
remainder of his life in this county and his 
death occurred in Broken Bow, his wife hav- 
ing passed the closing period of her life in 
the home of her daughter Addie. the wife of 
Melvin A. Gibbs, of this county. Joseph and 
Mary ( .-^rthur ) Pelkey were faithful com- 
municants of the Catholic church. Of their 
nine children five are living- — Addie. who is 
the wife of Melvin A. Gibbs. a proseprous 
fanner of Custer county ; Ranie, who works 
for her brother George J. ; Bert, who is a 
farmer of W'essington Springs. South Dakota ; 
George J., who is the subject of this review ; 
and Martin, who is a farmer in Colorado. 
Joseph Pelkey was a Democrat in politics, but 
had no desire for political activity or public 
office, being content to confine himself to his 
productive service in connection with farm 
industry. 

George J. Pelkey was a child at the time 
when his parents came to Polk county, Ne- 
braska, and there he obtained his early edu- 
cational training in the public schools. He 
adopted farming as his life work when he 
came of age. and was but twenty-three years 
old when he located in Custer county, here 
securing a tree claim. Later he also took up 
a homestead, and he still owns these two 
properties, to which he has added until he has 
480 acres of productive and valuable land, 
on which he carries on mixed farming and 
stock-raising. Beginning at the bottom, with- 
out assistance, he has worked his way to a 



recognized position of substantiality, and has 
well earned the respect and esteem in which 
he is held by his fellow citizens. The primi- 
tive buildings which were his only improve- 
ments during the early days, have given way 
to better structures, his buildings now in- 
cluding a large concrete house, and the other 
farm buildings being proportionately commo- 
dious and substantial. 

In 1890 Mr. Pelkey married Miss .\lthea 
Rusk, who was born in Knox counU". Illinois, 
a daughter of David and Catherine ( McDer- 
mott ) Rusk, the former a native of Indiana 
and the latter of New York. The marriage 
of the parents occurred in Illinois, where Mr. 
Rusk followed the trade of miller until his 
death, in 1884. following which Mrs. Rusk 
came to Nebraska and settled on the home- 
stead upon which she directed farming op- 
erations until her retirement to Broken Bow. 
There were six children in the Rusk family, 
of whom three are living — Ed, who is en- 
gaged in the restaurant business at Arnold, 
Nebraska : Anna, who is the wife of L. M. 
Pickett, a farmer of Custer county ; and Althea, 
who is the wife of George J. PeHtey. of 
this review. Mr. and Mrs. Pelkey have one 
son: Elwood. who married lone Russom, 
daughter of G. R. Russom, a pioneer of Cus- 
ter county. 

Mr. Pelkey is a Democrat in his political 
affiliations and both he and his wife are active 
members of the Grange, in which Mrs. Pelkey 
is master of the local organization. 



FRANK LILES. — A settler of Custer 
county in the year 1886, Frank Liles finds him- 
self, after the passage of thirty-six years, the 
jiossessor of a handsome home and a com- 
fortable income, of the respect and confidence 
of the people in whose midst he has lived so 
long, and of a position in the community that 
argues well for his integrity as a business 
man and his probity and public spirit as a 
citizen. He is now living in semi-retirement 
at Callaway, but is still accounted an active 
factor in the life of the locality, where he 
has done much to advance the general welfare. 

Mr. Liles was born at Rock Island. Illinois, 
December 15. 1871. and is a son of James W. 
and Marguerite ( Smith) Liles. In the Prairie 
state, his father fol'owed farming throughout 
the greater part of his life, and was known 
as an industrious and re'.iable citizen, he and 
his wife having been devout members of the 
Evangelical church. Frank was the fourth 
in order of birth of their children, his four 
sisters being: Ella, the wife of Carl Jepson ; 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



743 



Laura, the wife of Frank Chase ; Emma, the 
wife of Charles Conley ; and Belle, the wife 
of Jepsen Clark. In 1886 the parents moved 
with their family to Custer county, the family 
locating- on a property about twelve miles east 
of Callaway, on the South Loup river. At 
that time Frank Liles was still a lad, and his 
education, started in Illinois, was completed 
here in the district schools. He was brought 
up to habits of industry and honesty, and 
carefully instructed in the art of farming, his 
first-earned money being secured for keeping 
his rows straight while dropping corn with a 
corn-planter. When he became of age he 
adopted farming as his own vocation, and he 
followed this for a number of years, being an 
extensive operator as an agriculturist and 
stock-raiser. Several years ago he practically 
retired from active affairs and settled in a 
beautiful home adjoining Callaway. His at- 
tractive residence is surrounded by twenty-five 
acres, all in a high state of cultivation. Mr. 
Liles had practically given up operations of 
a large nature, but the country's need of food 
products found him ready to do his part, and 
he is at present leasing sixty-five acres, which 
he is devoting to the growing of corn. Mr. 
Liles is one of his community's progressive 
and enterprising men and has loyally sup- 
ported all movements that have promised to 
benefit the community or its people. He has 
improved his land both practically and with 
a view to appearance, and in other ways has 
contributed to the upbuilding of the vicinity 
of Callaway. He has not sought public office, 
preferring the quiet life of his suburban home 
to the doubtful honors of the political arena. 
Mr. Liles was married June 4, 1896, at 
Carthage, IMissouri, to Miss Lenora Leggett, 
daughter of Thomas N. and Rachel ( Met- 
calf) Leggett, members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, and well known residents 
of Carthage, the father having been a native 
of West Virginia. The surviving brothers 
and sisters of Mrs. Liles are John W., Sher- 
man A., 'Mattie (the wife of Thomas Led- 
hetter), Dora (the wife of James Rodgers), 
Charles B., and Thomas H. Mr. and Mrs. 
Liles are the parents of four children ; Her- 
bert W., who is clerk in a meat market at 
Callaway, and who remains at the parental 
home, celebrated his twenty-first birthday an- 
niversary in 1918 ; Walter W. resides at home 
and assists his father in the work of the home 
farm ; Inez R. is teaching school ; and Harry 
A. is a student of the eighth grade in the Cal- 
laway public schools. 



VACLAV KLUNA. — The career of Vac- 
lav Kluna in Custer county was one of con- 
tinuous agricultural activity from the time of 
his arrival here in 1900 until his retirement 
to his home at Comstock, in 1916. He has 
been a resident of Nebraska since 1884, hav- 
ing carried on farming on a large tract in 
Valley county until his arrival in Custer 
county, and in each community in which he 
has resided he established a reputation for in- 
dustry, capability, .and integrity. 

Mr. Kluna is a Bohemian by nativity, and 
was born January 25, 1857, a son of Martin 
and Barbara (Kara) Kluna. His parents came 
to the United States with their children in 
June, 1877, and settled in Arkansas, where the 
father carried on farming, near Dardanelle. 
There his death occurred, in the faith of the 
Catholic church, of which he and his wife 
were lifelong members. Following his de- 
mise, his widow, with her son John, went to 
Omaha, but Vaclav Kluna came to Pawnee 
county. He had been educated in the schools 
of his native country, had come to America as 
a young man of twenty years, and all his train- 
ing had been along agricultural lines. After 
two years in Pawnee county he went to Oma- 
ha, where he was joined by his brother John 
and a number of friends, thus making 
up a small party which traveled together to 
Valley county, which was at that time still un- 
developed territory. Mr. Kluna located on a 
homestead, March 17, 1884, and settled down 
to the pursuits of farming and raising stock, 
vocations for whi:h he showed great aptitude, 
and in which he gained success through hard 
and industrious etTort. careful management, 
and skilled use of modem methods in soil 
treatment. In 1900 Mr. Kluna disposed of 
his \'alley county land and came to Custer 
county, where he continued to farm and raise 
stock until his retirement, in 1916, here dupli- 
cating the success that he had attained in his 
former locality. He is still the owner of 480 
acres of valuable Custer county land, and in 
addition has 1,440 acres in Perkins county, 
the latter now in its developing stages of im- 
provement. As a citizen Mr. Kluna has fully 
lived up to his responsibilities and has been 
a supporting factor in movements which have 
benefited the locality. In addition to his 
brother John, who still resides in Valley 
county, ISlr. Kluna has another brother, Jo- 
seph, who is living in Texas. Two other chil- 
dren, of his parents are now deceased. 

At Omaha, June 22, 1886, Mr. Kluna mar- 
ried Miss Mary Slaba, and they have had six 
children, of whom four are living : One child 



744 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



died in infancy; Vaclav, Jr., born August 
10, 1888, died December ^6, 1912; Joseph, 
born September 6, 1889, married Emma \ o- 
dehnal and they reside five miles northeast 
of Comstock; Marie, born March 21, 1892, 
is the wife of Joseph Klapal, a farmer living 
five miles east of Sargent; Annie, born No- 
vember 5, 1893, is single and resides on the 
home farm with her brother ; and Anton, who 
was born May 4, 1895. is single and is oper- 
ating the farm property of his father. 



FRANK M. CURRIE was born April 29, 
1859, on a farm in Fowler township, Trumbull 
county, Ohio. His parents were both born in 
Scotland, and immigrated to that part of Ohio 
before their marriage, about 1847. His fa- 
ther's name was Robert Currie, and his 
mother's maiden name was Janette Murdoch. 
They were married in 1853, and settled on 
the fifty-acre farm where they reared a family 
of four children — John H. Currie and Mar- 
garet M. Currie, now residing at liradshaw, 
Nebraska: Frank M. Currie; and Mrs. Agnes 
Campbell, residing at Cortland, Ohio. 

Frank M. Currie received his early educa- 
tion in the public schools. At the age of nine- 
teen he became a teacher, in this way earning 
sufficient money to pay his expenses for one 
year at Grand River Institute, Austinburg, 
Ohio, where he prepared for college. In the 
fall of 1880 he entered Alleghany College, 
from which institution he was graduated, with 
the degree of liachelor of Arts, in June, 1884. 
In the autumn of 1884 he left the old home in 
Ohio and came to Syracuse, Nebraska, cross- 
ing the Missouri river at Nebraska City, on 
a ferry boat. 

He earned his first money in the state by 
l)itching hay for Eph Hartman. He received 
for this work a dollar a day, and boarded him- 
self. Later on he secured a position as prin- 
cipal of the school at Dunbar, Nebraska; at 
that time the school had but one teacher Ije- 
sides himself. 

August 20th. 1885. Mr. Currie returned to 
his old home in Ohio and married Etha L. 
Logan. They came immediately to Papillion, 
Nebraska, where Mr. Currie was principal of 
the public schools for a period of four years. 
During their residence in Papillion. two chil- 
dren were lx)rn — Claude A. Currie. at present 
residing on a ranch in Cherry county. Ne- 
braska ; and Keo. at present doing Red Cross 
search work, hunting for missing soldiers in 
France. In 1890 an epidemic of typhoid fever 
visited Sargent. Nebraska, and among the vic- 
tims of that dread diseases was Etha L. Currie. 



the wife of F. M. Currie. In 1892 he was 
married to Keokee Logan, at Burghill, Ohio. 
They have one child. Lilas Currie. who is at 
present living at home with her parents. 

In 1889 the family removed to Sargent. Ne- 
braska, where Mr. Currie became the editor 
of the Sargent Times. This was one of the 
many ventures established in the new part of 
Nebraska for the purpose of the revenues de- 
rived from the publication of final proof no- 
tices, and for the further purpose of boosting 
the new country. However, the venture was 
not entirely voluntary on Mr. Currie's part, 
for the reason that the paper came into his 
hands as the result of a loan to a friend who 
happened to be in the newspaper business. A 
series of crop failures and a number of years 
of depression greatly reduced the income from 
the newspaper, and in order to make a living. 
Mr. Currie applied for and was elected to the 
position of superintendent of the city schools 
of Broken Bow. in the fall of 1894— 'that ter- 
rible year when nothing was raised in Custer 
county, and when thousands of the early set- 
tlers abandoned their homesteads in utter dis- 
couragement. 

He held the position of superintendent until 
the spring of 1897. His ancestors as far back 
as any knowledge of them is obtainable had 
been farmers and stock-raisers, and he had al- 
ways had a desire to enter into the cattle busi- 
ness. I« the spring of 1897 he formed what 
was known as the Jewel Cattle Company, a 
corporation composed largely of his old friends 
in Ohio. It had a capital stock of $20,000. and 
began operations in the Douglas Grove pre- 
cinct of Custer county, having a ranch on the 
Calamus river in Loup county. 

This corporation was of short-lived exist- 
ence — Mr. Currie purchasing the interests of 
the other stockholders and paying $1.25 a share 
for the stock after the company had l^een in 
operation one year. He continued in the cattle 
business on his own account until 1903, when 
he formed the Kinsman Cattle Company, with 
a capital stock of $50,000. This company pur- 
chased 4.000 acres of land, eighteen miles 
northeast of Broken Bow. and had its head- 
quarters in Sargent. 

.\bout a year later he organized the Buck- 
eve Cattle Company, and purchased 5,600 acres 
of land, eighteen miles southeast of Broken 
Bow. He was manager of these two com- 
panies for a period of three years. The Buck- 
eve Cattle Company sold its interests at a 
handsome profit, and he severed his connec- 
tions with the Kinsman Cattle Comjiany. 

In the year 1907. the Maine and Nebraska 
Mining Company was formed by B. F. Young, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



745 




Frank M. Currie 



746 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



of Callaway, Nebraska, and parties residing in 
Maine. The contract was given to Mr. Currie 
to develop the mining property of this com- 
pany, which was situated in the state of 
Guerrero, Mexico. This contract called for 
the development of the mining property, the 
building of two or three miles oi railroad, and 
the installation of mining machinery. This 
work was by far the most strenuous and the 
largest undertaking ever engaged in by the 
subject of this sketch. It called for the invest- 
ment of a ciuarter of a million dollars, and 
was undertaken and carried to a successful 
completion — ■ only to be lost by the unfortu- 
nate political conditions of Mexico. 

In 1902 Mr. Currie, together with Frank H. 
Young, now deceased, H. Lomax, H. B. An- 
drews, also deceased, and Alpha Alorgan, or- 
ganized the Custer National Bank, in which 
Mr. Currie was director for a number of years. 
This institution has changed its name to the 
Custer State Bank, and is one of the substan- 
tial banking houses of the county. 

In the year 1900 the same parties purchased 
the Farmers & Merchants Bank and the Custer 
County Bank, located at Sargent, Nebraska. 
These two banks were consolidated, retaining 
the name and charter of the Custer County 
Bank, which was later changed to the First 
National Bank of Sargent, later becoming the 
Sargent State Bank, and is still one of the 
substantial financial institutions of Custer 
county. 

After his return from Mexico Mr. Currie 
again engaged in the stock business, and in this 
connection he was a resident of Blaine county 
for three or four years. In the fall of 1917, 
in company with his son, Claude A.. James Lo- 
max, Clifford' Lomax, and Carl Jeffords, of 
Broken Bow, he purchased what was known 
as the Cross L Ranch, in Cherry county. This 
ranch is one of the largest and best equipped 
ranches in the state, producing annually about 
5.000 tons of hay: consisting of 13,0(X) acres 
of deeded land, 7,000 acres of leased land, and 
a permit for the pasturage of 30.000 acres on 
the Niobrara forest reserve. 

In the year 1918 this ranch produced and 
shipped to'market 1.600.000 pound of beef, 25,- 
000 pounds of pork, and seventy-five tons of 
potatoes. Carl Jeffords and Clifford Lomax 
were called to the colors, and the active man- 
agement and control rested on Mr. Currie. On 
the return of these young men from service 
Mr. Currie resignicd his active management of 
the ranch, and has accepted the presidency of 
the Missouri \'alley Cattle Loan Company, a 
corporation formed in Omaha, with a capital 



stock of two million dollars, for the purpose 
of handling loans on cattle in Nebraska, Wyo- 
ming, Colorado, and Montana, which position 
he now holds. 

In politics Mr. Currie has always been a 
Republican, and has taken an active citizen's 
interest in public aft'airs, although he has never 
sought a public office. In 1898 he was nomi- 
nated as a Republican candidate for the office 
of state senator, to represent the Twenty-third 
senatorial district, composed of Custer, X'alley, 
Loup, and Blaine counties. For a number of 
years this district had been overwhelmingly 
Populist and Democratic, and had regularly 
elected their candidate by fusion of these two 
parties. It seemed hopeless to undertake a 
campaign, but owing to a change in public 
sentiment,' and partly due to Mr. Currie's 
large and extensive acquaintance in the dis- 
trict and personal popularity, he was elected 
by a considerable majority. 

.Again, in the autumn of 1900, he was ten- 
dered the nomination, at a convention held in 
Sargent. By this time the trend of public 
sentiment had drifted back to the Republican 
party and practically the entire Republican 
ticket was elected. On his return to the sen- 
ate he found that eight out of the thirty-three 
members who had sat with him two years be- 
fore had been returned. Seven of these came to 
him and volunteered their support to him for 
the L'nited States senate. This substantial 
mark of respect and confidence was accepted 
in the spirit in which it was oft'ered, and Mr. 
Currie became a candidate for the L^nited 
States senate. 

At this time Nebraska was ejecting two 
L^nited States senators — one of them to fill 
the unexpired term of Senator Hayward, who 
had been elected at the previous session, but 
who was removed by death before he under- 
took the duties of his office. The other was 
to succeed John M. Thurston, whose term 
had expired. A long and serious deadlock 
occurred in the election. The candidates in 
this memorable fight were Edward Rosewater 
and George D. ^leiklejohn. Lorenzo Crounse 
and F. M. Currie for the long term, or as it 
was commonly expressed at that time, for the 
North Platte country: and I). E. Thompson 
and various other minor candidates for the 
short term, or South Platte country. 

During all of this memorable struggle Mr. 
Currie was one of the leading candidates. Af- 
ter a long and weary deadlix'k. when it seemed 
that the legislature must adjourn without an 
election, the deadlock was broken, and Charles 
H. Dietrich, of Hastings, was elected for the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



747 



short term, or South Platte country, and 
Joseph H. Millard for the long term, or North 
Platte. 

In the following spring, at a convention 
held at Crawford, Nebraska, Mr. Currie was 
one of the leading candidates for congress. 
In this contest, at which 186 ballots were cast, 
the candidates were Judge H. M. Grimes, of 
North Platte ; Hon. M. P. Kinkaid, of O'Neill ; 
F. M. Currie, of Broken Bow ; and A. E. 
Cady, of St. Paul, Nebraska. At one time Mr. 
Currie lacked only six votes of receiving the 
nomination, but in the end the successful candi- 
date was ]\I. P. Kinkaid, who was nominated 
and triumphantly elected at the next election, 
and who has held the office ever since. 

In the presidential campaign of 1912 Mr. 
Currie was chairman of the Republican state 
convention, and in 1916 he was elected as a 
delegate-at-large to the Republican national 
convention, in Chicago, where he was a sup- 
porter of Charles E. Hughes, who was nomi- 
nated for the presidency. 

In 1906 Mr. Currie purchased the Inde- 
pendent Telephone system of Custer county 
and adjacent counties, from J. E. Adamson. 
This system was greatly improved by the con- 
struction of substantial long distance tele- 
phone lines, by the complete rebuilding and 
reconstruction of the system of Broken Bow; 
and the building of what is one of the finest 
telephone buildings in the state of Nebraska. 
After the whole system had been made mod- 
ern, and rebuilt at an expense of about $30,- 
000. Mr. Currie sold his interest to the Bell 
Telephone Company. 

In 1911 Broken Bow found itself without 
an electric-light system. It had grown to be 
a city of 2,500 people, and was much in need 
of this improvement. Mr. Currie organized 
a company with ample funds, and in connec- 
tion with C. S. Martin, of Broken Bow, built 
the electric-light system which Broken Bow 
now has. From the beginning and up to the 
present time Mr. Currie has been president 
of this company. 

Mr. Currie is a thirty-second degree Mason 
and is affiliated also with the Independent Or- 
der of Odd Fellows, the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen, and the Modern Woodmen 
of America. He is recognized as one of the 
finished scholars of the state. He has a state 
reputation as an orator and in addition to his 
fine command of the English language he 
speaks both German and S'panish, the while 
he is known as a writer of exceptional ability. 



JOHN H. JOHNSON-MALM, who is one 
of the well satisfied farmers of Custer county, 
came to the United States when twenty-seven 
year of age, and through his industry and ex- 
ercise of good judgment, has acquired a fine 
property, has gained respect and consideration 
from his neighbors, and has comfortably 
reared a family of sons who, in their several 
ways, are reflecting credit upon the state of 
their nativity and upon their parents and 
friends. 

John Henry Johnson-Malm was born in 
Filipstad, Warmland, Sweden, March 6, 1859, 
one of a family of three sons and two daugh- 
ters born to John Eric and Louise Johnson. 

During his boyhood Mr. Johnson-Malm as- 
sisted his father and went to school. When 
twenty years old he went to Norway, where 
he worked four years in an apatite mine, the 
crystals being a calcium phosphate fluoride, a 
source of phosphorus compounds, largely 
made use of in the fertilization of land. The 
work was hard, and danger attended it. Mr. 
Johnson-Malm returned then to Sweden, 
where he worked in the iron mines in West- 
manland for about four years, in the mean- 
while making plans to immigrate to the United 
States, where agricultural conditions were bet- 
ter and where it was possible to secure home- 
steads in some of the western states, with a 
reasonable expenditure. 

By 1886 Mr. Johnson-Malm was able to 
come to America and was accompanied by 
his young wife to whom he was married two 
weeks before sailing. They reached Custer 
county, Nebraska, safely, in December, and 
for the following time Mr. Johnson-Malm 
worked in North Platte and in the LTnion Paci- 
fic roundhouse. He prudently saved his money, 
and kept adding to his capital until, in 1889, 
he came to Custer county and rented land. 
Here he secured his homestead in 1890 — 
land situated in section 28, township 13, range 
2i — on which he has lived continuously ever 
since. He has made many improvements and 
now has one of the finest farms in this section 
of the country and has just cause to take 
pride in it. He carries on general farming 
and raises stock, and he has trained his sons 
in the business of farming. 

In November, 1886, Mr. Johnson-Malm was 
united in marriage to Miss Johanna M. An- 
derson, who was born in Grangarde, Dalarna, 
Sweden, a daughter of Peter and Maria C. 
(Olson) Anderson, both of Grangarde, 
Sweden, Seven sons have been born to Mr. 



"48 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



and Mrs. Johnson-Malm, namely: Adolph 
Eric Malm, who is a member of Company D, 
Fourth United States Infantry, and who is 
with the American Expeditionary Forces in 
France, having left the United States in 
March, 1918, and havingf been wounded in 
the right arm on October 21, 1918; Maurits 
Bruno iMalm, who left the United States in 
August, 1918, a member of Company B, 
Three Hundred and Forty-second M. G. B., 
American Expeditionary Forces ; Julius Albert 
Malm, who is a farmer in Custer county, and 
who was subject to draft call, in class 3-A ; 
Oscar Stefan Malm, who is a graduate of the 
Gothenburg high school and who is fariuing 
with his brother Julius Albert, on section 32, 
township 13, range 25 ; Carl Herman Malm, 
who is working his father's land on Oden- 
crantz Table; John Henry Malm, who helps 
his brother on the farm ; and Arthur Conrad 
Malm, who is yet in school. All of these boys 
were born on Cedar Farm, in section 28, 
township 13, range 25, Custer county. 

In a history of this kind, where records 
must be kept straight for the coming genera- 
tions of Johnson-Malms, it must be stated that 
the name "Malm" lias been added by the sub- 
ject of this sketch since coming to America 
— principally in order that his mail should 
not be confused with the mail of the numerous 
family of Johnsons living in Custer county, — 
and he laughingly says that he has been called 
"Malm" so much that there are few of his 
neighbors who know him by any other name. 
Mr. Johnson-^Ialm is well and favorably 
known in the community in which he lives, 
is a citizen who is loyal to the country of his 
adoption, and always ready to help any 
worthy cause that is for the betterment of the 
community in which he lives. He believes 
that the more a man knows about his own 
county and state, the better citizen he will 
become. 



CHARLES MATZ. — One of the sturdy 
pioneers of the South Loup region who gave 
a practical demonstration of what thrift and 
energy can do within the range of a short 
life-tiirie, was the late Charles Matz, who 
made a name and monument for himself in 
the region of his operations. 

Mr. Matz was horn September 13. 1858. 
in Ohio, and died in Custer county, January 
20. 1916. He was a son of John and Dorothy 
(Tikle) Matz, fine people, who were strict ad- 
herents of the Baptist church. The father 
was a native of Germany and the mother was 
French. In their family were seven children. 



four of whom are now living — John, Gus- 
tavus A., Eliza Miller, and Ama Bonzo. The 
family lived on a farm and young Charles 
made himself generally useful, the while he 
attended the country school and acquired a 
fundamental education. He and his brothers 
rendered assistance to the family home by 
working for the neighbors, especially in the 
fall of the year, when corn husking was in 
order. They would husk corn for their neigh- 
bors and sometimes would go as far as forty 
miles from home in order to obtain the work. 

Charles ]\Iatz was married January 20, 
1884, in Scioto county. Ohio, to Miss Cath- 
erine Winter, of the saiue county. Mrs. Matz 
is a daughter of Frederick and Felicia ( Mag- 
net) Winter, both of whom were of French 
descent. lii the Winter family were ten chil- 
dren, six daughters and four sons. One son 
and one daughter are deceased. The sur\avors 
are Mary Nagel, Elizabeth Lenhart, Klotilda 
Thurman, Margaret E. Matz. Catherine Matz, 
Charles B., George, and Frank. The family 
belonged to the United Brethren church. 

The home which was made by Mr. and Mrs. 
Matz on their own initiative, proved an excel- 
lent one. L'nusually well provided with com- 
mon comforts and home-like arrangements, it 
has continued a splendid haven for their 
children and grandchildren. Of their children 
the following brief record is consistently 
given: Cora May is the wife of Walter Cox, 
a farmer living near Callaway, and they have 
three children, Mr. and Mrs. Cox being mem- 
bers of the Evangelical church. Walter Fred- 
eric, who married Elsie Huenefeld, is a young 
farmer and stockman living northwest of 
Oconto, where he owns and operates 1.100 
acres of land. Being in the selective draft he 
sold his stock and entered the military service 
of the government, and at the time of this 
writing he is with Company C, at Camp 
Dodge, Iowa. Anna Margaret died March 12, 
1913. John Wesley is at home helping his 
mother on the ranch. He owns 280 acres of 
good land. He is subject to military duty and 
is listed in class 3. Charles Wilbur also is 
at home, assisting on the mother's ranch. The 
draft exemption board placed him in class 2. 
Clara Dorothy is a student in the State Nor- 
mal School at Kearney. Nellie is at home 
with her mother. 

The father of these children, who arc now 
grown to hoTiorablc manhood and womanhood. 
came into Custer county in 1884 and located 
in section 20, townshii) 14, range 22. four 
miles south of Lodi. He landed here with 
three hundred dollars. He built a sod house, 
made other primitive improvements, obtained 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



749 



a few head of stock, and commenced business. 
Mrs. Matz was his able assistant in his efforts. 
While he broke the sod and looked after the 
stock, she raised chickens, milked cows, and 
sold butter and eggs, by which means she 
supplied the family larder, while the other re- 
sources of the farm went into additional live 
stock and other land. Thus operations were 
continued during the lifetime of Mr. Matz, 
and to-day his estate comprises 640 acres of 
extra fine land, a beautiful home, with every- 
thing on the fann in fine shape — indicating 
thrift and prospverity. 

His death occurred on the anniversary of 
his marriage — just thirty-two years from the 
day he stood at the marriage altar. He was 
a member of the Evangelical church, was 
widely known and highly regarded, and was 
a very devoted husband and father. His wife 
and two sons live on the home place and con- 
duct the farming operations so long directed 
bv the husband and father. 



BERT F. KIMBALL. — Of the younger 
generation of agriculturists carrying on oper- 
ations in Custer county, mention is due Bert 
Frank Kimball, whose progressiveness and in- 
dustry are rapidly bringing him into a favor- 
able position. He comes of an old, well known, 
and honored family of this cotmty, and was 
born here December 23. 1884, a son of William 
and Myra ( Bourne I Kimball. A more de- 
tailed account of the family will be found in 
the sketch of Harry C. Kimball, elsewhere in 
this work. 

The district schools of Custer county fur- 
nished the means for the education of Bert F. 
Kimball, and his early home training was all 
along agricultural lines, with his influences of 
the best, tending toward implanting in him the 
C|ualities of honesty and industry. When he 
entered upon his career he did so independent- 
ly, becoming a renter, which status he still 
holds. During the last six years he has rented 
his present property, a half-section of section 
10, township 39, from E. H. Burrows. In Janu- 
ary. 1918, he became a landed proprietor, when 
he bought a farm of 120 acres, lying southeast 
of Berwyn. but his activities thus far have 
been confined to the cultivation of his rented 
acreage. Mr. Kimball is an energetic, en- 
thusiastic, pushing man who believes firmly 
in progress and in the community where his 
home is made and where his o]>erations are 
centered. He has found from experience the 
value of modern methods and machinery, and 
while he does not discard the practically 
]iroven theories, he always welcomes innova- 



tions and is ready to give them a trial. This 
is the kind of labor that has resuhed in the 
accomplishment of advancing results. 

In February, 1907, Mr. Kimball was united 
in marriage with Miss Mabel House, also a 
member of an old and honored Custer county 
family. She was born here and is a daughter 
of Ernest and Ida (Sharp) House. Mr. 
House, who was a pioneer of this county, 
passed the greater part of his life in farming 
here, but is now a well-to-do resident of Okla- 
homa. Mr. and Mrs. Kimball are the parents 
of four children: Claude, born May 21, 1908; 
Arthur, born August 7, 1910; Genevieve, Dorn 
June 16, 1914; and Dorothea May, born ?iiay 
1, 1918. Mr. and Mrs. Kimball are members 
of the Christian church. He is a member of 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in 
which he has filled several of the chairs, and 
is afiiliated also with the Modern Woodmen of 
America and the Royal Highlanders. In all 
of these organizations he has numerous 
friends. He is independent as to politics, and 
has been too busy with his agricultural labors 
to take other than a good citizen's interest in 
public matters. 



GEORGE A. RUSSOM. — Living in the 
vicinity of Broken Bow, on a farm belonging 
to his father, the subject of this sketch is con- 
ducting operations which entitle him to be 
classed both as a farmer and dairyman, and 
especially is he entitled to all the honors to 
be bestowed in these days upon food pro- 
ducers. 

George A. Russom is a native of Custer 
county and was born April 17, 1886. He is 
a son of George R. and Mary J. (Pope) Rus- 
som, sterling citizens who are well known in 
the community. The father was bom in North 
Carolina and the mother in Indiana. For fur- 
ther data concerning the family, reference may 
be made to the biography of George R. Rus- 
som On other pages of this volume. 

George A. Russom ran much the same 
course as did other Custer county lads, re- 
ceived the same educational advantages, and 
grew to manhood under the same conditions 
that are so many times detailed in these col- 
umns. Here too he began his operations as 
a farmer and stockman, which lines of enter- 
prise to-day do him splendid service. 

September 30, 1908. at Hillsdale, Michigan, 
Mr. Russom wedded Virginia Lamoreaux, 
who was born in the state of New York, a 
daughter of Pater R. and Edith H. (Cole) 
Lamoreaux. both New York people. 

The home place of George A. Russom is 



750 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



one of the farms belonging to his father, and 
into the family circle have come two children 
— Raymond, seven years of age (1918j, and 
Richard, four years of age. The farm con- 
sists of 250 acres and it is devoted to general 
farming. Aside from raising grain and alfalfa 
^Ir. Russom milks an average of eight cows 
the year round, and from this source he re- 
ceives an average of forty dollare a month. He 
also tries to produce from 100 to 125 hogs 
each year. Fifty-five acres have been seeded 
to fall wheat and thirty acres to rye, in order 
that there may be breadstuffs produced for the 
country and the world during these strenuous 
times. 

Mr. Russom was in the draft for service in 
the great world war, which came to a close 
before he was called to arms. He is a Demo- 
crat in politics and the family belong to the 
Baptist church. 

The first money earned by young George 
A. Russom was made by pulling a hand drill- 
plow while planting beans. For this he re- 
ceived twenty-five cents, the foundation quar- 
ter-dollar of his present possessions. Mr. 
Russom is possessed of a practical turn of 
thought and action, and all of his farming 
operations are conducted in the common-sense, 
practical way that assures success. He is thus 
to be classified as a practical Custer county 
farmer of the second generation. 



CHARLES D. BRAGG, whose business 
interests at Comstock are of a large and im- 
portant character, is one of the men whose ca- 
reers have been started in the realm of agri- 
culture, but whose success has come through 
commercial avenues of activity. He has re- 
sided in Custer county since 1898, and during 
the twenty years of his residence here has 
been engaged in general merchandising for 
eighteen years, in addition to which, as a mem- 
ber of the firm of Wescott, Gibbons & Bragg, 
he is interested in an electric theatre and the 
city electric-lighting plant. 

Mr. Bragg was born in Green county, Wis- 
consin, March 10, 1856, a son of Thomas J. 
and Emily J. ( Noble) Bragg. His father 
was born in Fauquier county. \'irginia, in 
1813, and in 1S35 went to Wisconsin and set- 
tled on a homestead in Green county. There 
he continued to be engaged in agricultural 
pursuits until the time of his retirement, when 
he moved to Monroe and settled down to a 
life of quiet and ease. He lived to the re- 
markable age of ninety-five years, his death 
occurring in June, 1908. Mrs. Bragg, who 
was a native of Kentucky, also attained ad- 



vanced age, passing away in 1905, when she 
was eighty-four years old. ^Ir. Bragg was 
a man of sterling character, good business 
ability and marked industry, and he was in- 
fluential in the Democratic party councils in 
his locality. He and Mrs. Bragg were the 
parents of five children : W. T., a retired 
resident and merchant of Monroe, Wisconsin, 
wlio married Mary Butterfield ; Thomas J., 
who died at Seattle, Washington, about 1910; 
Alice A., of Monroe, Wisconsin, the widow 
of the late Archibald Glasscott, a former mer- 
chant ; Emma C, the wife of R. D. Gorham, a 
druggist and real-estate operator of Monroe; 
and Charles D., of this review. 

Charles D. Bragg was educated in the com- 
mon schools of Monroe, Wisconsin, and was 
variously engaged, principally in farming, in 
that locality until 1898, when he brought his 
family to Custer county and purchased a farm, 
on which he made his home for two years. He 
then disposed of his interests and lo:ated at 
Comstock, buying an interest in an established 
general merchandise business and becoming 
thereby a member of the firm of Wescott, Gib- 
bon & Bragg. This concern has a modern es- 
tablishment in every way and carries a full 
line of general merchandise, catering to a pat- 
ronage which extends for miles all around 
this vicinity. An excellent trade has been de- 
veloped and held through a policy of honest 
and honorable treatment, careful selection of 
high-grade stock, and the offering of mod- 
erate prices, and Mr. Bragg has in many ways 
proven himself a most capable business man. 
In addition the firm owns the city electric- 
lighting plant and an electric theatre, both of 
which have proven profitable ventures. Mr. 
Bragg is a Democrat. He belongs to the Ma- 
sonic lodge at Monroe, Wisconsin. 

In June, 1882, Mr. Bragg was united in 
marriage, at Monroe, Wisconsin, to Eva M. 
Wescott, daughter of Walter S. and Thankful 
( Cleveland i Wescott, the former born at 
Wethersfield, Wyoming county. New York, in 
1828. and the latter at Emden, Maine. Mr. 
Wescott, the youngest of six children, moved 
at the age of fourteen years to Green county, 
Wisconsin, the family traveling the entire dis- 
tance by wagon. He had received a good 
country-school education, and an especially 
retentive memory enabled him to acquire a 
better education than that of the average per- 
son at that time. He spent much of his time 
in reading news of the day and this equipped 
him with the ability to converse fluently upon 
all topics of importance. His father being a 
Democrat politically, he had a natural bent 
and inclination in that direction, and eventu- 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



rsi 




Walter S. Wescott 



/:>l 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



ally became very prominent politically as a 
Democrat, but with the advent of the Re- 
publican party he allied himself with that or- 
ganization. In 1859 he was elected to the 
lower house of the Wisconsin legislature, the 
assembly, and he was re-elected in 1860. In 
1863 he was elected to the state senate, and 
served two years. He was a delegate to the 
national convention that nominated .\braham 
Lincoln for the presidency. In 1880 Mr. Wes- 
cott located on a ranch near Oak Grove, Cus- 
ter county, Nebraska, bringing 1. 000 head of 
cattle, but that was one of the exceptionally 
hard winters and he had the misfortune to lose 
all but sixty-seven head. He at once brought 
1.000 head more, and in 1886 he made a per- 
manent abiding place here, locating near Corn- 
stock. He established a bank, a general store, 
and a village called Wescott. but this latter 
was abandoned at the time of the advent of 
the railroad, which came on the east side of 
the river, while the village was situated on 
the west side. Mr. Wescott thereupon moved 
his general merchandise store to the new vil- 
lage of Comstock, where he retired from active 
business in 1903, placing the management of 
his large interests in the hands of his son-in- 
law. E. C. Gibbons. He was prominent in 
politics, having always retained his interest 
therein, but never held office in Custer county. 
His death occurred March ^1, 1908. and Mrs. 
Wescott also died in Comstock, where she 
was summoned to eternal rest on the 18th of 
April, 1916. 



GILBERT II. HUGHES. — .Another citi- 
zen of whom .Arnold may well be proud l)e- 
cause of his activities in the community and 
his contribution to the stock wealth and agri- 
cultural products of the county is Gilbert H. 
Hughes, who landed on the earthly planet 
March 7, 1868, in Grundy county. ]\Iissouri. 
He is a son of I^uis O. and Malinda A. 
( Craig ) Hughes. lx>th of whom were native 
\'irginians. He is a member of a family of 
eight children, six of whom reached maturity 
— James F. of Gilford. Missouri; Gilbert H., 
of this review ; Owen H., of Coffey, Missouri: 
Mrs. Etta M. Woody, of Gallatin. Missouri; 
Mrs. Adeline Dennis, of Trenton, Missouri ; 
and Os;ar, deceased. In religious matters the 
father belonged to the Christian church while 
the mother was a faithful, devoted supporter 
of the Baptist church. 

Gilbert H. Hughes spent his early years 
under the parental roof. .Vt the age of 
twelve, however, he went to work for him- 
self. His first wages, which he earne;l by 



working for his uncle, amounted to twenty- 
five cents a day. The first job that he tackled 
was that of bunching wheat with a wooden 
rake, this work being done behind a cradler 
who cut the grain in the old-fashioned way. 
A little later he secured a job at eight dollars 
a month and still later his wages were in- 
creased to twelve dollars and then to fifteen 
dollars a month. He gave considerable atten- 
tion to well digging, which paid him better than 
working by the month. With his face toward 
the west, he pulled up his Missouri stakes and 
in 1892 he found himself in .\mold, Cust.^r 
county, Nebraska. One year later he led one 
of the fair daughters of Custer county to the 
marriage altar. The bride was Miss Minnie 
Robinson, daughter of William and Ellen 
Robinson, a splendid couple, of Irish nativity. 
William Robinson was one of the sterling pio- 
neers of Custer county, upon whose soil he 
first made his appearance in 1883, in which 
year he walked a distance of seventy-five miles, 
from Le.xington to the place where he located 
his first claim. Here he preceded his family 
by about two and one-half months, and as tlie 
mails from and to this pioneer county were 
not very regular at that time his wife became 
very an.xious about him. fearing that he had 
been slain by Indians. Finally, with slight 
realization of the privations and other hard- 
ships that were in store for the family in the 
pioneer community, Mrs. Robinson joined her 
liusband in Custer county. She and her chil- 
dren arrived at Cozad about two days before 
her husband arrived at that village, to which 
he came for supplies and lumber, as well as 
to meet his family. He had not shaved for 
more than two months and his children failed 
to recognize the "hairy man" as their father. 
^^'ith his wife and children Mr. Robinson set 
forth for the little box house he had erected 
on his claim, as a prerequisite in retaining the 
land, and as a recent prairie fire had swept 
the country Mrs. Robinson could not but feel 
that she could scarcely imagine a more desolate 
and discouraging landscape. The family party 
finally arrived at Arnold, which now thriving 
town was then represented only by a dugout 
on the bank of the South Loud river. This 
dugout was occupied by R. E. .-Xllen. who 
utilized the same as a store and postoffice, 
cracker lx>xes being used as the receptacles for 
mail. .After obtaining their mail at this fron- 
tier postoffice Mr. Robinson and his family 
started onward for his claim and the modest 
home he had there provided. The children 
began to Icxik about for the so-called town of 
.Arnold, and they could hardly believe their 
father when he told them that about one and 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



753 



one-half miles back they had passed through 
the "town." Mr. and Airs. Robinson were the 
parents of two sons and five daughters — Mrs. 
Gilbert H. Hughes, Airs. Eliza Alclsaac, Airs. 
Mattie Wayland (deceased), Mrs. Hattie 
Wayland, Henry, Mrs. Fannie McDonald, 
and John. 

From the time of their marriage Air. and 
Airs. Hughes have maintained a home of com- 
fort and hospitality, and with them remains 
their only child. Miss Gladys, who is popular 
in "the representative social circles of the com- 
munity. After their marriage they returned 
to Grundy county, Alissouri, where they visited 
about four months, and upon coming again 
to Custer county Air. Hughes took a home- 
stead claim one mile west and six miles north 
of Arnold. This was the family home for 
twenty years, and there Air. Hughes conducted 
all kinds of stock operations and general farm- 
ing on a prolific scale. He and his wife now 
own 800 acres of land, and in addition to 
this landed and farn^ing interest they have a 
fine property in Arnold, where they make their 
home and, "just to occupy spare time," Air. 
Hughes serves the local public in the capacity 
of town marshal, constable, and water com- 
missioner. He has things pretty mu:h his 
own way. He claims that if any of the citi- 
zens do not walk to suit him he can arrest 
them and if them become too obstreperous, 
he can turn the city water on them. Without 
levity, and in all candor. Air. Hughes is ren- 
dering his community a good service and the 
resf>ect in which he and his good wife are 
held attests the appreciation of the neighbors. 



AIADISON AI. STOUFFER. — Whi'.e he 
is comparatively a newcomer to Custer county, 
Aladison AI. Stouffer has already given prom- 
ise of becoming one of his community's most 
useful and substantial citizens, and of adding 
to the reputation which he established in tlie 
trade of carpentry and the vocation of farm- 
ing in other parts of the state. He is now 
the owner of a good farming property, on 
which he has been carrying on O'perations 
since February, 1918, and the appearance of 
which indicates that he is a man thoroughly 
informed as to his business. 

Air. Stouflfer was born in Pennsylvania, Jan- 
uary 1, 1859, and is a son of Samuel and Cath- 
erine (S';hall) Stouffer. He is one of a fam- 
ily of ten children, of whom those now living 
are: James, born in Alarch. 1854. is ^ widower 
and is living in retirement at Kittanning, 
Pennsylvania: Aladison AI. is the subject of 
this review: William, born in 1861, is a resi- 



dent of Ford City, Pennsylvania ; Samuel, born 
in Alarch, 1864, is now residing at Kittanning; 
Henry, born in September, 1866, aiso is a 
resident of Kittanning; and Isaiah, born in 
September, 1870, is a resident of AlcGrann, 
Pennsylvania. 

Aladison AI. StoufTer received his education 
in the public schools of Kittanning, Pennsyl- 
vania, and as a youth learned the trade of 
carpentry, which he followed as an appren- 
tice and later as a journeyman for many years 
before embarking in business on his own ac- 
count. He was variously engaged and vari- 
ously located until 1911, when he turned his 
attention to agricultural pursuits, investing his 
holdings in a property in Sherman county, 
Nebraska, where he continued operations until 
February, 1918. when he came to his present 
home in Custer county. Here he has good 
buildings and other modern improvements, and 
many changes have been made even since the 
time of his arrival. Mr. StouiTer is a Demo- 
crat, but has never aspired to office of any kind. 
His religious affiliation is with the Church of 
God. 

On Augnst 4, 1881, Air. Stouffer was united 
in marriage to Aliss Julia Lemmon, and to 
this union there have been born eight children, 
of whom four are living, as follows : Robert 
A., born June 4, 1882, is a carpenter and farm- 
er and is his father's associate in his interests ; 
Clarence, who was born June 6, 1884, and who 
is a farmer of Holbrook, Nebraska, married 
Nellie Waits : John, who was born February 
23, 1887, and who is a farmer near Ulysses, 
Nebraska, married Zilla Wynegar ; and Will- 
iam H., who was bom October 17 . 1892, 
and who formerly was editor of the Plcasanton 
Independent, at Pleasanton. Buffalo county, 
Nebraska, joined General Pershing's command 
on its expedition into Alexico, received his 
honorable discharge, and when this country 
fleclared war with Germany enlisted in Ma- 
chine Gun Company, Sixteenth United States 
Infantry, with which command he is "S'ome- 
where in France" at the time of this writing. 



CHARLES E. TAYLOR, AI.D. — Among 
the honored professional men of Custer county 
none is more worthy of being renresented 
in its annals than Dr. Charles E. Taylor, a 
leading physician and surgeon of Sargent. For 
fourteen years he has lived within the county's 
borders, during which time he has been a 
prominent factor in its social, civic, and pro- 
fessional afl'airs. fairly earning an honorable 
reputation for straightforward dealings with 
his fellow citizens in such a degree as to make 



754 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



his name a synonym for professional capacity 
and correctness of morals. Doctor Taylor was 
born in Guthrie county. Iowa, April 28. 1872, 
and is a son of Edgar and Sarah (Williams) 
Taylor. 

Edgar Taylor was born in New York, where 
he was residing at the outbreak of the Civil 
war, and he enlisted in the Third New York 
Cavalry, with which he served four years, 
three months, and twelve days. His record 
was a splendid one, and he rose from private 
to sergeant, having been twice promoted on 
the battlefield, for bravery, and having sus- 
tained two sabre wounds and one gunshot 
wound. At the conclusion of the war he re- 
turned to New York, but shortly thereafter 
he accompanied his parents to Ashtabula, 
Ohio, where the parents died. He later moved 
to Guthrie county, Iowa, where he married 
Sarah Williams, a native of Kentucky, and 
they located on a farm. Mr. Taylor was a 
man of industry and ability and became one 
of the large stock-raisers of his community, 
but he disposed of some of his interests in 
Iowa in 1000 and came to Callaway. Cu.ster 
county. Nebraska, where he continued to be 
engaged in various operations until his re- 
tirement. He is a Republican in politics, and 
he and his wife are members of the Baptist 
church, which they attend at their present 
home locality, the town of Oconto. They are 
the parents of five children: Mrs. J. J. Doug- 
las, wife of a retired farmer of Callaway ; 
Mrs. B. V. Harshberger. a widow, of Oconto: 
}klrs. J. W. Ballard, who acts as stenographer 
to her husband, an attorney of Kimball, Ne- 
braska : Dr. Charles E., of this notice : and 
Mrs. W. \'. Mathews, wife of the president 
of an ( )maha bank. 

Charles E. Taylor attended the district 
schools of Guthrie county. Iowa, following 
which he spent several years in completing the 
course at the Woodbine (Iowa) Normal 
School. He was engaged in teaching for two 
years thereafter, but. becoming interested in 
medicine, he gave up his educational work and 
began studying his new profession. He com- 
]ileted his ])reparation in the medical college 
at Lincoln. Nebraska, where he was graduated 
with the class of 1905. in which year he began 
practice at Oconto. .After four years spent 
in that community he changed his field of ac- 
tivities to Sargent, and this has been his home 
and the scene of his professional labors and 
success to the jircsent time. Dr. Taylor has 
not ceased to be a student, but has taken post- 
graduate work at Chicago, at Des Moines, and 
at Rochester, Minnesota. He is a member of 
the Nebraska Eclectic Medical Society, keeps 



fully abreast of the advancements being made 
in his calling, and has attained a high place 
in the ranks of his vocation, having the com- 
plete confidence of a large and representative 
practice and the esteem and respect of his fel- 
low practitioners. He is prominent in Mason- 
ry, having attained Scottish Rite degrees and 
being also a member of Tangier Temple, 
Nobles of the Mystic Slirine. His political 
proclivities cause him to support the Repub- 
lican party. 

In 1907 Dr. Taylor was united in marriage 
to Miss Flora E. Marrs, who was born in 
Missouri, and who is a graduate of pharmacy 
at Fremont, Nebraska. While residing at 
Oconto, Dr. Taylor conducted a drug store, 
and prior to their marriage Mrs. Taylor acted 
as his pharmacist. They have no children. 
Mrs. Taylor is a member of the Methodist 
E])iscopal church and is actively interested in 
its work and movements. 



WILLIAM McDonald. — This brief re- 
view presents a young farmer who is widely 
known and who is a Canadian by birth. He 
was born in the Dominion of Canada in 1878 
and came to the United States in 1906. since 
which time he has ranked himself with the 
wideawake and aggressive young farmers. He 
is a son of Ranold and Katherine McDonald, 
both natives of the Dominion of Canada. The 
father is deceased but the mother is still living. 
at the age of seventy-five years. She con- 
tinues to maintain her home in the land of her 
nativity. In the parents' family were six chil- 
dren as follows: Jessie Morris, who lives in 
Boston ; William, who is the subject of this 
sketch: Duncan and Mary Ann. who are de- 
ceased: and Marcella and Martin, who live in 
Boston. The father was a saw-mill worker 
and quarryman by occupation. 

In the city of Boston the early activities 
of young William McDonald were staged. It 
wa.s there that he earned his first money, by 
driving an ice wagon. Since coming to Custer 
county, however, he has been enabled to make 
money somewhat faster. In this he has had 
the assistance of a good wife. for. in 1901. 
he led to the marriage altar Miss Fannie Rob- 
inson, a daughter of William and Ellen 
( Reedv ) Robinson, estimable Irish people. 
Tlie father died in 1906 at the age of sixty- 
nne years, and the mother is still living, at the 
age of seventy-two years. Mrs. McDonald's 
father was a .splenditl type of the indomitable 
pioneer spirits who made good in the west. 
W'hh practically nothing witli which to begin, 
he came to this countv in 1884 and home- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



steaded a quarter-section of good land, upon 
which he put splendid improvements. Mr. 
Robinson belonged to the Presbyterian church, 
was a member of the Mystic Legion, and was 
a Republican voter. His wife belongs to the 
Catholic church. In their family were seven 
children: Minnie Hughes lives in Arnold, 
where her husband is town marshal ; Eliza 
]\lclsaac is a nurse, in Arizona; Mattie Way- 
land is deceased: Hattie Wayland lives in 
Boston ; Henry is an electrician, living in Ari- 
zona : the sixth child in the family was ^Irs-. 
^McDonald : John lives on a farm in Iowa. 

The McDonalds have a half-section of land 
and rent 420 acres where they now live. They 
are hard-working, industrious, painstaking 
people and enjoy the respect and confidence 
of a large circle of friends. They are so;ially 
connected with the best circle in the commu- 
nity and are members of the Catholic church. 
They have two children — Ellen, aged four- 
teen years (1919), and Loyde, aged twelve 
years. Independent in politics, Mr. ]\IcDon- 
ald insists that it is his right to select his 
candidate when e.xercising his election fran- 
chise. 



JOE T.\LBOT, who belongs to the younger 
generation of representatives of the farming 
industry of Custer county, is showing judg- 
ment, skill, and good management in the op- 
eration of 290 acres of land near Berwyn. This 
property has been his home from boyhood, 
and since he has assumed its management he 
has attained results that mark him as one of 
the progressive and energetic young farmers 
of h's community. 

Mr. Talbot was born in Missouri, May 6, 
1896, and is a son of Benjamin and Minerva 
Helen (Evans) Talbot. His father was born 
in Illinois, in 1850, and there received his 
education and was reared to agricultural pur- 
suits. When still a young man he came to 
Butler county, Nebraska, where, in 1874, he 
was married to Minerva H. Evans, who was 
born in 18.V, in Wisconsin, a daughter of 
Sterling and Mary J. (McKnight) Evans, the 
former a native of West A'irginia and the lat- 
ter of Wisconsin. The parents of Mrs. Talbot 
were married in Wisconsin and in 1869 came 
to Butler county and located on a homestead, 
later moving to a farm in Custer county. Fol- 
lowing the death of her husband, Mrs. Evans 
went to live with her daughter, at Berwyn, 
with whom she now makes her home. Mr. 
and Mrs. Talbot became the parents of nine 
children, of whom three are living: Ethel, the 



wife of Owen Miller, engaged in farming in 
Custer county ; Cora, the wife of U. Sorensen, 
also a Custer county farmer ; and Joe, of this 
review. At the time he started housekeeping, 
Mr. Talbot's cash resources were represented 
by the sum of fourteen dollars, but this amount 
was sufficient to start him on his way to suc- 
cess, and as the years passed he accumulated 
more and more property until, at the time of 
his death, he had 590 acres of land, all of 
which he had obtained solely through his own 
efforts. He was a man of marked business 
ability, shrewd and far-seeing, and able at 
once to recognize an opportunity, the while he 
always bore an excellent reputation for in- 
tegrity and commanded the esteem of the peo- 
ple of his community. He was a Republican 
in politics, but did not seek office, while his 
religious faith was that of the Church of God. 
His widow still survives him and makes her 
home at Berwyn, she likewise being a member 
of the Church of God. 

Joe Talbot attended the district schools of 
Custer county, as well as those of Ansley and 
Janesville. He was brought up to habits of 
industry and integrity and was taught the 
principles of farming and stock-raising, so that 
he was competent to be named the successor 
of his father when the latter died. He was 
married before attaining his majority, January 
18, 1917, to Miss Vera Gebhart, who was 
born at Ansley, Custer county, a daughter of 
Fred Gebhart, a native of Germany. Mr. Geb- 
hart immigrated to the United States in young 
manhood, and was one of the early pioneers 
of Custer county, where he settled in 1875. 
For many years he was successfully engaged 
in farming, but at present is living in Broken 
Bow. 

Mr. Talbot is now engaged in operating 
290 acres of land, this property being owned 
by his mother and being a part of the estate 
of his father. This land is under a high state 
of cultivation, and by reason of the fertility of 
its soil and the ability of its manager is a pro- 
ducer of big crops, while its buildings are 
commodious and modern and its equipment 
up-to-date in every way. Mr. Talbot has not 
had time thus far to engage in activities aside 
from those connected with his farm work. In 
political affairs he maintains an independent 
stand. 



JOHN A. MYERS. — One of the younger 
farmers of West Table who has made good 
use of his opportunities, and by diligence and 
a display of good judgment has won for him- 



756 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



self a place among the progressive men of his 
community, is John Abner Myers, of whom 
mention should be made in this history. 

Mr. Myers was born in Jersey county, Illi- 
nois, February 24, 1874, and is a son of Henry 
H. Myers, whose record as a pioneer settler 
of Custer county is to be found elsewhere in 
this volume. 

John A. Myers was a lad of nine years 
when the family came to Nebraska, and the 
home was established in Boone county. Two 
years later witnessed the packing up and again 
going to a new country, this time to Custer 
county. He attended the district schocil which 
his father helped organize, his time as a boy 
being divided between his studies in the school- 
room, the pleasures of the playground, and 
assisting in the work of the farm. As his 
years and strength increased, he assumed more 
and more the heavier tasks, and under the in- 
structions of his father he learned the best 
method of planting, caring for, and harvesting 
crops, so that when he became a man he was 
in a position to take up farming on his own 
account. At first he operated land as a tenant, 
meeting with the success that enabled him to 
see his way clearly to invest in land of his 
own. He purchased 160 acres that had been 
entered by his maternal grandfather in an 
early day. as a homestead. The place was un- 
improved when it came into his possession. 
but he has erected a large frame house with 
suitable barn and outbuildings for the shelter 
of grain and stock, and he is to-day the owner 
of -K)0 acres of valuable land, devoted to gen- 
eral farming and stock-raising. 

As a boy Mr. Myers witnessed the hardships 
of the early days, and as a young man starting 
out upon his own career he shared in some of 
the same privations and trials as the older 
settlers. He has often unhitched his team at 
noon and gone to find a water-hole to supply 
his horses with water before he would go to 
the house for his dinner. He has hauled 
water for long distances, to supply stock and 
for family use. 

February 24, 1897, Mr. Myers was united 
in marriage to Barbara Thostensen, a daugh- 
ter of Zachariah Thostensen, an early settler 
of Custer county who now lives retired in 
Broken Bow and whose record as a pioneer 
will be found elsewhere. Mr. and Mrs. Myers 
have seven children. 

Mr. and Mrs. Myers are members of the 
Methodist church. He is a Republican in 
politics and has rendered efficient service as 
a member of the school board. By untiring 
industry and a disi)Iay of good judgment he 
has become one of the substantial men of his 



community, and he is held in the highest of 
esteem by all with whom he comes in contact. 



JOHN C. WEHLING. — By reason of his 
sterling character and large and worthy 
achievement, John C. Wehling is a citizen who 
may well be honoretl and valued bv Custer 
county, within whose borders he has main- 
tained his residence for more than thirty-four 
years, so that he is clearly entitled to pioneer 
distinction. His fine farm estate, comprising 
1.240 acres, is eligibly situated about twelve 
miles Viest of Broken Bow, and is one of the 
model places of the county, so that it is grati- 
fying to present in connection with this sketch 
an attractive view of this admirable farm 
property. The career of Mr. Wehling has 
been marked by purposeful energ)- and well 
directed endeavors, so that he has been one 
of the constructive forces applied in the splen- 
did civic and industrial development and pro- 
gress of Custer county. 

]\Ir. Wehling was born in Germany, on the 
25th of August. 1850. and after he passed the 
school age he learned the carpenter's trade. 
After he had attained to his majority, in ac- 
cord with the regulations of his native land, 
he served two and one-half years as a soldier 
in the German army, in which connection he 
has sagely stated that he learned obedience, 
frugality, and work. He received his discharge 
from the army in the year 1874. and in that 
same year he severed the ties that bound h-m 
to his home and fatherland and came to the 
L'nited States. He landed in the port of New 
York City and thence proceeded forthwith to 
Milwaukee. Wisconsin, where he was em- 
ployed six months as a carpenter, by the firm 
of Brandt, Bennett & Company. \\'ork then 
became slack and he was discharged by the 
firm. After that he worked in a livery stable 
for his board, thus continuing until the fol- 
lowing spring. For the ensuing five years he 
was employed in a secontl-hand store in the 
Wisconsin metropolis, and this service he 
then abandoned to assume a position as driver 
for a livery stable, an occupation that engaged 
his attention for two years. In 1880. as a 
member of a Milwaukee turnverein. Mr. \\'eh- 
ling returned to Germany. He remained for 
an interval at Frankfort on the Main, and 
thence proceeded to his native village, where 
his marriage was solemnized soon afterward. 

In 1881, in company with his young wife, 
Justine, Mr. Wehling returned to the United 
States, and it is worthy of special note in this 
connection that 150 other young folk from 
Germany innnigrated to America with Mr. 




John C. Wehlinx and Family 



758 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTV. NEBRASKA 



and Mrs. Wehling at this time. After landing 
in New York City Mr. and ^Mrs. Wehling 
came direct to Madison count)', Nebraska, 
where they remained three years. Mr. Weh- 
ling then sold his 160 acres in that county and 
removed to Boone county, where he purchased 
a quarter-section of land, near Albion. This 
was in the year 1884, and within a short time 
after his arrival in Boone county Mr. Wehling 
there formed the acquaintance of Thomas Fay, 
who offered him his pre-emption claim in Cus- 
ter county. In obtaining this pro])erty. Mr. 
Wehling paid to Mr. Fay the sum of $257 for 
the latter's relinquishment. He then filed on 
the claim as a pre-emption, and in six months 
he perfected his title to the property, after 
paying to the government the sum of $200. 

Mr. Wehling has given the following inter- 
esting account concerning incidents of his 
pioneer experience in Custer county, and the 
same is well worthy of perpetuation in this 
sketch : 

"In ^Nlarch, 1885. I removed to Custer 
county. At the time I arrived in Broken Bow 
the people here told me I was crazy to es- 
tablish myself on the West Table, as no water 
was to be had there. In that locality I met 
Hiram Caswell, who had a well outfit. Amos 
Gandy, who had a mortgage of $140 on this 
outfit, assigned this chattel mortgage to me 
and I moved the well outfit to my farm on 
the West Table. In October, 1885. Caswell 
and I attempted to construct a well on the 
place. We bored down to a depth of 140 feet 
and this was as far as the drill would go down. 
I heard that Charles Milligan, residing in the 
Eureka valley, had 200 feet more of the well- 
auger than I had, and this extra supply would 
give me a total of 340 feet. In order to 
obtain the outfit and services of Mr. Milligan 
I had to give him a mortgage on my two 
mules. Then I went to Plum Creek and bought 
tubing for 400 feet. We put tiie tubing down 
300 feet and then came to quicksand. Under 
these conditions we used the sand-pump for 
fifty feet and then struck water, which raised 
up for fifty feet in the tubing. I then pro- 
ceeded to have a bucket constructed, this be- 
ing eight feet high, and with this equipment 
I was able thereafter to draw water for do- 
mestic and other farm uses. For two years I 
used an old mare to pull up our water supply, 
and afterward I bought a windmill, besides 
putting iron casing in the well. This well 
stood in a lagoon, and after it had been in 
service six years it was destroyed by a cloud- 
burst that struck this part of the county. In 
1891 Charles W'illis. of Broken Bow. con- 
structed the hydraulic well which I am using 



at the present time, and which is one of the 
four now on my farm." 

Mr. Wehling is now the owner of two 
sections of land on the West Table. He erected 
on the home place an attractive and modern 
lesidence of eight rooms, and he has given to 
his valuable landed estate the consistent name 
of "Die Deutchie Farm," the accompanying 
illustration showing the legal authorization of 
this name. On his home place Mr. Wehling 
gave thirty-three years of assitluous. unremit- 
ting, and well directed toil, and the results of 
all this are plainly shown in the fine farm es- 
tate of the present day. Thus Mr. \\'ehling 
is well entitled to the ease and comfort which 
he has enjoyed since his retirement from the 
farm and his removal to Broken Bow, where 
he and his wife have a pleasant home that is 
known for its generous hospitality and good 
cheer. Mrs. Wehling has been a true help- 
meet to her husband during the many years 
of their gracious companionship. They became 
the parents of five sons and two daughters, 
all of whom are living except one. John, who 
was drowned in a water tank on the old home 
farm, when about eighteen months old. The 
sons of Mr. and Mrs. Wehling have attained 
to maturity and are accounting well for them- 
selves as productive workers in the world. A 
fitting close for this review are the following 
reminiscences, which are given in the words 
of Mr. \\'ehling himself: 

"In March, 1886. I went to Plum Creek 
for flour, and in making the trip I drove a 
four-mule team. I loaded 3.000 pounds of 
flour and other goods and then started for 
home. Coming close to Charles Finlen in 
crossing a bridge, the bridge gave away and 
we fell into the water. I lost 600 pounds of 
my flour. Mr. Finlen dried my clothes for 
me and when I arrived in Broken Bow, with 
the remainder of my flour and other supplies, 
a constable arrested me for having destroyed 
the bridge. He took me before Justice of the 
Peace Olcott, who, after hearing my account, 
discharged me. 

"In October. 1888. horse thieves stole two 
of my finest horses — four and five years old 
respectively and weighing 2.-t00 pounds. I 
called on Sheriff Penn and told him my story. 
He assigned to my case his deputy, who was 
Jesse Flora. We were both green in the mat- 
ter of detective skill. \\'e trailed the horse 
thieves to a i>oint ten miles northwest of North 
Platte. The thieves stayed all night at the 
home of Joseph \\'olfor. and thence we fol- 
lowed them into Colorado, where we lost all 
trace of them. I never saw my team again. 
Penn ran for sheriff again and he looked well 




\'iEw OF THE Farm 



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[OHN C. \\ EULI.NG 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



763 



to his political fences. His deputy was as 
green as I — and greener yet. His activities 
in connection with the attempt to recover my 
team clearly justify this statement." 



WILLIAM SMITH. — Among the well 
known fanners of Custer county whose in- 
dustry, energy, and good management have 
placed them in comfortable circumstances and 
gained for them a reputable standing among 
their townsmen, is \V'illiam Smith. Air. Smith 
is one of the early settlers of the Ansley dis- 
trict, where he filed on a homestead in 1884, 
and during his career here he has been known 
as a constructive and public-spirited citizen 
and a supporter of movements which have led 
to advancement and resulted in development. 

William Smith was born on a farm in Wash- 
ington county, Iowa, May 24, 1863, a son of 
John and Nancy ( Alorris) Smith. His father 
was born in Pennsylvania, in 1826, and was 
married in that state, where the mother was 
born in 1836. Not long after their marriage 
they went to Iowa and in 1870 they came to 
Saline county, Nebraska. In 1884 they came 
to Custer county, where they passed the re- 
mainder of their lives, the father dying four 
years after their arrival, and the mother hav- 
ing survived him until 1911 and having been 
seventy-five years old at the time of her de- 
mise. Mr. Smith was a Republican, and he 
and his wife, who were industrious and hon- 
orable farming people, were consistent mem- 
bers of the Presbyterian church. They were 
the parents of eight children, of whom seven 
are living : Henderson, who resides in Oregon ; 
O. F., who is a nurseryman of Blackfoot, 
Idaho ; Emma, who is the wife of Arel Real, 
a retired farmer of Ansley ; William, whose 
name initiates this .sketch ; Florence, who is 
the wife of S. A. Gardner, of Salem. Wash- 
ington; Mrs. Seth Gibson, who resides at For- 
est Grove, Oregon; and Mrs. Charles Daniel, 
who is a resident of Spanaway, Washington. 

William Smith gained his early education 
in the common schools of Nebraska and as a 
youth learned the trade of butcher, which he 
followed for several years. This vocation, 
however, did not prove congenial, and he sub- 
sequently turned his attention to farming and 
stock-feeding, in which he met with success. 
This encouraged him, in 1884, to come to Cus- 
ter county and secure a homestead near Ans- 
ley, and, although he was but twenty-one years 
old at the time, he immediately displayed abil- 
ities that gave him an even opportunity for 
success with the older and more experienced 
men of the community. His advancement has 



been continuous and consistent, and from the 
time that he dug the first well at Ansley and 
duplicated that accomplishment at Mason City, 
he has continued to show himself a man of 
advanced views and progressive ideas. He 
has had his share of success and his share of 
reverses, but successes have been in the ma- 
jority, and as a result he is to-day accounted 
one of his community's well-to-do men. His 
first house, built to succeed the small habita- 
tion of pioneer days, was destroyed by a tor- 
nado which visited these parts, but this he 
subsequently replaced with a more modern 
structure, commodious in size, attractive in 
appearance, and with all modern conveniences. 
His other buildings are proportionately sub- 
stantial and handsome, and his machinery and 
appurtenances are of the latest manufacture. 
He is a Republican and a public-spirited citi- 
zen, but has not been a candidate for office. 
He and Mrs. Smith were charter members 
of the local organization of the Royal Neigh- 
bors, to which order they still belong, and 
Mr. Smith is also a member of the Masonic 
fraternity and the Modern Woodmen of Amer- 
ica. Mrs. Smith holds membership in the 
Methodist Episcopal church at Ansley. 

In April, 1888, Mr. Smith was united in 
marriage with Miss Alice Kestner, who was 
born in Belmont county, Ohio, a daughter of 
Henry and Mary (Howard) Kestner. Mr. 
Kestner was born in Germany, and was four- 
teen years of age when he came to the United 
States, settling in Ohio, from which state he 
moved to Iowa. At the time of the Civil war 
he enlisted in an Iowa regiment of volunteer 
infantry and served bravely for the Union for 
three years, establishing a splendid record. In 
1881 lie removed to Seward county, Nebraska, 
where both he and his wife were residing at 
the time of their death. Eight children have 
been born to Mr. and Mrs. Smith; Glenn is 
engaged in farming in Custer county ; Ralph 
is a member of the United States navy; Ray 
is farming in Custer county; Kathryn resides 
with her parents : Walter is with the American 
Expeditionary Forces in France at the time 
of this writing; and Edith, Dean, and Dale re- 
main with their parents. 



MISS ELIZA DOWSE. — Both personally 
and professionally is Miss Dowse to be desig- 
nated as one of the most highly esteemed wom- 
en of Custer county, which has represented her 
home in a generic sense since the year of her 
birth, when she was brought here by her par- 
ents, who became sterling pioneers of this now 
favored section of Nebraska. While she has 



764 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



thus looked upon Custer county as her homo, 
Miss Dowse is known in other sections of 
Nebraska and also in other states of the Union, 
her mature life having been one marked by 
earnest service and distinctive- usefulness. 

Miss Eliza I>)wse, educator and trained 
nurse, was born at Grinnell, Iowa, on the 13th 
of March, 1873. and she is a daughter of 
Lewis R. and Sarah M. (Wagner) Dowse, 
who now have the distinction of being the 
oldest living pioneers of Custer county, Sam- 
uel Wagner, father of Mrs. Dowse, having 
been one of the very first settlers in Custer 
county. The parents of Miss Dowse came to 
this county in 1873, long before the great rush 
of homeseekers to this part of the state, and 
the government land which they then obtained 
constitutes the fine homestead on which they 
have lived during the long intervening years. 
The hardships which they endured in their 
isolated frontier home were serious enough at 
the time and called for great courage and re- 
sourcefulness, but all of these tribulations are 
virtually forgotten by the venerable couple 
save in a retrospective glance from the van- 
tage point of their present-day comfort, ease, 
and pros{>erity — the due rewards for years 
of earnest toil and endeavor. They have a 
wide acquaintanceship, and in their charitable 
and kindly attitude and their interest in others 
is still displayed that sympathetic friendliness 
that was so strong a tie among the early set- 
tlers of the county. Mr. and Mrs. Dowse, of 
whom further mention is made on other pages 
of this publication, thus have a circle of friends 
that is limited only by that of their acqain- 
tances. They are earnest members of the Con- 
gregational church. In politics Lewis R. 
Dowse gives unfaltering allegiance to the Re- 
publican party, and while he has never sought 
or desired the honors or emoluments of public 
office, he has at all times been loyal and pub- 
lic-spirited as a citizen and has lent his in- 
fluence and co-oi>eration in the furtherance of 
the civic and material development and ad- 
vancement of the county. Concerning their 
children the following brief data are consist- 
ently entered : William R. is a farmer near 
Comstock, this county and the maiden name 
of his wife was Florence Murphy: Eliza, the 
immediate subject of this review, was the next 
in order of birth ; Alice is the wife of Charles 
R. Sims, a farmer near Newkirk, ( )kl:ihoma ; 
Levi'is S., who married Miss Marie Pickel, op- 
erates a saw mill at Lake Stevens, Washing- 
ton ; Lawrence E., who married Miss Mabel 
Miner, is a farmer near Comstock. Custer 
county; Elmer E. married Miss Elsie Day and 
thev reside on the old and historic Dowse 



homestead, near Comstock. the same being 
under his active management; Ethel M. is the 
wife of Frank S. Steele, a shoe manufacturer 
at Comstock ; and Nellie died at the age of 
seven years. Mr. and Mrs. Dowse liave also 
an adopted daughter, Faye, who is at the 
[jresent time in the service of the government, 
as a skilled stenographer and bookkeeper, in 
the city of Seattle, \Vashington. 

As previously stated. Miss Eliza Dowse was 
not yet one year old when the family home 
was established in Custer county, and here she 
was reared on the old pioneer homestead of 
her parents, under the conditions and influ- 
ences that marked the early period in the 
history of the county. Her initial educational 
advantages were those aflforded in the primi- 
tive rural school in the vicinity of her home, 
and later she attended the high school at Ar- 
cadia, as well as summer sessions of the nor- 
mal school at Broken Bow. That she made 
good use of the scholastic opportunities thus 
afforded her. is shown in the marked success 
and popularity which she gained as a repre- 
sentative of the pedagogic profession. For 
a period of fourteen years she was continu- 
ously engaged in teaching in the public schools, 
and her services were thus given not only in 
Nebraska but also in Idaho and Massachusetts. 
She proved very successful as an instructor 
and gained the atTectionate regard of the many 
pupils who thus came within the sphere of her 
influence. With her fine intellectual attain- 
ments and executive ability, Aliss Dowse has 
the dominating sympathy and kindliness that 
ever beget confidence and love in the school- 
room, and the same qualities have also inured 
greatly to her success in the field of endeavor 
in which she is now working with character- 
istic earnestness and ability and with a high 
sense of personal stewardship. Upon her re- 
tirement from the pedagogic profession Miss 
Dowse began a thorough course of training 
in hospital work, and on the 16th of October, 
U'15, she was graduated as a trained nurse, in 
the celebrated training school maintained in 
connection with the Massachusetts General 
Hospital in the city of Boston. Since that 
time she has followed the work of her profes- 
sion in Custer county, and her ministrations 
have done much in the alleviation of human 
^nlTering and distress. She finds satisfaction 
in being a member of a professional sister- 
hood whose heroism has met the highest test 
during the climacteric period of the great 
world war, for greater heroism than that of 
the devoted nurses who have ministered with 
all of self-abnegation and zeal to the wounded 
soldiers in France and Belgium has never 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



765 



been recorded in the annals of humanity. Miss 
Dowse remains on the old homestead at such 
times as her professional duties do not re- 
quire her presence elsewhere, and she is known 
and loved as one of the noble women of the 
county in which virtually her entire life has 
been passed. 



RICHARD E. ALLEN. — Among the men 

who have contributed materially to the growth 
and development of Custer county sinces the 
pioneer settlement of this part of the state, 
one who has been an eye-witness of and par- 
ticipant in this great growth and progress is 
Richard E. Allen, who is now living in retire- 
ment at Arnold. Mr. Allen was a homestead- 
er, was one of the early postmasters of the 
county, and was one of the first merchants of 
his section, but the greater part of his active 
career was passed as a farmer and st<x'kman. 
In whatever capacity he found himself, he al- 
ways carried on his transactions and conducted 
himself personally in a manner that won and 
held for him the respect and esteem of his 
fellows, and his life record has been unmarked 
by stain or other blemish. 

Mr. Allen was born .\pril 21, 1857, at 
Mount Morris. New York, and he is a son 
of Silas E. and Evaline ( Blakeley) Allen, na- 
tives of the Empire state. There were six 
children in the family, of whom four are liv- 
ing: Eugene F., Marion S., Richard E., and 
Mrs. May Gunnison. Richard E. Allen was 
but one year old when the family moved to 
Clinton county, Iowa, and in 1863 removal 
was made to Linn county, that state, where 
Mr. Allen's father purchased 160 acres of land 
in the prairie country. There his boyhood 
and youth were passed, his education being 
secure<l in the public schools of the country, 
and he having been reared under the vital dis- 
cipline of the home farm. Mr. .Mien earned 
his first money by sliocking wheat, having been 
promised fifty cents a day, but through some 
misunderstanding he failed to get his money, 
and the bitter disappointment made such an 
impression on his youthful mind that he re- 
members it to this day and has always been 
careful in making promises to his own chil- 
dren. Mr. Allen remained on the home farm 
until he was nearly twenty-two years of age, 
and he then married. December 8, 1878, in 
Linn county, Iowa, he wedded Miss Lovira 
L. Parks, who was born in that county, a 
daughter of Morgan S. and Lydia (Harris) 
Parks, natives of Indiana. Three children 
were born to this union: Gertie E., Mertie M., 
and I'llanche R. Gertie E. is the wife of An- 



drew J. McCants, a farmer one-half mile west 
of Arnold, and they have no children. They 
are members of the Christian church. Mr. 
McCants is a blue-lodge Mason, is a member 
of the Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen, 
and in political faith is a Democrat. Mertie 
M. is the wife of William Chadima, an ice 
and coal dealer of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and 
they have no children. They are me.nbers of 
the Christian church and Mr. Chadima is a 
Democrat in politics. Blanche R. Allen mar- 
ried Charles F. McGuire, a farmer who oper- 
ates his eighty-acre farm one mile southwest 
of Arnold, and leases 600 acres in Powell can- 
yon. They are the parents of two sons and 
one daughter — Edgar and Willie, and Gene- 
vieve. Mr. and Mrs. McGuire are members 
of the Methodist Episcopal church, he is a Re- 
publican in politics and is affiliated with the 
Masonic fraternity, in which he is past master 
of his lodge, besides which he is a member of 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mrs. 
Allen has a brother. David R. Parks, two sis- 
ters, Mrs. Josephine Gross and Mrs. Jane 
Weatherwax, and lOne half-brother on Her 
mother's side, George Clark. 

In June, 1880, Mr. and Mrs. Allen came 
to Custer county and settled on the land on 
which the village of Arnold is now located. 
After the hard winter of 1880, the cattlemen 
here prevailed on Mr. Allen to take the post- 
office, which at that time was being conducted 
by George Arnold, for whom the town of 
Arnold was afterward named. Mr. Allen de- 
cided to start a store at the same time, and 
he accordingly went to Kearney, where he 
bought one hundred dollars' worth of merchan- 
dise such as he knew would fill the needs of 
of the men in his locality, and he hauled this 
merchantlise overland 100 miles, with a pony 
team. The cowboys were not long in finding 
nut that a store had been established and they 
soon cleaned out the little stock, which Mr. 
Allen replenished by another trip, this time to 
Cozad, fifty miles distant. This oix^ration was 
repeated a number of times, Mr. Allen re- 
maining in the mercantile business about seven 
years. In 1889 he gave up his business and 
resigned the postmastership. When he had 
started as postmaster, the stamps cancelled at 
his office averaged $2 per month, but when he 
gave up his position they had reached the ap- 
l)roximate sum of $35, which gives an i<lea 
of the settlement of the country during the 
period of seven years. In 1889 Mr. Allen 
settled down in earnest to farming and raising 
stock, and soon he became one of the important 
men in these lines in his community. He ran 
stock and farmed, carried on his operations in 



766 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, XEBR.\SKA 



a well ordered, progressive, and energetic way. 
and through the exercise of good judgment 
and natural ability he worked out a splendid 
success. He is now the owner of 351 acres 
of fine land, in addition to his modern home 
adjoining Arnold, and is living in retirement, 
in the enjoyment of the rewards that have 
come to him as a result of a well spent and 
honorable life. 

Mr. Alien is affiliated with both the York 
Rite and the Scottish Rite bodies of the Ma- 
sonic fraternity, as well as the Mystic Shrine, 
his son-in-law, Charles F. McGuire, being also 
similarly identified with the time-honored fra- 
ternity. Mr. and Mrs. Allen are consistent 
members and generous supporters of the 
Methodist Episcopal church and in politics 
he supports the principles of the Democratic 
party. 



D. J. JOXES. — These lines concern one 
of the younger generation — a young man just 
rounding the mile post of his majority ; one 
who comes of sturdy stock and possesses those 
indomitable characteristics that insure a high 
degree of success. 

Mr. Jones was born at Omaha, Xebraska, 
May 13. 1898. and is a son of J. B. Jones, 
whose life record is known to nearly all of 
Custer county and who is the subject of an 
extended sketch in these pages. 

D. J. Jones received his early education in 
the district schools and from very early years 
worked on the farm and planned to follow 
farming as an occupation. His initial efforts 
indicate plainly that he will succeed in the 
occupation he has selected, and that he will 
be a credit to the community and county in 
which he is located. He rents from his father 
one-half section of land, on which are splendid 
improvements and everything that goes to 
make a good farm equipment. He makes ex- 
cellent use of these facilities and is doing a 
general farming and stock business that is 
more than commendable for a man of his age 
and experience. He has good stock in the 
foundation of his herds, both in the cow lot 
and the hog pen. This will mean fine speci- 
mens of cattle and hogs in the near future. 
He has been for fifteen years on this place, 
which belongs to his father, who operated it 
before the marriage of D. J. 

In April, 1917. Mr. Jones married Miss 
Emma Harmon, daughter of Ray Harmon, 
who lives near Ansley. One child blesses 
this union and makes happy the home of the 
young parents. Mvian being the name of this 
bright little daughter. 



^Ir. and Mrs. Jones are a highly respected 
young couple who have many friends in the 
vicinity of their home and as far as their ac- 
quaintance extends. Young, active, and gra- 
cious in social circles, it is not surprising that 
they have a host of friends. They are mem- 
bers of the Baptist church and give to it a 
valuable support and able assistance in many 
ways aside from their financial help, which 
has always been generous. 



JOSEPH H, LIXDER. — The rich possi- 
bilities of the farming country of Custer county 
have attracted men not alone from various 
other states of the Union and even from other 
countries, but have also enlisted the services 
of numerous agriculturists who formerlv had 
centered their activities in other parts of Xe- 
braska. In this class is found Joseph H. Lin- 
der who, prior to coming to Custer county, in 
1906, was interested in farming in Saunders 
county. He is now one of the leading farmers 
of the Bervvyn community, where he is carry- 
ing on extensive and successful operations on 
a tract of 400 acres, all acquired through his 
own efforts. 

Mr. Linder was born in Clarke county. Iowa, 
September 7, 1858, a son of H. B. and Sarah 
(Davis) Linder. His father, born in 1824, 
was a native of \^irginia and as a young man 
traveled overland to Illinois, where he was 
married and settled down to life as an agri- 
culturist. His father having moved to Clarke 
county, as an early settler, and having found 
that part of the country promising, H. B. Lin- 
der followed him to the Hawkeye state and 
secured land. He was an industrious and pro- 
gressive man and made a success of his ac- 
tivities, and about the year 1884 changed his 
residence to Wahoo, Xebraska, where he lived 
in retirement until his death, in 1890. .\t that 
time his widow, who is a native of Illinois, 
went to live with her son J. D. Linder, and in 
March, 1918, she came to live with her son 
Joseph H. Linder, at whose home she still re- 
sides, aged eighty-three years. There were 
nine children in the family, of whom six are 
living, and of these Joseph H. is the only one 
living in Custer county. Mrs. Linder is a 
devout meml>er of the Baptist church, to which 
her husband belonged. He was an adherent 
of the Republican party. 

Joseph IT. Linder was educated in the public 
schools of Clarke county, Iowa, where he grew 
to manhood, and about the time of his father's 
removal to Wahoo, he likewise took up his 
own residence in Xebraska, where he secured 
a farm in Saunders countv, near the citv of 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



767 



Wahoo, the county seat. There he secured a 
start, as an independent farmer in a small way, 
and he had the usual struggles in gaining his 
foothold, although in his case these were made 
somewhat lighter by reason of inherent ability 
and thorough information regarding the art of 
agriculture. In 1906 he disposed of his in- 
terests in that locality and came to Custer 
county, where he purchased his present farm 
of 400 acres, on which he has since done 
mixed farming. This compares favorably with 
other properties of the locality, and Mr. Linder 
has been unsparing in his labors in making 
improvements and generally raising the stan- 
dard of buildings and equipment. ' His success ■ 
as a farmer rests upon his many years of 
faithful and well directed work, and his pros- 
perity is all the more gratifying because of 
the fact that everything that he has has been 
self-gained, and in an honorable and straight- 
forward manner. 

While still living in Iowa, in 1882, Mr. Lin- 
der was united in marriage with Miss Rebecca 
Louden, who was born in Pennsylvania, a 
daughter of John Louden, an early settler and 
farmer of Iowa. They have had seven chil- 
dren, as follows : Marshall Boyd, who is the 
owner of some good Custer county agricul- 
tural land; M. Melville, who operates a rented 
farm in Custer county ; Genevieve, who is the 
wife of W. D. Pratt, a farmer of this county ; 
W. G., who farms in this county ; Harry, w'ho 
operates a rented farm ; and Anna Belle and 
Laura Belle, twins, who are at home. Mr. and 
Mrs. Linder have been members of the Pres- 
byterian church for thirty years. He :s a 
memiber of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, the Daughters of Rebekah, and the 
Modern Woodmen of America, and is a Re- 
publican in pKDlitics. He is a supporter of all 
public-spirited movements and his belief in and 
friendship for the cause of education has led 
him to give his services for ton years as a 
member of the school board. 



FRANK E. NEEDHAM is a substantial 
citizen of Custer county, where he owns valu- 
able farm lands and also a business building 
and a cream station in the town of Arnold. 
He has spent almost his entire life thus far 
in Nebraska and hence considers himself al- 
most in the light of a native son. He was 
born at Princeton, Iowa, August 3. 1866, one 
of the four children of Arthur H. and Cameli.i 
(Porter) Needham, the others being: Leroy, 
who married Grace Chappie : Bertha, who is 
the wife of Grant Alills : and Mattie M., who 
is the wife of Keith Walker. The mother of 



Mr. Needham died February 20, 1900, but his 
father survives and makes his home with his 
daughter Bertha (Mrs. Mills), at Forest 
Grove, Oregon. 

Frank E. Needham was two years old when 
his parents brought him to Nebraska and set- 
tled twelve miles east of Lincoln. In 1882 re- 
moval was made to Custer county and a pre- 
emption claim was secured, situated five miles 
south of Arnold. There Frank E. Needham 
grew up, having as many advantages as the 
ordinary farmer boy at that time, as to school- 
ing and recreation. He remembers that the 
Fourth of July was about the greatest day in 
the year's calendar, and to celebrate it seemed 
almost a patriotic duty. He found, one year, 
that he would have to earn the money in order 
to enjoy celebrating, and therefore he engaged 
to plow a neighbor's corn field. He was only 
ten years old at the time, the task was pretty 
heavy, and along toward noon he mentioned 
to his employer that he thought it was a very 
long forenoon. All the satisfaction he received 
was a benevolent look from the old farmer 
and the consoling remark: "Son, don't you 
know while man makes the forenoon, God 
makes the afternoon?" 

Mr. Needham was united in marriage Au- 
gust 7, 1893, at Broken Bow, to Miss Hattie 
Burk, a daughter of James and Martha 
( Crabb) Burk. He and Mrs. Needham have 
one daughter, Ruth, who has prepared herself 
to be a teacher and was graduated in 1918 
from the Nebraska Wesleyan University, at 
L'niversity Place, near Lincoln. Mrs. Need- 
ham has three brothers and two sisters, name- 
ly: John, William, Albert, Mrs. Laura 
Rodgers, and Mrs. Emma Beltz. Mr. Need- 
ham owns several properties that he has under 
rental, and he is also the owner of twenty- 
two acres of land and a substantial business 
building in the town of Arnold, where also, 
as mentioned above, he conducts a cream sta- 
tion, in which town he is an influential citi- 
zen in many ways. 



LEWIS L. PRESTON, a general farmer 
and well known citizen of Custer county, re- 
sides on his valuable landed estate in the 
neighborhood of Oconto. Mr. Preston is one 
of the county's pioneers, and he has been a 
resident of Nebraska since he was seventeen 
years of age. He has lived through a wonder- 
ful period of state development and, as oppor- 
tunity has been afforded, he has done his full 
share in assisting to bring about the pros- 
perous conditions of the present day. Mr. 
Preston was born in Freeborn county, Minna- 



768 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



sola, December 21. 1860. His parents were 
Smith and ^largaret E. (Ivillmer) Preston, 
who had six children, the five survivors be- 
ing: Lewis L., Elmer, Mrs. Agnes A. Fedder- 
son, Mrs. Alice M. Mcjunkins, and Henry — 
all well known people in Custer county. 

Lewis L. Preston assisted his father on the 
home farm in Minnesota and went to school 
during his boyhood. He was seventeen years 
old when his father moved to Beaver City, 
Furnas county, Nebraska, and took up a pre- 
emption claim, on which he lived for six 
years, with pioneer courage and determina- 
tion holding on to his land even though dis- 
couraging periods of drouth that not only 
ruined the crops but imperiled the live stock 
and also made hardships out of the most or- 
dinary of domestic tasks. 

In April, 1888, Lewis L. Preston came to 
Custer county, and he has lived here ever 
since. The section in which he finally se- 
cured a homestead, after working several sea- 
sons with the owners of the Kennebec ranch, 
was almost unsettled at that time, his nearest 
neighbor, two miles to the southwest, being 
Mr. Christensen, and Hans Knudsen being 
the nearest neighbor to the west. His claim 
was a piece of rough land, but Mr. Preston 
finally perfected his title and then traded the 
property for his present fine place, paying a 
substantial difference in cash. He has one 
of the best wells in this part of the county, 
its depth being 200 feet, and none can appre- 
ciate such a blessing better than the old set- 
tlers who, like Mr. Preston, had to haul all 
the water for domestic purposes for eight 
years and also all for the live stock. For 
eight years Mr. Preston was compelled to 
obtain water in this way. except what he 
could catch in the canyons. There were other 
hardshi])s that early settlers in this county 
bravely faced and overcame, but the greatest 
was the lack of water, which disadvantage has 
long since disappeared, Custer county now 
being a rich agricultural section. 

At Beaver City, Nebraska, December 26, 
1882, Lewis L. Preston married Miss Cath- 
erine Hancock, who was born in Wisconsin, 
a daughter of Robert and Louisa ( Bowman ) 
Preston, the former a native of Illinois and 
the latter of Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Pres- 
ton have three sons: Clarence M., Harry S.. 
and Chester A. Clarence M. Preston, who 
is engaged in farming two miles northwest 
of HufFalo, Dawson county, married Lizzie 
Hilnuith. a daughter of SX'illiam ITilmuth, 
and they have four sons and one daughter. 
Harry S. Preston, who is operating his land 
in PiutTalo vallev, one mile north of his fa- 



ther's farm, married Daisy Smock, a daugh- 
ter of Anton Smock, and they have one son 
and one daughter, Harry S. Preston being a 
patriotic young man who held himself ready 
to fulfill any demands his country might make 
upon him in connection with the world war. 
Chester A. Preston, like his next older 
brother, held himself in readiness for military 
call. He is a farmer near Buffalo, Dawson 
county. . He married Verna, a daughter of 
Nathan Province, and they have no children. 
Lewis L. Preston and his sons are all staunch 
Republicans and the religious faith of the en- 
tire family is that of the Evangelical church. 



JOSHUA WOOD. — This is one of the 
historic names of Custer county — a name 
that harks back to the pioneer days when the 
South Loup river ran as wet as it does to-day 
but when skirting its banks were not so many 
well improved farms and when the valley 
through which it flowed was not dotted with 
so many elegant farm homes. The possessor 
of the name lives in Kearney but, neverthe- 
less, he belongs to Custer county, and into the 
history of this county his life and years are 
so interwoven that they cannot well be sep- 
arated. 

Joshua Wood is a native of the state of 
Iowa, where he was born October 8, 1851. His 
parents were Thomas K. and Deme (Mann) 
Wood. The father was a farmer and stock- 
raiser whose operations were attended with 
fair success. The parents moved to Buffalo 
county. Nebraska, in 1868, and in 1873 they 
located a homestead west of Sumner. The 
father died in 1897 and the mother in 1905. 
In their family were ten children, eight of 
whom are still living: Sarah F. Berry is now 
widowed and lives in Missouri X'alley. Iowa; 
William B. is a carpenter and he likewise 
resides in Missouri \"alley : Rhoda Hammer 
is the widow of Lewis Hammer and lives in 
Council Bluff's; Joshua is the subject of this 
sketch ; Perry C. who lives in Sumner, is a 
farmer and stock-raiser; Delia Drake lives at 
Steamboat. Colorado, her husband being a 
farmer and stock-raiser ; Nora Keen lives in 
Sumner ; Lee is a barber and resides at Laurel. 
Nebraska ; Mary Butts is deceased ; F.dward 
was killetl at Meeteetse. Wyoming, while liaul- 
ing lumber down a mountain side. 

Joshua Wood moved to Nebraska when his 
father did and here he filed liis first pre-emp- 
tion in 1874, on the South Loup river, this 
being the iK'ginning of his career in Custer 
county. lie lived on the jilace three years, 
operatiii"' for himself, and he then became con- 




Sag. by EG. miliams A Bro. N Y 





[Aj~^ 



U^ 



Ifet/n aj 4 Enf, Cn 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



"1 



nected witli the Loup \'aUey Live Stock Com- 
jiany as vice-president and superintendent. In 
ISfiS there was no Kearney, no B. & M. Rail- 
road. He killed a buf¥alo south of Gibbon, 
when the Gibbon colony came to this county 
in 187 L This was the last buffalo killed in 
this section. Prior to this time, when he first 
came to the west, buffaloes were killed by the 
vvliolesale. The hunters took only the hind 
quarters, and often four or five wagons were 
loaded down with the meat and hides. This 
gives an idea of the plentifulness of game in 
the early days. Mr. Wood has been married 
twice. His first marriage was to Etta Kilgore, 
daughter of Coe Kilgore, who was one of 
the early pioneers of the South Loup and 
whose history is given elsewhere. To this 
union three chiFdren were born : Of Walter and 
Frank, both of whom are prominent South 
Loup stock men, extended mention is made 
under their own respective names, on other 
pages of this book; Ada Overmire is on the 
home ranch. The second marriage of Mr. 
Wood was to Mrs. Barbara (Byers) Davis. 

During the early years Mr. Wood had much 
to do with the organization of the county. 
He attended the early political conventions and 
was the first sheriff of Custer county. Al- 
though there was little business in those days 
for sheriff or any other officer, his name is 
recorded at the head of the ofiicial roster of 
Custer county sheriff's. In those days he ren- 
dered the county valuable service and, along 
with such kindred spirits as Kilgore, Douglass, 
Wise, Young, Boblits, George, Allen, and 
many others, he assumed his share of respon- 
sibilities. 

He has always stuck to the farming business 
but has made it always conserve the interests 
of stock-raising. He and his boys are in part- 
nership now and they have on hand splendid 
herds of fine cattle. Their fancy has always 
been for the white-faced Herefords. They 
have never failed to keep on hand registered 
bulls, and by this means they have proved 
the worth of their fine stock and made their 
ranch famous for the cattle they produce. Mr. 
Wood is a member of the Woodman lodge, 
is a Democrat in politics, and, withal, is a 
highly respected and influential citizen. Mr. 
Wood was interested with the Loup Valley 
Live Stock Company up to 1887. In 1885 the 
company established a ranch near Fort Bu- 
ford, Montana, and drove surplus ranch cattle, 
in the years 188.^ and 1886, to the Montana 
ranch. Air. Wood and Mr. Lewis Hammer, 
of Council Bluff's, Iowa, bought out the Loup 
Valley Livei Stock Company in 1904, Mr. 
Wood acting as president and general mana- 



ger up to 1916, when he and his two sons 
bought Mr. Hammer's interest. They still 
own and operate this ranch together. 



WILLIAAI T. JONES, who has contrib- 
uter to the development and upbuilding of 
Custer county through his connection with 
agricultural affairs, is known as one of the 
aggressive and skilled farmers of the Berwyn 
locality. When he began his career in this 
county he was possessed of only a little live 
stock and a small amount of equipment, but 
within six years he had placed himself in a 
position where he was aWe to purchase a 
farm, and from that time to the present his 
career has been one of continued and unin- 
terrupted success. 

Mr. Jones was born on a farm in Saunders 
county, Nebraska, February 17, 1870, and is 
a son of James and Louisa (Joslin) Jones, 
His father, a native of Indiana, was there 
reared and educated. He took up fanning 
as a vocation, and when he started operations 
on a property of his own he established him- 
self as a family man by his marriage with Miss 
Louisa Joslin, who was born in Kentucky and 
who had been taken to Indiana as a child. 
After farming in Indiana with indifferent suc- 
cess for a number of years, in 1869 Mr. Jones 
came to Saunders county, in the new state of 
Nebraska, where he settled on a homestead 
and continued operations for fifteen years. 
He next disposed of his interests there and 
took up his residence in Butler county, where 
he passed the last years of his life, and where 
his death occurred in 1898. Mr. Jones was 
one of the men whose abilities were allowed 
to develop through the opportunities offered 
in this state, and who, in their new environ- 
ment, worked their own way to prosperity. 
He was never a public man, preferring the 
atmosphere of his farm to the honors of po- 
litical place, but he w^as a staunch supporter 
of Democratic principles and an adherent of 
all movements making for advancement in 
any way. His widow survived him until 1916, 
when she passed away, having been the mother 
of ten cliildren. of whom seven are living. 

William T. Jones commenced his education 
in the district schools of Saunders county, Ne- 
braska, and completed them in Butler county, 
where his i>arents established their home when 
he was still a lad. He was reared to sturdy 
manhood and was taught the complete curric- 
ulum of farming in Butler county, and there, 
in 1903, was married to Miss Mary Kockrow, 
who was born at Lincoln, Nebraska, a daugh- 
ter of Martin Kockrow, who was both a farm- 



772 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



er and stone-mason. Mr. Kockrow home- 
steaded in Clay county, Nebraska, where he 
carried on operations for a number of years, 
and as a stone-mason he followed his voca- 
tion for a long period at Lincoln, during which 
time he had the honor of doing the mechani- 
cal work in the laying of the cornerstone in 
the old postoffice at the state capital. Mr. 
and ]\Irs. Jones became the parents of two 
children — Martin and Pauline. 

After following farming in Butler county 
for several years, Mr. Jones temix)rarily gave 
up that occupation and moved to Broken Bow. 
where for four years he was engaged in team- 
ing, one of his contracts being the delivering 
of the materials of which the court house was 
built. When he again decided to follow farm- 
ing, his equipment consisted of a team of 
horses, two cows, and a little household fur- 
niture ; but his energy was still unbounded 
and his ambition and spirit still unbroken, he 
having had a full amount of these desirable 
qualities at the outset of life. He settled 
down to a determined effort to win success, 
and in 1912 purchased eighty acres of land. 
To the development of this he has since ap- 
plied himself with excellent results, and he 
now has his land well broken and planted to 
grain, of which he is raising large crops. He 
is rapidly attaining success, and no man is 
more worthy of achieving success. As a citi- 
zen Mr. Jones has done all within his power 
to assist in good movements, civic and educa- 
tional. He is a .staunch Republican in politics, 
although his interest therein lies principally 
as a voter. His fraternal membership con- 
nects him with the local lodge of the Modern 
Woodmen of America. 



LOGAN W. CHILES is consistently to be 
designated as one of the well-to-do and promi- 
nent citizens of Callaway ; a citizen who has 
contributed heavily to public improvemeaits 
and county development, and a man whose 
past experience savors of the wild days when 
laws were lax and ill-starred characters took 
advantage of the law-abiding better class. 

Mr. Chiles was born July 19, 1864. in Davis 
county, Missouri, and is a son of Richard E. 
and Permelia ( Enyeard ) Chiles, lx)tii of 
whom were horn in Kentucky, their children 
having been four in number, and all are liv- 
ing — Mrs. Emma Sicloff, Richard E., Elieu 
Thompson, and Logan W. The father was 
a colonel in the Confederate army, under Gen- 
eral Lee. After serving with distinguished 
valor; he died from the effects of a gun- 
shot wound which he received in battle. .\t 



the time of his death, his son Logan was but 
four years of age, and as the mother had 
passed away two years previously, Logan W. 
was doubly orphaned at a verj^ tender age. 
He came to live with his grandfather. Captain 
Enyeard, of Otoe county, Nebraska. Later 
Captain Enyeard invested a good deal of 
money in Custer county land, and he is well 
remembered by the old settlers in the south- 
western part of the county. 

Logan W. Chiles was given good educa- 
tional advantages and finished his equipment 
with a two years' course in the Nebraska City 
College. Connected with the early days in 
the state he relates the following experience : 

When about twenty years of age he con- 
tracted to break prairie for a Holt county 
farmer. The place where the prairie was to 
be broken was in a sparsely settled district, 
two or three miles from the nearest neighbor. 
These were in the palmy days of Doc Mid- 
dleton and Kid Wade, when horse-flesh 
changed hands easily — and sometimes sud- 
denly and without much ceremony. Logan 
had a fine span of black mares, very valu- 
able. Their handsome appearance attracted 
the attention of the sheriff of the county, who 
warned the boy to keep his eyes open or he 
woukl find himself, some morning, afoot and 
alone on the prairie, as there was a gang of 
horse-thieves operating in the vicinity that 
would not stop at murder if necessary to se- 
cure such a prize as those black mares would 
be. Logan thanked him for the advice and 
decided that be would l>etter follow it. He 
stuck to his work, picketed the mares on the 
grass near his wagon, under which he slept, 
and he did his best to keep watch of what 
was going on. He had been there but a 
short time when, one evening just before 
dark, he noticed a man following the main 
road on foot, with a bridle in his hands. Sup- 
posing it was some of the settlers looking for 
a stray horse, he gave the matter small thought 
until later in the evening, when the man 
passed by again. This aroused his suspicions, 
and he resolved to take precautions. He fas- 
tened the mares to the wagon wheel with a 
log chain locked round their necks. A little 
later, when the last rays of the day were al- 
most gone, he saw the man standing on a 
nearby hill, with his form clearly silhouetted 
against the western sky. He took his Win- 
chester and sat down in a place from which 
he had unobstructed view and could watch the 
operations of the man. After a while, when 
it had grown darker, the man began to move 
down toward the camp. The boy kept his 
eve on the marauder as best he could, all the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



773 



while concealing himself in the tall bluestem 
grass. He waited until the man was nearly 
up to the horses, then he raised up out of the 
grass, within ten feet of the fellow, covered 
him with his Winchester and warned him that if 
he valued his life not to move. He added, "I 
know what you are here for, and you have 
struck the wrong fellow." The man. who was 
heavily armed, turned deliberately around and 
walked off without a word. Young Logan, 
kept his Winchester pointed directly. on the 
man as long as he could see him. That was 
not a good night for sleep, and the next morn- 
ing dawned bright and fair, inviting Logan 
to resume his work, which he did, but it 
might be said that the next night he pulled 
out for town and did not camp alone on the 
prairie again. 

At Lorton, Nebraska, on March 12, 1886, 
Mr. Chiles was united in marriage to Miss 
Mattie M. Rexer, who was born in Otoe 
county, Nebraska, and who is a daughter of 
John J. and Mary (Wright) Rexer, the for- 
mer a native of Germany. Mrs. Chiles has al- 
ways been popular in social circles and has 
been a splendid companion and helpmeet to 
her husband. To them have been born eight 
daughters and one son : Mrs. Bessie Burk, 
Mrs. Pearl Campbell, Mrs. Stella Tidd, Mrs. 
Grace Brega, and Mrs. Mary Ross are hap- 
pily married and have homes of their own. 
Hazel, Mary, and Edith are at home, and the 
youngest child and only son is Joyce E., who 
is said to be the home dictator. That the last 
child is a boy, seems to have been a special 
dispensation by which each of the eight girls 
could have a brother. The Chiles family are 
very interesting, and Mr. and Mrs. Chiles 
maintain a hospitable home. 

Mr. Chiles came to Custer county in 1911 
and owns 160 acres one mile south of Calla- 
way, as well as the old Bannister and Finch- 
Hatton ranch, eight miles west of town, and 
160 acres two miles south of Arnold, making 
in all 1,200 acres. Before settling in Custer 
county Mr. Chiles made extensive trips 
through Oklahoma; Kansas, and p>ortions of 
Nebraska, hunting a location, but he found 
that he could get more for his money in Cus- 
ter county than in any other place he visited. 
He has unbounded faith in the future of the 
county. The family home, in Callaway, is a 
beautiful residence, well equipped with all 
modern conveniences and comforts, and this 
home is not only enjoyed to the fullest extent 
by Mr. and Mrs. Chiles, but is also known for 
its generous hospitality. Mr. and Mrs. Chiles 
are connected with the Methodist Episcopal 



church and are held in unqualified esteem in 
the community. 



GRANT HENDRICKS. — Down six miles 
northwest of Oconto, on a splendid tract of 
land, in a comfortable home, surrounded by 
valuable property of various kinds, lives the 
man who bears the two historic names of 
Grant and Hendricks. He is a representative 
farmer and is a Custer county citizen who 
might be used for exhibition purposes almost 
any time. 

Grant Hendricks discovered America in In- 
diana, where he was born at South Whiteley, 
March 28, 1864. He is a son of Henry and 
Rebekah ( Wagner) Hendricks, very estimable 
]3eople, the father being a native of Germany 
and the mother of the state of Pennsyl- 
vania. The parents were devout Christian 
people, being members of the Baptist church. 
They reared a large family of children, and of 
the twelve children eight still survive — Kath- 
erine Clapp, Peter W., May Winn, Samuel, W. 
Scott, Esther Hart, Alice Hittle, and Grant, 
whose life history these lines epitomize. Mr. 
Hendricks says the first money he earned 
was some that he didn't get. He worked for 
an old gentleman, paddling dirt from the drill 
with which they were putting in wheat. As 
his employer had no money, young Grant's 
step-father took a calf for the wages. Grant 
took good care of the calf, but when it was 
sold, his dreams of wealth vanished with the 
calf, for he saw none of the money. He re- 
mained on the home farm vmtil he was seven- 
teen years of age and received a common- 
school education. After he was seventeen he 
worked out by the month until he was twenty 
years old. By common consent he and his 
future wife fixed their wedding day on Christ- 
mas eve, 1882, when at Angus, Indiana, he 
and Florence Kay were wedded. The bride 
was likewise born in Indiana, and she is a 
daughter of Isaac and Anna (Gordon) Kay, 
in whose family were five children — Mrs. Ida 
McDaniels, Mrs. Florence Hendricks, Orrin 
(deceased), Elsworth, and Mrs. Anna Cum- 
mins. The parents were members of the Bap- 
tist church. 

From the time of their marriage Mr. and 
Mrs. Hendricks have maintained a home in 
which comfort and plenty have been apparent. 
They have a large family of children, of whom 
they can be justly proud: Tressie is the wife 
of Milton Williams, a farmer living in the 
vicinity of Broken Bow. and they are the par- 
ents of five children. Milton was in the last 



774 



HISTORY f)F CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



national draft for service in the world war. 
but the war closed ere he was jj'iven assign- 
ment. James J., who married Daisy Bryner, 
a daughter of Z. K. Bryner. lives on a farm 
of 240 acres near Sterling, Colorado, and they 
have one child. Addie is the widow of Charles 
\Mlliams, who died in April, 1916. Mrs. Will- 
iams lives near Callaway and has four chil- 
dren. Letha is the wife of Harrison Alaxson, 
an inspector and grader in a hide and fur 
establishment in S't. Joseph, ^lissouri, and 
they have two children. Ethel is the wife of 
Theotlore Lange. a farmer near Callaway, and 
they have one child. Rollie volunteered for 
military service and was sent to Camp Grant, 
Rockford, Illinois, as a member of the One 
Hundred and Si.xty-first Depot Brigade. Edith 
is the wife of Chris Rookstool and they re- 
side on a farm of their own, near Oconto. Mr. 
Rookstool has one child by former marriage. 
Glenn J. Hendricks works on the home farm 
with his father. Mabel I. is at home and is 
attending high school. William K. also is at 
home and in the high school. Cecil, the 
youngest, but treads the lower rungs of the 
educational ladder, with very bright prospect 
of advancement. 

Mr. Hendricks came to Custer county in 
1886, and homesteaded south of Berwyn, on 
part of what was then known as the old Pan- 
cake ranch. He lived there twenty-two years, 
and then moved to his present farm site, six 
miles from Oconto. He operates (540 acres of 
land, and is seemingly well fixed, so that he 
can take life easy and spend his days in com- 
fortable retirement. The present home of the 
family stands out in striking contrast with 
their sod house of early days. The inside di- 
mensions of that pioneer dwelling were twelve 
by thirteen feet, and it had a dirt floor and a 
straw roof. When it rained, more water fell 
in the house than on the same territory out- 
side. 

Mr. llenilricks relates that after he had his 
"soddy" built and had sent for his wife, he 
had fifty cents in his pocket. He went to 
Kearney to meet the train, and while he was 
waiting at a livery stable a stranger ap- 
proached him, and explained that he had a 
sick horse and begged the fifty cents with 
which to purchase medicine. To save a poor 
man's horse, Mr. Hendricks parted with his 
half dollar, but down at the depot, an hour or 
two later, he saw the man with a pint of whis- 
key which he was using for himself instead 
of the horse. Mr. Hendricks has no doubt 
but that the bottle was rubbed on the horse 
and probably had the desired effect. 

Grant llcndri.-ks and his familv are verv 



reliable, commendable people, than whom Cus- 
ter countv has no better. 



ALOIS ZIMMER. who is one of the highly 
esteemed representatives of agricultural in- 
dustry in Custer county, is known as a sub- 
stantial citizen and an experienced and skilled 
farmer and stockman. More than thirty years 
of connection with his vocation- in Custer 
county has given him a thorough intimacy 
with conditions in his community, near Mason 
City, and has also served to establish hitji in 
the good will and high regard of his fellow 
citizens. 

Mr. Zimmer was born in Silesia, .Austria, 
July 1. 1868. a son of Julius and Helen I Koe- 
lerj Zimmer. His parents, natives of Ger- 
many, where they were small farming people, 
immigrated to the United States in 1887 and 
at once came to Custer county, where they 
took up a homestead and continued to be en- 
gaged in agricultural pursuits during the rest 
of their lives. Through industry and perse- 
verance they succeeded in building up a com- 
fortable home for their children and in de- 
veloping a productive farm, and they were 
highly esteemed for their many sterling quali- 
ties of mind and heart and as devout memliers 
of the Catholic church. They were the par- 
ents of seven children : Julius, a well-to-do 
farmer of Custer county; Helen, the wife of 
Andrew Bower, a carpenter of Ravenna, Ne- 
braska ; Louisa, the wife of Peter Streeder. a 
Custer county farmer; .Alois, of this notice; 
Steven, engaged in farming in Custer county ; 
Frank, a farmer in the vicinity of North 
Platte, Nebraska ; and Othelia, the wife of 
Tom Frame, an engineer at Buena \'ista, 
California. 

-Mois Zimmer received his early education 
in the i)ublic schools of Germany, and in that 
country began his career as a farmer. He 
was nineteen years of age when the family 
settled in Nebraska, and here, the year after 
their arrival, he began to work out, continu- 
ing thus for the next fifteen years. During 
that time he carefully .saved his earnings, 
with which he bought 160 acres of land, an 
tmcultivated tract without improvements of 
any kind. He at once set to work, made his 
land productive, and began installing improve- 
ments as rapidlv as his finances would admit. 
-As a result of his hard and persistent work, 
he is now the owner of a handsome tract of 
fertile and productive land, which is made 
more attractive by the presence of a large and 
comfortable modern residence, with commodi- 
ous and substantial barns and attractive and 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



//D 



well built outbuilding's, all erected by him. He 
does a general farming business, in which he 
has been very successful, and also has raised 
a considerable number of hogs, as well as 
Hereford cattle. In his operations he has used 
modern methods, and in his business trans- 
actions his integrity has been such that he 
bears an excellent reputation among his as- 
sociates. 

In 1903 Mr. Zimmer married Kate Kramer, 
a daughter of Frank Kramer who was born 
in Germany and died in Custer county. Mr. 
and Mrs. Zimmer are the parents of one 
daughter, Catherine, living at home and at- 
tending school. They are members of the 
Catholic church, and Mr. Zimmer is a Demo- 
crat in politics, although inclined to be inde- 
pendent in local elections. 



GUY P. MILLS. — Custer county has 
many "Mills" of different varieties, but among 
all the "Mills" of every description there is 
none more prominent or generally useful than 
the Mills family at Arnold. The name dates 
back to pioneer times and it is always con- 
nected, so far as this family is concerned, with 
everything that is helpful or progressive. Guy 
P. Mills, whose name introduces this sketch, 
is a native of Custer county. Here he was 
born in 1885, the son of William Mills, a 
prominent pioneer whose life sketch is given 
elsewhere in these columns. It was in this 
county that Guy P. Mills received a common- 
school education and then, that he might be 
better qualified to conduct the business inci- 
dent to modern-day farming, he took a com- 
mercial course in a business college. With 
this equipment he began operations on a Cus- 
ter county farm. To-day he has 360 acres of 
land, 11.5 acres under cultivation, and has the 
place well equipped with improvements, ma- 
chinery, and a good grade of live stock. He 
breeds Duroc hogs and has made their propa- 
gation very profitable. In the cattle line his 
fancy runs to polled Durhams. These are of 
a splendid grade, all bred for double registry. 
His horses show good breeding and carefid 
selection of type. 

The domestic life of Mr. Mills dates from 
February 16. 1910, at which time he led to 
the marriage altar ]\Iiss Daisy V. Phifer, who 
presides over his home and makes it a com- 
fortable, hospitable domicile. Two children 
reign in this home — Sylvan Parris, born 
Alarch 17, 1913; and Merrill Guv. born March 
19, 1916. Air. and Mrs. Mills 'belong to the 
Methodist church. He is treasurer of the 
school district, in which office he is serving 



his third term. He is a member of the Mod- 
ern Woodmen and in politics is an independent 
voter. Just in the prime of life, with a good 
start and located in the land of opporunity, 
there is no doubt but that the future years 
will reward his toil and provide handsomely 
for the proverbial "rainy day" or the retire- 
ment of after vears. 



HENRY H. MYERS.— Of the men of 

Custer county who, after years of toil and 
labor to help make Custer a better place in 
which to live, have been called from the scene 
of earthly activities, the subject of this memoir 
well deserves a place in the records of the 
county. 

Henry Hellery Myers was lx)rn in Arm- 
strong county, Pennsylvania, August 17 , 1847. 
His father, John G. Myers, was a native of 
Pennsylvania, of German parentage, and died 
in Custer county, Nebraska, November 26, 
1900. The mother of our subject was Char- 
lotta Hellery, a native of Wfirtemburg, Ger- 
many, who came to the United States with her 
parents when a girl of nine years, and she 
too passed away in Custer county, where her 
death occurred November 15, 1907. 

Henry H. Myers was the eldest of eight 
children and accompanied his parents when 
the home was established at Elsah, Illinois, 
in 1857. Here he was reared and grew to 
manhood, acquiring his early education in the 
public schools. In February, 1864, he enlisted 
in Company C, One Hundred and Fifty-fourth 
Illinois \'olunteer Infantry, and he served until 
the close of the war, being discharged at Camp 
Piutler, Illino's, in September, 1865. For two 
years after the war he was a pilot on the 
Mississippi river. 

On December 13. 1868, at Elsah. Illinois, 
Mr. Myers was united in marriage to Miss 
Mary L. Hartley, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio. 
The young couple made their home on a farm 
in Illinois until October, 1882, when they came 
to Nebraska and settled in Boone county, 
where they resided until the spring of 1885, 
when they came to Custer county and secured 
a homestead in section 15, township 17, range 
12). He became a successful farmer and pur- 
chased 320 acres adjoining the old homestead, 
where he carried on agricultural pursuits imtil 
he retired and moved to Broken Bow, in 
March, l'>10. Here his death occurred, in 
December. 1917. 

Mr. Myers was one of the early settlers on 
West Table and helped to organize the school 
flistrict as well as the first Methodist church 
of Cliff townshij:). to which he contributed lib- 



776 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



erally in support. He held various offices of 
trust and honor and in every relation of life 
measured up to the highest standard of man- 
hood. He and his wife reared a family of six 
children who have grown to maturity and be- 
come useful members of society. O. L. is a 
resident of Sidney, Iowa ; J. A. and Ed and 
Earl are farmers of Custer county ; Clara 
is the wife of Frank Barrett, of Broken Bow ; 
and Mrs. Ethel Jones resides in Denver. 



JULIUS ZIMMER.— Included among the 
substantial farmers and stock-raisers of Custer 
county, Julius Zimmer is also known as a help- 
ful, useful, and energetic citizen whose public- 
spirited services have contributed to the ad- 
vancement and development of his communi- 
ty's interests. For thirty-three years he has 
been a resident of the Mason City locality, and 
there has been identified with many of the 
movements that have served to aid progress 
in both agricultural and civic lines. He was 
born in Silesia, Prussia, August 18, 1859, 
and is a son of Julius and Helen (Koeler) 
Zimmer. 

In their native land the parents of Julius 
Zimmer were small farming people who were 
industrious and energetic but whose eflforts 
did not gain them satisfactory progress. They 
accordingly decided to try their fortunes in the 
United States, to which country they came in 
1887, locating in Custer county, to which they 
had been jjreceded by their son Julius several 
years previously. Homesteading a property, 
they followed farming here during the rest of 
their lives, the father passing away in 1888 
and the mother a number of years later, both 
having held the faith of the Catholic church. 
They were highly esteemed people, industrious, 
honest, and God-fearing, and they well merited 
the high esteem in which they were held by 
their neighbors. They were the parents of 
seven children, as follows : Julius, of this 
notice ; Helen, the wife of Andrew Bower, a 
carpenter of Ravenna, Nebraska : Louisa, the 
wife of Peter Streeder, a Custer county far- 
mer; .Mois, engaged in agricultural operations 
in Custer county; Steven, also engaged in 
farming in Custer countv ; Frank, a fanner in 
the vicinity of North Platte, Nebraska ; and 
Othelia, the wife of T<ini Frame, an engineer 
of I'luena \'ista, California. 

Julius Zimmer, the younger, received his ed- 
ucation in the public schools of Germany, in 
which country he received his introduction to 
farming. He came to the United States in 
1884, in which vear he located at Kearney, 
Nebraska, but in 1885 he came to Custer 



county, where he took up a homestead, a tract 
which he still owns. During the early days 
he experienced many hardships and had to 
overcome numerous obstacles, but he persever- 
ingly kept at his task, proving himself ready 
for every emergency. He is a general farmer, 
with a knowledge of his vocation's various de- 
partments, and has met with much success 
also in the raising of a gocnl grade of live- 
stock, modern methods always having been 
given a preference by him. The little sod 
house which was his first home here has long 
since disappeared, having been replaced by a 
commodious residence, around which are to be 
found a full set of farm buildings of the most 
modern type. Mr. Zimmer's reputation for 
business integrity has been built upon more 
than thirty years of honest transactions. As a 
citizen he has performed his share of the duties 
of office, including ser\'ice as overseer of roads, 
and a quarter of a century of service on the 
school board, his public record being an open 
book. Independent in politics, he belongs to 
the Non-Partisan League. 

In 1894 Mr. Zimmer was united in marriage 
to Miss Mary Reimer, who was born in Aus- 
tria, and to this union there were born twelve 
children, all living and at home: Anna. Hel- 
ena, Leo, Mary, Joseph, Barbara, Gregor, Hat- 
tie. Gertrude, Clement, Louisa, and Margaret. 
The family belongs to the Catholic church. 



DIAH WOODRUFF — The Dominion of 
Canada gave to Custer county a splemlid citi- 
zen when Diah \\'oodruff left his native prov- 
ince and made his way eventually to Nebraska, 
where he gained pioneer distinction and where 
he wielded a powerful influence in connection 
with the civic and material development and 
upbuilding of Custer county. He became one 
of the extensive landholders of this part of the 
state, conducted agricultural and live-stock 
enterprise on a very extensive scale, and he 
was one of the honored and influential pioneer 
citizens of Custer county at the time of his 
death, which here occurred on the 15th day 
of October, 1918. Recognition of his worthy 
character and achievement is most consistent- 
ly made in this history, which likewise exer- 
cises a legitimate function when it pays a trib- 
ute to his menior}'. 

Diah Woodruff was lx)rn in the province 
of Ontario, Canada, on the 7th of May. 1849. 
and is a son of Hawkins and May ( Tool) 
Woodruf?, of whose ten children the follow- 
ing named are now living: Mrs. Elizabeth 
Pauly, of Hannibal. ^lissouri; Catherine, a 
resident of Toronto, Canada ; Emmett, a resi- 




^ C^ ^^CiAy, M/c^rM/jiA^ 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



779 



dent of the state of Oregon ; and Emma, the 
wife of Wilham Hallavvay. 

Diah Woodruff was reared to adult age in 
his native province, where his early education- 
al advantages were those afforded by the 
public schools, and he continued his residence 
in Canada until 1866, when he went to Lock- 
port, New York, where for a time he was em- 
ployed in a nursery establishment, he having 
been an ambitious youth of about seventeen 
years when he came to the United States. Be- 
fore the close of the year 1866 Mr. Woodruff 
proceeded westward as far as Illinois, where 
he obtained work by the month, his wages 
being merely nominal, as gauged by the stan- 
dards of the present day. From Illinois he 
finally came to Nebraska, determined to find 
ways and means for the winning of indepen- 
dence and a due measure of prosperity. He 
was dependent entirely upon his own ability 
and efforts, and within a short time after his 
arrival in the state he obtained a homestead 
claim in Hamilton count)'. There he insti- 
tuted development work and there he contin- 
ued his activities until 1875. In that year he 
and his wife numbered themselves among the 
pioneers of Custer county, and that he made 
good use of the splendid opportunities af- 
forded in connection with the development of 
the great natural resources of the county, 
needs no further voucher than the statement 
that here he eventually accumulated and de- 
veloped a magnificent landed estate of 3.600 
acres, the nucleus of which was a pioneer tract 
of 160 acres which he obtained at the time of 
his removal to the county and which is still a 
part of his estate. On this original homestead 
he erected good buildings, including the at- 
tractive farm residence, which was built about 
thirty years ago and which has been remodeled 
and otherwise modernized since that time. 
Vigorous and self-reliant, indomitable in en- 
ergy, and possessed of mature judgment. Mr. 
Woodruff made steady and substantial prog- 
ress toward the goal of prosperity, and event- 
ually he gained secure status as one of the 
extensive and representative agriculturists and 
stock-growers of the county. He was liberal 
and loyal in the support of those measures and 
enterprises that conserved the social and mate- 
rial advancement and welfare of the commu- 
nity, and his sterling integrity gained and 
retained to him the unqualified confidence and 
esteem of those with whom he came in contact 
in the varied relations of life. Though never 
desirous of public office, he gave a staunch 
support to the cause of the Democratic party. 
His religious faith was that of the Presby- 
terian church, of which his wife likewise was 



a zealous member. He was affiliated with the 
Masonic fraternity and was deeply apprecai- 
tive of its history and teachings. 

The year 1871 recorded the marriage of Mr. 
Woodruff to Mrs. Louisa (Montgomery) 
Woodruff, the widow of his brother Henry. 
Of the children of this union the following 
data are available : Harry, who is one of the 
representative farmers of Custer county, mar- 
ried Miss Frances Judge, and their home is 
on land formerly owned by the subject of this 
memoir, who gave a splendid farm to each 
of hi's children ; Florence is the wife of Oscar 
Thompson, another of the substantial farmers 
of Custer county ; Thomas married Miss Lena 
Wood and they reside at Hastings, Nebraska ; 
and Frances is the wife of Lora E. Mohler, 
of Eddyville, Dawson county. In 1896 Mrs. 
Woodruff passed to the life eternal, and two 
years later Mr. Woodruff wedded Mrs. Lizzie 
J. (Barratt) McSherry, a daughter of Joseph 
and Susan (Squires) Barratt, who came to 
Nebraska from Tama City. Iowa. Diah and 
Lizzie J. Woodruff had no children. By her 
first marriage Mrs. Woodruff' has two daugh- 
ters, both of whom reside in Nebraska, Fern 
being the wife of Earl Myers, of , Eddyville. 
Dawson covmty, and Ruth being the wife of 
William Spurgin, of Custer county. 



MARSHALL B. LINDER, who belongs to 
the progressive younger element of the agri- 
cultural fraternity of Custer county, has had 
experience both here and in Saunders county, 
and out of his labors he has worked the start 
of a successful career and the establishment of 
himself in a position where the outlook for his 
future is renrarkably bright. His present 
property, consisting of 320 acres, in the Ber- 
wyn community, is under a high state of culti- 
vation and is devoted exclusively to general 
farming, although in the future he expects to 
make the raising of hogs and cattle a feature 
of his farm enterprise. 

Mr. Linder was born in Page county. Iowa. 
April 24. 1883. and is a son of J. H. and Re- 
becca ( Louden ) Linder. H. B. Linder. the 
paternal grandfather of Mr. Linder. was born 
in 1824. in Virginia, and as a young man went 
to Illinois, where he married Sarah Davis. He 
was engaged in agricultural pursuits there for 
a time and then followed his father to Clarke 
county. Iowa, where he successfully followed 
his vocation until 1884. He then removed to 
Wahoo, Nebraska, where his death occurred 
in 1890. His widow then moved to the home 
of her son Joseph H.. with whom' she still 
lives, at the age of eighty-three years (1918). 



780 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



There were nine children in the family, of 
whom six are living, but Joseph H. is the only 
resident of Custer county. .\Irs. Linder is a 
devout meniljer of the l!ap/tist church, to which 
her husband also belonged, and he was a Re- 
publican in politics. 

Joseph H. Linder, father of Marshall B., 
was born in Clarke county. Iowa. September 
7. 18.^8. and there he grew to manhood and re- 
ceived his education in the public schools. 
About the time of his father's removal to W'a- 
hoo, Nebraska, he also took up his residence 
there and secured land, farming this until 1906, 
in which year he came to Custer county and 
bought 400 acres of land. This lies in the 
Bervvyn community, and Mr. Linder still fol- 
lows successfully the pursuits of farming and 
stock-raising. He is one of his community's 
public-spirited men and for ten years has 
served as a member of the school board. He 
is a Republican in politics, and he is affiliated 
with the Indepedent C)rder of Odd Fellows, 
the Modern Woodmen of America, and the 
Daughters of Rebekah. He and his wife have 
for thirty years been identified with the Pres- 
byterian church. 

In Iowa, in 1882, Joseph H. Linder wedd-ed 
Miss Rebecca Louden, who was born in Penn- 
sylvania, a daughter of John Louden, an early 
settler and farmer of Iowa. Seven children 
were born to Mr. and Mrs. Linder: Marshall 
B., who is the subject of this sketch; M. Mel- 
ville, who operates a rented farm in Custer 
county; Genevieve, who is the wife of W. D. 
Pratt, a farmer of this county ; W. G.. who 
also is- a farmer of Custer county ; Harry, who 
operates a rented farm ; and Anna Belle and 
Laura Belle, twins, residing with their parents. 

Marshall B. Linder received his education 
in the public schools of Wahoo. Nebraska, and 
after he had passed through the ninth grade, 
he began his career as a follower of the same 
vocation as that of his forbears. \\'hen he 
came to Custer countv. in 1907. he rented a 
farm, on which he resided for five years. an<l 
he then moved back to Wahoo. and for six 
years farmed in Saunders county. In the fall 
of 1917 he purchased 320 acres of land in 
Custer county, and in March. 1918. he returned 
to this county, where he has since success- 
fully engaged in general farming, although he 
intends in the near future to take uo catt!e 
and hog raising on an extensive scale. He 
has a pleasant and commodious modern home 
and other un-to-date huildines, fullv equippeil. 
and through his progressive and energetic 
work he is attainino- a creditable success. Mr. 
Linder is a Republican in his political views, 
and his fraternal connection is with the In- 



dependent Order of ( )dd Fellows, in which he 
has numerous warm friends in the local lodge. 
In September. 1904, at Wahoo, Nebraska, 
Mr. Linder married Miss Elizabeth Peterson, 
a daughter of C. J. Peterson, a stone and brick 
mason of that city. They are the parents of 
two children, Wilmer and Ruth, both of whom 
are attending the Berwvn schools. 



JA:\IES DINWIDDIE.— Originally a Cus- 
ter county settler and pioneer of the year 1880. 
James Dinwiddle returned to this community 
in 1915, after twenty years spent in another 
part of the country. Success had rewarded 
his eflforts elsewhere, but the lure of his old 
homestead was still strong, and he is now set- 
tled permanently on the property to which he 
came thirty-eight years ago with the high hopes 
of youth. 

Mr. Dinwiddle was born in Genesee countv. 
New York. July 14, 1855, a son of Robert and 
Elizabeth ( Anderson ) Dinwiddie. His father, 
who was born at Penpont, Scotland, in 1812, 
as a young man immigrated to the L'nited 
States and settled in New York, where he 
married Elizabeth Anderson, who was born at 
Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1817. Mr. Din- 
widdie was primarily a farmer by vocation, 
but for a number of years operated a tannerv 
in Genesee county, and when he disjx)sed oi 
his property there it was to move to Michigan, 
where the death of Mrs. Dinwiddie CKCurred 
in 1879. He continued to make his home in 
that state for three years, but in 1882 he came 
to Custer county, Nebraska, and settled on a 
homestead, which, however, he had the mis- 
fortune to lose. His death occurred here in 
18''2. He was a Republican in politics, and 
he and his wife were devout and uncompro- 
mising members of the Scotch Presbyterian 
church, it being Mr. Dinwiddle's custom for 
some years to walk twenty miles through the 
backwoods of Michigan in order to lead the 
clioir. 

James Dinwiddie was still a lad when his 
]>arents moved to Michigan, and his education 
was secured in the public scliools of the 'own 
of Ho])e. For his first occu])ation he took n\i 
farming for his father, and in 187*) he came 
to Custer county, where, in the following year, 
he secured a homestead. This at the time of 
his taking possessirn was an absolutely barren 
tract, with no imnrovements of any kind, but 
within the following fifteen years great 
changes took place — the land was put unfler 
cultivation, buildings were erected, and equip- 
ment and improvements made their appear- 
ance, so that the ])roperty became valuable and 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



781 



one of the handsome and productive farms 
of the locaHty. In 1895 Mr., Dinwiddie re- 
turned to the east, and at Woodford, Ver- 
mont, identified himself with the knnber busi- 
ness. He remained in New England for 
twenty years, Ijut in 1915 he came back to 
Custer county and again settled on the old 
homestead, where he carries on general farm- 
ing and the raising of stock, on his 152 acres. 
He has continued to make improvements and 
to develop his property in a modern way. and 
his manner of doing business and managing 
his affairs has given him an established repu- 
tation as a man of general worth, reliability, 
and progressive ideas. Every dollar that he 
possesses to-day has been gained by hard work. 
He helped to set up all the timber that is lo- 
cated in the vicinity of his home and in vari- 
ous other ways has assisted, in a public-spir- 
ited manner, in developing the communitv. 

In 1883, at Loup City, Nebraska, Mr. Din- 
widdie was united in marriage with ]\liss Mary 
F. Gleason, who was born at Woodford, Ver- 
mont, and to this union there have been born 
six children : Robert A., who is deceased : 
Elizabeth, who is the wife of Arthur J. Dewey, 
of Bennington, \'ermont ; Richard D., who is 
engaged in the cultivation of his father's farm ; 
E. H., who is employed in a hardwars estab- 
lishment at Bennington, Vermont ; Ray, who 
is a member. of Company F, Twentieth Infan- 
try, at Camp Douglas, Utah ; and Edna, who 
is the wife of Clarion Rogers, of Custer 
county. Mr. Dinwiddie is a member of the 
Union church of Woodford, \'"ermont. 



LOUIS E. PERRIN. — The lumber trade 
in Custer county is well represented bv a sound 
and sub.stantial organization doing business as 
the Dierks Lumber Company, with yards lo- 
cated throughout this section, an organization 
that for years has demonstrated progressive- 
ness and sound knowledge of business condi- 
tions. To be a representatiye of this concern 
is to have proved one's self worthy of confi- 
dence and the possessor of marked capacity, and 
for this reason Louis E. Perrin's position as 
manager of the yards of this business at Arnold 
stamps him as a business man entitled to men- 
tion among the constructive citizens of his 
community. 

^Ir. Perrin is a native son of Custer countw 
and was born at Sargent. July 16, 1889. a son 
of Similien L. and Sophia (Tobias) Perrin. 
His father, a native of New Orleans, Louisi- 
ana, came to Custer county in young manhood, 
settled on a homestead, and throtigh industry 



and perseverance succeeded in the develo])- 
ment of a good property and the accumula- 
tion of a competence. In 18W he moved to 
Sargent, to take charge of the Beatrice cream 
station, which he conducted nine years, subse- 
quently going into the postoffice, where he 
administered affairs as postmaster for seven 
years and established a good reputation as a 
public official. He is now living in retirement 
at Sargent, where he is one of his community's 
reliable and greatly respected citizens. Mr. 
Perrin married Miss Sophia To'bias, daughter 
of Isaac C. Tobias, and they became the par- 
ents of three children: Harold I., Louis E.. 
and Watt W. Harold I. Perrin, who is suc- 
cessfully engaged in the jewelry business at 
Sargent, is a member of the Masonic frater- 
nity, a Republican,, and he and his wife belong 
to the Methodist Episcopal church. He mar- 
ried Miss Allona Wood, and they have two 
children. He was assigned to class 4-A in the 
draft for the national army, as was also his 
brother Louis E. Watt W. Perrin, who is en- 
gaged' in farming near Sargent, married Gla- 
dys Ruse. He is a member of the Odd Fel- 
lows and is a Republican in politics. 

Louis E. Perrin was educated in the public 
schools and was ten years of age when taken 
by his parents to S'argent, where he was a stu- 
dent for several years. While living at that 
place he entered the employ of the Dierks Lum- 
ber Company, as "second man" in the yard, 
and he continued in that capacity until he' was 
given the promotion, in June, 1912, to the po- 
sition of manager of the yard at Mason Citv. 
Mr. Perrin continued to demonstrate his fidel- 
ity and business ability, and June 4, 1916, he 
was made manager of the Arnold yard, a much 
more important post, where he still directs 
the policies of the business and has charge of 
its working force. During the eleven years 
Mr. Perrin has been identified with this com- 
pany he has made his career one of steady ad- 
vancement, not alone in position but also In 
the confidence and esteem of his employers 
and in the friendship and respect of the peonle 
with whom he has had business dealings. He 
is a young man of pronounced ability, and, 
judging by what he has accomplished thus far, 
he is destined to make further advancement in 
winning success and prestige. He is a Demo- 
crat in politics, but has been too busy to take 
part in public matters, save as good citizens 
do. He is promiently affiliated with the Ma- 
sonic fraternity, in which he has attained to 
the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite 
and is a member of the Mystic Shrine. 

September 21, 1915, at Mason City, Ne- 
braska, Mr. Perrin was united in marriage to 



782 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Miss Lorene Rusmise'.l, daughter of William 
C. and Victoria (Reissner) Rusmisell, and 
they are parents of one daughter: Pauline L. 
Mrs. Perrin is a member of the Order of the 
Eastern Star and the Dauii'hters of Rcbekah, 
her membership being in the organizations at 
Arnold, this county. 



CHARLES B. MATHAUSER, who is 
one of the successful general farmers of the 
Comstock region of Custer county, and who 
makes a specialty of raising O. I. C. hogs and 
short-horn cattle, is one of the agriculturists 
of the younger generation who are native 
Nebraskans and who are recording creditable 
achievement in the state of their birth. He 
has been a resident of Custer county since 
1898. and during the intervening years he has 
witnessed a number of changes, all making 
toward progress and advancement in his voca- 
tion. 

Mr. Mathauser was born in the city of 
Omaha. February (>. 188,^, and is a son of 
Charles and Maggie (Hvezda) Mathauser, 
natives of Bohemia. The parents immigrated 
to the United vStates and at once took up their 
residence at Omaha, where resided a colony of 
their countn.'-people, the father securing em- 
ployment as the fireman of a furnace in a smel- 
ter. He held that position many years, but 
was energetic, ambitious, and industrious, care- 
fully saved his money, and in 1898 came to 
Custer county and settled on a farm. He con- 
tinued to be engaged in agricultural pursuits 
during the remainder of his energetic and use- 
ful career, and achieved a modest competence 
to reward him for his years of hard labor. He 
was a staunch Democrat in his political alle- 
giance but never cared for office or took an 
active part in cami)aigiis, being satisfied to ex- 
ercise his right of franchise in behalf of the 
men he deemed best fitted for office, lie was 
a faithful member of the Catholic church, as 
was also his wife, who died in that faith in 
December, 1917. There were eight childixn 
in the family : Charles B. is the subject of this 
sketch; John is a resident of Omaha: James, 
who married Sadie Klat. is a farmer in N'allev 
county: William, who married Emma Rousek. 
is a farmer in the same county: Emil, who 
married .^nnie Rousek, is engaged in farming 
in Custer county, near Comstock: Edward, 
who is a bachelor, resides at Comstock : and 
Misses Annie and Alary reside at hnnie. 

The public schools of Omaha furnished 
Charles B. Mathauser with his early education- 
al training, and when he came to Custer countv 
with the family, in 1898, he began working on 



the farm for his father, continuing to be thus 
employed until he embarked upon proceedings 
on his own account. He was twenty-two years 
old when he took this step, and at the present 
time he is the owner of 160 acres of finely cul- 
tivated land, on which he carries on general 
farming, and also makes a specialty of breed- 
ing O. I. C. hogs, of which he always keeps a 
large supply on hand, and short-horn cattle, of 
which he now has a herd of about twenty-five 
head. He has the reputation of being a skilled 
and progressive member of both of his voca- 
tions, while in business circles his rating is 
that of a man of honorable principles and up- 
right dealing. He is a Democrat in politics, 
but has found no time to seek office, being too 
busily engaged with his own affairs to take 
other than a good citizen's interest in jniblic 
afifairs. 

Air. Alathauser was married September 22. 
1909, to Miss Hazel L. Fees, daughter of 
Louis and Lydia (Cain) Fees, who came to 
Custer county in 1902, but are now residents 
of Holt county. To this union there have 
come three children : ' Margaret, born Tune 18, 
1910: Clara E.. born February 8, 1912; and 
Charles E., born August 3. 1914. 



CHARLES ZACHRY was one of the early 
settlers of West Table and from a humble be- 
ginning has become one of the well-to-do men 
of Custer county. A native of St. Clair county, 
Illinois, he was born July 14. 1859. His fa- 
ther, Henry Zachry, was a native of Germany 
and when a young man came to the United 
States, locating in St. Clair county, Illinois. 
In 1908 he came to Custer county, Nebraska, 
and here he passed away at his home in Merna, 
May 15, 1918. The mother of our subject was 
Alartha ( Robinson ) Zachry. a native of Illi- 
nois, and she passed away when her son 
Charles was a lad six years old. Henry Zach- 
rv contracted a second marriage, with Sarah 
Siter, who resides at Alerna. 

Charles Zachrv was the eldest of four chil- 
rlren, three of whom are living, the other two 
being Mrs. Frank Sharp, of Custer county, 
and Airs. Joseph Alills, of Illinois. 

When a boy of sixteen years Charles Zachry 
was thrown upon his own resources and be- 
gan working on a f-^rm as a hired man, at the 
munificent wages of eight dollars a month. 
October 2r>. 187*', he left Illinois and came to 
Saunders county. Nebraska, where he found 
employment feeding cattle for a stockman at 
.Ashland. In the spring of 1884 he came with 
his wife and their infant child to Custer countv, 
his possessions consisting of a team of horses. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



783 



a wagon and two dozen chickens. He possessed 
also an ambition and determination to> have 
a home, and he secured as a homestead the 
southwest quarter of section 6, township 17, 
range 11. Not an improvement had been made, 
and a sod house served as the home of the 
family for twelve years. They shared in all 
the trials and hardships that fell to the lot of 
the early settlers of Custer county, obstacles 
were met and overcome, and by persistent ef- 
fort and a display of good judgment the goal 
of success has been attained. 

January 1, 1884, was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Charles Zachr}' and Aliss Lillie Bach- 
elor, a (laughter of Kelander and Adeline 
Bachelor. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Zachry 
has been blessed with seven children : Lulu is 
the wife of A. C. McGuire, of Arnold, Ne- 
braska : William is married and operating one 
of his father's farms ; Edward is married and 
engaged in farming ; Nido is married and is 
farming in Custer county ; Lewis is at home ; 
Bertha is the wife of C. R. Woods, of Custer 
county ; and Myrtle is at home. 

Aside from general farming Mr. Zachry has 
engaged in raising thoroughbred short-horn 
cattle and registered Percheron and Shire 
horses, of which he owns some very fine speci- 
mens. He helped to organize the school dis- 
trict and has been interested in all those en- 
terprises that have aided in making Custer 
county a better place in which to live. 

Air. Zachry can truthfully be called a self- 
mad.? man. as all that he liHs accomplished has 
been through his and his family's untiring ef- 
forts, and they are held in high esteem 
wherever known. 



JAMES A. HOWELL. — A careful reader 
of the biographies of this volume will not the 
fact that Roten Table is the home of an un- 
usual number of substantial, prosperous farm- 
ers, and it is to this class and to this locality 
that Mr. Howell belongs. 

Mr. Howell hails from the southern part 
of the country. He was born in Ashe county. 
North Carolina, in April, 1861, and is a son 
of Calvin and Rachel (Roten) Howell, a splen- 
did couple whose children were John, Henry, 
James, -Amanda, Patrick, Barbara Riddle, and 
Martricia (Jwens. The father's occupation was 
farming, which operations were conducted in 
North Carolina, while James A. was a grow- 
ing lad. He worked at home on the North 
Carolina farm and received an education in 
the schools of the vicinity. Here his first 
work was performed, and here he learned soil 
culture and the fundamental principles of 



farming under vastly different conditions than 
exist in the middle west. It was in this south 
country that he performed his first work, and 
there he hoed corn for twenty-five cents a 
day, which was the first money he earned. 

The marriage of Mr, 'Howell occurred De- 
cember 8, 1887, at Lexington, Nebraska, when 
Sarah J, Benckeser became his wife. Mrs. 
Howell is a native of Illinois, and is a daughter 
of John and I\Iary E. (Chard) Benckeser. 
The father of Mrs. Howell was a native of 
Germany, but her mother belonged to the 
Hoosier state. In the family of Mrs. Howell's 
father and mother were eleven children, of 
whom Sarah J. (Mrs. Howell), was the first 
born. The others are Olive E., Nora Rowens, 
Laura Copas, Gertrude Barnes, Minnie, May 
Gage, Daisy Copas, Charles E., Henry, and 
William. The family are all members of the 
Lutheran church. 

The Howell home, presided over by Mr. 
and Mrs. James A. Howell, has afforded' dom- 
icile and shelter to nine children: Bertha M. 
married Robert Bryant. Her husband is in 
the national military service, and at the time 
of this writing is "somewhere in France." 
They have five children, who are living with 
their grandparents, Mr. land Mrs. Howell. 
John H., who is a bachelor, owns 160 acres ad- 
joining his father's place, in Roten valley. He 
was in the draft, under Class 2. Olive is the 
wife of Bryan E. Paxton, an employe of the 
Standard (Dil Company, located at Cozad, and 
they have three children. Walter E. is farm- 
ing with his brother Henry H., in Roten val- 
lev. The draft placed him in Class 1, Division 
A. Wily E., Orpha M., Rachel M., Calvin 
H., and Violet I. are all at home under the 
parental roof, the older ones pursuing their 
studies either in the district school at home or 
the high school at Cozad. 

-Mr. Howell's arrival in Custer county oc- 
curred in 1884, and here he worked by the 
month, helped build sod houses for pioneer 
settlers, and became an expert sod layer — 
one whose services were in great demand 
among the early settlers. He complains that 
when he came to the country he had to drink 
water from the lagoons where the cattle and 
wild horses watered. The settlers had to let 
the water settle and then strain it before us- 
ing it. 

Air. Howell bought the old William Ashley 
claim in 1892. Ashley will be remembered 
as the man killed by Hauenstein. To his orig- 
inal purchase Mr. Howell has added an ad- 
joining 160 acres. His son Henry owns the 
Hiram Roten place, Mr. Roten having been 
the other settler killed by Hauenstein. 



784 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COl'XTY, NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



785 



Mr. Howell and his good wife are well and 
favorably known in Roten valley. They have 
made their money farming and' stock-raising. 
They have a host of friends who rate them 
among the first citizens of the community. 
Anent the early experiences of former days, 
Mr. Howell says that he w^orked for Harve 
Andrews, who sent him into Cedar canyon to 
split cedar posts. Harve watched him for 
awhile and then said, "Where are you from?" 
Hcwell replied that he was from North Car- 
olina. Andrews replied that he himself was 
from \ irginia, saying, "I see now that I need 
not watch you nor tell you how to use an axe." 
Harve went back to his dugout and left youno- 
James alone with his cedars. ' ^ 

ROBERT AI. SEEVERS.-Thirtv-five 
years have come and gone since the subject 
of this record cast in his lot with the early set- 
tlers of Custer county, and during all those 
years he has been closely identified with the 
development and progress of this part of the 
state. 

Robert Milton Seevers was born in Mahaska 
county, Iowa, July 18, 1862. His father, Ben- 
jamin F. S'eevers, was born in \'irgiiiia, De- 
cember 1, 1802, and when a young^nan was 
united in marriage to Elizabeth Forney, on the 
historic bridge at Harpers Ferry, she also hav- 
ing been a native of Virginia, where she was 
born July 10, 1827. In the early 'SOs they 
came west and settled in Mahaska county, 
Iowa, where they engaged in farming. It was 
here the father passed away, at the age of 
eighty-four years and the mother's death oc- 
curred in Custer county. Nebraska, at the age 
of sixty-five years. They were the parents 
of eight children, of whom Robert M. and 
Mrs. J. D. Ream are the onlv ones residing 
in Custer county. ' ''' 

Robert M. Seevers was reared on a farm in 
his native county and acquired his education 
in the public schools. When a young man he 
was employed for a time as a civirengineer, 
and also engaged in farming. In May. 1883,' 
he came to Custer county, Nebraska, and se- 
cured a homestead in section 26. township 18. 
range 23. He also took a tree claim adjoin- 
ing. His first home was the usual sod house 
and he shared in all the hardships and trials 
in:ident to those pioneer days. As the years 
passed and his prosperity increased, he added 
to his holdings, and to-day he is the owner of 
800 acres, with as fine a set of improvements 
as can be found in Custer county. The beauti- 
ful frame house was erected in 1907 and is 
equipped with steam heat, electric lights, and 



air-pressure hot and cold water system, pro- 
viding for. the family every convenience to 
be found in the finest homes of a city. Large 
barns and outbuildings provide ample shelter 
for grain and stock and the housing of farm 
machinery. Mr. Seevers possesses unusual 
mechanical skill, and any work requiring a 
plumber or blacksmith he is able to attend to 
himself. 

For a companion and helpmeet Mr. Seevers 
chose Miss Rosa Butler, who was born in 
Hancock county, Illinoiis, a daughter of 
Marion and Milliann (Huffman) BiUler who 
came to Custer county in 1882 and were 
among the early settlers of Ortello valley, 
where both passed away. Eleven children 
have come to brighten the home of ]VIr. and 
Mrs. Seevers : Franklin, Lewis, Bly. Guy. Ina 
Xa. Tava. Ada, Cecil, Robert M. Jr. and 
Kenneth. The mother of this family is a 
member of the United Brethren church 

Mr. Seevers is a member of the Modern 
Woodmen of America, at Merna, and in poli- 
tics is a Republican. He has always taken an 
active part in all lines of progress 'in his com- 
munit)', helped organize the school district, has 
held various township offices, and he can al- 
ways be depended upon to give his support to 
any worthy cause. Coming to the county when 
the work of development had just begun, he 
not only witnessed the vast changes that liave 
taken place but has also been a factor in help- 
ing to make Custer county what it is to-day. 
The success that has attended his efiforts is 
well deserved, and the family are held in un- 
equivocal esteem by all who know them. 

LLOYD HINES. — When you note the age 
of this young man and understand the few- 
years that he has been farming, it is not hard 
to believe the statement that has been made 
concerning him. that he has succeeded because 
he was equipped with a "self-starter." Cer- 
tainly his energy has had its effect, and he 
has to-day the foundations of what will be 
be a modest Custer county fortune. 

Lloyd Hines was born January 12, 1893. in 
Randolph county. Missouri. Hi's parents. H. 
Mitchell Hines and Susan (Adams) Hines, 
both natives of the Bluegrass state, and both 
fine people, transmitted to their progeny 
the fundamental characteristics of thrift and 
energy. In the father's family were six chil- 
dren—Homer H., Aubrev C, Llovd, Reta 
Waterfield, Ralph H., and Arnold. The father 
was a carpenter and contractor by occupation, 
although he owned a farm about o'ne mile from' 
Darkville, Missouri. This farm served as the 



786 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



family home and there young Lloyd began 
his career. There he lived until he was six- 
teen years of age, when he came into Dawson 
county, Nebraska, with his brother Homer. 
They arrived at Gothenberg, and here young 
Lloyd worked for two years. He then went 
to Washington, one of the great and attrac- 
tive regions of the west at that time, and there 
he worked in a logging camp for two years. 
He then returned to Nebraska and worked 
on the Callaway branch of the L'nion Pacific 
Railroad, from Callaway to Stapleton. 

December 22. 1913. at Broken Bow, Ne- 
braska, Mr. Hines wedded Miss Mabel Gor- 
don, who was reared in the district west of 
Callaway. Custer county, and who is a daugh- 
ter of Robert and Mattie L. (Stapelman) 
Gordon. Mr. Gordon, a splendid gentleman 
of Scotch descent, came from Ohio to Custer 
county with Edward Smith, in an early day. 
and he located a homestead five miles west of 
Callaway. At the time of his death he owned 
about 1,040 acres, which descended to his three 
children — Mrs. Mabel C. Hines, Mrs. Sadie 
L. Fosno, and Archie R. Gordon. Mr. Hines 
was fortunate enough to buy the interest of 
one of the heirs, Mrs. Sadie Fosno, and as a 
consequence of his transaction he and his wife 
own two-thirds of the fine property. At the 
present time Mr. Hines is farming 280 acres, 
raises hogs and cattle, is counted on the of the 
"live wires" in the community, and is bound to 
make his mark in the county as a fanner and 
stock-raiser. He is a Democrat in politics and 
is one of the counselors of the public in his 
local communitv. 



JAMES W. MAXSON. — One of the well 
known names of Arnold is that of James W. 
Maxson. who was born .\ngust 28, 1856, in 
Lewis county, West Virginia. He was the 
seventh son of Herman and Druzilla ( P.rown ) 
Maxson. both natives of West \irginia. In 
this family were nine children besides the sub- 
ject of this sketch, the others being John E.. 
Mrs. Elizabeth E. McClain, Thomas (deceas- 
ed). Timothy, Martha J. (deceased), .\lexan- 
der. Mrs. Marv M. Ward, and Benjamin W. 
The father followed farming and blacksmitti- 
ing as an occupation, but was also a shoemak- 
er, at which trade he worked on different occa- 
sions. James W. recalls that the first pair of 
shoes he ever wore were made by his fathe*-. 
As the father was not in good health, James 
W. had to help on the farm and do all he 
could toward making a living for the familv. 
When he was nine years of age his parents 
moved to Clark county, Missouri, where 



they made their home for four years. 
They then moved to Gnmdy county, 
where the parents bought a farm thj.t 
was only partially cleared, and James W. had 
to assist in clearing the remainder of the farm. 
This gave a ver>- valuable experience in deal- 
ing with stumps and stumpy ground — an ex- 
perience that enabled him to meet and uproot 
the various kinds of stumps encountered in ac- 
tive life. Mr. and Mrs. Herman Maxson were 
considered prominent people of their commu- 
nity and were staunch supporters of the Bap- 
tist church. 

James W. Maxson lived at home until he 
was twenty-two years of age ; thereafter he 
fanned the home place on shares. Decemljer 
30, 1880, in Grundy county, j\Iissouri, he was 
united in marriage to Martha A. G. Marrs. 
Mrs. Maxson is a daughter of Wesley P. and 
Saletha A. (Tabor) Alarrs. and in the imme- 
diate family were the following named chil- 
dren: Mrs. Elvina Ratliff (deceased), Ryley, 
Mrs. Sarah Ma.xson. Mrs. Martha A. G. Max- 
son. David C, Mrs. Delia Crogan, Mrs. Alice 
Price, John \\'., Bartley, and Mrs. Fanny M. 
Collins. 

Mr. and Mrs. IMaxson established a home 
of their own which in many respects has been 
ideal, and in every way comfortable and con- 
venient. They have five living children : 
Gertie is the wife of Emery D. Parson, who 
owns a harness shop in Arnold. They have 
three children, all girls, and the family is con- 
nected with the Methodist church. Caddie E. 
married ]\Iollie Koch and lives on a farm near 
Arnokl. They have two sons and both he and 
his wife are Methodists. Nellie M. Wimple 
is the widow of Dudley Wimple and she has 
four sons and one daughter. Elsie E. is the 
wife of Ernest Cunningham, a farmer near 
Arnold, and they have two sons and two 
daughters. Bertha A. lives at home with her 
father, in Arnold. Mrs. Maxson died De- 
cember 19, 1894. 

Mr. Maxson arrived in Custer county Sep- 
tember 21, 1885. and located a homestead 
seven miles northwest of .\rnokl. On this 
place he lived until after the death of Mrs. 
Maxson, and he then moved closer to school 
and took care of his children until they were 
grown and large enough to go out into the 
world for themselves. In 1908 he moved 
into the village of Arnold, where he now lives, 
but he still owns the old homestead and has 
added to it until he now owns 480 acres. His 
has been an unusual career. More than the 
usual share of early-day hardships seemed to 
fall to his lot. Left with five children, it was 
a hard struggle to keep them together and 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



787 



maintain a home with unbroken family re- 
lations, but he met his difficulties and to-day 
has the satisfaction of knowing that he fur- 
nished his children a good home after the 
death of their mother, the while he finds him- 
self in p>ossession of enough of this world's 
goods so that the years of his retirement from 
active life may be free from care and worry. 



JAMES JOHNSON, who is one of Custer 
county's most valued citizens, is a man of sub- 
stance and stability. For thirty-three years he 
has lived on his valuable homestead and has 
been very successful in his agricultural in- 
dustries. From every point of view, after all 
these years, he declares he is well satisfied that 
chance and good judgment led him to make 
his permanent home in Custer county. 

James Johnson was born in Moen, Den- 
mark, June 3, 1855. His parents were Jens 
and Anna E. (Hanson) Paulson Johnson, and 
they and their parents were all born in Den- 
mark and were members of the Lutheran 
church. James Johnson was the youngest born 
of his parents' five sons, the others I>eing: 
Hans, Nels, Christian, and Peter. He was 
reared in a farming district and well remem- 
bers, among other incidents, the day on which 
he earned his first money. A neighboring hus- 
bandman of his father's engaged him to ride 
a horse over the field of wheat stubble, while 
the daughter of his employer managed the old 
wootlen horse-rake to gather up the loose 
wheat heads. Little did he think in those days 
of the wonderful farm machinery he would 
some day own and oj>erate on his own land in 
a far-distant country. Although he did not 
know the English language when he came to 
the United States, in 1871, Mr. Johnson did 
not feel like an entire stranger on these shores, 
because three of his brothers had already come 
to America. He traveled by rail across the 
country and by steamboat then reached Oma- 
ha, Nebraska. During his first summer in the 
state he worked on the farm of one of his 
brothers, and he then went to school during 
the winter, in order to learn the English lan- 
guage more quickly. Strong, willing, and 
companionable, Mr. Johnson found no difficul- 
ty in securing employment, and for a time he 
worked at coal-mining in Carbon, Wyoming. 
Later he was a cowboy, and he was variously 
engaged until 1883, when he came to Custer 
county, which has been his chosen home ever 
since. In 1884 he secured the fine homestead 
on which he yet lives, in the neighborhood of 
Oconto, and in the course of years he has 
quietly added to his original homestead until 



now he owns 640 acres. Of this large body he 
cultivates 240 acres, and he has a well adjusted 
farm, with an abundance of grazing land for 
his stock. He has everything exceedingly 
comfortable around him and his success here 
merely illustrates what intelligent industry, 
courage and resourcefulness can accomplish. 
Mr. Johnson was married November 5, 1885, 
at Lexington, Nebraska, to Miss Anna K. 
Kjar, who was born in North Jutland, Den- 
mark, the youngest of the five children of Nels 
and Cecelia M. (Anderson) Kjar, natives of 
Denmark. Mrs. Johnson is one of a family 
of six children and the others who are now 
living are Christian, Kronburg C, Andrea 
Sorrenson, and Johanna M. Five children were 
born to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson — Theodore 
C. Ralph. Arthur K., Marie E., and James 
P. Theodore C. Johnson, who is located on 
the Dawson county line, in section 33. town- 
ship 13. range 22, owns a valuable farm and 
raises grain and stock. Ralph Johnson, who 
is a farmer and stock-raiser, owns a farm on 
section 27. Arthur K. Johnson is his father's 
partner on the home farm, on Bufifalo creek. 
Marie E. Johnson, the only daughter, was 
graduated from Broken Bow College in 1913, 
and further pursued her studies, during 1915, 
1916, and 1917, in the Fremont Normal School. 
She now resides at the parental home, al- 
though she has taught school about four years. 
Janies P. Johnson, the youngest son, is a grad- 
uate of educational institutions at Broken 
P.ow and Fremont and for three years was so 
acceptable as a teacher that he was appointed 
principal of the Randall high school. This 
honor he declined in order to enter the service 
of his country. He enlisted in the United 
States service in July, 1917, and at the time of 
this writing he is at the officers' training camp 
at Louisville, Kentucky. His older brothers 
are equally loyal and all made preparations to 
answer the call of the government for service 
in the cause of world-wide freedom. None of 
the young men is married, and all are held in 
the most unqualified esteem in Custer county. 



BARTHOL DITTMAR. a prosperous 
farmer and the owner of many acres of valu- 
able land in Custer county, came here with the 
pioneers of the middle '80s. While none {>er- 
haps, expected a life of ease, they were soon 
calle<l upon to endure hardships and privations 
that disheartened many but only aroused great- 
er courage in others, and to the latter the 
country at large is greatly indebted, for which 
reason the historical annals of the state should 
carefully preserve their names. Barthol Ditt- 



788 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. .\EBR.\SKA 



mar was born in Germany. Xovember 4. 1858. 
His parents were Michael and Dora ( Snyder) 
Dittmar, and his father was a small farmer 
near Kissingen. There were four children in 
the family. Barthol being the second in order 
of birth, with an older brother. John G.. and 
two sisters younger, Margaret and Dorothea. 

Barthol Dittmar attended the schools of his 
class in his native land and as long as he re- 
mained there he was engaged in farm pur- 
suits. \\'hen fourteen years of age he received 
for farm work but seventy-five cents a week. 
He remained in Germany and fulfilled all the 
laws of the land as to military' service, but in 
1881, when twenty-three years old, he came to 
the United States. He sought an agricultural 
section of the countr}', and found ready em- 
ployment and good wages in Jo Daviess 
county. Illinois. He remained in that section, 
working on farms, for the following five years. 
In the meanwhile Mr. Dittmar had made up 
his mind to remain in the United States, and 
he began to seek a suitable location in which 
to establish a permanent home. In looking 
over different sections for the advantages and 
opportunities that would come within his 
means and desires, he chose Custer county, 
Nebraska, and he came here in 188?. He lo- 
cated in section 20. township 13. range 22, 
on Buffalo creek, and here he has lived ever 
since. Since then, through his persistent in- 
dustry, he has accumulated much more land, 
and at the present time he owns all of section 
20 and three-fourths of another section. He 
has his fanns equipped with stock and ma- 
chinery- for the most effective live-stock and 
crop production, and up to 1918 lue had never 
permitted himself to slacken for a day in the 
prosecution of his work : therefore it was a 
matter of family rejoicing when he consented 
to take a vacation of three weeks. 

Mr. Dittmar was married February 1. 1887. 
at Mount Carroll. Illinois, to Miss Dora Ditt- 
mar, who was born in Germany, as were her 
Darents. I^wrence and Dorothy ( Schmitt ) 
Dittmar. Mrs. Dittmar accompanied her hus- 
band back to Custer county, and in recalling 
early times here she intimates that pen])le who 
actually survived conditions through 180,^-4 
can sneak with authority of real pioneer 
hardships. Mr. and Mrs. Dittmar have five 
children: Albert L.. who lives on one-half sec- 
tion of land and is farming independently, was 
ready to respond to the call of the government 
for military duty; Charles C, who is farming 
on the home place, was likewise awaiting mili- 
tary' call; Herman W., the third son, also was 
eligible for military service; Lulu M., twin sis- 
ter of Herman W.. is the wife of C. Heine, a 



farmer one mile south of Oconto, and they 
have one daughter; and Fred H. is a school- 
bov of twelve years, with very sensible, prac- 
tical ideas. Mr. Dittmar and his family belong 
to the Lutheran church. 



WILLIAM T. BUCKXER. who is a rep- 
resentative business man of Oconto, Nebraska, 
is a large owner of realty here and is an ener- 
getic and progressive citizen who entertains a 
very high opinion of this section of Nebraska, 
for he was born here, on the site of this flour- 
ishing town. April 28, 1882. He bears a fa- 
mous old Kentucky name and his respected fa- 
ther, J. B. Buckner. who is a retired resident 
of Oconto, was born in the Bluegrass state, 
he having been a farmer throughout his active 
career. J. B. Buckner married Elizabeth 
Stairs, who was born in Indiana, a daughter of 
Ezra T. and Dorcas ( Fitzwater ) Stairs, and 
thev came to Custer county in 1879. Their 
children are as follows : Fred ; William T. ; 
Maud, who is the wife of Peter Overgard ; 
Agnes, who is the wife of James Overgard : 
Glenn, who became a soldier in the national 
army and went to Camp Dodge. Iowa, for 
training, in July. 1918; and Anna M.. who is 
the wife of Fred Thurman. 

William T. Buckner was reared on the 
home fann in Custer county — the place on 
which his parents lived for twenty years. He 
was educated in the schools of his native 
county and when old enough to go into busi- 
ness for himself, he purchased a farm situated 
one and one-half miles south of Oconto. 
This he operated for several years, and 
he then moved to Oconto. He has been 
one of the active Republicans of the 
county for many years and during the adminis- 
tration of President ^^'illiam H. Taft he served 
as postmaster of Oconto. He thus sen-ed from 
1912 until he was succeeded by an appointee 
of President Woodrow Wilson, when political 
changes came about all over the countrj-. As 
a loval citizen Mr. Buckner has been active in 
many ways, and he is a very pojudar man in 
Custer county. He owns a beautiful home in 
the little citv of Oconto, together with a num- 
ber of profitable renting properties, and a large 
part of his time is occupied in the management 
of a hauling and draying line that he has had 
in operation here for some time. 

Mr. Buckner was married January 2. 1905. 
at Oconto, to Miss Nancy Wiseman, who was 
born in Custer county, but is of West \'irginia 
ancestrv. her parents. John P. and Ella ( Twin- 
ing) Wiseman, having been born and reared 
in West \'irginia. Mr. and Mrs. Buckner have 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



789 



three daughters and one son, namely: Maude, 
Lucy, Edna, and James F. — all exceptionally 
intelligent young people for whom there is 
full assurance of educational and social advan- 
tages. Mr. lluckner has long been identified 
with the Indejiendent ( )rder of Odd Fellows 
and is affiliated also with the Modern Wood- 
men of America. 



GEORGE W. LINCOLN, who owns a large 
body of land and carries on general farming 
on an extensive acreage, is one of the sub- 
stantial men of Custer county, where he is 
widely known. Mr. Lincoln has spent almost 
his entire life in this county and has done his 
part in assisting in its development. He was 
born in Carroll county, Iowa. December 9, 
1881, and is a son of Charles W. and Edna 
(Johnson) Lincoln. His father was born in 
^Massachusetts and has been a farmer all his 
life. He brought his family to Nebraska in 
1886 and located in Turner valley, nine miles 
northwest of Callaway, Custer county, freight- 
ing across from Plum Creek. 

George W. Lincoln was five years old when 
his parents settled in Custer county. He is 
the third born in their famih' of five children, 
the others being as here noted : Ida, who is 
the wife of John Foxworthy, and Frank A., 
Ross W., and Carl, the last named being de- 
ceased. George W. Lincoln grew up on his 
father's farm and spent an industrious boy- 
hood, finding time, however, to attend school 
during the winter seasons. That is one thing 
very much to the credit of the pioneers of this 
county, the founding of schools in every com- 
munity, and their wise foresight is reflected 
in the high grade of intelligence that marks 
Custer county citizenship. j\Ir. Lincoln not 
only assisted his father but also, in order fo 
make a little pocket money, sometimes worked 
for neighboring farmers in corn-planting time. 
Sometimes, he had to take "trade" for his 
wages, as real money was very scarce in the 
neighborhood in those days, and he recalls one 
occasion when he was paid off with a hen 
which was decorated with a "top-knot," and 
wliich was supposed to be worth several or- 
dinary fowls. There were those who were a 
little skeptical, but Air. Lincoln still believes 
he got a barg-ain, and probably poultry-raising 
has been one of his many farm industries. He 
cultivates over 500 acres of land, some of 
which he has rented to capable tenant farm- 
ers, but in the main he superintends the opera- ' 
tions himself, employing modern methods and 
improved farm machinery. Mr. Lincoln is one 
of the large land owners of the county, for at 



the present time he has 1.280 acres, and every 
square foot of it is increasing in value annually. 
]\lr. Lincoln was married June 24, 1916, to 
Mrs. Mary J. Griffith, who was a widow and 
who is a daughter of Moses and Anna Weaver. 
By her first marriage Mrs. Lincoln had five 
children, namely : Lynn, Ivan, Nellie, Clar- 
ence, and Eva. Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln have 
one son, Oral, who was born in 1917. Mr. 
Lincoln is a Democrat in politics but has never 
taken any active part in public matters, though 
he has always show-ed a good citizen's inter- 
est. He is a member of the Masonic lodge 
at Callaway. 



BENJAMIN F. COX. — As standing in the 
front rank of the successful farmers and stock- 
men of Custer county, mention should be made 
of the gentleman whose name introduces this 
record and who from pioneer days has been 
identified with the upbuilding of this part of 
the state. 

Mr. Cox is a native of Indiana, his birth 
having occurred in Jackson county. August 16. 
1856. His father, Jabez Cox, was a native 
of Kentucky, served as a soldier in the Mexi- 
can war and became a farmer in Indiana, 
where he spent the remainder of his life. The 
mother of our subject bore the maiden name 
of Margaret Hubbard and was a native of 
Indiana, wdiere her entire life was spent. 

Benjamin F. Cox was one of a family of 
eight children, four of whom are living. He 
and a brother Henry are the only ones residing 
in Custer county. Reared on a farm in his 
native state and educated in the public schools, 
Mr. Cox was a young man of nineteen when 
he went to Iowa, and he worked as a farm 
hand in various counties until 1882, when he 
came to Nebraska. After here spending one 
year in Hamilton county, he came to Custer 
county, in the fall of 1883, and took a home- 
stead of 160 acres in section 7, township 17, 
range 22. and an adjoining tree claim of equal 
area. His first home was a sod house, tvv^elve 
by fourteen feet in dimensions, and he shared 
in all the trials and hardships of the early 
days. He set resolutely to work developing 
the new farm and he has prospered in his un- 
dertakings, a fact which is manifested in the 
beautiful country home he has built for his 
family and in the landed estate of 800 acres' 
which he has acquired. 

February 22, 1891, Mr. Cox was united in 
marriage to Miss Christina Kaupp, a native 
of Jo Daviess county, Illinois, and a daughter 
of Christian Kaupp, an early settler of Custer 
county who now lives retired in Merna and 



790 



HISTORY OF Cl'STER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



of whom specific mention is made on other 
pages of this history. The home of Mr. and 
Mrs. Cox has been made happy by the arrival 
of eight ciiildren : Lloyd, who was a dnigoist 
in Omaha, is a member of the nation-.l 
army at the time of this writing; Adella is at 
home ; Chester is in the national army and is 
located at this writing at Camp Doclge, Des 
Moines. Iowa : Hazel. Ralph, Benjamin F.. 
Jr., Gladys, and Margaret are all under the 
parental roof. 

Mr. Cox has not been remiss in any duty 
of citizenship. He helped organize the school 
district and seryed as a member of its board 
of directors many years. He has been presi- 
dent of the Farmers Bank of Mema since its 
organization. Fraternally he is a thirty-sec- 
ond-degree Mason and is affiliated with Tan- 
gier Temple. Ancient .Arabic Order of the 
Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, at Omaha. He 
is a member also of the Mema organizations 
of the Modern Woodmen of America and In- 
dependent CJrder of Odd Fellows. He is one 
of the progressive and influential men of Cus- 
ter coimtv and his success is well merited. 



ALFRED SCMREYER. — The name that 
initiates this paragraph belongs to a retired 
farmer in Arnold. Nebraska, and the name it- 
self belongs to the early pioneer period, as it 
has been well known in the county since long 
before the county was organized. 

Alfred S'chreyer was born March 31. 1863. 
in Hill.sboro. Wisconsin. His father. Fred- 
erick Schreyer. was born January 11. 1826, in 
Mitwitz. Bavaria, and lived until December 
23. 1914. The mother. Anna M. fSchaller) 
Schreyer. was born in April. 1833. in Heubisch. 
Saxe-Meiningen. Germany. She died October 
20. 1882. The parents were married October 
31. 18.^6, and landed in America November 
23. 1861. Tile father was a shoemaker by oc- 
cupation and the first home in America of the 
family was in Wisconsin, but in the latter part 
of 1864 they moved to Cincimiati. Ohio, where 
Mr. Schreyer enlisted in Company E, One 
Hundred and Eighty-n-nth Ohio \"o'unteer 
Infantry. He was discharged at Huntsville. 
Alabama, in .\ugust. 1865. Aiter the war he 
settled in .\tkinsonville. Indiana, where he 
was commissioned postmaster in 1868. Here 
he engaged in the mercantile business, later 
moving to Brazil. Indiana, when his son .W- 
fred was seven years old. There Alfred ob- 
tained a common-school education, getting all 
his schooling between the ages of seven and 
twelve years. It was here too that he earned 
his first money, by plowing corn with a single- 



shovel plow. The hard times and panic that 
ensued after the war depleted the fortunes of 
the senior Schreyer and, hearing about the 
splendid opportunities of the unsettled west, 
he came to Custer county in 1875 and located 
five miles northwest of Callaway, in Triumph 
precinct. This was two years before the or- 
ganization of Custer county and several years 
before there were any schools in that locality. 
This curtailed the ambitions of young Alfred, 
who much desired an education, but he re- 
solved to improve himself and so eft'ectually 
did he apply himself that to-day he enjoys the 
distinction of having been the first qualified 
teacher in the southwest part of Custer county. 
In the spring of 1881. in the residence of D. 
E. Sprouse. two and one-half miles north of 
Callaway, he taught two months, finishing the 
term by teaching another month in the resi- 
fleiice of John Schreyer, five miles north of 
Callaway. In the family of his father, Fred- 
erick S'chreyer. were the following children : 
Alfred, of whom this is written; Mrs. Hu'da 
Miller, and Mrs. Rosa Cassel. both of whom 
are deceased; Mrs. Clara I'osten ; and Oscar. 
-Alfred was married July 4. 1884, in liroken 
l!ow to Miss Addie Mulvany. a very excellent 
)oung lady whose native state was Indiana. 
She had taught several years in the Custer 
county schools. Her parents. John and Eliza- 
beth A. (Dobson) Mulvany. were prominent 
people and early settlers of Custer county, and 
in their family were seven other children: Mrs. 
Henrietta Davis, Mrs. Darthula .\ikluan. Jolm 
H.. H. Sherman. Mrs. Hester .A. Runyan. Mrs. 
Mary S. Wright, and George W. 

Alfred Schreyer and his wife immediately 
established their own home and. although it 
lacked the comforts of the present day. it was 
always homelike and comfortable. Time pros- 
pered them with this world's goods and blessed 
tiie family circle with seven children, concern- 
ing whom brief record is here given: Mrs. 
Mary E. Longmore is the wife of a thrifty 
farmer near Callaway, and they have two sons 
and two daughters. Mrs. Frieda \'. I'emiett 
is the wife of the manager of the Harding 
Cream Station in Arnold, and they have one 
son. Walter E. is deceased. Georgia L. is 
the wife of Samuel H. Bailey, a farmer living 
near Arnold. Elizabeth N. is the wife of 
David X. Oberg, a farmer living near Etna, 
and they have two sons. Frances A. is the 
wife of Rall\- C. Hickenbottom, a farmer of 
Callaway. They have one son and one daugh- 
ter. Mabel I. is at the paternal home and is 
attending the .Arnold high school. Mrs. .Add'e 
Schreyer passed to the life eternal on the 25th 
of November, 1918, aged fifty-two years, three 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



791 




Alfred Schreyer and Family 



"92 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



months, and nine days, and her memory rests 
as a benediction upon all who came within the 
sphere of her gracious influence. 

Mr. Schreyer. whose residence dates from 
the early days of the pioneers, is one of the 
really substantial farmers of the county. In 
1884 he homesteaded land adjoining his fa- 
ther's claim. This he never sold but he has add- 
ed to it and eventually purchased most of the 
home place of his father. He now owns 908 
acres of splendid land and has always been 
a large producer of hogs and cattle. His fan- 
cy turned always to high-grade Herefords. He 
lives in Arnold' and rents his ranch, fully 
stocked. This gives him a splendid source of 
income. He belongs to several social orders 
and stands high in the community. He is sec- 
retary and manager of the Callaway & .\rnold 
Telephone Company, and has held such local 
offices as school director, town treasurer, and 
justice of the peace, all of these preferments 
attesting to his abilitv as a communitv leader. 



ESTEL P. SPRATT. — This review an- 
nounces the name of a young farmer who is 
operating in the vicinity of Arnold and is . 
making good. Estel P. Spratt was born in 
Marion county. Missouri, in 1880. and in that 
county he spent his boyhood years. From his 
])areuts he inherited (|ualities that have con- 
served his success in later years. 

Prior to coming to Custer county Mr. Spratt 
lived on a farm in Logan county, but he pre- 
fers Custer county, as it oflfers greater oppor- 
tunities to the man who is willing to work. 
He now owns 280 acres of good land, upon 
which he has built a new house which affords 
the comforts of a modern farm home. He 
has 160 acres under cultivation and does gen- 
eral farming in all its varied branches. His 
live stock is of good grade and he is a man 
who takes good care of everything on the 
farm. 

Mr. Spratt married Miss Delia Phifer. who 
was born in 1883. in Mills county. Iowa. Mr. 
and Mrs. Sjiratt have maintained a bos])itablc 
home — one that ranks well with the other 
homes in the communitv. Thev have two chil- 
dren — Gerald E. and Freda. Gerald was born 
in 1908 and Freda in 1909. They are bright. 
]:)romising children in whom their parents feel 
a pardonable pride. The family belong to the 
Methodist church. Mr. Spratt is an indepen- 
dent voter but believes in rendering his com- 
munity a local .service whenever opportunity 
presents itself. He is treasurer of the school 
board. Sociallv he is a member of the Modern 
^\'oodman. The communitv has few more 



patriotic men than he. In all the war drives he 
has been a liberal contributor. He has bought 
\\'ar Stamps, Libert}- Ilonds. and rendered the 
government every possible service. The 
Spratts are rated Al in the community and are 
obliging, agreeable neighbors. 



MEL\ l.X K. JONES, a representative 
farmer of Custer county and a member of that 
hardy band of settlers that came here in 1887 
and lived through many hardships in those 
early years, still owns the farm on which he 
first settled and which is now a well improved, 
profit-yielding pro])erty. Melvin K. Jones was 
born in .\ppanoose county, Iowa. September 
17. 1839. His parents were David A. and 
Priscilla (Guernsey) Jones, natives of Indiana, 
and his two grandfathers were Nathan Jones 
and Bronson Guernsey. They were all mem- 
bers of the Methodist Episcopal church, and 
Democracy was the political creed of the 
family. 

Melvin K. Jones was the only son and is the 
only surviving child of his parents. When he 
was about four years old his parents moved 
to Pottawattamie county, Iowa, which at that 
time was still a wild, undeveloped region 
of country. They located at what was called 
Shantytown. a point on the Missouri river 
near the present town of of Loveland. and 
there the father of Mr. Jones worked in a 
saw mill. .\t that time the Winnebago Indians 
were more numerous along the river than 
white settlers. At first, living conditions were 
primitive, but after the close of the Civil war 
a great army of eastern settlers came to that 
region and by the time Mr. Jones had become 
ready to settle down permanentlv. states "far- 
ther west" had become attractive, ^\■hen he 
came to Custer county, in 1887. he located 
southea.st of Callaway, adjoining the old Olive 
ranch on the south and west, and here he yet 
resides, as the owner of 240 acres of fine laiid. 

Mr. Jones was married March 12. 188.T. on 
Custer Ranch. Cu.ster county. NeS^raska, to ^liss 
Mattie Dickson, who was bom in Vermilion 
C( unty. Illinois, a daughter of Joseph B. and 
Clorinda ( Wells) Dick.son. the latter of whom 
was a daughter of John and Martha ( Odell ) 
Wells. The parents of Mrs. Jones came to 
Custer county. Nebraska, in November. 1884. 
and located three miles southeast of Callawav. 
They had the following children: ^Frs. Mattie 
Jones. Mrs. Mary Miller. Mrs. Jane Deal. Mrs. 
Emma Maier. Mrs. Susie \"an Antwerp, and 
James .\. Mr. Dickson had served in the 
Civil war and later was a member of the 
Grand .Army of the Republic, while in politics 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



191 



he was a Republican. Wx. and ]\rrs. Jones 
have four children — Millie E., Roy C. Flor- 
ence E.. and Elva O. ?^Iillie E. is the wife of 
Albert B. Downin, a farmer and stock-raiser 
south of Locli, this county, and they have two 
sons — Ralph and Morris. Roy C. Jones mar- 
ried Miss Ulah Murphy and they have two 
daughters — Leah A. and Delma E. Miss 
Florence E. Jones is a teacher in the schools 
of Custer county, in 1918, and Miss Elva-O. 
Jones is attending the graded schools. Mrs. 
Jones is a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. 

Mr. Jones has been measurably active in 
the development of Custer county, by co-oper- 
ating in the public-spirited enterprises that 
have conserved the general welfare, but he has 
never consented to become a candidate for 
public office. He is independent in his political 
attitude and gives his support to men and 
measures meeting the approval of his judg- 
ment, irrespective of partisan lines. Mr. Jones 
can recall many interesting events pertaining 
to the pioneer period of Custer county history 
and is, perhaps, one of very few left who had 
only Indian boys for playmates in the pioneer 
days of the history of the state of Iowa. 



CHARLES B. MATTOX, who is in many 
ways one of the representative men of Custer 
county, owns a very large body of valuable, 
well improved land, and successfully carries on 
agricultural industries. Mr. Mattox has spent 
.almost all his life in this county, being ten 
years old when he accompanied his parents 
here, and he is thoroughly identified with the 
best interests of this section. 

Charles B. Mattox was born December 1, 
1874, in Coles county, Illinois, near Mattoon, 
the fourth of a family of eight children born 
to his parents, William and Mary (Larue) 
Mattox. William Mattox came to Custer 
county with his family in the fall of 1884 and 
homesteaded in Dry valley, the name indicat- 
ing one of the discouraging conditions that 
these early settlers faced in those pioneer days. 
The Mattox family, like many others, was 
called upon to exercise courage, self-reliance, 
and hope, and in the course of time many of 
the earliest disadvantages were overcome. 
William Mattox and his wife continued to live 
on the homestead for twenty-four years, in 
1908 retiring from active life and moving to 
Comstock where they now live. While never 
very active in politics, Mr. Mattox has always 
been a staunch supporter of the Republican 
party. Following is a record concerning their 
children : Thomas, who is a farmer south of 



Comstock, has been twice married, first to 
Anna Tennant. who died in 1895, and. second, 
to Etta Davis ; James, who lives near Sargent, 
married Alnieda Tennant ; Laura E. is the wife 
of William Westbrook, wdio is a farmer in 
Custer county, south of Sargent ; Charles B. 
is the subject of this sketch ; Joseph, who is a 
farmer in Rose valley, married Flora McCas- 
lin ; Anna is the wife of Frederick Neidt, a 
farmer in Dry valley ; Harvey O., who is a 
resident of Antioch, Sheridan county. Ne- 
braska, married Zella Wills; and Arthur died 
at the age of two years, during his journey 
from Illinois to Custer county. 

Charles B. Mattox was old enough to assist 
his father when the family reached Custer 
county, and he remained at home and worked 
on the farm up to the time when he started out 
for himself, in the meanwhile attending school 
as opportunity was afforded. He has devoted 
himself to farming and stock-raising, and 
through hard work and intelligent manage- 
ment he has greatly prospered. He now owns 
600 acres of fine land, and liis home property 
is well improved, with evidences of thrift and 
careful, methodical farm operation to be seen 
on every hand. 

September 10, 1902, Mr. Alattox married 
Miss Mary Roth, who was born near Com- 
stock. Nebraska. She is one of a family of 
eight children born to Jonas and Jennie (Eu- 
bank) Roth, who were early pioneers in Cus- 
ter county, their homestead being located four 
miles west of Comstock. all their children liv- 
ing in the neighborhood of this pleasant town. 
Mr. and Mrs. Mattox have two children. Be- 
atrice and Paul, who are being given good 
educational advantages. In politics Mr. Mat- 
tox has always been a Republican, and the 
nature of his standing in party and comnnmity 
is evidenced by the fact that he has been re- 
tained in the office of township treasurer for 
more than four years. 



CHRISTIAN KAUPP was one of the early 
settlers of Custer county and, after a period 
of many years spent in the development and 
operation of his farm, he is now living in hon- 
orable retirement in a beautiful home in Merna. 

Mr. Kaupp was born in Germany, February 
10, 1836, and is a son of August and Rosina 
(Wolf) Kaupp, who spent their entire lives 
in the fatherland. When a young man Mr. 
Kaupp came to America, in 1864. and after 
spending about two years in New York and 
other parts of the east, he became a resident 
of Henry county, Illinois, where he resided 
until 1887. He then came to Custer county 



794 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY. NEBRASKA 



and took a homestead of 160 acres, in section 
15, township 17, range 23, as well as a tree 
claim of an equal area. Here he spent many 
years in agricultural pursuits, and in 1910 he 
retired witlt a competence. 

In March, 1867, at Lorraine, Illinois, Mr. 
Kaupp was united in marriage to Miss Kath- 
erine Heimindinger, a native of Germany, who 
came to America in 1852, and they became the 
parents of fourteen children — William, Chris- 
tina, Charles, Rosina, Julia, Florence, Sophia. 
Mamie, Hardy, Albert, Walter, Nettie, anfl 
two children who are deceased. 

Mr. Kaupp was among the early settlers of 
West Table, shared in the hardships of the 
pioneer days and became one of the well-to-do 
men of Custer county. 



JAMES R. FORSYTH was one of the very 
early settlers of Custer county. He came here 
in 1875 and from that time until he retired 
he was one of the substantial men of the 
community. 

A native of Louisville, Kentucky, he was 
bom in 1835, a son of Henry and Eleanor 
Forsyth. Reared and educated in the south, 
he there made his home until about the time 
of the Civil war, when he became a resident 
of Dane county, Wisconsin, later moving to 
Iowa, where he was engaged in farming until 
1875, when he came to Custer county and took 
a homestead in section 10, township 19, range 
21. His first home was a log house, which 
still stands on the place and which was the 
family home for many years. He also took 
a tree claim, and this was the scene of his ac- 
tivities for many years. He was interested 
in all those things which had to do with the 
upbuilding of his community. In 1906 he 
retired from active life and moved to Kearney. 

He was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth 
Dryden, a native of Dane county. Wisconsin, 
and a daughter of Nathaniel and Emma 
(Bolsh) Dryden, who also were among the 
early settlers of Custer county. 

Mr. and Mrs. Forsyth reared a family of 
seven children : David D. ; Elizabeth : Alpha : 
William H., residing at The Dalles. Oregon; 
Theron E., of Naches, Washington ; C. M . 
who owns and operates the old homestead : and 
John R., a resident of Great Falls, Montana. 

The parents were members of the Methodist 
church and in politics James Forsyth was a 
Democrat. He came here at a time when 
hardships and privations were to be found on 
every hand but he was equal to the task and 
lived to see the changes that have made the 
Custer county of to-day. The life record of 



such a man ought to serve as an inspiration 
to the present generation and help to make 
better men and women of them. 



J.\MES KRISS, whose success as an agri- 
culturist in Custer county, Nebraska, proves 
that determination and industry will be gen- 
erously rewarded here, has spent the most of 
his life in Custer county and is well known 
and highly esteemed b\' his neighbors in gen- 
eral. He owns a valuable farm in the vicinity 
of Comstock, his land being fertile and level 
and he has made improvements that are suit- 
able and substantial. 

James Kriss was born in Euroj>e, in the 
province of Bohemia, September 28, 1871, and 
is the youngest of the six children born to 
Frank and Annie ( Nickedah ) Kriss, the others 
being as follows : Frank, who is a farmer, mar- 
ried Josie Severien ; Fannie is the wife of 
Charles Severien, a farmer in Michigan ; 
Charles, who is a farmer south of Comstock, 
married Annie Palavek; Mary lives in the city 
of ( )maha. Nebraska : and Christie. 

The ])arents of !\Ir. Kriss were natives of 
liohemia and from there they came to the 
L'nited States in 1881. During the first year 
they lived at Omaha, Nebraska, the father in 
the meanwhile looking about for a desirable 
section in which to settle permanenth', and fi- 
nally he secured a homestead situated about 
eight miles north of Comstock, Custer county. 
The mother died there in 1906 but the father 
survives and resides with his son James. The 
old homestead property was sold four years 
ago. 

James Kriss received the larger part of his 
schooling in Custer county, and remained at 
home and assisted his father until ready to 
begin business life for himself. His success 
has been imusual, and he now own 480 acres 
in section 24, township 18. which is his home 
place, and another farm of 240 acres, which 
lies to the north of the homestead. This 
large acreage gives him an opportunity to farm 
extensively and to raise live stock successfully. 
He has taken full advantage of these oppor- 
tunities, and is numbered among the repre- 
sentative farmers and stock-raisers of the 
county. 

Mr. Kriss was married in June. 1898. to 
Miss Mary Weverka. whose parents, John H. 
and Frances Weverka. were early settlers in 
Custer county and who still live on their old 
homestead which thev secured from the gov- 
ernment. Mr. and Mrs. Kriss have a fine fam- 
ily of sons and daughters, all of whom still 
live at home, namely : James. Hettie, Emma, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



795 



Barbara, William, Joseph and Edward. Mr. 
Kriss and his family are members of the Bo- 
hemian Catholic church and attend services at 
Comstock. In politics he is a Democrat, and 
he is a willing worker for his party when called 
upon, for he has much influence among his 
Bohemian neighbors, but he has never con- 
sented to accept an)' political office. His rep- 
utation is that of an honest, upright man. and 
good American citizen. 



WILLIAM FLIEDER. — The good judg- 
ment shown by many of the early settlers when 
they came from other countries to find a home 
in the United States, has resulted in the de- 
velopment and improvement of a wide area of 
land, not only in Nebraska but also in other 
sections. W'ithin the last thirty-seven years 
many sturdy people have come from Bohemia, 
and wherever they have settled, substantial re- 
sults have followed, for, as a people, they are 
steady, industrious, and home-loving. About 
1881 the parents of William Flieder. who is a 
well known resident of Custer county, came to 
America, and after some time spent at Cedar 
Rapids, Iowa, they came into Nebraska and 
homesteaded in Valley county. In this state 
they passed the remainder of their lives. 

\Yillian: Flieder was born in \'allev county. 
Nebraska. July 5. 1882, a son of John and 
Annie Flieder. They had eight children and 
William is the only survivor of the entire 
family who is now living in Custer county. 
He was educated in the public schools of Da- 
kota county and remained at home and worked 
on the farm for his father until he was eigh- 
teen years old. He then started out for him- 
self, and has been a farmer ever since. At the 
present time he has a large farm under his 
care, operating some of the James Kriss land 
in Woods Park, six and one-half miles north 
of Comstock. He carries on general farming 
and raises considerable live stock, modern 
methods governing his operations and result- 
ing in satisfactory returns. Mr. Flieder has 
never married. In politics he is identified with 
the Democratic party. 



HENRY HOGG, who is now one of the 
successful agriculturists and highly respected 
citizens of Custer county, is another one of the 
men who came to Nebraska in the early days 
with little else than their ambition as capital, 
and who have lived to see their resources 
grow and develop and to attain positions of 
marked prominence in their communities. 

Mr. Hogg is a native of Scotland and pos- 



sesses all the sturdy characteristics of the Scot- 
tish race. He was born in the shire of Had- 
dington, November 6, 1860, a son of Henry 
and Mary (Forrest) Hogg, the former a na- 
tive of Berwickshire and the latter of Had- 
dingtonshire. The parents were staunch and 
uncompromising members of the Scotch 
Presbyterian church, in the faith of which 
they reared their children, and were people 
greatly respected in their home community in 
Scotland, where Mr. Hogg, the father, was 
variously engaged in business pursuits. They 
came to the L'nited States in 1890 and joined 
their son Henry, at whose home both passed 
away in peace and contentment, when well ad- 
vanced in years. There were four children in 
the family : Henry, whose name introduces this 
sketch ; Robert, who is engaged in farming 
eight miles west of Burwell, Nebraska; Mary, 
who is the wife of William McLennan, a tailor 
of Rapid City, South Dakota ; and .^gnes, who 
is the wife of A. S. Winch, a fruit grower and 
dealer of Washougal, Washington. 

Henry Hogg was educated in the public 
schools of his native land and grew up an 
industrious and energetic lad. applying him- 
self to his studies and mastering the trade ot 
carpenter, in the city of Tranent. In his 
native land he saw no future for himself, and 
accordingly, when twenty-one years old. he 
turned his face hopefully toward the shores 
of America, in which country he felt sure that 
a youth of his ambition and industry could gain 
independence and prosperity. By the time he 
had reached Grand Island, Nebraska, his small 
capital was completely exhausted, but he man- 
aged to make his way to St. Paul, this state, 
where he secured employment at his trade 
Three years later, on August 9, 1884, he se- 
cured a homestead in the Berwyn community, 
the first improvement on which was a dugout 
built by himself. As noted, Mr. Hogg's capi- 
tal was nothing large, and in order that he 
might live he had to spare some of his time 
from his farm to work at his trade at Ansley, 
as opportunity presented itself, and this pro- 
cess he kept up for twelve years, thus carrying 
himself over the rough places. Also, during 
this time, he was able to make improvements, 
to build a good house and other buildings, and 
to stock his property with a good grade of 
cattle and other live stock. It was not until 
1896. however, that he sent for his bride. Marv 
Riddell. who was born in Scotland, and thev 
were married in Hall county, December 7th 
of that year. They became the parents of five 
children, of whom three are living: lanet, 
who is engaged in teaching a rural school near 
Oconto, this county : Edith, who is attending 



796 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



the Ansley high school and will graduate in 
1919; and Walter, who also is attending 
school. 

Mr. Hogg is now the owner of loO acres 
of well improved land, all developed and im- 
proved under his own eye and through the 
work of his hands. He carries on general 
farming and stock-raising, and through indus- 
try and good management has made a success 
of his various ventures. He and Mrs. Hogg 
are consistent members of the Presbyterian 
church, and fraternally he is identified with 
Ansley Lodge No. 176, Ancient Free and Ac- 
cepted Masons. Mr. Hogg holds independent 
views as to political matters, but has the com- 
plete confidence of the people of the comnni- 
nity. and since he held the office of town clerk 
in the early days he has fre()uently been called 
u])on to represent the people in positions of 
])ublic trust and responsibility. 



JOHN P. LONG. — Arnold has a long list 
of substantial citizens. One of them is named 
above. Mr. Long was born September 29, 
1863, in Jasper county, Illinois. It was there 
that his early boyhood days were spent and 
there he received the education of the common 
schools. It was in this state also that he was 
united in marriage, in February, 188.^. to Miss 
Mary S. Mills, who since that time has been 
tile partner of' his joys and sorrows and co- 
huilder of hi^'fiiodest fortunes. Shortly after 
their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Long came to 
Nebraska, and in the spring of 1886 they lo- 
cated a pre-emption claim eight miles east of 
.Arnold. Custer county. They proved up on 
this in fourteen months and homesteaded a 
(|uarter-section in the same locality. Here 
they made their home until 1909, when they 
moved to Arnold, where Mr. Long assumed 
charge of the telephone office, handling farm 
implements on the side. This occupation he 
followed nearly eight years, and he then en- 
gaged in the hardware business, which he has 
conducted until recently. Mr. Long is a pub- 
lic-spirited citizen and has been connected with 
every ])ublic enterprise promoted in .\rnold. 
He has served as a member of the school board 
for more than twenty years. He is interested 
in the new Security State Bank, which is 
erectinsj a new building, at a cost of more than 
$.W,000. Mr. Long is one of the direc'ors. 
and one of the managers of the Arnold Tele- 
jjhone Exchange. In the recent election be 
was chosen suuervisor to rej^resent the Fifth 
supervisoral district in the affairs of Custer 
county. In connection with the nation'.s. par- 
ticipation in the world war every war appeal 



has received ready response from Mr. Long. 
He devoted time and made liberal donations 
to every object appealing for support from the 
]5eople. He and his wife are faithful members 
of the Methodist church. Mr. and Mrs. I^ong 
have three children : Letha A. is the wife of 
John S. Harrell, a farmer living near Arnold, 
and they have one son antl two daughters. 
.Arthur C. married ]\Iary Lehmkuliler and they 
live on a farm near .Vrnold. Myrtle A. is the 
wife of Clarence N. Brummett, a young farm- 
er living near Lantry, South Dakota, and they 
have two sons and two daughters. 

Financially Mr. Long has always been suc- 
cessful, although his accumulations are modest 
and have l>een made and expended without 
ostentation. He and his wife live in a modern 
home and are possessed of enough of this 
world's goods to provide comfortable retire- 
ment for theni during the remainder of their 
lives. All he has has been made in Custer 
county. He is a prominent Odd Fellow and 
in politics he delights to be called independent. 



EMERY J. CHAPIN. — Here is related 
the story of a successful young business man 
who came to Custer county in an earlv dav. 
received his education in the common schools, 
learned the carpenter's trade, and at present 
occupies a responsible position in an Arnold 
mercantile establishment. 

Emery J. Chapin was born in the city of 
Chicago, ^lay 12. 1878. and he is a son of 
Chester .A. and Laura ( Tyler ) Chapin. the 
former a native of New York and the latter 
of Illinois. Chester -A. Chai)in came to Custer 
county in 1887 and located in Broken Bow. 
where he followed the carpenter trade. Here 
Emery J. Chapin grew from boyhood to man- 
hood. Here he learned his father's vocation 
and worked with him most of the time during 
his minority. The parents were excellent peo- 
ple and were devoted members of the Chris- 
tian church. 

Emery J. Chajiin has been twice married 
and has three children by the former marria.ge, 
two daughters and one son. On November 
22, 1908, he led to the marriage altar his pres- 
ent wife. Lulu ( Phifer) Chajiin, whose r>ar- 
ents were early settlers in the .Arnold neigh- 
borhoixl and are well remembered by all of 
the old-timers. Of this second union three 
children were born. Charles, James, and \'irgil. 
Ma.'iter \'irgil is but two years old. in 1918. 
and he "manages things" at home while his 
older brothers are in school. 

.\s Mr. Chapin recalls his early exjjeriences, 
he relates that his first monev was earned b\- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



797 



blacking boots and tbat this was put to good 
use. He and his wife are members of the 
Methodist church, in which they are influential 
supporting members. So:iaUy, he is in good 
standing in the Odd Fellows lodge and is 
present counsel of the local camp of the ]\Iod- 
ern Woodmen of America. His occupation at 
the present time is that of a clerk in one of the 
.Arnold stores, where he is well established and 
enjoys the respect and esteem of the large 
number of patrons. In the village and sur- 
rounding community the Chapin family are 
well and favorably ■ known and their many 
friends wish them abundant prosperity, all of 
which thev declare is well merited. 



CHARLES AIASOK FORSYTH, familiar- 
ly known as "Mace," re]>resents one of the 
pioneer families of the Anselmo district of 
Custer county. 

He was born at Loup City, Nebraska, July 
26. 1876, and is a sonof James and Elizabeth 
( Dryden ) Forsyth, mentioned elsewhere in 
this volume. 

In the year 1876 the early settlers of the 
Victoria creek neighborhood heard of the In- 
dian uprising in the we.st and became alarmed 
to such an extent that nearly all of the families 
in the settlement went to Loup City, a settle- 
ment where they thought they would be safer. 
During the stay there the subject of this bi- 
ography was born. 

His boyhood days v\'ere spent ons,tl}e old 
homestead and his preliminary education was 
acquired in the district school. Later he at- 
tended the public schools at Kearney and also 
the L^niversity of Nebraska. Reared on the 
farm, he naturally chose the occupation with 
which he was familiar. When his father re- 
tired he purchased the old home place, where 
he successfully carries on general farming. 

For a companion and helpmeet Mr. Forsyth 
chose Miss Pearl Swan, a native of Indiana, 
and they are the parents of the following 
named children : Donald Mason, Theodore 
Scott, David D., Claude Eugene, and Mary 
Eleanor. 

Mr. Forsyth is a Republican in politics and 
fraternally belongs to the Ancient Order of 
L'nited Workmen. Mrs. Forsyth is a member 
of the MethodLst church and both are held in 
high esteem by all who know them. 



GODFREY NANSEL. — This review has 
to do with an Arnold citizen, a substantial, pro- 
gressive Custerite, who has given a practical 
demonstration of what thrift and energy, com- 



bined with business acumen, can do in this 
good county. It is a remarkable story, and 
one that can hardly be duplicated in any other 
section of the state. 

Godfrey Nanscl was born April 24. 1857, in 
Nauvoo, Illinois. He is a son of Conrad and 
Ann G. ( Bollin ) Nansel, who were born in 
Germany, and who became the parents of five 
sons and three daughters — Godfrey, Joseph, 
Mrs. Mary McGary, Mrs. Margaret Owens, 
Mrs. Ella N. L'lvely, Michael, John, and Will- 
iam, the last two being twins. After coming 
to this country Conrad Nansel showed his loy- 
alty by serving as a Union soldier during the 
last eight months of the Civil war. After his 
discharge he settled in Nodaway county, Mis- 
souri, and there his son Godfrey' lived until he 
was eleven years of age, when, on account of a 
disagreement in the home, young Godfrey 
gathered up his belongings and faced the world 
for himself. That he has "made good" will be 
seen when this sketch enumerates his present- 
day possessions. After leaving home he went 
to work for' a farmer, Frank Frawley, his 
wages being ten dollars a month. Later he 
worked three years for a man named Moore, 
from whom he received eighteen dollars a 
month, which was at that time considered very 
high wages. Later he returned to his former 
employer and worked two years, for twenty 
dollars a month. 

January 10, 1881, Mr. Nansel was united 
in wedlock to Sarah ,E. McCreary, a daughter 
of Jehiel and Margaret A. (Jackson) Mc- 
Creary. Mrs. Nansel's native state was Iowa 
and in her father's family were four children 
— Lewis, Indiana (deceased), Ambrose, and 
Sarah E. Mrs. Nansel's mother was closely 
related to General Andrew Jrfckson. 

The next day after their marriage Godfrey 
Nansel and his young bride started for Council 
Bluffs, Iowa, where they made their first home, 
and where he worked for a dollar a day until 
he accumulated enough money to buy a team 
and a few farming implements, and he then 
rented a farm and started farming for himself. 
Mrs. Nansel was a plucky woman and deter- 
mined to do her part toward making a living 
and accummulating a fortune. Aside from the 
housework and outdoor chores, she took in 
washing and saved the thirty-five dollars with 
which they bought their first cow. In 1885 
they came to Custer county and pre-empted a 
quarter-section of land six miles west of Cal- 
laway. This was their home imtil 1890, when 
they sold out and went back to Council Blufifs. 
In the memorable dry year of 1894 they re- 
turned to Custer county, and this has been their 
home ever since. Mr. Nansel has retired from 



798 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 




2 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



799 




2; 
< 

2; 



800 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



active farm operations and in the village of 
Arnold he has built a beautiful residence, which 
is equipped with modern conveniences and 
home comforts. He now owns over 4.000 
acres of land — 2,280 acres in Logan county, 
Nebraska: 160 acres in Colorado; 320 acres in 
South Dakota; and 1,280 acres in Montana. 

The years brought twelve children to the 
Nansel home : Arthur R. married Nannie 
Tietjens and they have one daughter. Anna G. 
is the wife of F. Earl W'haley. a farmer liv- 
ing near Callaway, and they have nine children. 
Jesse F. married Alargaret AIcFate and they 
have seven children. Lillie B. is deceased. 
Nora J. married Perry J. Moore, a farmer liv- 
ing near Callaway, and they have four sons. 
Lewis O. married \'irgie Walker and they have 
one son. Hubert G. married Ida Gile.'^ and 
they live near Myers, Montana. They have 
one son. Joseph E. married Phebe Giles and 
they are living near Myers, Montana. They 
have one son. Harry \V. married Bernice 
Pierce, they have one daughter and their home 
likewise is near ]\Iyers, Montana. Cecil M., 
who is a graduate of the Arnold high school 
and is still at home with her parents, is a 
teacher in the Arnold schools. Lloyd K., still 
a bachelor, is operating a farm near Arnold. 
Charles A., the youngest of the children is in 
the eleventh grade of the Arnold high school. 
The family is connected with the Methodist 
church and is one of the most substantial fam- 
ilies in the community. Socially Mr. and Mrs. 
Nansel are prominent members of the Mystic 
Legion and other organizations. 

During the last two years np one has been 
more prominent in all the war activities than 
Mr. Nansel — he has been a heavy contributor 
to all war objects. He conducts a real-estate 
business, into which he puts the same energy 
that inade his farming and stock-raising opera- 
tions successful. ■•'' 



JOSEPH F. RUSSELL. — When Joseph 
F. Russell became a homesteader in Custer 
county, in 1884, he had already entered his 
thirty-third year, but his advantages uj) to 
that time had been so few that he was in the 
most modest financial circumstances. His re- 
sources, in fact, totaled only twenty-five cents 
in money, in addition to which he still was in 
debt for a ])art of the purchase price of his 
horse and wagon. He had, however, many 
far more dependable resources, and among 
them were grit and determination and a ca- 
])acity for untiring industry. These have ele- 
vated him to a place of wealth among the sub- 
stantial men of .\nsley, to prominence as a 



farmer, merchant, and politician, and to public- 
spirited participation in all that tends to the 
permanent upbuilding of the community. 

Mr. Russell was born in Henry county. 
Ohio, December 16, 1851, and is a son of Will- 
iam and Eliza Ann ( Ingraham ) Russell. His 
paternal grandfather, Elisha Russell, was a 
native of Maine and of English descent ; he 
was a shoemaker by trade and his death oc- 
curred in Ohio. The maternal grandfather, 
A. Green Ingraham, was bom in England, and 
on his arrival in America first settled in New 
York. Later he migrated to Ohio, where he 
pre-empted land, became a substantial citizen, 
and for several years served in the capacity of 
associate judge at Tiffin. William Russell was 
born in Maine, in 1807, and during his early 
years was a merchant in his native state. Later 
he became a boat captain on the Erie canal, 
but eventually he turned his attention to. farm- 
ing, in which he was engaged, in Ohio, at the 
time of his death, in 1878. He was laid to 
rest in the Fort Seneca cemetery, as was also 
his wife, who was born in New York, in 1820, 
and who died in 1869, in Ohio. They were 
members of the Universalist church, and of 
their ten children three survive : W. Henry, a 
veteran of the Civil war. living at Liberty 
Center, Ohio ; Josejih F., of this sketch ; and 
M. F., who is bookkeeper for the Farmers 
Elevator at Liberty Center, Ohio. William 
Russell was a Republican in politics. A man 
of the strictest integrity, lie was successful in 
his business atifairs and had the respect and 
confidence of his associates. 

Joseph F. Russell was given a district- 
school education in a log schoolhouse in Henry 
county, Ohio, and during his b<iyhood and 
youth was given a thorough training in the 
various departments of farm work. It seemed 
impossible for him to get a start on the high- 
way of success, and in spite of his industry he 
was unable to make any progress, so that final- 
ly he struck out for the west, and in 1884 
arrived in Custer county. He secured a home- 
stead and l3egan o[>erations, and during the 
next eighteen years he continued to make agri- 
cultural enterprise his chief interest, with the 
result that he arose steadily in fortune, and 
finally decided to enter business affairs. How- 
ever, he still is the owner of a fami of 400 
acres, where general farming and stock-rais- 
ing are carried on under his .supervision, but 
his home is at .Ansley, where he has resided 
since 1902. Ujion his arrival in town he 
engaged in the livery business and also con- 
ducted a feed store, but he finally disposed of 
his interests in these enterprises in order to 
purchase a bakerv and confectionery, of which 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



801 



he is still the proprietor. He has made this 
venture a most successful one, and is ac- 
counted one of the town's leading and substan- 
tial citizens. ]\Ir. Russell is independent in 
politics, and he has served as a member of the 
board of supervisors and as justice of the 
peace. He belongs to the local lodge of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which 
he has passed the various official chairs, and is 
a member of the encampment body of this fine 
fraternal organization. 

In 1876 Mr. Russell married Miss Cordelia 
Leist, who was born in Ohio, a daughter of 
Levi Leist, a farmer who died in that state. 
To this union there have been born three chil- 
dren : Lory D., who assists his father in con- 
ducting the bakery business: Ogle F., who 
married J. H. \'arney, a merchant of Ansley : 
and Carl D., who is a baker at Arcadia. Ne- 
braska. Mrs. Russell is a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church. 



GUSTAF W. NELSON. — With its nu- 
merous opportunities for advancement. Amer- 
ica has offered a welcome and a home to the 
people of other lands and has proved attrac- 
tive to the young and ambitioils who in their 
own countries have seen little chance for ad- 
vancement. It is not in every case, however, 
that these opportunities are recognized, ap- 
preciated, and grasped in a degree equal to 
that shown in the career of Gustaf \V. Nelson, 
of the Comstork community, who. borrowing 
money to come to the United States, is now 
the owner of 618 acres of excellent Custer 
county land. 

Mr. Nelson is a native of Sweden, born 
April 2L 1866. in a family w'hich was hon- 
orable but in modest financial circumstances. 
He was given his education in the public 
schools, as were his two brothers: Eric P., 
who now lives at the old home place in Swe- 
den ; and Carl, who lives near Comstock. Custer 
county, and is a farmer. The youngest of his 
father's children, Gustaf W. Nelson, could find 
little encouragement in the outlook before him 
in the land of his birth, and even when a 
mere youth he began to make plans for im- 
migrating to America, where he felt sure there 
awaited him a chance to prove his worth and 
gain a competence. Finally, in 1885, when he 
w^as only nineteen years of age, he su.cceeded 
in borrowing sufficient money to make the trip 
to the United States, and he at once came to 
Nebraska, arriving in Hamilton county Decem- 
ber 14th of that year. He was willing and 
eager, strong and ambitious, and had little 
trouble in finding employment and keeping it. 



Also, he was thrifty and economical, saved his 
earnings carefully, and during the eighteen 
years that he resided in Hamilton county he 
took long strides toward the attainment of his 
goal, which was the possession of a farm of 
his own. In 1903 Mr. Nelson came to Custer 
county, where he bought a farm near Comstock 
and since that time his advancement has been 
constant and consistent. From time to time 
he has added to his property by purchase, 
until his landed estate now comprises 618 acres, 
and it is under a high state of cultivation, with 
improvements that are modern and valuable 
beyond the ordinary. He has not only shown 
himself skilled in the arts of farming and stock- 
raising, but also a business man of high calibre, 
and one whose reputation for integrity is built ' 
upon strong foundations. His buildings are 
modern and he raises a high grade of live stock. 
In matters which affect the welfare of his com- 
munity, Mr. Nelson takes a good citizen's in- 
terest, but he has never sought to invade ac- 
tively the fields of pohtics or public service as 
a candidate for offices of preferment at the 
hands of his fellow citizens. 

On April 22, 1889, in Hamilton county, Ne- 
braska, Mr. Nelson was united in marriage 
with Miss Mary Bister, who was born in 
Sweden and who came as a young woman to 
the United States, her parents settling in Ham- 
ilton cotmty, Nebraska, in 1886. There her 
father carried on agricultural pursuits until his 
death, while the mother still makes her home in 
that county. To Mr. and Mrs. Nelson there 
have been born nine children, of whom seven 
are living, all residing at home : Emma. Agnes, 
:Melvin, Dora, Dwight, Walter, and Glenn. 



JAMES H. BROWN, who is one of the 
leading business men of Eddyville. Nebraska, 
is also one of the pioneers of the county, com- 
ing here in 1880, and during the thirty-eight 
years that have passed since then, he has been 
active in many ways in assisting in the county's 
substantial development, so that his name is 
probably as well known as that .of any other 
resident. 

James H. Brown was born in Delaware 
county, Indiana, December 18, 1860. His par- 
ents were Samuel G. and Sarah { \\'ills) 
Brown, the father being a native of Indiana 
and the mother of Ohio. They had five sons, 
namely: G. Riley, John H.. Joseph P.. James 
H.. and Samuel E.. all surviving except the 
oldest. The father was a farmer all his life 
and was a staunch Democrat. Both parents 
belonged to the Christian church. The father 
died in the spring of 1865. 



802 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



James H. Brown was only five years old 
when he was left fatherless, and hence many 
advantages that boys enjoy under happier con- 
ditions, were denied him. He started out to 
make his own way in the world when but 
twelve years old and worked for farmers in his 
native state until 1880. when he came to Cus- 
ter county, where his brother, John H. Brown, 
had already settled, on Deer creek, four miles 
north of the Joshua Wood ranch. Having had 
farm experience, he was able to help the 
ranchmen in this section while awaiting his 
twenty-first birthday, when he would be en- 
titled to enter a land claim, which he subse- 
quently did, securing' a homestead situated 
twenty-four miles south of Broken Bow. He 
resided on this homestead six years and then 
sold to advantage and bought 160 acres, situ- 
ated on Deer creek, this transaction showing 
business capacity, with which he is very gen- 
erally credited. He continued on his farm and 
carried on its various activities quite success- 
fully until 1907. when he moved to Eddyville. 
where he has been foremost in business ever 
since. For four years he was engaged in the 
real-estate business and then he turned his 
attention to his present line, which includes 
dealing in farm produce, poultn,', butter, eggs, 
and cream, and in connection with w'hich he 
conducts a cream station at Eddwille. 

Mr. Brown was married first. August 22, 
1884, at Muncie, Indiana, to Miss Emma \'an- 
nettie. who was born in Indiana, and was a 
daughter of Samuel and Savilla Vannettie. 
Mrs. Brown was a member of the Christian 
church. She died January 22. 1891, the moth- 
er of two children: Samuel \V. and William 
O. At Lorenz. Iowa. Samuel W. Brown is 
station agent for the Chicago & Northwestern 
Railroad. He married Alta Bennett and they 
have four daughters and one son. He is a 
member of the Modern Woodmen of .\merica, 
and in politics is a Democrat. William O. 
Brown is serving as a soldier in the national 
army, belonging to a supply company of the 
Three Hundred and Fiftieth Infantrv. sent to 
Camp Do<:lge. Iowa. July 23. 1918. Mr. Brown 
was married, second. .April 11. 1896. at Kear- 
ney, Nebraska, to Miss Ellen Cox. who is a 
daughter of Noah Cox. Mr. Brown pnd his 
brother Samuel are both musical and in thai 
way, perhaps, came about the organiztion of 
what was known far and wide, during 
the stirring times that visited Nebraska 
when the Populist party was holding 
rallies and conventions, as the "Cat Creek 
Band." It was made un of local talent, in- 
cluding the Browns and Thomas Emerick, and 



its music was so acceptable that it was called 
for from every part of the county. 



JOHN C. KLINGBEIL is a "live wire" of 
the Roten district where, in addition to farm- 
ing and stock-raising, he conducts enough side 
operations to entitle him to be called a stock 
dealer. 

John C. Klingbeil was born at Golden, Illi- 
nois. December 30. 1879, and his parents, Au- 
gust and Trenke (Ostendorf ) Klingbeil, na- 
tives of Germany, transmitted to their off- 
spring the German characteristics of thrift and 
industr>\ To them were born five children — 
Lula Stellman. John. Hattie, Lena, and Ida. 
The father came to the United States in 1864 
and followed milling for an occupation. He 
married at Golden, Illinois, and came to Custer 
county. Nebraska, in 1889. He located about 
twenty miles southwest of Oconto, in the vi- 
cinity of Roten valley. 

The early days of John C. Klingbeil were 
spent on the farm and at an early age it was 
necessary for him to lend a hand. When seven 
years of age he went to live with his uncle, 
George Ostendorf. in Dawson county, and he 
stayed with him until he was fourteen years 
old. at which time he returned to his father's 
home farm, where he remained until he mar- 
ried. He received a common-school education 
and applied to general farming his inherited 
characteristics of thrift and energ)'. 

On November 3. 1915. Mr. Klingbeil led to 
the marriage altar Miss Una Stinehagen. a 
young lady who came from Missouri, and who 
is a daughter of Henry and Cora ( StaufFer) 
Stinehagen, the former a native of Illinois and 
the latter of Missouri. Mrs. Klingbeil had 
only one brother, Louis Stinehagen. Mr. and 
Mrs. Klingbeil have but one child of their 
own. baby Gyneth. who is only six months of 
age at the time of this writing, in 1918. but 
in this hospitable home two adopted children 
have found asylum fraught with home com- 
forts. They are Louis and Rosella Stinehagen. 

On his farm of 320 acres. John C. Klingi>eil 
conducts a general agricultural and stock-rais- 
ing business on a practical and profitable basis. 
He buys and sells live stock, and is uniformly 
regarded as a valuable man to the community. 
Any man who will buy what others have to 
sell and will sell what others want to buy is a 
pivotal character in any community — one up- 
on whom much of the prosepritv of that par- 
ticular locality revolves. Mr. and Mrs. Kling- 
beil are connected with the Lutheran church, 
and in politics he maintains an indejiendent 



I 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



803 



attitude, with allegiance declared to no political 
party. 



LOUIS M. ROWAN. — It would be high 
treason to underestimate or underrate the ser- 
vices of the early pioneer, but it would likewise 
be an injustice to discount the contributions 
of those men of tireless energy who came into 
the county in later years and since their arrival 
have contributed a wealth of example and 
leadership, as well as practical demonstration 
of the county's possibilities. 

Louis AI. Rowan was born in Livingston 
county, Illinois, September 2L 1873, and is 
a son of Benjamin F. and ]\Iary (Pembrook) 
Rowan, the former of whom came from the 
Empire state and the latter from Illinois. In 
the family of this excellent couple were eleven 
children — Helen Collar, James (deceased), 
George M.. Charles W., Ida Wiltsey, Louis ]\I., 
John T., Henry A., AFartlia Stauffer. Benja- 
min F.. and Mary McFarland — all creditalDle 
citizens and a credit to their parentage. 

IXiring the early years of Mr. Rowan he 
lived on a farm, where he assisted his parents, 
and he often herded cattle for his neighbors. 
It was by this means that he earned his first 
money, which became the foundation of the 
accumulations of the present time. The first 
money that he earned went to purchase his 
first overcoat. He received the advantages of 
a common-school education and by application 
and reading has augmented the fund of school- 
house lore until to-day he is a well informed 
and versatile man of aiTairs. In 1896 he led 
to the marriage altar Miss Elnora Benckeser, 
a daughter of John and Mary (Chard) Benck- 
eser. The father was a native of Germany 
but the mother came from the Hoosier state. 
Further information concerning this family is 
contained in the biography of James A. How- 
ell, whose wife is a sister of Mrs. Rowan. 

The home which Mr. and Mrs. Rowan es- 
tablished for themselves was quite up to the 
American standard in all its appointments of 
comfort and plenty. They became the parents 
of seven children, one of whom died in in- 
fancy: Ival L.. a young man of draft age, had 
not been classified at the time this sketch was 
prepared. Raymond is at home and is assist- 
ing his father. Clarence E. and Gladys M. are 
students at school. A'iola is seven vears old, 
Lewis M., four years, and "Cantain John." 
twenty months of age. will soon be promoted 
colonel of the "Home Squad." 

Mr. Rowan came west in 1888 with his par- 
ents and settled in Dawson county, w'here he 
made his home for seven vears. He then 



crossed the line north into Custer and rented 
wloat is known as the John Duvall farm, on 
which he opened bachelor's quarters, which 
were not much to his liking. On August 6th 
of the same year, he concluded he had enough 
of '"batching," and he was married, as recorded 
above. He now owns the farm, and has added 
to it until his holdings are now 560 acres of 
splendid land. He made his money in general 
farming and stock-raising, and year after year 
continues his operations, each year showing an 
increase of his worldly possessions, and all of 
this being the measure and standard of success. 
Mr. and Mrs. Rowan are fine people and de- 
serve their good name and reputation. They 
are connected with the Evangelical church and 
Mr. Rowan votes the Republican ticket. 



JOSEPH M. GIDDINGS. — No one who 
has lived and labored in the vicinity of Ansley 
since the early '80s has more emphatically 
gained the good will and confidence of his 
fellow men than Joseph M. Giddings, a Civil 
war veteran now living in retirement, after 
years of agricultural effort. Not only have 
industry and perseverance contributed to the 
usefulness of this highly respected citizen, but 
an inheritance of old New England traits has 
lent peculiar strength and conservatism to his 
character and influence. He was born in Mc- 
Henry county, Illinois, September 4, 1840, and 
is a son of George and Harriet (Montague) 
Giddings. 

On both sides of the family Mr. Giddings is 
descended from English forebears, for his pa- 
ternal grandfather, Josiah Giddings, was born 
in England, early removed to \'ermont and 
passed his life there, and his maternal grand- 
father, Joseph Montague, was likewise an 
Englishman by birth, was an early settler and 
farmer of Vermont, and later a resident of 
Massachusetts. George Giddings was born at 
Bakersfield, Vermont, January 15, 1813, and 
as a youth went to Massachusetts, where he 
met and married Harriet Montague, who was 
born in that state, in September. 1812. Al- 
most immediately after their union they set 
forth for the west to make a home, first going 
to DuPage county, Illinois, and later to Mc- 
Henry county, that state, where they lived for 
a number of years. In 1844 they penetrated 
the wilds of Winnebago county, Wisconsin, 
where, in a virgin countrs^. thev settled on a 
homestead. There they rounded out their ca- 
reers, Mrs. Giddings dying in 1900 and Mr. 
Giddings having passed away a number of 
years previously. They experienced all the 
hardship of the wild life of the pioneers, but 



804 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



their sturdy New Eng-land characteristics car- 
ried them safely through, and they Hved to see 
their i)roperty become valuable, to rear their 
children to honorable lives, and to secure unto 
themselves ties of respect and friendship. They 
were faithful members of the Seventh Day 
Adventist church, and as a Republican Mr. 
Giddings was frequently elected to positions 
of public honor and trust. They were the par- 
ents of seven children, of whom four are liv- 
ing: Elvira, who is the widow of Chauncey 
Ellerton, and resides in Wisconsin : Joseph M , 
who is the subject of this review; Amy, who 
resides at Hiawatha, Kansas, and is the widow 
of Frank Kimball ; and Ralph, who is a vet- 
erinary surgeon in Wisconsin. 

Joseph M. Giddings was about four years 
of age when taken by his parents to Wisconsin, 
and in the primitive country schools of Winne- 
bago county he secured a somewhat elementary 
training. Attending school in the winter 
months, his summers from early boyhood were 
given over to work on the home farm, and he 
thus grew to sturdy and well trained manhood. 
\\'hen he heard of the call for troops, issued 
by President Lincoln, he was anxious to join 
the Union army during the early months of the 
Civil war, but his parents were against his be- 
coming a soldier and as he was an obedient 
youth he respected their commands. However, 
on his twenty-first birthday, he felt that he 
was free, and immediately enlisted. September 
4, 1861, in Company K. Eleventh Regiment. 
Wisconsin \'olunteer Infantry. When his terin 
expired he veteranized with the same com- 
pany and regiment, and his service therewith 
continued until beyond the close of the war, 
he receiving his honorable discharge and be- 
ing mu.stered out of the service September 6, 
186.^. His engagements were numerous, in- 
cluding the siege of \'icksburg. and other im- 
portant and bloody battles of the big struggle 
between the forces of the north and south, and 
through all the vicissitudes of camp and army 
life he comported himself as a brave and faith- 
ful soldier, courageous in battle, and strict in 
his performance of duty. 

When he returned to civilian life. Mr. Gid- 
dings resmned the vocation of farming, and in 
1871 he founded a home of his own. when 
he married Miss Tulia Spernt". who likewise 
was lx)rn in McHenrv county, Illinois, and 
who is a daughter of Rais and Sarah (Lilly) 
Sperry, natives of Dover Center, Ohio. After 
their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Sperry lived for 
a time in Illinois, but later moved to Wiscon- 
sin, where, in Winnebago county. Mrs. Sperry 
died. Her husband then came to Hve with his 
daughter, Mrs. Giddings, and he died in Ne- 



braska. Mr. and Mrs. Giddings became the 
parents of two children : Lillie. who married 
Wes Lee and lives on a farm at Poison. Mon- 
tana; and Ira. who married Alice Sherbeck. 
and resides on his father's old homestead. 

In 1873 Mr. and Mrs. Giddings came to 
Nebraska and settled in York county, where 
they made their home for two years. Their 
next place of residence was Custer county, 
where, on a farm of 160 acres, which Mr. 
Giddings homesteaded, they continued to live 
until their retirement to Ansley, in 1*^)12. Here 
they have since resided quietly, in their mod- 
ern home, surrounded by all the comforts 
which they richly deserve, because of their 
years of strenuous and continued lalxjr. 

Mr. Giddings is a valued member of th-; 
Grand Amiy of the Republic, while Mrs. Gid- 
dings belongs to Stedman Circle, of the Wnni- 
en's Relief Corps. In politics Mr. Giddings is 
a Republican, and on various occasions he has 
efficiently discharged the duties of township 
offices to which he has been elected by his 
fellow citizens. 



IMARIUS LANGE. — Eminently success- 
ful in all his farming operations, eminently 
successful in all of his dealings and specula- 
tions, is the way to describe what has been 
accomplished by the man whose name initiates 
this review. 

Marius Lange was born in Demnark, on 
the 13th day of June. 1863, and he is a son 
of Theodore and Anna (Sorrenson) Lange, 
both representatives of fine old Scandinavian 
stock. In the father's family were seven chil- 
dren — IMarius. James. Lewis, Christina Sor- 
renson, Lena Robertson, Anna Robertson, and 
Theresa Syerson. Concerning his early life. 
Marius Lange says that when a mere lad he 
herded sheep for a neighbor for six months, 
for which he received ten crowns — equal to 
two dollars and fifty cents. This was the first 
money that came into his possession and is in 
reality the foundation of his present compe- 
tency. He early formed the habit of trading 
knives, watches, and other boyish commodities, 
and from these transactions he obtained a little 
money. When fourteen years of age he was 
apprenticed to a cabinetmaker, and he worked 
for four years in learning his trade, during 
which time he received only his board, .\fter 
working twelve hours a day for his board, he 
had to work nights and Sundays to earn his 
clothes. When eighteen years of age he came 
to the I'nited States and obtained a position 
in a rolling mill in New York, where he 
worked for a short time — till he got enough 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



805 



money to reach Chicago. There he worked 
in H. H. Andrews' bank-furnishing establish- 
ment and he stayed with this concern for four 
years. It was in Chicago that he led to the 
marriage altar Miss Christina Christensen, a 
lady of Danish blood and, like himself, a na- 
tive of Denmark. She is a daughter of An- 
drew and Ida Christensen, in whose immediate 
family were four children — Mrs. Lange, 
Peter, Catherine Sorrenson, and Hannah Cas- 
persen. Mr. and Mrs. Lange established a 
home of their own and in time supplied it 
with all comforts and necessities. The stork 
has been kind to them and thirteen children 
have been born to them. Of the number ten 
are living: Ida is the wife of Charles Booth, 
a farmer in Kimball county, Nebraska, and 
they have five children. Anna is the wife of 
Willis Chadd, a farmer living near Callaway. 
Sophia is the wife of Chris Rookstool, a Calla- 
way farmer, and they have had two children, 
one of whom died in infancy. Theodore, who 
is fanning near Callaway, married Ethel 
Hendricks, and they have one child. The mili- 
tary draft for the great war placed Theodore 
Lange in the 4th class. Andrew, who married 
Mabel Kolbo, lives near Pine Bluff, Wyoming, 
where he is farming. There are two children 
in his home. Lena married Bert Holibaugh, 
a Dawson county farmer, and they have two 
children. Nels married May Woods and lives 
on a farm near Callaway. The draft exemp- 
tion board had not yet classified him. at the 
time this sketch was revised. Veile is the wife 
of William Helmuth, an Oconto farmer. 
Julius and James are both assisting their fa- 
ther on the home farm. Leetta, the youngest, 
is eleven years of age, and is pursuing her 
studies in the seventh grade of the public 
schools. She is especially fond of music, in 
which she is taking a sp>ecial course. 

The Langes came to Custer county in 1886 
and settled on what is known as the Lange 
Table, north of the Redfern Table and eight 
miles south of Callaway. The old habit" of 
trading, contracted in youth, broke out again 
in after years and has always been a source 
of some profit to Mr. Lange. He recently 
sold his home place, consisting of 1,350 acres, 
for $47,000, and he is still the owner of 1,100 
acres of good Custer county soil. His health 
is not good, and he and his wife will travel 
and investigate conditions in other states be- 
fore they decide upon their relocation. Few 
men of Custer county have been as successful 
as Mr. Lange. When he started in Custer 
county he had nothing, and was three hundred 
dollars in debt. The entire family, children 
and all, are connected with the Lutheran 



church. Mr. Lange is an Odd Fellow, affili- 
ates with the Democratic party, and is one of 
the valued citizens of the countv. 



CHARLES E. BRANSTITER. — One of 
the more recent settlers of Custer county is 
Charles E. Branstiter, who is carrying on 
farming and stock-raising near Lomax Sta- 
tion. He has demonstrated his ability as an 
agriculturist and by honorable dealing has 
won the respect and friendship of his neigh- 
bors. Mr. Branstiter was born in Nemaha 
county, Nebraska, August 26, 1882, the sixth 
in order of birth of the ten children born to 
Daniel M. and Mary A. (Horn) Branstiter, 
the former of whom was born in Illinois, and 
the latter in Nebraska. The surviving chil- 
dren are: Claude M., Jacob L., William H., 
Dan M., John, Charles E., Mrs. Ethel Van 
Houten, and Florence. The father was a 
farmer all his life. He died in Nebraska, May 
2, 1915. 

Charles E. Branstiter attended the country 
schools in boyhood and grew up on his father's 
farm. Farming has been his business all his 
life, and as he is an intelligent and enterpris- 
ing man he has made his vocation profitable. 
He has been established in Custer county since 
February, 1918, when he bought 320 acres of 
what is known as Lomax land, situated near 
Lomax Station, a fine property that Mr. Bran- 
stiter is rapidly developing and improving. 
When he was not more than eight years old 
Mr. Branstiter went on record concerning the 
matter of good wages being the due of farm 
laborers, his uncle, Charles Horn, being fond 
of telling a humorous stor}' concerning a cer- 
tain job of dropping corn from an old corn- 
planter, when there was much discussion as 
to salary. 

Mr. Branstiter was married in 1909, in Ne- 
maha county, Nebraska, to Miss Cora B. Cath- 
cart, who was born in that county and who is 
a daughter of William C. and Mary C. (Starr) 
Cathcart, the latter being a native of Illinois. 
The father of Mrs. Branstiter was a native of 
Pennsylvania and from that state he went 
forth as a soldier in the Civil War. Afterward 
he located in Nebraska and he became well 
known in Nemaha county, where, with his 
family, he belonged to the Alethodist Episcopal 
church. Mrs. Branstiter has two sisters, Mrs. 
Nettie Bailey, and Mrs. Lala Weaver. !Mr. 
and ^Irs. Branstiter have one son, Bervl E., 
an engaging child of three years. Mrs. Bran- 
stiter, as implied above, was reared in the 
faith of the Methodist Episcopal church, but 
Mr. Branstiter belongs to the Christian church. 
He takes a good citizen's interest in public 



806 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



matters and gives hearty support to the Dem- 
ocratic party, but his personal affairs have 
up to the present time so engaged his atten- 
tion that he has never entertained a desire for 
public office of any kind. He is well known 
in several communities, through his member- 
ship in the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows and the -Modern \\'oodmen of America 
— orders largely made up. in this section, of 
representative and reliable men. 



EDWIN F. MYERS. — The kind of energy-, 
resource, and initiative required of the young 
man who would succeed in any of the learned 
professions, seems to have been an integral part 
of the equipment of Edwin F. Myers when he 
entered upon his career. He was still a school 
boy when he began laying practical plans for 
a thorough education, and his faith in himself 
has been fully vindicated, for to-day he is one 
of the successful lawyers practicing at the Cus- 
ter county bar. .Mr. :\Iyers' birthplace was 
Georgetown. Custer county. He was born 
November 22, 1879, in a cedar-log house such 
as all the more industrious of the early settlers 
provided for their families. 

From boyhood .Mr. :\Iyers showed marked 
ambition and business abilitv. He did his 
grammar-school work in the country school dis- 
trict and at the age of fourteen years he entered 
the Broken Bow high school. ' .A-t the age of 
nineteen he built the two-story building where 
his office is now located, and here ran a bicycle 
shop on the lower floor, for two years. .At the 
expiration of that time he sold out to enter the 
University of Nebraska, and had $1,000 of 
clear profit. 

In 190+ Mr. Myers was graduated from the 
State University and immediately entered the 
Harvard Law School, at Cambridge. ^Massa- 
chusetts. He was graduated froni Harvard. 
with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, in 1907, 
passed the bar examinations in Massachusetts, 
and was admitted to practice there. His first 
practical work was done in the collection de- 
partment of Marshall Field & Company's great 
retail store in Chicago, where he worked dur- 
ing the fall and winter following his gradua- 
tion. He there became a member of the bar 
of the state of Illinois. 

In the spring of 1908 Mr. Myers came to 
Broken Bow, and opened a law office, as the 
partner of Judge Silas A. Holcomb, former 
governor and former justice of the Nebraska 
supreme court. This partnership continued 
until January 1. 1910. since which date he has 
conducted his law office alone. 

October 29, 1910, recorded the marriage of 



-Mr. Myers to Miss C. Julia Haumont. daugh- 
ter of Mr. and Mrs. Jules Haumont. Mrs. 
-Myers was born at Elton, .Nebraska. May 18, 
1890. lo this union there have been born 
four sons — Edwin Jules Francis, seven years 
of age (1918): Kenneth Lucian. aged si.x 
years ; Frank .Marcellus, aged two years ; and 
an infant. John Robert. 

.\t the State University Mr. Myers was cap- 
tain of the football team of his class, as well 
as a member of his class baseball team, and 
the second football team. .\t Harvard he won 
the much coveted "H" as a member of the 
swimming team. He also played on the first 
football team in one of the early games of the 
season but was put out for the remainder of 
the season by an injury to his face, and the 
following year the rules were changed to bar 
graduates. 

Since coming to Broken Bow Mr. Myers has 
been instrumental in organizing the Round 
Table Club, which meets once each month dur- 
ing the winter season, for a good dinner and 
the discussion of some live topic. 

Three of Mr. Myers' direct ancestor on 
the maternal side fought as patriot soldiers 
during the war of the Revolution, and this 
gives him membership in the Sons of the 
-Vmerican Revolution. His mother's people on 
both sides came from old colonial stock. She 
is one of the more than 5,000 direct descendants 
of Daniel Shedd, whose landing place of 1636, 
now a part of greater Boston, is marked by a 
marble' shaft. One of the very prominent 
members of this family is the capitalist, John 
Graves Shedd. president of ^larshall Field & 
Company, of Chicago, chairman of the board 
of directors of the Illinois Central Railroad 
and prominent in other big business institutions 
of his city and state. 

The name of Mr. Myers' maternal grand- 
father was Bezaleel Shedd and his maternal 
grandmother was .Ann ( Prouty ) Shedd. The 
F^routys descended from Richard Prouty. who 
landed in .America in 1667. This Prouty fam- 
ily has furnished a member of the federal in- 
terstate commerce commission, a governor, 
and two congressmen. 

Mr. Myers' father is John E. Myers, who is 
spending his declining years in the milder cli- 
mate of Boise. Idaho. He was born .August 
22, 1841. in Sus.sex county. New Jersey, and 
is a son of Jacob \\'. and Hannah L. (Saun- 
ders) IMyers. Jacob W. Myers was a native- 
born -American, and a minister in the Metho- 
dist Episcopal church. Rev. Jacob \\'. Myers 
moved from New Jersey to Pennsylvania, 
where he resided some twenty years. He came 
from Pennsvlvania to Nebraska Territorv in 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



809 



1864, with team 'and wagon, and died soon 
afterward, while out on a hunting trip. 

In 1861 John E. Myers enhsted for service in 
the Civil war, in which he served three years 
and two months. While so serving he had the 
remarkable experience of being knocked down 
and stunned by a shell that grazed his fore- 
head but did him no damage. He arrived in 
Nebraska Territory on April 1, 1865, with 
only such money as he had saved from his 
soldier pay of thirteen dollars a month, after 
supporting a bedridden grandmother, but, like 
most of the other pioneers, he possessed a very 
strong body and a good, clear mind. He or- 
ganized a gang and went through as far as 
Green River, Wyoming, getting out ciedar 
ties for the Union Pacific Railroad, the track 
for which was then being laid. He then re- 
turned to Nebraska and went into the cattle 
business, first near Grand Island, later near 
Fort Kearney, and finally, on June 13, 1877, 
he moved to the South Loup, where he pre- 
empted a quarter-section. Thereafter he 
bought land from time to time, until, at the 
time of his retiring, in 1910, his ranch con- 
sisted of 3,240 acres. 

John E. Alyers was county commissioner of 
Dawson countv in 1875 and 1876. and of 
Custer county 'in 1879, 1880, and 1881. He 
was chairman of the board during the year 
1881, when the commissioners ordered the 
county clerk to "take charge of the county 
properly and remove the same to Broken 
Bow." 

At Overton, Nebraska, on the 5th of March, 
1876, was solemnized the marriage of John E. 
Myers to Miss Amanda M. Shedd, of North 
Brookfield, Massachusetts. Of this union 
were born five sons, of whom four are still 
living — Edwin F. and Morris E. are still resi- 
dents of Custer county, Nebraska, while Ar- 
thur I. and Herbert G. are residents of Idaho. 
Each of these four sons was given a college 
education. Mrs. Amanda AI. (Shedd) Myers 
was born in Chester, \'ermont, on February 
16, 1849, and her parent's soon afterward! 
moved to North Brookfield, Massachusetts. 



JAMES R. LAUGHRAN was born in 
Montreal, Canada, in 1852, and is a son of the 
late Thomas Laughran, of whom extended 
mention is made on other pages of this volume. 

James R. Laughran is the eldest in a family 
of four children and accompanied the family 
to Nebraska in 1869. W'hen his father moved 
to Custer count}- young Laughran remained on 
the farm in Saunders county. In 1876 he came 
to Custer countv. where he remained that 



winter. In 1879 he engaged in the cattle busi- 
ness in Blaine county, where for many years 
he was one of the largest cattlemen in this 
part of the state. Upon the death of his moth- 
er he purchased the old homestead, in the An- 
selmo district of Custer county, and here he 
is now living practically retired. The record 
made by his father as an early settler and the 
associations surrounding the old home make 
it a very desirable place to live. 

In 1877 James R. Laughran was married, in 
Omaha, to Miss Margaret Foley, a native of 
Princeton, New Jersey. Mrs. Laughran is a 
daughter of Timothy and Mary Foley, who 
were natives of County Cork, Ireland, and who 
were residents of Princeton, New Jersey, for 
many years after coming to America ; eventu- 
ally they came to Saunders county, Nebraska, 
and both are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. 
Laughran have become the parents of seven 
children ; James, who conducts the ranch in 
Blaine county ; Thomas, who is farming in 
Custer county : Lizzie, who is the wife of H. 
C. Cox, of Brewster, Nebraska; Timothy and 
William, who are residents of Canada ; Kate, 
who is the wife of William Christen and lives 
in Custer county : and Mike, who is a farmer 
in Custer county. 

James R. Laughran has been successful in 
his business ventures and his family own a 
ranch of thirty-two quarter-sections of land, 
besides his father's old homestead in Custer 
county. 

He and his family are members of the 
Catholic church, and after a residence of forty 
years in this section of the state he is well 
and favorably known. 



HENRY E. ZIMMERMAN, who for many 
years was one of the influential and substantial 
men of Custer county, came here as a pioneer 
from an old settled community in Iowa, where 
he was already a man of prominence. During 
his thirty-seven years of life in Custer county 
he became equally respected and relied on, 
and he is recalled as one of Custer's most use- 
ful and worth}' citizens. 

Mr. Zimmerman was born in Somerset 
county, Pennsylvania, October 9, 1851, nnd 
died in Custer county, Nebraska, July 27, 1916. 
When he was seven years old his parents set- 
tled in Iowa, and there he was educated and 
lived to the age of twenty-eight years. In the 
meanwhile he perfected himself in two trades 
and when he came to Nebraska he could point 
to what he had done as a brickmason and 
stonecutter, his work being sound and solid 
yet in the beautiful capitol building at Des 



SIO 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



^loines, Iowa. Later he did a part of the fine 
brick work in the construction of the court 
house at Broken Bow — the first brick court 
house in Nebraska. It was in 1879 that Mr. 
Zimmerman came to Custer county. He took 
up a tree claim and homestead, and he still 
owned valuable farm property when he died. 
This had been so improved that Mrs. Zimmer- 
man was able to dispose of it for $125 an acre. 

In May, 1880. Mr. Zimmerman was united 
in marriage to Miss Anola Amsberry, who was 
born in Marion county. Iowa, where she was 
educated. Her parents* Lewis Norton and 
Jane (Cofifman) Amsberry, were born in West 
A'irginia and had come to Marion county, 
Iowa, in 1851. Mr. Amsberry was a carpen- 
ter, farmer, and tanner. After his death, in 
Iowa, his widow came to Custer county, in 
1879, and bought, for ninety dollars, a pre- 
emption claim, on which she lived for a num- 
ber of years. She then removed to the home 
of her son, ten miles southwest of Ansley, 
where she died. The parents of Mrs. Zimmer- 
man had twelve children, and of these the fol- 
lowing sunive: Florentine, who became the 
wife of T. J. Mossman, and lives in Kansas; 
W. Z., who is a resident of Mason City; Mrs. 
Henry Zimmerman, who lives at Ansley, and 
is the widow of him to whom this memoir is 
dedicated ; Charles, who lives at Broken Bow 
at the present time ; and Lyman, of Custer 
county. The father of Mrs. Zimmerman was a 
Democrat in politics. Her parents were mem- 
bers of the Missionary Baptist church. 

A family of seven children was born to Mr. 
and Mrs. Zimmerman, as follows: Lewis Ray. 
who is a farmer twelve miles west of Ansley ; 
Thomas E.. who is -operating his own farm, 
eight miles northeast of .\nsley ; Addie, who 
is the wife of Garfield Eggleston. a farmer; 
Lottie, who is the wife of Aaron Staab, a 
farmer: Frona E., who is the wife of T. W. 
Parkhurst, an expert electrician residing in 
Lincoln. Nebraska ; and Mabel and Flora, both 
of whom reside with their mother. Flora be- 
ing employed in the State Bank of Ansley. 

In ]X)litics Mr. Zimmerman was a Republi- 
can and at times he was called upon to accept 
public office. For a number of years he served 
as a very useful member of the school board, 
his progressive ideas being particularly l>ene- 
ficial in the deliljerations of this body. Fra- 
ternally he was identified with the order of 
Woodmen and he was somewhat prominent as 
a member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, in which he served as an official while 
living at Oskaloosa. Iowa. He was a man of 
Christian life and character, and belonged to 
the Baptist church. 



JOHN MULVANY. — There are many 
reasons why John ^lulvany, who is one of 
Custer county's best known residents, should 
be regarded with respect, interest, and esteem 
by his fellow citizens. He is a veteran of the 
great Civil war that, prior to the struggle in 
which the United States is now engaged, was 
second only to the Revolutionary war, the 
most tremendous military' event of our na- 
tional history. He is one of Custer county's 
oldest pioneers, and perhaps the oldest contin- 
uous-resident pioneer in the county. He is 
one of the wealthy men of the county, although 
he came here forty-one years ago with empty 
hands. He thus exemplifies patriotism, cour- 
age, enterprise, and that determination that 
made his industry worth while. 

John Mulvany was born October 8, 1833, 
in Knox county, Tennessee. His parents were 
Henry and Sally Mulvany. The father was 
born in Ireland and the mother in Germany, 
and they came to Tennessee very early, mar- 
ried there and later moved to Indiana, where 
the father died during the Civil war. He was 
a strong ^^"hig in early life but after the for- 
iiiation of the Republican party united with 
that organization. His business was farming. 
The mother died in Indiana and both parents 
were members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. Of their fourteen children four sons 
served in the Civil war, namely ; Samuel, John, 
James, and Pleasant. 

John Mulvany assisted his father on what 
was a pioneer farm in Indiana, the same being 
now situated in the midst of a highly culti- 
vated section. He had opportunities to attend 
school and laid the foundation of a good edu- 
cation. \\'hen the call came for loyal men to 
come forward and fight to preserve the Union, 
he was one of the four brothers to respond. 
He enlistcfl in Company C. Sixty-sixth Indiana 
\'olunteer Infantr}-. and in his temi of service, 
that covered almost three years, he took part 
in six regular battles, besides innumerable 
skirmishes. He survived all the hazards of 
war and returned home practically unharmed. 
He resumed farming in Indiana, but his prog- 
ress was slow and he began to look about for 
a home for himself in one of the western 
states or territories, and this led to his decid- 
ing on Custer count\% Nebraska, which he 
reached in 1877. He took up a homestead 
and a tree claim and as proof of his determi- 
nation to succeed it can be stated that he has 
never parted with either — ^and both are now 
valuable properties. 

Mr. Mulvany married Mrs. Elizabeth .\. 
Taylor, a widow with one daughter, Henrietta 
Taylor, who married A. Davis, of Corydon, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



811 



Harrison county, Indiana. Mrs. Alulvany was 
born in Kentucky, September 1(), 1832, and 
died in Nebraska, April 17, 1910. Mo Mr. 
and Mrs. Alulvany the following children were 
born : Dorothea, who is, the widow of Thomas 
Aikman, lives at Rulo, Nebraska, and has 
eleven children ; John Henry is a resident of 
Alason City. Nebraska; Addie is the wife 
of Alfred Shrire, a farmer near Callaway, 
Nebraska : Harvey S. lives in Mason City, 
Nebraska ; Hester Ann is the wife of Dennis 
Runyan, a farmer living near Haines. Ore- 
gon ; MoUie J. is the wife of John Wright, 
a farmer near Mason City ; Christina is the 
wife of James English, a farmer near Bush- 
nell. Nebraska; and George W. farnis his 
father's land. Mr. Mulvany is a Republican in 
politics. He belongs to the Grand Army post 
at Mason City and is held in high regard by 
his comrades. Since youth he has been a 
member of the Methodist Episcopal church. 



CLARIS TALBOT, one of Custer county's 
enthusiastic, capable, and progressive expo- 
nents of the vocation of agriculture, has fol- 
lowed this occupation throughout his active 
career, and is at this time a factor in the de- 
velopment of the farming and stock-raising 
interests of Custer county. He was born in 
Parke county, Indiana, November 13, 1873, 
and is a son of Dr. R. C. and Hatrie (W'ar- 
rick) Talbot, a sketch of the family history 
being found in the review of the life of Dr. 
Talbot, elsewhere in this work. 

Claris Talbot was about six years of age 
when the family came to Custer county, and 
here he received the advantages of the public 
schools of Broken Bow. He was reared to 
agricultural pursuits in Custer county, and 
during this country's war with Spain he en- 
listed in the L^nited States \'olunteers at Bro- 
ken Bow, as lieutenant of Company M, First 
Nebraska Infantry. He was in the service for 
one year and four months, for one year of 
which time he was in the Philippines, where 
he saw active fighting, and was later trans- 
ferred to Compan}^ C, from Geneva, Nebras- 
ka, and promoted captain, which rank he held 
when honorably discharged. He made an ex- 
cellent record and was accounted a courageous 
and dutiful soldier, as well as a natural leader 
of his comrades. 

In 1899 Captain Talbott was married, at 
Broken Bow, to ^liss Eva M. Jewett, who was 
born at Chicago, Illinois, a daughter of ^Ir. 
and Mrs. L. H. Jewett, the former of whom 
is now deceased and the latter of whom is a 
resident of Broken Bow. ^Ir. and Mrs. Talbot 



became the parents of four children — John 
J., Orin H., and Charles C. all residing at 
home ; and Roberta, who died in 1916. at 
the age of thirteen years. 

After his marriage Mr. Talbot settled on 
his father's homestead near Berwyn, where 
he now rents a large tract of land from his 
father. He is carrying on his operations in 
a progressive and capable manner, and as a 
stockman and farmer has gained an excellent 
reputation, as he has also as a citizen. In 
politics he is a Republican and he is affiliated 
with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has 
received the thirty-second degree of the Scot- 
tish Rite, besides being a member of the 
^Ivstic Shrine. 



THOMAS LAUGHRAN was one of the 
earliest settlers of Custer county. Here he 
arrived in 1874, and from that time until his 
death he was actively engaged in farming and 
stock-raising, the while he became one of the 
well-to-do men of the county. 

Thomas Laughran was a native of Ireland 
and was born in County Tyrone. In his native 
land he was reared to the age of fifteen years, 
and he then accompanied his parents to .Amer- 
ica, the home being established in Canada. 
There he grew to manhood and there he mar- 
ried Elizabeth Morrow, who was a native of 
County Antrim, Ireland, and who came to 
Canada with her parents, in 1847. In Canada 
Thomas Laughran learned the blacksmith 
trade, which he followed in that country until 
1862. when he came to the L'nited States and 
established his home in Michigan. He resided 
in that state until 1869. when he came to Ne- 
braska and located in Saunders county. In 
1874 he came to Custer county and took a 
homestead in section 1, township 19, range 21. 
Pioneer conditions were in evidence on every 
hand. AMiat is now Custer county was known 
as Kountze county and was unorganized ter- 
ritory. The first home of the family was a 
dugout on the bank of \'ictoria creek, near 
where the present home stands, the latter be- 
ing one of the first frame houses in this part 
of the county. The nearest neighbor to the 
east was thirty-one miles away. The family 
endured all the pioneer hardships and priva- 
tions, and Thomas Laughran engaged in the 
stock-raising business on an extensive scale. 
He was a man of good judgment, and at the 
time of his death he was the owner of over 
1.000 acres of land. He was killed by a steer, 
in the yards on the farm, when he had reached 
the age of eighty-six years. 

His wife also passed away on the old farm. 



8i: 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



at the age of eighty-six. During the Indian 
scare of 1876 the settlers on \ictoria creek 
left the neighborhood and went to Loup City. 
While they were on the way they met a mail- 
carrier from Loup City. Airs. Laughran was 
one of the party, and suddenly changed her 
mind and returned to the settlement, she being 
the only woman of the neighborhood who 
stayed. The Indians did not come and the 
white people were unmolested, but it showed 
much bravery on the part of this pioneer wo- 
man, who proved her love for her husband by 
remaining with him. 

Mr. and Mrs. Laughran became the parents 
of four children : James R., who owns and re- 
sides on the old homestead : Mary, who is the 
wife of W. H. McCowan, a resident of Furnas 
county, Nebraska ; Alice, who is the widow of 
Louis \'inage, of Taylor, Nebraska ; and 
Jennie, who is the widow of H. B. Andrews, 
and who is residing at Broken Bow. 

Thomas Laughran and wife were faithful 
communicants of the Catholic church and were 
highly respected by all who knew them. Thev 
came to Custer county at a time when the work 
of development had hardly begun, and they 
lived to see this become one of the well devel- 
oped sections of the state. They were' not 
only witnesses of the vast changes, but also 
in the work of transformation they contrib- 
uted their full share, which entitles them to 
honorable mention among the sterling pioneers 
of Custer county. 



JOSEPH C. MOORE is one of the wide- 
awake business men of .Anselmo and is a mem- 
ber of the firm of I\Ioore Brothers, dealers in 
implements and automobiles. 

Rlr. Moore is a native of Iowa, and was 
born at Cedar Falls, Black Hawk county, Jan- 
uary 12, 1S71. His father William Moore. 
was a native of New York and was engaged 
in farming and mining in New York and Can- 
ada until he settled in Iowa, where he became 
a resident of Fort Dodge. In 1883 he came 
to Custer county, Nebraska, and took a home- 
stead and tree claim in township 18, range 
22. His first home was a sod house, and he 
passed through all the pioneer experiences in- 
cident to the early days in Custer county. 1 le 
retired from his farm to Anselmo five years 
before his death. In Canada he married Alary 
Maroney, a native of Ireland, and she is still 
living at Anselmo. They were the parents of 
the following named children, all of whom are 
residents of Custer county: John, Thomas, 
Joseph C, George, and Airs. J. H. Phillips. 

Joseph C. Moore was a lad of twelve years 



when the family came to Custer county. He 
was reared on the farm and was engaged in 
agricultural pursuits until 1897, when he and 
his brother George engaged in the implement 
business, later handling automobiles. The 
first car load of Ford automobiles brought to 
the county came to this firm, and they had the 
agency for several years. The first car load 
of Dodge Brothers' cars came to this firm, and 
they now have the agency for this car in four 
counties. They have a splendidly equipped 
establishment and are doing a hustling 
business. 

At Eddyville. Air. Aloore was united in mar- 
riage to Aliss Jennie Tucker, who was born in 
Wisconsin, a daughter of John and Joanna 
Tucker. Airs. Aloore was educated in Ne- 
braska and at the time of marriage was a pop- 
ular teacher in the Broken Bow schools. S'he 
is possessed of considerable literary talent and 
has assisted in gathering data for the history 
of .Anselmo found elsewhere in this volume. 

Air. and Airs. Aloore are members of the 
Catholic church and are interested in all move- 
ments for the growth and development of their 
community. 



ARCHIBALD H. SHEPARD. postmaster 
of Ansley, and for many years identified with 
mercantile pursuits at this place, is a repre- 
sentative of that class of men who have by 
their energy, public spirit, and careful man- 
agement, reached positions which the struggles 
of the earlier years scarcely indicate, and who 
are known and respected for their sterling 
worth as citizens, having always in view the 
upbuilding and best interests of the commu- 
nities in which they live. Of this class, cen- 
tral Nebraska has many representatives, none 
perhaps more worthy than Air. Shepard, as is 
known by the people of the community among 
whom he has lived for thirty-two years. 

Air. Shepard was born at Ashtabula, Ohio, 
A]>ril 10. 1853, a son of Richard and Rowena 
(Stratton) Shepard, natives of Ohio. His 
paternal grandfather, Pelltiah Shepard, was 
born in Connecticut and was a pioneer of 
Ohio, where his death occurred ; while on the 
maternal side his grandfather was James 
Stratton, a native of Ohio, who moved first 
to \Visconsin and later to Alinnesota. where 
he died. Richard Shepard was born in 1829, 
in Ohio, where he grew to manhood and was 
educated. As a young man he began a career 
on the Great Lakes. For a time he was a cap- 
tain on Lake Erie boats, and during the Civil 
war he enlisted in the Thirty-first Regiment of 
Wisconsin \^olunteer Infantry, for three years. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



813 



but the war closed after he had served eigh- 
teen months and he received his honorable dis- 
charge. He took part in many engagements, 
inckiding those during General Sherman's 
great march to the sea, and finally was one of 
those who proudly marched through the streets 
of Washington, D. C, to the cheering of thou- 
sands of spectators, in the Grand Review. 
From Wisconsin he moved with his family to 
Minnesota, and in 1878 he went to California, 
where he and his wife passed the remaining 
years of their lives, Captain Shepard passing 
away December 31, 1899, aged seventy years, 
and Mrs. Shepard dying in March, 1915, when 
eighty-five years of age, she having held her- 
self secure in the faith of the Methodist Epis- 
cojsal church. Captain Shepard had made a 
success of his life and was in comfortable fi- 
nancial circumstances before taking up his 
residence in California. He was a Democrat 
in politics. There were seven children in the 
family, of whom four are now living: Archi- 
bald H. ; Mrs. Addie Carrington, a widow liv- 
ing in California ; Alice, the wife of ex-Gov- 
ernor Lind of Minneapolis. Minnesota ; and E. 
E., engaged in the practice of law at Los An- 
geles, California. 

Archibald H. Shepard received his early ed- 
ucation in the district schools of Minnesota, 
and after accompanying his parents to Califor- 
nia supplemented this by a commercial course 
in Bryant & Stratton's Business College, at 
San Francisco. He took up telegraphy later 
and followed it for a time, but subsequently 
went to North Dakota, where he engaged in 
the mercantile business. After three years in 
that state, he sought a more populous com- 
munity for demonstrating his business capacity 
and energy, and accordingly, in 1886, he came 
to Custer county and located at Ansley, which 
has since been his home and the stage of his 
activities and successes. At the time of his 
arrival he engaged in mercantile business in a 
modest way, and from the start his venture 
was a success. A man of excellent business 
and executive ability, sagacious, and far-see- 
ing, by his earnest desire to please his custom- 
ers and his courteous treatment and fair deal- 
ing, he soon secured a liberal patronage. He 
gave the business his personal attention for 
thirty vears, but since 1916 he has devoted his 
entire time to the handling of the duties con- 
nected with his position as postmaster of Ans- 
ley, to which he was appointed, bv President 
Wilson, in the year mentioned. The family, 
however, still own and conduct the store. Mr. 
Shepard is a staunch and uncompromising 
Democrat, and wields no small influence in his 
community. The best interests of the locality 
receive his support, and he withholds his co- 



operation from no worthy undertaking tending 
to promote the general welfare. With his 
family, he belongs to the Methodist Episcopal 
church. Mr. Shepard is widely known in fra- 
ternal circles, being a Scottish Rite Mason, 
and a member of the Modern Woodmen of 
America. 

In 1885 Mr. Shepard married Miss Lottie 
Welch, who was born at Bufifalo, New York, 
daughter of Sylvester Welch, at one time as- 
sistant jailer of the city of Buffalo. They 
have three children : Myrtle S. and Archibald 
H., Jr., who are conducting the store ; and Roy 
E., who, in the hospital service of the United 
States army, was assigned to active duty in 
France. 



GROVER A. HOLEMAN, cashier of the 
Farmers State Bank of Ansley, has been con- 
nected with this institution from the time that 
he completed his youthful education, and he 
has advanced to his present post through in- 
dividual merit. His career has been an ex- 
pression of well applied and well directed in- 
dustry, and he has succeeded in building up 
for himself a reputation as an adherent of 
sound and conservative banking principles. He 
was born at Bedford, Iowa, June 4, 1887, a 
son of John H. and Mary (Elliott) Holeman. 

Reuben A. Holeman, grandfather of Grover 
A., was born in Indiana, later moved to War- 
ren county, Illinois, and after a career spent 
in agricultural pursuits he retired from active 
life, liis death occurring at Ansley, Nebraska, 
in January, 1918. John H. Holeman was born 
in Warren county, Illinois, and as a young 
man moved to. Iowa, where he was engaged in 
farming until 1892. In that year he came 
to Custer county and rented a farm, which he 
operated as a renter for two years. Subse- 
quently he purchased this property and he con- 
tinued its operation until his retirement, when 
he moved to his present home, at Ansley. He 
is a self-made man who has won success, and 
whose fellow citizens have on numerous occa- 
sions honored him by election to public office. 
His political affiliation is with the Democratic 
party. In Iowa Mr. Holeman married Miss 
Mary Elliott, a native of that state, and they 
are the parents of four children : Grover A. ; 
H. E., principal of the Albert Lea Commercial 
College, at Albert Lea, Minnesota ; Gladys, en- 
gaged in teaching school ; and Alvin, attending 
the Ansley high school. Mrs. Holeman is a 
member of the Baptist church. 

Grover A. Holeman attended the graded 
and high schools of Ansley, following- which 
he took a business course at the Shenandoah 
Commercial Institute, Shenandoah, Iowa, in 



814 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




i4 



>c 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



815 



which he was graduated in 1907, and he com- 
pleted his training at the Gem City Business 
College, Quincy, Illinois, in 1908. At that 
time he returned to Nebraska and entered the 
Farmers State Bank of Ansley, in the capacity 
of bookkeeper, subsequently being made as- 
sistant cashier, a post which he retained for 
five years. He was elected cashier February 
2, 1914, and has continued to act in that ca- 
pacity to the present. This is the second oldest 
banking institution at Ansley and, as a reliable 
and sound banking house, it has gained and re- 
tained public confidence. Its growth has been 
steady and consistent, as will be noted in the 
fact that when Mr. Holeman entered the bank 
the average deposits were $22,000, while to- 
day they are $200,000. The bank has a capi- 
tal of $20,000, and its surplus and undivided 
profits amount to $1,000. Mr. Holeman, in 
his official capacity, has contributed materially 
to the growth and prosperity of the institution, 
at the same time advancing his own standing 
in banking circles, as a capable and thoroughly 
informed banker. 

On August 3, 1911, at Ansley. Mr. Holeman 
married Miss Myrtle E. Bristol, daughter of 
Rupert C. Bristol, a sketch of whose career 
appears elsewhere in this work. Four children 
have been born to them : Grover Garland, born 
in 1912; Myrtle Mildred, born in 1914: Law- 
rence, born in 1916; and John Orville, born in 
1918. Mrs. Holeman is a member of the Bap- 
tist church, in the work of which she is ac- 
tively interested, and to the movements of 
which Mr. Holeman is a contributor. He is a 
Mason of the thirty-second degree and is 
treasurerof his Masonic blue lodge. In poli- 
tics a Democrat, he has been repeatedly urged 
to become a candidate for public office, and 
on one occasion was appointed deputy county 
clerk, but he refused the honor, preferring to 
devote his entire time and attention to his 
duties at the bank. 



JES'SE E. NETH. — The story of Jesse E. 
Neth reads a good deal like the stories of other 
Custer county pioneers. His advent into this 
world occurred April 22, 1872, and the place 
selected for the occasion was Livingston coun- 
ty, Illinois. His father, Jacob Neth, was a 
native of W^ittenberg, Germany. His mother, 
whose maiden name was Mary Stnmk, was a 
Pennsylvanian by birth. These were the par- 
ents of an estimable family in which were ten 
children : seven are still living. The living are 
as follows : William S. Neth, Franklin B. Neth, 
Katherine ( Xeth ) Stewart, Jesse E. Neth, Jo- 



seph L. Neth, Lucinda P. Neth, and Dora K. 
(Neth) Meyers. 

Two denominations are represented in the 
family. The father was a Lutheran, and the 
mother a member of the Christian church. 
Jacob Neth, father of the subject of this nar- 
rative, went to Covington, Ohio, when but a 
small boy. During the Civil war he enlisted 
in the Fourteenth Ohio Infantry, and he served 
for the full duration of the war. He was with 
Sherman on his memorable expedition to the 
sea. By occupation he was always a farmer, 
and, withal, a very frugal, prosperous citizen. 

Jesse E. Neth, reared on a farm, has always 
followed farming for a livelihood. When 
asked concerning the first money he earned, he 
replied that when seven years of age he car- 
ried water on horseback for harvest hands, for 
which he received ten cents a day. By the time 
he was eight years of age, by working at odd 
jobs, he had saved enough money to enable 
him to buy a suit of clothes. When he was 
fourteen years old his father and mother both 
died, within two weeks of each other. After 
the death of his parents, a cousin by the name 
of Mike Maier, of Covington, Ohio, took all 
the children home with him. and they were 
placed in different families, as opportunities 
were presented. Young Jesse was put to work 
and, being rather a wiry lad, made good at all 
kinds of farm work. For his first month's 
work he received a pair of moleskin pants, a 
box of paper collars, and fifty cents in money. 
Thinking that perhaps fortune would favor 
him better in the west, he came to Custer coun- 
ty in February, 1890, and here he worked on 
various farms, for difl:'erent farmers, until 1903 
when he homesteaded the northwest quarter 
of section 21, township 16, range 22. 

In August of 1904 Mr. Neth married Katie 
M. Kelsey, who was at the time a resident of 
Broken Bow. Her father, Martin Kelsey, was 
a native of New York and the family name 
of her mother was Lutes. 

Mr. and Mrs. Neth are the parents of three 
children — Walter S., Orrine E., and Helen. 
Mr. Neth owns 480 acres of good land, and has 
recently sold 480 acres. He is a prosperous, 
well known farmer and stock-raiser, a splendid 
citizen, and one of the leaders in the community 
where he resides. 

On the home farm the Neths are building, 
at the time of this writing, a commodious farm 
home that will be one of the best in the com- 
munity, and that will cost between three and 
four thousand dollars when completed. He 
has also a fine equipment of outbuildings on 
the farm, and has just installed a water system 



816 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



that is equal to any farm water-plant in the 
state. With this water accessible, the new 
farm home will be thoroughly modern. 



.ADELBERT LOGAN THOMAS is one of 
the responsible, middle-aged farmers whose 
life activities have already been counted as a 
success, and he lives in the vicinity of ^lerna, 
where he conducts farming operations on what 
might be consistently be called a model farm. 

Mr. Thomas was born September 27, 1879, 
in Murray, Iowa, and he is a son of Frank 
and Leila (Reed) Thomas. The father was a 
Vermont Yankee, and the mother a native of 
the Buckeye state, Born to the union of the 
parents were two sons, the subject of this 
sketch being the first born, and the other, 
Otho O., being well known in the vicinity of 
Merna. The Thomas family came to Custer 
county when .A.. Logan Thomas was but a lad 
of three years, and the father took a homestead 
and a timber claim one and one-half miles 
south of Merna. It was here that the boy grew 
up, and he still remembers that the countr>- in 
those days was rather wild, roads being trails, 
and the fields, for the most part, being prairie. 
The main thoroughfare from Broken Bow to 
Merna passed through his father's farm 

Concerning those days ]\Ir. Thomas relates 
that on one occasion several cowboys rode 
through the yard. A big yellow pumpkin lay 
in front of the house, and thinking that no one 
was at home, the lx)ys rode their ponies sev- 
eral times around the house on a gallop, and 
each time they passed the pumpkin they gave 
it a shot. When they finished their sport the 
pumpkin was pretty well perforated. The 
mother was at home alone in the house, and 
one can imagine that she was badly fright- 
ened. The father was threshing for a neigh- 
bor, and, hearing the shots, he rushed home. 
The boys had just left, but seeing him put in 
an appearance so suddenly upon the scene, the 
leaders rode back and apologized. They said 
they did not know any one was at home and 
were just having a little gim practice. 

Mr. Thomas says the first money that he 
earned was by riding a lead-horse on a bin- 
der, for twenty-five cents a day. He worked 
at home, secured a fair education in the com- 
mon schools, and on November 9. 1902. at 
Merna. he married Josie Cory, a daughter of 
Daniel W. and Nancy (Fall) Cory. 

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas remain on the old 
homestead and have a splendid home, where 
farming operations are conducted in an ideal 
manner. Thev have two children, Franklin 



W. and Earl A., both of whom are attending 
school. Rated as a progressive farmer and 
stock-raiser, Mr. Thomas maintains the fa- 
ther's farm, which now belongs to the widowed 
mother, and he deser\'es credit for the show- 
ing that he has made. His father died June 
29, 19(X). ]\lr. Thomas gives his attention to 
diversified agriculture, with stock-raising as a 
profitable side line. His wife does well her 
share and contributes to the family income 
with butter, cream, chickens, and eggs. Dur- 
ing the last year the proceeds from the poul- 
try-yard purchased fifty dollars of thrift 
stamps. In emergencies, Mrs. Thomas goes 
into the field and becomes a valuable assistant 
to her husband in caring for the crops. This 
she did in the summer of 1918, when other 
help could not be obtained, and thus they not 
only saved the crop, but also an expense of 
four dollars a day for a hired man who woukl 
have done little, if any. more work. 



WILLIAM A. CRISS. — Fourteen miles 
west of Broken Bow the subject of this sketch 
plies his vocation. There he is a tiller of the 
soil, a raiser of stock and. in general, a pro- 
ducer of food stufl^s, all of which renders him 
a valuable citizen and one with whom present- 
day conditions could not dispense. 

William A. Criss hails from the Hoosier 
state, where he was born December 13, 1874. 
He is a son of Levi and Mary (Walker) Criss, 
both of whom were natives of Greene county, 
Indiana, the first county and state known to 
young William A., who is the eldest of the fa- 
ther's family, the others being Silas L., Ari 
J., Sciota A. Grounds, Jocie M. (deceased), 
and John E. The parents belonged to the 
Christian church and were farmers by occupa- 
tion and residence. On the farm young \\'illiani 
began his operations. 

William A. Criss was but three years old 
when his parents came to Nebraska. The trip 
was made in a covered wagon, but such vivid 
impressions were made upon the child's mem- 
ory that he remembers to this day that on one 
occasion he was lying in the back end of the 
wagon and that he kicked a feather bed and 
pair of pillows out of the wagon, these treas- 
ured household possessions never having been 
recovered. The first stop of the Criss family 
was in \'alley county, where they resided five 
years. Then, in the fall of 1884, they moved 
into Custer county, and located a homestead 
fourteen miles northwest of .\ns!ey. on Clear 
creek. On this claim W'illiam spent his boy- 
hood days. The father died in 1892 and the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



817 



mother sold the claim for $300 and went back 
to Indiana. The homestead is now very val- 
uable. 

William A. Criss and two of his brothers, 
Silas and Ari, remained in Custer county, 
where they worked by the month, wherever 
they could obtain employment, until they were 
able to establish themselves in independent 
operations. 

The domestic life of William A. Criss dates 
from April, 1896, when, at Ansley, Nebraska, 
he led to the marriage altar Miss Ida O. 
Brooks, who was born in Davis county, Iowa, 
a daughter of George W. Brooks and Eliza 
( Niles ) Brooks, the father having been born 
in Iowa, and the mother in Illinois. The 
Crisses have a good home, and until the last 
few years have had a hard time making a liv- 
ing, but industry and good management have 
finally brought to them definite independence 
and prosperity 

Following is a brief record concerning the 
children of Mr. and Mrs. Criss: Mrs. Anna B. 
Olson is a resident of Colorado, where her 
husband is a farmer, and the names of the 
other children are here entered in respective 
order — Harlan L., Grant W., Grace D., Nora 
O., Carle L. 

Air. Criss is the fortunate owner of 480 
acres of land, well improved, and stocked for 
profitable operations. Careful management, 
good judgment, economical habits, and tireless 
efiforts account for his accumulations. He tells 
a story of the early days, to the effect that six 
gold-seekers came through the Clear creek 
country in an early day and, being threatened 
by Indians, they separated, to evade pursuit. 
They came together at a point further east 
and one of them claimed that he had buried 
his sack of gokldust under a lone elm tree on 
the creek about twelve miles east of the pres- 
ent site of Mason City. Mr. Criss says that 
he and other neighbor boys put in many a 
day's work digging under elm trees in that 
vicinity, but so far the sack of gold has con- 
tinued to elude the spade and mattock. 

The Criss family are counted desirable citi- 
zens and kind and obliging neighbors. 



HERBERT OXFORD is a young farmer 
living on Ash creek, southwest of Broken Bow. 
on eighty acres of land on which he is rearing 
a family of small children, operating his farm, 
milking cows, and laying the foundation of a 
competency which labor and management are 
sure to secure. He was born in Harrison 
county, Missouri. November 24, 1884, and is 
a son of John and Hannah ( King) Oxford, 



both natives of Kentucky. In the family were 
the following named children — Robert F., 
Wilda Noble, William T., Ora, Cornelius, Os- 
car , Lafayette, Rannick, Celia (deceased), 
Charles L., Herbert, Emma Wright, Mattie, 
and Francis. John Oxford was nineteen years 
of age when he went to California with the 
gold-seekers — in a wagon train in which were 
about fifteen wagons, hauled by ox teams. He 
was at that time in the employ of Glasscock 
& Taylor, who were freighting supplies to the 
gold fields. He stayed in California three 
years and upon receiving word that his father 
was very ill, he started for home. When he 
arrived at the home, the father was dead and 
buried. At the time of the Civil war John 
Oxford enlisted, and he served eight months. 

Concerning the early years of young Her- 
bert Oxford, it may be noted that he made 
himself generally useful on the farm, doing 
chores and such light work as a sturdy boy 
could do. When eight years of age he chon- 
ped wood for his mother and earned ten cents, 
which he saved for Fourth of July money. 
On the anniversary of the nation's independ- 
ence he invested his money in fire-crackers. 
His celebration, however, came to a sudden 
end, as the fire-crackers were slow to ignite 
and, thinking that he could help matters by 
blowing into the lighted end, the explosion 
came rather suddenly and filled his face with 
powder-marks, with the result that to this day 
Herbert declares that he does not like fire- 
crackers. His early life was on the farm, 
and farming has been the occupation of his 
lifetime. He came to Custer county in the 
fall of 1904, with his brother Rannick. They 
came to an uncle, James Oxford, who was 
then living on Lillian creek. The uncle was: 
one of the earliest pioneers of the Middle 
Loup country. Herbert went to work as 
foreman on the Albert Blessing ranch, and 
during the next three years he accumulated 
enough to start farming for himself, which he 
did. 

On March 8, 1910, at Broken Bow. Mr. 
Oxford was united in marriage to Rosa Deal, 
a daughter of Charles and ^larietta (Prov- 
ince ) Deal, whose home was in Buffalo county. 
Airs. Oxford has two sisters — Bertha Sexton, 
and \'io!et, the latter of whom is at home 
with her parents, who now live near Broken 
Bow. 

Mr. and Mrs. Oxford have five children, 
all young, full of "pep" and promise, and they 
add much of cheerfulness to the household. 
They are: Mary, seven; Melva L. six; Ruby 
S.. four: Clarence, two: Lawrence W.. one. 
Mr. Oxford's home is located on eighty acres 
of fine land adjoining his father's land, which 



818 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



he farms on shares, and he thus is enabled to 
conduct farming operations on a larger scale 
than would otherwise be possible. He has 
made a fine showing, and has proved himself 
to be an energetic, progressive farmer who is 
laving the foundation of a competency that 
will be well deserved. He has given consider- 
able attention to dairying, milking cows, 
farming and raising stock, his good wife do- 
ing all the time her part — taking care of the 
chickens, butter and eggs, and doing every- 
thing jxjssible to augment the efforts of her 
husband. They sustain a good name in the 
community and' are rated substantial, depend- 
able peuplc. They are members of the Metho- 
dist church. 



WILLIAM N. BRAY, who is numbered 
among the successful men of Custer county, 
and who is now living in comfortable retire- 
ment at his home at Mason City, is an example 
of the self-made type of manhood, for he 
commenced life in modest circumstances and 
worked his own way to independence and. 
prosperity. Mr. liray was born in Gallia 
county. Ohio, January 20, 1848. and is a son 
of Nathan and Sarah ( Gooch) Bray. 

The parents of Mr. Bray were natives of 
Ohio, the mother having been a daughter of 
James Gooch, a pioneer of that state and a 
lifelong agriculturist. From Ohio ]Mr. and 
Mrs. Bray moved to West Virginia, where the 
mother died and in 1861 Nathan Bray went 
with his family to Missouri, where he passed 
the rest of his life in farming, and where his 
death occurred. A man of industry and in- 
telligence, he accumulated considerable prop- 
erty in politics, but took little interest in pub- 
lic affairs, save that of a good citizen. Both 
he and Mrs. Bray were members of the Bap- 
tist church. They were the parents of five 
children, of whom two are living: William 
N.. of this review, and John, of Huntington, 
West Virginia. 

William N. Bray received his education in 
the public schools of Ohio and West Mrginia. 
Coming to Custer county in 1885, he filed on 
a homestead, but subsequently relinquished it 
and pre-ciupte<i the farm which he now owns, 
a tract of 200 acres lying four miles north- 
east of Mason City, in addition to which he 
owns considerable land nearer to that place. 
\Mien he began his indeoendent career, he 
was a poor youth with only ordinary advan- 
tages, and at the time that he came to Custer 
county he possessed little more than his per- 
sonal ability, natural ambition, and profound 
self-confidence to aid liim. These carried him 



through the starting years, and have since 
contributed to aid him in the securing of a 
handsome competence. In 1910 he retired 
from the active pursuits of the farm and 
moved to Mason City, where for two years he 
was engaged in the dairy business. Since that 
time he has been living in retirement. ^Ir. 
Bray was originally a Republican, but in more 
recent years has been a supporter of the Dem- 
ocratic party. He has not engaged in public 
affairs, but has discharged the responisibilities 
of citizenship in a manner that well entitles 
him to the unqualified esteem and regard in 
which he is held by his fellow townspeople. 

In 1870 Mr. Bray married Miss Frances 
Ogburn, who was born in West Mrginia, and 
they became the parents of si.K children; Ida. 
who is the wife of John \\'alker, a farmer in 
Custer county ; Sarah, who married Ludrick 
Jackson and resides on a farm near Mason 
City ; Charles, who is an agriculturist near 
Siou.x City, Iowa; Clella, who first married 
Charles Baker, and, second, Joseph Scott, and 
now resides at Broken Bow ; John, who is a 
farmer in Sherman county ; and Fred, who 
is at the time of this writing a member of the 
L'nited States army, stationed in camp at Fort 
Presidio, California. Mrs. Bray died in 1884, 
and Mr. Bray was again married in 1890, to 
Melissa Wood, who was born in Missouri, a 
daughter of John and .-\manda ( Hillhouse) 
Wood, the former a native of Tennessee and 
the latter of Missouri. Mr. Wood died in Ne- 
braska, and following his death his widow 
returned to her native state, where she passed 
away. Eight children have been born to Mr. 
and Mrs. Bray : Claude, who is conducting 
the operations on his father's farm ; Jessie, 
who resides with her parents; Leonard, who 
is a member of Company B. Forty-eighth En- 
gineers. .American Expeditionary Forces, 
France ; Ruby, who is attending business col- 
lege at Lincoln ; Harry, who is identified with 
a business enterprise at Minden, this state ; 
Garnett, who is with the One Hundred and 
Tenth American Aviation Squadron, in 
France ; and Marion and Melville, who remain 
with tlieir parents. The meml)ers of the Bray 
family belong to the Baptist church. 



RE\'. THOMAS F. MINOGUE. — The 
life work of a priest of the Holy Roman 
Catholic church is essentially one of self-sac- 
rificing devotion to the needs of his people, 
his church, and the Divine Master whom he 
serves. The work demands years of prelim- 
inary study and preparation, for the highest 
of intellectual standards and the broadest of 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



819 



practical humanitarianism are demanded, the 
while there can be no temporal rewards com- 
mensurate with the services to be rendered, 
save the satisfaction of having labored faith- 
fully and well in the behalf of Christ and hu- 
manity. Father Minogue has measured up 
fully to the demands and exactions of his 
high calling, and is one of the representative 
members of the Catholic priesthood in this 
section of Nebraska. He is pastor of the 
church at Anselmo. is also serving the churches 
at Dale and Merna, and commands the high 
esteem and affectionate regard of the mem- 
bers of his parish, as well as the confidence 
and good will of the entire community. 

Father Alinogue was born near the River 
Shannon, in County Clare, Ireland, April 23,. 
1881. His parents. Patrick and Ellen (Ma- 
lone) Winogue, were born and reared on the 
fair old Emerald Isle, where the mother still 
resides, the father having passed away. 

Father Thomas F. Minogue was educated 
for the priesthood at All Hallows College, 
Dublin, Ireland, and was ordained June 24, 
1909. He immediately came to the United 
States and was assigned to St. Bridget's 
church at South Omaha, where he remained 
ten months, and thereafter he was located at 
Sidney, Nebraska, for two months. For one 
year he was in charge of the church at Alli- 
ance, Box Butte county, and June 7, 1911, he 
came to Anselmo, where since that time he has 
been the zealous and devoted shepherd of this 
fold and has given earnestly of his time and 
talents to the furtherance of the spiritual and 
temporal wellbeing of his parish. 



PHILIP G. HOUGHTON. — The true 
standard by which to judge a community is 
by the character of its prominent citizens, for 
progress is rarely, if ever, the result of chance 
but results from the execution of well laid 
plans, based upon a thorough comprehension 
of the laws of business. In this connection, as 
one whose business qualifications and personal 
character are of the best, Philip G. Houghton 
may be said to be fairly representative of the 
alert, progressive spirit that has brought the 
thriving community of Arnold to the forefront 
among Custer county towns during recent 
years. 

Philip G. Houghton, of the real-estate, in- 
surance, and loan firm of Houghton & Perkins, 
was born May 14, 1867, in Chenango county, 
New York, and he is a son of John and Sophia 
(Bartlett) Houghton. His parents, who were 
natives of England, immigrated to the United 



States in 1865, and settled in New York state, 
where Philip the youngest child was born. 
John and Sophia (Bartlett) Houghton became 
the parents of two sons and four daughters, 
but only Philip G. and a sister, Mrs. Lizzie 
Banner, of Boone, Iowa, survive. The family 
continued to live in New York until 1879, in 
which year they came to the west and took up 
their abode on a farm fourteen miles east of 
the city of Lincoln, Nebraska, where they re- 
mained four years. In the year 1883 John 
Houghton came to Custer county, where he 
located on a homestead situated five miles 
southwest of Arnold, in the Yuca valley, where 
he continued to be energetically engaged in 
farming and stock-raising until his death, Oc- 
tober 9, 1915. Mrs. Houghton still survives 
her husband and makes her home at Arnold. 

The boyhood of Philip G. Houghton was 
passed in New York, where as a lad he earned 
lais first money on a farm, being paid the sum 
of fifteen cents for topping a field of carrots. 
He attended the district schools and was twelve 
years old when he came with his parents to 
Nebraska, being still a youth upon his arrival 
in Custer county. He did not engage in farm- 
ing on his own account until 1888, in which 
year he took a homestead three and one-half 
miles south of Arnold, and there he is now 
the owner of 480 acres of well improved land. 
Mr. Houghton was successfully engaged in 
farming and stock-raising on this property 
until 1908, when he changed his place of resi- 
dence to the town of Arnold, and embarked in 
the real-estate, insurance, and loan business. 
He continued alone until 1917, when he formed 
a partnership with S. A. Perkins, adopting the 
firm name of Houghton & Perkins, and this 
business has continued to the present time, with 
constantly increasing prosperity. Messrs. 
Houghton and Perkins are the owners of the 
old Arnold Bank building and of other desir- 
able property, both at Arnold and in the sur- 
rounding country, and as live and energetic 
business men they are handling Custer county 
land at attractive prices. Mr. Houghton pos- 
sesses the necessary qualifications for a suc- 
cessful real-estate man and his reputation in 
the business circles of the community is of the 
best. He has done much to assist in material- 
ly building up the community and county of his 
adoption. 

Mr. Houghton was united in marriage June 
2, 1888, at Arnold, to Miss Mattie Collins, of 
Gnmdy county, Missouri, a daughter of Reu- 
ben and Elizabeth Collins. They have no chil- 
dren. Mr. Houghton has received the thirty- 
second degree of the Ancient .Accepted Scottish 



820 



HISTORY OF CrSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 




< 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



821 



Rite of Masonry, besides being a noble of the 
Mystic Slirine and a member of the Modem 
Woodmen of America. 



S. A. PERKINS. — • Prominent among the 
vigorous real-estate dealers of Custer county, 
one who has been rewarded with marked suc- 
cess during the six years that he has followed 
this line of business is S. A. Perkins, member 
of. the firm of Houghton & Perkins, of Arnold. 
Prior to his entrance upon the field of real 
estate, Mr. Perkins was engaged in farming, 
and in each of these connections with the soil, 
whether in Custer county or elsewhere, he has 
been able to make the most of his opportuni- 
ties and to gain a satisfying share of prosperity 
through his transactions. 

Mr. Perkins was born in Monroe county, 
Iowa, September 16, 1866, and is a son of 
Elisha M. and Sarah (Strickland) Perkins. 
He was but four years of age when brought 
by his father to Butler county, Nebraska, the 
father taking up a homestead ten miles north 
of David City, on the present site of Octavia. 
The youth grew up amid agricultural sur- 
roundings and was taught the routine business 
of the farm by a father who was industrious 
and who demanded that his son be also, so 
that the summer months usually found S. A. 
Perkins actively identified with the occupations 
of the farm, and when he was not attending 
the district school, during the winter terius, 
he was generally attending the school of hard 
work and sturdy experience, in the summers. 
He remained under the parental roof until 
shortly after he had attained his twenty-first 
birthday, and October 13, 1887, at Swan, Iowa, 
he was united in marriage to Miss Nina Palmer, 
who likewise was born in that state, a daugh- 
ter of William and Martha (Thomas) Palmer, 
well known and highly respected people there. 
Mr. and Mrs. Perkins have one son. Glen O., 
who is one of the energetic young business men 
of Arnold, where he is cashier of the Arnold 
State Bank. Glen Perkins married Miss Ethel 
Collins, daughter of John W. and Jennie ( Hofif- 
man) Collins, and they are the parents of two 
daughters. 

.\fter his marriage Mr. Perkins settled down 
to farming in Butler county, and there he con- 
tinued operations with increasing success until 
1906, when he glimpsed an opportunity and, 
grasping it, came to Custer county and ])ur- 
chased 640 acres of land, situated three miles 
east of Arnold. There he continued to farm 
until 1912. his industry, experience, and good 
management gaining him marked success as 



an agriculturist. In 1912 he left the farm and 
moved to Arnold, where he established him- 
self in the real-estate, insurance, and loan busi- 
ness, continuing alone until 1917, when he 
formed a partnership with P. G. Houghton, 
under the firm name of Houghton & Perkins. 
This alliance has continued successfully to the 
present time, and is accounted a strong and 
important business combination, through which 
some important transactions have been brought 
to a successful and satisfactory conclusion. Mr. 
Perkins is well informed as to land values in 
this locality, having made a thorough study of 
the situation, and since entering the real-estate 
field he has done much to assist in the upbuild- 
ing of this part of Custer county. He has su- 
preme faith in the future' of the locality and 
his entire satisfaction with the soil here, is 
evidenced by his retaining ownership of his 
farming land and by the fact that he has made 
plans to continue in the real-estate business in- 
definitely. He is a stockholder and director of 
the Arnold State Bank, is a Republican in his 
political allegiance, and is proniinently affiliated 
with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has 
received the thirty-second degree of the Scot- 
tish Rite and is also a noble of the Mystic 
Shrine. 



REV. CHARLES A. SHOOK. — Of the 
supreme agencies which mold the tendencies 
and beckon most persistently to the mind of 
youth, few exceed in potency the example of 
those who have already fought their battles 
and reached success. The great lesson to be 
found in the life of a good and capable man, 
ne.xt to the intelligent application of the forces 
within him for the benefit of mankind in gen- 
eral, is the encouragement disseminated by 
his rise from obscurity to prominence. Such 
reflections are brought forcibly to mind in 
noting the career of Rev. Charles A. Shook, 
for twenty years a minister of the Advent 
Christian and Christian churches, and now 
engaged in his zealous labors at Ansley. 

Rev. Charles A. Shook was born at Galien. 
Berrien county, Michigan, February 19, 1876, 
a son of John and Martha ( Chandler) Shook, 
and he belongs to a family that has given rep- 
resentatives as participants in every Ameri- 
can war. The family of Shook was founded 
in this county in 1740, by George Shook, a 
native of Amsterdam, Holland, and for a term 
of years the family was well known in Penn- 
sylvania, of which state John Shook, the 
grandfather of Charles A., was a native. The 
maternal grandfather, Josiah Chandler, was 



822 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



a native of New York, and migrated to ^lich- 
igan about 1830. Subsequently he moved to 
Kansas, where his death occurred. John 
Shook, father of Rev. Charles A., was born 
at East Hanover, Pennsylvania, May 28, 1831, 
and as a youth learned the trade of shoemaker, 
which he followed both in Pennsylvania and 
Michigan. He was a resident of the latter 
state when the Civil war came on, and in Au- 
gust, 1864, he enlisted in Company E, First 
Michigan Light Artillery, with which he 
served until July, 1865, when he received his 
honorable discharge. Returning to his Michi- 
gan home, he resumed his trade, but later he 
became an extract manufacturer, a business 
in which his natural thrift, industry, and abil- 
ity gained him marked success. He was a very 
religious man and a member of the Reorgan- 
ized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day 
Saints. Politically a Republican, he took a 
keen interest in local afifairs, and he was city 
marshal of Buchanan, Michigan, for ten years. 
His fraternal connection was with the Odd 
Fellows. At Buchanan, on March 16, 1866, 
Mr. Shook married Martha Chandler, who 
was born at Walkerton, Indiana, March 16, 
1835. and who died August 19, 1903, he sur- 
viving until March 14, 1911. Of their four 
children, Charles A. is the only survivor. 

Charles A. Shook was graduated from the 
I)ublic schools of Buchanan. Michigan. June 
13. 1895, following which he took a theological 
course at Mendota. Illinois, and subsequently 
spent one vear in the Southern Baptist Theo- 
logical Seminar)', at Louisville. Kentucky. His 
first charge as a minister of the Christian 
church was at Bangor, Michigan. Thereafter 
he held pastoral charges at Union Mills; Jef- 
ferson. Indiana; Buchanan, Michigan; and 
Palmer, Illinois. He then came to Nebraska, 
being first at Miller and later at Eddyville, and 
finally coming to .\nsley. Mr. Shook is one 
of the most industrious of workers, laboring 
zealously from morning to night in behalf of 
his church.- In addition he is not unknown to 
the lecture platform, where he has accom- 
plished some excellent results, and he has 
gained somewhat more than a local reputation 
because of his talents as a writer, several of 
his works having gained widespread and fav- 
orable attention, among them : "Cumorah 
Revisited, or Book of Mormon, and the Claims 
of the Mormons Re-examined from the View- 
point of American Archaeology and Ethnol- 
og>'." "The True Origin of Mormon Poly- 
gamy," "The True Origin of the Book of Mor- 
mon," and "The Gist of the Bible." A pro- 
fouund student, he has strong views in regard 
to prohibition, being a staunch supporter of 



temperance, and he is also a Socialist. Frater- 
nally he is a Mason, an Odd Fellow, and a 
member of the Modern Woodmen of America. 
Noveml)er 30. 1898. at Bangor. Michigan, 
Rev. Charles A. Shook married Miss Nellie 
Baker, a daughter of Jacob D. and Elizabeth 
Baker, farming people of Michigan, and to 
this union there have been born four children : 
Helen, Ruth, Harold, and Donald, all at home. 



JAMES B. JONES. — The Hfe of James 
B. Jones, of Ansley, has been an expression 
of practical and diversified activity, and in its 
range has invaded the realms of agriculture, 
in which he has successfully accumulated a 
large and valuable property ; the fields of real 
estate and auctioneering, where he has dis- 
played the possession of marked commercial 
ability; and public life, in which he has es- 
tablished a splendid record for executive ca- 
pacity and conscientiousness, which are dis- 
tinctive features of his work and character. 

Mr. Jones was torn at Mexico, Missouri. 
Julv 23. 1861, and is a son of Martin and 
Martha ( Wade) Jones. His paternal grand- 
father, James Jones, was born in Kentucky, as 
was also his wife, Rebecca, and soon after their 
marriage they moved to Missouri, where for 
a time Mr. Jones followed the vocation of 
veterinarian, but later he engaged in fanning 
in Illinois, where he remained until his death. 
Reuben Wade, the maternal grandfather of 
James B. Jones, was a native of Kentucky and 
was a shoemaker by trade. He moved to the 
vicinity of Kirkwood, Illinois, where he en- 
gaged in farming, and he passed the remain- 
der of his life in the pursuits of the soil. Mar- 
tin Jones, father of James B., was born at 
Mexico, ^Missouri, where he married Martha 
Wade, a native of Logansport. Indiana, and 
there their only child was born. During the 
Civil war Mr. Jones" sympathies were with 
the Confederacy, and for several years he 
served as a member of the state militia. Some 
time after the close of the struggle he re- 
moved to Illinois, where he engaged in mer- 
chandising, and he was fairly successful there- 
in. He passed the rest of his life in the 
Prairie .state. He was a Democrat and was 
a member of the Methodist E]>iscopal church, 
to which his wife also belonged, although 
later in life she transferred her membership 
to the Christian church. 

James 1!. Jones was educated in the public 
schools of \Varren county. Illinois, where he 
had been taken as a lad. and his early train- 
ing was along agricultural lines, so that he 
naturally adopted the vocation of farming. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



823 



In 1884, when twenty-three years of age, he 
came to Custer county, Nebraska, and pre- 
empted a claim, which he proceeded to put 
under a high state of cuUivation. He at once 
entered actively into local governmental afifairs, 
and in 1890 he was elected sheriff of the 
county, a capacity in which he served two 
years. He then returned to his work on his 
farm, but was not permitted to remain long 
out of public life, for in 1898 he was elected 
state grain inspector, an office which he held 
also in 1899 and 1900. During the years 1895, 
1896, and 1897, he had been deputy warden 
of the state penitentiary, and in 1901 was made 
jailer of Douglas county and acted in that ca- 
pacity also in 1902. A man of marked cour- 
age, strong for discipline, but with ideals of 
humanitarianism, he made an excellent official 
record and served in many ways to better ex- 
isting conditions in regard to the wards of the 
state whom it is necessary to confine. In 
1917 Mr. Jones left the home farm, which 
he had increased to a half-section of land, and 
moved to Ansley, but he and his son still own 
the country property and carry on extensive 
operations in general farming and stock-rais- 
ing. The land is under a high state of culti- 
vation and is very productive, while its value 
has been enhanced by the erection of substan- 
tial buildings and the installing of modern 
equipment of all kinds. Since coming to Ans- 
ley Air. Jones has engaged with a full measure 
of success in the real-estate business and has 
continued in auctioneering activities, in which 
he has been well known for the past twenty- 
eight years. Politically he is a Republican, 
with progressive views. His fraternal con- 
nections are with the Modern Woodmen of 
America, in which he is venerable counsel ; the 
Fraternal Order of Eagles ; and the Indepen- 
dent Order of Odd Fellows. He and the 
memljers of his family belong to the Baptist 
church. 

September 28, 1882, Mr. Jones married 
Miss Allie Maus, who was bom at Aledo, Illi- 
nois, daughter of Joseph and Emma Maus, 
natives of Pennsylvania, and early settlers of 
Illinois. Mr. Maus died in the latter state, 
following which Mrs. Maus came to Nebras- 
ka, and .she passed away at Ansley. Seven 
children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. 
Jones : IMamie, who is the wife of Ralph Bush, 
a Custer county farmer: Roy C. who also- fol- 
lows farming here ; Flossie, who is the wife of 
Jacob Kulhanek. a farmer in Custer county ; 
Gay, who is the wife of James Petrik, like- 
wise a farmer here ; Gladys, who is the wife 
of Frank Kulhanek, an agriculturist of Custer 
county; \'ida, who is the wife of Louis Chris- 



man, a Custer county farmer ; and Dewey, who 
is carrying on operations on his father's farm. 



GLEN O. PERKINS. — No list of the sub- 
stantial and representative financial institu- 
tions of Custer county would be complete if 
there were failure to make mention of the 
Arnold State Bank. Strictly a home institu- 
tion, it is backed by local men who have their 
capital and their reputations wrapped up in 
its welfare and whose ability, financial astute- 
ness, and mature judgment are enlisted in 
thoroughly safeguarding the interests of the 
depositors. One of the stockholders and in- 
fluential executives of this well ordered bank- 
ing house in the village of Arnold is Glen O. 
Perkins, who is the incumbent of the position 
of cashier and who is building up for himself 
a high reputation in banking circles. 

Mr. Perkins is a Nebraskan by birth and a 
Custer county man by education, inclination, 
and business training and association. He is 
indebted to the public schools of the covmty for 
his early educational discipline, and on the 
11th of February, 1913, he became identified 
with the Arnold State Bank. At the same 
time Clarence E. Mills, who at the time of this 
writing is in the military service of the LInited 
States, became assistant cashier of the bank, 
he likewise being deserving of great credit for 
the service he rendered in connection with the 
development of the substantial business of the 
institution, while similar credit is due to the 
stockholders, whose personnel has remained 
unchanged since that time. 

The Arnold State Bank was organized in 
1909, with a capital stock of $10,000, and it 
was not long before its able executive man- 
agement and its general solidity had so far 
increased the scope of its business as to justify 
an increase in the capital stock, which is now 
$30,000. The deposits have grown in propor- 
tionate rate, and in this have been shown forth 
the increasing prosperity of the community 
which the bank serves and also the confidence 
in which it is uniformly held. With the open- 
ing of the year 1919 the Arnold State Bank 
had deposits of nearly $500,000. As previous- 
ly noted, the officials of the bank are all local 
men of substantial civic and financial stand- 
ing, with prominent interests either as business 
men or as farmers and stock-growers. The 
personnel of the executive corps is as here 
noted : President, John Finch ; vice-president, 
Ira P. Mills : cashier. Glen O. Perkins. In 
addition to these officers the board of directors 
includes also Fay G. Finch, Alexander Delosh, 
P. S. Houghton, S. A. Perkins, C. E. Mills, 



824 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COfXTV, NEBRASKA 



and Dr. F. A. Burnham. At the time when 
the great world war came to a close the Ar- 
nold State Bank dis'played its service flag with 
four stars, these stars being representative of 
Clarence E. ^lills, former assistant cashier, 
who was with Company A, Headquarters Bri- 
gade, General Headquarters of the American 
Expeditionary Forces, France ; Lloyd S. Beltz 
and Hans Madison, in training at Camp 
Dodge, Iowa ; and George Rath, in the radio 
branch of the service and in training at Pur- 
due University, Lafayette, Indiana. 



JOHN H. WEVERKA. who is one of 
Custer county's substantial and resjiected citi- 
zens, owns a large acreage of land here and 
has a wide reputation as a successful breeder 
of fine stock of all kinds, making a specialty 
of Poland-China hogs. He is a self-made 
man. in that he has built up his fortune 
through his own industry, his start in life hav- 
ing been made with a half-section given him 
by his father. 

John H. Weverka was born in the city of 
Omaha, Nebraska, February 8, 1883. His par- 
ents are Martin and Frances W^everka, who 
were born in Austria and who came from 
there to the United States in 1881. Their ob- 
jective point was Nebraska, and for two years 
after reaching this state they lived at Omaha, 
where their son John H. was born. Two 
weeks after that event they came to Custer 
county and homesteaded. and they still live 
on their property. They became the parents 
of ten children, and the following are living: 
Joseph, who is a farmer living in Kansas, 
married Mary Tomes ; Mary is the wife of 
James Kriss, a farmer north of Comstock ; 
Albina is the wife of Joseph Moravec. a farm- 
er north of Comstock; John H. is the immedi- 
ate subject of this sketch; and Martin, who 
is a farmer living near Sargent. Nebraska, 
married Emma Polak. 

Almost a native son of Custer county. John 
H. Weverka has from boyhood taken a son's 
interest in the aflfairs and development of the 
county. He obtained his education in the 
public schools and remained at home working 
for his father until he was twenty-five years 
of age. during this time becoming skilled in 
farm methods and the use of farm machinery. 
Although a young man, Mr. Weverka, through 
his natural aptitude and industry, has accom- 
plished thus far in life much more than many 
have with many added years. He now owns 
880 acres of land, gradually acquired, a large 
part of which he uses for pasture. The por- 
tion that he devotes to crop-raising has a four- 



foot depth of soil and is unusually fertile. He 
has his farm well stocked, has substantial and 
adequate buildings of all kinds, and an air of 
thrift and comfort prevails. While he is 
known as an excellent farmer and intelligent 
stock-breeder, Mr. Weverka has proven him- 
self still more and has done work on his place 
that would be creditable to an engineer. ^lore 
than that, his work has benefited not only 
him.self but the county as well. Finding that 
about fifty acres of his land was too marshy 
to be successfully cultivated, he set an example 
of improvement by digging a drain from seven 
to twenty feet deep and 700 feet in length, 
running tile the whole distance, thereby re- 
deeming this and adjacent land and making it 
particularly well adapted for certain crops. 
Mr. Weverka is progressive in niany ways in 
his farm undertakings and is so capable that 
they are usually very successful. He has skill 
with tools and does a large part of his own 
carpenter work. As may be imagined, he is 
one of the busy and cheerful men of his neigh- 
borhood. His property is located in section 
11. township 18. 

Mr. Weverka was married October 7, 1907, 
to Miss Pauline Aloravec, whose parents came 
from Europe and settled as pioneers in How- 
ard county, Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Weverka 
have seven children, namely : Rosa, Minnie, 
John. Paul and Pauline ( twins) , Frances and 
Annie. In politics he is a Democrat and is 
very loyal to his party organization. With his 
familv he belongs to the Catholic church. 



C. B. LAURIDSON. — It would be hard 
to conceive of a more solid combination for 
the attainment of financial security than a bank 
founded upon the prosperity and landed values 
of such a rich agricultural county as Custer, 
and this fact is exemplified in the prosperity 
of the Farmers Bank of Mason City, of wliirh 
C. B. Lauridson is president. Mr. Lauridson 
is one of the substantial stockholders in the 
bank and his status as a farmer and a citizen 
is typical of the material upon which it rests 
and which has made the institution illustrative 
of the best type of country bank in a farming 
community. 

Mr. Lauridson. who has l>een an extensive 
farmer and stock-raiser of Custer county since 
1893, was born in Denmark, in 1853, a son 
of L. and Lyda (Bietsch) Lauridson. His 
parents, who were farming people and devout 
members of the Lutheran church, never left 
their native Denmark, being content to round 
out their careers in the peaceful atmosphere 
of their happy and prosperous little country. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



825 



Of their seven children five are Hving, but 
none save the subject of this review ever came 
to the United States. 

C. B. Lauridson was given a good education 
in his native land, first completing the curric- 
ulum of the public schools and then being 
given a good training in farming in one of 
the leading agricultural colleges of his coun- 
try, from which he was duly graduated. He 
was twenty-seven years of age when he de- 
cided to come to the United States, and he 
arrived in Iowa in 1880. He realized that his 
lack of knowledge of the English language 
was a great handicap to the attainment of suc- 
cess, and accordingly, during the first winter, 
he attended a high school. He next secured 
employment on a farm, on which he worked 
until 1887, when he rented a farm in Lan- 
caster county. In 1893 he came to Custer 
county, where he purchased a small farm, and 
since then he has continued to add to his hold- 
ings until he is the owner of one-quarter of a 
section of valuable and fertile property. This 
has all been developed under his management 
and direction, and has been improved with 
splendid buildings, including a beautiful home, 
and substantial barns and outbuildings. Mr. 
Lauridson is a practical farmer, but also a 
progressive one, and he takes advantage of 
modern facilities. In addition to carrying on 
general farming, he raises full-bred Short- 
horn cattle. In the capacity of president of 
the Farmers Bank of Mason City, a position 
which he has held since 1910, Mr. Lauridson 
has displayed financial ability of no mean 
character and has directed its policies so ably 
that it is accounted one of the county's strong 
and stable institutions — one founded on a 
rock that cannot be shaken by financial storms. 
While popular throughout his community. Air. 
Lauridson has not sought political office, al- 
though it is probable that he could have the 
solid Republican vote for any office which he 
might desire. He and the members of his 
family belong to the Lutheran church. 

In 1888 Mr. Lauridson married Marie Nel- 
sen. who was born in Denmark, a daughter 
of Nels Nelsen. and to this union there have 
been born two children : Helga. a graduate 
of the Nebraska .Vgricultural College, at Lin- 
coln, and now in partnership with his father 
in his agricultural operations ; and Petra, a 
graduate of the domestic science department 
of the State L^niversity. at Lincoln, who is 
now a student at the State L'niversity Hospital, 
preparing to become a nurse, with expecta- 
tions of following that profession in the great 
war, which came to^a close ere she was per- 
mitted to engage in this patriotic and humane 
service. 



THOMAS B. RUSSELL, who is now liv- 
ing retired at Anselmo, is one of the honored 
pioneers of Custer county, he and his wife 
arriving here when the work of development 
had hardly begun. 

Thomas Baldwin Russell was born in Phil- 
adelphia, Pennsylvania, November 27, 1842, 
and is a son of Eli and Lydia (Jackson) Rus- 
sell, natives of Pennsylvania. Eli Russell was 
a farmer and when his son Thomas was a boy 
of twelve he took his family to a pioneer 
farm in Union county, Indiana, where he and 
his wife spent the remainder of their lives. 

Thomas B. Russell was seventh in a family 
ot thirteen children. His boyhood days were 
spent under the conditions and influences of 
the farm, in his native state and in Indiana. 
When a young man of twenty years he mar- 
ried and became a farmer. In 1877 he es- 
tablished his residence in Louisa county, Iowa, 
and two years later he came to Nebraska and 
settled in York county. In the fall of 1881 
he came to Custer county and took a pre- 
emption claim of 160 acres — the southwest 
quarter of section 7, township 19, range 11. 
He also took a tree claim, the southeast quar- 
ter of section 12 of the adjoining township. 
His first home was a sod house, which served 
as shelter until a better one could be built. 
Neighbors were few and far between, hard- 
ships and privations were on every hand, and 
the nearest market place. Plum Creek, now 
Lexington, was sixty-five miles away, the trip 
requiring several days with a team. While 
there were numerous obstacles to be met and 
overcome, yet the wants were few and the 
thought of owning land and having a home 
where the children could be reared was a great 
source of satisfaction to Mr. and Mrs. Russell, 
who, with other early settlers, deserve great 
credit for the courage displayed and the good 
judgment exercised in paving the way for the 
transformation that has taken place, and mak- 
ing possible the prosperity that exists at the 
present dav. 

August 23, 1877, at Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. 
Russell was united in marriage to Miss Delia 
Huston, a native of Richland county, Ohio, 
and a daughter of Joseph McGill and Sarah 
(Heelin) Huston, both of whom were born in 
the Buckeye state The father was a soldier 
in the Civil war, enlisting at Newport, Ken- 
tucky. After the war he became a painting 
contractor and his last days were spent in 
New York city. His wife passed away in 
Ohio. 

r.y a former marriage, to Jennie Parvis. Mr. 
Russell had a familv of five children : Nettie 
is the wife of C. B. F. Jones, of Ohio; Emma 
J. is the wife of S'idney Dennis, of Anselmo; 



826 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Florence W. married Squire Wliite and re- 
sides at College Corner, C)hio ; Minnie is de- 
ceased ; G. E. owns the old farm and resides 
in Denver, Colorado. 

For a nnmlx-r of years Mr. Russell engaged 
in farming and stock-raising, but for several 
years past he has lived retired in a comfortable 
home in Anselmo. Thirty-seven years have 
come and gone since Mr. and Mrs. Russell be- 
came residents of this pioneer section, and they 
have seen it change into a community of beau- 
tiful homes and farms, with thriving villages, 
and with schools and churches, and while these 
privileges are being enjoyed we should not fail 
to give due credit for those brave men and 
women who endured the hardships and priva- 
tions and made possible the conditions that 
exist to-day. 



JOSEPH J. MORAVEC, who is a pros- 
perous farmer and stock-raiser of Custer 
county, owning a valuable, well stocked, and 
finely improved farm in section 12, township 

18, in the neighborhood of Comstock, is not 
a native of Nebraska, but has spent almost his 
entire life in the state. He was born March 

19, 1882, in Bohemia, and in the fall of the 
same year was brought to America by his par- 
ents, John and Annie (Sekot) Moravec. who 
also were natives of Bohemia, belonging to 
that large class that at that time had few op- 
portunities in the way of advance in fortune 
in that country. Their very general prosperity 
in the United States has shown that they only 
needed a chance, and that they have had in 
the country of their adoption. It was the 
grandfather of Joseph J. Moravec who home- 
steaded in Howard county, Nebraska, and on 
that farm the parents settled. They had twelve 
children, but only two of the eight survivors 
live in Custer county, these being: Joseph J. 
and Pauline, who is the wife of John Wever- 
ka, a well known farmer and stock-breeder. 

Joseph J. Moravec remained at home until 
he was twenty-one years of age, in the mean- 
time acquiring a good common-school educa- 
tion in Howard county. He then started out 
for himself as a farmer, and through his 
energ)-. industry, and good judgment, he has 
acquired a large body of land, owning 720 
acres, located in a particularly fertile part of 
the county, and to tlie natural value of his 
property he has added improvements in the 
way of substantial buildings. He carries on 
general farming, making use of improved 
machinery and using methods which insure 
success. While live stock of all kinds may 
be found on Jiis farm, he makes a special fea- 



ture of Herefords or White Face cattle. Mr. 
Moravec keeps well informed on agricultural 
matters and is counted one of the dependable 
men in the business at the present time, when 
unusual demands are made on the farmers 
and stock-raisers. 

On February 20, 1906, at Poplin church, 
in Sherman county. Nebraska. ^Ir. Moravec 
was united in marriage with Miss Albina We- 
verka. who is a daughter of well known peo- 
ple. Martin and Frances Weverka. early set- 
tlers who still live on their homestead. Mr. 
and Mrs. Moravec have five children, namely: 
Edward, Henry, William, Emma, and Alice. 
The familv belongs to the Catholic church. 



CHRIS JUEL, a prosperous, enterprising, 
and prominent Custer county farmer who has 
pursued his vocation on an extensive scale in 
section 5. Broken Bow, since 1905, was born 
in Denmark, Januarj- 27, 1868. his parents be- 
ing H. L. and Mary K. (Hansen) juel. 

The parents of Mr. Juel were born in Den- 
mark and immigrated to the United States in 
1882. settling in the western part of Iowa, 
where the father, a cooper by trade, found pro- 
fitable employment as a carpenter in the rail- 
way shops. The parents both died in Iowa, in 
the faith of the Lutheran church. They had 
but two children, the daughter now lieing Mrs. 
Sine Jacobson. of Omaha. 

The early education of Chris Juel was ob- 
tained in the schools of his native land, and 
after his arrival in America, at the age of 
fourteen years, he was variously employed tm- 
til he settled down to j^ermanent farming. He 
had no monetary assistance or influential 
friends to help him to a start, and it was neces- 
sary for him to rely wholly upon his own ability 
and industry, but these proved sufficient to gain 
him the necessary foothold, and through the 
medium of farming and stock-raising he be- 
came the owner of 160 acres of good Iowa 
land. Disposing of this property in 1905, he 
came to Custer county and bought a farm of 
one-half section, which, through wise invest- 
ment and capable management, he has since 
increased to 750 acres. Mr. Juel has an at- 
tractive and comfortable country residence, 
built since his arrival, as well as commodious 
and substantial buildings for the housing of 
his stock, grain, and e(|nipment. and his stand- 
ing in the community is that of a skilled ag- 
riculturist and a man of integrity — one who 
has made his own way and has done so in an 
honorable manner. He carries on mixed farm- 
ing and raises a hi,gh grade of Hereford cattle 
and Poland-China hogs. Mr. Tuel is a Demo- 



I 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



827 




Mr. and Mrs. Chris Juel 



828 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY, NEBRASKA 



crat, but has found no time for politics, al- 
though he is a loyal and public-spirited citizen. 
In 1893 Mr. Juel married Miss Mary Pagan, 
who was born in Iowa, and whose father, Will- 
iam Pagan, is still a farmer of that state. Mr. 
and Mrs. Juel are the parents of six children, 
all residing at home — Almor, Mae, Pearl, 
Rita, Teresa, and Ellen. 

CORTEZ E. LANG. — A native son of 
Custer county who has spent his entire life in 
this vicinity, Cortez E. Lang has been exten- 
sively engaged in farming and stock-raising 
and prominently identified with business af- 
fairs. He is at present the owner of a large 
farm in Sherman county, just across the Cus- 
ter county line ; is president of the Farmers 
Co-operative Company of Litchfield ; and is 
connected with the civic afl^'airs through his 
incumbency of the office of township 
treasurer. 

^Ir. Lang was born on a homestead farm 
in Custer county. May 19, 1876, and is a son 
of James R. and Rovilla Jane (Foster) Lang. 
His father was the first man to file on a home- 
stead in Custer county, the one on which Cor- 
tez E. Lang was born, this filing taking place 
June 8, 1874. A review of the family history 
will be found in the sketch of James R. Lang, 
elsewhere in this work. Cortez E. Lang grew 
up amid pioneer surroundings, knowing in his 
boyhood little of the comforts or conveniences 
of civilization and securing his edu:ation in 
sod schoolhouses and dugouts. He early 
learned the value of industry, for in his boy- 
hood and youth nothing was to be gained save 
by the hardest kind of work, and conditions 
were such as to develop a man's natural re- 
sources and tax his ingenuity to the limit. 
This did much, probably, to bring out his nat- 
ural talents and abilities, and practically from 
the start of his career he his been suc:essful 
in his undertakings. With the exceptidn of 
five years, when he was engaged in the hard- 
ware and implement business at Litchfield, he 
has devoted himself to farming, and his pres- 
ent property in Sherman county, a tract of 320 
acres, was purchased by him in 1904. Here 
lie carries on general farming, while during 
the winter months he does a large business in 
feeding cattle and hogs. He has splendid im- 
provements on his propertv. made by himself; 
these including a commodious and attractive 
residence, substantial barns, and good out- 
buildings for the housing of his grain, machin- 
ery and stock. He is progressive and aggres- 
sive in character, and his propertv bears all the 
evidence of the capable management that ever 
conserves prosperity. As a business man of 



ability and a citizen of well known integrity, 
Mr. Lang was chosen president of the Farm- 
ers Cooperative Company of Litchfield, the 
interests of which he had advanced in no un- 
certain way. Fraternally he is affiliated with 
the local lodge of the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows, and has numerous friends there- 
in, as he has also in business and public life. 
In his political views Mr. Lang is independent,' 
owning allegiance to no party, but endeavor- 
ing to secure the passage of good legislation 
and the election of worthy and capable offi- 
cials. The high esteem and confidence in 
which he is held is shown in the fact that his 
fellow citizens have entrusted him with the 
duties connected with the office of township 
treasurer, and his friendship for education is 
evidenced in the service he has rendered and 
is rendering as a member of the school board. 
In 1896 ?klr. Lang was united in marriage 
with Miss Henrietta Haberstein. who was 
born in Germany, a daughter of Carl Haber- 
stein. Mr. Haberstein came to Custer county 
in 1893, and after here living on a farm for 
three years he moved to Iowa. Ten years 
later he returned to Nebraska and located on 
a farm in Sherman county, where his death 
occurred in September. 1912. Four children 
have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Lang — Lena, 
who is the wife of Mervin Halbi.son, a farmer 
of Sherman county : and Carl Riley. Trena, 
and Ernest, who remain at the parental home. 

EDWARD J. FOLEY, the efficient assist- 
ant cashier of the Anselmo State Bank, was 
born in County Kilkenny, Ireland, .August 16, 
1874, and in the same county were born his 
parents. Edward B. and Margaret (White) 
Foley, who came to America in the year 1890 
and established their home on a farm north- 
west of Merna. Custer county, in township 18, 
range 21. It was an unimproved tract and 
their home for many years was a sod house. 
Here the father successfully carried on agri- 
cidtural pursuits until about three vears ago. 
when he and his wife moved to Sioux Citv, 
Iowa, where they now live retired. They are 
the parents of ten children and are members 
of the Catholic church. 

Edward J. Foley was a boy of sixteen \-ears 
when the home was established in Custer coun- 
ty. \\'hen a young man of twenty-two he be- 
came a farmer, and he followed that occupa- 
tion until 1902. when he removed to .Anselmo 
and engaged in buying grain for Jacquot & 
Son. Later he became a partner with Frank 
Jacc|uot in the grain, coal and stock business. 
In 1917 they sold out to the Farmers Grain 
Company, and for one year Mr. Foley was 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



829 



manager of the concern. On the 1st of March, 
1918, he accepted his present position, that of 
assistant cashier of the Ansehno State Bank, 
and here he has further proved his abihty as a 
business man. 

Mr. Foley was united in marriage to Miss 
Josephine Jacquot, a native of Pennsylvania. 
and a daughter of the late Nicholas Jacquot, a 
record of whom will be found on other pages 
of this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Foley are the 
parents of three children — Eugene, Elmer 
and Francis. 

The family are communicants of the Cath- 
oli: church and Mr. Foley's political beliefs 
make him a Democrat. He has been success- 
ful in his business ventures and is the owner 
of a well improved farm of 200 acres, near 
Anselmo. He and his family are held in high 
esteem by all who know them. 



EDWARD SMITH. — It has often been 
said that Smith was a name hard to distin- 
guish, yet it seems that the possessor of the 
name written above his succeeded, at least in n 
modest way, in distinguishing his cognomen 
in the realm of ordinary citizenship and prac- 
tical, profitable farming. This is an ordinary 
story that has been duplicated perhaps a thou- 
sand times in western Nebraska, but it never- 
theless becomes interesting when narrowed 
down to an individual whose achievements are 
worthy of being published to the world. 

Smith should be charged up to Ireland. It 
was there, in County Wicklow, in April, 1856. 
that he first saw the light of day. There his 
parents lived before him. for he was the son of 
John and Catherine (Collins) Smith, excellent 
(jeople of the Emerald Isle, who lived their 
plain, unpretentious lives and gave to the 
world a familv of nine children, of whom 
Terrence, John, Edward, Mary Redmond, and 
Catharine Hernon are the only ones living at 
the present time. 

During his early life in Ireland. Edward 
Smith received the customary educational ad- 
vantages, assisted his parents in the matter of 
livelihood, and earned his first money by trap- 
ping rabbits and catching them with dogs. In 
this manner he got together enough money to 
buy a sheep, and he kept the sheep on grass 
furnished bv the father until he had ten head, 
then he sold them and bought twelve sheep 
and three goats, for which his father contin- 
ued to furnish pasture until the flock increased 
to tW'enty-four sheen, when the father broke 
the news to young Edward that he would be 
expected from that time to furnish his own 
pasture for the sheep, which he did. He 



worked at home in the summer time, went to 
school in the winter time, ran the gamut of 
young life under the conditions of his native 
land, and in 1880, he started his bark for the 
New World, in which place he already had 
two brothers, ■ — • one in Chicago and one in 
Cass county, Nebraska. He continued his 
journey until he reached Cass county. It was 
his intention when leaving home to land in 
Australia, but he stopped ofif to make the boys 
in America a visit. His brother prevailed on 
him to stay in Nebraska and work a year, 
which he did, working the first four months 
for a farmer, for fifteen dollars a month. He 
then demanded more wages, which were re- 
fused. He then worked a year for eighteen 
dollars a month, and he has been working ever 
since, although his remuneration has far ex- 
ceeded the stipend just mentioned. In 1884 he 
came farther west, and this time he settled in 
Custer county, where he took a tree claim on 
Stock Table, eleven miles southwest of Calla- 
way, and at the same time bought 320 acres 
of railroad land in the same section, for $2.50 
an acre. This was early in the month of Octo- 
ber, and the next morning two feet of snow 
covered the ground. He went back to Cass 
county, but he returned the next spring, with 
Robert Gordon, and took a homestead five 
miles west of Callaway, where he still resides. 
Here he spent a number of years in cultivat- 
ing and improving his place, maintaining the 
while bachelor headquarters. Growing tired 
of this, he .was married in September, 1889, in 
Chicago, to Elizabeth Dolan, who was born in 
Wisconsin, a daughter of Patrick and Mary 
(O'Rourke) Dolan. In the home of Mr. and 
Mrs. Smith are four children : John, eighteen 
years of age, registered under the draft, await- 
ing call to service in the world war, now 
brought to a close; Edward P., James, and 
Catherine are at home under the parental roof 
and are pursuing their studies in the public 
schools. 

Mr. Smith owns 880 acres of good Custer 
county land, is a devoted communicant of the 
Catholic church, is afifiliated with the Knights 
of Columbus, and usually votes the Democratic 
ticket. He has made his money and accumu- 
lated his property by farming and stock-rais- 
ing. He and his good wife are highly respect- 
ed in the community and their friends are hop- 
ing that they may have a long and prosperous 
time in which to enjoy the fruits of their toil. 



CHARLES E. RARDEN. — The title line 
of this sketch bears the name of a progressive 
farmer who has come down the pike of varied 



830 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



experiences and is now making a very credit- 
able showing in Custer county agriculture, and 
who maintains a standing as one of the young, 
reliable and substantial farmers of Custer 
county — a man who must be reckoned as one 
of the county's assets. 

Charles E. Rarden was born in Brown coun- 
ty, Indiana, January 4. 1881, and is a son of 
Thomas and Martha ( Stepp) Rarden, both 
likewise natives of the fine old Hoosier state. 
This story, so far as it relates to the family 
of Thomas Rarden, must record the names of 
seven living children and add that two of the 
circle of nine are deceased. Those living are 
William, Charles E.. Walter. Minnie Bowers. 
Etta Carpenter, Rosa Jerrel, and Lola Car- 
penter. 

Concerning his boyhood days, Charles E. 
Rarden relates many reminiscences and states 
that the first money he remembers of handling 
himself was earned by plowing corn for a 
neighbor, with a span of mules. This money 
was spent for a suit of clothes, of which he 
was very proud, and he believes to this day 
that when he had that suit on. "Solomon in 
all his glory was not arrayed" as he was. He 
worked on the Indiana farm until he was fif- 
teen years of age and then went out to make 
his own way in a world where there is a good 
deal of ufHhill to "go down." His first em- 
ployer was a railroad contractor, named Per- 
kins, and for this contractor he worked seven 
years, constructing railway lines between Cin- 
cinnati and Chicago. After quitting this job, 
he went to Orange county, Indiana, where he 
farmed for his uncle, for two years. Later, in 
company with a friend named Claude Earl, he 
started for Sheridan. Wyoming. They be- 
came stranded at Horton. Kansas, and a care- 
ful search in the lining of his pocketbook could 
di.sclose but fifty cents. This somewhat damp- 
ened their ardor for the west and cooled off 
the Wyoming fever. Mr. Rarden declares that 
if he had had the price of a ticket "it would 
have been him for old Indiana again." As it 
was. he secured work in a saw mill, and finally 
he made his way to Fairbury, Nebraska, in 
which vicinity he stayed one year, and worked 
on a farm. From that locality he made his 
way to Broken Bow, in 1908. Since that time 
he has l)een a resident of Custer county. 

In the new county Mr. Rarden soon suc- 
cumbed t<i the charms of one of its fair daugh- 
ters, and when the roses bloomed in the June 
time of the next year. 1909. he led Miss Lela 
Cox to the marriage altar. Mrs. Rarden is a 
daughter of .Adelbert and Mae ( Laurence) 
Cox. both of whom were born in Indiana, and 
thus the ofi^springs of two Hoosier homes 



blended in .the far west to build another home, 
under conditicHis of western thrift and free- 
dom. 

Into the Rarden home six children have 
made their advent — Ellis C. Esther. Clifford. 
Mildred, Helen and Marshall. All are bright, 
promising children and as they come up to 
manhood and womanhood the\- will be of great 
assistance in connection with the efforts of 
their parents. 

After his marriage. .Mr. Rarden worked for 
three years by the month, after which he rent- 
ed a place and farmed for himself six years. 
He accumulated money, and eight and one- 
half miles northwest of Callaway he has re- 
cently bought a tract of -100 acres, which is 
now the Rarden home. He milks eight cows 
and from their profits secures on an average, 
forty dollars a month. He is raising hogs and 
cattle, and from what might be considered a 
good start he is climbing rapidly toward the 
top. He is an Odd Fellow, and a Woodman, 
and he votes the Republican ticket. He and 
his wife have a good standing in their home 
communitv. 



CHARLES E. BASS is one of the business 
men of Custer county who has made a success 
of his undertakings, and his sound judgment 
and keen business ability have been potent fac- 
tors in the building up of the several enter- 
prises in which he is interested. 

Mr. Bass was born in Gibson county. In- 
diana. January 19. 1870. and is a son of Alex- 
ander and Elmira (Holcomb) Bass, of whom 
extended mention is made on other pages of 
this volume, in a sketch written for Dr. T. W. 
Bass, of Broken Bow. 

Cliarles E. Bass was a lad of fourteen years 
when the family home \vas established in Ne- 
braska. At the age of nineteen years he found 
employment on a farm. Later he became a 
barber in Broken Bow. and he also followed 
the barber's trade for five years at Grand 
Island. In 1900 he came to Anselmo, where, 
with W. E. Warren, he embarked in the mer- 
cantile business, also buying and shipping 
stock. This partnership continued twelve 
years, when Mr. Bass lx>ught his partner's in- 
terest. The firm is now Moulton & Bass, and 
they handle a full line of general merchandise. 
Mr. Bass and his brother \\'. W. own a hard- 
ware business in Anselmo and with his 
brother J. G. he conducts a similar enterprise 
at Mason City, both these store buildings hav- 
ing been erected and owned by Charles E. 
Mr. Bass has been extensively engaged in the 
cattle business for several vears and is the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



831 



owner of 2,500 acres of land in Custer county, 
as well as half a section of land in Keith coun- 
ty, the Custer county ranch being operated by 
his brother C. R. Mr. Bass is loud in his 
praises of his adopted county, and by indus- 
try, good judgment, and wise use of opportuni- 
ties he has builded wisely and well, with the 
result that he is to-day one of the eminently 
successful business men and public-spirited cit- 
izens of the county. 

At Broken Bow, ]\Ir. Bass was united in 
marriage to Aliss Noma AI. Fenner, a native 
of Wisconsin, and they are the parents of 
three children — Clare, Opal, and Lawrence. 

Mr. Bass is a member of the Anselmo 
Lodge of Ancient Free & Accepted Masons 
and has taken both York and Scottish Rite de- 
grees, being a member of the commandery of 
Knights Templars at Broken Bow, and also a 
member of the temple of the Mystic Shrine at 
Omaha. He belongs also to the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen 
of America, and the Order of the Eastern Star. 
In politics he is Republican, and he has served 
as a member of the city council and also on 
the school board. ]\Ir. Bass may truly be 
called a self-made man, as his success is the 
result of his own efforts, and he is held in the 
highest of esteem by all who know him. 



FRANK \'ISEK, who is engaged in farm- 
ing five miles north of Comstock. is one of the 
men of Custer county who has made good use 
of his opportunities, and his life record illus- 
trates what may be accomplished by one who 
is industrious and has an ambition to succeed. 

Alr.^Visek was born in Bohemia, January 1, 
1867, and is a son of John and Katie ( S'evera) 
Visek, who spent their entire lives in their 
native land. They were farming people and 
were the parents of eight children, all of whom 
are living. Two sons, John and James, live 
near their brother Frank, and a sister, Mrs. 
Mary Drobny, is a resident of Valley countv. 

Mr. Visek was a young man of thirty years 
when he sought a home in the L^nited States. 
He found employment on a farm in \'alley 
county, and he continued to work for others 
for three years. He carefully saved his earn- 
ings and was enabled to become a farmer on 
his own account. The first year his crop was 
alinost ruined by hail, and the second year his 
harvests were short, owing to the drouth, but 
he was not discouraged to the point of giving 
up, and the succeeding years brought prosper- 
ity. To-day he is the owner of three well im- 
proved farms, with a total area of 1,240 acres. 

Februarv 6, 1803, Mr. A'isek was united in 



marriage to ]\Iiss Frances Bartu, a daughter 
of Joe and Mary Bartu, early settlers of Cus- 
ter county. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Visek 
has been made happy by the arrival of thirteen 
children, eight of whom are living — Frank, 
Jr., James, Rudolph, Ludwig. Joseph, Louis, 
Charlie and Emma. The eldest son, Frank, 
Jr., was born in Valley county, November 29, 
1893. October 31, 1916, he married Miss 
Rosie Kokes, a daughter of John and Antonia 
(Badalik) Kokes, residents of Valley county. 
Frank Visek, Jr., is successfully engaged in 
farming. He and his wife have one child, 
Frank, born November 21, 1917. 



RUPERT CLARENCE BRISTOL.— 
Among the homesteaders of Custer county 
who passed through many privations and 
hardships, courageously persevered in the face 
of discouraging situations, overcame seeming- 
ly unsurmountable obstacles, and eventually 
won their way to well deserved success, was 
the late Rupert C. Bristol, who, from the time 
of his arrival, in 1884, until his death, October 
19, 1916, was one of his community's most re- 
liable and highly esteemed citizens. 

Mr. Bristol was born at Port Jersey, New 
York, August 25, 1855, the youngest of the 
three children of Horace and Anna (French) 
Bristol. His mother died when he was but 
three years of age and his father, who was a 
veteran of the Civil war, in which he served 
three years as captain of Company B, First 
New Jersey Volunteer Cavalry, married again, 
and in 1869 moved to Iowa, where he died in 
1869. Rupert C. Bristol was educated in the 
public schools of New Jersey and Iowa, and 
in the latter state he married Miss Nancy A. 
Patrick, a daughter of George and Emily 
(Hurndon) Patrick, the former born in Ken- 
tucky and the latter in Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. 
Patrick removed to Custer county in 1890 and 
here followed agricultural pursuits until their 
death. 

After his marriage Air. liristol continued to 
be engaged in farming in Iowa for a number 
of years, but in 1884 he decided to try his for- 
tunes in Nebraska. He accordingly packed his 
household effects in a wagon and, with his 
wife and their four children, started on the 
trip overland from Monona county, Iowa, in 
October, the journey consuming eight days. 
Securing a homestead in the vicinity of Ans- 
ley, he started farming under the most dis- 
couraging conditions. Conveniences of even 
the most meagre kind were not to be had ; the 
bare necessities of life were difficult to secure; 
and for several years the family fuel during 



832 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



the winter months consisted of brush and 
weeds that had been gathered during- the fore- 
going summer and then dried and put away 
for use. Mr. IJristol was making good pro- 
gress when, in 18'X), the drouth killed his 
crops, and he had hardly recovered from this 
when a terrific hail storm wiped out his 1893 
farm crops. In the following year he was 
again visited by a devastating drouth, but in 
the face of these discouragements he kept per- 
severingly and doggedly on, and his persist- 
ence and courage were eventually rewarded by 
success, as shown by the fact that at the time 
of his death his landed estate consisted of 480 
acres of land in a good state of cultivation, and 
numerous modern improvements. Mr. Bristol 
became one of the influential and greatly re- 
spected members of his community, and took 
an active and helpful part in all good move- 
ments. He was particularly active in the work 
of the Baptist church, of which he and Mrs. 
Bristol were lifelong members. He taught a 
Bible class in the Sunday school, both in Iowa 
and Nebraska, and was a leader otherwise in 
church and Sunday school work. Originally a 
Democrat in [xjlitics, when the Progressive 
party came into being he transferred his al- 
legiance to that organization. His death re- 
moved from his community a helpful and con- 
structive citizen and an honorable man. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bristol were the parents of 
eleven children : Bertha is the wife of George 
F. Dewey, a Custer county farmer ; Belle is the 
wife of Earl Hiser, of Custer county : Mrs. 
Clara Dobesh is the wife of a farmer of this 
county : Clarence R. and Ernest are engaged in 
agricultural pursuits in Custer county : George 
is likewise a resident of this county ; Myrtle E. 
is the wife of Grover A. Holeman. cashier of 
the Farmers State Bank of Ansley, a sketch of 
whose career apjiears elsewhere in this work ; 
Clyde and Cleo are twins and Clyde is on the 
home farm with his mother. Cleo being the 
wife of H. Guy Marsh, of .\nsley : Lawrence 
is now in the navy, at San Francisco. Cali- 
fornia; and Emma died at the age of fifteen 
months. 



LE^VIS KIMBERUNG. police judge and 
village clerk of .\rnold, has been a prominent 
citizen of the countv for many vears and an in- 
fluential factor in Republican political circles. 
He is a man of sterling character, enjovs the 
respect and confidence of his fellow citizens, 
and has served faithfully and with superior 
judgment in many public offices in the countv. 
.\lthough not a contitnious resident. Juchi-e 
Kimberling has maintained a steadv interest in 



Custer countv ever since he came here first, in 
1883. 

Lewis Kimberling was lx)rn February 13, 
1855, in I\Iason county. West X'irginia, one of 
a family of twelve children lx)rn to Nathaniel 
and Miriam ( Craig) Kimberling. the former a 
native of Bath county, \'irginia and a farmer 
by vocation, and the latter born in Mason 
county, West \'irginia, a daughter of John 
Craig. The surviving children are: W'ilham, 
who lives in \\'est Virginia and who is a vet- 
eran of the Civil war; Hannah A., who lives 
in West \'irginia; Mrs. Nancy Williams, who 
lives at Jackson, Ohio; Lewis, whose name in- 
troduces this review ; and Joseph N., who lives 
on the old homestead in Alason county. West 
Virginia, where the mother died in 1890 and 
where the father passed away in September, 
189r>, at the age of eighty-six years. 

I'ntil he was twenty-two years old. Lewis 
Kimberling remained at home, attending 
school through Iwyhood and later cultivating 
f|uite successfully a piece of ground given him 
by his father. On this plot of ground he raised 
a crop of tobacco, and he found no trouble in 
disposing of it. Being gifted with a fine voice 
and a natural ear for music, he paid some at- 
tention to this talent and became an acceptable 
teacher of vocal music. Singing schools were 
a very popular form of amusement in those 
days and a great encourager of innocent soci- 
ability, and Lewis Kimberling has many pleas- 
ant memories of the gatherings when his dic- 
tum on ''harmony and voice culture," was as 
much law as is that of the present-<lay Maestro 
with an unpronouncable foreign name. In 
1877, however, Mr. Kimberling left the old 
home and its pleasant associations and started 
out for himself, making his first stop in In- 
diana. He worked very hard that winter, 
splitting rails for fifty cents a hundred, and in 
the spring of 1878 he pushed farther west and 
spent the summer working on a farm in 
Grundy county. Missouri, where he remained 
until the fall of the same year when he came 
to the eastern part of Nebraska. In 1883 he 
located a claim three miles east of what is now 
the prosperous town of Arnold, Custer countv, 
and he lived on his claim five years. In the 
meanwhile his parents had grown feeble, and 
he returned home to assist in caring for them, 
and he remained as long as thcv survived. Mr. 
Kimberling then returned to Custer county and 
bought a farm situated one and one-half miles 
northeast of Arnold. There he continued to 
live until 1912, when he moved into Arnold, 
where he is very comfortably situated. 

September 2C^. 1878. Judge Kimberling mar- 
ried Miss Marv M. Gamble, who was born in 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



833 



Iowa, a daughter of Amos and Malinda A. 
(Craig) Gamble. Mr. Gamble was born in 
Indiana and was a veteran of the Civil war. 
Judge and Mrs. Kimberling have si.x chil- 
dren : Odus F., who is a farmer near Gothen- 
burg, Dawson county, Nebraska, is an Odd 
Fellow and a Republican. He married 
Josephine, daughter of James Tucker, and 
they have three sons. He and his wife belong 
to the Christian church. Ora A. is the wife 
of Charles Rimpley, a farmer near Logan, 
Nebraska, and they have three children. They 
attend the Baptist church. jMillie F. is the 
wife of John Starr, of Arnold, Nebraska, and 
they have three children. Eva P. is the wife 
of William O. Hill, a carpenter at Summit, 
Oregon, and they have three children. They 
belong to the Alethodist Episcopal church. 
Elbert C, who is a salesman in the Mills im- 
plement store at Arnold, is an Odd Fellow and 
a Republican. He married Lillie P. Blowers, 
a daughter of Charles ^I. Blowers, and they 
have five daughters. He and his wife attend 
the Baptist church. Malinda A. is the wife of 
Arthur E. Butler, a farmer near Stapleton, 
Nebraska, and they have two children. 

For the past seventeen years Judge Kimber- 
ling has been a justice of the peace and also 
has been assessor of Arnold precinct. He has 
taken a great deal of interest in educational 
matters and in all else that pertains to the gen- 
eral welfare. He is very prominent in the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows and has 
twice passed its official chairs. He is a mem- 
ber of the Baptist church and is a liberal sup- 
porter of its benevolent objects. 



JOHN E. WILSON, who is a representa- 
tive citizen and orosoerous general farmer, 
owns, in the neighborhood of Loma.x Station, 
one of the best improved estates that can be 
found in the county. He is a member of one 
of the old Dioneer families of the state — in 
fact his father came before the state was or- 
ganized — and it is interesting to note that 
through all the revolutionary changes that 
have taken olace in the state's affairs, the Wil- 
son family have kept the old homestead prop- 
erty intact. John E. Wilson was born near 
Dunbar. Otoe county. Nebraska, September 
\5. 1863. His parents were Thomas H. and 
Isabella (Garrowl Wilson, the latter of whom 
was born in Scotland and was a daughter of 
Alexander Garrow. The father of i\Ir. Wil- 
son was born in Canada and from there he 
came across the border into the United States, 
looking for a desirable situation in which to 
settle. He established him home in the terri- 



tory of Nebraska in 1856, eleven years before 
it became a state of the Union, and he spent 
the rest of his life on his homestead, situated 
one mile north of where Dunbar now stands. 
Of his thirteen children the following survive: 
John E., Charles H., Edward T., Mrs. Jennie 
M. Hall. Mrs. Jessie B. Goodrich, Edith, Carl 
H., and Frank. Miss Edith Wilson is a grad- 
uate of the Peru Normal School and is a pop- 
ular teacher. 

John E. Wilson was reared on the old home- 
stead in Otoe county and well remembers 
many boyhood adventures that came his way 
as he herded cattle and stock, and especially 
during the year that the grasshoppers de- 
stroyed every green growth, when he had for- 
ty-two head of hogs to herd. He attended the 
common schools during the winter seasons and 
thus laid a fair educational foundation. Later 
he spent one year as a student in the Nebraska 
State Normal School at Peru, in Nemaha 
county. Farming has been his main occupa- 
tion all his life, and before coming to Custer 
county, in 1903, he followed farm industry 
very successfully in Otoe county. Mr. Wilson 
owns a farm of 160 acres, which is admirably 
situated three-fourths of a mile north of Lo- 
max. He has put many substantial improve- 
ments here, including a handsome residence, 
and has brought his land to a high state of cul- 
tivation, and that without any patriotic urging 
in these recent days of the nation's need. 

Mr. Wilson was married June 24, 1891, to 
Matilda Hanson, who was born in Sweden, a 
daughter of Hans and Anna (Pierson) An- 
derson, natives of Sweden. Mrs. Wilson came 
to the United States in the '80s. Concerning 
the children of Mr. and Mrs. W'ilson brief 
record is here given : Dora B., an efficient 
teacher in Custer county, resides at home : 
Alta is the wife of Alexander Lindholm, a 
farmer living in Dawson county, not far from 
Eddyville, and they have one son : they attend 
the Christian church; Jennie E., who is a 
teacher, lives with her parents ; Anna is de- 
ceased ; and Thomas H. and John L. are yet 
in school. Mr. Wilson is a member of the 
United Evangelical church. In politics he has 
always given his support to the candidates of 
the Republican party, as does his son-in-law, 
Mr. Lindholm. 



WILLIAM M. DICKSON is one of Custer 
county's self-made men and has the distinction 
of being one of its earliest settlers. 

A native of Missouri, W^illiam Marion Dick- 
son was born in Putnam county, October 15, 
1861. His father, Calvin Dickson, was born 



834 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COl'XTY. NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



835 



in Ohio, July 1'/, 1841, and married Elizabeth 
Cox, a native of Jasper county, Iowa. Calvin 
Dickson was a successful farmer 'of Jasper 
county, Iowa, for many years and now resides 
at Xewbnrg, that state, where he is serving as 
postmaster. 

Our subject was one of two children and his 
sister resides in Iowa. Reared on a farm in 
Iowa until he reached his majority, he came to 
Custer county in 1882 and secured a home- 
stead of 160 acres, in section 24, township 19, 
rang-e 23, and amid the pioneer conditions he 
erected a little sod house and began the ta,sk 
of conquering the wilderness. When the first 
"soddy" wore out he built another, which is 
still standing. Agriculture and stock-raising 
have claimed his attention from that day to 
this. When asked what has been the secret of 
his success, he answered "Hung on — hung 
on through the hard times, and hung on to 
what I made." Mr. Dickson was the possessor 
of a team of mules and a wagon when he came 
to Custer county, and to-day he is the owned 
of 1,100 acres of valuable land. The old home- 
stead was his home until about one year ago, 
when he moved to his present place of abode, 
one mile from Anselmo. 

Mr. Dickinson has been thrice married. His 
first union was with Miss Jessie Bell Gillespie, 
who was a native of Iowa and who died leav- 
ing one child, Jessie, the wife of Paul Hugh, 
of Minnesota. For a second wife Mr. Dick- 
son chose Mrs. Mary Lehmanowsky, a native 
of Ohio, who became the mother of two chil- 
dren, Mildred and Leah. The present Mrs. 
Dickson was Miss Cora Scott, who for twenty 
years was a trained nurse. Her father. Walter 
Scott, was an early settler of the Anselmo 
neighborhood, where he established his resi- 
dence in 1885. He has now passed his seven- 
ty-second birthday anniversary and for twelve 
vears has been an invalid, tenderly cared for 
by his daughter, IMrs. Dickson. 

The life record of William M. Dickson 
shows what can be accomplished by persistent 
effort and laudable ambition. From the hum- 
ble position in which he found himself when 
he came to Custer county he has reached the 
goal of success, and is one of the substantal 
men of his community. 



HENRY A. KEPLER— The life record 
of Henry A. Kepler is one of varied activities, 
and as manager of the Central Granaries Com- 
pany and secretan,- of the Farmers Mercantile 
Company he is at once placed among the in- 
fluential business men of the thriving village 
of Anselmo. 



Mr. Kepler is a native of the neighboring 
state of Iowa, where he was born near Mt. 
Vernon, Linn county, July 15, 1857. His par- 
ents were Henry and Emma (Willitts) Kep- 
ler, the former jjorn near Hagerstown, Mary- 
land, the latter a native of Ohio. Henry Kep- 
ler was an early settler of Linn county, Iowa, 
where he became a prosperous farmer, later 
retiring to Mt. Vernon where he and his wife 
passed away. They were members of the 
Methodist church and they reared a family 
of nine children : L. M. died at Dorchester, 
Saline county, Nebraska, in 1916, at the age 
of seventy-eight years; M. W. resides at Dor- 
chester ; Ira is a resident of Big Spring, Deuel 
county, Nebraska; Mrs. William Jordan lives 
at Jamestown, Minnesota; J. P. is living at 
Believue, Nebraska ; J. W. resides at- Omaha ; 
Henry A. is the subject of this sketch; Mrs. 
W. B. Slaughter resides in California ; and 
Mrs. C. H. Hoover passed away at Dorches- 
ter, Nebraska. 

Henry Allison Kepler spent his boyhood 
days on a farm in his native county, where he 
divided his time between his duties in the 
schoolroom and his tasks about the farm. He 
was nineteen years of age when he took the 
management of the home farm, upon the re- 
tirement of his father, and he continued to 
conduct the place until 1880, when he came 
to Nebraska and settled at Dorchester, Saline 
county. There for several years he was at 
different times engaged in farming, the livery 
business, the buying and shipping of stock, 
clerking in general stores, assistant cashier in 
the Citizens Bank, and identified with the lum- 
ber business. In 1892 he went to Fleming, 
Colorado, and engaged in the lumber and coal 
business, but, owing to his wife's health, he 
returned to Nebraska, and in 1895 he became 
a resident of Lincoln, where he engaged in 
the grocery business, later spending one year 
as a traveling salesman. In 1902 he went to 
Sheridan county, Kansas, and for the next 
four years he conducted a ranch. In 1906 he 
came to Custer county and took a homestead, 
as did three of his children, under the Kin- 
kaid law, and he was successfully engaged in 
stock-raising for several years. The family 
own 2.563 acres of grazing land in Custer 
county. 

In 1908 Mr. Kepler became manager of the 
Anselmo branch for the Central Granaries 
Company, which position he still holds. For 
the past three years he has been secretary of 
the Fanners Mercantile Company of Anselmo. 

In Linn county, Iowa, ]\Ir. Kepler was 
united in marriage to Miss Laura Travis, who 
was born in that county and who is a daugh- 



836 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



ter of Daniel and Malissa (W'ilson) Travis. 
Mr. and Mrs. Kepler became the parents of 
five children: Xellie is the wife of James Boyce 
and they reside in Chicago; Jay died in 1916: 
Gertrude and D. T. are unmarried and remain 
at the parental home; and Lawrence is de- 
ceased. 

Mr. and Mrs. Kepler are members of the 
Methodist church and fraternally Mr. Kepler 
is connected with the jModern Woodmen of 
America, while his political views make him 
a Republican. 

Air. Kepler is one of the progressive busi- 
ness men and public-spirited men of Custer 
county, and he is held in the highest of esteem 
by all with whom he comes in contact. 



JAMES H. HISER, who. after a somewhat 
diversified career, is now successfully engaged 
in the implement business at Ansley, has been 
the architect of his own fortunes and through 
his unaided efforts has reared a structure "of 
creditable business success. He has been a 
resident of Custer county since 1882 and was 
formerly engaged in farming, but during the 
greater part of his career he has been identi- 
fied with the line of business which now occu- 
pies his attention. 

Mr. Hiser was born near Richmond, \\'avne 
county, Indiana. March 23. 1855. and is a son 
of Jacob H. and Mary fSalters) Hiser, who 
were born near Dayton, Ohio, but whose mar- 
riage occurred in Wayne county, Indiana 
where they were early settlers. Jacob H. 
Hiser was a farmer in the Hoosier state until 
the fall of 1855, at which time he went to Illi- 
nois, where his family joined him in the fol- 
lowing year. He continued to be engaged in 
farming until 1862, when he enlisted m the 
Union army for service in the Civil war. be- 
coming a member of the Sixteenth Illinois 
Cavalry. With that organization he made a 
record for bravery and fidelity to duty, and he 
participated in all the battles' of his regiment 
until he was severely wounded, being shot in 
the left temple, and also being captured bv the 
enemy. For two months he was confined at 
Belle Isle, and he was then transferred to the 
awful Andersonville stockade, but after nine 
months he made his escape from that death- 
hole, and after indescribable sufl'erings and 
wanderings finally reached the Union lines. 
At the expiration of his three j-ears of service 
he was honorably discharged and returned to 
sis family. He then became a blacksmith, fol- 
lowing that business in McLean county, Illi- 
nois, until he retired. His death occurred 
there, and his widow passed away in Califor- 



nia. They were the parents c • four children : 
James H.^ William P., who has been street 
commissioned at Lexington, McLean county, 
Illinois, for several years ; Alice, who is the 
wife of John Peck, a farmer of Legington, 
Illinois; and Mary, who is the widow of Sam 
Phillips, and is a resident of Louisville, Ark- 
ansas. The parents were members of the 
Baptist church, and Mr. Hiser was a Demo- 
crat in politics. 

James H. Hiser received his education in the 
public schools of Illinois and began life there 
on his father's McLean county farm. His 
marriage occurred in 1875 and thereafter he 
continued to farm in Illinois until December, 
1882, when he came to Custer county, Nebras- 
ka, and purchased a relinquishment claim, his 
family joining him here in the spring. Mr. 
Hiser remained on his farm from 1883 until 
1893, in which latter year he decided to turn 
his attention to mercantile pursuits and ac- 
cordingly disposed of his agricultural interests 
and came to Ansley. For a time he was the 
representative at Ansley of an Omaha imple- 
ment firm, but after two years, in partnersl-.ip 
with a Mr. Butler, he engaged in this business 
on his own account. He conducted an estab- 
lishment until February, 1902, when he sold 
out. Mr. Hiser was next employed by the In- 
ternational Harvester Companv, during 1902. 
1903 and 1904, but in the fall' of 190.5 he re- 
turned to Ansley, settled permanently, and 
clerked for W. S. Matley. Again, in March, 
1914, he engaged in business on his own ac- 
count, and in his present establishment he has 
achieved a decided success, so that his store is 
accounted a desirable and necessary com- 
munity asset. He has a complete line of goods, 
carefully chosen, attractively displayed and 
moderately priced, and his patronage now ex- 
tends over a wide territory, while his personal 
status is that of a business man of capability 
and integrity. 

Mr. Hiser was married in Illinois, in 1875, 
to Miss Josephine Popejoy, who was born in 
McLean county, that state, and they became 
the parents of four children, of whom two are 
living: E. G.. who is engaged in farming four 
miles southwest of Ansley, and Marie, who is 
her father's assistant in conducting the imple- 
ment business. The family belongs to the 
Alethodist Episcopal church. Air. Hiser is 
well known in Odd Fellowship, having passed 
through the chairs of his lodge three times, 
and is also a popular member of the Royal 
Highlanders. A Republican in jwlitics, at 
various times he has served in township offices, 
and has rendered the cause of education effi- 
cient service by his work as a member of the 
school board. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



837 



MRS. SUSIE HELMUTH. who came to 
Custer count)', Nebraska, with her parents 
thirty-three years ago, has hved here ever 
since and is well known and highly esteemed. 
She was born September 28, 1877, in Jo 
Daviess county, Illinois, and is a daughter of 
Ernest and Johanna (Kape) Schneider, both 
of whom were born in Germany. The father 
of Mrs. Helmuth came to the United States in 
1861 and located in Jo Daviess county, where 
he worked on a farm until 1864, when he en- 
listed, on October 12th of that year, for ser- 
vice in the Civil war. He became a member 
of Company K, Thirty-second Illinois Infan- 
try, and he took part in many skirmishes and 
marches, as well as one important engagement, 
the battle of Kingston, North Carolina, in 
March, 1865. He was mustered out of the 
service at Leavenworth, Kansas, September 
16, 1865. Mr. Schneider then returned to Jo 
Daviess county and bought a farm, and in 1866 
he married Miss Johanna Kape. They had the 
following children : Ernst, Lillie, Barbara, 
George, John, Lawrence, Maggie and Susie 
(twins), Anna and Louise. 

In 1885 Ernest Schneider came with his 
family to Custer county, Nebraska, and located 
on Redfern Table, eight miles west of the 
present town of Oconto. The daughter Susie 
continued to reside at the parental home until 
the time of her marriage to William Helmuth, 
which took place September 11, 1899. Mr. 
Helmuth was born in Gennany, November 24, 
1853. His first marriage took place there and 
when his first wife died she left si.x children. 
He came to the United States and reared the 
children in Nebraska, where all are now mar- 
ried and have children of their own. Thev are 
as follows: Anna is the wife of William C. 
Pierce, and they have four children ; Barbara 
is the wife of Trov Brown, and thev have one 
child ; Tena is the wife of T. Owen, and 
they have eight children : Elizabeth is the wife 
of Clarence Preston, and they have five chil- 
dren ; Lena is the wife of Albert Aldridge, and 
they have six children; and William j. mar- 
ried Isabel ^IcGuigan. their chihlrcn being 
two sons. 

At the time of his second marriage. Mr. 
Helmuth was living on his claim situated about 
four miles southwest of Oconto, and there Mr. 
and Mrs. Helmuth went to housekeeping. 
They continued to live there about four vears, 
when he sold his claim and bought a fine farm 
of 160 acres on Redfern Table, about eight 
miles west of Oconto. Here a beautiful coun- 
try residence was built, and comfort, content 
and happiness prevailed until Mr. Helmuth's 
health failed. About six vears ago he was 



stricken with paralysis and, although he has 
the kind and loving care of a devoted wife 
and their two daughters, the affliction is griev- 
ous for a man once so active and vigorous. 
The two living children of Mr. and Mrs. Hel- 
muth are FayJ. and Dorothy L., both of whom 
are completing their educational course in the 
Oconto high school. Although Mr. Helmuth 
has been entirely helpless since he was stricken, 
on August 23, 1912, his farm industries are 
all continued very successfully, as Mrs. Hel- 
muth has proved resourceful and exceedingly 
competent. She oversees the work and is as- 
sisted liy her brother, Ernst S'chneider, who 
resides here and has been a farmer for many 
vears. 



EARL O. MORRIS. — Belonging to that 
class of workers whose practical education, 
quick perceptions and extensive capacity for 
painstaking industry have advanced them to 
positions of business and public prominence 
formerly occupied by men many years their 
seniors, Earl O. Morris, while reprensting the 
vigorous and forceful present of the west, 
gives promise of participating in its more en- 
lightened future, more especially Ansley, Cus- 
ter county, where he is serving in the capacity 
of assistant cashier of the Bank of Ansley, as 
well as in the offices of village and township 
treasurer and member of the school board. He 
is a native of this place and was born June 5, 
1888, a son of Dr. C. H. and Lavina (\'"arney) 
Morris. 

Dr. C. H. Morris was born near Indian- 
apolis, Indiana, of English descent, and as a 
young man he adopted the profession of med- 
icine, which he followed throughout his career. 
After coming to Custer count}', Nebraska, he 
was for a time engaged in practice at Wester- 
ville, and later at Broken Bow, and he was fast 
establishing a reputation when his career was 
cut short by his early death, an event which 
caused sorrow among a wide circle of friends 
and acquaintances. Eventually his widow, 
who was a native of New York, married An- 
thony ^^'ilkinson, an early settler of Custer 
county, and they now live at Grand Island, 
Hall county, where Mr. ^^'ilkinson is a wealthy 
and highly respected citizen, practically retired 
from active affairs. Mr. and Mrs. Wilkinson 
are members of the Episcopal church. 

The only child of his parents, Earl O. Mor- 
ris was given a good education in the graded 
and high schools of Ansley, following which 
he pursued a course in the Grand Island Busi- 
ness College. His career was started upon a 
ranch, later he was employed in a lumber yard, 



838 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



and thereafter was for some time a clerk in the 
postoffice. In 1908 he became assistant cashier 
of the Bank of Ansley, and he has remained 
in this capacity ever since. This is a strong 
and conservative financial institution of Ans- 
ley, and one which has the confidence and 
patronage of the people in the surrounding 
countr}-. This faith and friendship have been 
largely attracted by Mr. Morris, whose cour- 
tesy and gentlemanly bearing at all times have 
served to generate good feeling and whose 
evident knowledge of the banking business is 
being continually demonstrated in no uncer- 
tain manner. 

September 1.5, 1909, Mr. Morris married 
Miss May Hare, daughter of Charles Hare, 
who was one of the early druggists of Ansley, 
and who died at this place. ;\Ir. and ^Irs. 
Morris have three children : Earl Charles, who 
was born September 18, 1910, is now attending 
the Ansley public school ; Leeta was born Sep- 
tember 18, 1912 ; and Wayne Roger was born 
on July 27, 1914. Mr. and I\Irs. Morris are 
attendants of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
although Mrs. Morris belongs to the Presby- 
terian church. He is fraternally a thirty-sec- 
ond degree Mason and a member of the 
Mystic Shrine. He was secretary of his Ma- 
sonic blue lodge four years, senior deacon one 
year, junior warden for a like period, and is 
now (1918) senior warden. He is a Repub- 
lican and has been called upon to fill several 
offices. At present he is handling the town- 
ship and village finances in a highly acceptable 
manner, in the capacity of treasurer. He is 
also greatly interested in war work and is 
chairman of the Liberty Loan committee of 
Custer countv. 



DANIEL W. PREDMURE. — This title 
line begins the story of a Broken Bow mer- 
chant. The name has a prominent place on the 
roster of pioneers. In the northern half of 
the county there are few names more widely 
known than Predmorc. The records of the 
family always relate honorable acliievements, 
and for that reason the name is one much re- 
spected and highly esteemed. 

William H. Predmore, father of Daniel W., 
is a native of Ohio, and the mother, liertha E. 
(Coslar) Predmore, was born in C.ermany. 
These estimable people have lived in Custer 
county since 1884 and are well and favorably 
known to a very wide circle of friends. Will- 
iam H. Predmore was, prior to this time, a 
merchant in Fremont, and after locating in 
Custer county the call of the counter and the 
showcase loomed large in his dreams. Ac- 



cordingly, he started a new town called Wal- 
worth, located on his own homestead. The 
growth of the proposed town rivalled Jonah's 
gourd. In a few weeks buildings were going 
up on every hand and the new town was boom- 
ing. But, again like Jonah's gourd, it was 
destined to a brief existence. The buildings 
were put on wheels and distributed up and 
down the ^Middle Loup valley, some going to 
West L'nion and some to Sargent. The Pred- 
more store building was moved to the Wal- 
worth bridge and the Walworth postoffice 
established in the fall of 1885. This building 
and stock were afterward destroyed by fire. 
In the family of William H. Predmore were 
three children : Adaline Hall : Tames \\'. ; and 
Daniel \\". 

Daniel W. Predmore was born March 20, 
1872, at Brushcreek, Iowa. He was but four 
years old when his parents moved to Fremont, 
Nebraska, and but twelve years old when they 
moved to Custer county. Accordingly it will 
be seen that his education was received in the 
public schools of Nebraska. He was not more 
than seven years old when he began helping 
in his father's store, and there he laid the foun- 
dation of a business career. Merchandising 
has always been to Daniel an attractive occu- 
pation. When twenty years of age he pur- 
chased a hardware store in West L'nion, from 
Wilde & Squires, and after operating it during 
the summer he moved the stock to Broken 
Bow. Later the hardware stock was disposed 
of and he and his brother James resorted to 
mining in the Black Hills. They seemed to 
strike it lucky in the mining camp of Rocker- 
ville. Fortune lavished upon them her golden 
smiles, and then, alas, she frowned. They in- 
vested their accumulations of the summer in a 
stock of merchandise and the first night after 
they took possession, the stock and building 
went up in flames. The brothers barely 
escaped from the building and saved nothing 
but the clothes they had on and thirty-five dol- 
lars in money. A small calamity of this kind, 
however, had no power to dampen the ardor of 
the intrepid spirits. They went to work at the 
mines again and in a short time established a 
postoffice at Rockerville, besides starting an- 
other store. James acted as merchant while 
Dan operated as miner, and together they suc- 
ceeded. Thev continued the Rockerville busi- 
ness until 1894, when Dan went to Alliance, 
Nebraska, where for a time he worked as clerk 
in a clothing store. In 1896 he returned to 
Rockerville and resumed operations on his 
mining claim. There he continued his activ- 
ities for two years, and he then disposed of the 
claim and returned to Custer countv, where he 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



83',) 



rented one of his father's farms, near Broken 
Bow. Up until this time Daniel posed as a 
bachelor, but on November 10, 1889, he re- 
turned to Rockerville and remained long 
enough to claim in marriage Edna M. Carter, a 
daughter of John C. and Mary Carter. To this 
union the years have brought two children, 
and the daughter Gladys is the wife of John 
Reed, a son of the well known farmer Frank 
S. Reed. 

For thirteen years Daniel W. Predmore, the 
miner and the merchant, demonstrated his abil- 
ity as a farmer on one of his father's farms. 
Then he purchased a farm of his own. six 
miles northwest of Broken Bow, upon which 
he built a beautiful residence and provided 
other improvements. He made this place his 
residence for five years, when failing health 
and the scarcity of farm help caused him to 
leave the farm. He bought a splendid home 
in Broken Bow, and a little later he purchased 
the grocery stock of W. F. Forest, located in 
the Dierks block, on the south side of the pub- 
lic square. Mr. Predmore possesses business 
acumen, and will succeed in this later venture. 



JOHN R. RHODES. — Since he began the 

practice of his profession at Ansley, in 1903, 
John R. Rhodes has lent dignity and stability 
to professional affairs in his part of Custer 
county, and thus has maintained and even 
added to a reputation for ability and resource- 
fulness established during his residence in the 
state of Pennsylvania. 

Judge Rhodes is a native of the Keystone 
state, as he was bom in Blair county, Penn- 
sylvania, July 28, 1859. a son of John and 
Matilda (Forshey) Rhodes. His paternal 
grandfather, Abraham Rhodes, who was born 
in Virginia and owned a large plantation 
there, adopted the cause of Abolition and 
freed his slaves, following which he went to 
Pennsylvania. Henry Forshey, the maternal 
grandfather, was a soldier of Napoleon and 
was one of those who went on the ill-fated 
expedition to storm Moscow, and after his 
return to" France he immigrated to the United 
States. He was a man of superior intellec- 
tual and educational attainments, and when 
he came to America he brought with him a 
large and comprehensive library, his home 
being on the present site of Altoona, Blair 
county, Pennsylvania. 

John Rhodes was born in 1812, in Vir- 
ginia, and was eight years of age when taken 
bv his parents to Pennsylvania. There he 
grew to manhood and became a prosperous 
farmer, and he was a man widely known for 
his ability and integrity. He was a Republi- 



can in politics. He died May 6, 1864, in the 
faith of the Lutheran church, of which his 
wife also was a member. She was born in 
September, 1825, in Pennsylvania, and died 
in October, 1904. Their marriage was 
solemnized in 1855, and they became the par- 
ents of three children — Sarah is the wife of 
Thomas Grove, a farmer of Blair county, 
Pennsylvania : John R. is the subject of this 
sketch; and Kezziah, of Pennsylvania, is the 
widow of the late John Callahan, who for 
many years was an engineer on the Pennsyl- 
vania Central Lines. 

After attending the public schools of Blair 
county, John R. Rhodes became a student at 
Juniata College, Martinsburg, Pennsylvania, 
being graduated from that institution in 1877. 
He next began the study of his chosen profes- 
sion, in a law office, and he was admitted to 
the bar of Pennsylvania in 1882, continuing 
to practice in his native state until 1890. In 
that year he came to Nebraska and bought 
land, and in 1903 he began the practice of law 
at Ansley, since which time he has devoted 
himself chiefly to his calling, his practice hav- 
ing been materially extended with the passing 
years. He is a broad-minded and progress- 
ive practitioner, a careful observer of the 
courtesies and amenities of his profession, at 
all times seeking its most intelligent and praise- 
worthy compensations, and is a member of 
the various bodies of the calling. He has 
been called upon to serve in several local of- 
fices of a public character, and from 1894 to 
1898 was county judge of Custer county. 
While he has engaged to a considerable ex- 
tent in farming during his career, the law has 
had his main interest, and to it he gives the 
most of his attention. Judge Rhodes in his 
political support subscribes to the principles 
of the Republican party. 

In March, 1881, Judge Rhodes married 
Miss Dora Patrick, who was born in Indiana, 
a daughter of George and Emma (Herndon) 
Patrick, early settlers of Indiana, who spent 
their last years in Nebraska. Judge and I\Irs. 
Rhodes are the parents of eight children : 
Emma Kezziah is the wife of Leslie R. Clay, 
a civil engineer of Craig, Colorado ; Orlando 
Ross is a farmer of Bushnell, Nebraska : 
Laura Belle is the wife of Timothy Hanley, a 
painter of Ansley: Marcellus Roy, who is a 
farmer of Ansley, married Elsa Hyatt ; Ros- 
coe Bryan is at the time of this writing with 
Company A, Three Hundred and Forty-sec- 
ond ^Machine Gun Brigade, Sixty-eighth Di- 
vision, American Expeditionary Forces in 
France: Edith, a graduate of Ansley high 
school, class of 1918, remains with her par- 
ents, as do also Maude and John R., Tr., who 



840 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



are still attending school. Mrs. Rhodes is a 
consistent member of the Baptist church. 



JOHN M. SAMUELSON. — One of the 
genial and dependable spirits of Arnold and 
one who has made a success of both farming 
and business is John M. Samuelson. who was 
born April 18, 1863, in the province of Halland. 
Sweden. He is a son of John B. and Johanna 
(Magmuson) Samuelson, both of whom came 
of that sturdy Scandanavian stock which has 
contributed so many thrifty citizens to the 
western hemisphere. In the family of John 
B. Smuelson were three sons, all of whom are 
living — John M., Sander A., and Barnard A. 
John B. Samuelson came to the United States 
in 1870 and landed at Castle Garden, New 
York. From the national metropolis he 
worked his way west and found a location in 
Carroll county, Iowa, where he remained four 
years. He then removed with his family to 
Crawford county, that state, where they re- 
mained another four years, after which he 
purchased a farm in Ida county, where he 
still resides, having retired from active busi- 
ness. 

John M. Samuelson relates many amusing 
experiences concerning his first years in this 
country. When he had been here but a few 
months he hired out to a man to help pull 
beans. He was then but eight years of age. 
Other boys working in the same field were 
double his age and as each boy took a row 
it was not long until they had left young John 
far behind. This so discouraged him that 
when night came, he threw up the job. The 
farmer for whom he was working gave him ten 
cents and a watermelon. He took the melon 
home but as none of the family had never 
seen one before, they did not know what to do 
with it. A young lady came to their rescue 
and showed them that melons were supposed 
to be eaten. She cut the melon and John 
started in by eating the rind. He found out, 
however, that the red ])art was better than the 
green and suited better both his complexion and 
and his digestion. Things have changed since 
them. Nobody has to show John to-day how 
to eat watermelons. When twelve years of 
age he went to work, and his wages were con- 
tributed to the family living. When twenty 
years of age he found his way into Custer 
county', Nebraska, and the following year. 
1884, he reached his majority and located a 
pre-emption claim, five miles east of Arnold. 
After proving up on the land he returned to 
Iowa, but one year there was enough and he 
returned to Custer county, where he has made 
his home ever since. March 22, 1888, he 



married Mary E. McGuire, a daughter of 
John and Mar)^ (Wingoj McGuire. Mrs. 
Samuelson lived but two years, and she left 
a little girl babe, which survived her but six 
months. Mr. Samuelson remarried December 
22, 1908. At this time he led to the mar- 
riage altar the present Mrs. Samuelson, who 
was then Miss Iva AI. Anson. The following, 
clipped from an Arnold paper, gives a brief 
sketch of 'Sirs. Samuelson. "Iva M., daugh- 
ter of Mr. and Mrs. Franklin P. Anson, was 
born August 29, 1883. near Springfield, Sarpy 
county, Nebraska. With her parents she 
came to Custer county at the age of one year. 
After living near Mills X'alley for nine years 
they moved to the eastern part of the state, 
where they resided for a year, going to Mis- 
souri in the fall of 1894, by means of covered 
wagon. There they lived five years, when 
they returned to Arnold, to remain only two 
years. They then went to Missouri Valley, 
Iowa, where they resided until 1905, when 
they returned to Arnold for the third time. 
On December 22, 1908, she was united in 
marriage to John M. Samuelson." 

Concerning j\lr. Samuelson's fanning and 
business operations the following extract, 
clipped from a boom edition of the Arnold 
Sentinel, gives an epitome of his career. 
"John M. Samuelson arrived in this country 
from Ida county, Iowa, in January, 1884, and 
when old enough appropriated a portion of 
Uncle Sam's domain for his own individual 
use, on which he lived about a year. He then 
returned to Iowa, where he remained about a 
year before returning to Custer county. This 
locality has been his home since and he expects 
that it will continue to be in the future, as it 
is just as good as any place for a man with 
moderate means. He farmed his place in 
Powell Canyon for several years and in 1904 
disposed of his land and moved to Arnold, 
where he has since been engaged in the well, 
windmill, pump and plumbing business, with 
a fair degree of success. When first coming 
to this country he experienced all the dis- 
advantages common to a new countrj'. His 
nearest neighbor was two miles away. Set- 
tlers were few and far between. The nearest 
railroad trading point was Cozad, fifty miles 
away, and three days were generally con- 
sumed in making the trip. He has seen this 
countn,- develop from almost a wilderness to a 
moderately settled community of as well be- 
haved and intelligent people as can be found 
anywhere in the United States." 

The Samuelsons live in a splendid home, 
modernly equipped and provided with all the 
comforts of the better days that have come 
since the pioneering period has passed. They 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUxNTY, NEBRASKA 



843 



are congenial, popular people, members of the 
Christian church, and j\Ir. Samuelson enjoys 
the distinction of being a thirty-second-degree 
Mason. Politically he affiliates with the 
Democratic party. 

Mr. Samuelson relates an interesting inci- 
dent that occurred in 1887. while he was re- 
siding on his place in Powell Canyon. He 
and his family went to Arnold to attend the 
Fourth of July celebration of that year. A 
Mexican and a white man, who had been in 
the neighborhood several days, made them- 
selves very busy while the various settlers 
were away from home and participating in the 
celebration mentioned. The two miscreants 
went to the home of Ben Lansing, where they 
cooked a meal and appropriated clean cloth- 
ing for the habiliments they were wearing — 
in short, they helped themselves to everything 
they wanted about the premises. Several 
other places were subjected to similar inspec- 
tion and depredations, and at the home of Mr. 
Samuelson they traded running-gears on wag- 
ons, leaving their old wagon in place of a far 
better outfit. When the settlers arrived at 
their respective homes and discovered what 
had been done, a number of the men. includ- 
ing Mr. Samuelson, set out in pursuit of the 
outlaws. Late the next day these settlers, 
with others who were searching for the same 
malfactors, found the two men six miles north 
of Broken Bow. The outlaws, when thus 
brough to bay, resisted arrest, and in the con- 
flict that ensued, the Mexican was killed, his 
companion making his escape. Reference is 
made to this event in Butcher's history of 
Custer county. 



ALBERT ROHDE. — Practical industry, 
wisely and vigorously applied, seldom fails of 
attaining success, and the career of Albert 
Rohde, now one of the leading farmers of 
Custer county, is but another proof of this 
statement. When he started out in life he had 
but few advantages to assist him along the road 
to success, but his diligence and judicious man- 
agement have brought him ample sincess as a 
reward for his labors. 

Mr. Rohde was born in Germany, a son of 
Chris and Henrietta (Rickow) Rohde, who 
passed the greater part of their lives in Ger- 
many, where they were people of modest means 
but liighly respected by their neighbors. The 
father died here on the homestead in Custer 
county, when eighty-two years of age, and the 
mother is still living. Albert Rohde received 
only the advantages of a common-school edu- 
cation, and he remained under the home roof 
until he was si-xteen vears of age, when he be- 



gan to shift for himself. Coming to the L'nited 
States, he made his way to Nebraska, and for 
four years he was a resident of Grand Island, 
but in 1887 he came to Custer county. He had 
been married to Minnie Sherman, of Mecklen- 
burg, Germany, who died, and in 1888 he was 
again married, being united with Anna Busem, 
also a native of Germany. They settled on a 
homestead farm, where they met and overcame 
the usual obstacles which appeared in the paths 
of the early settlers, and gradually they forced 
their way to a position where they found firm 
footing on the ladder of success. From that 
time forward Mr. Rohde's progress was rapid, 
and he eventually become recognized as one 
of the capable and industrious men of his lo- 
cality — an enterprising, pushing man of in- 
tegrity who transacted business in an honor- 
able way. Mr. Rohde is now the owner of 
800 acres of good land, his home being situ- 
ated in section 4, township 71, where he has 
a modern residence, good outbuildings, and 
the latest and most highly improved equip- 
ment. He follows general farming and has 
also been successful as a raiser of pure-blood 
Polled cattle, fine horses and mules, and a good 
grade of hogs, principally of the Poland-China 
breed. He has given his entire attention to 
farming and stock-raising, but has good in- 
vestments as well, and has never been at- 
tracted to public life or to active participation 
in political affairs. His support of worthy 
movements, however, has shown his good citi- 
zenship. Mr. and Mrs. Rohde are members 
of the Evangelical church, and attend the 
church of this denomination south of Alason 
City. 

Mr. Rohde had the following brothers and 
sisters : Fred, August, and Otto, all of whom 
are engaged in farming in Custer county, 
where they are the owners of valuable land 
and good live stock ; Herman, whose death oc- 
curred in Buffalo county, where he was en- 
gaged in farming; j\Irs. Amelia Paske, resid- 
ing on a farm in Custer county ; and Elizabeth 
Maliage, a resident of Kansas. Mr. Rohde 
is the father of the following children : Mrs. 
Alvina Clamp, who is the wife of a Wisconsin 
railroad man ; Herman, who is one of the op- 
erators of the home farm ; Frank, who is with 
the American Expeditionary Forces in France 
at the time of this writing; Roland, who is 
engaged in cultivating a part of his father's 
propert)' in Custer county ; Mary, who resides 
with her parents : and Dora, who lives in Wis- 
consin. Frank, Herman, and Roland are in 
partnership in operating the home farm and 
the two last mentioned are carrying on Frank's 
work while he is in the service as a soldier. 



844 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



JAMES WHITEHEAD is an honored Cus- 
ter county pioneer who is specially entitled to 
recognition in this liistor\' of the county. It 
was his to do well his part in connection with 
the initial development of the county, and also 
to wield influence in the furthering of mater- 
ial and civic advancement in later years. 
Though he is now a resident of the city of 
Emporia. Kansas, he makes annual visits to 
the old home in Custer county, where he re- 
news and vitalizes old acquaintanceships and 
also cements new friendships in the commu- 
nity that was the stage of his pioneer ex- 
periences. 

James Whitehead was born at Yorkville, 
Racine county, Wisconsin, on the 27th of Atig- 
ust, 1846, and his parents, as well as all of his 
ancestors, so far as known, were natives of 
fine old Yorkshire, England, whence his 
father immigated to the United States in 1842. 
Mr. Whitehead is a son of Benjamin and 
Sarah (Smith) Whitehead, and upon coming 
to America the father settled as a pioneer in 
the vicinity of Racine, Wisconsin. He was a 
blacksmith by trade and as a skilled artisan he 
found much demand for his services in the 
pioneer community, the while he also gave his 
careful attention to the development and im- 
provement of his farm. For fifty-five years 
he gave faithful service as a local preacher of 
the Methodist Episcopal church, and his life 
was guided and governed by lofty principles. 
In April, 1855, after having sold his farm in 
Racine county, he removed with his family 
to Marquette county, Wisconsin, where he 
passed the remainder of his life. He was 
summoned to the life eternal in December 
1884, his devoted wife having passed awav 
fifteen years previously. Of their ten chil- 
dren James, subject of this review, is now the 
only survivor. 

Owing to the exigencies and conditions of 
time and place, James Whitehead received but 
meager educational advantages in his vouth. 
After he was eleven years old he was alile to 
attend the district school only three months 
during the year and when the Civil war was 
precipitated, his youthful patriotism was 
quickened to action. On the 4th of July, 
1862, somewhat more than a month prior to 
his sixteenth birthday anniversary, Mr. White- 
head enlisted, at Portage, Wisconsin, as a pri- 
vate in Company II, Twenty-seventh Wiscon- 
sin Volunteer Infantr)', subsequentlv he was 
transferred to the Thirteenth Regulars, from 
which organization he was later discharged 
on account of "permanent disease of the 
heart." He was sent home, supposedly to 
die, but fortunately it proved that the dictum 
of the surgeons was not infallible, for the gal- 
lant youth eventually recuperated his phvsical 



wellbeing. In the stress of conflict and the 
consequent demand for men, Mr. Whitehead 
re-enlisted as soon as he could show himself 
again physically eligible, and January 23, 1864, 
recorded his enrollment as a member of Com- 
pany D, Nineteenth Wisconsin Volunteer In- 
fantry, with which he continued in service 
until the close of the war. 

Upon his return to civil life Mr. White- 
head resumed work on the home fann, and 
later he purchased the homestead on which 
the father of John Muir, the eminent natural- 
ist, had settled on coming to America and 
which John, the future scientist, assisted in 
reclaiming and preparing for the plow, this 
farm being in Marquette county. Wiscon- 
sin. 

In the Badger state Mr. Whitehead con- 
tinued his association with agricultural in- 
dustry until he numbered himself among the 
pioneer settlers of Custer county, Nebraska. 
In the winter of 1883-4 he came to this county 
and entered claim to a homestead twelve 
miles south of the present village of Calla- 
way, in the district now known as Red fern 
Table. On the 24th of July of the same year 
he established his residence on this home- 
stead, upon which he constructed a sod 
house, and in the following December his 
family joined him in this pioneer home. 

In the fall of 1888 Mr. Whitehead was 
elected to the Nebraska legislature, and upon 
the close of the legislative session he returned 
to his homestead, in 1889. In July of the 
same year he received notice that he had been 
appointed deputy collector of internal revenue, 
and he forthwith entered upon the duties of 
this office. A new land district having been 
created, with its office at Broken Bow, to be 
opened July 1, 1890, Mr. Whitehead received 
information that he had been appointed re- 
ceiver of this new land office, with Hon. 
John Reese as register. Having thus exerted 
large and Ijenignant influence in connection 
with public affairs in this part of the state, 
in 1892 Mr. Whitehead was made the Re- 
publican nominee for representative in con- 
gress from his district. The Populist party 
was then in the zenith of its strength in the 
district, and after a spirited campaign Mr. 
Whitehead met defeat at the polls — jnirely 
as a matter of political exigency. At the ex- 
piration of his term as receiver of the land 
office, he removed to Callaway, in October, 
1894, in order to be near his fami, which had 
been leased. A year later he was informed 
by the Nebraska board of lands and build- 
ings that he had been appointed state agent 
of the Nebraska penitentiary, the duties of 
which office he at once assumed, and in due 
time his family joined him in the city of Lin- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



845 



coin. At the end of one year he resigned this 
office, but he continued his residence in the 
capital city, in order to permit his daughter 
to continue her studies in the University of 
Nebraska. 

In June, 1898, while visiting in Wisconsin, 
Mr. Whitehead received notice that he had 
been appointed register of the United States 
land office at Broken Bow, with Frank Young 
as receiver, and, entering upon his duties 
July 1st, he continued the incumbent of this 
office eight years, under the administrations 
of Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt. At 
the expiration of his second term, upon re- 
ceiving from physicians the advice that he 
must seek a lower altitude, Mr. Whitehead 
reluctantly left Nebraska and established his 
residence at Emporia, Kansas, where he has 
maintained his home since July 6, 1907. 

Mr. Whitehead still owns the Custer county 
homestead which he obtained thirty-four 
years ago and to which he has added, by 
purchase, an adjacent tract of 640 acres. To 
this fine rural estate he returns each succes- 
sive summer and here he remains from one 
to three months. He recalls vividly the trials 
and early struggles which the pioneers here 
encountered in contending for victory over 
the untried forces of a new land, and, not- 
withstanding the anxiety and arduous toil im- 
posed, he looks back to those days as among 
the happiest of his life — a view that is fully 
shared by the other members of his family. 
But few of his old neighbors now remain, 
but, instead, he meets their children, now 
middle-aged, and they in turn introduce him 
to their children, to whom he and the "early 
days" are almost as a tradition. Referring 
to those stirring times, Mr. Whitehead com- 
pares them with the radical conditions that 
obtain at the present time. Thus he makes 
comparison between the present high price of 
farm labor — amounting at times to from 
three to five dollars a day — with the seventy- 
five cents that he, as a lad of fourteen vears, 
received for service in the harvest fields of 
W'isconsin. The farm hand of the early days 
worked with primitive implements. To-day 
are in evidence the tractors and the gang 
plows, and the "hired man" frequently is dis- 
covered driving about in his own automobile. 
In the realm of such retrospection, Mr. White- 
head is duly impressed with the fact that "the 
world do move," as the negro philosopher e.x-- 
pressed it. 

In conclusion is made brief record concern- 
ing the felicitous domestic chapter in the life 
history of the sterling Custer county pioneer 
to whom this review is dedicated : On the 
30th of December, 1867, was solemnized the 



marriage of Mr. Whitehead to Miss Hannah 
M. Eagleston, and their only child, Sadie E., 
still remains at the parental home. 



CHARLES S. CHRISMAN, who is one 
of the most favorably known and most com- 
fortably situated of the retired farmers of 
Custer county, has achieved unequivocal suc- 
cess and prosperity through his former years 
of active association with the great funda- 
mental industries of agriculture and stock- 
growing, and his indefatigable and well or- 
dered activities in past years have brought to 
him the merited rewards of contentment, good 
health, freedom from exacting cares and a 
gracious knowledge of work well done and 
service earnestly rendered in connection with 
the duties and responsibilities that canopy 
every life. 

Mr. Chrisman was born in Lafayette 
county, Missouri, on the 6th of April, 1849, 
and is a son of Joseph and Jane (Chrisman) 
Chrisman. The genealogy traces back to 
staimch German origin, but Mr. Chrisman 
has pride in the fact that he is a scion of a 
family whose name has been worthily linked 
with American history since the colonial era. 
From a most interesting family record pre- 
pared by George Chrisman, a cousin of him 
whose name introduces this article, may con- 
sistently be taken certain data that properly 
find place in this review. At some time in 
the decade between 1720 and 1730 three 
brothers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Chris- 
man, left their native province of Bavaria, 
Germany, and immigrated to America. Land- 
ing in Philadelphia, they thence made their 
way to the town of York, Pennsylvania, and 
they figure as the founders of a now numer- 
ous and honored American family. Of the 
three original American immigrants, Jacob 
figures as the ancestor of Charles S. Chris- 
man, of this sketch. At York, Pennsylvania, 
Jacob Chrisman met and married Mary 
Madaline Kite, a daughter of Jost Hite, who 
was a wealthy nobleman who left his father- 
land on account of religious persecution and 
came to America in 1910, the voyage being 
made on a ship which he owned, as did he 
also a second ship which crossed the Atlantic 
at the same time, one of the ships being laden 
with goods and the other affording transpor- 
tation to this distinguished ancestor and his 
people. Concerning him the following rec- 
ord has been given: "He settled in New 
York, but soon moved from there to York, 
Pennsylvania. There he became acquainted 
with William Penn, who told him of the rich 
land of the south branch of the Potomac 



846 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



river. He, with three partners, Willianis. 
Duff, and Green, bought 60,000 acres of this 
land, from Lord Fairfax, who, under a grant 
from the king of England, owned all of Vir- 
ginia north of a line running east and west 
on the south line of Shenandoah county from 
Chesapeake Bay to the headwaters of the 
Potomac. He also bought 54,000 acres in 
the Shenandoah valley, extending from near 
Winchester up to Edom. In 1732 he moved 
to this last purchase, cutting a wagon road 
through the timber and brush from York to 
the Potomac, a short way above Harper's 
Ferry. Jacob Chrisman came with him and 
settled on a tract of 800 acres of fine land, on 
the road leading from Winchester to Staun- 
ton and just south of Stephen City, at a fine 
spring knov^-n to this day as "Chrisman 
Spring." Jacob Chrisman became the father 
of seven sons and three daughters, and of the 
sons John was the next in line of descent to 
him whose name introduces this Custer 
county review. John Chrisman became a 
soldier and distinguished ofificer of the Con- 
tinental forces in the war of the Revolution, 
in which he held the rank of colonel. He 
married Elizabeth McDowell, daughter of 
General Joseph McDowell and Margaret 
(O'Neal) McDowell, the latter having been a 
daughter of Lord O'Neal, a most powerful 
Irish nobleman who left a great estate. John 
Chrisman left one son. Isaac, who lived on 
the old home estate near Stephen City. Isaac, 
son of John, inherited this ancestral home. 
Of the five daughters of Isaac Chrisman. one 
was Jane, who became the wife of Joseph 
Chrisman, and this couple figure on record 
as the parents of Charles S. Chrisman, to 
whom this review is dedicated. The above 
record pertains to the lineage of Mr. Chris- 
man on the maternal side. In the agnatic, or 
paternal line, he traces his ancestrv' back to 
the same original American progenitor. Tacob 
Chrisman, whose son George was a captain of 
the Continental Line in the Revolutionarv 
war. George Chrisman married Hannah Mc- 
Dowell and they settled near Edom, \"irginia. 
Their son John married Ann Harrison, and 
they had three children. — Joseph, George II.. 
and Margaret. Joseph first married Eliza- 
beth Lincoln, and after her death he wedded 
Jane Chrisman. Joseph and Jane Chrisman. 
parents of the subject of this sketch, removed 
to Missouri about the year 1837. l)oth hav- 
ing been born and reared in the historic Old 
Doininion state, as the forgoing record duly 
indicates. 

Upon their removal to Missouri Mr. and 
Mrs. Joseph Chrisman became pioneer set- 
tlers in Lafayette county, where Mr. Chris- 



man reclaimed and improved a fann and de- 
voted the remainder of his life to agricul- 
tural pursuits. In Virginia he had served 
as a colonel in the state militia, and while the 
Civil war found him too advanced in years to 
render military service, he was profoundly 
loyal to the cause which gained his allegiance 
in that climacteric period of our national his- 
tory. He never manifested any desire to be- 
come active in public affairs in the state of 
his adoption. His political support was 
given to the Democratic party and he and his 
wife were earnest members of the Presbyte- 
rian church. Of their twelve children only two 
are living at the beginning of the year 1919 — 
Virginia, who resides in the city of Chicago, 
she being the widow of Lee Cooper, who was 
a soldier of the Confederacy during the Civil 
war : and Charles S., whose name initiates 
this record. 

Charles S. Chrisman acquired his early 
education in the common schools at Lexing- 
ton, Missouri, and as a youth he gave effective 
aid in connection with the work of the home 
farm. On this homestead he eventually 
conducted independent operations, and there 
he remained until 1883, when, at the age of 
thirty-four years, he came to Nebraska and 
numbered himself among the pioneers of Cus- 
ter county. Here he entered claim to a home- 
stead and began his career as a sheep-raiser 
in the new countrj% after having brought a 
herd of sheep from Missouri. Soon after- 
ward, however, he sold his sheep and turned 
his attention to the raising of cattle, hogs, and 
horses, in which field of enterprise he made 
rapid and satisfactory progress. Mr. Chris- 
man was so determined and persevering that 
he permitted no discouragements to affect him, 
and he was aggressive enough to overcome 
the obstacles which appeared in his path. 
While many of his neighbors were bewailing 
the lack of timber and the necessity of living 
in makeshift homes, mostly of sod, the while 
they sheltered their stock, grain and machiiier\- 
as best they could — Mr. Chrisman hitched U]) 
his team and made numerous trips to Kear- 
ney, whence he hauled lumber to his home- 
stead, where he erected a comfortable house 
and also built good structures for the protec- 
tion of his live stock and fami products, im- 
]>lenients. etc. As his finances permitted, he 
added to his land holdings from time to time, 
and he is to-day the owner of 800 acres of 
valuable Custer county land — all accumu- 
lated through his own efforts. This estate 
includes his original pioneer homestead, 
situated twelve miles south of Ansley, in 
which pleasant little village he is now living 
virtuallv retired. As a man of inflexible in- 



I 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



847 



tegrity in all of the relations of life, and as a 
sterling pioneer of the county, he is accounted 
one of the hest and most honored citizens of 
Ansley. He gives his allegiance to the Demo ■ 
cratic party, is aiifiliated with the local camp 
of the Modern Woodmen of America, and 
both he and his wife are earnest members of 
the Presbyterian church. 

In 1875 was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. Chrisman to Miss Bettie Brooks, who 
was born at Fayette, Howard county, Mis- 
souri, and of their five children three are liv- 
ing: Joseph conducts a well equipped bar- 
ber shop at Mason City, this county ; Irene 
is the wife of Floyd Waite, a prosperous 
farmer of this county ; and Charles L., who is 
successfully conducting operations on his 
father's old homestead, is well upholding the 
industrial and civic prestige of the family 
name. 



\MLLIAM M. WAGNER is one of the 
substantial farmers of Custer county and also 
one of its earliest settlers. 

Mr. Wagner was born in Auglaize county, 
Ohio, December 20, 1856. His parents were 
natives respectively of Ohio and New Jersey. 
It was in 1873 that they started for Nebraska, 
spending the winter at Loup City and arriv- 
ing in Custer county in the spring of 1874. 
Samuel W'agner secured a homestead in sec- 
tions 9 and 10 and here he spent the remain- 
der of his life. In the early days he and his 
son supplied the early settlers with fresh 
meat, as deer and antelope were plentiful. 
Mr. Wagner remembers when he and father 
were out hunting, the son had shot a deer 
and broken its horn. While holding the deer 
and waiting for the father to cut its throat 
the deer made a struggle to get away and the 
broken end of the horn caught the father's 
leg, tearing the flesh from the knee to the 
hip. Had it not been a broken horn the in- 
jury would have been much worse. 

William Wagner was reared amid the pio- 
neer conditions that existed at the time and 
upon reaching manhood he became a farmer. 
From 1894^ till 1912 Mr. Wagner resided in 
Cherrv' county, but he now maintains his home 
on a farm which he owns near Comstock. 

March 20, 1886, Mr. Warner was united 
in marriage to Miss Clara Miller, who was 
born in Van Wert county, Ohio, a daughter 
of Tobias and Melissa (Cook) Miller. The 
home of Mr. and Mrs. Wagner has been 
made happy by the coming of seven children : 
Tobias Miller, deceased, married Ella De 
Wolt ; Roy H. is serving in the United States 
Nav>' ; Samuel L. is a member of the national 



army, "somewhere in France" at the time 
of this writing; Charles A. is in military 
training at Camp Dodge, Des Moines, Iowa ; 
Miss Grace P. is a teacher in the Custer 
county schools ; and Frank and Harland are 
at home. 

Mr. Wagner has a vivid recollection of 
pioneer conditions and recalls many interest- 
ing happenings of the early days. Once 
when corn was scarce and hogs were plenti- 
ful he traded a load of corn to a Mr. Carr 
for a very fine brood sow and ten pigs. The 
trade was very beneficial to Mr. Wagner, as 
it gave him a start in the hog business with an 
almost pure-bred stock — a strain which was 
noticeable in his herd for many years. He 
remembers a very severe hail storm which 
occurred on the 4th of July, 1878 or 1879. 
A picnic party had been arranged, and while 
on the way they saw the storm approaching. 
They unhitched the horses and sought shelter 
under the wagon. The hail-stones were so 
large and came down with such force that in 
the ground were made holes as large as a 
man's double fist. On their wav home, in 
crossing a draw which had been filled with 
hail-stones, they had to unhitch the team. In 
trying to extricate the wagon one of the party. 
Charles Baker, froze his feet quite badly. A 
Mrs. Safford contracted a cold and died from 
the effects. 

Forty- four years have passed since the 
Wagner family settled in Custer county and 
during all these years its representatives 
have been influential factors in the develop- 
ment and upbuilding of the country. 

STUART B. McKENTY. — Since Decem- 
ber, 1914, the real-estate and insurance inter- 
ests of Ansley have had an able and progres- 
sive representative in the person of Stuart B. 
McKenty, who, prior to entering this field, had 
been one of the successful farmers of Custer 
county. Mr. McKenty was born in the Prov- 
ince of Quebec, Canada, August 18, 1862, and 
is a son of Nicholas S. and Elizabeth (Bayes) 
McKenty. 

Nicholas S. McKenty was born in Vermont 
and was a tailor by trade, his work as a jour- 
neyman taking him to Quebec, where he met 
and married Elizabeth Bayes, who was bora 
in Canada, a daughter of Dr. George Bayes, 
a veterinary surgeon of Milwaukee, Wiscon- 
sin. Some time after the birth of his only 
son and child, Nicholas S. McKenty returned 
to the United States, and the remainder of 
his life was passed in following his vocation 
in New England, his death occurring at Gor- 
ham. New Hampshire. He was an indus- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



trious man, intelligent, hard-working and 
capable, and through good management made 
a success of his affairs, while he won trust 
and friendship through his display of qualities 
of honesty and integrity. Mrs. McKenty was 
a member of the Presbyterian church. 

The early education of Stuart B. McKenty 
was acquired in the public schools of the New 
England states, and as a youth he adopted the 
vocation of farming for his life work. The 
soil of New England did not appeal to him, 
and in 1882, he came to the west in search 
of his first fortune, settling first near Lincoln, 
but coming soon afterward, in 1883, to Cus- 
ter county. Here he homesteaded a tract of 
land and settled down on his claim, to make 
his property a valuable and productive one. 
During almost thirty years he continued to be 
engaged in agricultural pursuits, and wheti 
he retired from the cultivation of the soil he 
was the owner of a full section of land, all ac- 
cumulated through his own efforts. His rise 
has been steady and continuous and he has 
had to depend upon no resources other than 
his own in climbing up the ladder of success. 
In the neighborhood of his farm, Mr. Mc- 
Kenty built up a splendid and lasting reputa- 
tion for fair dealing and honorable transac- 
tions, and to this he has added since coming 
to Ansley, in December, 1914. Upon his ar- 
rival here he established himself in the real- 
estate and general insurance business, a field 
for which his talents seem to specially fit him, 
he having since engineered some of the most 
important real-estate deals in this section. He 
is shrewd and far-sighted, has a thorough 
knowledge of city and town land values and 
is well posted as to the resources and ad- 
vantages at the disposal of people contemplat- 
ing settlement or change of location in Ansley 
and its vicinity. 

March 13, 1898, Mr. McKenty married Miss 
Minnie R. Guthrie, who was bom in Iowa, a 
daughter of S. S. and Nancv Guthrie. Her 
parents were born in New York state and be- 
came early residents of Custer county, where 
Mr. Guthrie died and where his widow still 
resides. Mr. and Mrs. IMcKenty have two 
children — Gordon S., who is gaining knowl- 
edge of practical pharmacy by his employ- 
ment in an Ansley drug store : and Orrin H., 
who is a resident of Antioch. Nebraska. Mrs. 
McKenty is a member of the Christian church. 
Fraternallv, Mr. McKenty belongs to the 
Modern \\'oodmen of .America and the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, in which lat- 
ter he has passed the various official chairs. 
His business and social success has been ma- 
terially aided by that spirit of kindliness which 
makes the whole world kin, which appreciates 



merit in others, and which recognizes the 
value of tact and consideration in dealing with 
all the problems of life. 



WILLIAM L. McCAXDLES'S. — The en- 
tire career of William L. McCandless, cashier 
of the Berwyn State Bank and treasurer of 
Custer county, has been passed in activities 
connected with financial affairs, and as a re- 
sult he is one of the best known men in bank- 
ing circles in Custer county. It has been his 
fortune to have been connected with two in- 
stitutions which have held the confidence of 
the people, and his identification with them 
has been of two-fold benefit — to himself and 
to the banks. 

A native son of Broken Bow, Nebraska. Mr. 
McCandless was born November 30. 18S5, his 
parents being Lucian and Amanda E. ( Gandy) 
McCandless. concerning whom more specific 
mention is made on other pages, in the individ- 
ual review of the career of Lucian McCandless. 
The early education of William L. McCand- 
less was acquired at Broken Bow, where he 
was a member of the high-school graduating 
class of 1903, following which he entered the 
Wesleyan University at Lincoln. He attended 
that well known institution from 1903 to 1906. 
His studies completed, he secured a position 
as bookkeeper in the Security State Bank, act- 
ing in that capacity from June 1. 1906, to De- 
cember 26. 1906. .A.t the organization of the 
Berwyn State Bank, on the latter date, he was 
offered and accepted the cashiershi]). and this 
position he has since retained. This institu- 
tion, which started with a capital of $5,000, 
now has a $13,000 capital, with surplus and 
undivided profits of $3,000, the deposits av- 
eraging $200,000. This is considered a sound, 
and substantial, safe and conservative insti- 
tution, and Mr. McCandless has establi>hcd 
himself firmly in the confidence of the bank's 
patrons and that of its stockholders and his 
fellow officials. He is conceded to be a man 
of much knowledge of the banking business 
and his personal characteristics are of a kind 
to inspire faith and friendship. 

Mr. McCandless was married November 20, 
1912. to Miss Charlotte E. Waterbury. who 
was born at ^^'esterville. Custer county, and 
who is a daughter of H. S. and Carrie Water- 
bury. To this union there have been born 
three children, of whom two are living: Will- 
iam L., Jr., and Harrison S'.. the first-born 
child, Raymond W.. having died in infancy. 
Mr. and Mrs. McCandless are members of the 
Methodist Ei)iscopal church. He is a Mason 
of high rank, having attained the thirty-.^ec- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



849 




William L. McCandless 



850 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



oncl degree of the Scottish Rite, besides which 
he is a noble of the ^Mystic Shrine and a mem- 
ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
in which latter he has passed the various offi- 
cial chairs. A Republican in his political al- 
legiance, he has been too busy with his bank- 
ing interests and duties to be a politician, Init 
a desire to be of service to his community 
persuaded him to allow his name to be used 
as that of the Republican candidate for the 
office of county treasurer in the primaries of 
1918. In the ensuing election he was victo- 
rious at the polls and he assumed his official 
duties in January, 1919. 

CHARLES H. F. STEINMEIER. — Of 
the merchants who have assisted in sustaining 
the business integrity of Custer county, 
Charles H. F. Steinmeier, is worthy of special 
recognition as one of the most progressive and 
enterprising of the men who have conducted 
ventures here during recent years. Still a 
young man, he has been the founder of several 
establishments, in the drug line, which have 
reflected his untiring zeal and innate energ\'. 
and from a small beginning he has advanced 
himself to recognized place among the busi- 
ness citizens of Ansley and the vicinity. 

Mr. Steinmeier was born at St. Paul, Minne- 
sota, November 10. 1883, a son of C. H. and 
Bertha (Pankratz) Steinmeier, natives of 
Germany wdio came to the United States as 
young people and were married in Minnesota. 
His father was a cigarmaker by trade, and 
later became a manufacturer of several well 
known brands, having his factory in St. Paul 
for five years. From that city he moved to 
Grand Island. Nebraska, became well known in 
business circles and as a secretary of his dis- 
trict in the National Cigar Makers' Union. 
He w-as beginning to make a decided success 
of his ventures when his death occurred. He 
was a Democrat in politics. Mrs. Stein- 
meier, who survives him and makes her home 
at Grand Island, is a member of the Lutheran 
church. They were the parents of two chil- 
dren: Charles II. F., and William E.. the 
latter having died in 1916, at the age of thirty- 
one vcars. 

The early educational advantages of Charles 
H. F. Steinmeier were confined to his attend- 
ance in the public schools of Grand Island, 
and he was still a youth when he secured em- 
nloyment in a drug store there. It would 
seem as though he were possessed with inher 
ent ability for the drug business, for he soon 
mastered the mysteries of pharmacv, made 
rapid advancement, and within seven vears 
was the owner of an establishment of his own. 



In 1905 he left Grand Island and came to 
Ansley, where he bought a drag store, and 
he has since been engaged in business with 
constantly increasing success. Later he 
bought an establishment at Ravenna, in Buf- 
falo county, one at Poole, in the same county, 
and one at Berwyn, in Custer county, but he 
has since disposed of all of these, and now 
confines himself to the conducting of his store 
at Ansley and one at Chappell. Through his 
own efforts ^Ir. Steinmeier has forced his way 
to a place where he is one of the best known 
men in the retail drug trade of central Ne- 
braska. He was for some time president of 
the State Rexall Club, and has numerous 
friends in and outside of the various drug- 
gists' organizations. Fraternally he is a blue- 
lodge, chapter and thirty-second-degree Ma- 
son and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, and he 
has passed the official chairs in the blue lodge. 
He gives his political support to the Demo- 
cratic party. 

In 1911 'Sir. Steinmeier was united in mar- 
riage with Miss Cora E. Harris, who was bom 
in Illinois, a daughter of Edward E. Harris. 
Mr. Harris, a contractor, came to Ansley in 
1903. Mr. and Mrs. Steinmeier are the par- 
ents of one daughter: Imo, who was born 
July 18, 1912. Sirs. Steinmeier is a consist- 
ent member of the Christian church and is 
much interested in its work. 



AUGUSTUS C. \'AN HORNE is one of 
the young financiers of Custer county who, 
within the short period of his connection with 
monetary affairs, has impressed himself favor- 
ably upon his associates as one of ability and 
conservative views. He is assistant cashier of 
the Farmers State Bank of Ansley. From the 
time that he left school he has been connected 
with banking matters, and has also engaged 
with a degree of success in the insurance busi- 
ness. Mr. Van Home was born in Pawnee 
county, Nebraska, March 5. 1894, and is a son 
of Hugh C. and Ella ( Peckham) \"an Home. 

Hugh C. Van Home, now a resident of 
Pawnee City, has been engaged in banking 
since he was eighteen years of age, and at the 
present time is cashier of the Farmers State 
Bank of Pawnee City. He is widely and 
favorably known in banking circles, and has at 
various times been connected with institutions 
in several parts of the state, where his ability, 
judgment and counsel have been highly valued. 
He is a Knight Templar Mason, in politics a 
Democrat, and in religion an Episcopalian, 
while his wife holds membership in the 
Alethodist Episcojial church. They became 
the parents of nine children, of whom seven 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



851 



are living: Lucy is the wife of George Saw- 
yer, a clothing merchant at Pawnee City ; Vir- 
gil, an invalid, lives at Pawnee City ; Edwin 
is engaged in the banking business at St. 
Joseph, Missouri; May is the wife of John 
Bennett, D. D. S., in the United States ser- 
vice at Camp Pike, Arkansas, as a dental of- 
ficer, with the rank of first lieutenant ; Augus- 
tus C, of this sketch, was the next in order of 
birth; Myron is a banker at Pawnee City, Ne- 
braska ; and Maurice is attending school in 
that city. 

The public schools of Pawnee City fur- 
nished Augustus C. \^an Home with his earlv 
educational training, and after his gradua- 
tion in the high school, in 1914, he entered a 
bank at St. Joseph, Missouri, where he gained 
his first insight into the intricacies of the vo- 
cation which he had chosen for his life work. 
His experience in several positions there pre- 
pared him for the office of assistant cashier of 
the Farmers State Bank of Ansley, the duties 
of which position he assumed in 1915, and 
which he still performs. Mr. Van Home, a 
young man of pleasing personality, has made 
numerous friends at Ansley and has retained 
them, particularly among the patrons of the 
bank. While the greater part of his atten- 
tion is given to his duties at the institution 
which he represents, he has found the oppor- 
tunity to engage also in the insurance busi- 
ness, a difficult field in which he has been suc- 
cessful, representing some of the leading com- 
panies. While he has not thought of politi- 
cal office, he is nevertheless well informed as 
to matters of local governmental import, 
and is a stanch supporter of the principles of 
the Democratic party. Fraternally he is iden- 
tified with the Knights of Columbus, and he 
and his wife are members of Sacred Heart 
Roman Catholic church. 

In May, 1917, was solemnized the marriage 
of Mr. Van Home to Miss Mabel Harris, who 
was born at Linn Creek, Camden county, Mis- 
souri. She is a daughter of Sam and Agnes 
(Ryan) Harris, who came to Custer county 
at an early day, Mr. Harris now being a mail 
carrier out of Ansley. Mr. and Mrs. Van 
Horne have one child, Lavelle. 



DR. JOHN H. MORROW is one of the 
leading physicians of Custer county and en- 
joys an enviable reputation both as a physi- 
cian and as a citizen. Dr. Morrow was born 
in La Salle county, Illinois, August 13, 1872, 
and is a son of Augustus and Esther (Robin- 
son) Morrow, who became pioneer settlers 
of Custer county and of whom further men- 
tion is made on other pages of this volume. 



Dr. Morrow was a boy of eleven years when 
the home was established in Custer county, 
and he is quite familiar with events and condi- 
tions that existed in that pioneer period. He 
was reared on a farm and attended the pub- 
lic schools in the acquirement of his early 
education. Later he became a student in the 
University of Nebraska and he also attended 
Cotner University, where he graduated in the 
medical department. He located at Arnold, 
where he formed a partnership with Dr. Rob- 
inson, and he continued in practice there until 
August, 1902, when he came to Merna. Here 
he has proven his ability and has won his way 
into the hearts and homes of the community 
to such an extent as only a physician can real- 
ize. 

In 1903 Dr. Morrow was united in marriage 
to Miss Marie Walsh, who was born in Lee 
county, Iowa, a daughter of William and Ann 
(Nolan) Walsh, pioneer settlers in the Merna 
neighborhood. More specific mention is made 
of the Walsh family on other pages of this 
volume. Dr. and Airs. Morrow are the par- 
ents of eight children: Charles A., William 
G., Esther E., Arthur J., Harry W., Mary 
Wilson, Martha A., and Kathleen. 

Dr. Morrow is a Republican in politics and 
served two terms as county coroner. His 
name is found on the list of membership in 
the lodges of the Masonic fraternity, the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows, the Royal 
Highlanders, and the Woodmen of the World. 

Dr. and Mrs. Morrow take an active inter- 
est in all afi^airs pertaining to the welfare of 
the community and are highly esteemed by 
all who know them. 



PERRY M. DADY, whose residence in 
Custer county covers a period of more than 
thirty-six years, is now classed among tlie 
well-to-do men of the Mason City community. 
This fact shows him to be another one of 
Custer county's agriculturists who in their 
careers have exemplified with force the true 
western spirit of self-made manhood, for 
when he came to this state, in 1882, his world- 
ly possessions amounted to next to nothing 
and throughout his career he has been called 
upon to depend wholly upon his own abilities 
and energies. 

Mr. Dady was born on a farm in Mason 
county, Illinois, March 9, 1859. and is a son 
of Spencer and Adelaide (Wible) Dady. His 
father, a native of Pennsylvania, was born in 
1835, and as a young man went to Mason 
county, Illinois, where he started life with- 
out assets save those represented by his in- 
herent qualities, and where he gained some 



852 



TirSTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



small success. He there married Adelaide 
W'ible, who was born in Illinois, in 1S40, and 
several years later they moved to Iowa, where 
Air. Dady became the owner of a farm. He 
continued to reside in the Hawkeye state 
until 1884, when he followed his eldest son 
to Custer county and took up a homestead. 
Here he continued to be engaged in fanning 
and stock-raising operations until his death, 
in 1890, at which -time he was considered a 
fairly successful man. He was industrious 
and honest and had the respect of his neigh- 
bors, and as to community affairs he was pub- 
lic-spirited. Originally a Republican, with 
the birth of the Populist party he transferred 
his allegiance to the new organization. Mrs. 
Dady survived him imtil 1904 and died in the 
faith of the Baptist church. Three of their 
four sons survive : Perry M., who is the sub- 
ject of this review ; Quintus J., who is en- 
gaged in farming not far from Mason City : 
and L. L., who follows farming in Ringgold 
county, Iowa. The other son, N. C, died 
September 19, 1917, at Mason City, where he 
had for some years been engaged in the im- 
plement business. 

Perrv M. Dady received his education in 
the public schools of Illinois and Iowa, and 
was reared to farming, a vocation which he 
adopted for his life work. He was twenty- 
three years old when he came to Custer 
county, in 1882, and pre-empted a homestead, 
which forms a part of his present farm. At 
that time the property was destitute of im- 
provements of any kind, and Mr. Dady lived 
at first in a dug-out and later in a "soddy," 
experiencing at the same time all the other 
inconveniences and hardships which the early 
settlers were called upon to face. As the 
years passed, however, and he began to secure 
results from his hard labor, he added to his 
equipment and gradually began to erect build- 
ings, of which he now has a full set, modern, 
well constrticted, attractive and in perfect re- 
pair. In even,' way his property shows the 
presence of industry and good management. 
Mr. Dady carries on general farming and 
raises thoroughbred Red Polled cattle and 
Poland-China hogs. He has been successful 
in both departments of his farm enterprise. 
He has accumulated 440 acres of valuable 
land and in so doing has at all times main- 
tained his reputation as a man of sterling in- 
tegrity and business straightforwardness. 

In 1882 Mr. Dady was united in marriage 
to Miss Ellen J. Beard, who was born in Mar- 
ion county, Iowa, a daughter of Adam Beard, 
who died while ser\'ing as a Union soldier dur- 
ing the Civil war. \Ir. and Mrs. Dady are 
the parents of eight children : Pearl S.. who 



has a claim in the sand hills of Cherry county, 
Nebraska ; Jennie, who is the wife of Oscar 
Ruyan, a clerk in ^lason City, Nebraska ; Otis 
M., who assists his father in operating part of 
the home farm; Guy W., who is in the national 
army and in service in France at the time of 
this writing; and Monna R., Harrj- L., Myrtle 
C, and Lorene J., who are all residing with 
their parents. The family belongs to the Bap- 
tist church, which they attend at Mason City. 
Mr. Dady maintains an independent stand as 
to political questions and has not been an ac- 
tive politician, although on several occasions 
he has served efficiently in the capacity of 
town clerk. 



FREDERICK A. REED. — If consecu- 
tively following the same line of endeavor 
tends to make one efficient and if there is any 
truth in the old saying that "practice makes 
perfect," to have been a salesman in the same 
line for thirty-nine years surely has made an 
expert of the man. To have been in the em- 
ploy of the same firm all those years is con- 
clusive evidence that satisfactor\' ser\'ice has 
been rendered ; and when the article sold is 
one so necessary in a home, namely, a sewing 
machine, at once proves that thousands of 
housewives are ready to sound the praises of 
that man, not alone because he has supplied 
them with something indispensable but also 
because he has taught them how to operate 
and care for the most useful article in the 
home. The gentleman whose name introduces 
this biography entered the employ of the 
Singer Manufacturing Company in 1881, and 
for thirty-nine years he has been continually in 
that company's employ -^ for thirty-one years 
in Neljraska. 

For five years prexiously to taking up the 
line of work at which he has devoted con- 
siderably more than half of a lifetime Mr. 
Reed had the honor of ser\-ing as a soldier in 
the United States regtilar army, having en- 
listed in 1876, at Albany, New York, and hav- 
ing become a member of Company G, Eighth 
United States Infantn-, which command was 
assigned to duty at Camp Lowell, at Tucson, 
Arizona, during the Indian disturbances. Mr. 
Reed was a brave and fearless soldier, always 
found at his post of duty, and was present at 
the fight with the Indians at Pine Spring, in 
1877. He received an honorable discharge at 
Fort Halleck, Nevada, in 1881, and from 
there he went to Ogden, Utah, where he found 
employment with the Singer Manufacturing 
Company, whose products he sold in Utah. 
Wyoming, and Colorado for eight years. He 
then established himself at O'Neill, Holt 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



853 



county, Nebraska, where he successfully con- 
ducted business for twenty-four years. Nine 
years ago he came to Broken Bow, and since 
that time he has enjoyed a liberal patronage 
from the people of this vicinity. 

Mr. Reed is a native of the Empire state 
and was born at Gay Head, Greene county 
New York, December 3, 1852. His parents 
were John and Susan (Blaisdell) Reed na- 
tives of Albany county, New York, and 'both 
passed away m Greene county, that state 
where the father followed the occupation of 
blacksmith and shoemaker. They were mem- 
bers of the Methodist church, and they had 
a family of nine children. Levi B., who re- 
sides at Woodstock, Greene county, New 
York, and Frederick A. are the only surviv- 
ing members of the family. 
_ Frederick A. Reed spent his boyhood days 
m his native county, amid the picturesque 
scenery of the Catskill mountains. When 
asked how he earned his first money, he told 
of how when a boy he hired out to pump water 
from the hold of a hay bargfe plying on the 
Hudson river between Catskill and New York 
city. With the money thus earned he bought 
an old-fashioned, patent-lever watch and a 
ticket_ for Robinson's circus. While attending 
the circus a sneak thief relieved him of his 
watch His next veture was to run away 
trom home and hire out to work on the Hud- 
son and Delaware canal. But here he had an 
unpleasant experience, as his employer was an 
unscrupulous fellow who was given to drink- 
ing, and young Reed, after receiving a beating 
from his boss, was obliged to run away with- 
out receiving his pay. His next venture was 
to become a soldier, and of this he can alwavs 
feel proud. ^ 

At Ogden, Utah, January 27, 1882 Mr 
Heed was united in marriage to Miss Mamie 
^. Shaw, who was born in Stratfordshire, 
England a daughter of Elijah and Elizabeth 
Shaw. Mr. and Mrs. Reed have become the 
parents of nine children: Levi, Harry, Ern- 
g.^Emil, Theodore, Claire, Ethel. Laurk, and 

Though he has reached the age of sixtv- 
seven years Mr. Reed appears much younger 
due, no doubt, to having lived an out-door,' 
active life and to his having a cheerful, sunn^ 
disposi ion. He ,s possessed of those quali- 

friends and which also inspire confidence on 

he part of those with whom he has business 

transactions. ="icsb 



ALLEN L. BUTLER. -During the last 
wenty-one years the jewelry business of Al- 
len L. Butler has proved a substantial force in 



the rising institutions of Ansley, where the 
proprietor is known as a solid and substantial 
business man. Perhaps no branch of mer- 
chandising is more deliberate in its growth 
than the jewelry business. The reason for 
this lies principally in non-fluctuating values, 
and it follows that the men engaged in this 
business are as a rule of calm and non-specu- 
lative mind, reliable as to morals, definite in 
their purpose and not easily led from accus- 
tomed grooves. No exception to this conclu- 
sion IS found in Mr. Butler, who, in addition 
to jewelry, handles pianos and other musical 
instruments, is the owner of a valuable Cus- 
ter county farm, and for several years has 
been a member of the city council. 

Mr. Butler was born in Knox county Illi- 
nois, January 4, 1868, and is a member' of a 
well known family of that section which later 
came to Nebraska, and a complete review of 
which will be found in the sketch of E A 
Butler, elsewhere in this work. Allen L. IBut- 
ler was but a lad when he was brought to Ne- 
braska, and his education was acquired in the 
public schools of Seward and Lincoln in 
which latter city he also pursued a cours'e in 
a business college. His first occupation was in 
general merchandising at Seward, but in 1886 
he came to Ansley, where, with his brothers' 
W E. and E. A., he opened a general store 
and continued in business for some time Dis- 
posing of his interests, he opened a restaurant 
which he conducted for four or five years 
He then turned his attention to an entirely 
new field, organizing and installing the first 
telephone for the Central Telephone Company 
at Ansley, and for five years thereafter man- 
aging the Ansley office. Mr. Butler engaged 
m the jewelry business in 1897. and this has 
grown steadily until it now assumes large pro- 
portions. A full and up-to-date stock of 
watches, rings, precious stones, silverware, 
etc., iskept on hand, as well as a modern and 
attractive display of pianos and other musical 
instruments. In business circles Mr. Butler 
IS .known as a man of the strictest integrity, 
taithfu to his engagements and observant of 
the highest business ethics. He has faith in 
the future of Custer county, and has invested 
some of his capital in farming land, beino- the 
owner of 160 acres of valuable property, on 
which well ordered operations are being car- 
ried on in the line of general farming and 
stock-raising. 

January 4, 1898, recorded the marriage of 
Mr. Butler to Miss Louise Harris, who was 
born at Brighton, Indiana, a daughter of 
Ihomas Harris. Mr. Harris, who was a 
farmer by vocation, followed that occupation 
in Custer county from the time of his ar- 
rival, in November, 1895, until his death He 



854 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



was the father of five children : Sid and 
Fred, now residents of Brighton, Indiana; 
Frank and Charles of Custer county; and 
Mrs. Butler. Air. and Mrs. Butler are the 
parents of four children : Elsa. who was a 
member of the Ansley high school graduat- 
ing class of 1918; and Thomas. Paul, and 
Robert, who are attending school. Mr. and 
Mrs. Butler are members of the Presbyterian 
church, and he is fraternally afifiliated with 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and 
the Royal Highlanders. A Republican in 
politics, he has taken an active, helpful, and 
constructive part in local affairs, and for the 
past five years he has rendered excellent ser- 
vice as a member of the city council. 

WILLIAM B. SADLER. — Here is pre- 
sented a biographical sketch of a man who 
came to Custer county after the pioneer days 
were over but who contributed to the present- 
day status of farming, a full measure of 
thrift, shrewd business ability, and keen exe- 
cutive skill. 

Mr. Sadler was born in Will county, Illinois, 
November 24, 1856. His father, Thomas J. 
Sadler, was a western Canadian, and his 
mother, whose maiden name was Eliza John- 
ston, was a lady of fine culture and high stand- 
ing, in whose character predominated the ster- 
ling trait of the best Irish blood. 

in the family of Thomas J. Sadler were 
nine children — Oliver B., William B., Mrs. 
Ella (Sadler) Weese, Henr\' R., Frederick 
E., Joseph F., Edward T., Airs. Sadie (Sad- 
ler) Deline, and Rupert J. Together they 
made a strong family of seven characteristic 
men and two women — a family contribution 
to the state that any father or mother might 
well feel pardonable pride in mentioning. By 
occupation the father was an undertaker, and 
in his profession he was counted proficient, 
the while he was generally popular. He an^l 
his wife were devoted adherents of the 
Methodist church. 

William B. Sadler states that the first money 
he earned was by helping his neighbors put 
in their spring gardens in the small village in 
which he lived and where he attended the 
public school. At sixteen years of age young 
Sadler took a position in a butcher shop in 
Ninooka, Illinois, and he has followed that 
line of business for the major part of his life. 

He was married October 2, 1884, in Brace- 
ville, Illinois, to Kate E. \'arley, who was 
born at Jackson, Michigan, a daughter of 
Joseph Varley, who was from Nottingham, 
England, and who belonged to a sterling old 
English family. The maiden name of Mrs. 



Sadler's mother was Charlotte Green, and she 
was a ver)' estimable woman. Both parents, 
while connected uith the Methodist Episcopal 
church in America, were members of the es- 
tablished Church of England. 

In the family of Mr. and Mrs. William 
B. Sadler are six children : Joseph \'., who is a 
farmer by occupation, lives on his father 5 
farm south of Lodi ; Mabel O. is the wife of 
Einer Klint, a young business man in a na- 
tional bank in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he 
has a position at the teller's window ; Walter 
B. is a sergeant in Company L, One Hundred 
and Thirty-fourth Infantry, and was in line 
for service in France when the great war 
came to a close; Addie N. is a graduate of the 
Callaway high school and attended the State 
Normal School at Kearney, Nebraska, besides 
which she is a graduated nurse from the 
Silver Cross Hospital of Joliet, Illinois ; 
Fred T., who is in the service of his country 
at the time of this writing, is attached to Com- 
panv C, One Hundred and Twenty-eighth In- 
fantry, .American Expeditionary Forces, and is 
"somewhere in France" ; Lois is still at home, 
and has not yet finished her course in the jnib- 
lic school. 

Air. Sadler came to Custer County in 1909 
and bought a half-section of good land, three- 
fourths of a mile south of Lodi. This is a 
splendid farm, in a high state of cultivation. 
Mr. Sadler's eldest son, Joseph V., lives on 
the place and conducts a successful farming 
and stock-raising business. Air. Sadler him- 
self has his home in Callaway, where he is 
engaged in the business to which he has long 
given his attention. In connection with his 
meat market he buys and sells live stock, and 
he does a lucrative business. 

The Sadler family is connected with the 
Protestant Episcopal church. In fraternal 
circles Mr. Sadler is a Royal Arch Alason and 
Knight Templar. His political affiliations are 
generally Democratic, although, being a man 
of keen discernment and good judgment, he 
persists in voting for the man rather than the 
party. The Sadlers are representative citi- 
zens — a family of whom Custer county 
makes distinguished recognition. 



WILLIAM BAALHORN. — A frugal and 
thrifty farmer, of German extraction, who 
has attested his loyalty to the United States 
by contributing two stalwart sons to the army 
service, and who in other ways has done even-- 
thing possible to forward the interests of his 
adopted country, \\"illiam Baalhorn lives in 
a splendid farm home in the vicinitv of Ans- 
lev. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



855 



William Baalhorn was born May 21, 1860, 
in Germany. He is a son of Ludwig Baal- 
horn, a sturdy German sire who transmitted 
the characteristic traits of thrift and frugal- 
ity to his offspring, both he and his wife hav- 
ing passed their entire lives in Germany. They 
were the parents of six children, all of whom 
are living at the present time. Two of these 
children came to America — William, who is 
the subject of this sketch, and Fritz, engaged 
in the nursery business in Los Angeles, Cali- 
fornia. 

William Baalhorn lived in Germany until 
he was twenty-three years of age, at which 
time the call of America lured him across the 
water and the year 1883 recorded his arrival 
at Grand Island, Nebraska. At the time of 
his arrival he had just eighteen dollars with 
which to commence life and operations in the 
new country. Grand Island held him but 
one year, after which he came up to Custer 
county and located a homestead. On this 
pioneer farm he built the regulation sod 
house, and the same figured as his home for 
a number of years. 

A most important event of the life of Mr. 
Baalhorn occured in March, 1892, at which 
time he led to the marriage altar Miss Maggie 
Harris, who was born in Illinois, and who is 
a daughter of George Harris, now a prominent 
citizen of Cherry county, Nebraska. 

As the years passed by, ten children, nine 
of whom are still living, were born into the 
Baalhorn home: Fritz, who is at the time of 
this writing "somewhere in France," serving 
his country, has been in the service since 
March, 1918. John, who had the patriotic 
disposition of his brother, entered the service, 
anxious to do his bit, but he has recently 
been discharged on account of physical disa- 
bility. Otto, Emest, and Clarence are at 
home under the parental roof. Anna is the 
Avife of Theodore Harmon, and they reside on 
a farm near Thedford, Nebraska. Three 
daughters, Tillie, ^lary, and Gracie, are in- 
mates of the parental home and are pursuing 
their studies in the district school. The Baal- 
horn family is connected with the Lutheran 
church. Mr. Baalhorn is independent in 
politics. He votes for the best man and af- 
filiates with no political party. Some years 
ago he bought the place where he now lives, 
and erected a splendid farm residence. He 
owns 480 acres of good land and conducts a 
general farming and stock-raising business. 
His stock-raising operations include all kinds 
of live stock. 

The Baalhorns are a family of fine people, 
liighly respected by their neighbors and other 
friends. They maintain a home that does 



credit to the county in which they live, and 
of whose history their lives have become a 
part. 



WILLIAM N. ROSSO. — Prominent 
among the energetic and progressive agricul- 
turists and business men of the younger gen- 
eration whose activities have been centered 
in Custer county, one deserving of more than 
passing mention is William N. Rosso, who has 
now established his residence in Bufifalo 
county. During his comparatively short ca- 
reer he has been identified with a number of 
pursuits and vocations, and in each has 
demonstrated the possession of sound ability 
and practical knowledge, qualities developed 
through experience and training. He is a 
Nebraskan by nativity, having been born on 
his father's farm in Furnas county, Nebraska, 
December 19, 1884, and is a son of Fred C. 
and Athera (Newberry) Rosso. 

Fred C. Rosso was born in Germany and 
was still a young man when he immigrated to 
the LInited States, taking up his home in Fur- 
nas county, Nebraska. He was a man of in- 
dustry, made a good home for his family, and 
well merited his fellow citizens' esteem and 
regard. His wife was a daughter of Norman 
Newberry, and they were the parents of two 
sons : William N. ; and John C, the latter 
also a Buffalo county farmer. 

\\'illiam N. Rosso was reared on the home 
farm and secured his early education in the 
public schools of his native community, sub- 
sequently graduating from the high school at 
Kearney. His first employment was at Alli- 
ance, Nebraska, where he worked ' for his 
uncle, C. H. Newberry, and learned the plumb- 
er's and tinner's trades, the mastery of which 
was not difficult for him, as he is a natural 
mechanic. Becoming an expert along these 
lines, he also learned the trade of blacksmith 
and naturally developed the ability necessary 
for automobile repairing, and he has followed 
both lines to some extent, with excellent suc- 
cess.' For several years he was engaged in 
the operation of his father's farm, but more 
recently has decided to secure a property of 
his own, his various activities having enabled 
him to accumulate sufficient means to enter- 
tain such a project. He is thoroughly fa- 
miliar with all manner of agricultural work, 
having operated a corn-sheller and threshing 
machine outfit for about fifteen years, and in 
addition is a good judge of live stock and well 
informed in the various other matters essen- 
tial to success in farming. 

Mr. Rosso was married October IS. 1905, 
at Kearney, Nebraska, to Miss Madge H. 



856 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 







O 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTV, NEBRASKA 



857 



Butcher, who was born in Custer county, a 
daughter of Solomon D. and Lillie M. (Bar- 
ber) Butcher, natives respectively of Wetzel 
county, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. 
Mr. and Mrs. Rosso have one daughter : 
Olive F., born July 3, 1910. Mr. and Mrs. 
Rosso are members of the Highlanders and 
of the Christian chnrch. 



GEORGE W. McKINNEY. who is a 
prosperous business man of Oconto, where he 
is engaged in selling real estate, owns a valua- 
ble farm that adjoins the town and is his own 
manager and farmer. Mr. McKinney has been 
an independent and self-supporting individual 
since he was sixteen years of age, and natural- 
ly he has little sympathy with those who ex- 
cuse their entire lack of capital because of 
want of business opportunity. Mr. McKinnev 
was born near Jacksonville, Illinois. January 
7, 1874. He was one of a large family born 
to his parents, John and Euphemia (Baird) 
McKinney. His father was born in Kentucky 
and his mother in Illinois. They were mem- 
bers of the Baptist church. They had children 
as follows: John H., Charles I., George W., 
Mrs. Millie A. Cox., Mrs. Harriet Six, ]\Irs. 
Mary Christenson, Gilbert, Mrs. Clara B. 
i\Iessinger, and William. William died at the 
age of sixteen years, and all of the other chil- 
dren are still living. 

George W. McKinney attended the public 
schools and assisted on the home farm until 
he was sixteen years old, when he started out 
for himself. He can look back over an hon- 
orable record, for he satisfied his employers 
well and worked for one man continuously 
for three years, in all that time losing but 
thirteen days from any cause. Until he was 
twenty-one years of age he held rigorously 
to the old family custom of paying into the 
family treasury, and gave one-half of his 
wages to his father, although he did not live 
at home. Farming has been his main occupa- 
tion all his life, and the success which has at- 
tended his efforts is largely the result of the 
intelligent interest he takes in his agricultural 
operations. He came to Nebraska in 1903 and 
has seen many sections of the state, but none 
impressed him so favorably as a location for 
a permanent home as did Custer county, to 
which he came in 1914. He shortly afterward 
bought 189 acres of choice land that adjoins 
Oconto on the southeast, and this land has 
since been greatly increased in value because 
of its being so highly cultivated and improved. 
His real-estate business is really a side line. 



farming and stock-raising being the industries 
that most completely engage his attention. 

At Bluffs, Scott county, Illinois, on March 3, 
1897, Mr. McKinney married Miss Adella A. 
Baker, who was born near Louisville. Missouri, 
and is a daughter of Albert and Emily (Davis) 
Baker, the former born in Missouri, and the lat- 
ter at Griggsville, Pike county, Illinois. Mrs. 
McKinney was one of a family of eight chil- 
dren, only three of whom survive, her two sis- 
ters being Mrs. Sadie Atkinson and Mrs. Cath- 
erine \'annier. Mr. and Mrs. McKinney have 
four children — Vera E., Edna A., George V., 
and John G. — ^their ages, in 1918, ranging from 
seventeen to six years and all but the youngest 
being in school and making excellent records. 
In politics Mr. McKinney has long been iden- 
tified with the Democratic party, and he re- 
mains loyal in his adherence to its principles. 
With his family he belongs to the Methodist 
Epicopal church. 



BEN HARDIN. — Formerly a merchant 
and now a farmer of Custer county, Ben Har- 
din has been a resident of this county since 
the "SOs, and in his range of experiences he 
has known poverty and affluence, obscurity 
and prominence. It has been his fortune to 
have attained many of his ambitions, and hard 
and conscientious work has eventually resulted 
in the securing of the awards which compen- 
sate for former hardship and struggle. Mr. 
Hardin was born July 20, 1854, in Noble 
county, Ohio, a son of Nestor and Susan 
(Baker) Hardin. 

The parents of Mr. Hardin were natives 
respectively of Virginia and Pittsburgh, and 
settled in Ohio as young people, their mar- 
riage taking place in that state, where their 
eleven children were born. Of the children 
eight are living : Mrs. Emily Dyer, John, Mrs. 
IMary Mincks, Absalom, Mrs. Minerva Taylor, 
Mrs. Susan Raney and George and Ben. All 
of these children reside either in Noble or 
Washington counties, Ohio, with the excep- 
tion of Ben and a sister who lives at Scio, 
Harrison county. The parents were faithful 
members of the Methodist Episcopal chwrch, 
and the father, who was a farmer by vocation, 
supported the Republican party at elections. 
Ben Hardin was reared on his father's farm, 
and his boyhood was passed amid the exciting 
times of the Civil war period. The youth of 
all the land was at that time enthused with pa- 
triotic sentiment, and the lads of young Har- 
din's neighborhood were no exception. They 
accordingly fomied a company and started 
drilling, but the matter of uniforms bothered 



858 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



them until they struck upon the idea of pick- 
ing wild grapes and from the result of their 
sale buying sufficient red calico for their 
mothers to fashion into uniform trousers and 
coats. Air. Hardin still has in his possession 
his own little red jacket, which is now nearly 
sixty years old, and which he retains as one 
of his dearest possessions. 

While he was being brought up on the 
home farm, Mr. Hardin obtained his educa- 
tion in the public schools of Noble county, 
and he remained under the parental roof until 
long after he had attained to his majority. He 
was married May 9, 1880, to Miss Edna L. 
Sprague, of Beverly, Ohio, who was born 
February 21, 1858, at Coal Run, Washington 
county, that state, a daughter of Joseph S. 
Sprague. Mr. Sprague was born May 1, 
1831, at Jacobsport, Ohio, and was married 
November 7, 1852, at Coal Run, to Henrietta 
Mason Laughery, who was born December 
22, 1830, at Ceiiterville, Ohio, a daughter of 
Joseph and Edna (Penny) Laughery. Mr. 
Sprague died August 25, 1885, at Eddyville, 
Iowa, and Mrs. Sprague passed away Decem- 
ber 11, 1915, at Ottumwa, Iowa. They were 
the parents of four children: Dr. Manly H., 
James A., Edna L., and Edwin C. 

Not long after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. 
Hardin left Ohio and came to Nebraska, 
where Mr. Hardin entered upon a career in 
merchandising. His original venture was a 
modest and unassuming one, as he was pos- 
sessed of only a small ca|)ital, and for a time it 
was a hard struggle to make his business pav. 
However, in the end he succeeded in the de- 
velopment of a worthy commercial enterprise 
that had the patronage and good will of the 
people of Arnold and the surrounding coun- 
try and that brought him handsome returns. 
He became one of the [iromincnt and influen- 
tial business men of his adopted place, ann 
stood high in the esteem of those with whom 
he was associated in business transactions. In 
the spring of 1918 Mr. Hardin decided he had 
followed commercial lines long enough, and 
accordingly he disposed of his mercantile in- 
terests and moved to a farm one and one- 
fourth miles south of Arnold. Here he has a 
new and modern house on his fine tract 
of 480 acres, besides which he has fifty acres 
of splendid alfalfa, and the finest thirteen- 
acre cottonwood grove in western Nebraska. 
His property is free from indebtedness of all 
kinds, and Mr. and Mrs. Hardin are now pass- 
ing their evening of life in comfort and con- 
tentment, and in the knowledge that the things 
that are theirs have been gained honestly and 
honorably. During his lon<j and active career 
Mr. Hardin has at various times been called 



to posts of responsibility and trust, but he has 
never been an ofifice-seeker nor a politician in 
the generally accepted use of the word. He 
has supported his community's best interests 
as a citizen, but aside from that the greater 
part of his time and atention has been de- 
voted to his business and his home. Mr. an I 
Mrs. Hardin are the parents of two children: 
Homer R., who is still a bachelor, is a farmer 
near Arnold, and is a member of the Ancient 
Order of United Workmen, and of the Chris- 
tian church. He is a Republican in politics 
Edna Leora is the wife of Jay O. Walker, 
a well known business man and banker of 
Alliance, Nebraska. Mr. Walker is a prom- 
inent Mason and Shriner, belongs to the Elks 
and the Ancient C)rder of United Workmen, 
and is a Republican. He and his wife belong 
to the Christian church. 



GEORGE E. PAINE, who is one of the 
capable and progressive representatives of 
the farming and stock-raising industry of Cus- 
ter county, came here thirty-four years ago, 
and has since kept pace with the steady ad- 
vancement that has marked this section. Mr. 
Paine was born in central Wisconsin, March 
27, 1862, a son of George F. and Lydia (Rid- 
land) Paine. 

George Paine, the paternal grandfather of 
Mr. Paine, was born in England and in voung 
manhood immigrated to the United States and 
settled in Maine. There he married a Miss 
Lamb and there he settled down to agricul- 
tural pursuits, and rounded out an honorable 
career. His son, George F. Paine, was born 
in Maine, where he was educated, grew to 
manhood and was married, and in February, 
1862, he went to Wisconsin, where he pur- 
chased land and engaged in farming. He re- 
mained as a resident of that state until 1879, 
when he came to Custer county. Nebraska, and 
took up a homestead in section 10, township 
16, which continued to be his home until his 
death. He was a man of industry, had the 
respect and esteem of those in whose midst he 
made his home, and from small beginning, as 
a ]ioor man, he raised himself to be well-to-do 
and to a place of influence in his adopted 
community. He was a Democrat in politics, 
and he and his wife were Spiritualists in re- 
ligion. They both passed over while resi- 
dents of the old homestead. Mr. and Mrs. 
Paine were the parents of eight children, of 
whom four are living: Mettie, who is the 
widow of Samuel Guile, of Fond du Lac, Wis- 
consin ; Emma, who is the wife of Sylvester 
Hathaway, a retired farmer of Lincoln, Ne- 
braska : \\". \'., who resided in Custer county 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



859 



for a number of years but has recently moved 
to the south ; and George E., whose name 
initiates this review. 

George E. Paine was born the month fol- 
lowing his parents' arrival in Wisconsin, and 
there his education was acquired in the pub- 
lic schools, while in his boyhood he was not 
unfamiliar with hard work, but early learned 
the value of industry, thrift and enterprise. 
He was about seventeen years of age when his 
parents came to Custer county, and much of 
the work of developing the new pioneer home- 
stead and of making it ready for the planting 
of crops fell upon his strong young shoulders. 
He remained at home until after he had at- 
tained his majority, but a few days before hi^ 
twenty-second birthday, March 4, 1884, he 
secured a homestead. Previously to this, and 
for some time thereafter, he was engaged in 
freighting from Kearney to Grand Island, and 
to Broken Bow from both points. After he 
secured his homestead, he "batched it" for a 
time, living in a sod house and caring for his 
own wants, but February 24, 1886, he mar- 
ried Alice (Cheesebrough) Hodge, who was 
born in New York and who accompanied her 
parents to Wisconsin, where they died. Mr. 
and Mrs. Paine have eight children : Dr. J. 
Lee Paine, a graduate of the Cleveland Medi- 
cal College, is now a practicing physician and 
surgeon at Oconto, Nebraska ; Lynn is a clerk 
in the store of C. J- Stevens, of Ansley ; and 
Sam. Richard, Elsie, Clifford, Helen, and El- 
win are all at home and attending school. By 
a former marriage, to a Mr. Hodge, Mrs. 
Paine has one son, William Hodge, who is 
now engaged in farming near W^esterville. 

Mr. Paine has always made his home on the 
old homestead, where the sod house has long 
since given way to a pleasant modern resi- 
dence, surrounded by good barns and out- 
buildings and the other improvements of an 
up-to-date country property. His acreage 
has increased from time to time until he now 
has a half-section of land, gained through his 
industry and good management, and on this 
land he has applied himself to general farm- 
ing and the raising of stock, in both of which 
lines he has been distinctively successful. In 
politics Mr. Paine is a Democrat. He is one 
of his community's public-spirited men and 
one who has won confidence and esteem be- 
cause of his high ideals of integritv. 



WILLIAM C. PIERCE, who is a well 
known resident of the Oconto district, where 
he is engaged in business as a farmer, has been 
a resident of this state for thitry-five years 
and during the greater part of this time has 



been interested in agricultural development. 
Mr. Pierce, like many of the other substantial 
and dependable men of Custer county, is a 
native of the Hawkeye state. He was born 
near Valley Junction, Polk county, Iowa, Sep- 
tember 15, 1878. His parents were John M. 
and Mary E. (Middles wart) Pierce, the for- 
mer a native of Ohio and the latter of Illi- 
nois. Of the family of five children three 
sons are living : Alfred R., James F., and 
William C. The father was a farmer all his 
life. He was an independent voter and was 
a member of the Knights of Pythias. 

William C. Pierce was seven years old 
when he accompanied his parents to Nebraska, 
his father locating at Coft'man Siding, fifteen 
miles north of Omaha, which place was named 
for Victor Coft'man, who owned much lau'l, 
including the Coffman ranch in Custer county, 
situated seven miles north of Oconto, which 
was operated for eighteen years by R. C. 
Chumbley. The boy attended school when 
opportunity was afforded, but Mr. Pierce never 
had the advantages that he has been able to 
give his own children. He was sturdy and 
industrious even in childhood, and when only 
eight years old was employed as driver of the 
horse that operated the derrick when the 
great business of stacking hay was in pro- 
gress. He remembers one occasion when he 
was about the most important member of the 
whole outfit. W'hile driving the derrick horse 
a sudden electricial storm came up, making it 
necessary to get the hay stacked expeditiously, 
but when one of the haymakers facetiously 
assured the little driver that from the appear- 
ance of the cloud they would all be blown 
away, they immediately found themselves 
without a driver, Willie having known of for- 
mer storms of this kind and having promptly 
decided that the shelter of the house at such 
a time was only wise precaution. In 1890, 
when fourteen years old, Mr. Pierce came to 
Custer county and started to work on a salary 
basis on the Coff'man ranch, where he re- 
mained eighteen years. After retiring from 
the ranch he came to Oconto, where he con- 
tinues to reside. 

Mr. Pierce was married March 16. 1898, at 
Oconto, Nebraska, to Anna S. Helmuth, who 
was born in Germany, a daughter of William 
Helmuth, and they have five children — Rob- 
ert C, Sadie M., William C, Wilna E., and 
Juanita M. — all of whom live at home except 
Sadie M. Mr. Pierce and his family belong 
to the Christian church. Although never an 
office-seeker, Mr. Pierce has many times 
proved himself a useful and public-spirited 
citizen and he has always been faithful to the 
principles of the Democratic party. 



860 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



LYMAN E. A.MSBERRY is one of the 
citizens of Custer county who has devoted his 
entire energies to farming and stock-raising 
and who through his own ettorts has worked 
his way from modest beginnings to prominence 
and prosperity. While not bom here, he w-as 
a small lad when he began life within the 
county's borders, and his entire training, edu- 
cational and otherwise, has been given him 
in the locality in which he now makes his 
home. 

Mr. Amsberry was born in Marion county, 
Iowa, June 1, 1873, and is a son of L. Norton 
Amsberry and Jane Ann (CofTman) Ams- 
bern-. natives of Virginia. He is a grandson 
of Zachariah Coffman, a Virginian. Soon 
after their marriage, in their native state, the 
parents removed to Iowa, where the father 
purchased land and continued to be engaged 
in farming during the remainder of his 
life. He was a Democrat, but never an office- 
seeker. As a farmer, he was industrious and 
energetic, but he did not live long enough to 
acquire marked success, as his death occurred 
in 1876. when he was still in the prime of 
life. There were twelve children in the fam- 
ily, of whom six are living : Florentine, • a 
resident of Butler county, Kansas, is the 
W'idow of the late Thomas J. Mossman, who 
was a farmer ; William Zachariah, for years a 
farmer of Custer county, is now living in re- 
tirement at Mason City, this county ; Nola, of 
Ansley, is the widow of Henry Zimmermann, 
who was a farmer ; Norton is the ])roprietor 
of a feed store at Ansley : Charles is engaged 
in farming near Broken Bow : and Lyman E. 
is the subject of this sketch. Mrs. Amsberry, 
in 1914, died at the home of her youngest son, 
and in the faith of the Baptist church, of 
which she had been a life-long member. 

Lyman Edwin Amsberry was six years of 
age when brought to Custer countv, where 
his mother, in 1879. bought the right on a 
farm. There he grew to manhood, assisting 
his mother and brothers, and when he attained 
to his legal majority he secured eighty acres 
of the home property, on which he began 
agricultural operations. He has gradually 
increased his acreas;e, and at present he owns 
and operates a quarter-section, which he de- 
votes to general farming and stock-raising. 
He has been decidedly successful in his work, 
in which he has used modern methods and the 
latest improved machinery and other equip- 
ment. He has a pleasant country home, with 
all modern conveniences, his batons are large 
and commodious, and his outbuildings suit- 
able for the shelter of his equipment, grain 
and stock. The property throughout evi- 



dences the fact that he is a good manager and 
an energetic worker. 

In 1897 Mr. .\msberr\- married Aliss Mary 
Luella Wayne, who was born in Wisconsin, 
and to this union there have been bom six 
children : Lyman Ray, who resides at home 
and is his father's chief assistant in the opera- 
tion of the farm ; Rhoda Jane, who is em- 
ployed away from home ; Lewis Norton, who 
died when he was between three and four 
months of age; and Alice, Charles, and 
Arthur, who remain at home and are attend- 
ing school. Mr. and Mrs. Amsbern' and their 
children are members of the Baptist church 
at Ansley. He is a Democrat, with leanings 
toward Socialism, and has served as a member 
of the school board, of which body he is now 
treasurer. In his community he is know^n as 
a man of sound integrity and as a citizen of 
public spirit. 



QUINTUS J. DADY. — When he first 
came to Custer county, in the fall of 1882, 
Quintus J. Dady was not far past his ma- 
jority — a young man of energy, spirit and 
ambition, but without other capital. Only the 
strong and persevering among the early set- 
tlers of this locality were able to stand the 
strain of the few years that directly followed, 
but Mr. Dady belonged to that class, and his 
industry and good management have since 
been exercised to such good effect that he is 
to-day one of the substantial men of the Ma- 
son City community. 

Mr. Dady was born on his father's farm in 
Mason county, Illinois, Februarv 25, 1861, his 
parents being Spencer and Adelaide (Wible) 
Dady, the former born in Pennsylvania in 
1835, and the latter in Illinois, in 1840. They 
were married in Mason county, Illinois, where 
the father, a poor but industrious man, fanned 
for several years. Subsequently he went to 
Iowa, which was the family home until 1884. 
In that year Spencer Dady followed the ex- 
ample of his sons and came to Custer county, 
where he took up a homestead and where he 
continued to be engaged in farming and stock- 
raising until his death, in 1890. He was suc- 
cessful in his operations and was known as a 
man of sterling integrity. He was first a Re- 
publican and later a Populist in politics, but 
never looked for public honors. Mrs. Dadv. 
who survived him until 1904, was a memljer 
of the Baptist church. They were the parents 
of four sons: Pern- M., who is engaged in 
farming in the vicinity of Mason City : Quin- 
tus J., who is the subject of this review : L. L.. 
who is engaged in agriculture in Ringgold 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



861 



county, Iowa; and N. C, who was for some 
years engaged in the implement business at 
Mason City, where his death occurred Septem- 
ber 19, 1917. 

Quintus J. Dady was still a lad when the 
family removed to Iowa, and in the public 
schools of that state his youthful education 
was acquired. Brought up to farming, he na- 
turally adopted that vocation when he 
reached years of discretion, and when he was 
twenty-one he decided that he woyld try his 
fortunes in Nebraska, reports having come 
from Custer county to the effect that oppor- 
tunities were splendid for young men of am- 
bitioin, energy and industry. Accordingly, in 
the fall of 1882, he came, as the first of the 
Dady family, to the locality of Mason City, 
and forthwith settled on a homestead, which 
formed the nucleus for his present splendid 
property of 520 acres. Like others who took 
up life here during that time, Mr. Dady was 
forced to face numerous hardships before he 
was well started upon his career, but he event- 
ually overcame all obstacles in his path, and 
set about to gain his present enviable position 
as one of the locality's successful self-made 
men. His property is now one of the well 
cultivated tracts of this part of Custer county, 
and Mr. Dady has enhanced its value by the 
erection of modern and substantial buildings, 
and the installation of up-to-date improve- 
ments of every kind. He devotes himself 
largely to general fanning operations, but also 
has made a decided success in his specialty of 
raising thoroughbred Red Polled cattle. 

In 1886 Mr. Dady was united in marriage 
to Miss Sadie Burns, who was born near 
Quincy, Illinois, a daughter of Thomas and 
Nancy (Fender) Burns, the former born in 
Ireland and the latter in Virginia. Mr. 
Burns, who was a fanner by vocation, died in 
Iowa, where he owned a property, and his 
widow, who survives him, is a resident of 
Kellerton, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Dady have 
four children : Frank, who is farming eighty 
acres of his father's land, married Hazel King 
and has two children — Eunice and Irma 
May : Walter, single, is assisting his father in 
the operation of the home farm; Bert, of 
Kearney, who is engaged in farming, married 
Mabel Boker, and they have two children — 
lola and Winland ; and Flossie, the wife of 
Ralph Ming, a farmer of Custer county, has 
one child — Beulah May. Mr. Dady is inde- 
pendent in politics; he is a member of the 
local Grange and is interested actively in all 
progressive and public-spirited enterprises. 

LEWIS S. NEWCOMB. — An instance of 
the call of the country rising superior to the 



attractions of the city, and of agriculture gain- 
ing a devotee at the expense of professional 
and business life, is found in the career of 
Lewis S. Newcomb, who gave up professional 
opportunities and financial chances, in 1909, 
to engage in farming. He has had no reason 
to regret his choice, for his work has proved 
not only congenial but also profitable, and he 
is rapidly becoming one of the substantial men 
of the Ansley community of Custer county. 

Mr. Newcomb was born at Windham, New 
York, September 4, 1880, and is a son of M. 
L. and Hattie B. (Steele) Newcomb, both of 
English descent. Mr. Newcomb's paternal 
grandfather. Captain Elijah Newcomb, gained 
his title through service in the old New 
York state militia, and was a well known citi- 
zen and business man. The maternal grand- 
father, Addison Steele, was likewise well 
known and honored in New York. M. L. New- 
comb was bom in the Empire state, March 
24, 1836, and there married Miss Hattie B. 
Steele, who was born October 23, 1856. He 
was a merchant by vocation and gained some 
success in commercial life, in addition to which 
he was a man of prominence and influence and 
served as supervisor and school commissioner 
of Greene county. New York. He was a Ma- 
son and a Democrat and his religious affiliation 
was with the Methodist Episcopal church, in 
the faith of which he died, in 1900. Mrs. 
Newcomb, who was a Presbyterian, passed 
away September 15, 1913. Of their six chil- 
dren, two are living: Lewis S., whose name 
introduces this review ; and Bessie, who is a 
graduate of Mount Holyoke College, and is 
connected in an official capacity with the New 
York public librar\'. Another son, the late 
Walter E. Newcomb, was graduated with high 
honors in Brown University and became the 
first president of the Farmers State Bank of 
Ansley, Nebraska, an institution of which his 
brother Lewis S., of this sketch, is now vice- 
president. 

Lewis S. Newcomb attended the public 
schools of New York state, where he was 
graduated in the Catskill high school as a 
member of the class of 1902. He had de- 
cided upon a professional career, and for two 
years he studied dentistry at Buffalo, New 
York, but in 1905 he came to the west and 
settled at Ansley, where he accepted a position 
with the Farmers State Bank, as assistant 
cashier. After two years in that capacity, he 
turned his attention to farming, and in 1909 he 
purchased his present property, a splendid 
farm of 240 acres, upon which he carries on 
operations in diversified agriculture and hog 
and cattle raising. In all departments of farm 
enterprise he has met with the most encour- 
aging success, and his prosperity is all the 



862 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



more remarkable when it is recalled that his 
early training had been along entirely different 
lines. He is a student of his adopted voca- 
tion and keeps fully abreast of its various ad- 
vancing movements ; his methods are modern 
and progressive, his equipment is of the most 
up-to-date character, and his improvements 
and buildings are the best of order and in ex- 
cellent repair. In his work he has proved that 
the city man can achieve success on the farm 
if he applies himself industriously and intelli- 
gently and if he possesses a due amount of 
business ability. 

In 1907 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. 
Newcomb to jMiss Abbie Geeseman, who was 
born at Ansley, and who is a daughter of Or- 
rin Martin Geeseman and Elizabeth (Talbott) 
Geeseman. The parents of Mrs. Newcomb 
were pioneers who came to Custer coimty in 
1881 and settled on a homestead near Berwyn. 
In 1887 they changed their residence to Ans- 
ley. where Mr. Geeseman died ten years later, 
and where his widow still maintains her home. 
Mr. Geeseman, in addition to his agricultural 
operations, was a carpenter whose services 
w'ere much in demand, and many specimens of 
his capable workmanship can still be found 
in the earlier buildings and residences of Ans- 
ley and vicinity. It is worthy of note in this 
connection that a part of the present residence 
of Mr. and Mrs. Newcomb was erected by the 
latter's father, the late Orrin M. Geeseman, 
who was one of the pioneer carpenters and 
builders of Custer county and who could have 
had no thought that the building would later 
become the home of his daughter. He was a 
Republican in politics and for a number of 
years served in the capacity of justice of the 
peace, his fellow citizens knowing him as a 
man of mature judgment and absolute in- 
tegrity. Fraternallv he belonged to the Inde- 
pendent Order of (Jdd Fellows and the Mod- 
ern Woodmen of America, and he was popu- 
lar in both of these organizations. His relig- 
ious connection was with the Methodist Epis- 
copal church, of which his widow is an earn- 
est member. Mr. and Mrs. Newcomb are the 
parents of one son, Walter Martin, who was 
iiorn in 1908, and who is now attending the 
public schools. 

In politics Mr. Newcomb gives his al- 
legiance to the Republican party, and he is 
well fortified in his opinions concerning gov- 
ernmental policies. He is affilated with the 
Masonic fraternity and he and his wife are 
zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church at Ansley, of which he is serving as 
treasurer, as well as superintendent of its Sun- 
day school. He has been specially influential 
in Sunday-school work and is at the present 



time president of the Southeastern District 
Sunday School Association of Custer county. 
His dee]) interest in the communal welfare is 
ftirther indicated by the fact that he is secre- 
tary of the Ansley township librarj'. 



AUGUST H. MILLER. — A striking illus- 
tration of the value of determination, per- 
sistence, and industry in the achievement of 
success is found in the career of August H. 
^filler, who, starting life in Custer county 
without capital, has risen to a place of affluence 
and independence, so that in 1906 he was able 
to retire from active life and take up his resi- 
dence near Litchfield, Sherman countv, where 
lie is the owner of a comfortable home. Air. 
Aliller, who is one of the highly respected men 
of his community, was born near Hinckley, 
DeKalb county, lUinois, May 22, 1859, and 
is a son of John and Catherine (Krumm) 
Miller. 

The parents of Mr. Aliller, who were natives 
of Dillcnbcrg, Saxe-.\Itenburg, Germanv, were 
married at Bremen, and on immigrating to the 
L'nited States, in 1852, settled near Piano, 
Illinois. Subsequently, the father purchased 
what was known as Squaw Grove Farm, near 
Hinckley, Illinois, and he continued to operate 
this for a number of years, his indnstrv and 
native ability enabling him to rise from modest 
circumstances to the possession of a comfort- 
able competence. In the summer of 1884 he 
came to Nebraska, and later pre-empted land, 
but he died in 1896, before he had it proved 
up, and his widow subsequently homesteaded 
the property, residing thereon until her death, 
in 1901. They were members of the Evan- 
gelical church and Mr. Miller was a Repub- 
lican in his political adherence. Of the seven 
children in the family, four are living: Rev. 
John is a Methodist minister, with a charge at 
Kankakee. Illinois, and is the leading minister 
of his conference : Lizzie is the wife of George 
Davis, now living near Garden City, Missouri, 
although Mrs. Davis was formerly a pre-emp- 
tor in Custer county ; August H. is the im- 
mediate subject of this sketch ; and E. C. lived 
in Custer county for a number of years but 
now is a resident of Oregon. 

August H. Miller received his education in 
the country schools of Illinois, and began work 
on his own account when still young, always 
having been a man of great energy- and in- 
dustry. He farmed for himself one year in 
Illinois, in which state he married. In Feb- 
ruary, 1883, he came to Custer county and 
filed on a homestead, and in that year he built 
his first house, which was made of sod, and 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



863 




Mrs. August. H. Miller 



August H. Miller 



864 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



which cost seven dollars. There were but one 
or two other families in the neighborhood, and 
as Mr. Miller was in very poor financial cir- 
cumstances when he started his career, he had 
^ numerous liardships and privations to face and 
many obstacles to overcome, but he was sturdy, 
persevering, and self-reliant, and gradually 
made progress where many others failed. Dur- 
ing the threshing seasons he would leave his 
worthy and industrious wife in charge of the 
home place and join the threshing crews, and 
in this way would add to his income, as he did 
also in accepting various other forms of hon- 
orable employment which helped him to carry 
on his operations of development through the 
dark days. He had his share of disappoint- 
ments and discouragements, as well as of 
successes, and gradually the latter began to 
become more numerous than the former and 
he saw himself slowly but surely advancing to 
success. Through his intelligent and well 
managed general farming and stock-raising 
operations, he began to make money, and this 
he invested in more land, until he became rec- 
ognized as one of the well-to-do citizens of 
his community. He now is the owner of 1,015 
acres, all of which land has been secured 
through his own efforts and in an honorable 
and strictly legitimate manner. In 1906 Mr. 
Miller decided that he had done his share of 
the hard work of development, and according- 
ly retired from active agricultural life and 
moved near Lit;hfield, buying a tract of eighty 
acres not far from that town and another of 
seventeen acres in the corporation limits. He 
still owns much of the property on which he 
made liis initial success and this is improved 
with good buildings. Mr. IVIiller is a Repub- 
lican and has .served as a member of the 
school board. He has also served in church 
offices, having always been active in the work 
and movements of the United Brethren church, 
while ]\lrs. Miller, who died in the faith of 
the Free ^^lethodist church, April 17, 1917, 
was likewise a church worker. 

Mr. Miller was united in marriage February 
5, 1883. to Miss Lizzie J. Hennies, who was 
born near Steinfeldt. Germany, and came with 
her parents, Mr. and IMrs. Ludwig H. Hennies, 
to tile United States about 1857, the family 
first settling in Illinois. They came to Ne- 
braska in 1887, and settled in Custer county, 
where the father died in 1903 and the mother 
in 1914. Mr. and Mrs. Miller became the 
parents of si.x children, as follows: William 
H. resides with his father, and is his associate 
in his farming ojjerations ; Creorge A., who is 
a traveling salesman for Rumely & Company, 
with hcailiiuarters at Sidnev. Nebraska, en- 



listed in the United States service ; Laurel B. 
is the wife of Fred Gier, who is employed in 
a railroad roundhouse at Ravenna, Nebraska; 
Ellen B. is the wife of Arthur Betts, the own- 
er of a farm near W'olcott, New York ; Fred C, 
a railway man at Casper, W'yoiuing, enlisted 
antl entered service as a soldier in connection 
with the world war : and Frank A. likewise 
enlisted in the L'nited States ser\'ice. 



JOHN BACKES, SR. — The record of 
Custer county's retired farmers will not be 
complete unless the name in this title line is 
located somewhere close to the top. The 
name is one familiarly known in the Arnold 
locality. It comes down from pioneer days 
and is connected always with honorable tra- 
ditions. 

Mr. Backes was bom September 21, 1852, 
across the water in the frugal land of Ger- 
many, where habits of thrift and industry are 
inherited as well as cultivated. He is a son 
of Peter and Man- C. (Will) Backes, native 
Germans of staunch characteristics, in whose 
family were eight children • — Elizabeth Pries- 
ter, Peter, John, Catherine Keisel, Henry, 
Louisa Goosman, Mary (deceased), and 
Charles. All were members of the Lutheran 
church. The parents immigated to America 
in 1S53 and located in Clayton county, Iowa, 
where they bought government land for one 
dollar and twenty-five cents an acre. It was 
here that the father died, in 1889. When 
John Backes was a mere lad he helped to earn 
the living for the family and found consider- 
able profit and amusement in trapping rabbits 
and quail. He worked for the neighbors oft- 
times, but his money always went into the 
family pocket-book. He remembers no money 
which he had to spend .upon himself prior to 
the time when he became of age. But his 
father was a good provider and the wants of 
the family were well supplied, even if money 
were scarce. After reaching his majority, by 
the practice of rigid economy John Backes 
managed to earn and save about $225 a year. 
As he was doing pretty well himself, he im- 
agined he could do better if he had someone to 
help him. Accordingly on March 18, 1880, at 
the home ol the bride's parents, in Delaware 
county. Iowa, he claimed in marriage the hand 
of Lydia Clendennen, an excellent young ladv 
who was bom in Dubuque, Iowa, and who is 
a daughter of William Clendennen, said to be 
a second cousin of Robert Fulton, of steam- 
boat fame. Her mother was .Ann J. (Boone) 
Clendennen, a second cousin of Daniel Boone, 
the Indian fighter and pioneer spirit of Ken- 
tucky. The Clendennen family was composed 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



865 



of seven children, J\lar\' J- Cornwell ; Jessie 
Clendennen ; Josepli ; Lydia Backes ; Sarah E. 
Brown; Lucy j\l. Way, and Emma F. Clute. 
This family was connected with the Christian 
church. 

Mr. and Mrs. John Backes came to Arnold, 
Custer county, Nebraska, in 1886 and located 
a claim of 160 acres two and one-half miles 
southeast of Arnold. This property Mr. 
Backes still owns as the home farm, and to 
the same another quarter-section has been 
added. Every foot of this place is good land 
and under a high state of cultivation, with 
good improvements and all necessary ec[uip- 
ment for the pursuit of agriculture. 

In addition to the farm home, Mr. and Mrs. 
Backes maintain a fine residence in Arnold. 
This attractive home they have occupied 
for ten years. Mr. Backes is retired from 
active life, after twenty-two years on the 
farm. Mr. and Mrs. Backes are the parents 
of six children : John W. Backes, who mar- 
ried Mary McCants, owns his own farm but 
lives in Arnold and is working in a garage. 
He and his wife are members of the Methodist 
church, and he is a Woodman and Oddfellow ; 
Charles H. owns a farm, but lives on a farm 
of his father, near Arnold. He belongs to the 
-Masons and the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, and both he and his wife, whose 
maiden name was Elma B. Parsons, are mem- 
bers of the Christian church. They have two 
daughters. Thomas E. married Jennie 
Marsh, and they live at Arnold, where he is 
following the carpenter's trade for occupation, 
although he owns a farm of his own. He is 
a member of the Odd Fellows and of the 
Christian church, his wife belonging to the 
]\Iethodist church. Andrew J. married Etta 
Brummett. He is in the service of Uncle Sam 
at the time of this writing, being a member of 
Company 39, Tenth B. N., One Hundred and 
Sixty-third Depot Brigade, at Camp Dodge, 
Iowa. He is a Woodman and he and his wife 
are members of the Christian church. George 
A. is single, is a graduate of the Arnold high 
school and works at the carpenter trade in 
Arnold. He is a member of the Christian 
church. Leona M. is a graduate of the Ar- 
nold high school and for two years has been 
bookkeeper for a mercantile company in Ar- 
nold. She makes her home with her parents 
and is a member of the Christian church. 

^fr. and Mrs. Rackes arc devoted members 
of the Christian church and are well and favor 
ably known in the community. They look 
back over the past and express gratitude for 
the blessings that have come to them, feeling 
that, while many hardships and trials have 



been endured, their lines have fallen to them in 
pleasant places. 



AUGUSTUS MORROW, an honored vet- 
eran of the Civil war and a pioneer settler of 
Custer county, was for many years actively 
engaged in agricultural pursuits but is now 
living retired in Arnold. 

Mr. Morrow is a native of the Keystone 
state, born at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, 
June 8, 1835, and he is a son of Wilson J. and 
Barbara (Metz) Morrow, likewise natives of 
Pennsylvania. In 1855 the family settled at 
Peru, Illinois, and there the parents both 
passed away. Augtistus Morrow as a young 
man found employment on Illinois and Missis- 
sippi river boats, having charge of ice barges 
being shipped to sotithern states and also be- 
ing employed as watchman on steamboats, as 
well as in other capacities of similar order. 

When the Civil war came on, Mr. Morrow 
enlisted, at Chicago, in June, 1862, as a mem- 
ber of Company A, Sixty-ninth Illinois Vol- 
unteer Infantr^^ He served on gimboats and 
transports during most of his term of service 
and also was on detached guard duty. He was 
mustered out in the fall of 1864 and returned 
to Peru, Illinois, where he again found em- 
ployment on the river. 

In January, 1870, Mr. Morrow married 
Miss Esther Robinson, a native of Ireland, 
and they established their home on land Mr. 
Morrow owned near the village of Peru. 
There he carried on farming in the summer 
and he continued to work on the river in the 
winter season. In the fall of 1883 he came 
to Custer county, Nebraska, to look over the 
country, and he took as a homestead the south- 
west quarter of section 22, township 17, range 
25. He then returned to Illinois, where he 
spent the winter. In the spring of 1884 he 
came to Nebraska, bringing a car of house- 
hold goods, three horses and a cow. The 
journey was made by rail to Cozad and from 
that point the family drove to their new home. 
All of the usual experiences fell to the lot of 
this pioneer family, but they weathered all 
storms and contributed in every way to the 
upbuilding of this section of the state. When 
the Kinkaid law was passed, Mr. Morrow 
again became a homesteader, and he proved 
up on a farm in Logan county. He still owns 
his old homestead, but for several years he 
has lived retired in the village of Arnold. Mrs. 
Morrow, who was one of the pioneer women 
of Custer county, passed away February 4, 
1904, and of her seven children six are living, 
all being residents of Custer county — Miss 



866 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Martha, residing with her father ; Dr. John 
H., of Mema ; and George W., Augustus J-, 
Charles R., and Wilson E., all residing in the 
Arnold neighborhood. 

JOHN H. CAROTHERS, D. V. S. — In 
the career of Dr. John H. Carothers, of Ans- 
ley, there has entered none of that monotony 
that comes from the constant following of one 
vocation or occupation. Few men have been 
so versatile in their accomplishments and at- 
tainments and few have followed so many di- 
vergent lines of activity. The law, medicine, 
farming, and stock-raising, all have attracted 
his interest and all have brought him success, 
but at the present time he is devoting his ener- 
gies entirely to the practice of veterinarj' sur- 
ger)-, a field in which he has few, if any, su- 
periors in Custer county. 

Dr. Carothers was born at Chicago, Illinois, 
January 3, 1851, and is a son of Henr\- and 
Mar}- (Buck) Carothers. His paternal grand- 
father was Henry Carothers, who was married 
in Scotland, where two of his children were 
born, following which he moved to Ireland 
where six more children were born. One of 
his elder children was Henrj- Carothers, who 
was born in Scotland, in 1821. and who came 
to the United States about the time of attain- 
ing his majority, he being a resident of Chi- 
cago, from 1842 to 1869. There he married, 
and there he conducted a small farm, was en- 
gaged in the stock business and also operated 
a meat market. During the Civil war he 
served the Union as a member of the secret 
service. He was also a prominent Republican 
of his day and was a delegate to the conven- 
tion which nominated Abraham Lincoln for 
president. He and his wife were members 
of the Methodist Episcopal church. Upon 
leaving Chicago he went to Guthrie county, 
Iowa, where he had purchased a farm, and 
there he continued to be engaged in agricul- 
tural pursuits until his death, in 1885. There 
his wife, a native of New York state, also 
passed away. They were the parents of seven 
children, of whom five are living — .\lex- 
ander, who is engaged in farniiiig near the old 
home place in Iowa: Miss Mar>' Etta, who is 
a resident of Des Moines ; Dr. John H., whose 
name introduces this sketch ; Frances, who is 
the wife of Charles Blanchard, president of 
\\'heatland (Illinois) College; and George 
Robert, who has conducted several colleges 
and is now a resident of Yardley. Pennsyl- 
vania. 

_ John H. Carothers gained his early educa- 
tion in the public schools of the city of Chi- 
cago and those of the state of Iowa, to which 



he went with his parents as a youth of eigh- 
teen years. When he made a choice of voca- 
tion, the law appealed to him, with the result 
that he prepared for that profession and was 
duly admitted to practice at the Iowa bar. 
Later he took up he study of medicine, at the 
Iowa Medical College, and at various times, 
tip to 1902, he practiced medicine in connection 
with his other vocations. In 1885 Dr. Caro- 
thers came to Custer county, where he settled 
on a homestead and improved a farm, and it 
was about this time that he became deeply in- 
terested in the subject of veterinary surgery. 
He found that his knowledge of medicine en- 
abled him to effect cures, and this made his 
services greatly in demand among the early 
settlers, while his reputation extended all over 
this part of the county. His business finally 
became so large that he was forced to give his 
entire attention to it, and since 1892. when he 
moved to Ansley. he has devoted almost all 
his energies to the treatment of all kinds of 
animal diseases. In this special field he has 
been most successful, and his ability and skill 
are generally recognized, so that by painstak- 
ing and diligent attention to his work he has 
built up a large and remunerati\-e practice. 

In 1879 Dr. Carothers married Miss Alar\- 
A\'. Wallar, who was born in (Jhio, and to this 
union there have been born six children : May 
is the wife of George Llewellyn, of Chicago, a 
music dealer and a vocalist of note ; Paul H., 
who was educated at Lincoln, Nebraska, is 
now a successful and prominent physician and 
surgeon at Mason City, Custer county, where 
he conducts a private hospital: John W. is a 
physician in Lincoln, with a large and lucra- 
tive practice : Agnes resides with her parents 
and is the widow of Lester W'. Curtis : Everett 
C. was fomierly connected with Souder's 
jewelry store at Broken Bow, but after this 
country's entrance in the war he identified 
himself with the United States wireless-tele- 
graph service and was stationed at Leaven- 
worth. Kansas, awaiting call to service in 
France: Marietta remains at the parental 
home. The familv belongs to the Christian 
church. Dr. Carothers is a member of the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows, and in poli- 
tics is independent in his views. 

ARTHUR B. CORNISH. — Located in 
that productive part of Custer county adjacent 
to Lodi and almost midway between Callaway 
and Oconto, is the beautiful farm home of 
.Arthur B. Cornish. He is one of the sub- 
stantial farmers and stockmen of the southern 
Custer district, and is one of the prominent 
and influential citizens of this part of the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



867 



county. Mr. Cornish was born at Cherry 
Valley Otsego county, New York, on the 16th 
of Januar)', 1863, and is a son of Lyman W. 
and Eunice A. (Lowe) Cornish, the former of 
whom was born at Cooperstown, New York, 
and the latter in South Valley, that state, so 
that both branches of the ancestral line of 
Arhur B. Cornish are to be traced back to the 
old Empire commonwealth of the Union. Of 
the three children of Lyman W. and Eunice 
A. Cornish, the subject of this review is the 
eldest ; the second child, Louisa L., became the 
wife of William C. Johnston, and she was a 
resident of the Lodi section of Custer county 
at the time of her death ; Lee, the youngest of 
the children, is individually mentioned on other 
pages of this volume. 

Lyman W. Cornish came to Custer county 
in 1885 and took a homestead about three 
miles southeast of Lodi. He was one of the 
honored pioneers of the county and he and his 
wife were sincere Christian folk, always con- 
nected with some church organization and 
active in all departments of its work. In this 
connection it is pleasing to record that on the 
first Sunday after their location in the Lodi 
valley they assisted in the organizing of a 
union Sunday school, in the sod house of 
Joseph Thurman. Their son Arthur B., im- 
mediate subject of this review, was elected 
assistant superintendent of this Sunday school, 
and for twenty consecutive years he served 
either as superintendent or assistant superin- 
tendent of a neighborhood Sunday school, the 
while he has been otherwise instrumental in 
maintaining and vitalizing religious influence 
in the community. 

For the first nine years of his career in Cus- 
ter county Arthur B. Cornish worked on the 
farm during the summer seasons and taught 
school during the winter terms. In the mean- 
while he saved his earnings and arranged for 
the day when he should engage in independent 
farm enterprise. 

On the 27th of December, 1893, the event 
so important in every young man's life had its 
place in the career of Arthur B. Cornish, for 
on that date was solemnized his marriage to 
Miss Isabel Fodge, in Ortello valley. The 
young wife was a bright, intellectual school- 
teacher of gracious personality and was 
splendidly adapted to become the head of a 
Christian home. Mrs. Cornish is a daughter 
of James M. Fodge, who is still living and who 
is well and favorably known by all of the old 
settlers of Custer county, his prominence in 
Sunday-school work being indicated by refer- 
ence made to him in the historical department 
of this work, to wliich he contributes an inter- 
esting article concerning Sunday-school av- 



tivities in the county, said contribution being 
found in Chapter XL Mr. Fodge is one of 
the gallant soldiers who went forth in defense 
of the LInion in the Civil war, and for a num- 
ber of years he has been a prominent figure in 
the Nebraska ranks of the Grand Army of the 
Republic. The early home of Mrs. Cornish 
was in Lucas county, Iowa, and she was a baby 
at the time of the family removal to Hamilton 
county, Nebraska, from which she came with 
her parents to Custer county in 1883, the 
journey having been made in an old-time 
"prairie schooner," and her father having set- 
tled in the Ortello valley, his claim having 
been that on which the Ortello United Breth- 
ren church now stands. For several years 
Mrs. Cornish was a pioneer teacher in the 
schools of Custer county, and she made a 
reputation for being a splendid instructor and 
being a successful and popular representative 
of the pedagogic profession in the pioneer 
community. At the time her parents settled 
in the state the nearest railroad point, from 
which all supplies and provisions had to be 
hauled overland, was seventy-five miles distant, 
and she gained a plethora of experience in 
connection with the hardships and other trials 
of pioneer life. Mr. and Mrs. Cornish are 
faithful members of the Baptist church and 
are devoted and active in all departments of 
church work. They have shown deep interest 
in all missionary enterprises, have contributed 
largely of their means to every missionary ap- 
peal and have done much to extend Christian 
propaganda in their home county, throughout 
the state and in foreign lands. 

Mr. Cornish is one of the prominent men of 
Custer county and has here been identified 
with every progressive movement. In all 
county-wide work in which some representa- 
tive of the Lodi district w-as needed, Mr. Cor- 
nish has generally been drafted into service, 
and he has never disappointed those with 
whom he has worked, nor has he failed to ac- 
complish the task assigned to him. 

By long years of toil, thrift and saving, Mr. 
and Mrs. Cornish find themselves in comfort- 
able circumstances, and they are to-day the 
owners of 1080 acres of land, on which are 
a splendid equipment of farm buildings and 
fine herds of live stock. The new home, built 
in recent years, is a spacious and attractive 
farm bungalow of modern design and facili- 
ties, and it stands forth in sharp contrast to 
the primitive sod house in which Mr. and Mrs. 
Cornish began their wedded life and in which 
their children were born, this unpretentious 
domicile having served as the family home 
during the years of the pioneer epoch in Custer 
county. 



868 



ITISTORY OF CUSTER COL'.XTV, XEP.RASKA 



Among the experiences of his boj'hood Mr. 
Cornish states that he became consumed with 
a desire to become a hunter and trapper. Like 
David of old. his weapons were crude — his 
first equipment in this hne having been a club. 
With this club he slew not the lion and the 
bear, but tackled two opossums. He suc- 
ceeded in getting not only the scalps but also 
the hides of these little animals, and from the 
sale of the hides he received twenty-five cents. 
He invested his money in a steel trap, and 
from that time forward the capture of small 
game was somewhat easier, while hides ready 
for market came in more frequently. This 
was the first money which Mr. Cornish re- 
members of earning for himself. 

Mr. and Mrs. Cornish became the parents 
of three children, concerning whom brief rec- 
ord is consistently given at this junctu'-c. 
Tames L., who was graduated in the Broken 
Bow high school, is one of the gallant sons of 
Custer county who tendered his service to the 
nation when it became involved in the great 
world war. In June, 1917, he enlisted in Com- 
pany L, Fourth Nebraska Infantrv, under 
Captain L. J. Butcher. In October of the 
same year he was transferred to Camp Cody, 
at the time when an army reorganization ter- 
minated the existence of the Fourth Nebraska. 
which was then transferred to a new unit, the 
One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Heavy 
Field Artillery. In March, 1918, James L. Cor- 
nish was appointed corporal and qualified as 
gunner. A little later he was recommended for 
the officers' training school at Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, and on the 31st of August, 1918, he re- 
ceived his commission as second lieutenant of 
light artillen,'. At the time when the war 
came to a close he was with his command at 
Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The second son, Lvle 
Maynard, is a graduate of the Broken Bow 
high school and prior to the close of the world 
war he had entered the students' army train- 
ing coriis of the University of Nebraska. The 
third child, Mar\' I., was but two years of age 
at the time of her death. 

The Cornish family and the Cornish home 
are typical of Custer county, where character 
and virtue are held in high repute and home 
comforts are counted more than wealth. 



EDWARD T. LARSON. — In banking cir- 
cles of Custer county, Mr. Larson enjoys a 
reputation for conservatism and shrewdness. 
He is cashier of the Farmers State Bank of 
Sargent, and, in the opinion of those compe- 
tent to judge, is one of the capable financiers 
and progressive citizens of his community. 
Mr. Larson is a native of Boulder, Colorado. 



and was born June 18, 1888. a son of A. P. 
and Mary C. (Nelson) Larson. 

The parents of Mr. Larson were born in 
Sweden, and shortly after the close of the 
Civil war immigrated to this countrj' and took 
up their residence in Boulder county, Colo- 
rado, where Mr. Larson became a home- 
steader. He proved up on his claim, devel- 
oped his property and put in good improve- 
ments, and he passed the rest of his life in 
industrious labor as an agriculturist, becoming 
one of the substantial and reliable men of hi.^ 
community. He died in Colorado, after a 
career characterized by self-attained success, 
and his widow still makes her home at Boul- 
der. They were the parents of eight children, 
of whom five are still living: Perry, who is 
identified with the Chino Copper Company, at 
Gurley, Nebraska ; Bettie, who is the wife of 
Charles Gunneson, employed as a cabinet- 
maker at the University of Colorado and re- 
siding at Boulder ; Edward T., whose name in- 
troduces this review : Oscar, who is engaged 
in the grocery business at Boulder ; and 
.Arthur, who is a statistician for the Butte & 
Superior Copper Company, at Butte, Montana 
.\. F'. Larson was a Republican and was a 
member of the Lutheran church, to which his 
widow belongs. 

Edward T. l^arson received ordinary educa- 
tional advantages in the public schools of 
Boulder, this attendance being followed by 
one year spent as a student at the Boulder 
Business College. His first employment was 
in a general store at his native place, and in 
1910 he first came to Sargent and was em- 
ployed by the Farmers State Bank, with which 
he remained until 1914. He then went to 
Butte, Montana, and for two years worked 
for a copper company. He next went back 
to his native city, where for one vear he was 
teller in a bank, and in Januarv', 1917, he again 
came to Sargent, this time to remain per- 
manently. He started in the capacity of 
assistant cashier, and in 1918 was advanced to 
his present office, that of cashier of the insti- 
tution. The Farmers State Bank of Sargent 
has a capital stock of S15.0CX3. atid surplus and 
undivided profits of $12,000, while its average 
deposits are $323,000. Mr. Larson's career 
has been illustrative of the possibilities pre- 
sented to a voung man of detemiination, who 
in spite of the fact that he has no financial or 
other influential support to aid him still works 
his way to a position of recosrnizcd prom- 
inence. Each step forward that he has taken 
has been iij accortjance with his increased abil- 
ity, and his varied experience has given him 
knowledge of conditions and methods that is 
a decided addition to his equipment. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



869 



Mr. Larson is unmarried. He is a member 
of the Masonic fraternity, being popular with 
his fellow lodge members at Sargent, and in 
politics is a Democrat, with independent incli- 
nations. While he has been too interestedly 
busy with his duties at the bank to take any 
particularly active part in public matters, he 
has not failed in his responsibilities of citizen- 
ship, and has served very efficiently and ac- 
ceptably in the capacity of treasurer of the 
local school district. 



JOHN E. STAAB, one of the energetic and 
progressive citizens of Ansley, is representa- 
tive of the spirit that in recent years has 
proved such an important factor in the ad- 
vancement of Custer county. The owner of a 
valuable and productive farm, he is also iden- 
tified with the business interests of the com- 
munity and already in his career has given 
e\idences of versatility that should do much to 
make him one of his locality's substantial and 
influential men. 

John Ernest Staab was born in Colfax 
county, Nebraska, near the Platte county line, 
January 28, 1883, and is a son of John and 
Elizabeth (Mayer) Staab, a record of whom 
appears elsewhere in this volume. 

John Ernest Staab was educated in the 
country schools of Platte county, and there had 
his early training on his father's farm. Ac- 
companying his parents when they came to 
Custer county, he here engaged in farming on 
his own account, and he successfully con- 
tinued therein imtil 1912. While he does not 
now engage actively in farming, he still owns 
the property, a fertile tract of 160 acres, and 
superintends its operation. Since coming to 
Ansley, in the year mentioned, he has devoted 
himself principally to conducting a restaurant, 
having a large, well regulated establishment 
that has become very popular, not alone with 
the people of Ansley but also with the travel- 
ing public. He is interested also in conduct- 
ing a coal business, and in his various capa- 
cities he manages to find an outlet for his 
boundless energy. He has made a place for 
himself among Ansley's business citizens, and 
his reputation in business circles is of the best. 
As to political matters, Mr. Staab acknowl- 
edges allegiance to no party, preferring to use 
his own judgiuent in the supporting oi candi- 
dates. He is a member of the local organiza- 
tions of the Modern Woodmen of America 
and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is 
popular in both, and in the latter fraternity he 
has passed the ofificial chairs. The family be- 
longs to the Baptist church. 

In 1906 Mr. Staab married Miss Stella L. 



Miller, who was born at Polk, Nebraska, and 
to this union there have been born five chil- 
dren, whose names and respective ages (1918) 
are here noted : Lawrence H., eleven years : 
Julia Esther, ten years ; Bessie, eight years ; 
Voyle, five years ; and Waneta, three years. 



WILLIAM L. MILLER, who owns and 
resides upon a fine farm of two hundred acres, 
in the vicinity of Callaway, was born in Henry 
county. Iowa, on the 17th of June. 1860, and 
is a son of William and Sarah (Cubbison) 
Miller, the former of whom was born in 
Pennsylvania and the latter in Ohio. In the 
immediate family were seven children — Levi, 
Frank, Oliver, William L. (subject of this 
sketch). Mrs. Irene Kohlby, James, and Cora. 
The father, a farmer by vocation, was a valiant 
soldier of the L'nion cause in the Civil war. 
He was a member of the Fourth Iowa Cavalry, 
and he saw four years of strenuous service in 
the great conflict through which the integrity 
of the nation was preserved. He not only par- 
ticipated in many important battles and minor 
engagements, but it was also his to have been 
captured by the enemy and to have been 
held for several months in the famous Libby 
Prison, of odious memory. 

William L. Miller was reared and educated 
in Iowa and there he early gained practical 
experience in connection with the work of the 
pioneer farm, the while the discipline caused 
him to grow strong and self-reliant. At Au- 
dubon, Iowa, on the 9th of December, 1883, 
was solemnized his marriage to Miss Sarah A. 
Dill, who was born at Bellbrook, Ohio, and 
\A'ho is a daughter of Joseph E. and Mary C. 
(Hopkins) Dill, both likewise natives of the 
old Buckeye state. Mrs. Miller is the eldest 
in a family of five children, one of whom died 
at tiie time of birth. The names of the others 
are here given, in respective order of birth: 
Charles E., Nellie ^lay, and Franklin M. Mr. 
and ]\Irs. ]\Ii!ler have a fine family of four 
children, besides which one child died at the 
time of birth. Concerning the surviving, brief 
record is here consistently given : Jennie is 
the wife of Roy Lee Longmore, a farmer liv- 
ing one and one-half miles west of Callaway, 
and she is an active member and liberal sup- 
porter of the Evangelical church. Mary is 
the wife of Harry Watkins, who is a farmer 
in Sand valley, six miles southwest of Calla- 
wav. and they have one child, a daughter. 
Mrs. \\'atkins. like her older sister, is a mem- 
ber of the Evangelical church. Myrtle, the 
third daughter, is the wife of Houghland Har- 
per, likewise a prosperous farmer in Sand 



870 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 







HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



871 



valley, and they have two children, Garnett 
and Garlyn. Mrs. Harper is a member of the 
Evang-elical church. Ralph D. Miller, the only 
son, is a successful young- farmer in Custer 
county and is the proud father of a fine litt'.e 
son. The maiden name of his wife was Elsie 
Myers and they hold membership in the Evan- 
gelical church. 

Mr. and ^Irs. Miller have the distinction and 
honor of being pioneers of Custer county, for 
in the year 1885 they established their home 
on an embryonic farm in Brown valley, five 
miles southwest of Callaway. J\Ir. Aliller pur- 




Gr.vxdchildren of William L. Miller 

chased of Robert Brown a relinquishment of 
this claim, upon which he filed a pre-emption. 
He secured the land by paying $200 in cash 
and transferring to Mr. Brown also a team 
of horses. After paying for his land he had 
just twenty-eight dollars as his financial re- 
inforcement in founding a home in the new 
county. He and his devoted wife encountered 
many hardships and weathered many storms, 
but they did not falter in courage, made the 
best of circumstances, without complaints, and 
manifested the faith that has been graciously 
rewarded in these later years. Industrious by 
nature, Mr. Miller in the early days obtained 
work wherever he could find it. and by means 
of such employment he ]irovided for his fam- 



ily and was able to retain his land and grad- 
ually carry forward the improvement of the 
property. This farm has been his home con- 
tinuously during the long intervening period, 
save for three years, during the time of the 
drouth in this section, when, like so many 
others, he found it expedient to return east 
and "make his wife's folks an extended visit." 
Mr. Miller's admirable farm of 200 acres is 
now in a high state of cultivation, is well 
equipped for intensive farming and profitable 
stock-raising, with buildings of model type, 
and he has a fine orchard that adds much 
beauty to the home plat. Mr. Miller is pro- 
gressive in spirit and has taken a specially 
deep interest in school affairs, in which con- 
nection he has for many years served his home 
district in the capacity of director and treas- 
urer. Both he and his wife have been active 
members of the Evangelical church for many 
years, and they are numbered among the ster- 
ling and honored pioneer citizens of Custer 
county. 

DAVID A. GOODRICH, who is widely 
known as a breeder of registered Percheron 
horses. Shorthorn cattle and the red type of 
hogs, is the owner of Cedar Crest, which ad- 
joins the thriving little city of Oconto, and 
which is well equipped as a stock farm. Mr. 
Goodrich is an important factor in the stock 
industry in this section of the state. He was 
born in' the city of Brooklyn, New York, May 
26, 1850. His parents were George P. and 
Hannah M. (Lent) Goodrich, the latter of 
whom was bom at Hartford, Connecticut, a 
daughter of Stephen Lent. George P. Good- 
rich was a native of New York, from which 
state he entered the LTnion army as a soldier 
in the Civil war, and he met his death while 
on a scouting expedition, in August, 1863, 
near Harper's Ferry — falling ji victim in an 
engagement with Colonel Mosby's guerillas. 
Before he entered the army he was a shoe 
manufacturer. He was a member of the Bap- 
tist church, was a Republican in politics, and 
fraternally was an Odd Fellow. He was a 
man of sterling character, tn:e and loyal in 
every relation of life. He was the father of 
eight children, namely : Nathaniel, Mrs. 
Martha M. Whiting, David A.. Harriet, 
Stephen H., Mrs. Fannie E. De LaFountain, 
George P., and Ada. 

David A. Goodrich engaged in his first busi- 
ness transaction when he was not more than 
six years old, and from the w^ay he managed 
it, under trying circumstances, a suggestion 
may be gained as to the business acumen he 
has shown in many undertakings since then. 



872 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



It was pretty much of an accomplishment for 
a lad of his age to catch a big eel in the Dela- 
ware river, and one can easily imagine how 
proud and heroic he felt as he dragged his 
prize home and exhibited it to his father. 
The latter viewed the catch with approbation 
and then ordered little David to dress the eel 
and earn,' it to the minister, his idea, probably, 
being that it should be in the nature of a gift. 
It was hard work to dress that eel, as any one 
who has ever tried such a job will agree, and 
by the time David had reached the minister's 
house the price had risen and risen until it 
had reached the dollar mark, which the good 
man paid without cjuestion. To get full en- 
joyment from this story one should hear Mr. 
Goodrich tell it. 

Mr. Goodrich was afTorded good educa- 
tional advantages and completed the high- 
school course, but otherwise he has made his 
way in the world. 

In 1872 Mr. Goodrich went to Cambridge, 
Illinois, where he erected a business building 
and was engaged in the meat-market business 
for a time. He then sold out and located in 
Davenport, Iowa, where he worked for three 
years for Robinson & Kirk, wholesale butch- 
ers, and learned every detail of the business. 
Mr. Goodrich then visited for a short time in 
Pennsylvania, where his people were living, 
but in 1876 he came west again, to Peabody, 
Kansas, and was accompanied by his brother 
Stephen. Two months later he bought a shop 
and a store in that city and went into the meat- 
market and grocery business, in which he 
continued for seventeen years. In 191 5 Mr. 
Goodrich came to Custer county and estah- 

Mr. Goodrich was married September 13, 
1882, to Miss Mary C. I\Iiller, who was born 
in Pennsylvania, a daughter of George M. and 
Margaret J. (Wyley) Miller, the former be- 
ing a native of Lancaster county and the latter 
of Perrv' county, that state. The father of 
Mrs. Goodrich is a Democrat, a Alason, and a 
member of the Evangelical church, Mr. and 
Mrs. Goodrich have six children : Llewellyn 
L., who is a mechanic with the Pierce-Arrow 
people at Omaha, is a Republican, a Wood- 
man and an Elk. He married Etta, daughter 
of John Smith, and they have four children. 
James E. is associated with his father in the 
Cedar Crest Stock farm. Anna M., who is 
the wife of Arley O. Homan. has a daughter, 
Margaret Brundage, by a fomier marriage. 
George M., who is a traction-engine expert, at 
Kimball, Nebraska, was in the selective draft 
for the national army. C. Edgar at the time 
of this writing is in the national army, in the 
balloon general - supply depot. Raymond 
R. is a mechanic with the F. II. Gilchrist 



Lumber Company, at Oconto. In politics Mr. 
Goodrich is a strong Republican, as are his 
sons. He is an Odd Fellow, and for thirty- 
six years has been a member of the Modern 
Woodmen of America — one of the oldest in 
membership in Nebraska. He was reared in 
the Baptist faith and has never changed his 
church membership. 



ARTHUR C. RUMERY, M. D. — Of the 
men who have contributed technical skill antl 
personal dignity to the profession of medicine 
and surgen,' in Custer county, few are held 
in higher esteem than is Dr. Arthur C. Rum- 
ery, who has been engaged in practice at Ma- 
son City since 1905. He has steadily ad- 
vanced to a recognized place in his profession, 
and has attracted a practice that is as remu- 
nerative as it is important. Doctor Rumery 
was bom in the southwestern part of Fremont 
county. Iowa, April 17, 1879, and is a son of 
Albert M. and Ellen (Cady) Rumer}-. 

Sewell C. Rumery, the patemal grandfather 
of Dr. Rumery, was born in New Hampshire, 
whence he removed with his family to Iowa, 
and after some years spent there he came, 
about the year 1890, to Nebraska. Here he 
purchased farm land which he leased and here 
he remained until his death, at which time he 
was one of the well-to-do men of his com- 
munity. Albert M. Rumer>' was bom in New 
Hampshire, in 1852, and was a small boy 
when he accompanied his parents to Iowa, in 
which state he was reared to manhood. 
There he married Ellen Cadv, who was born 
there. For several years they made their 
home on a farm, but in 1884 they came to 
Nebraska and settled on a property in Madi- 
son county, a homestead upon which they 
lived until in 1904. He then moved to one of 
his father's farms and was there engaged 
until about 1913, when he moved to his pres- 
ent home, in Litchfield. Sherman county. .\ 
man of ability, resource, and industrj', Mr. 
Rumery was successful in his various ven- 
tures, and he now has a substantial compe- 
tency for his declining years. He is a Re- 
publican in politics and fraternally is affiliated 
with the Masons and Odd Fellows, while he 
and his wife are members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church. They are the parents of 
seven children : Dr. Arthur C, whose name 
initiates this review: Ilenn,-, who is engaged 
in cultivating the homestead farm ; Frances, 
who is the wife of Ira Runyon, residing on a 
farm near Mason City; Lura, who is unmar- 
ried and resides with her parents ; Nettie, who 
is the wife of Lester Rynian, residing near 
Halsey ; Luther, who is engaged in farming 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



873 



near Mason City; and Violet, who is the wife 
of Ernest Ryman, living near Halsey. 

After graduating in the high school at 
Madison, Nebraska, in 1888, Arthur C. Rum- 
ery took up the profession of teaching, and 
for three years he carried on educational 
work. In the meantime he had become inter- 
ested in medicine and had started to prepare 
himself for a career in that profession, even- 
tually entering the Omaha Medical College, 
which is now the medical department of the 
University of Nebraska. In this excellent in- 
stitution he was graduated, in 1905, with his 
degree of Doctor of Medicine. At that time 
he went tO' Centerville, South Dakota, where 
he practiced three months, and he then set- 
tled permanently at Mason City, where he has 
since been located, having won success in his 
profession, both as to standing and as to a 
large and lucrative practice. He has held the 
office of city health officer of Mason City and 
has done much to preserve the health and 
sanitation of the community. He is a valued 
member of the Custer County Medical So- 
ciety, the Nebraska State Medical Society, 
and the American IMedical Association, and 
he keeps fully abreast of all the advancements 
being made in his profession. He maintains 
an independent stand upon political questions, 
while in civic affairs he endeavors to give his 
support to those things which he believes are 
for the greatest general good. Fraternally, 
Dr. Rumery is affiliated with the Masonic 
fraternity, having been master of his lodge 
four years and being: affiliated also with Scot- 
tish Rite bodies. He belongs to the Baptist 
church, as do the members of his family. 

In 1907, at Dayton, Ohio, Dr. Rumery 
married Miss Abbilene Deal, who was bom 
in eastern Ohio, and to this union there have 
been born two children : Helen Louise, and 
Lucile. 



LEWIS KULHANEK. — One of Custer 
county's sturdy farmers, just merging into 
middle life, belonging to the pioneers upon 
whom the burdens and responsibilities of the 
present day rest heavily, is Lewis Kulhanek, 
a son of John and Fannie Kulhanek, whose 
family history is traced elsewhere in these 
pages. 

Lewis Kulhanek is a native of Moravia 
Austria, where he was born June 23, 1879. 
He came to this country with his parents as an 
infant and reached Custer county when but 
two years of age. He received his education 
in the county of the family's adoption, and 
credits the public schools for equipping him 
for business life and for activity in the wav 



of farm and stock transactions. He is a 
farmer by lifelong occupation, and the fanii 
home in which he and his family are now liv- 
ing stands on the original tree claim entered 
by his father in the early days. 

Lewis Kulhanek was married June 30, 1908, 
to Josephine Fortik, she being a daughter 
of Joseph and Anna Fortik, natives of Mora- 
via. Mrs. Kulhanek is a native of Custer 
county, and since she was born here and her 
husband has lived here since he was two years 
of age, and their children were born here, and 
they have of this world's goods was made 
here, all that they can be truthfully styled a 
Custer county family domiciled in a Custer 
county home. 

In their pleasant home two boys have come 
to bring happiness and sunshine • — Andrew 
Joseph, nine years old, and Anton Lloyd, six 
years of age, are sturdy young candidates for, 
useful manhood and prominent citizenship in 
Custer county. They are at the present time 
wrestling with the curriculum of the public 
schools. 

Mr. Kulhanek owns 160 acres of land, does 
a general farming and stock-raising business, 
enjoys the confidence and respect of neigh- 
bors and friends, and is rated as one of the 
best men of foreign birth now in Custer 
county. He is patriotic and loyal, and has 
been a liberal contributor to every national 
appeal for assistance in the recent period of 
the world war. 

Religiously, the family are Catholics and 
faithful supp6rters of the church. In politics 
Mr. Kulhanek trains with the Republican 
party, yet the character of the local man must 
be above reproach or the candidate of some 
other ticket will receive his vote. 



WILLIAM WALSH was one of the pio- 
neers of Custer county and endured the hard- 
ships and privations of the early days, but he 
became one of the substantial and well-to-do 
men of the county. 

William Walsh was born in Ireland, in 
June, 1835. He was reared on a farm in his 
native land and came to America in 1868 and 
engaged in fanning in Lee county, Iowa. In 
1874 he returned to Ireland, and February 8, 
1875, he was there united in marriage to Ann 
Nolan, also a native of the Emerald Isle. Tlie 
month after their marriage they came to the 
United States, and again Mr. Walsh took up 
the occupation of farming in Iowa, where 
they remained until 1880, when they came to 
Custer county and secured a homestead and 
tree-claim in section 26, township 18, range 
22. He helped organize school district No. 31 



874 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



and served for a number of years as a school 
director. He made a success of his farming 
ventures and became one of the prosperous 
men of his community. He assessed his 
township for several years and also served as 
a member of the county board of supervisors. 
In 1909 he retired from active life and took 
up his abode at Merna. His death occurred 
in Omaha. His widow still survives and is 
a resident of that city. They were the parents 
of ten children. 



WILL D. AMSBERRY, who has been a 
resident of Custer county since 1885, has 
passed his entire career in the pursuits of 
general fanning and stock-raising, and through 
industry and good management has become 
the possessor of a handsome farm of 160 
acres, located in the vicinity of IMason City. 
Mr. Amsberry is a native of West Virginia, 
born July 7, 1868, and is a son of Francis E. 
and Lucy C. (Beard) Amsberry, natives re- 
spectively of West Virginia and Virginia, a 
review of their lives being given in the sketch 
of John A. Amsbern-. elsewhere in this worlc. 

Will D. Amsberrj' received his education 
in th", public schools of West Virginia, and 
was seventeen years of age when he accom 
panied his parents to Custer county, whither 
they had been preceded some years before by 
his eldest brother, John A. Amsberry, whose 
sketch appears elsewhere in this volume. He 
was reared to farm work and farm life, an^ 
when he attained his majority he began op- 
erations on his own account. He has con- 
tinued to follow general farming and stock- 
raising to the present time, with a full mea- 
ure of success. Mr. Amsberry built his own 
house, barns and other farm buildinjjs. and 
has an attractive and valuable property. Cul- 
tivated by modern methods, his farm is in a 
high state of productivness, giving him a po- 
sition among the successful farmers of his 
locality. He keeps fully abreast of the ad- 
vancements made in agricultural science and 
practice and is an interested member of the 
local Grange, in the meetings of which his 
voice is frequently heard in connection with 
the consideration of important farming and 
stock-raising questions. Politically he is a 
Republican, but is independent in his stand 
upon some subjects. 

In 1897 Mr. Amslierr)' married Miss Jennie 
Myers, who was born in Indiana, a daughter 
of Philip Myers, who came to Custer county, 
Nebraska, in 1885, and homesteaded the land 
on which he farmed until his death. Mr. and 
Mrs. Amsberry are the parents of three chil- 
dren : Ruby, who is attending school at 



Kearney, Nebraska ; and Lloyd C. and Hazel, 
who remain at the parental home. 

ALBERT B. DOWNIN. — The state of 
Illinois has contributed its share of useful citi- 
zens to the middle west, and it would seem on 
first appearance that the best of her contri- 
bution has been given to Custer county. Al- 
bert B. Downin is part of this contribution. 
He was born September 28, 1881, in Fulton 
county of that famous state. His father 
was James Downin, who came of Alaryland 
stock. His mother's maiden name was Het- 
tie Cattlet, and she, like her son, was born in 
the Illinois commonwealth. In the James 
Downin family were seven children — • Emery 
L., Mrs. Mary J. Kitch, Joseph V., Mrs. \'ina 
\\'ard, Carl J., and Tolliver K. The last 
named son is serving at the present time in 
the United States Navy, on the battleship 
"Georgia." The father of this family was a 
farmer of strong integrity and was highly es- 
teemed in circles where he was known. He 
moved with his family to Adams county in 
1886, and ten years later, in 1896, he came to 
the Wood River valley, south of Lodi. Custer 
county,. where he rented and farmed land for 
three years. Later he bought a quarter-sec- 
tion in township 14. range 22, where he spent 
the remainder of his life. He died in Mav, 
1902. 

Albert B. Downin's early training was na- 
turally on the farm. Doing always a boy's 
work, and sometimes a man's work, he ac- 
quired the art of husbandn,' very early in 
life. His first money was earned by drown- 
ing ground-squirrels for a neighbor, and for 
this service he was paid one cent for each ani- 
mal thus destroyed. In this business he had 
a partner, who was a neighbor's boy. To- 
gether they did a thriving business, for squir- 
rels were found in abundance on the farm 
where they operated. 

Albert I3ownin, who had always made his 
home with his parents, after his father's death 
assumed the resix)nsibilities of home and farm 
and worked the place for his mother, who sur- 
vived his father only six years. By hard 
work and industrious and careful manage- 
ment, he has accumulated money and prop- 
erty, and is now owner of the home place, 
having bought the interests of his brothers 
and sisters. To the home place he has added 
by other purchases until he now owns and 
operates 595 acres. All this has been made 
by successful farming and stock-raising. 

On November 25, 1908, the same year that 
his mother died, Mr. Downin married Miss 
Millv E. Tones, at Callaway. Mrs. Downin 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



875 



is a native of Nebrasiva and is one of the five 
children born to Melvin K. and Alartha Ellen 
(Dickson) Jones. 

In the Albert Downing home to-day are 
two fine sons, Ralph C, and Morris L., and the 
younger son. Master Morris, is said to be the 
king of the realm and the manager of the 
Downin establishment. Mr. Downin is 
counted as a good neighbor, a thinking, active, 
progressive farmer. He is intelligent in poli- 
tics, voting always according to his convic- 
tions and for the man he believes will make 
the best officer. Interested in educational af- 
fairs, he is at the present time serving his 
school district as treasurer. 



JOSHUA C. MOORE is one of the sub- 
stantial business men of Broken Bow, where 
he is engaged as abstractor and searcher of 
real-estate titles, and friends and neighbors 
who know him well and intimately cut the 
name short and refer to him as "J. C." 

Mr. Moore was born in Moultrie county, 
Illinois, August 22, 1857, and is a son of Pey- 
ton and Maria (Roney ) Moore, both of whom 
were natives of old Kentucky. The parents 
moved to Illinois, where their marriage oc- 
curred and where they continued their resi- 
dence until the time of their death. By trade 
the father was a saddler and harnessmaker, 
and he established at Shelbyville, Illinois, a 
harness shop which he operated a few years, 
but later he took up farming. There were 
thirteen children in the family, only five of 
whom are now living — William H. is \ 
farmer in Illinois ; John T. farms in Okla- 
homa ; the subject of this sketch was the next 
younger ; and Henry and Willis are farming 
in Illinois. 

Joshua C. Moore is a very faithful member 
of the Christian church, in which he has been 
a leader and heavy contributor for many years. 
He is a man well qualified for any position 
in church, society or business. He ran the 
gamut of the public schools in Illinois, en- 
tered college at Lincoln, Illinois, where he 
studied for one year, and he then took a 
course in the business college at Jackson, 
Illinois. He thus received a liberal education, 
and this his riper years have developed by 
wide reading. He was brought up on a farm, 
but later engaged in clerical work, at which 
he is accounted as an adept. 

Mr. Moore came to Custer county in 1886 
and for the first few years he was auditor of 
the county books. He also served as deputy 
treasurer and clerk of the county, and in 1896 
he turned is attention to farm enterprise. In 
1901 he retired to Broken Bow and engaged 



in the abstract business, to which he now de- 
votes his entire time. 

Domestic life in a home of Mr. Moore's own 
establishing dates from 1877, in which year he 
married Emma T. Roll, a very excellent lady 
of fine Christian culture. Mrs. Moore was 
a native of the state of Iowa. To them 
the passing of time brought three children, 
who are still living and well established in 
the confidence and esteem of a wide circle of 
friends: The firstborn, Walter S., lives in 
Mason City ; Sylva D. is the wife of John 
Turner, who lives in Thedford, Nebraska, and 
who is well known in Custer county as a re- 
liable young business man : Mr. Turner oper- 
ates a lumber yard in his resident town and is 
also owner of the yard in Dunning; Kate is at 
home and finds steady employment in the of- 
fice of the register of deeds of Custer county, 
she being a very competent young business 
woman and having been the incumbent of her 
present position four years. The children 
are all members of the Christian church and 
are valuable assets to that organization. 

Mr. Moore is a member of the Modern 
Brotherhood of America and is independent 
in politics. The great sorrow of his life came 
about three years ago, when Mrs. Moore de- 
parted this life, October 9, 1915. leaving an 
unusually large circle of warm friends. 

Custer county is deeply indebted to her 
citizens, and families like the one just des- 
cribed are heavy contributors to that high 
and commendable personnel. 



JACOB KULHANEK. — There are few 
better farmers in Custer county than the sub- 
ject whom this narrative concerns. An Aus- 
trian by birth and ancestry, he has contrib- 
uted to Custer county the sterling character- 
istics of thrift and frugality. 

Jacob Kulhanek was born in Moravia, June 
23, 1869, and comes of a prominent Austrian 
family. His father, John J. Kulhanek, has 
extended mention in this volume. The edu- 
cation of young Jacob was commenced in his 
native province of Moravia, and later supple- 
mented in Custer county. Educationally he is 
well equipped to transact all business gener- 
ally arising from farm or stock transactions, 
and to keep himself abreast with the times, as 
well as thoroughly enlightened on every topic 
of current-day history. He began active labor 
on his father's farm, and, being industrious 
and frugal by nature, he has made a success 
of his life vocation. He stayed at home with 
his father until he was thirty-six years of age, 
and during this time he was the stay and sup- 
port of the father's home. 



876 



HISTURV OF CUSTHR COL'XTY, XKHRASKA 




X 






HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



877 



In 1906 Mr. Kulhanck married Miss Flos- 
sie Jones, a daughter of James B. Jones, a 
popular Custer county citizen, who is indi- 
vidually mentioned on other pages of this 
volume. Mr. Kulhanek and his father-in law, 
James B. Jones, with their families, have re- 
cently made an extended trip over a large 
portion of the United States, and feel well 
repaid for the time expended. In the Kul- 
hanek home are two sons, boys who give much 
promise of following in the footsteps of their 
father and grandfathers. 

If you went to visit the Kulhanek home of 
to-day you would find a splendid farm of 200 
acres, highly improved, with all kinds of 
buildings incident to stock-raising and grain 
farming, shelters for hogs and cattle, and all 
necessar)' eouipment to make farming render 
the maximum profits. There is a good farm 
house, in which the family are happily domi- 
ciled and prepared to live much easier than 
in the pioneer days, when such homes as the 
Kulhaneks have to-day were at least a hun- 
dred miles remote from the confines of Custer 
county. Mr. Kulhanek was reared in the 
faith of the Catholic church and his wife is a 
member of the Baptist church. He is inde- 
pendent in politics and cares little for partisan 
names or af^liation. With him the charactei 
of the candidate is the great and prominent 
thing, and the man who in his judgment is 
best fitted to fill the office will secure his vote. 
Custer county would be better off with more 
such men and such families. 



J. H. BRAND. — In this sterling citizen 
Custer county has a practical and zealous agri- 
culturist, and one who for nearly thirty-five 
years has done his share in promoting the best 
interests of the community. He still owns the 
claim which he secured in 1884, on first com- 
ing to the west, and durirrg his long residence 
here his conduct in all matters, agricultural, 
business, social, and civic, has been such as to 
establish his reputation as a helpful citizen and 
a man of strict integrity and probity of char- 
acter. 

Mr. Brand was born in Franklin county. 
New York, in 1849, a son of Luther and Lucy 
(Bateman) Brand. The Brand family orig- 
inated in Germany but was transplanted in 
America at a very early date in the history of 
this country, as shown in the fact that Robert 
Brand, the great-great-grandfather of J. H. 
Brand, was a resident of Rhode Island. The 
paternal grandfather, Nathan Brand, was a 
native of \'ermont and fought as a soldier of 
the patriot army during the Revolutionary 
war, and the maternal grandfather was Datis 



Bateman, an Englishman, who died in New 
York state. Luther Brand was born at Hines- 
burg, Chittenden county, Vermont, and as a 
young man went to Franklin county. New 
York, where he married Miss Lucy Bateman, 
a native of that county, born at Chateaugay. 
They became farming people of that vicinity 
and spent their entire lives there, Mr. Brand 
passing away at the age of fifty-seven years 
and his wife when a little older. They had 
a family of seven children, of whom five are 
living: J. H. ; W. W., a farmer in the vicinity 
of Grand Island, Nebraska ; F. E., a retired 
dairyman of Grand Island ; and Ida S. and 
Nellie M., maiden ladies, who live at Grand 
Island and keep house for their brother, F. F. 
The children were reared in the faith of the 
Baptist church, of which the parents were life- 
long members. The father was a Republican 
in politics, and at one time served as school 
trustee, although he was no politician and only 
took a good citizen's interest in public affairs. 

J. H. Brand received his education in the 
public schools of Franklin county, New York, 
where he grew to manhood on his father's 
farm. He was an enterprising and industrious 
young man and desired to make a success of 
his life. Thus when he noted that his progress 
was not fast enough, he decided that the fault 
lay with the locality and that by changing his 
place of residence he could better himself. Ac- 
cordingly, he came to Custer county in 1884, 
still a bachelor, and took up the tree claim on 
which he has since carried on general farming, 
with constantly increasing success. In the 
meantime, the lady who was to become his 
wife had come here and homesteaded a claim, 
and they are now the owners of 320 acres, all 
under a high state of cultivation and with the 
best of modern improvements. The buildings 
on the property were all erected by Mr. Brand, 
as at the time of his arrival there were no 
structures here and no improvements of any 
other kind. 

On June 27, 1918, Mr. and Mrs. Brand 
were the guests of honor at a surprise party, 
which commemorated the twenty-fifth anniver- 
sary of the marriage, June 27, 1893, of J. H. 
Brand and Mary A. (Miller) Hughes. Mrs. 
Brand's first husband was James A. Hughes, 
by whom she had two children: Fannie A., 
who is the wife of C. 'M. Kiplinger, living near 
the Brand home ; and Sidney R., who is farm- 
ing his mother's property. Mrs. Brand was 
born in Harrison county, Indiana, April 7, 
1862, and is a daughter of Oliver W. and 
Hester (McCulloughm) Miller. She is a 
granddaughter of \'alentine Miller and James 
McCulloughm, who were natives respectively 



878 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY. XEDRASKA 



of \irginia and Kentucky, and both of whom 
died in Indiana. Oliver \\'. ^liller passed his 
life as a farmer in the Hoosier state, where he 
was elected to the school board, on the Demo- 
cratic ticket, and where he also served in of- 
ficial positions in the old. radical United Breth- 
ren church. Following his demise his widow 
came to Nebraska, where she was living with 
her children at the time of her death. Of the 
five children, four are still living: Mrs. Brand; 
Mrs. Ella Burley, of Slmrps Alill. Indiana ; 
A. S., rural mail carrier out of Litchfield. Ne- 
braska ; and D. F., on a homestead in Colora- 
do. Mr. and Mrs. Brand have had four chil- 
dren : Oliver F., who is engaged in operating 
his father's farm and also owns eighty acres 
of his own ; Wilbur D.. who also operates on 
his father's land ; Hester L., who remains with 
her parents ; and Lucy, who died at the age 
of seven years. The children have always re- 
sided at home, but it seemed as though the 
happy family circle would be broken by the 
cruel demands of war, as both of the sons were 
subject to the call. Mr. and Mrs. Brand have 
been members of the Free Methodist church 
for nearly a quarter of a centurj', having joined 
twenty -three years ago. Mr. Brand is a Re- 
publican, but has not cared for the doubtful 
honors of political life. He has found plenty 
to do in supporting good movements for the 
civic betterment and the general welfare, and 
has been content to till his acres and to take 
the awards that come through a life of in- 
dustry and honorable conduct, as represented 
by the gaining of life's true compensations — 
the love of one's family and the respect and 
confidence of one's fellow citizens. 



JAMES G. BASS, who is a prosperous 
merchant at Mason City, where he has been 
established since 1916, came first to this state 
when nine years old, accompanying his par- 
ents, who located in Hamilton county, in 1883. 
Although circumstances led to his residing in 
other sections during a busy interval, when 
he felt prepared to settle down permanently, 
Mr. Bass' choice of a home was in Nebraska. 
He is a self-made man, having had but meager 
advantages in early youth, but his honest ef- 
forts along many industrial lines have met 
with just rewards. 

James G. Bass was born July 26, 1874, in 
Pike county, Indiana. He attended the dis- 
trict schools and after the family came to 
Hamilton county, Nebraska, he remained on 
the farm until he was seventeen years of age. 
As his tastes were not in this direction, he 
then sought other employment, and for a 



time he was a clerk in a hotel and also worked 
for the B. & M. Railroad. While living in 
Omaha he was in the barber business and he 
then pushed on to San Francisco, in the mean- 
while filling the position of traveling sales- 
man for several years. Finally he engaged 
in the mercantile business in San Francisco, 
and there he was comfortably situated when 
his business, like thousands of others, was 
destroyed by the earthquake and fire calamity. 
Mr. Bass then went back on the road and 
continued as a commercial representative until 
1916, when he came to Mason City and en- 
gaged in the hardware and agricultural-imple- 
ment business, under the firm name of C. E. 
Bass & Company. A verj' complete stock is 
carried and the firm has built up an enviable 
reputation for business integrity. 

In 1903 Mr. Bass married Miss Maude E. 
Smith, who was born at Healdsburg, Sonoma 
county, California, and they have four chil- 
dren : GifTord E., Naoma, Irma, and James 
Darrell. Mrs. Bass is a meml:)er of the Chris- 
tian church, while Mr. Bass is a Christian 
Scientist. He has always been a staunch sup- 
porter of the principles of the Republican 
party, but at no time has he been willing to 
accept public office. He is an earnest citi- 
zen, however, and his fellow citizens find him 
ready to co-operate with them in furthering 
all movements for the public good. He be- 
longs to the Masonic fraternity, including the 
Mystic Shrine. 



CASPER VOGLER. — In the early •80s, 
when settlers and home-seekers were begin- 
ning to come into Custer county, the fame of 
this section spread all over the countrj', and 
many a young man saw here an opporttmity to 
secure a farm and establish a home such as 
was not offered in the locality in which he had 
been reared. These ambitious young men 
came from other states and from other coun- 
tries, and by 1885-86, choice homestead claims 
in the neighborhood of Oconto promised a 
greatly increased population. One of these 
homesteads was secured by the late Casper 
Vogler, who. for almost a quarter of a cen- 
tury, was one of the county's highly esteemed 
citizens. 

Casper Vogler was born in Massbach. Ger- 
many, December 7, 1858, the third in a family 
of four children born to John S. and Margaret 
( Dittmar) Vogler, the others being Michael, 
Nicholas, and Maggie. Casper Vogler at- 
tended the established school in his native vil- 
lage and before he left Germany, in 1882, had 
complied with the military law of the land. 
He was twentv-four vears old when he came 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



879 



to the United States, and because many of his 
countrymen had settled in Jo Daviess county, 
Illinois, he made this his objective point. On 
reaching that county he easily obtained re- 
munerative work on farms. Two years later 
Miss Carolina Schiiller came from Germany 
to America, and in Jo Daviess county, Illinois, 
she met Casper Vogler. Their friendship 
culminated in their marriage, on the 10th of 
May, 1885. Mr. Vogler then came to Ne- 
braska and filed his homestead claim, south- 
west of Oconto, in Custer county, and in 
1886, he and his wife moved on to this pio- 
neer homestead, which thereafter continued to 
be the family home. Mr. Vogler was an ex- 
cellent farmer and good business man, a kind 
husband and father and an accommodating 
neighbor. He died on his farm, November 7, 
1909, leaving a fine property to his widow, 
who now owns 320 acres, adjoining the 160- 
acre farm of her only son, John G. Vogler. 

Mrs. Vogler was one of a family of eleven 
children, of whom there are five survivors — - 
Mrs. Caroline Vogler, Casper Schiiller, Mrs. 
Margaret Knies, Mrs. Louisa K. Heim, and 
Otto Schiiller. The following children were 
born to Mr. and Mrs. Vogler: Lena is the 
wife of Henry Miller, a farmer on Redfern 
Table, and they have two sons and two daugh- 
ters : they attend the Lutheran church ; Casper, 
who is a carpenter and contractor, remains 
at home ; John G., who was born in Custer 
county, November 8, 1890, famis his own 
land and also his mother's 320 acres, and is 
well known all over the county as a young 
man of sterling character; and Martha J. 
is the wife of James McNamara. who is a 
farmer in Pleasant Valley, their one child be- 
ing a daughter. The Vogler family belongs 
to the Lutheran church. When Casper Vog- 
ler first came to this countv and secured his 
homestead, his nearest neighbors were James 
Johnson and Michael McNamara. The first 
school, called the Johnson school, was estab- 
lished in 1890. 



ALFRED O'BRIEN, who originally came 
to Custer county in 1882, as homesteader, but 
who for a number of years has been connected 
with mercantile pursuits, as the proprietor of 
a thriving and successful grocery and hard- 
ware store, is another of the men who have 
found awaiting them in the virile west splen- 
did opportunity for advancement. He was 
born at Churubusco, Clinton county. New 
York, February 11, 1855, a son of Thomas 
and Anna (Corcoran) O'Brien, and a grand- 
son of Kennedy O'Brien, a native of Ireland, 
who died on a Vermont farm. 



Thomas O'Brien was born in Ireland, and 
was a young man when he came to the United 
States, the family settling in Vermont, where 
he met and married Anna Corcoran, who was 
born at Portland. Maine. Subsequently he 
went to Clinton county. New York, and set- 
tled on a fann near Churubusco, a small rural 
community, and he was living there at the 
time of the Civil war. In the last year of the 
struggle he enlisted in Company I, First New 
York Engineering Corps, with which he 
fought until peace was declared, and he then 
returned to his homestead, where he con- 
tinued to be engaged in farming until the time 
of his death. He became a substantial and 
highly respected citizen, was successful in his 
business afifairs, and served his community 
capably as justice of the peace. He was a 
Democrat, and was a faithful member of the 
Catholic church. He and his wife were the 
parents of seven children : Alfred, whose 
name initiates this sketch ; Margaret, who is 
deceased ; George, who is a telegraphist, liv- 
ing at Concord, New Hampshire ; Arthur, 
who also is a telegraph operator, and is liv- 
ing at Cambridge, Massachusetts ; Miss Anna, 
who resides at Churubusco, New York : 
Agnes, who is the wife of Horace Martin, of 
Montreal, Canada ; and Thomas, who lives on 
the old home farm. 

Alfred O'Brien received his education in 
the country schools of New York, and, like 
many farmers' sons of his day and locality, 
was attracted by the romance of railroading, 
which he took up as a vocation, in the west. 
From 1874 to 1882 he had a. run from Grand 
Island to North Platte, but in the latter year 
he gave up railroading for farming, securing 
a homestead and a timber claim in Custer 
county. He had practically no capital to start 
with, as represented in a monetary way, but 
he was full of ambition and energy and was 
able to overcome the hardships and obstacles 
that discouraged and defeated many who were 
not so sturdy or courageous in spirit. He 
has since sold his homestead, but continues to 
hold his timber claim, and has other land, 
which totals 800 acres. His career has 
been one of self-made success that has all the 
elements of creditable achievement. In 1894 
Mr. O'Brien came to Mason City and estab- 
lished himself in business as the proprietor of 
a grocery and hardware store He has built 
up a large trade and is accounted one of the 
successful business men of the citv. 

In 1861, Mr. O'Brien married Miss Ellen 
McAllister, who was born at Council Bluffs, 
Iowa, a daughter of William' McAllister, an 
earlv settler of Hall county, who had come up 
to Council Bluffs on a flat-boat, in 1848. The 



880 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'.XTY, NEBRASKA 



town at that time was known as Canesville. 
Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien are the parents of two 
children: Evelyn, who is the wife of C. AI. 
Anderson, of Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, a sales- 
man for the Standard Oil Company ; and 
Frank M., who went to the east, where he was 
given a course of instruction in the celebrated 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, after 
which, in connection with the nation's partici- 
pation in the world war, he was sent to Mill- 
ington, Tennessee, as a member of the United 
States Aviation Corps in which he received 
commission as second lieutenant. 

Alfred O'Brien is a Scottish Rite Mason 
and has served as master of his lodge of An- 
cient Free & Accepted Masons. In political 
matters he supports the Democratic party. 



JOHN A. DAILY. — Some of the most 
profitably conducted and highly developed 
farming properties to be found in Custer 
county are those which were taken by their 
present owners as homesteads more than 
thirty years ago and which have continued 
through all this period to receive the person?.! 
attention of these owners. A case in point is 
the farm of John .\. Daily, which is located 
two miles from Ansley, and a part of whici 
was secured by Mr. Daily in 1884 For thirty- 
four years he has applied himself to its culti- 
vation and development, and the property is 
now one of the valuable and attractive estates 
of this section of the county. 

Mr. Daily is a Pennsylvanian by nativity, 
born in Franklin county, June 3, 1858, and he 
is a son of John and Emily (Penwell) Daily. 
His parents were likewise bom in the Key- 
stone state, the father in 1822 and the mother 
in 1830, and there they married. They later 
removed to Indiana, where they spent several 
years, and finally they established their home 
in Illinois. They were family people of the 
best type, industrious and (jod-fearing, and 
had the full respect and esteem of their neigh- 
bors in whatever comnimiity their home was 
made. Both passed away at Piano, Illinois, 
the mother in 1895, aged sixty-five years, and 
the father in 1907, when eighty-five years of 
age. He was a Democrat in politics and Mrs. 
Daily was a faithful member of the Presbyter- 
ian church. They were the parents of nine 
children, of whom six are living: Emily, the 
widow of W. T. S. Jamison, fomierly a mer- 
chant of Shippensbiirg, Pennsylvania : Sarah, 
the wife of Cicorge Bailey, a farmer of the 
vicinity of Piano, Illinois : John A., of this 
notice; W. H., who fonnerly conducted a 
store at Overton, Nebraska, for tvk'o years, but 
who is now a merchant of Knoxville, Illinois : 



J. A., who is connected with a drug firm in 
California; and Martha, a resident of Cali- 
fornia, the widow of Frank Bailey. 

John A. Daily was educated in the public 
schools of Pennsylvania, and at the age of 
eighteen years left home and went to Illinois, 
where for four years he worked on a farm. 
In August, 1884, he came to Custer county 
and took a homestead two miles from Ansley, 
on which he still resides, although he has in- 
creased his acreage to one-half section of good 
land. Every acre of his land has been ac- 
cumulated through the medium of his own ef- 
forts, and his pleasant residence and his com- 
modious barns and substantial outbuildings 
were all erected by him. He has kept pace 
with modern agricultural methods and inven- 
tions, his general fanning operations being 
carried on along up-to-date lines and with 
highly improved farm power-machinery. In 
addition, he is a raiser of all kinds of live 
stock and has made a success in this direction 
also. 

In 1894 Mr. Daily married Miss Agnes M. 
Elison, daughter of Major Elison, and of the 
three children of this union two survive: 
Charles P., who was graduated in the Ansley 
high school, in May, 1914. died in the follow- 
ing .August ; and Florence and Lurene remam 
with their parents. 

Mrs. Daily is a member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, and while Mr. Daily is not 
identified with any religious bodv he is a sup- 
porter of good movements. PoHtically a Re- 
publican, he has been somewhat active in the 
ranks of his party for some time past, being a 
former member of the county board, while at 
the j)resent time he has served si.x years as a 
member of the board of school directors, and 
his term continues for three years more. His 
official record is a good one, and as a business 
man he has won general confidence through 
his tmqualified integritv. 



FRANK N. MOSSMAN. who is one of 
the substantial men of Custer county, is prom- 
inent in both business circles and in jniblic 
affairs at Mason City. Thirty-four years ago 
he accompanied his parents to Custer coimty 
and although he has not been a continuous 
resident, he has never lost interest in this sec- 
tion and in later years has been closelv identi- 
fied with the county's substantial development. 

Frank N. Mossman was born .Vugust 19. 
1868, in Benton countv, Iowa. His parents 
were T. J. and Florentine (.Amsberry) Moss- 
man, the latter of whom was born in Mason 
comity. West Virginia. January 29, 1848, and 
now resides in Butler countv, Kansas. T. T- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



881 



Mossman, father of Frank M., was born in 
Pennsylvania, in 1841, and died in Butler 
county Kansas, in 1906. He married in Mar- 
ion county, Iowa, and lived in that state until 
he came with his family to Custer county, 
March 12, 1884. He took up a pre-emption 
claim and a tree claim and is worthy of spec- 
ial note tfhat in 1868 he homesteaded on the 
site of th6 present beautiful city of Lincoln, 
but never proved up. In 1884 he settled on a 
timber claim he had secured in 1882, but he 
sold this claim in 1891 and moved to Butler 
county, Kansas, where he spent the rest of his 
life. He was a good business man, an evi- 
dence being the fact that he came to Nebraska 
without appreciable capital and before he left 
the state owned 360 acres. Mr. Mossman was 
a man of enterprise also and was the first 
settler in school district No. 101 who made 
a move in the direction of building a school- 
house, his son Frank M., with the assistance 
of Samuel Evans, putting up the walls of the 
structure after the former had hauled the 
lumber from ' Kearney, without charge. In 
politics he was a Republican and fraternally 
was a Mason and an Odd Fellow, as well as 
an honored member of the Grand Army of the 
Republic, in which he was actively identified 
with the post at Ansley, Custer county. As a 
valiant soldier in the Civil war he served as a 
member of Company D, Eighth Iowa Volun- 
teers. With his family he belonged to the 
Baptist church. Nine children were born to 
Mr. and Mrs. Mossman. of whom the follow- 
ing survive: Frank M., whose name intro- 
duces this review ; Edward and Darius, both 
of whom are farmers in Kansas ; Sophronia, 
who is the wife of L. L. Hinnen of Butler 
county, Kansas ; Nola, who is the wife of 
Isaac Hammond, a farmer in Butler county : 
and Stella, who is the wife of George Manor, 
also of Butler county. 

Frank M. Mossman attended the district 
schools in Iowa and one term in Custer county, 
in the schoolhouse he had helped to build. 
He lived on the farm until he was twenty- 
three years old and then went to Kansas, 
where he was foreman on a ranch for the next 
ten years. In 1901 he moved back to Custer 
county and here he purchased a half -section 
of land and engaged in a general-store busi- 
ness at Mason City. In 1905 he sold his store 
and went into the hardware business, but he 
sold out one year afterward and then became 
interested in concrete work. While in this 
line he did such work on a number of the most 
important , buildings erected in Mason City. 
In 1916 Mr. Mossman turned his attention to 
insurance and realty dealing and he is now 



one of the foremost business men in these 
lines in this part of the county. 

Mr. Mossman was married in 1891, to Miss 
Louie Amsberry, who was born in West Vir- 
ginia, and they had four children, the sur- 
vivors being : Jesse B., who is a soldier in 
the national army, a member of Company D, 
Three Hundred and Thirty-ninth Machine 
Gun Battalion, serving in France at the time 
of this writing; and Helen and Lillian Frances, 
both of whom are at home. The eldest daugh- 
ter, Nellie, died May 17, 1916, when but 
twenty years of age. 

In politics Mr. Mossman is a Republican. 
He has been a man of influence and promi- 
nence at Mason City, serving for twelve years 
as mayor and for six years he has been a 
member of the school board, of which he is 
now president. He owns a considerable 
amount of valuable property here, including 
his handsome private residence and also the 
hotel building. PVaternally he is a Modem 
Woodman and an Odd Fellow and he has 
passed all the chairs in the latter organization. 
With his family he belongs to the Baptist 
church. 



HIRAM T. COFFMAN. — One of the 
pioneers of Custer county who came early, and 
later qualified in every way as a good man and 
valuable citizen, was the late Hiram T. Cofl'- 
man, a veteran of the Civil war. His prop- 
erty still remains in the possession of his fam- 
ily and his memory is revered because of his 
sterling traits of character. 

Mr. Cofifman was born in IifSiana, in 1844, 
and died on his old homestead in Custer 
county, Nebraska, in 1910. His parents 
moved to Iowa during his childhood and there 
he had some meager educatioiial advantages, 
but the larger part of his education was self ■ 
gained, in the hard school of experience. He 
was reared on a farm and it was from a farm 
that he responded to the first call of President 
Lincoln for soldiers to preserve the Union. 
He served for five months in an Iowa regi- 
ment and then re-enlisted, in an Illinois regi- 
ment, and he continued in his country's ser- 
vice until the close of the war. His war rec- 
ord was one that he could refer to with jus- 
tifiable pride in later years when he gathered 
with old army comrades of the Grand Army 
of the Republic, in which organization he was 
interested as long as he lived. After the war 
closed he returned to Iowa and resumed agri- 
cultural pursuits, and there he remained until 
1874, when he moved to Nebraska and settled 
in Howard county, where he homesteaded and 



882 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, XEI5RASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



883 



remained until he had proved up. He sold 
his land in Howard county and in the spring 
of 1881 he came to Custer county and took 
a pre-emption. On this claim he continued 
to reside until his death, in 1910. During his 
active years he developed and improved the 
farm, and this work is being capably continued 
by his son Harry, who resides on the old 
homestead. 

In Iowa, in the year 1871, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Cofifman to Miss Man.' 
J. B. Amsberry, who is a sister of Darius M. 
Amsberry, a representative citizen of Custer 
county and now incumbent of the office of 
secretary of state for Nebraska, a review of 
his career being given on other pages of this 
work and the same giving adequate data con- 
cerning the Amsberry family. Mr. and Mrs. 
Cofifman became the parents of seven children, 
of whom five attained to years of maturity: 
Mary is the wife of James Kelly, a prosperous 
fanner in Colorado ; Harriet became the wife 
of Charles Kelly and both were residents of 
the state of Wyoming at the time of their 
death ; Kittie is deceased ; Harry, as above 
noted, has the active management of the old 
homestead farm ; and Paul was one of the 
gallant young men of Custer county who went 
forth in the service of his coimtry when the 
nation became involved in the great world 
war : he went with the American Expedition- 
ary Forces to France and was one of the 
noble young patriots who sacrificed their lives 
in defense of a righteous cause, a memorial 
tribute to him being given in Chapter XV of 
this publication. 

Hiram T. Cofifman always manifested a 
lively and intelligent interest in public affairs, 
especially those of a local order, and he was 
in favor of the principles of the Populist 
party at the time when that organization was 
at the zenith of its influence, but after its wan- 
ing he became staunchly arrayed with the Re- 
publican party. His religious faith was that 
of the Baptist church. 

ALBERT BRASS. — Among- the cattlemen 
of Custer county who have been engaged in 
large and important transactions in cattle feed- 
ing and dealing, one deserving of more than 
ordinary mention is Albert Brass, one of the 
owners of the K. C. and Brass ranches. From 
his young manhood all his training has been 
along lines connected with the business in 
which he is now engaged, and in which the 
size and importance of his operations have 
placed him in a leading position. 

Mr. Brass was bom in McHenry countv, Il- 
linois, October 16, 1877. and is a son of Orson 



and Emma (Wilberj Brass, the former a na- 
tive of Ohio and the latter of New York. His 
father was a farmer and stock-raiser who 
bought and sold cattle on a large scale and 
who was known far and wide for his extensive 
deals as well as for his personal integrity and 
probity. He was a popular member of the 
local Masonic lodge at Woodstock, Illmois, was 
a staunch and unwavering Republican, and 
took an active part in civic affairs, as a pro- 
gressive and constructive citizen. He died 
July 7, 1918, his wife having passed away in 
1906, in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. They were the parents of nine chil- 
dren, of whom eight are living, but only three 
are living in the Custer county vicinity — Mrs. 
Charles Florida, residing on a farm near Com- 
stock; Ed, a cattleman of Grand Island; and 
Albert, of this review. 

Albert Brass received his early education in 
the public schools of McHenry county, Illinois, 
and was reared in an agricultural atmosphere, 
where he early learned to understand and ap- 
preciate live stock. From boyhood he made 
the most of the opportunities that presented 
themselves, to learn all he could regarding 
cattle, and when he came to Custer county, in 
190+, it was but natural that he should engage 
in the cattle business, his partner in this ven- 
ture being his brother. Edward Brass, of 
Grand Island. Their initial ventures were 
somewhat in the way of experiments, but as 
success gave them confidence they became op- 
erators on a larger and larger scale, until, 
during the winter of 1917-18, they reached 
their high point by making a shipment of $53.- 
000. This was followed about August 1st by 
a shipment amounting to $43,000. this last be- 
ing western cattle right off the grass. These 
animals were placed in the pasture about April 
1st, and were sold August 1st, when, in addi- 
tion to the loss by shrinkage between the time 
of their purchase and the time of their weigh- 
ing at the Omaha market, each animal aver- 
aged a gain of 250 pounds. This refutes the 
statement or idea that Nebraska grass is not 
good for cattle, as this was the only food that 
the animals had to fatten on. The Brass bro- 
thers own the K. C. ranch, consisting of 2,945 
acres, while the home property, known as the 
Brass ranch, in section 14, township 20, has 
1,560 acres, of which the acreage not needed 
for stock is rented to outside parties. This 
ranch is improved with a large and commodi- 
ous house, substantial barns, and anv number 
of splendid outbuildings, and the equipment of 
the entire property is up-to-date in every par- 
ticular. Mr. Brass is a man who does large 
things in a large way. has no superior in his 



884 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



branch of the cattle industry, and is a business 
man of marked judgment and acumen and of 
high and honorable principles. He is a Re- 
publican in his political views. 

On September 26, 1903, in McHenry county, 
Illinois, ilr. Brass was united in marriage to 
Miss Edith M. Joslyn, and to this union there 
have been born nine children — Ellwyn, Ed- 
win. Maleda. W'endel. Evelyn. Lorcn. Orson, 
Nellie, and Albert, Jr.. all of whom reside with 
their parents except Evelyn, who passed away 
in March, 1918, at the age of seven years, after 
a fatal attack of appendicitis. 



FREDERICK CAMIN, who is one of Cus- 
ter county's large landowners, heavy taxpay- 
ers, and enterprising and respected citizens, 
has been a resident of Nebraska almost his 
entire life and takes great pride in the wonder- 
ful forward steps the state has taken within 
his memory. Mr. Caniin was born at Water- 
town, Wisconsin, a son of William and Mary 
(Minick) Camin. The father was born in 
Germany, February 7, 1833, and came to the 
United States in 1854. He was a strong, re- 
bust young man and easily found employment 
in a saw mill at Watertown, where he re- 
mained until 1862, when he enlisted for ser- 
vice in the Civil war, as a member of Company 
E, Twentieth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, 
and shortly afterward took part in the battle 
of Prairie Grove, in which he was seriously 
wounded in the left side, a bullet passing 
through his body and coming out through his 
breast. This caused him to be honorably dis- 
charged, for disability, March 24, 1863. 

William Camin survived his severe injuries 
and lived many years afterward, although his 
condition was feeble for seven years before 
his death, which occurred December 6, 1905. 
During this period he was carefully cared for 
by his son Frederick. In 1867 William Camin 
left Wisconsin for Nebraska, driving a mule 
team and a yoke of oxen, and after reaching 
the new state, he located a homestead in Cum- 
ing county. The first home was a dugout, 
twelve by fifteen feet in dimensions, and this 
was quite as commodious and comfortable as 
any of those occupied by neighbors, the while 
it served its intended purpose until 1870, 
when Mr. Camin erected the handsome resi- 
dence in which he lived until his death. He 
became a man of prominence in Cuming 
county, a leading factor in the Democratic 
party, and served in numerous local ofifices 
For three years he was county assessor and 
for three more was county commissioner of 
Cuming county. His children all survive, two 
sons and three daughters — William, Fred- 



erick, Mrs. Freda Hazencamp, Mrs. Mary 
Kuester, Mrs. Augusta Brockman — all of 
whom live in Cuming county except Fred- 
erick. 

Frederick Camin was too young at the time 
to remember the long, slow trail to Nebraska, 
but he very readily recalls many incidents of 
early days in Cuming county. Herding 
cattle for his father and for the neighboring 
stockmen was one of his earliest ways of be- 
ing useful, and it was through this means that 
he earned his first money. Perhaps every 
man, if questioned, could recall the time in 
his early youth when some unattainable ob- 
ject aroused feelings akin to despair. In Mr. 
Camin's case it was a new hat, and when he 
found that the only way to get it was to earn 
it, he forthwith set about the earning, the 
neighboring ranchmen being called upon to 
pay the sum of twenty-five cents a week for 
his herding services. He eventuallv secured 
the hat in this w-ay, and it is quite possible 
that his practical father watched with silent 
approval the son's industry and self-denial. 

Mr. Camin remained at home until he was 
of legal age, his twenty-fist year, going to 
school during the winters and helping his 
father during the summers, and he then took 
upon himself the management of the home 
farm, which he operated for two years. After 
his marriage, in 1886, he went to Holt county, 
Nebraska, where he bought 160 acres, near 
Atkinson, on which he lived for two years. 
He then moved to Boyd county, in 1892, and 
took up a homestead, on which he lived five 
years, when he removed to Keyapaha county, 
where he rented land for two years. He then 
returned to Holt county, where he bought 
eighty acres and where he remained two years. 
In the meanwhile his father had become some- 
what feeble, and Mr. Camin returned then to 
the homestead in Cuming county, as noted 
above. In 1909 he came to Custer county and 
bought 320 acres, the west one-half section of 
section 21, township 13, range 22. He has 
erected a handsome modern residence here 
and has 160 acres under a fine state of culti- 
vation. His investments in Nebraska soil 
have turned out well and he now owns a total 
of 1,120 acres. 

Mr. Camin was married October 21, 1886, 
to Miss Margaretha Albright, who was born 
in Germany, a daughter of John G. and Bar- 
bara (Schademaini) Albright, natives of 
Germany. They have the following children • 
Ida, Martha, Alma, Walter, Emil, Herman, 
and Anna, all of whom reside with their par- 
ents except the eldest daughter. This daugh- 
ter, Ida, is the wife of Carl Achterberg, who 
is a farmer five miles south of Oconto, and 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



885 



they have four children. Mr. Camin and his 
family belong to the Lutheran church He 
casts his vote with the Republican party but 
has never sought office. 



ANTON FORTIK. — The blood of his- 
toric Bohemia flows in the veins of Anton 
Fortik, a South Loup farmer who ran the 
gamut of early-day hardships and who, single- 
handed and without help, has improved a 
splendid farm, reared a family, and made for 
himself a reputation as a reputable, reliable 
citizen second to none who began life under 
the same handicaps. 

Mr. Fortik was born in Bohemia June 13, 
1873, and is a son of Joseph and Anna (Cline) 
Fortik. In the ancestral line the blood of Bo- 
hemia flows through the veins of more than 
a dozen generations. Joseph Fortik and his 
wife and children came to Custer county, Ne- 
braska, in 1884, and immediately he filed on 
the homestead upon which he lived during the 
remainder of his life. In the father's family 
were nine children, of whom seven are living: 
John lives in Custer county ; Anna married 
U. G. Brown and has her home in this county ; 
the third was Anton, the subject of this 
sketch ; Frank lives in Custer county ; Joseph 
lives on the old homestead; Josie is the wife 
of Lewis Kulhanek ; and Charles lives in the 
vicinity of the home of his brother Anton. 

Mr. Fortik regrets the limited educational 
advantages of his youth. From early years 
he was compelled to work, and school oppor- 
tunities were few, yet he is a man of keen in- 
telligence and very competent to transact all 
kinds of business connected with general farm- 
ing, the while he is able also to render very 
capably a great deal of public service. Dur- 
ing his boyhood years he worked for a Ger- 
man four years, and then went to work on his 
father's farm and helped to support the fam- 
ily. This was necessitated by the illness of 
his father. In 1898 his domestic life really 
began, when he led to the altar Miss Anna 
Kulhanek, sister of John J. Kulhanek. Of 
this union Were born seven children, Anna, 
Rosa, Anton, Emil, Albert, Thomas, and Ever- 
ette. For generations the families on both 
sides have been members of the Catholic 
church, and have maintained splendid reputa- 
tions as honest, industrious, law-abiding citi- 
zens. 

The Fortik farm consists of 400 acres of 
land, and this has long since developed beyond 
the sod-house period in which a pioneer 
"soddy" was the first dwelling of the Fortik 
family. The primitive domicile has passed 
away, and a beautiful farm home takes its 



place. The resources of a new county owned 
their development many times to the sturdy 
emigrants from the Old World who have con- 
tributed brain and brawn to the land of their 
adoption. 



JAMES E. G. NELSON, whose activities 
as a general farmer and stock-raiser in Cus- 
ter county have covered a period of thirty- 
two years, owes a large share of his success 
to the sturdy characteristics of his race. The 
courage and perseverance which he displayed 
during the early days of the county's history 
have enabled him to succeed where others 
have failed, and the same judgment that led 
him to select his homestead has caused him 
to retain possession thereof, with continued 
faith in its value. 

Mr. Nelson was born in Denmark, July 19, 
1863, a son of N. P. and Emma (Sonson) 
Christinson. His parents, who were natives 
of the same country, passed their entire lives 
within its borders and never desired any other 
country for their home. The father was a 
farmer and a man of marked industry, in ad- 
dition to which he was held in high esteem by 
his fellow citizens, who elected him a member 
of the body which corresponds to the town 
board here. He and his wife were devout 
members of the Lutheran church, and had 
nine children, of whom two now live : Lars, 
who resides in Denmark ; and James E. G. 

Tames E. G. Nelson received his education 
in the public schools, and had just attained 
his twenty-first year when he decided to view 
the United States, the land of opportunity. 
.A.t that time he did not remain for any ap- 
preciable length of time, returning soon to 
Denmark, but in 1886 he again came to this 
country, this time to make his pemianent home 
here. Coming to Custer county in that year, 
he bought a relinquishment of his present 
farm, and settled down to the pursuits of gen- 
eral farming and stock-raising, in which he 
has been successfully engaged ever since. Mr. 
Nelson is one of the men of his community 
who have been progressive in their methods 
and in their ideas. Under his able manage- 
ment the land has been highly cultivated, until 
it is now some of the most fertile and pro- 
ductive to be found in this part of the county, 
and good buildings, including a large modern 
house, ha\e been erected, adding much to the 
farm's appearance and value. A reputation 
for integrity and honorable actions is one of 
Mr. Nelson's most cherished possessions, and 
he is likewise accounted one of his locality's 
men who can be depended upon to stand be- 
hind worthy and progressive movements for 



886 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



the general welfare. He is a Republican in 
politics, and he and Mrs. Nelson belong to the 
Lutheran church. 

In 1891 Mr. Nelson married Miss Matilda 
Johnson, who was born in Denmark, a daugh- 
ter of Peter and Sophia (Johnson) Johnson. 
The parents of Mrs. Nelson came to Custer 
county in 1885 and settled near the home of 
Mr. Nelson, where Mr. Johnson became a 
homesteader. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson have had 
four children : Carl, who entered the United 
States service June 25, 1918, had his prelim- 
inarv' training at Camp Funston, and is lo- 
cated at Camp Mills, Long Island, at the time 
of this writing ; Alfred died when eight years 
of age; and Josephine and ]\Iarie died in m- 
fancy. 



WILLIAM J. CROSS. — One of the men 
who has been in Custer county since 1883 and 
had all the experiences of early homesteaders 
is William J. Cross, who was born in State 
Center, Iowa, October 15, 1877, a son of John 
H. H. and Melissa (Bullock) Cross, the for- 
mer a native of Ohio and the latter of the 
Hawkeye state. The marriage of the parents 
was solemnized in Iowa and there they livea 
during their early wedded life. In the days 
of the Civil war Mr. Cross enlisted in Com- 
pany H, Thirty-first Iowa Infantrj-, and he 
served three years, performing a hard and 
strenuous service for his country. He was 
on the remarkable expedition with Sherman 
through Georgia to the sea, and was one of 
the heroes who fought in the battle of Look- 
out Mountain. After the war he returned to 
Iowa, where he remained until he removed to 
Nebraska, in 1878, at which time he settled in 
the eastern part of the state, in Seward county. 
Feeling that opportunities were a little better 
in the new land farther west, he came to Cus- 
ter county five years later, and homesteaded a 
substantial tract of land, eight miles south- 
west of Ansley. In the home of John H. H. 
Cross, father of the subject of this sketch, 
were five children, three of whom are still 
living. The sun-ivors are Oliver, who lives 
in .Ansley and is employed by the railroad com- 
pany ; \Villiam J., who is the subject of this 
sketch : and Dell, who lives eight miles west 
of Ansley. 

John H. H. Cross is a member of the Grand 
Army of the Republic, is a faithful member of 
the Methodist church, is a Republican in poli- 
tics, and, withal, is a very highly respected 
citizen. 

William J. Cross, the subject of this sketch, 
has spent most of his life in Custer county, 
where he grew to manhood. He began life on 



the farm, but during his early years he clerked 
in a Broken Bow store for a period of eight 
or nine years. He was educated in the public 
schools at Broken Bow. Mr. Cross is a re- 
liable citizen to whom much credit is due fo"- 
the services rendered to the major county of 
the Nebraska commonwealth. 



WALTER S. MOORE, who occupies a 
very responsible position as superintendent of 
the J. H. Melville Lumber Company at Mason 
City, Nebraska, is an experienced lumber man 
and is one of Mason City's energetic and pub- 
lic-spirited citizens. Mr. Moore was born on 
a fann near Sullivan, Aloultrie county, Illi- 
nois, February 29, 1880, and is a son of Joshua 
C. Moore, of whom specific mention is made 
on other pages of this volume. 

From 1887 until 1896, \N'alter S. Moore 
lived in the vicinity of Broken Bow, Nebraska, 
attending school there and working on a fami. 
Thereafter he lived on a farm and was en- 
gaged in agricultural industries exclusively 
until 1903. He then went as far west as 
Oregon, where he learned something of the 
lumber trade, while working for a furniture 
company, and after returning to Broken Bow 
he engaged in the lumber business there. He 
continued his activities at Broken Bow from 
February^ 1907, until February, 1909, when 
he came to Mason City. Here he took charge 
of the business of the G. L. Turner Lumber 
Company, which is now operated under the 
style of the J. H. Melville Lumber Company, 
and he now has entire charge of the plant. 
He is a keen, capable business man, and no en- 
terprise in this line is doing a larger or more 
profitable business here. 

Mr. Moore was married in 1908, to Miss 
Ella Green, who was born in Kansas. Her 
father, the late Col. J. T. Green, who died at 
Broken Bow, was a veteran of the Civil war 
and was one of Broken Bow's citizens of ample 
means. 

Mr. Moore has been more or less active in 
civic affairs ever since locating in Mason 
City. He has served usefully and efficiently 
on the town board and at present is town 
clerk. He votes independently, and frater- 
nally he is an Odd Fellow. Both he and his 
wife are members of the Christian church. 
They have no children. 



JOHN .A. SNYDER, whose valuable ranch 
and beautiful home are located in Custer 
county, has lived here for a quarter of a cen- 
tury and has one of the best cultivated farms 
in this entire section of the state. He has led 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



887 



an active, vigorous life ever since early man- 
hood, and his reminiscences of cowboy life arc 
not only interesting but also historical. Mr. 
Snyder was born near Jefferson City, Mis- 
souri, December 10, 1863. His parents were 
John N. and Barbara (Grogan) Snyder, both 
of whom were born in Cole county, Mis- 
souri, their children having been seven in 
number — Peter, John A., Mrs. Margaret 
Uling, Andrew M., Charles B., Mrs. Mamie 
Mullins (deceased), and Clara (deceased). 

When John A. Snyder was nine years old 
his parents came to Nebraska. His father 
had served over four years as a soldier in the 
Union army through the Civil war. When 
he came to Nebraska John N. Snyder settled 
twenty-two miles north of Fremont, which 
was the nearest railroad town and supply 
depot for a long period afterward. The 
country was yet in a wild condition and the 
hunting of wild animals was largely engaged 
in. Young John became a successful trap- 
per in boyhood and on one occasion caught 
three minks in his traps. These he sold to a 
neighbor for forty cents apiece, although he 
learned later that he could have obtained for 
the skins two and one-half dollars each in 
Fremont. He consoled himself with the 
thought that a tramp of forty-four miles to 
and from Fremont, would not have been a 
pleasure trip, even to make a better business 
bargain. 

Mr. Snyder grew up strong and hardy, and 
he was only thirteen years of age when he 
came with David Rankin to the Bar-7 ranch, 
on the Middle Loup river, one and one-half 
miles east of the present town of Seneca. He 
was already a fearless horseman, and his first 
venr's work was riding a range some 200 
miles in circumference. He remained with 
the Bar-7 ranch until he was twenty-two years 
old. In 1893, haviu'r married several years 
previouslv and desiring a settled home,' he 
came to Custer county and located three miles 
south of Oconto, where he has continued ever 
since. He owns 480 acres here, has placed 
180 acres under a high state of cultivation and 
has put improvements on the place until it is 
in everv wav a desirable rural home, while its 
proximity to Oconto, but three miles distant, 
gives town advantages. 

Mr. Snyder was married in June, 1891. at 
Nonpareil. Nebraska, to R'liss Sarah Fritz, 
who was born in Favette countv. Iowa, and 
who is a daughter of Harriet S. (Weaver) 
Hassler. her mother's second marriaee havin? 
been with Harr\f Hassler and both havinof been 
bom in Pennsylvania. Mr. and Mrs. Snyder 
have two daughters : Mabel is the wife of 
Harry Hodson of Deertrail, Arapahoe county. 



Colorado, and they have two daughters ; and 
Blanche remains with her parents. Miss 
Blanche Snyder is highly accomplished, being 
a graduate of the Fremont Normal School, and 
also of a business college at Broken Bow. 
She is proficient in music, and teaches the 
same. Air. Snyder has never been specially 
active in politics but has always voted the Re- 
publican ticket and has done his duty in up- 
holding the law and furthering public im- 
provements. 



BENJAMIN P. MORRIS, who has ac- 
cumulated about 200 acres of land since com- 
ing to Nebraska, has passed his active career 
as a farmer in Custer county, having arrived 
in this locality in 1883. He is now one of the 
substantial men of the Ansley community and 
has not only been successful as an agricul- 
turist, but has also been an active factor in 
public affairs and for a long time rendered 
his fellow citizens excellent service as an of- 
fice-holder. 

Mr. Morris was born in Henry county, 
Ohio, July 15, 1857, a son of John W. and 
Susan N. (Pindar) Morris, the former born 
at Baltimore, Maryland, and the latter in Vir- 
ginia. The parents were young people when 
they went with their respective families to 
Ohio, where their marriage occurred and 
where Mr. Morris was engaged in farming 
for a number of years, in Henry county. In 
1867, John W. Morris came to Nebraska and 
took up a homestead in Otoe county. There 
he farmed for a number of years, but in the 
evening of life he came to Custer county, 
where he and his wife made their home with 
their son Benjamin P., and where both passed 
their remaining days. They were the parents 
of eleven children, of whom seven are living: 
S. O., who is engaged in farming in the vicin- 
ity of Merna; Mrs. Anna Reed, whose home 
is located near Syracuse, Nebraska; Sue; Mrs. 
Alwilda Klein, who resides at Burr, this state; 
. Mrs. Evelyn Klein, who lives at Burchard, Ne- 
braska : and Mrs. Ella Himmelright and Mrs. 
E. M. Green, both of whom are residents of 
Custer county. Mrs. Morris was a member 
of the Presbyterian church. The father, who 
was a stanch Democrat, was quite active in 
politics and wielded considerable influence 
therein. 

Benjamin P. ■\lorris was about ten years of 
age when brought to Nebraska by his parents, 
and here his education was completed in the 
public schools of Otoe county. As a young 
man he adopted farming as his life's vocation, 
and in 1883 he came to Custer county and 
filed on a homestead, which forms a part of 



888 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'.XTV, NEBRASKA 



his present property, for since his original 
settlement he has added from time to time to 
his holdings, until he now has about 200 acres. 
He made all the improvements on his own 
farm, and they are appropriate, modem and 
substantial, reflecting the owner's good judg- 
ment, taste, industPk' and prosperity. He has 
always carried on general farming, and has 
also raised considerable stock, and in both de- 
partments he has met with the success that his 
energj' and good management have merited 
and warranted. In business circles his word i'. 
held as good as a bond, and he has always 
kept his reputation inviolate. Like his father, 
he is a strong and unfaltering Democrat, and 
has taken some interest in political affairs in 
the past. During the sixteen years that he 
sen-ed as a member of the board of county 
supenisors he gave his fellow citizens fine and 
constructive service, and in 1914 he retired 
from that body with a splendid record. Mr. 
Morris has never married. 



CARL E. BOWMAN. — One of the pro- 
gressive young farmers and stock men of Cus- 
ter cc'inty who is now engaged in the real- 
estate business, is Carl E. Bowman, of Broken 
Bow. Mr. Bowman was born April 7, 1883, 
in Cass county, Nebraska. His father was 
-Abraham D. Bowman, and his mother's maiden 
name was Ella M. Bethel. His parents immi- 
grated to Custer county in 1885, when Carl 
was but two years of age. The first Custer 
home was the regulation "soddy," with brush 
and sod roof, supported by a large cedar log. 
nearly two feet in diameter and twentv-five 
feet in length. This log made an impression 
upon the boy's mind, and is to this day closelv 
associated with his childhood. Like most of 
the primitive dwellings, this pioneer domicile 
had no floor and no more windows than were 
absolutely necessary. Carl claims that there 
were stormy days when the roof leaked and 
the only dry place where he could perch was 
under the ridge pole. He grew up in Custer 
county, imbibed tlie spirit of the west, and earlv 
formed the western practice of trading and 
cattle dealing. On a pony that his father pur- 
chased for him, Carl E. Bowman commenced 
his career bv herding cattle on the prairie, in 
the davs before pasture fences were fashion- 
ab'e. 

The first money that he ever picked up by 
individual eft'ort was for carrying cedar chips 
from the canyon. For this service his mother 
])aid him thirty-five cents. He invested the 
entire amount in candy and .stuck to tlie sack 
until he had eaten the last piece. He claims 



to like candy still, but asserts that he does not 
now buy it for himself in such quantities. 

The occupation of herding is one that tends 
to make a boy an expert horseman and atf'ords 
him splendid opportunity to practice with rifle 
or revolver. Accordingly, young Carl became 
a good rider and a splendid marksman. He 
lived in the day when broncho-busting was the 
sport of the '"Wild and W'ooly West," and on 
picnic occasions and Fourth of July celebra- 
tions all the youths of the country were there 
with their "bad horses." and riding the broncho 
was the principal program of the day. 

Carl narrates that on one occasion when he 
and John Christy were holding a bunch of cat- 
tle which Carl's father had purchased of a 
neighbor, Thomas Christy, that he proposed 
to ride a two-year-old bull which seemed to 
be head and boss of the herd the boys were 
holding. Young Christy agreed to lead the 
bull, and the operation of lassoing was soon 
performed. The bull was drawn up close to 
the saddle-horse and Carl, getting close 
enough, sprang on to its back. Then young 
Christy thought it was time for the show to 
commence. He loosened the rof)e from the 
saddle horn and threw it toward the bull, with 
a whoop that would have done credit to an 
Apache Indian. That was the signal for the 
start. Away went the bull, headed for home, 
paying no attention whatever to speed limits 
and hitting only the high places in the prairie. 
Carl's horsemanship and riding ability stood 
him in good need. He clung on for dear life 
and succeeded in staying on the animal's back. 
Young Christy, seeing the terrific speed with 
which the bull made for home, followed quick- 
ly on his pony, but was not able to stop the 
runaway until the animal had reached the home 
where it had been raised. There it stopped, 
almost exhausted, and Carl had opportunity 
to alight in regulation form. For a rough ride, 
Carl says that the bull has a "Ford" car beaten 
a country block. 

Mr. Bowman made good as a cattle man and 
trader, as a farmer and stock-raiser. He now 
resides in Broken Bow and is doing a good 
real-estate business. He is the junior member 
of the firm of Bowman & Bowman. He is 
married to an amiable lady and his family con- 
sists of himself, wife, and one child. He and 
his wife have a host of friends, and still young 
in years, their lives are. for the major part, 
before them. Mr. Bowman is affiliated with 
the Masonic fraternity, including the Eastern 
Star, and he has passed all of the official chairs 
in the lodge of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, besides holding membership in tlie 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



889 




Carl E. Bowman 



890 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. XEBR.\SKA 



adjunct organization, jhe Daughters of Re- 
bekah. 



THORNTON S. CROSLEY, SR. — With 
his venerable head touched by the snows of 
eighty years and his strong face and capable 
hands bronzed by the sun which has beat upon 
almost as many harvesting seasons. Thornton 
S. Crosley is to-day a striking illustration of ,\ 
life well lived, of activities properly directed, 
and of a career spent in co-operation and com- 
munion with the forces of nature. He was a 
homesteader to Custer county in the year 1883 
and has been a successful farmer and raiser of 
live stock, being at the present time the owner 
of 400 acres of valuable land. 

Mr. Crosley was born in Hampshire county, 
Virginia (now West Virginia), October 13, 
1838, and is a son of Joseph and Mar>' (Thras- 
her) Crosley, the fomier born in \'irginia and 
the latter in Pennsylvania. The parents were 
married in Virginia, w-here the father died 
after a career passed as a farmer and tanner, 
while as a voter he had been a Whig. After 
his demise his widow removed with her chil- 
dren to a farm in Iowa and there passed the 
remaining years of her life. She was a faith- 
ful member of the Baptist church. Of the ten 
children, only Thornton S. sur\'ives. Mr. 
Crosley received his education in the public 
schools of his native state, and was still a 
youth when he' accompanied his mother and 
the other children to Iowa. There his real 
career began on a farm, but when he reached 
manhood he chose mercantile pursuits for his 
life work and for a time was proprietor of a 
general store in Iowa, in addition to which 
he acted in the capacity of postmaster. When 
hostilities between the north and the south 
culminated in the outbreak of the Civil war, 
Mr. Crosley enlisted in Company I. Twenty- 
first Iowa Volunteer Infantry, with which he 
served almost three years, participating in 
some of the hardest fought engagements of 
the Civil war. including X'icksburg and Mo- 
bile. He received his honorable discharge 
after a service marked by a splendid record, 
and returned to his home, where he once again 
took up the reins of business. In 1883 Mr. 
Crosley migrated to Custer county and located 
his claim, but did not remain at that time. In 
1884 he came out again, this time with one 
son. and built a sod house, and in 1885 he 
brought his family here. From then to the 
present he has devoted himself without cessa- 
tion to farming and stock-raising activities, 
and in both lines he has been rewarded by con- 
stantly increasing success. In the meantime 
he has added to the improvements and build- 



ing on his farm, which now consists of 400 
acres, and in 1903 he erected a comfortable 
house, which has all modern conveniences. 
Mr. Crosley is greatly respected in his com- 
munity, where he has always been found a man 
of the highest integrity and strictest probity. 
He has taken an active part in civic affairs, 
and has assisted in the administration of gov- 
ernmental matters in the capacities of justice 
of the peace and town clerk, in both of which 
ofiices he has established a record for con- 
scientious, efficient and expeditious ser\-ice. 
His political faith is that of the Democratic 
party and his religious faith that of the 
United Brethren church, which he attends at 
Broken Bow. Mr. Crosley has never for- 
gotten his old army friends, and is a valued 
comrade of the local post of the Grand Army 
of the Republic. 

While a resident of Iowa, in 1857, Mr. Cros- 
ley was united in marriage to Miss Lucinda 
Holcomb, who died in ^larch, 1864, leaving 
one son, Joseph Siegel Crosley. In 1866 Mr. 
Crosley was again married, being united with 
Miss Margaret A. Hunter, who was born in 
Christian county, Illinois, a daughter of James 
Hunter, a farmer who died in the Prairie 
state. Eight children were born to this union, 
of whom four are living: H. L., a merchant 
of Mason City ; Thornton S., Jr., engaged in 
farming in Custer county: Jennie T., the wife 
of Pern,- Smith, a farmer of Upton, Wyoming; 
and Richard N., residing on the farm with 
his parents. 

JOHN E. CAVENEE. — The name which 
initiates this paragraph is one that guarantees 
both the character and standing of the man to 
whom it belongs — at least this is assured in 
the estimate of the old settlers of Custer county. 

John E. Cavenee claims the Buckeye state 
as the place of his nativity. He was born 
within twenty miles of Zanesville. and not 
far from Lexington. Ohio, and the date of his 
birth was July 29. 1851. He is a son of Patrick 
and Mary (Montgomery) Cavenee. excellent 
folk who ever commanded unqualified ]X>pular 
esteem. Patrick Cavenee was born in Bedford 
county. Penn.Mlvania, on the same day that 
.Abraham Lincoln came into the world, and 
thus he continued in a special sense the con- 
temporary of the martyred president until the 
latter came to his tragic death. 

John E. Cavenee has given virtually his en- 
tire active life to the great basic industries 
of agriculture and stock-raising, through the 
medium of which he has achieved worthy suc- 
cess and provided a competency for the pro- 
verbial "rainv dav." In his native state he 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



891 




John E. Cavenee 



892 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



was reared to the age of five years, when lie 
accompanied his parents on their removal to 
Iowa, the family becoming pioneer settlers in 
Henry county, that state. The subject of this 
review was thus reared under the conditions 
and intlucnces that marked the pioneer era in 
the history of the llawkeye state, and there he 
gained his youthful education in the common 
schools of the i)eriod. His training in school 
and in connection with the jiioneer farm proved 
specially prolific in the development of that 
experience and those sterling- qualities that 
have been of inestimable value to him in his 
independent activities and business affairs in 
later years. 

Mr. Cavenee came to Custer county in the 
spring of 1878, and here he became one of the 
early settlers of the South Loup region. He 
recognized the opportunities here otTered. and 
thus he was led to secure homestead, pre-eni])- 
tion, and tree claims and become the owner of 
land that is to-day very valuable. The early 
days brought their hardships and trials — ex- 
periences that will never be forgotten by those 
to whom they came. The first home of Mr. 
Cavenee was the regulation sod house — very 
appropriate for the time and place in which 
it was built. From the first Mr. Cavenee gave 
particular attention to cattle, and he was thor- 
oughly imbued with the belief that it was es- 
sentially profitable to raise the best possible 
grades of all kinds of live stock produced on 
the farm. Accordingly his breeding stock was 
always marked by purple blood of fine selec- 
tion. Thus he early gained reputation as a 
progressive and successful cattle and general 
live-stock man. His ])rimitive holdings of the 
early days were augmented until the f.nrm home 
and stock farm grew to 1.040 acres, and this 
valuable landed estate lie held intact until a 
short time ago, when he sold 400 acres. 

In the early spring of 18''0 was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Cavenee to Mrs. .'Mice !M. 
Wright, who has proved a devoted comjxinion 
and helpmeet and shared with him in the bless- 
ings and sorrows that the intervening years 
have brought in their train. Of the two chil- 
dren one is deceased, and the survivor, Paul E., 
is a representative young farmer who is made 
the subject of individual mention on other 
pages of this volume. 

Mr. Cavenee has been a true apostle of civic 
and industrial deveIo])ment and progress in the 
county that has long been his home and in 
which he is held in unequivocal po])ular es- 
teem. He has been influential in community 
affairs and was for eight years a member of 
the county Ixiard of supervisors, while his was 
the distinction of having been a member of the 



first grand jury empaneled in the countv. He 
is afliliated with the Ancient ( Jrder of United 
Workmen and has been prominent and influ- 
ential in its local lodge. He and his wife are 
affiliated with the Presbvterian church. 



JOHN CHERRY, Sr., who is one of the 
substantial exponents of farm enterprise in the 
southern part of Custer county, with mail ser- 
vice on one of the rural routes out of Sumner, 
is consistently entitled to pioneer honors in 
Nebraska, in which state he has maintained 
his residence since 1884, the while he has main- 
tained his home in Custer county for somewhat 
more than thirty years. 

Mr. Cherry was born in Iowa countv, \\"is- 
consin, on the l()th of December. IS5(). and is 
a son of Joseph and Amelia ( Killian) Cherry, 
who were sterling pioneers of the Badger state. 
This worthy couple became the parents of nine 
children and four of the number are living in 
Nebraska — Thomas, who is a resident of 
Furnas county; Mrs. Sarah \\'illiams. who re- 
sides in Nuckolls county ; John, who is the 
immediate subject of this sketch ; and George, 
who is a resident of Sartoria, Buffalo county. 
Another of the family was the late Joseph 
Cherry, who died in Custer county and to 
whom a memoir is dedicated on other pages 
of this work. 

John Cherry was reared and educated in 
Wisconsin, and there he gained youthful ex- 
perience in connection with farm industrv. He 
continued his residence in Wisconsin until 
1882, and spent two years in Woodbury coun- 
ty, Iowa, before coming to Nebraska, where 
he first located in Box Butte county. There, 
in the year 1891. was solemnized his marriage 
to Miss .Mice Watts, a daughter of the late 
John Watts, and soon after their life destinies 
were thus joined, the young couple set forth 
for Custer couuty. fortified with the courage, 
self-reliance, and ambition that enabled them 
to face the trials and responsibilities of pioneer 
life. Upon their arrival their material posses- 
sions were mainly represented in the pair of 
broncho mules which had afforded them trans- 
portation to the new home. Notwithstanding 
their financial handicap, they girded themselves 
earnestly for the work of developing and im- 
proving the land which they obtained in this 
county, and the pa.ssing years have awarded 
them with a goodly measure of success and 
pros]>erity. Their attractive farm home, in 
section 27. townshij) 13, range I'X bears evi- 
dence of the success which has been theirs, for 
the place has excellent buildings, including a 
pleasant and commodious residence, and has 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



893 



its due coni])lenient of horses, cattle, and hogs 
— ■ all coiiibiniiiij;- to give evidence of what may 
be achieved through well directed energy and 
determined effort. Mr. Cherry now owns a 
well improved landed estate of 440 acres, and 
the property is splendidly adapted to progress- 
ive agricultural and stock-raising enterprise. 

Loyal and public-spirited as a citizen, Mr. 
Cherry has had no desire for ptjlitical activity 
or public office, but he is found aligned as a 
supporter of the cause of the Democratic party. 
He and his family hold the faith of the Pres- 
byterian church. Mr. and Mrs. Cherry have 
five children — Anna, John William, Teddy, 
Carl, and Marcus — and all possess the ster- 
ling characteristics which have brought success 
and good repute to the parents, who command 
unqualified popular esteeni. 



FRANK DOBESH. — Living in well de- 
served retirement, in a comfortable home in 
Ansley, will be found Frank Dobesh and his 
family, who have been residents of Custer 
county since 1881, and he has been one of 
those successful farmers of the county who 
have been splendid contributors to the present- 
day wealth and resources of the common- 
wealth. 

Frank Dobesh is the-third in order of birth 
of the thirteen children born to Thomas and 
Josephine (Jobe) Dobesh. The parents were 
l)orn, reared and married in Moravia, Aus- 
tria, and came to this country, with their 
six children, in 1871. On other pages the 
sketch of Anton Dobesh gives further data 
concerning the family history. 

Frank Dobesh was born in the province of 
Moravia, r)ctober 19, 1862, and was nine years 
old when brought by his parents to Saunders 
county, Nebraska. The family sailed on the 
"Columbia" from Breemen to Baltimore, and 
spent fourteen days on the sea. Mr. Dobesh 
came to Custer county in 1881, his eldest 
brother having already taken up a homestead, 
and here he secured a homestead for himself, 
— the northwest quarter of section 12. town- 
ship 14. range 19. Since that time he has 
made this place his home. For thirty years 
he has owned the place, and has improved it 
and added to it until now he is the owner of 
vast acres of land, and has large cattle inter- 
ests. The first dwelling of the family was a 
sod house, but in after years, when prosperity 
had come to them, the sod house was vacated 
and a splendid farm home of eight rooms 
erected to take its place. 

In February, 1885, Mr. Dobesh married 



Mary, daughter of John and Mary (Delbelka) 
Jelivek, who came from Bohemia to America 
in 1864. They lived here ten months, and then 
took up a home in Saunders county. To the 
union of Mr. and Mrs. Dobesh five children 
were born: Mary, is the wife of Joseph Or- 
chard, and they live on the old homestead of 
Mr. Dobesh; and Charlie, Arthur, Grace, and 
Emil all remain at the parental home. 

Mr. and Mrs. Dobesh can well afford the re- 
tirement and rest upon which they have en- 
tered, and they have a host of friends who are 
glad to see them so well and favorably lo- 
cated, and who, while extending congratula- 
tions, wish for them many years of comfort 
and life enjoyment. 



CHARLES C. FISHER. — One of the en- 
ergetic, successful farmers living in the vicinity 
of Mason City, from which place the rural 
carriers bring his mail, is Charles E. Fisher. 
His life story commenced April 22, 1850, at 
which time he first saw the light of day, in 
Gallia county, Ohio. He is a son of Isaac and 
Sarah (Fisher) Fisher, both of whom sprung 
from old Virginia stock. 

Isaac Fisher immigrated to Ohio in 1848, 
and his future wife was twelve years of age 
when her parents established their home in 
the Buckeye state, some time in the '30s. 
Isaac and Sarah Fisher became the parents of 
thirteen children, eight of whom are still liv- 
ing, the subject of this sketch being, however, 
the only one of the family who lives in Custer 
county. The parents moved back to that ])art 
of Virginia which at that time had become 
West Virginia, and there they passed the re- 
mainder of their lives. The father's occupa- 
tion was that of a carpenter, and he was rated 
a very fine workman. He was a member of 
the Free Will Baptist church, and in politics 
he affiliated with the Democratic party. Isaac 
Fisher's father was Solomon Fisher, who was 
a native of Holland. This grandsire immi- 
grated to the United States and settled in Vir- 
ginia. The maternal grandfather of Charles 
C. Fisher was John Fisher, who died in Ohio. 

In the old Buckeye state Charles C. Fisher 
received his early education in the common 
schools, and there he laid the foundation of 
that mental structure which has served him 
so well in a business way in all his farm trans- 
actions, and by which he has come to be de- 
servedly rated as one of the intelligent and 
broad-minded citizens of Custer county. 

Mr. Fisher left West Virginia in 1883 and 
came directly to Custer county, where he 



894 



HISTORY i)F CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



893 



homesteaded a quarter-section of land and 
built the sod house in which he began his ca- 
reer in this county. 

In 1881 Mr. Fi'sher wedded Miss Laura J. 
Amsberry, a daughter of Francis Amsberry, 
who became a pioneer homesteader of Custer 
county. To this union were born four chil- 
dren : Dore Alena is the wife of Henry Kel- 
ler and they live near Mason City ; Delia Al- 
berta is the wife of William Smith and they 
reside at Seattle, Washington ; Chester, at the 
time of this writing, is in France, he having 
entered the military service of his country^ in 
November, 1917; Leander, the youngest of 
the children, is at home and is assisting on the 
farm. 

On the splendid rural estate of Charles C. 
Fisher is to be found an elegant farm resi- 
dence, which was built in 1912, and in which 
the family is at the present time comfortably 
and happily domiciled. Mixed farming op- 
erations are carried on. Fifty head of cattle 
constitute the average farm herd. The fann- 
ing and stock-raising operations are conducted 
under the title of Fisher & Son. Aside from 
the grain and stock farming, Mr. Fisher and 
his son run a small dairy with twelve cows. 
Mr. Fisher relates that when he reached Cus- 
ter county and had filed on his land he had a 
wife and one child and fifty cents in money. 
The splendid home and farm equipment — the 
property and everything that represents 
wealth — have been accumulated since that 
time. 

Mr. Fisher is a member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows, is independent in poli- 
tics, and he and his family enjoy the confidence 
and respect of the entire community. 



EDMOND J. A\'IS'. — The agriniltural in- 
terests of Custer county find a worthv repre- 
sentative in the gentleman whose name intro- 
duces this record and who for twentv-s'x vears 
has successfully conducted farming operations 
here. 

Mr. Avis was born in Cumberland county, 
Illinois, February 26, 1865. His father, Col- 
bert Avis, was a native of Ohio, and became a 
farmer of St. Clair county, Illinois, where he 
resided until 1884. He then became a resident 
of Saunders county, Nebraska, where he spent 
the remainder of his davs. The mother of our 
subject was Margerv ( Rryan) Avis. She was 
a distant relative of AMlliam Jennings Bryan, 
and she passed away in Illinois. 

Edmond J. Avis was a young man of nine- 
teen years when he first came to Nebraska, and 
he made a trip to Custer connty that year, but 
he returned to Saunders county, where he re- 



mained until 1892, when he again came to Cus- 
ter county, where he bought land. He has re- 
sided on his present farm for the past fifteen 
years, this being a valuable tract of 240 acres, 
in section 24, township 17, range 23. The 
[iroperty was unimproved when it came into 
his possession, but he has erected substantial 
buildings, has made other excellent improve- 
ments, and successfully carries on general 
farming. 

For a wife and helpmeet, Mr. Avis chose 
Miss Theodosia Calbreath, a native of St. 
Clair county, Illinois, and they have a family 
of four children, all of whom are still under 
the parental roof. Their names are Arthur, 
Ethel, Clarence, and Maud. The family are 
members of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
and in politics Mr. Avis is a Democrat. Though 
he has never aspired to nor held public office, 
he has rendered efficient service as a member 
of the school board, the cause of education 
finding in him a stalwart champion. Pioneer 
conditions were still in evidence when Mr. 
Avis made permanent location here, and he 
has contributed to the upbuilding of the com- 
munity in which he is held in high esteem 
by all who know him. In the words of a 
neighbor who has known him all these twenty- 
six years, he is "a dandy good fellow, a fine 
man." 



THOMAS DOBESH. — It is not necessary 
to cross the water to the European countries or 
to search through any of the eastern states in 
our own country to find the birthplace of 
Thomas Dobesh. He belongs to Custer 
county ; here he was born and bred ; here he 
was educated, grew to manhood, married, and 
established his home: and here he is one of 
the prominent citizens belonging to the genera- 
tion that is now coming into the full responsi- 
bilities of active and middle life. On the 
farm where he now lives, Mr. Dobesh was 
born August 11, 1888, and he is a son of 
Anton Dobesh, of whom extended mention is 
made on other pages. He secured the best 
possible education froin the public schools and 
very early took up farming for a life occupa- 
tion. 

In January, 1912, Mr. Dobesh married 
Bertha A. Curtis a very excellent lady who, 
like her husband, was born in this county. She 
was a daughter of W. S. Curtis, who lives 
near Algernon schoolhouse. The happiness 
of the new home was soon disturbed, for Mrs. 
Dobesh was called to her long home after a 
married life of only four years. 

Mr. Dobesh is a member of the Catholic 



896 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



church, belongs to the Non-partisan League 
and is a progressive young farmer who is 
operating one full section of land, which he 
leases from his father. He is conducting a 
general farming and stock-raising business. 
He exjjects, with ordinary luck, to market 
one hundred hogs each year. He keeps a good 
grade of cattle, having about sixty head on 
his farm throughout the entire year. Just 
such industrious, hard-working farmers are 
the present-day hoj)e and basic strength of our 
country. 



FRED AND HENRY SCHULTZE.— 
There are few existing associations that are 
productive of better results than those which 
exist between brothers in the operation of a 
business or agricultural venture, and this is 
applicable to the partnership of Fred and 
Henr\- Schultzc, who are carrying on extensive 
farming and stock-raising activities in the vi- 
cinity of Mason City. They have always been 
farmers, and in the several communities in 
which they have resided have impressed them- 
selves upon their fellow citizens as practical, 
progressive and energetic men, thoroughgoing 
masters of their vocation, and honorable fac- 
tors in the civic life of their locality. 

Fred Schultze, the elder brother, was born 
July 13, 1874, in Illinois, and Henry, the 
younger, was born October 24, 1877, in Sew- 
ard county, Nebraska. They are sons of 
Fred and Amelia (Zilke) Schultze, natives of 
Germany, the former of whom came to the 
United States at the age of five years, and the 
latter when nineteen years of age. Married 
in Illinois, the parents resided there for three 
more years, and then moved to Seward county. 
Nebraska, where their home was made for a 
quarter of a century. Subsequently Mr. 
Schultze came to Custer county and bought 
school land, and later he went to Canada, 
where he lived for some time, but eventually 
he returned to Seward county, Nebraska, and 
retired from active pursuits. He is a Repub- 
lican in his political views and he and Mrs. 
Schultze are members of the Lutheran church. 
Of their six sons and four daughters. Fred 
and Henr)" are the only ones living in Custer 
county. 

The early educational discipline of Fred 
and Henry Schultze was secured in the dis- 
trict schools of Seward county, and they were 
brought up under the training of their prac- 
tical father, who instnicted them fully in all 
the departments of agricultural work. When 
they reached manhood they began farming 
together, and on coming to Custer county, in 
1893, they purchased 320 acres of land, in the 



vicinity of Mason City — a property which 
formerly belonged to their father. Together 
they have since farmed it successfully and 
have made their farm one of the fertile and 
well improved properties of the locality. 
Their buildings are large, well kept and sub- 
stantial, their improvements and equipment 
are modern, and their stock of a good grade. 
They are men of integrity and high standing, 
and while they ha\e devoted their entire time 
to farming, and therefore have not figured 
prominently in public affairs, their are known 
as public-spirited citizens. Their political 
preference is for the Republican party's prin- 
ciples and candidates, and both are members 
of the Lutheran church. 

On Februarjf 3, 1910, Fred Schultze mar- 
ried Mrs. Mar>' (Lang) Neben. the widow 
of August Neben. and to this union there have 
been born four children : Elsie, Amelia, 
Minnie, and Arthur. Henr}- Schultze is a 
bachelor. 



JOHN A. AMSBERRY. — A resident of 
Custer county for forty years. John A. Ams- 
berry has the distinction of being the oldest 
breeder of Aberdeen-Angus cattle in the state 
of Nebraska, and few cattlemen are more 
widely or favorably known. His connection 
with stock-raising has always been of a help- 
ful and progressive character, and as president 
of the Angus Breeders Association Institute 
his broad knowledge and long experience, al- 
ways at the call of his fellow-breeders, have 
done much to encourage the industry and to 
place it upon a high plane. 

John A. Amsberr}' was bom September H, 
1850, in West \irginia, and is a son of Francis 
E. and Lucy C. (Beard) Amsberry, both na- 
tives of \'irginia. They were married in \ ir- 
ginia and came to Custer county in 1884, Mr. 
.\msberry homestcading on section 35. town- 
siiip 15, range 18, where he continued to carry 
on agricultural pursuits on his 160 acres until 
his death. He was a Republican in politics, 
and he and his wife were members of the old- 
school Baptist church. There were twelve 
children m the family, of whom ten are living: 
John A. is the subject of this review; Martha, 
twin of John A., is single and is living with 
her brother Will : Margaret is the wife of Nick 
Peterson, and they reside in Custer county ; 
Rosetta is the wife of J. N. Greenlee, a farmer 
of this county ; Laura is the wife of C. C. Fish- 
er, of this county: J. M. is an Oregon farmer; 
Mvra is the wife of Charles Amsberrry, a farm- 
er northwest of I'lrokcn Bow; Ella is the wife 
of Lou Coleman, a blacksmith of South Da- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



899 



kota; Will D. is farming near Mason City, and 
a sketch of his career will be found elsewhere 
in this work ; and Frank is operating his fa- 
ther's old homestead. 

John A. Amsljerr}' received an ordinary pub- 
lic-school education in West Virginia, and ear- 
ly learned the lessons of industry and money 
value, as, being the eldest of his father's chil- 
dren, it was necessary that he start to work 
as soon as he was old enough and to contribute 
his share to the family support. Leaving his 
native state in 1871, he came to the west and 
passed four years in Iowa, where he found em- 
ployment at farm work. In 1874 he came to 
Nebraska, and after entering and perfecting 
title to a pre-emption claim in Valley county 
he returned to Iowa, where he remained four 
years. In 1878 ]Mr. Amsberry came to Custer 
county and settled on a homestead, this county 
having continued to be his home and the stage 
of liis productive activities during the long in- 
tervening period of forty years. How suc- 
cessful he has been in his operations may be 
discerned when recognition is taken of the fact 
that he is now the owner of 1,000 acres of 
land, all made through his own efforts and 
abilities, without outside assistance. For many 
years he has been one of the leading cattlemen 
of the count}', and, as previously stated, he is 
to-day the oldest breeder of Aberdeen-Angus 
cattle in Nebraska. He generally keeps 100 
head on hand and his stock is much in de- 
mand, bringing top prices and taking many 
prizes at fairs. He is president of the Angus 
Breeders Association Institute, and has been 
a life member of the Farmers National Con- 
gress for the past fifteen years. Alfalfa is 
his principal crop, and in the raising of this 
staple he lias met with the success that his 
skill and hard work have merited. The splen- 
did improvements to be found on Mr. Ams- 
berry's property have all been put in by him, 
and the buildings are of his own erection. Mr. 
Amsberry is a Republican and a member of 
the Modern Woodmen of America, and he and 
the members of his family belong to the Bap- 
tist church. 

In September, 1880, in Iowa, Mr. Amsberry 
was united in marriage to Mi.ss Mary Buckley. 
She was born in West Virginia, a daughter 
of Frank Buckley, who was an early settler 
of Iowa and who there met an accidental death 
in the woods. Mrs. Amsberry died May 2, 
1918, leaving three children : Zadee, who is 
the wife of R. H. Duke, a druggist of Mason 
City, Nebraska ; Frank, who is associated with 
his father in his farming and stock-raising 
operations ; and Nellie, who is the wife of Will 
Dorsette, a farmer of Custer county. 



VERNON E. FLEMING. — One of the 
farmers of Custer county who is living in the 
vicinity of Mason City, and operating success- 
fully a small farm, with every indication of a 
prosperous future before him, is the young 
man whose name the title line heralds. 

Mr. Fleming was born January 28, 1887, 
and is a son of John and Rachel (McKee) 
Fleming. The Hoosier state is the place of 
his father's nativity, and Illinois is the state 
in which his mother was born. The parents 
were married in Illinois and in 1882 they 
came to Custer county, where they took a 
homestead. Mrs. Fleming died in 1907, and 
the father now makes his home with his 
daughter, Mrs. Arthur Zahn, near Mason City. 

In the parental family circle were three 
children — Pearl, the wife of Oscar Fletcher, 
died in March, 1916, at Portland, Oregon ; 
Vernon E. is the subject of this sketch ; and 
Minnie is the wife of Arthur Zahn, of Custer 
county. The father is a memljer of the Bap- 
tist church, as was also his wife, and he is a 
Socialist in politics. He served as justice of 
the peace a number of years ago. 

Vernon E. Fleming received his early edu- 
cation in the district schools of Custer county, 
attending in school district No. 71 principally. 
His early years were devoted to farming, to 
which occupation he has given his entire life. 
He lived on his mother's old homestead for 
twenty-five years and then removed to his 
present farm of 160 acres, which he pur- 
chased in 1908. He has made good improve- 
ments and developed the place into a first- 
class farm. At the time when he took the 
farm there were only ten acres broken on the 
entire place. 

October 27, 1909, recorded the marriage of 
Mr. Fleming to Rosetta A. Hauck, for 
whose family history see the Fred Hauck 
sketch in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Flem- 
ing have two sons — Loyel, bom September 
23 1910, and Clyde, born October 17, 1911. 

Mr. Fleming is a member of the Modern 
Woodmen of America. He generally votes 
the Democratic ticket and has served on 
the school board for a number of years. He 
does a general farming and stock-raising 
business, in which he has been very success- 
ful. He has full-blooded Duroc-Jersey hogs, 
and makes a success of breeding fine speci- 
mens whose lineage entitles them to place in 
the register of the society that maintains the 
records of the Duroc hogs. He and his wife 
are also making a specialty of Rhode Island 
Red chickens, and their poultry flock at feed- 
ing time presents one of the attractive fea- 
tures of farm life as the Flemings are living 
it. This is a splendid family, and, beyond 



900 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



doubt, Mr. and Mrs. Fleming have before 
them many successful years. 

HARRY A. SHERMAN, vice-president of 
the Sargent State Bank, of which he was for- 
merly president, is also a leading and prom- 
inent real-estate and insurance man of Custer 
county, has been identified with numerous 
business and financial enterprises here and 
has established a high reputation for capabil- 
ity, judgment and general acumen. His in- 
troduction to Sargent was in the role of school- 
teacher, but it was not long until he becani':' 
connected with banking afifairs, and since that 
time his rise has been sure, rapid and con- 
sistent. 

Mr. Sherman was born November 3, 1871, 
at Streator, Illinois, his parents being George 
W. and Ruth (Courtney) Shennan. A rec- 
ord of the family will be found in the sketch 
of Mrs. Ruth Sherman, which appears else- 
where in this work. The country schools of 
Custer county furnished Harry A. Sherman 
with his early education, as he was but a child 
when brought to this county, and this prelim- 
inary training was later supplemented by one 
year's attendance at the University of Ne- 
braska, at Lincoln, and a course in the Liii- 
coln Business College. Until he was twenty- 
five years of age he was engaged in farming, 
and he then went to Rochester, New York 
where for a time he was employed by the 
Rochester Railroad Company. Returning to 
Sargent, he taught school until 1902, when he 
secured a clerkship in the Farmers & Mer- 
chants Bank. In the following year that in- 
stitution was consolidated with the Custer 
County Bank, in June, 1903. and Mr. Sher- 
man was elected cashier of the new banking 
house, known under the latter name, and be- 
ing the oldest bank in the county. Later the 
Custer County Bank was reorganized, and 
Mr. Sherman was elected president, a posi- 
tion he retained until 1914. At that time 
other interests became too pressing for him 
to do full justice to his duties, and he resigned 
from the presidency, but accepted a vice- 
presidency and also became chairman of the 
board of directors of the Sargent State Bank, 
positions which he still holds. In these capaci- 
ties a great deal of the bank's policy is directed 
bv him. and his abilitv as a banker and finan- 
cier has served to make this one of the stron-j- 
est institutions in this jiart of the state. In 
1914 Mr. Sherman bought out the partnership 
of Ebenezer Miller, and entered actively into 
the real-estate and insurance business, with 
James W. Lundy as partner. He has been in- 
terested in a financial wav. more or less, with 



real-estate and insurance matters during the 
past fifteen years, and the development and 
growth of his connections made it necessary 
that he give more of his time thereto. His 
reputation in busines and financial circles is of 
the highest order, and he is frequently depend- 
upon for advice and leadership in matters of 
large importance. 

Mr. Sherman is a Republican, but has not 
sought ofticial recognition by his party, al- 
though his influence therein is marked. As a 
friend of education, however, he is serving 
efificiently as a member of the school board. 
An active worker in the Methodist Episcopal 
church, he has been prominent in its affairs, 
and belongs at this time to its building com- 
mittee. Likewise he is prominent in fra- 
ternal circles, being a Scottish Rite Mason 
and a member of the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows, in the latter of which he has 
passed all the ofticial chairs. 

Mr. Sherman was married July 10. 1902, 
to Miss Ora S. Spooner, a daughter of A. F. 
and Anna (Wilbur) Spooner, early settlers 
of Custer county. To this union there have 
come two children — Paul G., born April 26. 
1906, and Dean F., born :\Iay 31, 1908. 



JOSEPH H. CHERRY, Sr. — The life 
record of a good man who lias gone to his re- 
ward is briefly reviewed in the following me- 
moir to one who lived his life with a high sense 
of personal stewardship, who served his Master 
according to his earnest convictions, who 
reared his children in the Christian faith he 
had received from his father, and who was 
fifty-six years of age when he passed forward 
to "that undiscovered country from whose 
bourne no traveler returns." The life of Jo- 
seph H. Cherry was one of distinctive honor 
and usefulness and it is gratifying to enter in 
this publication a tribute to his memory. 

Joseph H. Cherry was born in Richland coun- 
ty, Wisconsin, on the 1st of June. 1851. and he 
passed to the life eternal on the 6th of Decem- 
ber. 1917, secure in the high regard of all who 
knew him. He was a son of Joseph and 
Amelia ( Killian ) Cherry, of whose nine chil- 
dren four are living — Thomas, who is a resi- 
dent of Furnas county. Nebraska ; John, who 
is individually mentioned on other pages of 
this publication ; Mrs. Sarah Williams, who 
lives in Nuckolls county. Nebraska : and 
George, who is a resident of Sartoria, Buffalo 
county, Nebraska. 

Tn his native state Joseph H. Cherry ac- 
quired his early educational discipline, and at 
Mifflin. \\'isconsin, was solenniized his mar- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



901 




Mr. and Mrs. Joseph H. Cherry, Sr. 



902 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



riage to his first wife, whose maiden name 
was Mary Williams. Upon coming to Ne- 
liraska he and his wife first located in Box 
Butte county, about 1876. when the Indians 
were still plentiful in that section of the state. 
In 1893 Mr. and Mrs. Cherr)' came to Custer 
county, where they located by renting the farm 
which he later purchased of Walter George, 
and upon which he was residing at the time of 
his death. After coming to the county Mr. 
Cherry was soiuewhat discouraged by the con- 
ditions that here prevailed during the memora- 
ble period of drouth in 1894-5, and in the latter 
year he removed to Nuckolls county, where 
occurred the death of his beloved wife, her 
remains being laid to rest in the cemetery at 
Nora, that county. In Nuckolls county Mr. 
Cherry rented a ranch of 800 acres, and under 
his direction all but thirty acres of this tract 
was maintained under effective cultivation. He 
there continued his successful operations as a 
grain-grower until 1902, the previous year 
having recorded his second marriage — to 
Lydia M. Kinsey, of Custer county. In 1902 he 
came with his family to Custer county, where 
he purchased the half-section of land which is 
now known as the old Cherry homestead. The 
place had but few improvements when Mr. 
Cherry became owner of the property, and 
by him were provided all of the buildings and 
other fine improvements which embellish and 
add to the value of the estate at the present 
time. For several years the family here oc- 
cupied a sod house of the primitive pioneer 
type, but with increasing prosperity this gave 
place to the present attractive and commodious 
farm residence. Mr. Cherry was a man of in- 
defatigable industry, of nature judgment, and 
of progressive policies, so that he achieved a 
large measure of success in connection with 
his farm enterprise. 

In a fraternal way Mr. Cherry was affiliated 
with the Improvecf Order of Red Men for a 
few years, but on account of hard times he 
dropped his active affiliation, but his greatest 
satisfaction was gained through the prosecu- 
tion of active Christian work and service. For 
a number of years he and his wife were con- 
nected with the Methodist church, but finally 
he and his entire family became members of 
the Presbyterian church, in which he held the 
office of elder for a period of nine years. For 
twenty-one years he was an active Christian 
and church member, and he took specially deep 
interest in the neighborhood Sunday school. 
This was a matter of much solicitude to him 
and in the period culminating in his death he 
earnestly urged his family and his neighbors 
and other friends to keep the Sunday school 



in continuous service. "Don't let it go down," 
he begged, over and again. His deep concern 
was for the school and its work, but as his life 
neared its end he was not dismayed or afraid 
for himself, for, as he stated, he knew "that 
his Savior would take care of him and that 
he would be saved." He selected the Scripture 
lesson and also the text of the sermon for his 
funeral service, the same being found in the 
twenty-fourth chapter of the gospel of Joshua, 
beginning at the fourteenth verse, and closing 
with the twenty-fourth verse, the text being a 
part of verse 15 : "Choose you this day whom 
you will serve." He also made arrangements 
for his own sons and sons-in-law to act as 
pallbearers. 

At the death of Mr. Cherry his wife was left 
well provided for, according to plans pre-ar- 
ranged by him, and she has continued to be 
devoted to the work in vihich he had proved 
so faithful. His brother John is administrator 
of the family estate, ^^'ithin the p)eriod of his 
first residence in Custer county Mr. Cherry 
assisted in the erection of the neighborhood 
schoolhouse in which the Presbyterian church 
services are now held. He gave freely of his 
influence and co-operation in the furtherance 
of public improvements and community needs, 
and for two years he was road overseer of 
Loup precinct. His political allegiance was 
given to the Republican party. He lived and 
labored to righteous ends. and. now that he has 
passed away, his influence remains as a bene- 
diction upon all who came within its gracious 
sphere. 

On the 17th of July. 1901. was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Cherrry to Lydia, a daugh- 
ter of John A. Jennings, in whose personal 
sketch, on other pages of this work, is given 
adequate record concerning the family. Mrs. 
Cherry proved to her husband a devoted com- 
panion and helpmeet and since his death she is 
sustained and comforted by the hallowed mem- 
ories of their gracious association in the years 
that have passed. Mr. Cherry and his first 
wife became the parents of eleven children, of 
whom the wife and six children passed over 
to await his arrival in glorj- and five children 
survive the honored father, namely : Mrs. 
Elizabeth Jane (Cherry) Watts, Joseph H. 
Cherry, Jr., Hester .Ann Cherry, Mrs. Mary 
Alice (Cherry) Morgan. John \\'illiams Cher- 
ry. Jr- 

JOHN H. HANN.\ is a citizen whom mis- 
fortune has visited as the result of an acci- 
dent with which he met in 1906, since which 
time he has been virtually incapacitated, though 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



903 



he is a man in the very prime of life. In the 
autumn of the year mentioned above, Mr. 
Hanna was severely injured by a fall from 
a windmill tower on his fine farm, and he 
has never recovered from the effects of this 
deplorable accident. He is thus unable to 
give his personal and direct attention to 
business affairs or the active management of 
his farm, but he is favored in having a wife 
whose capacity for business is marked and 
who, with the assistance of their children, is 
effectively continuing the direction of the 
farm activities, the while Mr. Hanna is as- 
sured of the sympathy and good will of the 
community in which he was winning prece- 
dence as a farmer at the time when he en- 
countered his deplorable accident. It is pleas- 
ing to accord him recognition in this history 
and also to pay a merited tribute to Mrs. 
Hanna. 

Mr. Hanna was born in the state of Iowa, 
on the 6th of October, 1874, and is a son of 
Septimus E. and Julia (Thomas) Hanna, the 
former of whom was born in Chester county, 
Pennsylvania, and the latter of whom was 
born on an island in beautiful Lake Cham- 
plain. The parents of Mr. Hanna became 
residents of Custer county, Nebraska, in the 
spring of 1882, and thus they gained pioneer 
honors in this county, where they stiil re- 
side. Their children are eight in number — 
Mrs. B. G. Evans, Mrs. Grant Turnbull, John 
Henry, Leroy, Mrs. Robert Beauchamp, Os- 
car, Howard, and Stanley. 

John Henry Hanna acquired his rudimen- 
tary education in the schools of his native 
state, but he was about eight years of age 
when the family home was established in 
Custer county. Here he attended the pioneer 
schools and here also he gained full fellow- 
ship with the practical work of the home 
farm. Thus he was amply fortified in exper- 
ience when he instituted his independent acti- 
vities as a farmer. After their marriage he 
and his wife established a home of their own, 
and by assiduous application and good man- 
agement they succeeded in making a splendid 
farm of 380 acres the stage of their effective 
operations. This fine farm, to the work and 
management of which Mr. Hanna gave his 
personal supervision until incapacitated, as 
noted in a preceding paragraph, is situated 
on West Table, twelve miles west of Broken 
Bow. Of the tract 150 acres are under ef- 
fective cultivation and the place is devoted to 
diversified agriculture and stock-growing. 

On the 20th of Tune, 1897, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Hanna to Miss Irena 
Mabel Philipsen, who was born near Spring- 



field, Illinois, but who has been a resident of 
Custer county since her early childhood. Mr^ 
Hanna is a daughter of John Jacob Philipsen 
and Mary Amanda (Stone) Philipsen, the for- 
mer of whom was born in Dantzic. Prussia, 
May 15, 1837, and the latter of whom was 
born in Wabash county, Illinois. Mr. Philip- 
sen was a young man when he immigrated to 
America, and for several years thereafter he 
was identified with farm enterprise in Illinois, 
where his marriage occurred. Not many 
years after the birth of his daughter Irena 
M. (Mrs. Hanna) he came from Piatt county, 
Illinois, to Nebraska, and established himself 
as a pioneer farmer in Custer county. He 
was one of the prosperous and honored citi- 
zens of the county and contributed his share 
to social and industrial progress. The death 
of Mr. Philipsen occurred May 3, 1911, his 
wife having passed away February 8, 1893. 
Of the family of fourteen children, the nine 
who attained to maturity are here mentioned : 
Mrs. Ella Longfellow, Mrs. Augusta Hargett, 
Edmund F., Mrs. Elizabeth Dagan (de- 
ceased), John J., Mrs. Rosetta .Hanna, Mrs. 
Irena M. Hanna, William O., and Mrs. Annie 
L. Brown. 

Mrs. Hanna was reared on the old home 
farm of her parents, and acquired her early 
education in the public schools of this county, 
the while her devoted mother did not fail 
to instruct her well in the domestic arts and 
duties. She remained at the paternal home 
until her marriage, and since her husband be- 
came afflicted she has shown herself well 
qualified for the added responsibilities that 
have fallen upon her in connection with the 
operations of their farm and all incidental 
business. They are highly esteemed citizens 
and Mrs. Hanna is a popular factor in the so- 
cial activities of her home community, with a 
circle of friends that is limited only by that 
of her acquaintances Of the six children of 
Mr. and Mrs. Hanna five are living, and con- 
cerning them the following brief record is 
consistently entered in conclusion of this 
sketch: Guy E., who was born March 3, 
1898, and who resides on and assists in the 
management of the home farm, was in the 
final draft of young men to be called to mili- 
tarv service in the world war, which came to a 
close before he was summoned for preliminary' 
training; and the younger children likewise 
remain at the parental home, their names and 
respective dates of birth being as follows — 
Floyd H., Tanuarv 1, 1900; Septimus E., 
March 7, 1901 ; Ralph H., July 20, 1906; and 
Iva Mae, October 5, 1909. 



904 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



THOMAS CONDON. — Among those who 
were early settlers of Custer county and who 
for years contributed to the upbuilding of the 
community was the sterling pioneer whose 
name introduces this memoir. 

Thomas Condon was born at Shanagolden, 
County Limerick, Ireland, November 10, 1846. 
He came to America when a young man. but 
after remaining here two years he returned to 
his native land and after two years spent there 
he again took a noteworthy voyage, — this 
time going to New Zealand, where he re- 
mained seven years. By way of California and 
across the continent he finally came to Omaha, 
Nebraska, and in the early '80s he came to 
Custer county and took a homestead of 160 
acres in sections 5 and 8 of township 18, range 
22. His first home was a sod house and he 
had the usual hardships and experiences that 
fell to the lot of the early-day pioneers of the 
county. He was successful as a fanner and 
to his original tract he added 160 acres adjoin- 
ing. The old sod house was replaced with a 
frame dwelling and he continued in the cul- 
tivation of his land until his death, which oc- 
curred Jaiuiar}' 2. 1909. 

On the 1st of June, 1895, was solemnized 
the marriage of Mr. Condon to !Miss Mary 
Maroney, who was born at Trenton. New Jer- 
sey, a daughter of IMartin and Mary (Daugh- 
erty) Alaroney. !Mr. and ]\Irs. Condon be- 
came the parents of two children, Mary Ellen 
and Thomas, who are at home with their moth- 
er. The family are communicants of the Cath- 
olic church. In the death of Thomas Condon 
the community lost a representative citizen and 
his immediate family a loving husband and 
father. 



MRS. RUTH SHER:**IAN, who possesses 
the unique distinction of having been the first 
postmistress of the Sargent community of 
Custer county, although there was no town 
here by the name at that time, was one of 
the earliest settlers of this region, coming in 
1879, when there were no houses in the valley 
and but three or four dug-outs to give evi- 
dence of human habitation. It has been her 
fortune and privilege to witness and partici- 
pate in the great changes which have taken 
place during a period of forty years and to 
have accomplished her share in the develop- 
ment of one of the great counties of an im- 
portant commonwealth. 

Mrs. Sherman was born January 28, 1844, 
at Morgantown, West Virginia (then Vir- 
ginia), a daughter of William and Amy 
(Gapen) Courtney, the former a native of 



Morgantown, and the latter of Greensboro, 
Pennsylvania. In 1859 the father, who was a 
farmer, took the family to Missouri, but two 
years later the Civil war came on and, as the 
sympathies of the Courtneys all rested with 
the Union, matters became so unpleasant for 
them in that state that they disposed of their 
interests there and moved to Illinois. That 
state continued to be their home until 1880, 
when they came to Custer county and horiie- 
steaded close to the present site of Sargent, 
and there Mr. Courtney continued to be in- 
dustriously engaged in fanning until his re- 
tirement He moved then to Lincoln, where 
his death occurred in 1892, Mrs. Courtney fol- 
lowing him to the grave during the next year. 
They were consistent members of the Method- 
ist Episcopal church, in which Mr. Courtney 
played an important part, assisting to build the 
first church of that denomination at Sargent 
and always being a liberal contributor. He 
was an ardent Republican, and so outspoken 
was he during the troublous times immedi- 
atelv preceding the outbreak of the Civil war 
that he was classed among those who were 
known as "Black Republicans." He and his 
wife were the parents of twelve children: 
Thomas, a fanner of Palmyra, }iIissouri, who 
married Elizabeth Nicker ; W. Fletcher, a resi- 
dent of Arbela, Missouri, who married Mar- 
garet Stroh : J^Iaria L., who married D. M. 
Shaw, a cement manufacturer of Sargent; 
Ruth ; Hannah M., of Sargent, the widow of 
William Sherman ; James D., a farmer six 
miles south of Omaha, who married Itasca 
Perrin : Miller W., a coal operator of Strea- 
tor, Illinois, who married Eliza Worthington ; 
Laura H., the wife of S. W. Perrin, who for 
twenty-nine years has been superintendent of 
the State Fann. at Lincoln; Ella, is the wife 
of Levi Gapen, of Whitewater, Wisconsin ; and 
the three others are deceased. 

Mrs. Ruth Sherman received her early edu- 
cation in the public schools of \'irginia and 
Illinois, and was reared in a manner that fitted 
her admirably for the duties of a farmer's 
wife. She was married Januarv 14, 1866, at 
Sunbury, Illinois, to George W. Sherman, who 
was born at Byron, New York. September 7, 
1835, a son of Reuben and Almeda (Shedd) 
Sherman, the fomier a native of \'ermont and 
the latter of Byron, New York. In 1874 Mr. 
and Mrs. Sherman moved from their farm 
to Streator, Illinois, and in 1879 came to Cus- 
ter county and homesteaded one and one-half 
miles northeast o^ the present site of Sargent. 
There they continued to live for twenty years, 
but in the fall of 1899 Mr. Sherman retired 
from active life and the family moved to Sar- 
gent. Mrs. Shennan had the honor of being 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



905 





. ,|^^i-?''gf|^, 


f 






P^W 


^^^^^^1 


^^^^^^^^^^^^H ^E ^H^^lv 






.Wl^^^l 


^^Bk.lf 







Thomas Condon 



906 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



the tirst postmistress here, the postoffice being 
located in the family farm-house, where mail 
was delivered by stage from North Lotip 
once each week. When the village of Sar- 
gent was started, in 1883, Mrs. Sherman re- 
linquished the ofifice in favor of John Spacht. 
She is a faithful member of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, in which she has been an 
active worker. Mr. Sherman was a Repub- 
lican in politics and served as supervisor of 
Custer county for one term. He was a mem- 
ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
and was a prominent figure therein, passing all 
the official chairs and being a delegate to 
several conventions. He passed away Novem- 
ber 11, 1904, at the age of fifty-nine years. 

Mr. and Mrs. Sherman became the parents 
of two children : Nellie S. is the wife of 
Andrew F. Phillips, a banker of Sargent ; and 
Harry A., who married Ora S. Spooner, is a 
banker, real-estate operator and insurance 
man of Sargent, a sketch of his career being 
given on another page of this volume. 



JOSEPH A. HARRIS. — Living not far 
from Walworth, on what is for this day an 
extensive stock ranch, is one of the successful 
stockmen and farmers of Custer county, and 
this sterling citizen is he whose name intro- 
duces this paragraph. 

Joseph A. Harris hails from the Hoosier 
state, in which commonwealth he was born 
March 16, 18f)2. His parents were Aaron and 
Elizabeth (Winkoop) Harris, both excellent 
people and natives of the Buckeye state. 
.\aron Harris was a farmer all his life. Dur- 
ing the Civil war fie enlisted in the Union 
army, but after serving only three months he 
was discharged, on account of injuries which 
he had received and from which he died before 
he could reach his home. Of his thirteen child- 
ren only three are living at the present time 
— one resides in California, one in Oregon, 
and the third surviving child is the subject of 
this sketch. 

In 1881 Joseph A. Harris came with his 
mother to Custer county and located a home- 
stead in section 28, township 20, range 19. 
On this place he lived about nine years That 
definite and well merited success has attended 
his efforts during the intervening years is 
fully vouched for by his status at the present 
time, and he is to be designated as one of the 
progressive pioneers who have been resource- 
ful factors in the development of the splendid 
resources of Custer county, where to-day he 
is the owner of 1,120 acres of land, the most 
of which is in pasture and well stocked with 
cattle and horses, the while the building equip- 



ments and other improvements are of excel- 
lent order. 

On the 23d of September, 1890, at Taylor, 
Loup county, Nebraska, was solemnized the 
marriage of Mr. Harris to Miss Louisa M. 
Long, the estimable daughter of Mrs. Sus- 
annah Long, who was a widow at the time 
when she came to Nebraska and numbered 
herself among the pioneers of Custer county, 
her husband having died June 18. 1882. In 
the autumn of 1884 Mrs. Susannah Long, ac- 
companied by her two sons and three daugh- 
ters — Jim, Patterson, Louisa, Mattie, and 
Emma — came to Custer county, the son 
Jim, who was married at the time, having re- 
turned to Indiana about two years later, on 
account of the ill health of his wife. Mrs. 
Long, her son Patterson and her daughters 
Louisa and Mattie, all homesteaded land north 
of Walworth this county, and the other 
daughter, Emma, became the wife of John 
Stephenson, of Broken Bow. ^Ir. and Mrs. 
Harris still reside on the homestead which 
Mrs. Harris thus obtained in the j^ioneer days. 
The claims of the mother and children were 
adjoining, and by exceedingly hard work and 
the enduring of many privation.s and other 
hardships, they succeeded in holding the prop- 
erties. Jim Long took a homestead in an ad- 
joining section, and still another homestead 
was located by W. T. Morford. a brother-in- 
law of Mrs. Harris. All this gave to repre- 
sentatives of the Long family extensive land 
holdings, but of the immediate family Mrs. 
Harris is now the only one remaining in Cus- 
ter county. 

Until the time of her marriage Mrs. Harris 
made her own way and improved her claim 
to the best of her ability. At the time of her 
homesteading it was impossible for her to ob- 
tain work, so she made three difi^erent trips to 
B.jone county, this state, where she secured 
work and saved money with which to ini])rove 
her claim. She made the trips overland in 
an old-fashioned buckboard. Later she se- 
cured work in Broken Bow, at the famous 
Marble Top hotel. Her indomitable spirit 
prevailed over all obstacles and she suc- 
ceeded in her homestead enterprise. 

Mr. Harris was educated in the district 
schools of Boone county, Indiana, and has 
made splendid use of even*- advantage afforded 
him. Practically all his life has been spent in 
Custer county, and the privations and hard- 
ships incident to pioneer life are known to him 
by actual experience. He recalls that on one 
occasion a j)arty of five, consisting of himself, 
John \\'elsher, Ed. Roberts, Bruce Smith, 
and Roland Richardson, were hauling grain 
to the Stems ranch when they were overtaken 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



907 



by one of the unfriendly blizzards so well re- 
membered by the old-timers. All night long 
they had to cut green willows and keep up a 
fire with green wood, in order to keep from 
freezing to death. After getting to their 
destination they received twenty cents a 
bushel for the corn they were hauling. It 
was on this trip that they lost their water- 
bucket while trying to get water out of an air 
hole in the ice-covered river, and, with noth- 
ing with which to stir up their pancakes, they 
subsisted for the rest of the trip on cold meals. 

Into the Harris home two children were 
born : Aaron lives north of Walworth, on 
one of his father's farms. His wife's maiden 
name was Gladys Williams. James is single 
and lives at home. Susie Stephenson, a niece 
of Mrs. Harris, has made her home with her 
aunt and uncle since the death of her mother, 
February 2, 1901. 

Mr. Harris had his experience with horse 
thieves and was one of a party who tried to 
stop a man and woman who had stolen a pair 
of horses farther south in this county. The 
thieves drove across the countn- without re- 
gard to roads and when their horses became 
exhausted, at the point of a revolver thev 
compelled some farmer to exchange teams, 
and then drove on as far as they could drive 
the fresh horses. Of course the owners of 
these teams followed up the trail and secured 
their horses after the thieves had abandoned 
them. They tried to elude their pursuers by 
concealing the woman in the bottom of the 
wagon-box. It was Mr. Harris' young boys 
that saw her prostrate in the wagon and thus 
identified the parties. The thieves succeeded, 
however, in evading capture. At the time 
their trail was lost by the pursuers they were 
driving a team appropriated from Mr. Gold- 
son, who was not fortunate enough to recover 
it. 

Politically Mr. Harris afifiliates with the 
Republican party. Mr. and Mrs. Harris are 
representative citizens, are well established in 
a comfortable home and enjoy the confidence 
of their neighbors. 



JAMES B. HARTSON. — The man who 
develops a farm, maintains a home and rears 
a family, eveny^ member of which is a con- 
tribution to good citizenship, is entitled to 
equal rank with the "noblest Roman of them 
all." That is the kind of a man this story 
concerns. 

James B. Hartson was born February 9, 
1848, and is a son of Lucius D. and Elizabeth 
(Robinson) Hartson. splendid people whose 
life historv runs much the same as that of 



the major portion of the generation to which 
they belonged. Lucius D. Hartson was a na- 
tive of Connecticut, and his good wife first 
saw the light of day midst the Pennsylvania 
hills. Lucius D. Hartson, born September 8, 
1821, lived in the day when opportunities wen-. 
rare and childhood was expected to pay its 
way in manual labor from tenderest years. 
Accordingly, he was apprenticed as a boy and 
learned the machinist's trade, but this voca- 
tion being not entirely to his liking, he later 
studied veterinary surgery and made that the 
profession which he followed more or less dur- 
ing his entire life. In early life he moved to 
Pennsylvania, where he formed the acquaint- 
ance of the one who was to be his wife and 
the mother of his children, and here he led 
her to the marriage altar in 1842. Into their 
home came nine children, five sons and four 
daughters : Namon W. is deceased ; James 
B. is the successful farmer of whom we write ; 
Jerod D. lives in Charles City, Iowa ; Riley A. 
is in South Dakota ; Holley has his home in 
Nevada, Missouri ; Julia M. became the wife 
of Andrew Parker but is now a widow and 
conducts a hotel at Lemon, South Dakota : 
Elsie is the wife of T. N. Moore, of Riverton, 
Nebraska ; Lucy J. is the wife of James Cul- 
lom, of Lawrence, Kansas ; and Adelia is de- 
ceased. 

In 1860 Lucius D. Hartson moved to 
Chickasaw county, Iowa, where he followed 
farming until 1876. He then removed with 
his family to Smith county, Kansas, which 
place was then on the Kansas frontier, anrl 
there he became a successful farmer. He re- 
mained in Kansas until 1909, when he came 
to Custer county to make his home with his 
son James, the subject of this sketch, and here 
he lived until his death, in 1913. His good 
wife had preceded him to the other land by 
eleven years. Her demise occurred in Kan- 
sas. 

James B. Hartson's migrations run almost 
the same course as those of his father liefore 
him. When he was eight years of age the 
family left Pennsylvania for Wisconsin, and 
four years later they removed to Iowa. The 
education by which Mr. Hartson was enabled 
to make a success of business was received in 
the pulilic schools of Wisconsin and Iowa, 
and in the latter state he began his first farm- 
ing operations. He also inclined to the veter- 
inan' profession, and has practiced the same 
with success until the present time, in connec- 
tion with his farming and stock-raising. He 
remained in Iowa several years, when he, too, 
removed to Kansas and settled in Smith 
county, where he rented land, and continued 
to farm for seventeen years. He came north 



908 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



909 



to Nebraska and settling in Custer county in 
the spring of 1902. He immediately became 
one of the forces of the central county in Ne- 
braska, and in ever}' operation he has proved 
himself to be a "live wire." He located near 
Sargent, where he lived one year, until the 
fall of 1903, when he bought 480 acres of 
land located in section 14, township 20, range 
21, .where he now resides, engaged in active 
and successful ranching in all its dififerent 
phases, but making a specialty of stock-rais- 
ing. Not content with what stock he can 
raise, he conducts a general business of buying 
and selling cattle and hogs, horses and mules. 
He has made a decided success of these opera- 
tions, and in the last decade has laid the foun- 
dations of what a few years ago would be 
called a neat fortune. He came to Custer 
county without money and heavily in debt. 
He now owns 1,200 acres of land, on which he 
has four set of good buildings, all practically 
new. Three of the houses have full base- 
ments and are more or less modern in the in- 
ternal construction. 

The domestic and familv life of Mr. Hart- 
son began Januarv 16, 1875, when he was 
married to Miss Mary Etta Snyder, daughter 
of Thomas H. and Sarah (Brock) Snyder. 
Mrs. Hartson's father was a native of Wis- 
consin and her mother a New York lady of 
high standing. Both passed away in Septem- 
ber, 1867, leaving three daughters, mere chil- 
dren — Mrs. Hartson : Ida Maria, the wife 
of Fred Ably, now living in the state of W'ash- 
ineton ; and Mrs. Randall, now residing in 
Atlantic, Iowa. One brother died in infancv. 
Mrs. Hartson was born November 12, 1857. 

Into the splendid home maintained by Mr. 
and Mrs. Hartson has come a splendid group 
of eight bright, happy children, who are now 
assuming the responsibilities and oblieations 
of life with credit to their parents: Ralph I,, 
was born October 17, 1877: Mattie May, was 
born August 25, 1879, and is now the wife of 
John IMolesworth, of Almeria. Nebraska : 
Florence E. was born November 18, 1881, an.i 
is the wife of Samuel Marick, of Riverton, 
Franklin countv, Nebraska ; Nellie M., who 
was born May 25, 1884. is the wife of Edward 
Marick, and resides in Smith countv, Kansas : 
George Thomas, born May 22, 1889, is mak- 
ing good as a Custer countv farmer ; Marv 
A., born September 7, 1896, is the wife of 
Ravmond Renv, and lives in Custer countv.: 
Mabel Grace, horn in September. 1899, is at 
home: Virdie L.. bom March 13. 1891. died 
March 27, 1911; Ralph L. remains at home 
with his father and assists in the management 
of the ranch and stock business. 

Mr. Hartson is an independent voter, makes 



up his own political platform and votes for 
candidates who, in his judgment, are best 
fitted to serve the people. He is a member 
of the Odd Fellows lodge in Anselmo, and is 
a Universalist in religious belief. Few men 
have accomplished more in the years of their 
life, and still fewer have achieved in the last 
fifteen years what Mr. Hartson accomplished 
from a start that was less than nothing. He 
has a splendid family and is an excellent citi- 
zen. 



B. FRANK COULTER. — The story of B. 
Frank Coulter commences July 14, 1883, at 
which time he discovered America in Shelby 
county, Illinois. His father, William B. Coul- 
ter, was a Pennsylvanian, and his mother was 
Louise (Burlew) Coulter. In the father's 
family were eight children — William H. Coul- 
ter, Charles A. Coulter, Mary E. (Coulter) 
Harriger, John R. Coulter, Lambert Coulter, 
Benjamin F . Coulter (of whom this story is 
related). Nellie (Coulter) Graham, and Mabel 
( Coulter) Baker. 

Mr. Coulter's parents died when he was less 
than seven years of age. and, left alone in the 
world, he was befriended by an uncle, B. F. 
Doyle, with whom he made his home until he 
was thirteen years of age. He attended the 
common schools, worked on the farnij, did 
chores and made himself generally useful. In 
the matter of earning his first money, Mr. 
Coulter says one of his uncle's neighbors had 
a bulldog which persisted in making his home 
on the Doyle homestead. The neighbor prom- 
ised young Frank a pair of guinea hens if he 
would run the bulldog off and scare him so 
he would stay at home. This the boy under- 
took to do, and how well he succeeded is not 
recorded in history, but he got possession of 
the guineas and sold them for twenty-five cents. 
He added to this first capital by picking up 
potatoes all day for ten cents. This gave him 
a working capital of thirty-five cents, to which 
his brother donated another nickle, and the 
entire amount was invested in a pair of sheep- 
skin-lined mittens, with the result that no mat- 
ter how many times young Frank had cold 
feet that winter, his hands were alwavs warm. 

April 10. 1907, at Walnut, Iowa, Mr. Coul- 
ter was united in marriage to Catherine Gundy, 
who was born in Illinois. Mrs. Coulter's fa- 
ther, Albert Gundy, was a native of Germany. 
Her mother, ]\Iary A. ( LeRette ) Gundy, like 
herself, was a native of Illinois. In the Gundy 
family were thirteen children, ten of whom are 
living to-day: Henry, Frank E., Frederick J., 
Man' Booth, Margaret .Mlard, Catherine Coul- 



910 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



ter, Lewis A., Lucy A. Roucis. Andrew N., 
and George W. The Gundys have hehJ earn- 
estly to the faith of the Catliohc church. Mr. 
and Mrs. Coulter have four children, Ruth F.. 
Gilbert B., Lyle E., and Marjorie ^L. all of 
whom are still at home. 

Mr. and Mrs. Coulter came to Custer county 
in the early part of 1910 and for four year's 
lived on a rented farm. They then bought 325 
acres in section 5, township 16, range 22. Of 
this farm 260 acres are under cultivation and 
the place is well improved. Mr. Coulter is 
arranging to stock the farm with thoroughbred 
short-horn cattle and Duroc-Jersey hogs. He 
is one of the progressive young farmers of the 
county, a representative of the class of vigor- 
ous men who are coming on to take the place 
of the old-time settlers who turned the virgin 
soil over for the first time with "grasshop- 
per"" breaking-plows. 

Mr. Coulter does not belong to the school 
of farmers who believe that anything is good 
enough and any way good enough, and is al- 
ways ready to avail himself of better methods 
and facilities. Not satisfied with scrub stock 
of any sort, Mr. Coulter believes the best that 
can be produced will be the most profitable. 
Mr. and Mrs. Coulter are sterling people and 
have a host of warm friends. 



RALPH CLEMENTS was born in Allegan 
county, Michigan, February 17, 1879. His 
parents were Eugene and Eva ( Belden ) Clem- 
ents, and they were not only both born in 
the same town in Ohio, but in the same house. 
The father was a skilled mechanic and was 
foreman of a lumber mill in Allegan county 
until March 6, 1898, when he came to \'alley 
county, Nebraska, and from then on until his 
death he followed blacksniithing. His family 
consisted of eight children and five of these 
are living, but Ral])h is the only one residing 
in Custer county. 

Ralph Clements had educational advantages 
in Michigan, taking a high school course after 
the common school grades, and accompanied 
his parents when they came to Nebraska, in 
which state he has ever since made his home. 
Since the age of tw-enty-one years he has en- 
gineered his own path in life, beginning at the 
bottom of the ladder as a farm helper and 
gradually, through hard work, advancing until 
now he owns 30OO acres of land in this state 
and has his Custer county land well stocked 
with Shorthorn cattle and Poland China hogs. 
The greater portion of his land lies in Loup 
county, but enough is in Custer to make him a 
heavy tax payer here. He takes a good citi- 
zen's interest in all that concerns this section 



and does his part in the matter of public im- 
provements. 

Mr. Clements was married at Burwell, Ne- 
braska, December 21, 1907, to Frances E. 
McKenney, whose parents were early settlers 
in Garfield and now live in Loup county. Mr. 
and Mrs. Clements have two chldren, Ralph 
and Jesse, and an adopted son, Walter Lund, 
who is now sixteen years old. 



JOHN FANTA. — The province of Mora- 
via should be given full credit for the bach- 
elor farmer to whom this paragraph pays 
tribute. He is making a mark in Custer 
county that will soon rate him as one of the 
thriftiest of our foreign born citizens to be 
found in any section of the Middle West. 

He was born August 9, 1889, in Moravia. 
His father, John Fanta, and his mother, Josie 
(Rouse) Fanta, were both natives of ^Iora- 
via, where the father worked at the carpenter 
trade at times, and followed farming occasion- 
ally. They never came to the United States. 
In the father's family were three children, two 
sisters besides young John. One of them still 
lives in the old country with her parents ; the 
other is Mrs. Mary Nekuda, who lives a few- 
miles w-est of Sargent, on the Middle Loup 
river. 

John Fanta received his education in the 
common schools of Moravia before he came 
to the United States, but feeling that the new 
world held more for him, and that here ilie 
opportunities would far exceed the almost 
hopelessness of his native land, he turned his 
face to the west, crossed the ocean, and the 
star of destiny led him on until he reached 
Custer county, April 1, 1903. It was All 
Fools Day, but John's coming was no joke. 
He meant business from the start, and with 
his coat off and his sleeves rolled up, the 
sturdy youth went to work. He worked 
wherever he could get a job. He worked 
for several years on farms. He saved his 
money, and recentlv has been able to buy 240 
acres of land of R. P. Leach, on which he now 
lives, and which has been in his possession for 
two years. He is following farrfi and stock- 
raising operations, and is laying the founda- 
tion for a splendid business in these activi- 
ties. He never married. So far, he is the 
master of the situation in the home as well as 
on the farm, and must operate the range in 
the kitchen as well as the harvester in the 
field. 

He is a member of the Modern ^^'oodman 
of America, a Democrat in politics, a faithful 
adherent of the Roman Catholic church, and 
when you see his farm and the stock that he 
already owns and consider that when he 




■ -^ iyFe IKlhama &Sn> ffY 



^Jk:^^ 



Mattn iU. S£b9. £»■ 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



913 



reached this country, fifteen years ago, in debt 
for his ticket that brought 'him to the land 
of opportunity, one feels like taking off his 
nat to such energy and thrift. 



HIRAM C. CHASE. - From the year 1890 
until his death, in 1913, the late Hiram C 
Chase was prominently identified with the bus- 
mess interests of Mason City, where he estab- 
lished a lastmg reputation for ability in 
commercial affairs, integrity in transactions 
and engagements, and probity in personal 
character. His career was one in which he 
attained success through merit and not by 
chance or fortunate circumstance, and his cit- 
izenship was of a public-spirited order that lent 
Itself helpfully to every constructive movement 
for the general welfare. 

Mr. Chase was born at Strawberry Point 
Clayton county, Iowa, May 28. 1866, and was 
a son of Dr. Hiram C. and Eunice (Lyon) 
Chase, natives of New York state. Dr Chase 
had the distinction of being the first Iiomeopath- 
ic physician to practice in Iowa, where for 
many years he followed his profession, but after 
the death of his wife he came to Mason City 
Nebraska, where he passed away. He was long 
affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, was I 
staunch Republican, and held various offices 
both m the Masonic order and in public life 
He was the father of eighteen children. 

Hiram C. Chase, the subject of this memoir 
received his early education in the public 
schools of Iowa, and under the instruction of 
his brother he studied pharmacy, his preceptor 
being Dr. Warren T. Chase. In 1886 he en- 
gaged in business on his own account, for in 
that year he opened a drug store at Ashton 
Nebraska, but after four years he came to 
Mason City, where he rose to prominence and 
where he achieved success. He entered busi- 
ness life here as the proprietor of a pharmacy 
■which he conducted for a period of fifteen 
years, and in the meantime he became inter- 
ested in real estate, and, finding that he pos- 
sessed marked talents in that direction he 
eventually disposed of his drug business 'and 
gave all of his attention to the handling of 
realty, a line in which he eventually became 
one of the best known and most successful 
men in Mason City and the surrounding coun- 
try. He was so engaged at the time of his 
death, July 10, 1913, when his community 
lost one of its most valued and capable men 
of business. Mr. Chase was a strong and 
loyal_ Mason, having passed the official chairs 
of his lodge, and his funeral was held under 
the auspices of that fraternity. A loyal Re- 
publican, he never sought office, but he wielded 



no little iniluence and exercised it for his 
party and his friends. 

In 1893 was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. Chase to Miss Martha Riese, who was 
born May 30, 1875, at Juda. Wisconsin, a 
daughter of William and Wilhelmina Riese, 
who are natives of Germany and who came to 
the United States in 1872, settling in Wiscon- 
sin. Later they moved to Hampton, Iowa, 
where Mr. Riese, a blacksmith by trade, took 
up fanning, and it was as an agriculturist 
that he came, in 1884, to Custer county, where 
he homesteaded and where he farmed for a 
number of years. Both Mr. and Mrs. Riese 
now m-ake their home with their daughter. 
Mr. Riese knew the father of the presen"t kai- 
ser of Germany and when occasion offers he 
expresses himself forcibly in regard to the 
misgiiided and now deposed niler of that 
country. Mr. Riese is a most loyal citizen of 
his adopted country, and has great pride in 
his grandson, who has joined the colors. Mr. 
and Mrs. Chase are the parents of two chil- 
dren — Iva Mabelle, the wife of Dr. P. H. J. 
Carothers. who is a practicing physician of 
Mason City, and a sketch of whose career ap- 
pears elsewhere in this work ; and Cecil A. 

Cecil A. Chase was graduated' in the high 
school at Broken Bow and then began the study 
of medicine, entering the medical department 
of the University of Nebraska, where he was 
m his third year, and a member of the ex- 
clusive Sigma Nu fraternity. He enlisted in 
the United States army December 18, 1917. 
was called February 6, 1918, and was assigned 
to the aviation corps, being sent to Berkeley, 
California, for instruction. His final training 
was obtained in Texas, where he was prepared 
to be sent to the battle-fields of France. 



_ FRANK A. GORHAM. — Over in the vi- 
cinity of Walworth, operating a well improved 
farm and engaged in a general farming and 
stock-raising business, is Frank A. Gorham, 
one of the reliable and substantial citizens 
of north Custer county. He was born June 
14. 1865. and is a son of Nathan and Mary y. 
(Carr) Gorham. The father was a native 
of Michigan and the mother a daughter of 
Illinois. Nathan Gorham was a blacksmith 
by occupation, which trade he learned and fol- 
lowed in the state of Illinois. Later he im- 
migrated to Iowa, in which state he made his 
home for nearly thirty years. Before his 
death, however, he returned to Illinois, where 
he spent the remainder of his life. The 
mother died in Iowa, in 1908. In their family 
were three children, two of whom are living 



914 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



at the present time — Frank A., the subject of 
this sketch ; and Edward N., whose home is 
in Manchester, Iowa, where he works at lo- 
comotive firing and sometimes works at his 
father's trade of blacksmithing. 

Frank A. Gorham is a native of Illinois but 
spent most of his early years in Iowa, in which 
state he received a liberal education. He was 
married in August, 1894, to Sarah E. DeBusk, 
a very excellent Custer county lady. Mrs. 
Gorham is a daughter of Elizabeth DeBusk, a 
widow who had made her home in Custer 
county since 1885. Mrs. Gorham, the daugh- 
ter, filed on a homestead in section 5, town- 
ship 19, range 19, comprising also lots 5, 6 
and 7, and this land is still held by title in her 
•lame, although she is deceased. 

Mr. Gorham came to Custer county in 1894 
and purchased a small fann of 120 acres, 
which he still owns and upon which a general 
farming business is conducted. Into the 
Gorham home were born two children, Edith 
M. and Harold L., both of whom are single 
and still living at home. 

The home was severelv bereaved in 1902, 
when Mrs. Gorham, wife and mother, was 
called from the scenes of earthly activities 
into that mysterious realm from which no 
travelers return. The home circle now con- 
sists of the father and his two children. Thev 
are very excellent people and command the 
respect of an extensive circle of friends and 
neighbors. 

Politicallv, Mr. Gorham is independent, 
claiming affiliations with no party. He be- 
longs to the Methodist church. 



WILLIAM B. ATHEY, who was one of 
the pioneer settlers and good citizens of Cus- 
ter county, was born in Whitley county, In- 
diana, January 14, 1854, and died at Broken 
Bow, Nebrasisa, in June, 1906. He was a 
son of Elijah and Catherine Athey, who were 
natives of Ohio, and who settled early in In- 
diana. His mother died in Indiana and his 
father then went to Colorado, where his death 
occurred in 1916, when he was more than 
eightv years of age. 

William B. .\they was reared on his father's 
farm in Indiana and attended the country 
schools. Until 1882 he engaged in farming 
in his native state, and he then joined in the 
great exodus from the east to the west. After 
reaching Nebraska he homesteaded in Custer 
county. He proved uj) on his claim and with 
his family lived on it until 1897, when he re- 
moved to Broken Row. Following this 
change, Mr. .\they was cmploved by the 
Standard Oil Company until his death. Mrs. 
Athey owns the homestead of 160 acres, which 



is well improved. Mr. Athey was a man of 
sterling character, a member of the Method- 
ist Episcopal church and a Prohibitionist. 

Mr. Athey was married in Indiana, in 1876, 
to Miss Sarah Miller, who was born in 1852, 
in Columbiana county, Ohio, a daughter of 
Peter and Lydia ( Dutterer) Miller, the for- 
mer a native of Pennsylvania, and the latter 
of Ohio. Of the nine children of Mr. and 
Mrs. Miller there are five living, three of 
whom reside at Broken Bow — Mrs. Athey, 
Mrs. Young, and Mrs. Kester. 

Concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. 
Athey the following brief record is consist- 
ently entered : Legrand, who is a prosperous 
ranchman in Cherry county, where Elsmere 
is his postoffice address, married Miss Rose 
Daily and they have four sons and five daugh- 
ters. Howard, the second son of the subject 
of this memoir, died June 3, 1906, at the age 
of twenty-six years. Claude M., the third 
son, is a progressive farmer and dairyman 
near Giles, Brown county, this state. He 
married Miss Mabel Leach and they have one 
son and two daughters. William A., who is 
identified with railroad service and resides at 
Oakland, California, wedded Miss Mabel 
Anderson. Alonzo, who is still a bachelor, 
has charge of the old home farm of his 
mother. Paul is engaged in farming in the 
irrigated district in the vicinity of Eaton, Colo- 
rado. He married Miss Chilla Mitchell and 
they have no children. He is affiliated with 
the Masonic fraternity. Miss Ellen E. 
Athey, w'ho is now the jjopular and efficient 
assistant cashier of the People's State Bank 
of Anselmo, this county, was graduated in 
the Broken Bow high school, as well as in 
the commercial department of the same. 

The Athey family is recognized as among 
the best that settled in the northwestern part 
of Custer county in the early days, and 
through thrift and industry substantial pros- 
perity rewarded the earnest efforts of Mr. 
and Mrs. Athey. In addition to the old home 
farm Mrs. Athey owns and occupies an attrac- 
tive-modern home in the city of Broken Bow 
where she delights to entertain her children 
and grandchildren whenever thev can \isit 
her, and where her many friends also are as- 
sured of a cordial welcome. She is a de- 
voted mother and is an earnest member of 
and worker in the Methodist Episcopal 
church, to the faith of which her children also 
adhere. 



ED CUNXIXGHAM. — A property in the 
Broken Bow community which niav well serve 
as an example of good management and prac- 
tical results in farniin"-. is that owned and 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



915 




Mr, and Mrs. Ed Cunningham 



916 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



operated by Ed Cunningham, who has been a 
progressive agriculturist in Custer county 
since 1911. Mr. Cunningham was born in 
Poweshiek county. Iowa, August 8, 1865, and 
is a son of Ross and Marie (Noble) Cunning- 
ham. 

The Cunningham family is of Scotch origin, 
and John Cunningham, the grandfather of the 
subject of this review, was an early settler of 
Indiana, whence he later moved to fiercer 
county. Illinois, where he farmed until his 
death. His son, Ross Cunningham, was born 
in 1833, in Indiana, and as a lad was taken 
to Illinois, where he was reared to adult years 
and where, in Marshall county, he married 
Marie Noble. She was born in Illinois, in 
1839. and was a daughter of Joseph Noble, 
who was a farmer of Mercer county, and 
whose father was a native of Ireland. In 1854 
Ross Cunningham left Illinois for Iowa, with 
his" wife and three children, his worldly pos- 
sessions aside from a few household goods be- 
ing two ox-teams and fifty cents in money. 
Settling in Poweshiek county, he proceed- 
ed to hew out a splendid success, and at 
the time of his death he was" the owner of 
400 acres of land and was a man of sub.stance 
and worth in his community. In politics he 
was a Republican. Mr. Cunningham died in 
1898. his widow surviving until May 8, 1910. 
Thev were faithful members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, and were the parents of ten 
children, of whom nine are living, the only 
two in Nebraska being Ed and Harry. 

Ed Cunningham received his education in 
the public schools of his native state, and was 
reared as a farmer. When he reached his ma- 
joritv he engaged in operations on his own 
account, and he remained in Iowa until 1911. 
when he came to Custer county and purchased 
a farm of 320 acres, on which he has since 
made numerous improvements, including a' 
substantial and commodious residence and 
good barns and outbulidings. His property 
evidences due appreciation of the inventions 
which do away with much of the old-time 
drudgery of farming. When he came to Cus- 
ter county Mr. Cunningham began raising 
registered Short-horn and IXirhani cattle, hav- 
ing a herd of thirteen head, and he still con- 
tinues to raise a good breed of cattle, as well 
as horses, in connection with his general farm- 
ing operations. His attention is entirely de- 
voted to his farm operations, so that" he has 
but little time for other matters, but he is ac- 
counted a loval and public-spirited citizen and 
one who does not allow his residence in the 
country to interfere with his keeping up with 
the times or informing himself upon the sub- 



jects which engage the attention of the dwell- 
ers in the busier marts of trade. He and the 
members of his family belong to the Methodist 
Episcopal church, and his fraternal connection 
is with the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows. His support has always been given to 
the Republican party. 

Mr. Cunninghant was married June 10, 
1903, to Miss Myrtle \\'inslow, who was born 
in Iowa. She is a daughter of Ezra Winslow, 
who. in 1876. moved to Wood River. Ne- 
braska, and who still lives in that community 
where he is a successful farmer. Mr. and Mrs. 
Cunningham are the parents of three children : 
Jennie Elizabeth, Ross, and Floyd. Jennie E. 
is attending school and is making good prog- 
ress in her studies. 



LEWIS C. COLE, who is a representative 
citizen of Custer county, has lived here for 
almost forty years. He accompanied his par- 
ents to this section in childhood, was educa- 
ted and married here and about all his inter- 
ests have been centered here from those earlj' 
days to the present. He has not been an 
unworthy adopted son, for he has always iden- 
tified himself with those enteqirises and move- 
ments that have been of practical benefit to 
Custer county, in a public way. and per- 
sonally has won the confidence and res{)ect of 
his neighbors, because of his sterling honesty 
and his recognition, at all times, of their 
rights. 

Lewis C. Cole was born August 28. 1875, at 
Weathersfield. New York, one of a family of 
five children born to his parents, L. W. F. and 
Alaria E. (Joiner) Cole, the latter of whom 
was born in the state of New York. The 
father of Mr. Cole was born in Germany and 
after immigrating to the United States he en- 
gaged in fanning and was also a minister in 
the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he 
served charges both in New York and Illi- 
nois before coming to Nebraska, in the fall 
of 1879. He homesteaded in Custer county 
and also secured a timber claim, in section 
33. township 20. and the development of this 
property engaged his energies afterward. His 
death occurred on his farm, in July, 1901. 
The mother of Lewis C. Cole survives and 
lives at Sargent. Nebraska. Of the five chil- 
dren the following is a brief record : Flora 
is the wife of W. T. Cropper, who is post- 
master at Sargent : Lewis C. is the subject of 
this sketch: Etta is the wife of Charles Mc- 
Gregor, a railroad man, of Sterling. Colorado; 
Mame is the wife of Arthur Betts, of Chap- 
pell. Deuel county. Nebraska ; and Mina is the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



917 



wife of M. L. Tobias, their place of residence 
being at Chappell, Nebraska. 

Lewis C. Cole lived with his parents until 
he was twenty-one years old, in the mean- 
while attending school as opportunity offered, 
although school facilities in Custer county in 
those days were limited, as compared to the 
advantages now offered in this progressive 
section. Farming has been his main occupa- 
tion all his life, and through his industry and 
wise management he has made the business 
profitable in combination with stock-raising. 
Reared on Nebraska soil, he understands its 
possibilities far better than a later comer, and 
through experience has learned the scientific 
facts to which he adapts his methods. 

Lewis C. Cole was married December 25 
1900, to Miss Clara M. Sweet, who is a daugh- 
ter of C. E. Sweet, residing six miles north- 
east of Sargent, and they have two sons and 
one daughter, namely : Lloyd, who was bom 
February 8, 1904 ; Fred, who was born March 
27, 1907; and Marion, who was bom Augxist 
24, 1909. "^ 

Mr. Cole and his family are members of 
the Methodist Episcopal church. He has 
been very active in the matter of public edu- 
cation and has served his school district faith- 
fully as a director for the past five years. In 
addition to his farm and stock interests he is 
known favorably in the financial field to some 
extent, having been on the directing board of 
the Farmers State Bank of Sargent for the 
past seven years. 



T. H, MELVILLE, one of Nebraska's well 
known lumberman, a pioneer of Custer county 
and president of the J. H. Melville Lumber 
Com])any, was born near Morrison, Illinois, 
m the year 1861, and died at his home in 
Broken Bow, Nebraska, August 3, 1917. The 
parents of Mr. Melville were James and Mar- 
garet (Mason) Melville, both of whom were 
from Markinch, in Fifeshire, Scotland. The 
Mason family settled in Round Grove, Illi- 
nois, in the year 1850, and were among the 
early pioneers of that section. In the year 
1857, the daughter Margaret became the wife 
of James Melville: they made their home in 
Round Grove, and on March 27th of the year 
1861 their son James Henry was born. The 
parents were fine types of the genuine old 
Scotch Presbyterians, they were highly re- 
spected for their sterling worth, the father was 
among the early members of the Masonic fra- 
ternity in Whiteside county, and their lives 
were the adornment of the faith that they 
cherished to the end. The early education of 
J. H. Melville was obtained in the country 



schools. His boyhood home was on a beauti- 
ful farm owned by his father, where he grew 
to manhood. He entered the Northern Illi- 
nois College, at Fulton, Illinois, where he com- 
pleted his education and where he received an 
excellent business training. 

His first experience in the lumber business 
came shortly after he left school, when he 
assisted his uncle, James Mason, who owned a 
lumber yard m Morrison, Illinois, at that time 
It was largely through the influence of this 
uncle that Mr. Melville decided to make the 
lumber business his permanent work. In the 
year 1883 he went to northern Iowa where he 
operated a yard for John H. Queal. In May 
of the year 1886, as one of the yard managers 
tor the Bogue-Sherwood Lumber Companv of 
Kearney, Mr. Melville opened the first lumber 

^ u '!? .¥^'°" ^''y- The railroad had not 
reached Mason City at that time, and the first 
stock of lumber was hauled across country 
vr°"'^^f ''n^^- ^" December of the year 1887 
Mr. Melville returned to Illinois, and on Jan- 
uary 5_th he was united in marriage to Miss 
Catherme Louise Smaltz, at the family home 
in Ustick township, Whiteside county The 
parents of Mrs. Melville were born in Baden 
Germany, of a devout and godly ancestry.' 
In the year 1863 they came to Ustick town- 
ship, from Ohio, and settled on a farm near 
Morrison, where they made the beginnings of 
what became the family homestead and which 
IS still, after a period of over fifty years, in 
the possession of members of the family that 
were born and reared there. The parents 
were consistent, devoted and lifelong members 
ot the Lutheran church, and were amon^ the 
substantial and highly respected citizens of the 
community m which thev lived. Their chil- 
dren were given the best educational advan- 
tages that the time afforded. Mrs Melville 
IS a graduate of the Zeigfeld Musical College 
m Chicago. ^ 

Mr, and Mrs. Melville spent the first few 
years of their married life in Mason City and 
their two oldest sons, Arthur W., and 'james 
A., were born there. Later thev mov'ed to 
Lincoln, and in March, 1898, Mr Melville 
purchased the lumber yard owned by the 
Home Lumber Company at Sterling' Ne- 
braska, which he operated with a marked de- 
gree of success, in connection with a number 
of branch yards, for a period of ei<^hteen 
years. * 

During the residence of the family in Ster- 
ling the children were educated. Arthur W 
was graduated from the high school, and was 
a student at Doane College, at Crete, for two 
years. He married Miss Edith Catchpole, of 
Sterling, January 16, 1913. James Alfred 



918 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY, NEBRASKA 



was educated in the Sterling schools, attended 
Doane College one year, then entered the State 
University, of which he is a graduate. George 
S. was educated in the Sterling schools,, at- 
tended the Wentworth Military Academy, at 
Lexington, Missouri, for one year, and then 
entered the State University. Shortly after 
war was declared he enlisted and went into 
training at the Naval Station, Great Lakes, 
Illinois. July 10th, while in quarantine there, 
recovering from an attack of scarlet fever, he 
received the message, that conveyed to him 
the sad news, of the death of his father, at 
Broken Bow, Nebraska, during the night of 
August 3d. In March, 1918, he entered the 
naval aviation detachment at Great Lakes and 
was shortly afterward admitted to the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at 
Cambridge. He finished the course prescribed 
for naval aviators, and was transferred to the 
naval air station at Miami, Florida, where the 
preliminary instruction in flying was given, 
after which he entered the advanced course for 
naval aviators, located at Pensacola, Florida. 
He was designated as a naval aviator and was 
commissioned an ensign in October, 1918. He 
was ordered to rejxjrt to Admiral Sims in 
London, as a seaplane pilot ; he went to Wash- 
ington, D. C, where he had his orders com- 
pleted and his passport signed. He was 
granted a two weeks' furlough before sailing 
for London, and while on furlough at his 
home in Broken Bow the armistice was sigried. 
At the end of his furlough he reported in 
New York City, and, on account of the sign- 
ing of the armistice his foreign orders were 
recalled, and he received his release from 
active duty, subject to call until October 25, 
1922. Willard Christie, the fourth son of the 
family, graduated from the Sterling schools 
at a verv early age. During his school years, 
by close application and by making careful use 
of his time, he succeeded in acquiring an ex- 
cellent musical training, in connection with his 
school work. During the winter of 1917, 
while his parents were in California, for the 
benefit of the health of his father, he took a 
business course at the Lincoln Business Col- 
lege, in order to qualify himself for the work 
of stenographer in the general office at Broken 
Bow, his father having shortly before acquired 
the line of yards in Custer countv owned by 
(leorge L. Turner. In October, 1918, he en- 
listed in the Students' Army Training School 
at Lincoln, where he was in training until 
after the close of the war. He expects to en- 
ter upon a university course at the begining of 
the coming school year. Margaret Marion, 
the only daughter of the family, was born at 
Sterling, and at the age of five years she en- 



tered the kindergarten in the Sterling schools. 
She is at the present time attending school 
in Broken Bow, a pupil of the sixth grade. 

In ]March, 1916, on account of failing 
health, Mr. Melville sold his lumber interests 
in Johnson county and sought rest and re- 
cuperation by travel. He spent the following 
season, with his family, on an automobile trip 
through the northwest, spending the greater 
portion of the time in Montana. Mr. Mel- 
ville greatly enjoyed this trip, and with re- 
turning health came the desire to engage 
again in business. On December 19, 1918, 
with his sons Arthur W. and James A., he 
bought the G. L. Turner line of lumber yards 
in this county. 

While the details of the business were be- 
ing worked out by the two sons, Mr. Melville, 
with his wife and daughter, went to Califor- 
nia, for the winter, returning in May, when he 
came to Broken Bow, the family moving there 
a short time afterward. Mr. Alelville's health 
seemed much improved, but the apparent im- 
provement proved to be only superficial, and 
he died suddenly, August 3d, heart trouble be- 
ing the cause of his death. 

Mr. Melville, or Henry, as he was univer- 
sally known to his host of friends, was widely 
known among the lumbermen of the state : he 
was a firm believer in the value of organiza- 
tion, he was a member of the board of direc- 
tors of the Lumberman's Association, was an 
officer in the Lumberman's Mutual Insurance 
Association, and at his death the Lumber- 
man's Association lost one of its staunchest 
friends, the state one of its best known figures 
in the lumber industry. He was a business 
man of unusual ability, and commanded the 
highest respect and confidence of the people 
among whom he lived. He was known by his 
business associates as one who carried out 
only the highest standards of business integ- 
rity. No one ever sought his counsel in vain ; 
he was kind, gracious and lovable in his atti- 
tude toward his fellow man, and was more 
than esteemed — he was beloved — by all who 
knew him. He was devotedly attached to his 
home, solicitous in regard to the education of 
his sons, and found great pleasure in watch- 
ing them develop into good business men and 
useful citizens. Upon his daughter, Mar- 
garet Marion, he lavished, the affection of his 
maturer years, and the little grandson, James 
Willard, the son of ?'r. and Mrs. .Arthur Mel- 
ville, was the idol and pride of his heart. 

While political aspirations never appealed 
to Mr. Melville — his business interests occu- 
pying his time — he occupied many positions 
of honor and trust in the community that was 
for so long a time his home, and during the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



919 



last year of his life, while he was out of active 
business, through the earnest solicitations of 
his friends and loyalty to the political party 
of his lifelong choice, he accepted the Repub- 
lican nomination to the Nebraska legislature. 
Mr. Melville became a member of the Pres- 
byterian church at the age of seventeen, he 
was a prominent member of the Masonic 
fraternity, was a United Workman of many 
years standing, was a Modern Woodman, and 
was a member of the Royal Highlanders. 

Mr. Melville's life ended at a time when, 
according to human understanding, a long 
period of usefulness should still have been 
before him, and he desired to live — but there 
were times when he felt that the time when 
he must leave home and loved ones might not 
be far distant, and his thought and care at 
those times were for those that he would leav.; 
behind, and with the spirit so characteristic 
of him, he felt he could accept the call, with an 
absolute faith in the message that "Thy will, 
not mine, be done." During the early 'morn- 
ing hours of August 3d, the summons came, 
and his life's work, so faithfully performed! 
was finished. Funeral services were held at 
the home in Broken Bow, on the afternoon of 
August 4th, the Rev. A. H. Eraser, of the 
Presbyterian church, officiating. His mortal 
remains were then taken to Sterling, Ne- 
braska, where the home of the family had 
been for many years. Upon arrival at Ster- 
ling the remains were taken to the Masonic 
Hall, where they lay in state, and where hun- 
dreds looked upon the face of one they had 
loved and admired. Funeral services ' were 
held at the Methodist church on Sunday after- 
noon, August 5th, at three o'clock. Rev. J W 
Lewis, a former pastor and an old friend, of- 
hciating. Interment was made in the Ster- 
ling cemetery, under Masonic auspices where 
many friends gathered to pav a last tribute to 
one who had won for himself the highest pos- 
sible esteem of all who knew him 

To his sons Mr. Melville left the examnle 
of an honorable and useful life; to his family 
the memory of his lovine care as a husband 
and father will remain forever as a blessed 
inheritance. And now in the beautiful citv 
of the dead, he sleeps the sleep that knows no 
awakening, awaiting the Master's call. 

GEORGE E. PORTER. - For more than 
twelve years identified with the office of re^-- 
ister of deeds of Custer county, and for eight 
years of this time the incumbent of the regis- 
ter's position, to which office he was re-elected 
in 1918, George E. Porter has become well 



known to the people of this community as a 
hard-working, efficient and conscientious pub- 
lic servant. He was born in Illinois, June 6, 
1870, and is a son of Judson C. and Martha 
S. (Holmes) Porter. 

Judson C. Porter was born in Connecticut, 
where he was educated for the profession of 
law, but on locating in Illinois, in 1867, he 
became identified with newspaper work, and 
for some time he was connected with a Joliet 
publication, as a member of its editorial staf?. 
In 1885 he removed with his familv to Hast- 
ing, Nebraska, but after there rema'ining only 
one year, he located in Custer county, where 
he practiced his profession at Mason City and 
Ansley and built up a reputation for sound 
legal ability and broad knowledge of the fun- 
damentals of his calling. He was successful 
m the attaining of a practice which was large 
and lucrative, and business of the most de- 
sirable kind came into his hands, so that he 
was connected in the courts with some of the 
most important litigation that was tried 
When he died, at Ansley,, in 1902, the profes- 
sion in Custer county lost one of its most 
brilliant, logical and forceful members. Mrs. 
Porter survives and makes her home with her 
son, George E., the survivor of her two chil- 
dren. She has been for many years a con- 
sistent member of the Presbyterian church 
and while Mr. Porter never joined that or any 
other religious body, he was an earnest worker 
and generous supporter of the church move- 
ments. For years he was identified with Ma- 
sonry, belonging to both the blue lodge and 
the chapter, and of the latter he served as 
high priest. His political support was given 
unreservedly to the Republican party. 

The education of George E. Porter was ob- 
tained in the common schools of Illinois and 
Nebraska, and in the latter state he entered 
upon his career in connection with business 
enterprises. His experience included mer- 
cantile operations at both Ansley and Litch- 
field, but while his commercial sense and abil- 
ity were well developed and he was makino- 
good progress in his affairs, he readily dis*^ 
posed of his interests when he was appointed 
deputy register of deeds of Custer county, in 
iyU6. For four years he served under the 
admmistration of the register then in charge, 
but in 1910 he was chosen to succeed his su-^ 
perior, and since then has been re-elected three 
times. In the election of 1914 he was the 
only Republican to be returned a winner for 
county office. His terms of office have been 
characterized by expeditious, capable and 
earnest work, combined with a desire to ac- 
commodate those of his fellow citizens whose 



920 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUNTY, NEBR.\SKA 



business brings them into touch with his office, 
and few men are more popular or have better 
personal support in the way of friendships. 

In 1890 ^Ir. Porter was united in marriage 
to Miss May Immel, who was born in Iowa, 
and to this union there have been bona live 
children, as follows : Estella is the wife of F. 
R. Lamphier, of Dallas, Texas, secretary' in the 
office of the Alissouri. Kansas & Texas Rail- 
roads ; Dwight I., at the time of this writing, 
is with Batter>- C, 339 F. A., 88th Division, in 
France ; Harvey, a pharmacist is a member of 
Company F, 35Sth Infantry, 89th Division, in 
France ; Doris is engaged in teaching school at 
Antioch, Nebraska ; and Helen was graduated 
in the Broken Bow high school in 1918. The 
mother of these children died in 1901, in the 
faith of the Methodist Episcopal church, and 
in 1906 Mr. Porter was again married, being 
united with Miss Ida J- Foster, who was born 
in Hall county, Nebraska. To this union 
there have been born five children : Adelaide, 
Julia, and George ]., who are attending .school : 
and Romona and Alfred, at home. Mr. and 
Porter are members of the Presbyterian 
church, in which he is an officer. Fraternally, 
he is connected with the Masons, in which he 
has attained Scottish Rite degrees ; the Knights 
of Pythias, in which he has passed through 
all the chairs ; and the Modern Woodmen of 
America. He is popular in all of these fra- 
ternal orders. 



\MrXIAM M. I)A\TS. — One of the con- 
genial spirits of the South Loup region is 
William M. Davis, commonly called "Bill" 
Davis by those who know him. He is a pros- 
perous, well-to-do farmer and stockman, prom- 
inent in local political circles, and is a man who 
charges himself to some extent with res]X)nsi- 
bility in connection with public affairs. He is 
one of the moving spirits in his community 
and when anything of a public nature is to be 
undertaken he is generally one of those se- 
lected to see that it is accomplished. 

Mr. Davis was born in 1868, in Scioto 
county. Ohio. The maiden name of his wife 
was Lenora Harville. and she was born at 
Mellville, Wiscon.'^in. 

Concerning the family from which Mr. 
Davis springs, it may be briefly stated that he 
is a son of David D. and Louise Davis, very 
estimable people who reared their children, 
lived their lives, and have ])asscd to their re- 
ward. Six children constituted the faiuily cir- 
cle and all have been a credit to worthy par- 
entage. Lon Davis, one brother of this family, 



lives near Broken Bow where he is an exten- 
sive farmer and stockman. 

William M. Davis came directly from Ohio 
to Custer county, in 1885, a date early enough 
to insure him many pioneer experiences. He 
purchased his farm, however, which consists 
of 320 acres, well improved, and upon which 
is a very snug and comfortable farm home. 
His stock operations have l>een more or less 
extensive. He has been a feeder of some mag- 
nitude and a great many fat jxjrkers and beef 
steers have been turned out of feed lots on his 
premises into the markets of the world. He 
has given some attention to horses and is 
known as a splendid judge of horseflesh. In 
the days before autos and tractors, when horses 
were in more demand, Davis always had in his 
possession some very good horses. 

Mr. and Mrs. Davis have five children, in 
whom they take pardonable pride : Louise is 
a teacher, just entering upon young woman- 
hood, in her nineteenth year. At the time of 
this writing, in l'^18. Doris, fifteen years of 
age, is taking a course at the Kearney Nor- 
mal School. Lenora, aged twelve, Darrell, ten, 
and W'ilber Orel, a young master of nineteen 
months, are all at home and help to make the 
home liwly and cheerful. 

Mr. and Mrs. Davis enjoy the confidence of 
their neighbors, are highly respected in the 
community, and are part of the citizen assets 
of the county. In fraternal circles Mr. Davis 
belongs to the Masonic lodge, in which he is 
in good standing, and enjoys the social bene- 
fits of the order. He has been postmaster at 
Burr Oak for twelve years, and is serving as 
justice of the peace. 



JOHN D. KNIGHT. — One of the sub- 
stantial farmers among the many of like kind 
living in the Sargent vicinity, is John D. 
Knight, whose name finds place in this title 
line. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska, June 
13. 1863, in what was then known as Brigham 
Young's winter c[uarters. He is a son of 
John G., and Lavina (Streight) Knight, very 
excellent people, natives of ]\lassachusetts and 
New York respectively. The father was a 
farmer except in early life, when he learned 
the shoemaker's trade, at which he worked 
for some time. He came to Benson, near 
Omaha, in November, 1856, pre-empting land, 
and living there until his death. He made 
a specialty in his day of thoroughbred Hol- 
stein cattle. In 1862 his jjatriotic spirit led 
him to enlist in the Second Nebraska Cavalry, 
which did frontier work in Dakota. The 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



921 



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William M. Davis 



922 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



command wintered at St. James, Dakota, and 
was mustered out in 1864. John G. Knight 
was a RepubHcan in politics and was a mem- 
ber of the First Congregational church of 
Irvington, Nebraska. He and his good wife 
became the parents of five children : Ella 
E., a dressmaker, is living at Somerford ; Min- 
nie L., the wife of A. W. Pierce, also lives at 
Somerford; Margaret W. is the wife of Jesse 
Pierce; the third was John D., the subject of 
whom we are writing; George W., married 
Sopha Christoferson, and lives on a farm near 
Irvington, Nebraska. 

John D. Knight received a liberal education 
in the common schools of Douglas county and 
the Congregational College at Tabor, I«owa. 
He came to Custer county in the fall of 1883, 
and in the spring of 1884. he homesteaded the 
place where he now lives. He owns 280 
acres, well improved, and raises fine cattle, his 
specialty being double standard polled Dur- 
hams. Mr. Knight is one of the men who has 
helped to make the history and the present 
status of the county. Well and favorably 
known throughout his community, and also 
throughout a large portion of the county, he 
well deserves the success he has attained. 



JOHN J. DOWNEY. — The agricultural 
interests in Custer county, find a worthy rep- 
resentative in the subject of this record, and 
lie has the honor of being one of the very 
early settlers of the county. 

John J. Downey is a native of the old Key- 
stone .state, his birth having occurred in 
Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, March 22, 
1855. His parents, John and Ellen ( Sweeney) 
Downey, were natives of County Tipperary. 
Ireland, where their marriage was solemnized, 
and in 1849 they came to America. The father 
was a coal-miner by vocation and followed that 
line of work — in Pennsylvania, ( )hio. and 
Iowa — until 1880, when he came to Custer 
county and secured the homestead on which 
both he and his wife passed the remainder of 
tlicir lives. Tliey had a family of twelve chil- 
dren, five of whom reached maturity and four 
of whom are s.till living — Mrs. R. D. Mc- 
Carty, of Merna. this county; Mrs. Ellen 
Carey of Pennsylvania ; Mrs. Mary English, 
of Wilmington, Delaware; John J.; and Mrs. 
William Couhig. who was the other who at- 
tained mature years, is now decea.sed. 

John J. Downey, youngest member of the 
family, was only a child when he began work- 
ing in the mines, as a slate-pi.:ker. He was 
employed in coal mines until March. 1880. 
when he. in company with others, started for 



Nebraska, Custer county being the destination 
of the party. He arrived here in the month 
of June, after having here filed entry on a 
homestead on the 7th of the preceding March. 

Mr. Downey secured as a homestead the 
southeast quarter of section 15, township 18, 
range 22, and here he has continued to main- 
tain his home to the present time. His first 
house was a "soddy," twelve by fourteen feet 
in dimensions, and when the family outgrew 
this, he built the second sod house, which was 
the home of the family until sixteen years ago, 
when the present, large, frame house was 
erected. Mr. Downey, with a rather ingenuous 
turn of mind, devised a scheme of cutting the 
sod with a machine. This device was con- 
structed with knives which cut the sod. and 
then, when plowed six inches deep, the sod 
would turn up in rectangular chunks, like large 
bricks. .\11 the experiences of those pioneer 
days were endured, obstacles were met and 
overcome, and with the passing years the gal- 
lant pioneers prospered. To obtain a little 
money with which to provide for the needs 
of his family. Mr. Downey hauled cedar posts 
as far as York. Nebraska. He also enclosed 
forty acres with sod fence, making it hog- 
tight, and when one wire was placed above, it 
would turn cattle. He has been successful in 
his undertakings and is to-day the owner of 
480 acres of land in this township. The im- 
provements on the home farm are among the 
best in the county. 

In 1879. in Iowa. Mr. Downey was united 
in marriage to Miss Mary Ann Jones, who 
was born in Wisconsin, ^larch 14. 1862. a 
daughter of Hugh and Sarah ( Roberts) Jones, 
who were natives of Wales and both of whom 
passed away, in Iowa, several years ago. The 
home of Mr. and Mrs. Downey has been 
blessed with twelve children, a record of whom 
is given below : 

Ellen .May is the wife of J. E. Price, of St. 
Louis, Missouri ; John .\. is a memljer of Com- 
pany F. Twenty-third Regiment. Engineer 
Corps, of our national army, in France ; 
Thomas F. also is a member of the national 
army and at the time of this writing is located 
in camp in Minnesota: Joseph M. married 
Miss Lillie Andrews and is operating a raijch 
in Custer county: Mary Agnes has for six 
years been a clerk in the soldiers' home at 
Grand Island. Nebraska ; Hugh Raymond is 
a memlier of Company D, Three Hundred and 
Fifty-fifth Infantry of our national army, in 
France: Bernice E.. who attended college in 
St. Louis, having taught in the Custer county 
schools, is now employed in the jxistoffice at 
St. Louis ; Harold P. and Paul A. are at home, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



923 




Mr, and Mrs. John J. Downey 



924 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COLWTY. NEBRASKA 



assisting in the operation of the farm ; Jo- 
hanna, Frances, and Lewis Arthur passed away 
in childliood. 

The family are communicants of the Cath- 
olic church, and in politics Mr. Downey exer- 
cises the rit,dit of franchise in support of meas- 
ures and iirinciples he deems best, regardless 
of party lines. He lias rendered efficient serv- 
ice as assessor of his township two terms, and 
was a member of the county board of super- 
visors two terms. For three years he con- 
ducted a mercantile enterprise in the old town 
of Dale, and when the B. & M. Railroad came 
through, in 1886, he and his brother-in-law, 
Robert D. AlcCarty, had a contract for build- 
ing several miles of the road. 

Air. Downey was among tlie first settlers of 
Dale valley, has witnessed the remarkable 
changes that have taken place, and in the work 
of in>provement and development he has taken 
commendable interest. Three of his sons are 
now in the service of the government, offering 
their lives, if need be, to bring about a world- 
wide condition wher-e wars will be no more. 

Through all the years of residence in Custer 
county, as a pioneer and a progressive citizen, 
with the years of sacrifice incidental to rearing 
a family, Mr. Do\v.iey"s faithful wife has been 
his devoted companion and hel]inieet. and in 
recording the life records of Custer county's 
citizens we would be remiss in our duty if we 
failed to give them a place which they justly 
deserve. 



ROSS G. MOORE. — Well and favorably 
known in business and professional circles of 
Broken Bow, Ross G. Moore has been identi- 
fied with this locality since 1901, and during 
the period which has elapsed has won stand- 
ing and success, both as an attorney and as a 
real-estate, insurance and loan operator. Mr. 
Moore was bom in Harrison county. Ohio. 
October 13, 1871, and is a son of John and 
Agnes E. (Duncan) Moore. 

The Moore family originated in Ireland, 
from which country came Samuel Moore, the 
grandfather of Ross G. Moore. He was a 
voung man. without any great amount of 
capital, when he arrived in the United States. 
but he became one of the successful men of 
his part of Ohio and at the time of his death 
was the ow^ner of large tracts of valuable land 
John Moore was born in 1818, on a farm in 
Harrison county, Ohio, and in the old Buck- 
eye state he married Agnes E. Duncan, who 
was born in York county. Pennsylvania, 
daughter of James and Margaret Duncan. 



Mr. Moore followed in the footsteps of his 
father, adopting agricultural pursuits as his 
life work, and his entire life was passed in 
Ohio, W'here he died in 1886, at the age of 
sixty-eight years. Mrs. Moore, who was born 
in 1829, passed away w-hen seventy years of 
age, in 1899. They were members of the 
United Presbyterian church. Mr. Moore was 
a Republican, was interested in various move- 
ments for civic t>ettemient, and for some 
years served very acceptably in the office of 
school director. Of the eight children in the 
family, six are now surviving but only one. 
Ross G. Moore, lives in Nebraska. 

Ross G. Moore received his early educatio:i 
in the public schools, following which he took 
a course in Franklin College, New Athens. 
Ohio, being graduated in that institution in 
1891. He began to read law with John M. 
Garvin, a well known attorney of Cadiz. 
Ohio, 'and later w^ent to Pittsburgh, Pennsyl- 
vania, where he spent some time in the office 
of Murphy & Hosack. He then came to 
(jrand Island, Nebraska, where, in 1892. at 
the age of only tw'enty-one years, he was ad- 
mitted to the bar. Returning to Ohio, he 
began practice, subsequently visited Pitts- 
burgh, where for a time he practiced in the of- 
fice of Murphy & Hosack, his former pre- 
ceptors, and in 1901 again came to Nebraska, 
this time to locate permanently at Broken 
Bow. His practice in law soon brought him 
into direct association with the loan business 
and soon after his arrival at Broken Bow he 
engaged in that line himself. During the 
seventeen years that he has been identified 
therewith he has built up an exceptionally 
large farm loan business. Closely allied with 
this enterprise is the real-estate business, and 
it was but natural that he should begin opera- 
tions in this direction. At this time, while 
he still accepts cases as an attorney and gives 
advice and council in his professional capac- 
ity, he devotes the greater part of his atten- 
tion to his loans and real-estate operations 
Mr. Moore is one of Custer county's self- 
made men, and has piloted his own craft into 
the harbor of success. He has established :\. 
substantial j)Osition for himself in the con- 
fidence of the general public, and in business 
and professional circles his name is an hon- 
ored and respected one. 

Mr. Moore was married at Broken Bow, in 
June, 1905, to Mi.ss Elizabeth Bell. A'lrs. 
Moore was bom and reared in Custer county. 
Nebraska, and is a daughter of Isaac and 
Mary (New^nan) Bell, who homesteaded in 
this region at a very early day. Mr. and 
Mrs. Moore have one son. Paul Gibson, who 



PIISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



925 



was bom January 5, 1915. Mrs. Moore is 
a member of the Christian church, of which 
•Mr. Moore is an attendant. Fraternally, he 
is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. He 
has taken an active part in Democratic poli- 
tics since coming to Nebraska, and has been 
a member of a number of committees and a 
delegate to numerous county and state con- 
ventions. 



WILBER E. TOBIAS, who is a well 
known and highly respected citizen of Custer 
county and one of its substantial farmers and 
stock-raisers, belongs to the early settlers of 
the community and has passed thirty-eight 
years here. Wonderful changes have been 
wrought in that time and, in a way, they may 
be typified by a comparison between Mr. 
Tobias' first home, a little "dugout," on a lone- 
ly, wind-swept prairie, with his present hand- 
some rural residence of modern construction 
and convenience, situated within easy distance 
of centers of civilization and progress. 

Wilber E. Tobias was born October 6, 1869, 
at El Paso, Woodford county, Illinois, and is 
a son of Israel C. and Cynthia (Ellis) To- 
bias, the former a native of Ohio and the 
latter of Indiana. Israel C. Tobias lived on 
a farm until he was twenty-one years old and 
then went into a general mercantile business. 
He conducted stores at Washington, El Paso 
and Streator, Illinois, and also, for nine years, 
was a commercial traveler for a well known 
business house. He came to Custer county. 
Nebraska, in November, 1880, securing a 
homestead in section 35, township 20, one 
mile north of the present little city of Sargent. 
He remained on his farm until 1901, when he 
moved into Sargent, where he conducted an 
implement business until he retired. Of his 
ten children the following survive: Alvira, 
who is the wife of J. H. Hagerty, a retired 
resident of Lir.coln, Nebraska ; Sophia, who 
is the wife of S. L. Perrin, a retired resi- 
dent of Sargent; Flora, who is the wife of A. 
Z. Perrin, of Lincoln ; Leota, who is the wife 
of Thomas Hartley, of Sargent; Wilber E., 
who is the immediate subject of this review; 
Blanche, who lives at Lincoln, Nebraska ; 
Ava, who was married first to Frank Phillips, 
and after his death, to Thomas E. Sheldon, 
who is in the restaurant business at Sargent ; 
and LeRoy, who is in the clothing business at 
Chappell, Nebraska, and who married Mina 
Cole. 

Wilber E. Tobias was eleven years old when 
the family came to Custer county, beginning 
life here at an inopportune time, as the win- 



ter of 1880-81 was especially severe. The 
settlers of that period went through great 
hardships because of the unusually rigorous 
winter and the difficulty in securing food- 
stuffs. A great majority had come from 
milder climates and were in no way prepared 
for the cold and storms that ensued, the result 
being that in many cases there was great suf- 
fering. r)f that first winter Mr. Tobias has a 
very vivid memory. It was the first time he 
had ever lived in a house under ground, and 
I)robabl3' that was accepted with boyish en- 
thu^tiasm, as a part of the great adventure of 
pioneering. However, it was also the first 
time that he found himself completely snowed 
under, for when the.is:ily door to the dugout 
was opened, the great volume of packed snow 
filled the aperature entirely. No provision 
had yet been made within for the not un- 
usual business of digging out, and the family 
had to submit to a wait for kind neighbors 
to look them up (a very usual pioneer cus- 
tom) and give help. Mr. Tobias is of the 
opinion that the presence of his attractive sis- 
ters had something to do with their speedy 
release, as several of their swains in the neigh- 
borhood accomplished it. 

Mr. Tobias attended school and helped his 
father, and he has a very enviable reputation 
for practical good sense and untiring indus- 
try. He has been very enterprising, not only 
in regard to his farm industries, but also in 
the matter of farm improvement, and there 
are few places in Custer county that can 
compare with his in app>earance, all his build- 
ings being modern in every particular. 

On October 6, 1896, Mr. Tobias was united 
in marriage to Aliss Gertrude McCormick, a 
daughter of Thomas and Julia ( Smith) Mc- 
Cormick, both of whom were born in Ohio, 
whence they moved to the vicinity of Blakes- 
burg, Iowa, and later they came to Nebraska. 
Mr. McCormick was a farmer all his active 
life and his death occurred in 1900. The 
mother of Mrs. Tobias resides at Grand Is- 
land, Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Tobias have 
four children — Clarice, aged eighteen ; Clive, 
sixteen years ; Gladys, thirteen years ; and 
Helen, six years. 

Mr. and Mrs. Tobias are members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church. In politics he is 
a Republican, but he has never had any desire 
to serve in public office, his close attention to 
his own affairs showing where his main inter- 
est lies. He is greatly interested in develop- 
ing high-grade stock and he has pure-bred 
Jersey cattle and registered Duroc-Jersey 
hogs. 



926 



HISTORY OF CUSTER aiUXTY. NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



927 



JOHN DRESEL, who lives in the vicinity - 
of Callaway, is one of Custer county's frugal, - 
progressive farmers. He was bom May 8, 
1861, in Monroe county, Ohio. His father, 
Christian Dresel, was born on the French bor- 
der near the Switzerland frontier. His mother. 
Elizabeth ( Seabaugh ) Dresel, is a native of 
Germany. Christian Dresel was a tailor by 
trade and after he came to the United States, 
his marriage to Elizabeth Seabaugh was sol- 
emnized in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. John 
Dresel had one brother and one sister — Lewis 
Dresel and Louise ( Dresel ) Shoemaker. 

John Dresel earned his first money by carry- 
ing water to a threshing crew. When he was 
a small boy his mother died. When four years 
of age he had a miraculous escape from being 
killed by lightning. During a thunderstorm 
he and his father took refuge under a large 
oak tree. The lightning struck the tree, threw 
both of them several feet and prostrated them 
upon the ground, leaving young John in a 
dazed and senseless condition for several hours. 
C^ne freak of the lightning was to tear one of 
the father's shoes entirely from his foot. At 
the age of seventeen years John secured a po- 
sition on a street-car line, where he worked 
about ten months, driving horses. 

Mr. Dresel came to Custer county in the fall 
of 1885 and filed a contest on the 160 acres 
now owned by John Cameron, adjoining the old 
Olive Ranch. 

August 17, 1911, at Broken Bow, Mr. Dresel 
married Mrs. Maggie (Vance) Lewis. Mrs. 
Dresel has two sons by a former marriage. 
The elder son, Edwin P. Lewis, married Mattie 
Riles and is now living in La Center. Kentucky, 
where he owns a large garage. He and his 
wife are the parents of two bright children, a 
boy and a girl. Mr. Lewis is a member of 
the Methodist churchy is a Mason and a Wood- 
man, and he gives his political support to the 
Democratic party. The younger son, Herbert 
H. Lewis, is. at the time of this writing, a mem- 
ber of Company B, One Hundred and Ninth 
Supply Trains motor-storage dejxjt, at Camp 
Haliford. Baltimore, Maryland. In 1913 he 
went to Kansas City and took a three months' 
course in an automobile school, prior to his en- 
listment in Company L, Fourth Regiment. Ne- 
braska National Guard. ]\Iarch 29, 1917, un- 
der Captain L. J. Butcher, he was stationed 
at Ashland, Nebraska, for guard duty at the 
railroad bridge. Later he was sent to Camp 
Cody, where he was transferred to the Motor 
Department. 

Mr. Dresel sold his first farm to Wx. 
Cameron, the present owner, and then bought 
320 acres on Spring creek, northwest of the 



old Young land. There he resided' until Au- 
gust, 1918, when he sold the place to Ernest 
Lowe. He made the sale on the 14th day of 
August and on the 19th of the same month 
bought 193 acres two miles west of Callaway, 
for which he paid eighty-five dollars per acre. 
Mr. Dresel and his wife are splendid people, 
highly respected in the community. They are 
affiliated with the Baptist church, and in poli- 
tics Mr. Dresel is aligned in the ranks of the 
Democratic party. 

HENRY S. BRODINE. — In proportion 
to its population, Custer county can boast of 
as great a number of substantial and progres- 
sive citizens as any county of its size in Ne- 
braska, and among this number is found 
Henry S. Brodine, the owner of a farm of ex- 
cellently cultivated land, which, from the time 
that he settled on it as a homesteader, he has 
operated with such judgment as to have made 
him a successful and substantial man finan- 
cially. 

A sturdy Swede, Mr. Brodine was born in 
the stalwart community of Blekinge, January 
18, 1862. He is a son of Swan and Enger 
(Jenson) Brodine, who passed their entire 
lives in their native land. The father was a 
tailor by vocation, an occupation in which he 
was engaged throughout his life, although he 
saw much military service and during a long 
numl>er of years was in the Swedish army. 
There were two children in the family : 
Henry S. and a son who died in infancy. 
The parents were members of the Lutheran 
church. 

Henry S. Brodine received a public-school 
education and was variously employed in his 
native land until he reached the age of 
twenty-seven years. Up to that time he had 
made little progress, for while he had been in- 
dustrious, energetic and saving in his re- 
sources, the opportunities did not seem to 
come to him that would make for advance- 
ment, and he therefore came to the conclusion 
that he would find conditions more satisfying 
in this countr}'. He arrived in the United 
States in 1888 and came immediately to Cus- 
ter county, Nebraska, where he settled on a 
homestead farm, in section 15, township 19, 
not far from the town of Sargent. On this 
property he has continued to be engaged in 
agricultural pursuits to the present time, and 
through good management, hard and persist- 
ent work and application of modern methods 
along intelligent channels and in an enter- 
prising and energetic way, he has developed 
a farm that compares favorably with any in 
the locality, and the ownership of which not 



028 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COl'XTV, NEBRASKA 




u 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



929 



only assures him of a substantial income but 
also places him in the same class with the 
other well-to-do men of this locality. Mr. 
Brodine has good buildings and other modern 
improvements of all kinds, and in his work 
he exemplifies the modern agricultural spirit 
that has contributed so greatly to Custer 
county's development. 

Mr. Brodine was married in June, 1886, in 
Sweden, to Miss Ingery Carlson, who was 
born in that country and whose parents passed 
their lives there. To this union there were 
born six children : Charley, who is a farmer 
near Kent, Nebraska, married Lizzie Rider; 
Oscar, who is still a bachelor, is a farmer near 
Sargent ; Harry is an eligible young bachelor 
and assists his father in the work of the 
home farm ; Alma is the wife of Frank 
Power, a farmer near Walworth ; Clara is 
the wife of Arthur Debusk, a farmer near 
Kent; and Vina is the wife of Ed. Hill, a 
farmer near Deaver, Wyoming. .Mr. Bro- 
dine is a Republican in politics, but not actively 
interested in public affairs, save as a good 
citizen. He is a member of the Modem 
Woodmen of America, and he and his wife, 
as well as their children, are members of the 
Lutheran church. 



FREDERICK C. EMBREE. — It is a 
natural desire, common to us all, to know 
something about our kinsfolk. A genealogy 
is a kind of analysis of our particular tribe, 
so that we can consider the elements of whi;h 
we are composed. If a person belongs to a 
good family he ought to be proud of it and 
should take pride in having its history prct 
served. The progenitors of the Embree family 
in America were three brothers, passengers on 
the historic "Mayflower." The records show 
that the family ancestors were French Hugue- 
nots who immigrated to England more than 
eight hundred years ago. On the maternal 
side the subject of this record is likewise de- 
scended from Mayflower stock, as the ances- 
tors of the Harris and Lyon families were 
among the passengers on that famous bark. 

Frederick C. Embree was born in Washing- 
ton county, Iowa, August 23>. 1864, and was a 
lad of seven years when brought to Nebraska, 
so that most of his life has been spent in this 
state. For thirty-four years he has resided 
in Custer county, where he has made a success 
of his business ventures and at the same time 
has retained the respect of all with whom he 
has come in contact. 

The father of our subject was Noah Embree, 
who was born in \'ermilion county, Illinois, 



and who was seven years old when he ac- 
companied his .parents to Washington county, 
Iowa, where he grew to manhood and became 
a farmer, residing there until 1870, when he 
settled in Otoe county, Nebraska. In 1893 he 
came to Custer county, where five sons had 
preceded him, and here he bought the Penn 
ranch, near Callaway. His wife died at this 
place, June 21, 1898, and Mr. Embree remained 
there until 1907, when he came to live 
with his son Frederick C, and here he 
passed away March 24, 1908. He was married 
in Keokuk county, Iowa, June 17, 1858, to 
^liss Margaret Lyon, who was born in Jeffer- 
son county, Iowa, July 25, 1841. She was 
a daughter of Frederick F. and Rachel (Har- 
ris ) Lyon, the former a native of New York 
and the latter born in Illinois. 

The grandfather of F. C. Embree was Jesse 
Embree, who was a native of Preble county, 
Ohio, and who, when a young man, went to 
Vermilion county, Illinois, where he married 
Mary Hollingsworth. In 1840 Jesse Embree 
moved to Washington county, Iowa, where 
he became a successful farmer and where his 
death occurred in 1858, his wife having 
passed away in 1851. 

Frederick C. Embree is one of a family of 
eight children, two of whom died in infancy ; 
Allen L. lives in Sunnyside, Washington ; Oli- 
ver H. is a resident of Fullerton, California ; 
Frederick C, of this review, lives in Merna ; 
Jehu W., presiding- elder in the Methodist 
church, lives at Hastings, Nebraska; Noah M. 
is at Athens, Georgia ; and Mary, who became 
the wife of George A. Shaw, died in Seattle, 
Washington. July 6, 1910. 

Frederick C. Embree received a common- 
school education in Otoe county and began 
an independent career as a farmer when sev- 
enteen years of age, so that he has harvested 
thirty-nine crops and at the time of this writ- 
ing has part of the fortieth crop planted. On 
April 25, 1884. he arrived in Custer county 
and located on a pre-emption claim in Ortello 
valley. He at once saw the possibilities of 
stock-raising in this county and has dealt 
extensively in stock of all kinds since that 
time. Percheron and Shire horses, Aberdeen- 
Angus cattle, and Poland-China hogs have re- 
ceived especial attention. IMr. Embree is an 
e.xpert in the judging of stock and has often 
topped the market in the amount of sales and 
in weight and quality. 

In Otoe county, Nebraska, on April 9. 1884, 
was solemnized the marriage of Frederick C. 
Embree to Miss .A.ltana S. Myers, who was 
born in Bureau county. Illinois, June 22, 1866. 
Her parents were Samuel H. and Electa 



930 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL-XTY. NEBRASKA 



(Wick) Myers, the former a native of New- 
ark, New Jersey, and the latter bom in Ilh- 
nois. The father of Mrs. Embree was a 
farmer and is now living retired in Portland, 
Oregon, at the age of eighty-one years. His 
wife died in Iowa, many years ago. 

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Embree has 
been blessed with the birth of eight children, 
two of whom died in infancy ; Jesse S.. a grad- 
uate of the Palmer School of Chiropractics, at 
Davenport, Iowa, is successfully ])racticing 
liis profession at Fremont, Nebraska : Ernest 
N. and Wilbur M. are married and farming 
in this county on the old homestead in Ortello 
valley ; Maude and Mabel are twins, the latter 
having graduated from the Merna high school 
and the former passed away at the age of 
seventeen years; and Mattie is a senior in 
Merna high school. 

Mr. Embree is the owner of 1,260 acres of 
land, all in Custer county, and his present po- 
sition of affluence is due entirely to his good 
judgment and industrj-. He resides on a 
beautiful farm of 220 acres adjoining the city 
of Merna and known as Cedar View Stock 
Farm. Fraternally Mr. Embree is a thirty- 
second-degree Mason and also a member of 
Tangier Temple. Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, 
at Omaha. He is affiliated also with the 
Merna lodge of the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows, with its adjunct organization, 
the Daughters of Rebekah, and also with the 
Merna Chapter of the Order of the Eastern 
Star, of which Mrs. Embree is worthy matron. 

Coming to the county in an early day, Mr. 
Embree is familiar with the pioneer conditions 
and has not only been an eye-witness of the 
changes that have taken place t)ut has also 
contributed his full share to the development 
and upbuilding of the country. A man of 
temperate habits, of fine physique, and pleas- 
ing personality, a fluent conversationalist, and 
a student of events, he would have made a 
success of life had he chosen a professional 
career. He is a stockholder in the Farmers 
Rank and the Farmers Elevator of Merna and 
is one of the countv's substantial citizens. 



CHARLES W. GARRISON. — In the 
Sargent district, where farming opportunities 
blossom twelve months in the year, resides 
Charles W. Garrison, who has been in Custer 
county long enough to remember Indian 
scares and to tell stories of pioneer days that 
would refute any idea you might have that 
Custer county farming in the days of the 
'70s and '80s was one continued picnic. 

He was born in Pennsylvania, August 26, 



1879, and is a son of David and Louisa 
(Hyatt) Garrison. Both parents belonged to 
the old Keystone state. The father was a 
blacksmith by trade, and followed that occu- 
pation in his native state, for a long period, 
or until 1886, when he came to Custer county, 
Nebraska. He also served as a Union sol- 
dier in the days of the Civil war. -He was a 
member of the Fourteenth Pennsylvania 
Cavalry, in which he rendered strenuous ser- 
vice for nearly four years. In his army life 
he had an experience at Andersonville prison, 
and there he contracted disease which dis- 
abled him for the rest of his days, and for 
which he was given a pension. In the fall of 
1886, in addition to his homestead, David 
Garrison bought a pre-emption claim, and on 
this he lived until 1906, when he rented his 
land and moved to Sargent. There he died 
in December, 1912. His widow still lives in 
Sargent, where she is a member of the Meth- 
odist church. They were the parents of 
three children — George lives on a fruit ranch 
at \'aancouver, \\'ashington : his wife's maiden 
name was Bertie Kantzman ; Lizzie is the wife 
of Ed. Pulliam, an automobile and horse 
dealer, and they now reside in Sargent. 

Charles W. Garrison received a good com- 
mon-school education, and has the faculty of 
using his education to best possible advan- 
tage. He has lived continuously in Custer 
county since 1886, excepting three vears spent 
in Colorado. On his return from the Boulder 
state he bought a fann, and this he has been 
operating ever since. Recently he bought the 
David McGugin farm, and now he is farm- 
ing and raising stock more extensively than 
before. He recalls that when he was a small 
boy the Omaha Indians came along on their 
way back from the reservation, and called at 
the Garrison home and demanded something 
to eat. While they were friendly, yet they 
succeeded in scaring the inhabitants almost as 
badly as if they had been hostile and on the 
war path. They were not welcome visitors 
at any of the homes in the Loup valley. 

In 1905 Mr. Garrison married Miss Angie 
Marsh, at Taylor, Nebraska. She is a daugh- 
ter of Eugene and Emma ( Cummings) Marsh, 
who were early pioneers of the Cummings 
Park district — the park, in fact, was named 
for her parents. 



HENRY G. STOKES. — If the ability to 
do hard work cannot be designated as talent, 
then it is one of the best possible substitutes 
for that desirable possession. Things do not 
turn up in the world lyitil someone turns 
them up; and industry and perseverance lead 



J 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



931 



to success, as in the case of Henry G. Stokes, 
a resident of Custer county since 1883 and 
now the owner of 1,300 acres of well culti- 
vated and valuable land, his home place being 
in section 22, township 17, near Sargent. 

Mr. Stokes was born in Jefferson county, 
New York, September 25, 1856, and is a son 
of Robert and Sarah (Bowery) Stokes. His 
parents, natives of England, belonged to the 
sturdy and reliable class of farming people 
who have done so much to extend that coun- 
try's reputation to other parts of the world 
where they have taken up their habitation. 
They immigrated to the United States about 
the year 1856 and settled in Jefferson county. 
New York, where they continued to be en- 
gaged in farming during the remainder of 
their lives. They were highly respected in 
their community, as honest, God-fearing peo- 
ple, and were consistent members of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal church, while in politics Mr. 
Stokes was a Republican. They were the par- 
ents of fifteen children, of whom six are still 
living: Isaac still follows farming in Jeffer- 
son county. New York ; Hattie is a resident 
of Otsego county. New York ; William, for- 
merly a farmer of Jefferson county, is now 
living retired in New York ; Simeon, who is 
also retired after years of agricultural work, 
is a resident of Watertown, New York; John 
lives retired in Jefferson county ; and Henry 
G. is the only one of the family to make a 
home in the west. 

Henry G. Stokes was educated in the pub- 
lic schools of his native community and was 
reared as a farmer, a vocation which he 
adopted as soon as he reached his majority. 
He was drawn to the west by the wonderful 
stories he had heard as to the opportunities 
ofifered young men of ability and industry, 
and as to the fertility of the country for farm- 
ing purposes, and in July, 1883, he took up a 
homestead in the southeast quarter of section 
22, township 17, this consisting of a tree 
claim and pre-emption claim. While he has 
bought and sold land largely, he is still the 
owner of his homestead, which is included in 
his holdings of 1,300 acres, and his landed 
estate in itself gives some idea as to the volume 
of success which has attended his efforts since 
he took up his residence in Custer coimty. 
Mr. Stokes is still engaged in fanning and 
stock-raising, and the manner in which he car- 
ries on his operations gives evidence of his 
thorough knowledge of his vocation and of 
conditions pertaining to the country- in which 
he has made his home for so long a period. 
He is accounted one of the progressive repre- 
sentatives of agricultural interests here, and 



modern inventions always receive a fair trial 
at his hands. 

On December li, 1879, in Jefferson county, 
New York, Mr. Stokes was uoited in mar- 
riage, to Miss Nellie Hovey, a daughter of 
Joseph and Minerva (McQuain) Hovey, and 
they are the parents of four children : Ethel 
is the wife of E. M. Boss, assistant school in- 
spector of Lincoln, Nebraska ; Georgia is the 
wife of William Bondurant, who is engaged 
in the wholesale and retail confectionery busi- 
ness at Kirksville, Missouri ; and Misses 
Marie and Anna, the two younger daughters, 
reside with their parents. Mr. Stokes is a 
Republican and is one of his community's 
public-spirited men, although interested in 
civic affairs only as a good citizen. 



C. J. DAVIS. — One of the good neighbors 
living" in the vicinity of Arnold, on a table- 
land farm, is C. J. Davis, a native of Allen 
county, Ohio. He was boni in 1861, and is a 
son of Peter and Mary M. (Lewis) Davis, 
very estimable people, of Christian character. 
The father was born in 1830, in Ohio, and he 
died in the year 1875. The mother died in 
1892, at the age of sixty-three years. The 
father belonged to the Christian church and 
the mother was a member of the United 
Brethren church. Farming was the occupa- 
tion of Peter Davis, ahhough he worked for 
a time in a saw mill. He was considered a 
successful man and served at different times 
in such offices as county commissioner, town 
treasurer, etc. Politically he was a Demo- 
crat. He owned 160 acres of land and con- 
ducted farming according to the general meth- 
ods of farms of that size. He and his wife 
were the parents of ten children, Ellen, John, 
W. v., James P., Frank, Jasper, Samuel, 
Clinton, Henry, and C. J. (the subject of this 
sketch.) 

During his early life C. J. Davis had a varied 
experience. He received a fair education and 
very early laid the foundations of the recti- 
tude and probity that have marked his life 
during his manhood years. He worked on the 
ranch, he rode the range in Kansas and when 
he arrived in Custer county he had but little 
of this world's goods, but he had an indomit- 
able spirit and was not afraid of hard work. 
On May 20, 1891, he led to the marriage altar 
Miss Cora M. Judkins, a native of Hancock 
county, Indiana. Mrs. Davis was bom in 
1868, received a good education and has made 
an excellent helpmeet for her husband. She 
belongs to a well known and influential family, 
most of whom live in Nebraska. Mr. and Airs. 



932 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. XEHRASKA 




lilSTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



933 



Davis have always manitaiiied a hospitable. 
Christian home, into which the following chil- 
dren have been born : Flora Downing lives 
at Bayard, Nebraska, where her husband is 
employed in the irrigation work ; Elva and 
Alma are at home ; Cloice is deceased ; Ber- 
nice is teaching school in Lincoln county ; X. 
A. is deceased ; Irene' is at home and is attend- 
ing the high school at Arnold. 

The family home is maintained on the old 
homestead, upon which is a fair grade of im- 
provements. Here Mr. and Mrs. Davis passed 
through the privations and hardships of early 
years. Here they made their accumulations 
and grown the stock with which the farm to- 
day is equipped. The hogs are a good grade 
of Poland Chinas. ' Here in Custer county 
Mr. and Mrs. Davis have been enabled to 
rear their children in a most creditable wav. 
Three'of the children have been graduated in 
the Arnold high school and all have been 
reared to the principles of Christianity and 
high morality. The family are faithful mem- 
bers of the Baptist church. In politics Mr. 
Davis is an independent voter. He is a good 
neighbor, kind and obliging, and both he and 
his wife enjoy the confidence of a large circle 
of friends. 



CHALMERS G. EMPFIELD, who resides 
at Anselmo, is widely conceded to be the fore- 
most builder and contractor of Cnster county. 
Within the last fourteen years he has built 
many monuments to his enterprise and skill 
all over the county and up and down the liur- 
lington Railroad- from Hyannis to Litchfield. 
The story of his life as follows is replete in 
interest and incentive. 

Chalmers G. Empfield was born in I'rush 
\'alley, Indiana county, Pennsylvania, July 21, 
1868. which date brings him to the even half- 
century line. He is a son of Rev. Jackson 
and Jane ( Pitman) Empfield, a very respected 
couple of substantial influence in their lo;al 
community. His early years were spent in 
Pennsylvania, where he had recourse to the 
commo,n schools and often attended summer 
schools, by which means he secured a very 
liberal education — one that has enabled him 
to conduct successfully the business of his life 
career. When seventeen years of age Mr. 
Empfield began tea:hing school, and he taught 
with success in his native state for two years 
before coming to Nebraska. He came to Ne- 
braska in the spring of 1887 and located in 
Custer precinct. Here he located a homestead 
and engaged in farming and stock-raising. 



working at the carpenter trade during odd 
times, and on two different occasions he taught 
winter school. He thus managed to "keep 
things going" and make accumulations. He 
wisely made investments in Custer county 
land, wliich he always considered fine security 
for an investment. He was successful finan- 
cially, and in the spring of 1905 he found him- 
self in possession of 1,040 acres of land. In 
the June time of 1901, tired of single life, he 
led to the marriage altar Miss Carrie' B. Wad- 
dington, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel 
W'addington, and since that time she has pre- 
sided graciously over his home and contributed 
very materially to his social and financial suc- 
cess. The Empfield home has always been 
comfortable and hospitable, and it is the domi- 
cile of an influential family. Mr. and Mrs. 
Empfield have five children — Hazel Leona, 
\'era Blanche, Lela May, George Chalmers, 
and Weir Samuel. These are bright, healthy 
children and give promise of succeeding to 
the usefulness and respected station of their 
parents. • 

In the spring of 1905 Mr. Empfield moved 
to Anselmo, where he at once engaged in con- 
tracting and building, which he has followed 
with remarkable success during the interven- 
ing years. To-day it can be said that his 
building operations outrank those of any other 
contractor of the county. For the last seven 
years he has confined himself almost exclusive- 
ly to brick buildings, and the following struc- 
tures stand to-day to his credit : The Williams 
& Christian Block, the James Lindly store 
building, the Masonic Temple, and the school- 
house, all in Anselmo; the Security State Bank 
and the Moore Brothers' big garage at 
Broken Bow ; the high-school building at 
Litchfield; the L. P. Rose building and the 
Security State Bank building in Arnold. 

Socially the Empfiekls are well connected 
in their home town and prominent in several 
of the lodges. They have a beautiful modern 
home in Anselmo, with a considerable amount 
of other town property to their credit. Thev 
also have 1,-140 acres of land, all of which in- 
sures a coming time when retirement from 
business activity will be easy. Their property, 
clear from incumbrance, demonstrates that 
energy and judgment, whether exercised on 
the farm or in trade occupation, finds its re- 
ward in Custer county. In the time-honored 
Masonic fraternity Mr. Empfield has received 
the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Ac- 
cepted Scottish Rite and for twelve years has 
been secretary of Anselmo Lodge. No. 258, 
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. 



934 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY, NEBRASKA 



ISAAC A. RENEAU. — Closely identified 
with many important interests of Custer 
county, Isaac A. Reneau, who has conducted 
a real-estate and abstract business at Broken 
Bow for more than a quarter of a century. 
may be numbered with the early settlers 
for he came in 1884 and settled first on a pre- 
emption and later on a homestead, situated 
fifteen miles southeast of Broken Bow. Since 
that time he has borne his full share of re- 
sponsibility in developing the natural resources 
of the county, has been truly public-spirited, 
and has done much for movements favoring 
progress in every way. 

Isaac Alexander Reneau was bom near 
Tompkinsville, Monroe county, Kentucky, 
March 11, 1859. His parents were Rev. 
Isaac T. and Mary Gibson (Wood) Reneau, 
both of illustrious and Revolutionary ances- 
try. On the j)aternal side the line is of 
French-Huguenot extraction and its .\niencan 
history is traced to Phillippe Francoise Ren- 
ault as the earliest American founder, he hav- 
ing come to the Louisiana French colony more 
than sixty years before the American Revolu- 
tion, having been appointed by Louis XIV, of 
France, director general of mines for Louis- 
iana. In 1712 large grants of lands in that 
territorj' — now in the states of Illinois and 
Missouri — were made to the West India 
Company by this confidential agent of the 
French king, and at a little later date Renault 
received extensive grants direct from the 
French crown. In 17-M- Renault returned to 
France, and he died in 1756, at his private 
home in Paris. The management of the St. 
Louis Exposition, in recognition of the valued 
services and research of this early contributor 
to the development of the state, had on ex- 
hibition a bronze statue of Monsieur Renault, 
together with an original wooden spade found 
in Renault mine, some thirty miles out of St. 
Louis. His younger brother, Jacques Louis 
Renault, the Huguenot, was banished, but was 
protected by his powerful brother, and he be- 
came the head of the .Xmerican familv of the 
name, the orthography having been changed 
to Reneau — but pronounced exactly the same 
— and this spelling has been adhered to 
through four generations, passing the original 
Family Bible down to Rev. Dr. Isaac T. 
Reneau. 

Rev. Dr. Isaac T. Reneau was educated as 
a physician and after some years of medical 
jtractice he entered the ministry. For nearl\ 
fifty years he was earnest and faithful in 
church work. He was a cousin of General 
Jesse Lee Reno, who was killed at the battle 
of South Mountain. Maryland, in the Civil 
war, and of Major Reno, of the Custer mas- 



sacre tragedy ; also a brother of the late Gen- 
eral Nathaniel S. Reneau, of the Southern 
Confederacy, who lies in the American cenic- 
tery in the City of Mexico. Many other men 
important in the country's political, as well as 
mihtary, history belonged to the same family. 

Rev. Dr. Isaac T. Reneau married Mary 
Gibson Wood, daughter of Colonel Thomas 
Wood, and granddaughter of Major Samuel 
Wood. The latter came from England in 
1755, later became secretary to General Wash- 
ington and served under him during the Revo- 
lutionary war: his marriage to Miss Sarah 
Reaves took place at the home of General 
Washington. Distingxiished members of this 
family are in the military serv^ice of the United 
States to-day. Dr. Reneau's death occurred 
in 1885, at his home, at Albany, Kentucky. 

Isaac A. Reneau had common-school and 
academic advantages at Albany, Keirtucky, 
and Chanute, Tennessee. He was twenty- 
three years old when he first visited the west, 
pausing for a year near Tekamah, in eastern 
Nebraska, where he engaged in fanning — 
first as farm hand and later for himself — 
covering a period from October, 1882, to 
April, 1884. He then headed west in his 
lately acquired "prairie schooner", and landed 
in Custer county May 29th of that year: and 
this has been his home ever since. For more 
than three years he worked on ranches in 
Custer county, and in 1887 he took a position 
with the newly organized Ansley Banking 
Company, as their special farm-loan examiner, 
which position he held about five years, after 
which, as stated above, he entered into busi- 
ness for himself, in Broken Bow. 

On May 8. 1889, Mr. Reneau was united 
in marriage to Miss Clarissa M. Blowers, and 
they have had four children, namely : Vivienne 
Valerie, Meredith Thurman, Helen Thorne, 
and Thomas Henrj', all surviving except the 
eldest. The son Meredith, a University of 
Nebraska junior, is a volunteer in the air 
ser\Mce of the American E.xpeditionar)- Forces 
and has been privileged to fly over the iden- 
tical spot in the beautiful, but now devastated, 
valley of Picardy. France, from whence his 
forebears migrated to become American citi- 
zens. He is a member of the Third air serv- 
ice squadron, selected to accompany the anuv 
of occupation on the Rhine. 

Mr. Reneau, with force and energ)' far 
above the average, has always held his. own 
as a money-maker, and yet he has directed 
his activities in a public-spirited way and 
along charitable lines rather than for mercen- 
ary ends, the overburdened farmers of the 
early '90s, the widows, orphans and unfor- 
tunates, being the silent beneficiaries. He 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



935 



was secretary of the Custer County Relief 
Association during the 1894-5 drought period ; 
was a member of the board of supervisors ; 
member of the board of education and city 
council of Broken Bow ; was one of the or- 
ganizers, and for several years was secretary, 
of the Central Nebraska Cattlemen's Associa- 
tion ; was for many years principal owner and 
manager of the Broken Bow Abstract Comp- 
any ; was secretary of the Republican state 
central committee 1912-14, and a member of 
the same committee 1912-16; member of the 
executive committee and president of the 
Broken Bow Commercial club ; member of the 
executive committee and an active worker for 
many years in the Custer County Agricultural 
Association and was its president l9l3-14, at 
the time of the destructive cyclone that de- 
molished all buildings from the grounds, and 
was the active manager in planning and con- 
structing new buildings on the fair grounds 
at Broken Bow. 

Mr. Reneau is a sound Republican in his 
political faith, but of the most progressive 
type, and for years he has been known among 
his friends over the state as the "Teddy" of 
Custer county. He has never desired any 
public honors for himself but is a loyal and 
husbands to overcome the many obstacles 
hearty worker for those candidates in whom 
he feels confidence, and at the present time, 
as in the past, he is active in using his influ- 
ence to strengthen party ties along more mod- 
ern ideas to meet public emergency. 

Mr. Reneau is now rounding out his thir- 
tieth year on the same homestead, in Broken 
Bow. in which his children were born and 
reared. However, since the disposition of 
most of his Broken Bow interests, he has 
lived the uneventful life, developing his 
Island Park ranch on the Middle Loup river, 
where some day he hopes to entertain all of 
his numerous old-time friends and neighbors 
at a popular watering resort. 



MRS. AD.\ WOLSLEBEN. — Of the 
women of Custer county whose fortune it has 
lieen to reside in this section during^ the past- 
thirty or more years and to have witnessed 
and taken part in the wonderful advancement 
made along agricultural and other lines, men- 
tion is due Mrs. Ada Wolsleben, the daughter 
of a pioneer of 1885. She has passed her 
life since childhood among the developers of 
this now fertile reeion, and in the work that 
has resulted so satisfactorily has herself borne 
no inconsiderable part. 

Mrs. Wols'eben was born in Elkhart coun- 
tv, Indiana, October 24, 1876, a daughter of 



William and Sarah (Smith) Shettron. Her 
father was born in Ohio and as a young man 
moved to Indiana, where he met and mar- 
ried Miss Smith, a native of Pennsylvania, 
their home for some years being in Elkhart 
county, where Mr. Shettron was engaged in 
farming. Like numerous other ambitious 
men, an.xious to rapidly accumulate property, 
during the '80s he finally answered the call 
of the west, and in the sjjring of 1885 he 
came to Custer county and settled on a home- 
stead near West Union. For a number of 
years he worked industriously and intelligent- 
ly in tilling his acres, and out of his hard 
labor he developed a farm of substantial size 
and superior quality, the while he accumulated 
a fortune that assured him of all the material 
comforts during his declining years. On the 
old homestead, Mrs. Shettron was called to 
her final rest May 1, 1913, and not long there- 
after Mr. Shettron sold his property, since 
then having made his home with his children. 
His family consisted of eight children, of 
whom six are living, namely : Nellie, who is 
the wife of John Hargan, a farmer near 
Sargent; Mrs. Wolsleben; Milton, a retired 
farmer of Sargent, whose wife was Miss Lucy 
White ; Maud, who married Miles Boyle, a 
railroad man, and lives at Laramie, Wyoming; 
Lucy, the wife of Bert Dickson, a retired 
citizen of Cherry county, Nebraska ; and 
Pearl, the wife of William Keptler, a farmer 
at Burton, this state. The father of these 
children is a man held in the highest of esteem 
in his community, where he has won respect 
and confidence by the honorable manner in 
which his life has been spent. 

Mrs. Wolsleben was a child of about four 
years at the time when her parents came to 
Nebraska, in 1880, and established their resi- 
dence in Merrick county, where they remained 
five years and where Mrs. Wolsleben acquir- 
ed her rudimentary educational dicipline in 
the pioneer schools. She was nine years of 
age at the time of the family removal to Cus- 
ter county, in 1885, and here she profited 
duly by the advantages aiTorded in the schoois 
of the period. She grew up on the home,- 
stead, where she learned the meaning of life 
in a frontier cornmunity, and was taught the 
thousand-and-one accomplishments by which 
the women helped their fathers, brothers and 
that arose in their path. She was married 
March 6, 1908, at Council Bluffs, Iowa, to 
Charles Wolsleben, who died in December, 
1916, leaving her with three children : Bertha, 
Alarie and Freda. By a former marriage Mrs. 
Wolsleben is the mother of one daughter: 
Mattie Pfrehm, who is completing her educa- 
tion. Bertha and Marie Wolsleben are at- 



936 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



937 



tending the public schools. Mrs. Wolsleben 
has a wide acquaintance in the vicinity of her 
home, which is in section 53, township 17, 
near Sargent, and during her long residence 
in this community she has gained and re- 
tained a wide circle of friends. 



WILLIAM F. FISHER. — There are few 
men better known throughout Cu.ster county 
than William F. Fisher, who owns 706 acres 
of valuable land, well stocked with cattle, 
horses, and mules, as the result of years of 
industry and enterprise, as Mr. Fisher came 
to this section of Nebraska a poor man. He 
was born in ^Marshall county, Kansas, Septem- 
ber 30, 1864. His parents were Frederick J. 
and Mary J. ( Triplett I Fisher, the latter of 
whom survives and lives at Western, Saline 
county, Nebraska. Frederick J. Fisher was 
born in \'ermont and died at Western, Ne- 
braska, April 12, 1918. By way of Kansas 
he came to Saline county, Nebraska, in 1863, 
and he bought eighty acres of land from the 
government, wiiile later he purchased a quar- 
ter-section from other settlers. L^pon discov- 
ering that his home site was railroad land, 
which was not considered a safe investment, 
he moved a half mile down the creek and kept 
on acquiring land through purchases madfe 
with money gained by his skill as a hunter and 
trapper. He sold a great many deer hides 
and beaver and mink skins in those years. He 
was much more enterprising than many of his 
pioneer neighbors and is credited with bring- 
ing the first harvester into the grain fields of 
Saline county. Of his family of thirteen chil- 
dren the following are living: Mary J., who 
lives at Fairbury, Nebraska, was married first 
to Joseph Preston and second to Clinton Hol- 
comb: William F. is the immediate subject of 
this review; Joseph W.. who is a farmer near 
Western, married Stella Badman; Linnie is 
the' wife of Fred Wheeler, a farmer in Lincoln 
county ; Daniel, who is a fanner near Broken 
Bow, married ^lamie .Adams ; Francis G., who 
is a farmer near Western, married Emma Ki- 
zer; Guy E., who is a farmer in Saline county, 
married May Turner: Carrie is the wife of 
David Kizer, cashier in a bank at \\'^estern ; 
and \'iolet is the wife of Flenry Kizer, a farm- 
er near Western, Nebraska. 

William F. Fisher grew up in Saline county 
at a time when hardships were many and great 
courage and resourcefulness were needed at 
all times. Diiring boyhood he attended school 
three months in the year, walking long dis- 
tances, as the schoolhouses were then from 
three to five miles apart, and for many months 



he herded cattle over the old Mormon trail. 
He passed through the notable drouth of 1894 
and experienced many other hardships and had 
innumerable adventures, but he escaped diffi- 
culties with the Indians, although many of the 
settlers were driven off their homesteads and 
even killed. .A.S mentioned above, when Mr. 
Fisher came to Custer county he was yet a 
poor man, but success has attended his eiTorts 
and he is now one of the leading stock nxen 
of the county, as well as a substantial citizen 
in every way. He is a Democrat in politics 
but is not a seeker for ofSce. 

In 1894 Mr. Fisher married Ella Belders, 
who was born in Holland, January 31, 1875, 
and they have fourteen children, a fine, vig'- 
orous family, concerning whom record is here 
given: Frederick J., who was born January 
19, 1895, is a bachelor and remains at the pa- 
rental home ; Gertrude, who was born Febru- 
ary 22. 1896, is the wife of Ernest Gibson, 
a farmer living in Custer county: William C, 
who lives at homej was born September 9. 
1897 ; Clarence D., who was born March 3, 
1899, enlisted for service in the world war, 
and served as a member of Company A, Third 
Engineers, American Expeditionary Forces in 
France. The other children are all members 
of the parental home circle, and their names 
and respective dates of birth are here re- 
corded: Edward, October 25, 1900; Bessie. 
January 15, 1902; Ella, November 5, 1903: 
Homer, March 12, 1905; Arthur, November 
15, 1906; Harvey, November 5, 1908; George 
W., Mav 9, 1911 ; Orvie V., October 11, 1912 ; 
Woodro'w, July 17, 1914; and Elgie B., Febru- 
ary 9, 1916. 



OMER T. STORY. — Many of the young- 
er generation of agriculturists in Custer 
county have passed their entire lives either 
on the fanns which they now operate or 
have been born in the immediate vicinity, with 
the beneficial result that throughout their 
careers they have been familiar with condi- 
tions existing here and have not been called 
upon to unlearn any methods which in an- 
other case they might have followed in some 
other community. In this class is found Omer 
T. Story, who was born on his father's 
homestead south of Sargent, February 20, 
1894, and who is still engaged in farming and 
stock-raising in this immediate community. 

Orvel B. Story, the father of Omer T. 
Story, was born in Indiana December 3, 1855, 
and as a young man he went to Missouri and 
engaged in railroading. From that pursuit 
he turned his attention to farming. Prior to 



938 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



coming to Nebraska he had Hved in Missouri 
and lUinois, and on the 6th of February, 
1885, he came to Custer county, where he 
settled on a homestead near Somerford. He 
continued his farm enterprise until the time 
of his death, which occurred November 24, 
1914. In addition to this he also operated the 
eighty acres which had been homesteaded by 
his wife, and his operations were carried on 
in such an energetic and able manner that he 
became one of the substantial and leading 
farmers of his community. He was a Demo- 
crat in his political views, took a public- 
spirited interest in civic matters, and was an 
active worker in the neighborhood church, of 
which he was deacon, while his wife, who 
died in 1903, served for some years as sec- 
retary. 

On the 4th of July, 1888, was solemnized 
the marriage of Orvel B. Story to Fanny 
Pierce, and they became the parents of three 
children — Era, who is the wife of Frank King, 
a farmer of King City, Missouri ; Georgia, 
who is the wife of Jim Mcintosh, a farmer on 
Boggs Table, Custer county : and Omer T.. 
whose name introduces this sketch. 

Omer T. Story was educated in the common 
schools of the country near Sargent, and 
grew up on the homestead, where his father 
instructed him in all the matters pertaining 
to the successful cultivation of the soil and 
the jjroper handling and raising of live stock. 
He adopted farming as his vocation when 
called upon to make a choice for his career, 
and has contiued to follow this occu[)ation. 
While he is still classed among the younger 
representatives of his vocation, he has already 
achieved marked success, and his past achieve- 
ments point toward a prosperous career in 
farming and stock-raising. While he has 
followed his vocation in a general way, he 
has paid particular attention to the raising of 
short-horn cattle, a deiiartmcnt of his work in 
which he has met with success, and he is al- 
ready accounted somewhat of an authority 
upon the subject. 

Mr. Story was married October 25, 1916, at 
Broken Bow to Miss Nellie Wolsleben, daugh- 
ter of Carl L. and Lena (Lorenzen) Wols- 
leben, natives of Germany who immigrated to 
this country as young people. Carl Louis 
W'olsleben was born near Berlin, Germanv. 
on the 12th day of July, 1854. and was reared 
and educated in his native land. At the age 
of twenty-two years he entered the German 
military service, in which he continued three 
years. In 1880 he came to America and up- 
on coming to Nebraska he made as his desti- 
nation Papillion. Sarpv county. In 1883 he 
married Miss Lena Lorenzen, and in 1888 he 



came with his family to Custer county and 
located at Somerford. In this locality he 
passed the remainder of his life, as a success- 
ful exponent of farm enterprise. He died 
December 11, 1916, his wife having passed 
away in the year 1904, and their children 
having been eight in number. Mr. and Mrs. 
Story are the parents of one child: Virginia 
L., who was born February 8, 1918. Mr. 
Story is a Republican. 



T. W. BASS, D. D. S. — In point of con- 
tinuous service Dr. Bass is the oldest prac- 
ticing dentist at Broken Bow, where he has 
been well known to the people of this com- 
munity as a skilled member of his profession 
since 1899, when he was entering upon his 
career. He w-as born in Steuben county, Indi- 
ana, November 23, 1867, and is a son of Alex- 
ander and Lamira (Holcomb) Bass, natives 
of that state. 

On both the paternal and maternal sides, 
Dr. Bass belongs to families that settled in 
Indiana during the Hoosier state's early his- 
tory, and for the most part his ancestors were 
farming people, although his paternal grand- 
father was a local Baptist preacher. His 
father was born in 1837 and married in Indi- 
ana, where his mother w^as born in 1845, and 
they came to Nebraska in 1883, first settling 
in Hamilton county, but subsequently remov- 
ing to the vicinity of Broken Bow, in Custer 
county. Mr. Bass continued to be engaged 
in farming operations until the time of his 
retirement, and his last years w-ere passed at 
Broken Bow, w^here he died in 1903, Mrs. 
Bass having passed away two years before. 
They were faithful members of the Baptist 
church and Mr. Bass w-as a Democrat in his 
political views. Of the ten children in the 
family, eight still survive. 

The education of Dr. T. W'. Bass w'as 
initiated in the public schools of Indiana, but 
when he was sixteen years of age the family 
removed to Nebraska and he accompanied his 
parents to the farm in Hamilton county. In 
the district schools there and the high school 
at Grand Island he continued his studies, and 
finally he entered the Omaha College of Den- 
tistr}-, in which he was duly graduated. He 
was successful in passing the examination at 
the state board meeting in 1899 and in that 
same year established himself in practice at 
Broken Bow. where he has since been located, 
now being the dean of his profession here. 
As in medicine and surger\', the science of 
dentistry is constantly developing new phases 
of usefulness, and in order to secure success 
the dentist of to-day must keep fully abreast 



J 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



939 



of the latest achievements of his profession. 
This Dr. Bass has not faiknl to do, and it is 
one of the reasons why he has attained such 
a lar<,'e patronage during tiic twenty years of 
his practice and why he has retained uniform 
confidence. Dr. Bass has also been an advo- 
cate of organization among the dental practi- 
tioners of the state and has done some valu- 
able and constructive work in this direction. 
In political matters he is a Republican, but 
his ]>rofession has played such a large ])art in 
his life and has demanded so nuich of his at- 
tention that he has been left little time for out- 
side afil'airs, so that politics has been a field 
which he has not cared to enter. In fraternal 
matters he has shown a somewhat greater 
interest, being a prominent member of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which 
organization he has passed all the official 
chairs. Me is past grand master of the Ne- 
l)raska Grand Lodge and has been a repre- 
sentative to the sovereign grand lodge on four 
occasions. 

Dr. Bass was married in October, 1893, at 
Grand Island. Nebraska, to Miss Josephine 
E. Thralls, who was born in Michigan. Mrs. 
Bass was educated at the Grand Island high 
school and a commercial sc1uk)1, and prior 
to her marrigeg to the Doctor was connected 
with the Ciistcr County Chief. To this 
union there has been born one child : Ethel, 
the wife of Carl Abbott, bookkeeeper in the 
Broken Bow State Bank. Dr. and Mrs. Bass 
are members of the Methodist Episcopal 
church. 



MRS. SADIE E. BAILLIE, who has spent 
many years in Nebraska and since 1S82 has 
been a resident of Custer county, is well quali- 
fied to speak good words of both state and 
county. The daughter of a pioneer business 
man and the wife of another, and living in 
different sections, she had experiences that 
many others did not meet with, and her remi- 
niscences, which cover a period, of thirty-six 
years and more, arc exceedingly interesting. 
Mrs. Baillie is well known over Custer county 
and here has many friends, especially at Wes- 
tcrvillc. 

Mrs. Baillie was born near Ithaca, New 
York, where her father conducted a hotel. 
Her birth took place December 5, 1862. Her 
parents were William D. and Rebecca J. 
(Ryno) Eefler, the former of whom was a 
native of Pennsylvania and the latter of New 
York. Mrs. Baillie has two sisters — Mary, 
who is the wife of George Whitman and lives 
in Michigan, and Annie, wnfc of John Tisdale, 
of Pleasanton, Nebraska. Mrs. Baillie was 



yet Ji chilli when her father sold his hotel at 
Ithaca and nuned his family to Hartford, 
.M icliig;u). There he opened a meat market, 
which ho conducted until 1S75. He then set- 
tled in a neighboring village that never grew 
to be more than a hamlet and now is forgot- 
ten. The family remained in that village only 
a short time, the father in the meanwhile be- 
coming interested in Nebraska, and removal 
was soon made to a farm near Sweetwater, 
this state, but after one year on the farm, 
Mr. Lefler moved into Loup City and carried 
the mail from Loup City to Seneca. He was 
a Kcpublican in his political views and was 
afiilliated with the Knights of Pythias. 

While living inMichigan, in girlhood, Sadie 
E. Lefler attended the public schools, and it 
was after the family luoved to Loup City, 
Nebraska, that she luarried. Two years later 
she came to Custer county, which has been 
her home ever since. While circumstances 
preserved her from m.nny of the ])ioneer hard- 
shi])s of those early days, she well remembers 
the attending disadvantages and how her sym- 
[lathy often was called out for the overtaxed 
pioneer women of her acquaintance. In the 
midst of the present comfortable prosperity 
that prevails in Custer county, it is well, 
])crliai)S, sometimes to rec;ill those days. Al- 
ways a kind and helpful neighbor, there are 
many who have reason to kindly remember 
Mrs! Baillie. 

At Kearney, Nebraska, December 19, 1880, 
Sadie E. Lefler was married to William B. 
I'aillie, a son of William and Jeanette (Law- 
son) Baillie. He was of Scotch ancestry, a 
college-bred man and was educated in Scot- 
land. At the time of lu.arriage he was con- 
ducting a general nierch.-mdise store in Loup 
City, and they continued to live there until 
1882, when they came to Custer county. 
Here Mr. Baillie opened a drug store in 
the town of Seneca, the name of which town, 
through his influence, was changed to its 
present fonn, Weslerville. Later Mr. Baillie 
conducted a drug store at Berwyn, and he 
also enterefl a timber claim, which is now the 
property of his widow. Mr. Baillie died in 
1902 and is survived by one son, Ravmond C. 
Baillie. 



OSCAR M. JUNE. — There are many 
young farmers in Custer county who claim 
the county as the jilace of their nativity. In 
the case of the young ranchman named above 
this statement is true. Here he was l.iorn, 
;uk1 here his wife was born, here their chil- 
dren were born, and here they have lived all 
their lives. Accordingly, Custer county is in- 



940 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, XEURASKA 









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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



941 



debted to them for all of the service rendered 
during the intervening years. 

Oscar M. June was born in 1889 and is a 
son of Isaac and Ida (Lear) June, the fonner 
a native of Ohio and the latter of Iowa. The 
father died at the age of fifty-nine years, but 
the mother, at the age of fifty-one years, is 
still living in Broken Bow. In their family 
were six children : Fraud lives in Dunning ; 
Oscar M. is the subject of this sketch ; Myrtle 
Loun lives on a Custer county farm; Minnie 
Shoemaker lives at Broken Bow ; and Millie 
also lives in Broken Bow. A half-brother 
and half-sister, Elmer and Ella Carpenter, 
are living in Custer county and Stella, Ne- 
braska, respectively. 

Isaac June homesteaded in Custer county 
thirty-one years ago. He had practically 
nothing when he arrived and began improv- 
ing his farm. He and his wife came directly 
from Ohio to this county and brought with 
them nothing but the determined spirit by 
which the difificulties of the west are always 
overcome. He was a veteran of the Civil 
war, and he was residing at Anselmo, in 
this county, at the time of his death. 

Oscar M. June received his education in 
this county. Here he received also his train- 
ing for farming and stock-raising, and here 
he formed the habits of industry by which he 
has accumulated what might be considered a 
fair start for a man of his year. In 1910 
he took up a homestead upon which he put 
fair improvements and made final proof. He 
has 160 acres under cultivation, rents 320 
acres, has forty-seven head of cattle, and fifty- 
five head of hogs, with a contingent of horse 
power equal to the demands of the place. He 
married Miss Vera Potter, who, as stated 
above, is a native daughter of this county. 
She comes of a splendid family and in every 
possible way has been an invaluable assist- 
ant to her husband. She has presided over 
her home and done well her part in their 
joint operations. Two children have been 
bom to this union. Kenneth is eighteen 
months old at the time of this writing and 
Carl died in infancy. Mr. June is an inde- 
pendent voter, owes affiliation to no party, and 
is proud of the fact that he can claim Custer 
county as his native heath. 

JOHN A. GSCHWIND. — No proper 
alignment of Custer county farmers could pos- 
sibly be made that would not put John Arnold 
Gschwind in the first rank. While his name 
is a foreign extraction and suggests that 
Wiirtemberg and Tyrol blood flows in the 
veins, he is, nevertheless, a native-born Amer- 



ican and thus far practically all his life has 
been spent in Custer county. 

John was born in Cincinnati, September 16, 
1873, and belongs to the crop of Buckeyes 
that have made that state famous. His father, 
Gustave Gschwind, was a thrifty, frugal Ger- 
man. His mother, Frances M. ( Kaser) 
Gschwind, was a native of Switzerland. In 
the family of the father and mother were five 
boys and four girls — Gustave A., Eustace, 
Henrietta (deceased), Hermena Branschi, 
John A. (the prosperous Custer county farmer 
this sketch describes), Herman A., Flora T. 
(deceased), Frances Bass, and Carl F. The 
father's advent into the United States dates 
back as far as 1868. He first settled in Cin- 
cinnati, but afterward moved to a farm and 
followed farming for his occupation for the 
remainder of his days. He came to Custer 
county in 1882 and located on the South Loup 
river, six miles northwest of Callaway. Then 
began some of the pioneer experiences that are 
not hard to remember. Before their habitation 
was completed the family moved in with a pio- 
neer named Frederick S'chreyer, who was one 
of the characters of an early date. He had a 
two-room house, half sod and half dugout, 
and in these two rooms, eighteen people man- 
aged to live until Mr. Gschwind could excavate 
and roof a dugout. The third day in the county 
they were treated to a gun play, for which no 
charge was made, but which seems to have 
been thrown in to make the entertainment and 
reception of newcomers of special interest. 
Some cowboys, who had been previously well 
liquored, drove a herd of ponies through Chris 
Nelson's corn. For this they had been reported 
to the boss. A day or two later the cowboys 
found Chris at the postoffice and everything 
was staged for a row. Gschwind and Schreyer 
were present and interfered in behalf of Chris. 
In the shulitle that ensued, Schreyer was shot 
in the side. The wound, however, was not 
fatal. 

John A. Gschwind was nine years old when 
his Custer county career began. ?Ie had the 
opportunities of the early day and received his 
education in the first schools of the county. 
He inherited habits of thrift and frugality, 
and these, applied with his accustomed vigor, 
have made his farming operations a signal 
success. 

December 21. 1909. ]\Ir. Gschwind married 
Theresa J. Safranek, daughter of Joiin Sa- 
franek and Amelia E. (Martin) Safranek. who 
were substantial people living near Merna. Mr. 
and Mrs. Gschwind have now a splendid home, 
the life of which is greatly augmented by four 
bright sons, who are typical young Americans 



942 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



of the third generation. Thev are Carl F., 
Paul A,, John A.. Jr., and Herbert A. The 
Gschwind holdings consist of 468 acres, splen- 
didly improved with a good farm home and all 
necessary accessories and equipment. 

Recalling early days, Mr. Gschwind says he 
earned his first money by herding sheep, on 
foot, for Chris Nelson, who still lives in Tri- 
umph township. Chris had an old dog which 
would not follow anyone except himself, but 
Arnold fastened a rope to the dog, and led 
him around for the moral effect of the dog 
upon the sheep. H the sheep got into a field 
of corn, that was all there was to it. The 
corn belonged to the sheep. The combination 
of boy, dog, and rope could not get them out. 
Those experiences are past and the former 
days are gone forever, but the passing years 
have used John well. The days of his retire- 
ment will be spent in comfort. All that he has, 
has been made in the county by farming and 
stock-raising. Mr. and Mrs. Gschwind are 
members of the Lutheran church. 



EDWARD F. MORGAN— In relation to 
settlement and continuous residence, this title 
line introduces practically a new-comer — one 
whose residence in the county is of but eleven 
years' duration, and yet one who is one of the 
present-day factors and bids fair to hold his 
own and fulfill all that is expected of a Custer 
county food producer. 

Edward F. Morgan was born in De Kalb 
county, Missouri, in 1879, and is a son of John 
M. and Alice A. (Arnold) Morgan, the former 
of whom was lx)rn in 1850 and the latter in 
1860: in their family were three children, of 
whom Edward is the eldest; Byron M. lives 
on a farm near Merna ; and Mina works in a 
bank at Unadilla, Nebraska. The father be- 
longed to the Republican party, was assessor, 
member of the school board, road overseer, and 
is now food administrator at Unadilla. He is 
also a Woodman and Mason. He started with 
but little capital and has been one of the 
world's productive workers. 

Edward F. Morgan came to Custer countv in 
1907. Here he bought 800 acres of unim- 
proved land and he has put on good improve- 
ments since that time. On the place he runs 
eighty head of cattle, all of which are a good 
grade. He breeds Duro-Jersey hogs and his 
horses are of good Percheron lilood. Follow- 
ing in the footsteps of his father in the matter 
of community sen-ice. he is a member of the 
school board and director of the Arnold and 
Anselmo Telephone Company. 

In 1903, at Syracuse, Nebraska, was solemn- 



ized the marriage of Mr. Morgan to Miss Hil- 
ma Johnson, who was born in 1880, in Sweden, 
and who is a woman of intelligence and gra- 
cious personality. Mrs. Morgan has been at 
all times a true helpmeet to her husband, and 
has given him elTective co-operation in his 
earnest endeavors. She holds membership in 
the Presb)"terian church. Mr. and ]\Irs. Mor- 
gan have four very promising young children, 
who lend happiness to the family home, and 
whose names are here entered in respective 
order of birth : \'era. Lyle. Harold, and \'erle. 
Mr. Morgan says his first money was made 
in raising hogs down in Otoe county, this 
state, and prior to the time that he commenced 
farming operations for himself he worked out 
at almost anything that came to his hand. His 
accumulations are the result of his own labor, 
and since he is young in years it requires no 
prophet to foresee that the start already ob- 
tained will ensure a competency for the years 
of his retirement. 



WATT WILLIAMS, farmer, stockman, and 
real-estate dealer at Oconto, is one of the rep- 
resentative men of Custer county, is largely 
self-made, and now has ample fortune. He 
has spent practically his entire life in Nebras- 
ka and cherishes a real son's pride in and af- 
fection for the state. Mr. \\'illiams was born 
in \\'ill county, Illinois. July 6. 1880. His 
parents were Richard and Anna Williams, the 
former of whom was a native of A\'a!es. They 
had eight children, namely : Mrs. Stella Wat- 
kins, Airs. Ida Wheeler, Georgia (deceased), 
John, Watt. Mrs. Anna Patterson, I\Irs. 
Blanche Ramsey, and Mrs. Gertrude Hnssey. 

Watt Williams was five years old when his 
parents came to Nebraska as pioneer settlers. 
His father located on Redfern Table, eight 
miles west of Oconto. In those days a lack 
of water, when the natural springs went dry, 
caused a great amount of inconvenience and 
some actual suffering, and Mr. ^^'illiams de- 
scribes with vividness the diflferent measures 
used and the economies practiced in relation to 
securing and keeping a necessary amount of 
the life-sustaining fluid. Nine miles was a 
long distance to haul water by the barrel, but 
the settlers in many sections could procure 
none in any other way in the arid regions. 
Mr. Williams remembers when a neighbor liv- 
ing four miles away, put down a well, not 
reaching water until a depth of 4.^0 feet, and 
he recalls how rejoicing prevailed because there 
would be five miles less of hauling to do. Lack 
of water was not the only drawback of the 
prairie country during his boyhood, for he 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



943 




Watt WiLfjAiis 



944 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



can remember when rattlesnakes could be 
found almost anywhere, and it is reasonable to 
suppose that not very welcome was the appear- 
ance of such a reptile before a little bare-footed 
boy herding cattle a long way from home. 
However, he grew so accustomed to the snakes 
that he became an adept in killing them, and 
he believes that the first money he ever had 
was a dime paid him by a "tenderfoot," for a 
fine set of rattles. When fourteen years old 
Mr. Williams went to work on the Watson 
ranch at KearneVj at a salary of seven dollars 
a month, a wage considered fair at the time, 
and he kept on, in spite of a physical disability 
that incapacitated him for eight months. He 
developed a frugal liabit that resulted in his 
gradual accummulation of capital, and this he 
invested in the horse business, at first in a 
small way but later on a larger scale. In the 
course of time he became generally interested 
in stock. He now owns 700 acres of fine land 
and has additionally two handsome residences 
in the town of Oconto, as well as his business 
office. \\'henever his farm duties do not claim 
him he may be found at Oconto, where he has 
built up a very satisfactory real-estate business. 
In common parlance, Mr. Williams has "made 
good," although when ten years old, he was 
suddenly afflicted with blindness, and for an 
entire year his sister Anna had to guide his 
steps. He feels indebted to the skill of Dr. 
Michaels, of Callaway, for the restoration of 
his sight, but a recurrence of the trouble in 
1895, made him again almost helpless for a 
period of eight months. A naturally cheerful 
disposition and an ambitious and sturdy spirit, 
helped him through those dark days. 

Mr. Williams was married May 22, 1899, at 
Lexington, Nebraska, to Miss Zula Van Cleave, 
who is a daughter of Henry and Jane (Shel- 
ley) Van Cleave, -and they have a family of 
four children: Irvin L., who was graduated 
from the Oconto high school in the class of 
1918: and Harold A., Merle, and Wilma O., all 
of whom are attending school at Oconto. In 
])olitics Mr. Williams is a steadfast Republi- 
can. He belongs to the Oconto lodge of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 



HENRY O. PIERCE. — Two generations 
of the Pierce family have resided on the farm 
in section 31. township 19. and the present 
occupant. Henry O. Pierce, is in every way 
maintaining the reputation of his pioneer fa- 
ther, the late James Pierce, who came to this 
community of the west in 1880. The family 
have always manifested a spirit of public enter- 
prise and progress and its contributions to the 



development of the locality have been such as 
to entitle them to mention as benefactors of 
their community. 

James Pierce was born at Charlestown, 
Massachusetts, and as a youth went to sea, 
being for twelve years a sailor in the danger- 
ous business of whaling and for two years em- 
ployed on a passenger vessel. In his native 
locality he married Jane Hunt, who was born 
at Somerford, England, and about the year 
1857 they removed to Minnesota and settled on 
a farm in Mower county. Mr. Pierce was a 
hard-working and capable man, but in Minne- 
sota he (lid not make the success which he de- 
sire<^l, and. looking for a new community in 
which to locate, he chose Custer county, Ne- 
braska. He came here in August, 1880. and 
secured a homestead and a tree claim at 
Somerford postoffice. but not until the fol- 
lowing year did he bring his family to 
locate permanently. Mr. Pierce became one 
of the substantial and influential men of 
his locality, and was appointed postmaster, 
a position which he retained twenty-seven 
years. During the first year it was neces- 
sary to carry the mail from Westerville 
free of charge, this being a requirement of the 
government in order to obtain a postoffice. and 
this work was principally done by William 
Gundy. On account of the severity of the win- 
ter of 1880-81 the pioneers suffered extremely, 
not only from the cold but also because of the 
shortage of flour, which was not to be obtained 
at any price. The flour mill at the Loup had 
lieen closed down on account of ice freezing 
the water in the mill wheels, and the nearest 
mill in operation was at Grand Island, 110 
miles away. This could not be reached, be- 
cause of the heavy snow. However, like the 
other sturdy pioneers, they managed to pass 
through these hardships and others, and event- 
ually were able to obtain all the necessities and 
some of the comforts of life. In their later 
years the parents were surrounded by all the 
conveniences, and the evening of their lives 
was filled with contentment and pleasure. Mr. 
Pierce died, on the homestead place. March 
11. 1910. He was highl\' esteemed in the com- 
munity, because of his many sterling traits of 
character. Of his eight children, seven are 
living: Frances, deceased, was the wife of 
Orvel P). Storey : George G., who is single, is 
a resident of Somerford postoffice: Thomas L.. 
who is single, resides with John D. Knight, on 
r>oggs Table. Custer county: .-\lfred W.. who 
married Minnie Knight, is a farmer at Somer- 
ford : W'illiam .\.. who married Etta Stevens, 
is a farmer north of Sargent ; Henrv O. is the 
immediate subject of this sketch: Elizabeth J. 
is the wife of John D. Knight, of P>oggs Table ; 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



945 



and Jesse, who married Alargaret Knight, is 
a farmer at Somerford. 

Henry C^. Pierce was born in Mower 
county, Minnesota, November 7, 1871, and 
attended the public schools in his native 
community until he was ten years of age, 
at which time he was brought to Custer 
county. After he had completed his studies 
in the country schools, he took up farming 
as his life's work, and at the time of his fa- 
ther's death he secured the old homestead, in 
section 31, township 19, which he has since 
improved until it is modern in every feature 
and highly improved. He has engaged im- 
partially in farming and stock-raising, but re- 
cently has made somewhat of a feature and 
specialty of raising and breeding Polled Dur- 
ham cattle, a field in which he has won marked 
success. He is considered one of the most 
progressive of the agriculturists of this local- 
ity, and is a man of the highest personal and 
business integrity. Interested in civic affairs 
and possessed of profound public spirit, he has 
frequently been called upon to serve in the 
capacities of public importance, having been 
school treasurer for one tenn, member of the 
school board and moderator, and at present he 
is a member of the town board and is town- 
ship treasurer. His political faith makes him 
a staunch Republican. 



CHARLES SWANSON. — You might ride 
all day and pass a hundred farms, and not find 
one better improved or showing more signs 
of thrift and prosperity than the Swanson farm 
near Walworth. 

Charles Swanson was born in S'weden, De- 
cember 13, 1861, and is a son of Sam and Stava 
(Kant) Swanson. The surname of the wife 
was taken from her father's soldier name. Each 
soldier has to adopt a name to designate him 
from another regiment, a peculiarity of Swed- 
ish custom that is strange to us in America. 
Both the father and mother were of Swedish 
lineage for many generations. They never 
came to the United States. He was a laborer 
but provided well for his family, in which were 
five children, four of whom are living. Charles 
and two of his brothers are the only ones that 
immigrated to America. One of these brothers 
is living in Indiana, and the other in Nebraska, 
near Kearney. 

Charles SVanson came to the United States 
when twenty-one years of age, which was in 
December of 1882. His first stopping place 
was in Indiana, where he worked to get money 
to pay for his fare to this country, he having 
borrowed the requisite sum to pay his passage. 



He lived and worked in Indiana until the 
spring of 1887. when he came to Custer county 
and homesteaded in sections 2 and 3. township 
20, range 19, which homestead he still owns. 
Altogether he is the proprietor of 960 broad 
acres, on which are splendid improvements. It 
is a beautiful place, unusually well supplied 
with buildings for all requirements of stock 
farming. This place is known as "Cedar 
Slope," and in addition to his agricultural en- 
terprise, Mr. Swanson buys and sells cattle 
and hogs, from which he has been constantly 
accumulating. At one time he made a specialty 
of horses and mules, and was once the owner 
of over 200 head which he raised and which 
he sold in Grand Island. He recalls that the 
first mule that he ever shipped to Grand Island 
sold for $400, which advertises the fact that 
it must have been a pretty good mule. His 
ability to buy and sell at the right time, as 
coupled with his keen judgment of stock, has 
served him well and enabled him to make the 
business profitable. 

August 28, 1895, Mr. Swanson was united 
in marriage to ^Maggie Abbott, at Abbott's 
ranch in Loup county. She is a daughter 
of John and Jane ( Warner) Abbott. Her 
parents were very prominent Kansas stock- 
growers, and withal very estimable people. 
They now reside in Taylor, Nebraska. To Mr. 
and Mrs. Swanson five children have been 
born, and of the number three are living: June 
is the wife of Thomas Rittenhouse, on the 
Swanson ranch, and Esther and Imia remain 
at the i>arental home. 

Look around these premises and see the 
buildings, note the field and see the stock, and 
then recall that when Mr. Swanson landed in 
the county his cash capital consisted of $3.35. 
The first summer he worked for sixteen dollars 
a month and hired eight acres of land broken 
on his claim. He built his sod house alone, 
went in debt for a yoke of oxen, and used pond 
water for his stock and himself for three years. 
He lived alone and kept bachelor's quarters for 
seven years. After he had secured enough 
money to buy a drilling outfit for putting down 
wells, he followed that business for a time and 
drilled most of the wells put down in the early 
days in this vicinity. His success in putting 
down wells gained for him the sobriquet of 
"The Groundhog." 

Politically Mr. Swanson affiliates with no 
party, as he is independent in his thinking and 
in his voting. He is a member of the Swedish 
Lutheran church, in which he has been a di- 
rector for eight years past. He is a member 
of the Masonic fraternity, is an Oddfellow 
and also is affiliated with the Modern Wood- 



946 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 




< 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



947 



men of America. He is known throughout the 
north region of the county as a splendid man, 
successful in business and the father of a con- 
tented and happy family of children. 



JOSEPH HAEFELE. — Down on what is 
known as the Ryno Table, where is located in 
his own home the McKinley postoffice, live Jo- 
seph Haefele and his industrious, hard-work- 
ing family. 

Joseph Haefele was born November 20, 
1863. in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and he is 
a son of John F. Haefele, a native of Wiirtem- 
berg, Germany. His mother, Justina (Ruth) 
Haefele, was born in Strassburg', Alsace-Lor- 
raine, and was a daughter of Peter Ruth, a 
man of strong character and one well known 
in Strassburg. Of the children of John F. 
and Justina (Ruth) Haefele ten are living at 
the time of this writing, namely: Jacob, John 
F., Frederick J., George. Rudolph M., Wil- 
helm, August, Mary, Mrs. Catherine Davis, 
and Joseph. 

John F. Haefele came to America when 
eighteen years of age. Pie was a blacksmith 
by trade and located in Lancaster, Pennsyl- 
vania. Those were the days of the Buchanan 
presidential administration, and money was 
something often talked about but seldom seen. 
Mr. Haefele worked for some of the farmers, 
and on one occasion he worked for one man 
long enough to earn a cow, which he accepted 
in lieu of money due him for wages. 

Joseph Haefele, who is familiarly called Joe, 
earned his first money when he was but eight 
3'ears of age, by picking pieces of slate out of 
the coal-breaker at the Sugar Notch anthracite 
mines in Pennsylvania. He continued to work 
in the mines until he was twenty-one years of 
age. \\'ithin this period he worked in all 
departments of coal-mining and learned every 
phase of the operation by which coal is taken 
from the bowels of the earth and placed in the 
bins of the retailer for city marketing. 

Joseph Haefele was married April 24, 1889, 
at Broken Bow, Nebraska, to Cora B. Booth, 
who was born in Michigan, is a daughter of 
Charles W. and Nancy Booth, her father hav- 
ing removed to Michigan from the state of 
New York. Airs. Haefele is a member of a 
familv of nine children — Mrs. Electa Barrett, 
Edwin C, Alfred J.. Mrs. Cora B. Haefele, 
Charles W., Ernest R., ]\Irs. Grace M. Coulter, 
Mrs. Elizabeth S'hup, and George M. 

Mr. Haefele arrived in Custer county, Ne- 
braska, in 1885 and immediately appropriated 
320 acres of L^ncle Sam's domain, by filing on 
a homestead and entering a tree claim at the 



same time. For four years Joe kept bachelor's 
hall, and he then threw up his hands and said 
that he had "had enough." The result of this 
surrender was the marriage recorded above. 
Mr. and Mrs. Haefele have eight children: 
Elizabeth G. is the wife of Jacob Koch, a farm- 
er living near Merna, and they have three sons 
and one daughter. Mr. Koch is prominent in 
the local ranks of the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows, and is independent in politics. 
Ruth M., the ne.xt younger daughter, is the 
wife of Everett Fuller, a farmer living near 
Berwyn, and they have one child. Air. Fuller 
is an Odd Fellow and is independent in politics. 
Charles W. Haefele, a private in Battery C, 
Three Hundred and Thirty-ninth Regiment, 
Eighty-eighth Division of Field Artillery, is 
"somewhere in France" at the time this sketch 
is being prepared. Ralph M. Haefele is a pop- 
ular young bachelor. Joseph W. Haefele is a 
student in the public schools and lives at home. 
Esther O. also is in school and remains at the 
parental home. Herbert H. and Lottie L. are 
likewise under the parental roof and are pur- 
suing their studies in the splendid school of 
the neighborhood. 

Air. Haefele has long been very actively 
identified with public affairs in his county. 
He is a live promoter and supporter of every 
enterprise that contributes to the upbuilding 
of the community. He has been a school offi- 
cer for twenty-five years, being one of the or- 
ganizers of the old Custer Canyon district No. 
237. For the last nine years he has been post- 
master of the AIcKinley postoffice, which is 
located at his home. He is the precinct com- 
mitteeman of the Council of Defense, and is a 
member of the local organization of the An- 
cient Order of United Workmen at Callaway. 

Air. Haefele has a beautiful farm home in 
Custer canyon, where he settled in 1885. He 
is the owner of 880 acres of good land and has 
accumulated this valuable property through 
farming and live-stock operations in Custer 
county. His children are industrious and have 
given valuable assistance on the farm. At 
present the Haefeles are milking thirty-five 
cows, and Air. Haefele says that this is the 
business that brings the money in Custer 
countv. 



JOSEPH BARTU. — The prominent citi- 
zen named above is foreign born and is one 
who in America has made good. He was born 
June 18, 1874, in Aloravia, and is a son of 
loseph and Alary (Kriz) Bartu. both natives 
of Aloravia. The father was a tailor by occu- 
pation until he came to the L^nited States, in 



948 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1885. The family settled first in Fillmore 
county, Nebraska, where they worked on a 
farm for relatives, to pay the amount of their 
passage to this country. In 1886 Joseph Bartu, 
Sr., returned to the tailor's trade, and he 
worked two years at his old-country occupa- 
tion. In 1888 he moved to \'alley county and 
homesteaded a forty-acre tract bordering on 
Custer county, just east of Comstock. Here 
the family lived until 1899, when they moved 
over into Custer county, on to the land where 
the subject of this sketch lives at the present 
time. The parents lived here until their death, 
the father's death having occurred July 22, 

1912, and that of the mother on August 13, 

1913. Of their three children Joseph is the 
■ youngest. The others are Frances, wife of 

Frank Visek, who lives near Comstock, and 
Mary, wife of Joe Zurek, who lives in Wiscon- 
sin. Mr. Bartu is a Democrat in politics and 
a member of the Z. C. B. J., a Bohemian lodge. 
Joseph Bartu, the subject of this sketch, was 
married January 15, 1890, to Frances Ned- 
balek, at Burwell, Nebraska. Mrs. Bartu is 
a daughter of John and ]\Iar\- (Rajda) Ned- 
balek, who were early settlers in Custer county 
but who are now living at Burwell, this state. 
In the home formed as a result of this union 
are seven children — Emma, who is employed 
in a hospital at Hastings, Nebraska; and Jo- 
seph, August, Agnes, Adolph, Jerry, and 
Henry, all of whom are at home. ' The earlv 
years of the Bartu family were fraught with 
difficulties and drawbacks, and losses were en- 
countered. In speaking of these losses, Mr. 
Bartu recalls that in 1898 he suflfered the loss 
of nine stacks of grain by fire, which perhaps 
was the worst loss ever encountered i:i any one 
year. Another time he lost many cattle, and 
on several occasions the crops have failed, vet 
to-day the showings on his home place, which 
consists of 520 acres, well improved and well 
stocked, indicate that he has succeeded in spite 
of drawba:ks. He still feels that Custer countv 
is a great county and a place where any mail 
can succeed if he is made of the right kind 
of stuff. Both Joseph Bartu and his wife are 
highly regarded by their neighbors. 

ACHILLES D. JOHNSON. — In accord- 
ing recognition to the early settlers of Custer 
county, mention should be made of Achilles D. 
Johnson, who has been a resident of the county 
for thirty-eight years and who has not only 
been an eye-witness of the vast changes that 
have taken place but has also been an important 
factor in the development of his community. 

Achilles D. Johnson is a native of the Buck- 
eve state, his birth having occurred in Harri- 



son county, Ohio, March 30, 1854. His par- 
ents were Achilles D. and Elizabeth ( Lukens) 
Johnson, the former born in \'irginia and the 
latter in Ohio. The marriage of the parents 
was solemnized in Ohio and there the father 
passed away in 1864. In the following year 
the widowed mother removed with her children 
to Iowa and established a home in Mahaska 
county, three miles from Oskaloosa, the county 
seat. On a farm in that county Achilles D. 
Johnson, subject of this review, was reared to 
manhood, and, in 1880, he came to Custer coun- 
ty, Nebraska, where he secured a homestead in 
section 30, township 18, range 21. and took a 
tree claim in section 19 of the same township. 
Here, amid the pioneer conditions that existed 
at that time, Mr. Johnson began the task of 
developing a farm and building a home. The 
first residence was in keeping with the times 
and was constructed of sod, this being the 
family home for many years. Success attend- 
ed his efforts and the farm has been brought 
to a high state of cultivation; the sod house 
has been replaced with a frame building, a 
second frame house being completed forone 
of the sons ; and the property is one of the well 
improved farms of Custer county. Mr. John- 
son is owner also of a ranch of 2,500 acres in 
Blaine county, and farming and stock-raising 
are carried on extensively. 

In Custer county was celebrated the mar- 
riage of Mr. Johnson to Miss Minnie Davidson, 
a native of Tama county, Iowa, and they be- 
came the parents of four children : Two died 
in infancy: Floyd A., who is assisting in the 
operation of the home farm, married Opal 
Small and they have three children; Earl D., 
who resides on the ranch in Blaine county, 
married Lura Kellenbarger, and thev have one 
child. 

Mr. Johnson was reared in the gracious faith 
of the Society of Friends and has not sought 
affiliation with any other religious denomina- 
tion. In politics he casts an independent bal- 
lot ; fraternally he is connected with Merna 
Lodge No. 171, Ancient Free and Accepted 
Masons, and both of his sons are members of 
the }kIasonic lodge, the father and sons exempli- 
fying in their daily lives the beneficent spirit of 
the time-honored fraternity. 

Mr. Johnson was among the first settlers in 
this part of the county and his circle of friends 
is co-extensive with his circle of acquaintance. 



OMER E. HEMPHILL, who is an exten- 
sive farmer and stock-raiser in Custer county. 
owns a large body of land and is numbered 
with the substantial and representative men 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



949 




AcHHUEs D. Johnson and Family 



950 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



of this section. From an experience of thirty 
years in the county and taking- part in its won- 
derful development, Mr. Hemphill feels proud 
of what has been accomplished in a compara- 
tively short time. 

Mr. Hemphill was born in Grundy county, 
Missouri, June 15, 1871, and is a son of Levi 
and Emeline L. (Stucker) Hemphill, the for- 
mer of whom was born in Illinois, in which 
state the Hemphill family has been prominent 
for years, and the latter of whom was born in 
Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Levi Hemphill had 
eight children, but some died in infancy, and 
the following named survive: Benjamin F., 
Omer E., Mrs. Rosa C. Kimberling, and Edgar. 

\Vhen Omer E. Hemphill was three years 
old his father moved to the east central part 
of Iowa and settled in Washington county, 
where he was engaged in farming about thir- 
teen years. It was there that young Omer E. 
went to school and also learned farm methods 
in a practical way — knowledge that later 
proved very useful, although with changed 
climate and conditions, and scientific experi- 
menting, some of the old methods of the fa- 
thers of present-day ag^riculturists are not con- 
sidered the most profitable. In 1886 the family 
moved to Buffalo county. Nebraska, and in 
1888 came into Custer county and located four 
miles south of Oconto. There Mr. HemphHl's 
father was engaged in farming during the rest 
of his life, but he died before his industries 
were more than well started. At that time 
Omer E. Hemphill was nineteen years old, and 
he remained at home and did his part in the 
subsequent adjustment of family affairs. 

Mr. Hemphill was married April 12, 1899, 
in Dawson county, Nebraska, to Nliss Anna P. 
\'etter, who was born in Wisconsin and is a 
daughter of Albert and Louise (Gruel) Vetter. 
The father of Mrs. Hemphill was born in Ger- 
many and her mother in Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. 
Hemphill have one daughter, Zina L.. who is 
an accomplished young lady. She was gradu- 
ated in the Lexington high school and in 1918 
was graduated in the Nebraska State Normal 
School, at Kearney. At present she is devot- 
ing herself diligently to the study of stenog- 
raphv and typewriting, having modern ideas 
about a business career for young women, 
whereby they may become useful and indepen- 
dent, whatever changes of fortune may take 
place. The family home is situated on Buffalo 
creek, nine miles west of Oconto, where Mr. 
Hemphill owns 420 acres of fine land. He 
carries on general farming and takes consider- 
able pride in his excellent stock. While not 
particularly active in a political way. he has 
alwavs been a loval citizen and is wide awake 



to every movement that will be particularly 
beneficial to Custer countv. 



SHIPTON G. ORCHARD. — Sixty-five 
years ago, on the 24th day of March, 1853, tlie 
subject of this sketch began his earthly career, 
in the good old state of Illinois, which has given 
so many valuable citizens to the middle west. 
Mr. C)rchard is a son of Shipton and Rhoda 
( Green ) Orchard of which parentage he is the 
only living representative. The father died 
before the son and namesake w^as born and the 
mother subsequently contracted a second mar- 
riage. As a result of this marriage there is a 
half-sister, Mrs. D. Thurman, who resides in 
Oregon. Young Shipton G. Orchard, after the 
death of his father, went to make his home 
with an uncle in Iowa, where he received his 
early education in the schools of Des Moines 
county and where also he began his first farm- 
ing activities. 

In 1880 ^Ir. Orchard was united in marriage 
to ^liss Nancy Ellen Dunbar, a daughter of 
Thomas and Pauline (Thurman) Dunbar. A 
large family was the result of this union, but 
the angel of death has visited the home four 
times. Of the living children the following is 
a brief record : Minnie is the widow of Rich- 
ard ^filler and lives in Omaha; Joseph married 
Mary Dobesh and they reside in Custer county ; 
Ethel married George Haines ; Elsie married 
Earl Gross and is located at Wahoo, this state ; 
Eltie, at the time of this writing, is in Camp 
Grant, Illinois, where he is doing special work 
for the government; Aurylon and \'erlie \'ay 



are teaching in the same school, in the Bethel 
Union district, northeast of Broken Bow. 
Uneeta and Loyd are in the .\nsley high school. 
The chilfiren who died in infancy were: Zephia 
May, six weeks old ; Lucy, two years old ; 
Hughie. two vears old : and Leona, six months 
old. 

Mr. Orchard owns a splendid lialf-section of 
well improved land, on which he maintains his 
attractive home and does a profitable farming 
business. He is a member of the Modern 
Woodmen of America, and the family are 
faithful members of the Christian church in 
Anslev. Thev are highly rated and well re- 
spected by all who know them. The entire 
familv constitutes a contribution that Custer 
county appreciates. 

PETER JANESOFSKY. whose splendid 
farm, located in section 19. township 17. has 
been accumulated through j)ersistent and in- 
dustrious lalx)r, is one of Custer county's self- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



931 





Mr. and Mrs Shiptox G. Orchard 



952 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



made men. He started out in life with few 
of the advantages which youth considers its 
just due, but his career has been singularly 
prosperous and satisfying — one in which he 
has overcome obstacles and handicaps and has 
realized the most gratifying rewards of agri- 
cultural life. 

Mr. Janesofsky w^as born June 29, 1868, at 
Sepat, Bohemia, and was still an infant of a 
few months when brought to the United States 
by his parents, also natives of that country, 
w'here the father had been a small farmer and 
a mason by trade. The elder Janesofsky set- 
tled on a homestead in Saunders county, Ne- 
braska, and engaged in farming, but being pos- 
sessed of no capital he found it necessary to 
add to his income by working at his trade, in 
order that his family might live. Long before 
he had proved up on his claim, he met his 
death, while working at his trade, a fall from 
a scaffold resuhing in injuries from which he 
did not recover. Peter Janesofsky was still 
little more than a baby when his father died, 
so that all the adv-antages enjoyed by other 
lads of his age were denied him, and his moth- 
er was not even able to send him to school, 
which he attended only six days. Naturally 
his education was not of the best, but in the 
• passing years he has been a close observer of 
events, a student of huinan nature, and a reader 
on subjects of interest and importance, so that 
he has a good working education and a large 
fund of general knowledge. As he grew up, 
he worked for his elder brother, on his farm 
in Sarpy county, for two years, and then came 
to Custer county, where he secured a timber 
claim. He was getting well started when his 
trees died, and he changed his claim to a home- 
stead. On this place he now lives, and this 
has been his home since about 1898. He has 
brought this property to a high state of culti- 
vation and has improved it with good buildings 
and up-to-date eciuipment, so that it is one of 
the valuable tracts of the vicinity. Fanning 
with him has been at once a business, a study, 
and a matter of pleasurable occupation, and 
in the industry he has found the medium 
through which he has worked out an admirable 
success. 

Mr. Janesofsky was married August 12. 
1893, to Miss Mary Kuklis, of X'alley county, 
Nebraska, a daughter of Joseph and I'.arbara 
(Perta) Kuklis, natives of Bohemia. To this 
union there have been born seven children: 
Emma is the wife of William W'ciman, an agri- 
culturist of Round valley ; Miss Barbara, who 
remains with her parents: Minnie, who is the 
wife of Adolph Kokesk, a farmer of \'alley 
county; Katie and Mary, who are at the pa- 



rental home ; Joseph, who assists his father in 
the work of the home farm ; and Frances, who 
is attending school. The family belongs to 
the Catholic church, in the faith of which they 
were reared and up to the teachings of which 
they live. Politically, Mr. Janesofsky is a 
Republican. 



JOSEPH STEFKA. — Give a man of Bo- . 
hemian blood a chance to work, and he will do 
the rest. This is especially true of the subject 
of this sketch, who resides in the Bohemian 
settlement near Comstock. Joseph Stefka was 
born in Bohemia September 4, 1850, and is a 
son of Frank and Anna ( Sefcik ) Stefka. The 
parents, tx>th natives of Moravia, and old- 
country farmers by occupation, were never in- 
duced by the call of .the new world to leave 
their native land. It was in Bohemia that 
young Joseph Stefka began his career and laid 
the foundation of character and honesty which 
has marked his career in the new world. It 
was in the land of his nativity that he was 
married, in June. 1872, to Rosa Gerzova. 
There, too. she died, leaving him with two 
children. A few years later he remarried, this 
time to Anna Sefcik. The bride's parents were 
Bohemian by birth and were farmers by oc- 
cupation. They lived and died in the land of 
their nativity. 

In 1884 ^Ir. Stefka turned his face west- 
ward and crossed the ocean to this land of op- 
portunity. Here in Custer county he bought 
a homestead relinquishment from Frank Pa- 
cas. and upon this place he lived until 1893. 
at which time he bought 320 acres south of 
Cdmstock. He is living at the present time 
on this latter place, where he raises cattle and 
hogs in consideralile numbers and does a gen- 
eral farming business along lines that mark 
him as both" thrifty and practical. He agreed 
to pay $100 for the homestead right of Frank 
Pacas but had only eighty dollars with which 
to make payment. He gave a shotgun and fur 
coat for the balance. He worked as section 
hand for the Chicago. Burlington & Quincy 
Railroad. In order to do this work, he walked 
from his homestead, nine miles northwest of 
Comstock. several times, and by this employ- 
ment he eamed the money with which to start 
his farming operations. In this way also he 
bought the yoke of oxen which was his first 
team and which gave his his start in life. 

Mr. Stefka is the father of seven children, 
as the result of his two marriages: Joseph, 
Tr., married Mary Simek and they live at 
Hollv, Colorado : Rosa, unmarried, lives at 
Lee's Park: Frank also lives at Lee's Park; 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



953 



John lives at home ; Rudolph married Lucy 
Kriz ; Anna is the wife of George Rohdy and 
lives at Lincoln, Kansas ; Thomas is single and 
lives at home. Mr. and Mrs. Stefka were 
members of the Protestant Episcopal church 
in Bohemia, but have never transferred their 
membership to any church in this country. He 
is independent in politics and delights in the 
fact that he votes for the candidate who in his 
judgment is best qualified for the office. 



JA:\IES a. O. TH0^L\S. — After many 
years of wandering and varied and interesting, 
thoi:gh unprofitable, experiences, James A. O. 
Thomas located at Broken Bow in the spring 
of 1905, and since that time he has prospered 
in business and gained established standing 
among his fellow citizens. For thirteen years 
he has been proprietor of the Broken Bow 
laundry, and while this business is in nO' way 
related to that of newspaper work, in which 
he was engaged for inany years, Mr. Thomas 
has made a success of his operations and is 
eminently satisfied with his present condition. 

James A. O. Thomas was born September 
19, 1854, at Winchester, Indiana, and is a son 
of James and Mary ( Milner ) Thomas, the for- 
mer a native of Ohio and a cabinetmaker by 
trade, and the latter born in Randolph county, 
Indiana. The only child of his parents, James 
A. O. Thomas was a rather independent and 
self-reliant lad, and when only eight years of 
age he was earning money by taking care of 
two newspaper routes for the Grand Rapids 
Daily Democrat, at that time under the man- 
agement of Editor Burr.. A rich source of 
income for the newsboy at that time was the 
old recruiting station, in 1862, at the fair 
grounds, where the soldiers would mount the 
dimunitive lad on a box, buy his papers and 
make much of him. Perhaps these experiences 
led him into a career of journalism. At any 
rate, in the fall of 1868, when not yet fourteen 
years of age, he left the parental roof and en- 
tered the printing establishment of Heldbrook 
& Coulter, which firm at that time was pub- 
lishing the ClKrokee Sentinel, at Baxter 
Springs, Kansas. He remained with that firm 
three years, at the end of which time he had 
mastered the printer's trade, and he then be- 
came a journeyman printer and traveled 
throughout the country, as far east as Cincin- 
nati. Cleveland, and Da_\lon, Ohio, where a 
number of his relatives resided. He worked 
two years at Richmond. Indiana, and a like 
period at Gallia, Ohio, and in 1876 he crossed 
the plains to Virginia City, Nevada, where he 
went to work on the Territorial Enterprise, 



with which newspaper he remained a year. 
.\t that time the big silver mines were just 
being opened up, and the country was some- 
what "wild and wooly," while the life of a 
newspaper man was not always one of un- 
disturbed peace and quietude. Mr. Thomas 
next went to Stockton, California, where for 
a few months he visited with an uncle, Na- 
thaniel Milner, who had crossed the plains to 
the gold fields in 1850, with a bull train. In 
1891 Air. Thonias left San Francisco and came 
to Nance county, Nebraska, where for a year 
he was engaged in farming. At that time Brad 
Slaughter, George Mickel, John J. W. McClel- 
and, Clarence Braid, and others started the 
FiiUerton- A'czcs and "rescued" Mr. Thomas 
from farming, placing him in charge of the 
enterprise. Ever>-thing went well until the 
drouth year, when the concern went into bank- 
ruptcy, and Mr. Thomas again found himself 
free to make a choice of occupation. In the 
spring of 1905 he came to Broken Bow, where 
he invested his capital in the Broken Bow 
Laundry, a venture formerly operated by 
George Eads. He has continued to conduct 
this business with increasing success to the 
present time, and the support that he is re- 
ceiving at the hands of the public makes evi- 
dent the fact that he is delivering high-class 
service and that he has firmly entrenched him- 
self in the confidence of his fellow citizens. 



FRANK E. LO\-EJOY.— Of the many 
honest, industrious farmers who are the boast 
of Custer county, not a few have passed the 
greater part of their careers in the vicinity of 
Sargent, and a list of these would be incom- 
plete without the name of Frank E. Lovejoy. 
Mr. Lovejoy is one of New England's contri- 
butions to this region, having been born at 
Orford, New Hampshire, July 2, 1865, a son 
of John H. and Mary (Lamprey) Lovejoy, 
natives of the same place. 

When a young man, John H. Lovejoy fol- 
lowed farming in the summer months and 
school teaching in the winter terms, and this 
he continued for a number of years, but he 
found his school work tedious and unremuner- 
ative and his returns for his farm work dis- 
appointing, with the result that he finally de- 
cided to seek a locality more appreciative of 
industry and ambition. In the early '80s, 
traveling alone and afoot, from Grand Island, 
Nebraska, he came into Custer county, where 
he homesteaded a tract in section 7, township 
19, which was located by Frank Ingram, coun- 
ty surveyor, for five dollars and he also had a 
tree claim and a pre-emption. After he had 



954 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



955 



located, he walked to Grand Island to file on 
his land, and subsequently he sent for his fam- 
ily, who arrived in 1882. From that time for- 
ward Mr. Lovejoy engaged in farming and 
stock-raising. He became one of the influ- 
ential and well-to-do men of his locality, and 
did his full share in assisting in the county's 
development. At the time of his arrival the 
nearest bridge on the Middle Loup river was 
at Loup City, fifty miles to the east, and the 
first bridge at this point was built at W'est 
Union by popular subscription, being 'later 
turned over to the county. Mr. Lovejoy was 
a contributor to this and other public-spirited 
enterprises, was justice of the peace and held 
other township offices for many years, assisted 
in the organization of the Methodist Episcopal 
church, and of this he was a member of the 
board of trustees. He also helped organize 
the cemetery at West Union, and was presi- 
dent of the cemetery association for a number 
of years. In politics he was a Republican. 
Mr. and Mrs. Lovejoy were the parents of 
eight children, as follows : Emma, the wife 
of Frank Washburn, a New Hampshire farm- 
er ; Mary, the wife of Rev. Charles Sharp, a 
minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
at Garden City, Kansas ; Frank E. ; Amy, the 
wife of George Brown, president of the Farm- 
ers Bank at Sargent ; Hattie, the wife of Fred 
\Mttemyer, a farmer of Boulder, Colorado ; 
George, who is deceased ; Alice, single, a resi- ' 
dent of Sargent ; and James, also unmarried 
and living at Sargent. 

Frank E. Lovejoy attended the grammar 
schools of New Hampshire, and was seventeen 
years of age when he accompanied his mother 
and the other children on the long journey 
from their New England home to the unset- 
tled country of the Nebraska frontier. He 
assisted his father and brother in the develop- 
ment and cultivation of the homestead, and 
took up farming when he reached manhood, 
this and stock-raising having since constituted 
his occupations. He is now the owner of the 
original homestead filed upon by his father 
and has made a handsome property out of it, 
productive and well improved, with good 
buildings and up-to-date equipment. He is a 
close student of his vocation, belongs to the 
Farmers Union, and as a business man his 
integrity has never been doubted. Mr. Love- 
joy is a Repul)lican. In civic affairs he has 
shown his public spirit, and the citizens of his 
community have shown their faith in him by 
calling him to a number of local offices, he 
having been township clerk and a member of 
the town board for the past seven years, and 
assessor for four vears. 



Mr. Lovejoy was married September 3, 
1890, at Broken Bow, this county, to Miss 
Mary Douglas, a daughter of James and Mar- 
garet (Harkness) Douglas, who were pioneer 
residents of Antelope valley, near West Union. 
Mr. and i\Irs. Lovejoy are the parents of three 
children: John, who is a farmer west of Sar- 
gent, married Lora Williams; [Margaret is a 
schoolteacher and resides with her parents: 
and :\Iabel also is at home. The family hold 
membership in the Methodist Episcopal church. 

WILLIAM H. MACKLEY. — Undaunted 
by the hardships and privations of the early 
days, this sterling pioneer mastered the diffi- 
culties and problems of early farming on the 
Tallin Table, in the southwestern part of Cus- 
ter county, and he is to-day one of the sub- 
stantial, dependable, and highly esteemed citi- 
zens of the county. 

Mr. Mackley was born in Hardin county, 
Ohio, on the 4th of February, 1861, and is a 
son of Christian and Margaret (Keetch) 
Mackley; the former a native of Pennsvlvania 
and the latter of Ohio. Of the children Will- 
iam H., of this review, is the eldest of the 
three sons, the others being James and Charles. 
Though the father was a carpenter by trade, 
he devoted the greater part of his active career 
to the basic industry of farming. 

The youthful years of William H. Mackley 
were spent in his native county and there he 
received his early education by attending the 
winter terms of school. There he earned his 
first money by trapping rabbits and quails. 
He says he doesn't think that he was ever 
given as much as $2.50 for spending money 
during all his boyhood years. What he spent 
he earned himself, but earning money in those 
days was almost recreation. All he had to do 
was to help clear the timber off the land, chop 
cord-wood, split rails, grab stumps, and burn 
brush — all of which would be a sinecure for 
the boy of the present generation. But young 
William was not afraid of work and all of 
these things hardened his muscle and inured 
him to the privations of after years. 

In the spring of 1883, when he was twenty- 
two years of age Mr. Mackley and his brother 
James came to Nebraska and stopped for a 
time at Yankee Hill, south of Lincoln, where 
they rented _a farm from a man who furnished 
everything and gave the boys half of the crop. 
After laying by their corn, they came out to 
Custer county and located nine miles south of 
Arnold, on the Tallin Table. Then they went 
back, harvested their crop, and when they 
had disposed of it, started again for Custer. 



956 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



It was late in December when they arrived 
at Gothenburg, and they had no easy task in 
reaching the Tallin Table, where they expected 
to occupy an old sod house, three miles fn^m 
their land. This was to be a temporary home 
until they could build, in the spring time, on 
their own land. The distance from Gothen- 
burg to their land was about thirty miles. 
When they started, a storm was brewing. They 
got lost and had to sleep in their wagons. The 
storm increased in fury until it became a full- 
grown blizzard of the merciless type so well 
known to the pioneer. It was the next morn- 
ing about ten o'clock before they succeeded 
in finding the old soddy they were looking for. 
When they did find it, they found that part of 
the roof had blown off. They managed to get 
the roof back on, cleared out the snow, and 
stabled their horses inside until the storm was 
over. During the first night in their new 
home, one of the horses knocked the ash pan 
out of the stove and set their bed on fire. But 
inconveniences of this kind never daunted the 
indomitable spirits of the pioneers. They 
lived through them and they look back uixjn 
these incidents with considerable pride in the 
fact that they met them, conquered them, and 
really succeeded in spite of all impediments. 

One of the noted days in the career of Will- 
iam H. Mackley was January 15, 1891, when 
at North Platte, he led to the marriage altar 
Miss Rose McKenna. Mrs. Alackley is a 
native of Monticello, Iowa, where she was 
born June 26, 1862, and she is a daughter of 
John and Mary (McGarl) McKcnna. lioth na- 
tives of Ireland. In the McKenna family were 
six sons and four daughters, and those now 
living are C. Anna Waddick, Rose Mackley, 
Margaret Clark, and John. The religious 
faith of the family has been that of the Cath- 
olic church. 

The Mackley home has been blessed with 
seven children — Margaret. Elizabeth, and 
Mary are all at the parental home pursuing 
their studies in the ninth grade of the public 
schools ; James C, who is farming his father's 
land, married Winifred Sheets; Catherine A., 
John, and Edward make up the rest of the 
family circle and are at home with their 
parents. 

During the hardships and privations of early 
years the Mackleys stayed on their land, never 
leaving for drouth or crop failure, and to-day 
the old homestead is still their place of resi- 
dence. Their holdings have increased until 
to-day they own 1,120 acres of land and, as a 
neighbor said of them, "Their house fronts on 
Easy street." Mr. and Mrs. Mackley have 
worked together and each has contributed to 



their accumulations of the present day. They 
are well known and highly regarded in the 
home community. They have reared a fine 
family of sons and daughters, of whom they 
can be justly proud. Politically. Mr. Mackley 
affiliates with the Democratic party. 



HENRY H. ANDREWS. — The inherent 
dignity of New England strength and re- 
sourcefulness has been significantly exempli- 
fied in the career of Henry Harris Andrews, 
whose activities along productive lines have 
been wide and varied and whose jx)wers liave 
come efifectively into play in the furtherance of 
civic and material development and progress 
in Nebraska during his residence of more than 
thirty years in Custer county. He has shown 
distinct initiative and executive ability and has 
had much more to do with the advancement 
of Custer county, and especially that of his 
home town of Callaway, where his interests 
are manifold and where he is known and val- 
ued as a representative and influential citizen. 

Mr. Andrews, to whom may well be ascribed 
pioneer honors in Custer county, was born at 
Otisfield Gore, Cumberland county, Maine, on 
the 17th of February, 1859, and is a scion of a 
family that was founded in New England in 
the early colonial epoch of our national history. 
He is a son of David Sawyer Andrews and 
Mary Elizabeth (Howe) Andrews, both like- 
wise natives of Cumberland county, where they 
were reared and educated and where their 
marriage was solemnized. In his native county 
Davis S. Andrews eventually became an ex- 
ceptionally progressive exponent of farm en- 
terprise, in which he brought to bear methods 
and policies not commonly in vogue in the 
Pine Tree state at that period. He continued 
his active alliance with farm industry until he 
engaged in the lumber and cord-wood business 
in Elaine, and in this connection he achieved 
the success, with comprehensive experience, 
that fortified him for the broader operations in 
which he later became prominent in the south. 
Suffering from a disorder of the heart, he was 
advised by physicians to seek a less rigorous 
climate, and under these conditions, when in 
middle life, he went south and became largely 
intere.sted in productive timber and lumbering 
operations in Virginia, where for many years 
he was associated in this line of enterprise with 
General Fitzhugh Lee and Daniel Lee. In his 
lumlx-ring oj^erations in the Old Dominion Mr. 
Andrews gave special attention to white-oak 
car lumber and red-oak railway ties, as well 
as hunber used in the manufacturing of sugar 
hogsheads. There he continued his lumbering 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



957 



activities for a period of fully eighteen years, 
but the summer months he customarily spent 
in the north. He was a man of fine character 
and of exceptional ability, so that he naturally 
became prominent and influential as a citizen, 
the while he commanded iniqualified popular 
confidence and esteem. He was seventy-three 
years of age at the time of his death, which 
occurred in Maine, his wife having preceded 
him to eternal rest, her death having occurred 
about the year 1889. Mrs. Andrews likewise 
was a representative of a sterling New Eng- 
land colonial family, and she was a kinswoman 
of Elisha Howe, the inventor of the first sew- 
ing machine, the initial trial of which was 
made by his sister, in the same section of 
Maine in which the subject of this review was 
born. David S. and Mary E. (Howe) An- 
drews became the parents of ten children, of 
whom only two attained to maturity — Henry 
H., whose name initiates this article ; and Flor- 
ence May, who became the wife of Dr. An- 
drews, of Auburn, Maine, and who passed her 
entire life in the old Pine Tree state ; she and 
her husband are survived by three children — 
Arthur, Harold, and Helen. Arthur Andrews, 
who gained no little celebrity as "the boy 
astronomer of Maine," constructed his own tel- 
escope and used for this purpose tools that 
were sent to him by his uncle, Henry H. An- 
drews, to whom this review is dedicated. With 
this telescope young Andrews made observa- 
tions that formed the basis of many important 
scientific articles published in leading astro- 
nomical journals. He finally opened a chemi- 
cal laboratory at Auburn, ]\Iaine, and after our 
nation became involved in the great world war 
he did a large amount of practical and scientific 
research and experimental work for the gov- 
ernment, as well as for his native state. Prior 
to his enlistment in the aviation corps of the 
United States navy, he had served as assistant 
pure-food commissioner of Maine. Harold 
Andrews, the younger of the two boys, took a 
course in engineering at Pratt Institute, 
Brooklyn, New York, and became an expert 
on gasoline engines. In connection with the 
world war he entered the United States navy, 
in which he gained the rank of ensign. Miss 
Helen Andrews has been a successful and pop- 
ular teacher in the public schools at Auburn, 
Maine, and has recently taken a special course 
of study in the celebrated Barnard College. 

David S. Andrews held unswervingly to the 
faith of the Repi:blican party, and, as may well 
be imagined, was stalwart in his allegiance to 
the late James G. Blaine, the distinguished 
statesman from Maine, of whom he was a close 
personal friend. Mr. Andrews was influential 



in politics in his native commonwealth and 
served as a meml>er of the Maine legislature. 
He and his wife were earnest members of the 
Congregational church. It is interesting to 
record that Henry H. Andrews, of this review, 
has in his possession a letter of introduction 
that was given to his father by Hon. Sidney 
Perham, a former governor of Maine, and ad- 
dressed to James G. Blaine. This letter was 
further made, through Mr. Blaine, to serve as 
Mr. Andrews' introduction to the late Henry 
Gassaway Davis, former United States senator, 
and had pertinence to the early lumbering ac- 
tivities of Mr. Andrews along the Virginia 
Central Railroad, controlled by Mr. Davis and 
his son-in-law, the late Stephen A. Elkins. 

The boyhood days of Henry Harris Andrews 
were passed principally upon his father's farm 
in Maine, and his preliminary educational dis- 
cipline w^as acquired through the medium of a 
private tutor. At the age of sixteen years he 
entered the Fredericksburg Military Academy, 
with the intention of preparing himself for ad- 
mission to the historic University of Virginia. 
Later, however, he continued his studies by en- 
tering Hallowell Classical Academy, to prepare 
for matriculation in Bowdoin College, and it 
was almost by accident that he deflected his 
course and became a student in the Maine 
State College of Agriculture & Mechanic 
Arts, which is now the University of Maine. 
In this institution he was graduated as a mem- 
ber of the class of 1881, and in the same class 
was graduated Miss Lillian Mary Ring, who 
later became his wife. He received the degree 
of Mechanical Engineer, and thereafter he 
completed a fourteen weeks' course in East- 
man's Business College at Poughkeepsie, New 
York, where he also served as a private tutor 
in drawing. During the ensuing period of 
about two years Mr. Andrews was associated 
with his father's lumbering business in Vir- 
ginia, and he then accepted a position as me- 
chanical draftsman for the Henry R. Wor- 
thington Pump Company, of Brooklyn, New 
York, where he remained about two years. 
The failing health of his father then caused 
him to go to the latter's aid in connection with 
business affairs. In Virginia he finally as- 
sumed the position of bookkeeper in the bank- 
ing house of Conway, Gordon & Garnett, at 
Fredericksburg. In this institution, which was 
founded prior to the Civil war, he effected a 
revolution in the archaic system of operations, 
and brought the bank up to a high state of 
efficiency. He severed this connection after a 
period of about two years, and then came to 
Nebraska. 

Mr. Andrews arrived in Nebraska on the 



958 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



last day of May, 1887, when he made his ap- 
ptearance at Callaway, Custer county, and was 
inducted as cashier of the Bank of Callaway, 
the same having been founded by Silas H. 
Burnham, who came from the same part of 
Maine as did Mr. Andrews and who is now 
president of the First National Bank of Lin- 
coln, Nebraska. Mr. Andrews continued as 
cashier of the Bank of Callaway until its vol- 
untary liquidation of business, in October. 
1896. The bank paid all obligations in full 
and was one of the very few able to do this 
in that period of financial panic. It has been 
claimed on good authority that at the time 
there was not another bank in Nebraska that 
could have thus paid in full, and the fact offers 
a specific tribute to the able executive man- 
agement of Mr. Andrews. 

While still cashier of the Callaway bank 
Mr. Andrews became Nebraska state agent for 
the Oxford County Loan Association of Nor- 
way, Maine, which aided greatly, through its 
well extended financial loans, in the develop- 
ment and pfogress in several counties in Ne- 
braska. Mr. Andrews has thus been identified 
with real-estate interests for many years, and 
has associated himself also with virtually all 
important enterprises that have conserved ma- 
terial advancement in Callaway. Thus is may 
be noted that he was actively concerned in the 
organization of the Callaway Milling & Manu- 
facturing Company, of which he was the first 
secretary; and the Callaway Building & Loan 
Association, the business of which was event- 
ually closed by him in a most successful way. 
He has continued as representative of the Ox- 
ford County Loan Association, and in connec- 
tion with his extensive operations in the 
extending of farm loans he has been represen- 
tative also of the Security Investment Com- 
pany, of Lincoln ; Benson, Myers & Company, 
and the Peters Trust Company, of Omaha, as 
well as the Forgan Investment Company, of 
that city. He now gives his attention primarily 
to the insurance and real-estate business, and 
he has large and important landed and indus- 
trial investments in Nebraska and other wes- 
tern states. 

In January. 1919, Air. .Andrews was elected 
president of the Nebraska State Irrigation 
Company, and he is largely concerned with de- 
velopment interests in Scotts Bluff county, as 
well as in other counties of the state. He is 
the owner of valuable farm land in Custer 
county, as well as valuable realty at Callaway. 

Unfaltering in his allegiance to the Re])ubli- 
can party and intluential in its local councils, 
Mr. Andrews has never consented to become 
a candidate for political office of any kind. He 



and his wife are communicants of the Protes- 
tant Episcopal church and are leading mem- 
Ijers of the parish of Holy Trinity church at 
Callaway, of which he was one of the organ- 
izers and of wdiich he has served almost con- 
tinuously as a member of the vestry. He is 
now treasurer of the parish and here he served 
twenty-four years as superintendent of the 
Sunday school. Mr. Andrews has received the 
thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted 
Scottish Rite of the Masonic fraternity, and of 
his other Masonic affiliations brief record may 
here be entered : Parian Lodge, No. 207. An- 
cient Free and Accepted Masons, in which he 
has passed all the official chairs and of which 
he was secretary for fifteen years ; Hastings 
Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite ; 
Clara Chapter, No. 222, Order of the Eastern 
Star: and Tehama Temple of the Mystic 
Shrine. He is serving in 1919 as grand senti- 
nel of the Nebraska grand chapter of the East- 
ern Star, and as w^orthy patron of the 
local chapter, of which Mrs. Andrews is sec- 
retary at the present time. He is affiliated also 
with the Benevolent and Protective Order of 
Elks, the Royal Highlanders, and the Modern 
\\'oodmen of America. He served two consec- 
utive terms as president of the Old Settlers' 
Association of Custer county. In connection 
with war activities Mr. Andrews is prominently 
identified with the American Protective 
League, of which he is chief for Custer county, 
and he has been a prominent force and execu- 
tive in connection with the Custer county war 
work of the Red Cross, Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association, Home Guards, etc. He has 
been for the past two years the chairman of 
the Callaway Chapter of the Red Cross. Mrs. 
Andrews is the present regent of David Conk- 
lin Chapter of the Daughters of the American 
Revolution, at Callaway, this being the only 
chapter in the county, and she has been a leader 
in the Red Cross activities in the county during 
the war period. 

In October, 1890, was solemnized the mar- 
riage of Mr. Andrews to Aliss Lillian Mary 
Ring, who was born and reared at Orono, 
Maine, and who is a daughter of Edwin T. 
and Zebiah (Harvey) Ring, both of whom died 
in that state. Air. and Mrs. Andrews have 
but one child, Louise Elizabeth, who is the 
wife of Lieutenant Wilber K. Mylar, AI. D., 
a graduate of the Cotner L'niversity and of 
the medical school at Lincoln, he having en- 
listed for professional service in the United 
States army and having been assigned to the 
English service at Thetford Alilitary Hospital, 
Thetford, Norfolk, England. 

In conclusion, as showing the ramifications 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



959 



of the theory of coincidences, it may be stated 
that when Mr. Andrews was a boy he accom- 
panied his father to the city of Boston, where 
they visited the tannery of Sawyer, HolHs & 
Sawyer, which firm, in connection with its tan- 
ning business, had control of large tracts of 
land in Custer county in later years, hides 
from cattle raised on these Nebraska tracts 
having been sent to the Boston tanneries of 
the firm. One of the tracts thus controlled is 
that on which the thriving little city of Calla- 
way, the home of Mr. Andrews, now stands, 
and a member oi the holding firm in earlier 
years was a kinsman of his father. In con- 
nection with this New England exploitation 
in Custer county there have been retained in 
the county many New England names for 
ranches. 



JOHN H. HARGAN, who in every respect 
is an admirable specimen of the self-made men 
of whom Custer county is so proud, owes his 
success to his own grit, energy, and integrity. 
He entered upon his career with only ordinary 
advantages, made his own opportunities, and 
labored industriously, with the result that to- 
day he is one of the substantial citizens of the 
Sargent community, where* he owns a valuable 
farm in section 25, township 19. Mr. Har- 
gan was born on a farm near Malvern, Mills 
county, Iowa, October 24, 1870. and is a son 
of Daniel and Levina (Shepard) Hargan. 

The parents of Mr. Hargan were born re- 
spectively in Indiana and Kentucky, but when 
young moved with their parents to Iowa, where 
they met and were married and where they 
.resided on a farm until 1884. In that year 
they came to Custer county and located on a 
homestead five miles north of Walworth, 
which continued to be their home until the fall 
of 1888. With the exception of one year, 
1892, when he resided at Broken Bow, Daniel 
Hargan was engaged in farming and stock- 
raising on this property until 1900, when he 
retired from active pursuits. He still resides 
at Sargent, alert in mind and active in bod)', 
although he has reached tlie advanced age of 
eighty-five years. Mr. Hargan during his 
active years was a man of industry — one who 
possessed good judgment and sound business 
ability and was able to accumulate, in an hon- 
orable manner, a goodly share of this world's 
goods for his comfort in his declining years. 
Mrs. Hargan died in 1913, having been the 
mother of seven children, of whom five are 
living: Rachel, of Council BlufTs, Iowa, the 
widow of the late Lewis Stewart ; Mattie. the 
wife of James Pointer, a photographer at Mal- 



vern, Iowa; Lelia, the wife of Elisha Carson, 
a farmer of Hunter, Missouri; John H., of 
this notice ; and Frank, who married Lelia 
Storey and resides at Sargent. 

John H. Hargan received his education in 
the public schools of Iowa and Nebraska, and 
was fourteen years of age when brought by his 
parents to Custer county. Since that time he 
has resided here, his mature years having been 
passed in the pursuits of the soil and his voca- 
tion having brought him personal contentment 
and material rewards. His farm is a produc- 
tive one, made so by his intelligent treatment 
of the soil and his use of the most highly ap- 
proved modern methods. Inspection will show 
that his buildings are substantial and in good 
repair and that his equipment is of the latest 
manufacture. He raises a good grade of live 
stock and grows the standard crops, and in 
both departments, he is a thorough master 
of his vocation. 

Mr. Hargan was married, near Sargent, 
January 16, 1891, to Miss Nellie Shettron, a 
daughter of William and Sarah (Smith) Shet- 
tron, who came to Custer county in 1885. 
Mrs. Shettron is now deceased, but the father 
survives and makes his home with 'Mr. and 
Mrs. Hargan. Mr. and Mrs. Hargan have 
one child, Addie V., who is the wife of Guy 
Fuller, a farmer near Sargent. Mr. Hargan 
is not interested in politics as an office-seeker, 
but is a good citizen and a supporter of public- 
spirited movements. 



JOHN OLSEN. — In the matter of its con- 
tribution to America, Sweden has John Olsen 
to its credit. He is a young and prosperous 
farmer living in the vicinity of Arnold, in the 
full-fledged operations of farming as might be 
expected in the prime years of his manhood. 
Mr. Olsen is a native of Sweden, where he 
was born in 1882, and he is the third son of 
Larsen and Betty Olsen, both of whom were 
of the sturdv Scandinavian stock. Coming to 
the United States in 1899, the father died at 
the age of sixty-four. The mother is still liv- 
ing and is now in Sweden. In this family of 
which the subject of this sketch is the third 
born are the following children. Gust, forty 
years of age, is a coal miner in Colorado. 
Betty, thirty-eight years of age, lives on a 
farm in Sweden. John's story is related in 
this sketch; Augusta, aged twenty-six years, 
and Marget, aged twenty years, remain in 
Sweden. 

Young John Olsen came to America when 
fifteen years of age and in coming to Nebras- 
ka he made Gothenburg, his destination. Since 



960 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



that time his attention has been given to agri- 
culture and stock-raising, in both of which he 
has been eminently successful. He now owns 
605 acres of land, has 140 in cultivation, and 
raises red hogs and a good grade of cattle. 
His live-stock possessions comprise fifty head 
of well bred stock hogs, forty-seven high grade 
cattle, and twelve head of horses, which furn- 
ish the horse power for his farming activities. 
His improvements are good and he has the 
necessary machinery for all the needs of the 
farm. July 28, 1915, Mr. Olsen married Em- 
ma Olofson, an excellent young lady who 
was born in the United States and who is a 
daughter of Erik Olofson. Since the estab- 
lishment of the home of Mr. and Mrs. Olsen 
two children have been born into the family 
circle — Edna, aged three years, and Verna, 
aged one year (1919). John Olsen and his 
wife are hard-working, industrious people and 
are splendid neighbors. In politics Mr. Ol- 
sen claims to be independent and declares that 
his vote goes to the man who he beheves to 
be best qualified for the office. 



MILLARD HILL. — The subject of this 
record is one of the early settlers of Custer 
county and through his own efforts, marked 
by diligence and good management, he has 
achieved success. 

Mr. Hill was born in St. Clair county, Illi- 
nois, August 21, I860, and is a son of Thomas 
and Rebecca (Barton) Hill, the former a na- 
tive of Tennessee, while the birthplace of the 
latter was in Illinois. The mother passed 
away in Illinois, more than fifty years ago. 
The father came to Custer county in 1887 and 
spent his last days at the home of his son, 
where he passed away November 4, 1915, 
when eighty-three years of age. 

Millard Hill spent his boyhood days in his 
native county and acquired his youthful edu- 
cation in the public schools. In 1885 he heed- 
ed the advice once given by Horace Greeley 
and decided to "go west." In that year he 
arrived in Custer county, Nebraska, and se- 
cured a pre-emption claim on West Table. 
He experienced the usual hardships which fell 
to the lot of the pioneers of this region, but he 
also had the foresight and determination which 
were possessed in no small degree by the men 
who laid the foundations for the prosperity 
and high state of development which exist to- 
day. His fir.st home was in keeping with the 
times, a sod hou.se, twelve by si.xteen feet in 
dimensions and with no floor. In this primi- 
tive dwelling the family lived for three years. 
Mr. Hill, like his neighbors, for several years 



hauled water for stock and household use, until 
a well could be provided. He made his home 
for twelve years on this place, and he th(?n 
sold it and bought a farm in Ortello valley. 
On this land he made extensive improvements, 
until it became one of the best improved prop- 
erties in the neighborhod, and here he success- 
fully carried on general agricultural pursuits 
until February 20, 1917, when he became 
manager for the Farmers Elevator Company 
of Anselmo, a position which he has capably 
filled to the present time. He still retains 
ownership of his fine farm 'of 240 aCres, and 
while living on the farm he was postmaster of 
Ortello postof?ice, which was maintained at 
his home. 

In Custer county ^Ir. Hill married Miss 
Alice Orton, a native of St. Clair county, Illi- 
nois, and they became the parents of nine 
children : Nellie is the wife of C. J. Sitler, of 
Colorado ; Clara died in infancy ; Albert, who 
married Miss Jennie Waddington, conducts 
farming operations in Custer county : Alura is 
the wife of William Carpenter, who is operat- 
ing Mr. Hill's farm; Edna is the wife of Dan 
Parker and they reside in Custer county ; M. 
F., still a bachelor, is assisting in operating 
the home farm, and Flossie, Wilhelmina, and 
Garland are still under the parental roof. 

Mr. Hill can truly be called a self-made man 
— one who has made good use of his oiij^or- 
tunities and who is to-day one of the substan- 
tial men and public-spirited citizens of Custer 
county. 



OTTO FACKNITZ, a substantial and re- 
liable citizen of Broken Bow, is one of the 
followers of a useful trade who has estab- 
lished a record for good workmanship and 
fidelity to engagements, and thus he has es- 
tablished himself in a recognized position 
among the helpful men of his community. He 
was born March 7, 1880, near Hastings, Ne- 
braska, a son of Fred and Catherine (Kader) 
Facknitz, the former a native of Germany and 
the latter of Canada. 

Otto Facknitz received his early etiucation 
in the public schools and was reared on the 
farm, his first money being earned in plowing 
corn for a neighboring farmer, who •i:)aid him 
at the rate of fifty cents a day. In sui>ix)rt 
of his statement that he was an industrious and 
capable lad, he offers in evidence the fact that 
his work was so greatly appreciated that he 
was always given the largest piece of pie at 
meal times. He was married at the age of 
nineteen years, at which time he left the pa- 
rental roof and began to work at his trade of 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



961 




Mr. and Mrs. Millard Hill 



962 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COl'XTV. NEBRASKA 



carpenter, wliicli lie had mastered while help- 
ing his father in the work of the home farm. 
He also worked on a farm for two years after 
his marriage, and then went to Clay Center, 
Nebraska, where he secured employment in the 
Old Trusty incubator factory, and when he 
left the latter plant, six years later, he was 
given a splendid letter of recommendation by 
his employer, testifying in high terms to his 
honesty and mechanical ability. From Clay 
Center 'Sir. Facknitz went to Dunning, Ne- 
braska, where he leased land and for ten years 
conducted a stock farm, besides which, at 
irregular intervals he worked at his trade, as 
a carpenter. Recently he has moved to Bro- 
ken Bow, where he lias a good business and 
where he has maintained his reputation as a 
skilled w^orkman — industrious, painstaking, 
and possessed of much ability. In connection 
with the world war Mr. Facknitz enrolled in 
the United States shipyards volunteers of jnib- 
lic service, and he was expecting to be called 
at any time, but the close of the war rendered 
it unnecessary for him to serve. 

In 1899 Mr. Facknitz married Miss Nellie 
Keller, daughter of William Keller, a soldier 
of the Civil war. Mr. Keller was born Octo- 
ber 5, 1839, and enlisted in 1861 in Company 
E, Twelfth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. 
He served to the clo.se of the war, and was 
advanced to the rank of sergeant. He re- 
turned to his Pennsylvania home and there 
married Frances H. Creager. daughter of John 
W. Creag-er. They became the parents of four 
children: Nellie. Cornelia, Edwin, and Frank. 
Mr. Keller and his family came to Nebraska 
within the '80s, and IMr. Keller passed his 
last years at the home of ^Ir. and Mrs. Fack- 
nitz. where he died, and where his widow 
is still making her home. 



SOLOMON D. BUTCHER. — The name, 
if not the wisdom, of Solomon still abides on 
the earth, and is located in Custer county. The 
exponent of this cognomen is Solomon I). 
Butcher, who from pioneer days has been a 
resident of Custer county — a homesteader 
and a photographer, and known, perhaps, to 
most of the present population. The data of 
his biographical sketch run something like 
this: He was born January 24, 1856, in Bur- 
ton. Wetzel county. West N'irginia. He is a 
son of Thomas J. r.utcher. a \\'cst \'irginian 
by birth and a Custer county pioneer by early 
settlement and long residence. His mother 
was Esther (UUom) Butcher. 

In the family of Thomas J. Butcher were 
five children. The first and eldest is Solomon 



D. Butcher, of whom this sketch is written, 
Marinda (Butcher) Smith, Anna E. (Butcher) 
Wabel, George W. Butcher, and Abner Butch- 
er. In 1859 Thomas J. Butcher moved to 
Winona, Illinois, where for nearly twenty-one 
years he was employed by the Illinois Central 
Railroad Company. 

S. D. Butcher says that he got hold of the 
foundation dollar upon which his present for- 
tune is erected by a trapping operation in which 
he secured a fine si)ecimen of the mink family, 
the pelt of which netted him three dollars. Mr. 
Butcher ran the gamut of the common schools 
and graduated from high school. He took up 
the profession of photography, which he has 
plied as a vocation ever since. In addition to 
his high-school and photographic work he had 
one term in the Henry Military School cf 
Ilenrv. Illinois. This was during the winte:* 
of 1875-6. 

In 1880 Mr. Butcher came to Custer county, 
Nebraska, and located a claim twenty-two miles 
north of Broken Bow, near where his father 
also had located. This was in the Middle Loup 
valley, near Gates. He stayed at this time six 
weeks. hel]5ing his father and family to get 
settled and to begin western operations. The 
first task was to dig a room in the clay bank 
and stretch over it, for a roof, a wagon cover. 
Then the erection of the regulation sod house 
commenced. It was laid out on a foundation 
twenty-one by thirty-one feet. Inexperienced 
in sod carpentry. Butcher and his father went 
to work, but it was not long until Solomon D. 
made up his mind that sod-laying was not the 
particular form of brick-masonry he would 
care to follow for a life occupation. 

\\'hile excavating for a dugout stable, they 
exhumed a skeleton which seemed to be the 
remains of a very large man. The larger 
bones and sku'.l were in fairly good state of 
preservation. The shape of the skull, as well 
as the posture of the remains, seemed to indi- 
cate that the bones once belonged to an India;i. 
It was evident that the corpse had been in- 
terred in a sitting posture with the face toward 
the setting sun. 

.\nother incident Mr. Butcher relates is to 
the effect that about eight days before the 
house was finisficd the provisions ran out. and 
it was, it must be remembered, one hundred 
miles to the railroad at Grand Island. All 
that they could rake up in the shape of edible 
food was a small sack of shorts on which coal- 
oil had been spilled. This gave the shorts and 
the shorts-bread a ])eculiar flavor which was 
not altogether apiicaling to the aijpetite. But 
Butcher claims that it beat nothing away across 
the river, and after they became accustomed to 





^ 






^ 



■f 



y Ik 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



965 



it and had a little milk and water to wash it 
down, it was not more than half bad. 

Later, Mr. Butcher relinquished his home- 
stead and returned east, and in the fall of 1881 
and the spring of 1S82 he took a course in the 
Minnesota Medical College and Hospital at 
Minneapolis. 

May 16, 1882. he was married to Lillie M. 
Barber, to which union a son and daughter 
were born. The son is to-day Captain L. J. 
Butcher, "somewhere in France" as will be seen 
by the captain's biography elsewhere in this 
volume. The daughter is Madge H. Rosso, 
concerning whom there is a more extended 
biogTaphical sketch elsewhere. 

In October, 1882, Mr. Butcher and his young 
wife arrived at the father's place on the Middle 
Loup, and together the}' began their Custer 
county career. During the winter Mr. Butcher 
taught school in the Predmore district and 
earned money enough to put up the first photo- 
graph gallery ever erected in Custer county. 
It was a unique building", eighteen by twenty- 
eight feet, made of lath and adobe. The adobe 
was made of clay mixed with straw. These 
adobes fashioned a fairly durable, if not pic- 
turesque wall, and it could be truthfully said 
that there was not another art emporium like 
it west of the Mississippi river. The roof was 
made of boards with skylights and windows 
composed of cotton sheeting. The floor was 
artistic, just as nature had fashioned it. An 
old wagon-cover was used for a background, 
but unfortunately the wagon-cover had been 
knawed by rats and was full of holes. Mrs. 
Butcher patched the holes, but when pictures 
were taken the patches in the background per- 
sisted in showing. 

Necessity has always been the mother of 
invention, and it was true in this instance. 
Butcher hit upon the novel plan of taking off 
those patches and still leaving them on. He 
wired a coil bedspring to the ceiling of the gal- 
lery, and then hung the wagon cover back- 
ground to the bedsprings. When he wanted 
to make a picture he set the bedsprings to 
jumping and this danced the curtain up and 
down and blurred the background so that the 
patches v\-ere not visible. This was a novel 
invention, but was never patented. The only 
objection, or drawback, to the arrangement was 
the habit that the springs fastened upon Mr. 
Butcher. To this day he would rather hang 
to bedsprings — ■ especially when 'there is a 
mattress on top of it and the morning is cold 
— than anything else. 

In 1883 he succeeded in getting a postoffice, 
named Jefferson in honor of his father, which 
he located in this building so "wonderfullv and 



fearfully made." The mail came regularly to 
Jefferson from West Union, a distance' of 
twelve miles down the Middle Loup river. 
The records show that the postoffices of that 
day were not the luscious, juicy plums thev 
are under the present administration. Butch- 
er's salary was stamp cancellation, and for the 
first three months the salary reached the mam- 
moth proportion of sixty-eight cents. Butcher 
resorted to farm work at fifty and seventy-five 
cents a day, and did anything else he could, to 
support the family and keep the brown-gray 
coyote over the hill and away from the door. 
Photography, however, was his fad and the 
particular work he fancied. When anyone 
wanted a tintype picture. Butcher dropped the 
hoe or spade so quickly that it broke the handle, 
and, quicker than it takes to tell the story, 
he had the customer lined up against the back- 
ground and the bedsprings jumping. 

At the first old settlers' picnic held in the 
Middle Loup valley in Custer county, which 
was at the Jefferson postoffice, July 4, 1883, 
Butcher offered a dozen pictures as a prize for 
the best-looking baby under two years of age. 
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Farley had the honor 
of carrying off the prize, as their little daugh- 
ter, now Mrs. Mary (Farley) fiuffman, was 
declared the winner by the judges. Mrs. R. 
G. Carr, Joe Rankin, and Mrs. Jerry Phelps 
served as judges on that occasion. 

In the fall of that year the Butchers added a 
sod living-room to the gallery, for which they 
had to haul the sod more than a mile, and ex- 
change two days' work for each one the man 
and team worked hauling the sod. Mr. Butch- 
er put on a dirt and brush roof, stretching 
sheefing over the bed to keep it dry. They lived 
for some time in this "soddy." Butcher claims 
that it rained oftener during the time they 
were under that canvas than during any other 
period of his residence in Custer county. In 
fact, he says there were weeks at a time when 
the weather did nothing but drizzle, and often 
clouds would hang around in that vicinity and 
sail over his premises every few hours, just to 
get a chance to rain on that roof. Sometimes 
in the middle of the night he and his wife 
would have to pile out of bed, wrap the baby 
in a quilt, and make their way through the 
dark and storm to the residence of his father. 
Sometimes these trips were made when the 
night was so dark that they could find their 
way only by the flashes of lightening. The 
hard part of it all fell to the lot of Mrs: Butch- 
er, who, when the rain was over and the sun 
came out, had to haul everything out of the 
house and let it dry on the clothesline and the 
grass of the front yard. Butcher claims that 



966 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COrXTV. NEBRASKA 




L. 1). Xation 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



967 



during his early career they moved around 
to much that when moving time came the 
chickens would lie down on their backs and 
cross their legs ready to be tied. This, how- 
ever, was probably due to the fact that from 
the Methodist minister's wife Mrs. Butcher 
got the eggs for the setting from which those 
chickens were hatched. 

In 1886 Mr. Butcher conceived the plan of 
getting out a history of Custer county. On 
this he worked for seven years, making one 
thousand, five hundred and thirty-five farm 
views, and also writing sketches of the settlers, 
in which he detailed their pioneer experiences. 
These pioneer sketches were unfortunately de- 
stroyed by fire, but the plates, or negatives, 
from which the pictures were made were 
saved. Butcher inmiediately commenced com- 
piling data for another book, and in 1901 he 
succeeded in publishing "S. D. Butcher's Pio- 
neer History and Short Sketches of Early 
Days in Nebraska." 

In 1902 the Butchers moved to Kearney, 
where they remained for several years. Mrs. 
Butcher, who for a number of years had been 
a victim of ill health, finally succumbed to 
ailments which refused to yield to treatment, 
and she passed to that realm where pioneering 
is unknown and where rest and reward await 
those whose earthly lives merit this eternal 
compensation. Her death occurred on De- 
cember 29, 1915. She left many friends, a 
loving husband and two children to mourn 
her loss. She was a faithful, devout member 
of the Christian church for many years, a de- 
voted mother and loving wife. 

\Miile in Kearney, Mr. Butcher engaged 
in photography and handled real estate as a 
side issue. He also spent much time in com- 
piling data for a history of Dawson county, 
in connection with the Kearney Publishing & 
Engraving Company. After spending a thou- 
sand dollars in this enterprise, it was finally 
abandoned for the time being. Dtiring that 
time Mr. Butcher and his son made over 
2,250,000 local postcard views for the local 
trade. 

January 24. 1917, at Smith Center, Kansas, 
Mr. Butcher was united in marriage to Mrs. 
Laura M. (Brachear) Nation. By her former 
marriage Mrs. Nation had two children — L. 
D. H. Nation, and Ruby Lorene Nation. L. 
D. H. Nation graduated from Central City 
high school at sixteen years of age, and at 
eighteen years of age graduated from the 
Gregg Business College in Chicago, Illinois. 
When nineteen years of age he was made a 
professor in the faculty of Story College, at 



Portage, Wisconsin. Later he received calls 
from Cotner University : Mosher-Lampinan 
Business College, of Omaha; Central Business 
College of Denver, and Isaac Woodbury Col- 
lege, of Los Angeles. He was a finished Span- 
ish scholar and accepted a professorship in a 
leading California college. He learned every 
phase of commercial training and business 
science, teaching eight systems of shorthand. 
He enjoyed the highest esteem and commen- 
dation of every institution with which he was 




Rudy Lorene Nation 

connected. He was a member of the Chris- 
tian church, and the Knights and Ladies of 
Security. He died June 7, 1916, being twenty- 
five years old. Thus death cut short a very 
promising career. Miss Ruby Lorene Nation 
is eleven years of age and in the sixth grade 
of the liroken Bow schools. She has also 
reached the third grade in her musical edu- 
cation. 

The present Mrs. Butcher is a member of 
the Eastern Star, the Rebekah Lodge, and the 
Royal Neighbors. She has passed through 
the chairs in the two lodges last named. Mr. 
and Mrs. Butcher and little Ruby are all mem- 
bers of the Christian church. S. D. Butcher 
took an active part in the Populist movement 
in Custer county, but was independent in pol- 
itics during the "scrappy days of the Pops." 



968 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



J. C. NAYLOR. — Prominent amongf the 
early residents of Custer county, one wlio took 
a leading part in the development which 
changed this locality from a practical wilder- 
ness to a fertile and productive country, furn- 
ishing homes for prospyerous families and keep- 
ing pace in every way with the world's devel- 
opment, was the late J. C. Naylor, one of the 
best known attorneys of the early days of the 
county. He was born April 20, 1842, in West 
Virginia, and in his early life was engaged in 
newspaper work, later becoming owner of one 
of the big freight caravans that operated across 
the trackless plains of Nebraska, going from 
Plattsmouth, Nebraska, to Denver. While 
engaged in this work he took up the study of 
law, and at the age of twenty-two years he was 
admitted to the bar. He became one of the best 
known criminal lawyers of the state, prac- 
ticing first at York, and later at Broken 
Bow and Callaway. His death occurred 
November 20, 1899. He was one of the 
substantial men of the community and 
through his integrity and high personal 
character gained and retained the respect 
and confidence of the community. Mr. Nay.- 
lor was married to Jane Kinnard in 1890, and 
to this union were born two children, James 
C, Jr., and Jane, who is now the wife of 
Charles S. Carothers, prominent Callaway bus- 
iness man. Mrs. Carothers is a graduate of 
the Kearney State Normal, and for four years 
prior to her marriage she was engaged in 
teaching in the public schools of the county. 
She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church, and is the mother of one daughter, 
Doris. 

James C. Naylor, Jr., is one of the well 
known figures in journalism in central Ne- 
braska, and has exemplified in his career the 
true spirit of progressiveness and enterprise. 
He was born at Callaway March 28, 1894, and 
attended the Callaway public schools, gradu- 
ating from there in 1911 and later taking 
some work in the University of Nebraska. On 
January 1, 1916, he became editor of the Lotif' 
J\^l!cy Queen, at Callaway, w'hich had previ- 
ously been conducted for fourteen years by 
Roy R. Barnard. Mr. Naylor made a suc- 
cess of this venture, and is now the head of 
a corporation. The Central Nebraska Printing 
&• Publishing Company, owners of the Loup 
J'allcy Queen, the Kearney Democrat, and the 
Oconto Register, of which publiactions he is 
the editor. Mr. Naylor is unmarried and 
makes his home with his widowed mother, in 
Callaway. 

Mr. Naylor is a Democrat, but has found no 
time to enter politics as a candidate for public 



office, although, in the daily routine of his 
work, his influence may be counted upon to 
advance the interests of his party. He is pub- 
lic-spirited and has marked civic pride, and 
his work in behalf of beneficial movements in 
his community has always been of a construc- 
tive character. 



WILLIAM POLAND. — The pioneer set- 
tles in the Sargent region of Custer county 
had many difficulties to encounter in the early 
days, but they were, in large part, hardy and 
persevering men, and many have lived to tri- 
umph over all obstacles and discouragements. 
Among these there have been individuals from 
all parts of this and other countries, all alike 
struggling to acquire a competence. Many 
have developed into excellent citizens, pub- 
lic-spirited and alive to the best interests of 
their community, and in this class is found 
^^'illiam Poland, who settled in Custer coun- 
ty in 1883 and who is now a resident of the 
suburbs of Sargent. 

Mr. Poland was born August 22. 1858, in 
Knox county. Missouri, a son of Jehu and 
Margaret (Reishman) Poland, natives of 
Ohio. Jehu Poland was a farmer, first in 
Ohio and later in Missouri, from which latter 
state he enlisted for service in the Civil war, 
in which he fought bravely through four years 
of struggle. During his army life he contract- 
ed a serious disease, from which he never re- 
covered and which finally caused his death, 
when he was about fifty-seven years of age. 
He was a Republican in politics, and he and 
his wife belonged to the Free Methodist 
church. In 1884 Mr. Poland came to Custer 
county and located on a homestead seven miles 
northwest of Sargent. There ne spent the 
rest of his life, his death occurring three years 
later. IMrs. Poland survived him until 1902, 
and of their eleven children seven are now 
living: Mary A., the wife of Thomas Moore, 
a retired citizen of Guthrie, Oklahoma; Will- 
iam : Melvin, a farmer of the vicinity of Tay- 
lor, Nebraska, who married Etta Ott ; Effie. 
the wife of Burton Hardenbrook, a barber of 
Douglas, Wyoming; Lillie, the wife of Thomas 
Banford, a dairyman of the same place; Viv- 
ian, a farmer of the Walworth community 
of Custer county, who married Hattic \"an- 
derveen ; and George, who farms seven miles 
north of Sargent, the maiden name of his wife 
having been Maggie \'anderveen. 

The educational training of \\"illiam Poland 
was secured in the public schools of Iowa, 
where he was brought up on his father's farm, 
and at Harper, that state, he married Mary E. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



969 



Todd, a daughter of William and Nancy (La- 
niasters) Todd. Mrs. Poland's parents were 
born in Kentucky, went to Iowa about 1846 
or 1847, and were always farming people, Mr. 
Todd dying at Oskaloosa, Iowa, in 1900. The 
Todds came to Custer county about 1886 and 
bought land, living here until 1898. when 
they returned to Iowa. Mr. Todd was a Dem- 
ocrat and a member of the Free Methodist 
church, to which Mrs. Todd, who died in Cal- 
ifornia, in 1913, also belonged. 

Shortly after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. 
Poland came to Custer county, where, in 1883, 
they settled on a homestead seven miles north- 
west of Sargent. On that property they re- 
sided about fifteen years, during which time 
they experienced all the hardships and vicis- 
situdes incidental to pioneer life. During one 
particularly depressing period, when there 
was no money circulating in the county, they 
actually existed on the sum of five cents. Only 
the barest necessities were to be secured, and 
when meat was desired on the table, the only 
course to pursue was to take the family rifle 
and secure a partridge or a jack-rabbit and 
much of this kind of meat was dried for sum- 
mer use. In the early days the Polands had 
the only well in the community, this being 
230 feet deep, dug by one Collins, who con- 
sumed three weeks in the task. Mr. Poland 
assisted in hauling the lumber for the first 
building at Taylor, and in other ways shared 
in the early events that preceded general set- 
tlement. He was persevering and industrious, 
made his labors count for something, and 
eventually developed a good property, but in 
1897 he moved to the suburbs of Sargent, 
where he now carries on general farming. 
His career has been a successful one. and he 
is held in high esteem in his community, both 
as a skilled farmer and as a man of integrity 
and public spirit. 

Mr. and Mrs. Poland became the parents 
of five children, of whom four are living: 
Clara is the wife of Charles Shaw, a machinist 
of Lincoln ; Charlie, who married Gertrude 
Moore, is a farmer of the Walworth commun- 
ity ; Nancy is the wife of Arthur Miller, a 
machinist of Lincoln ; and Lloyd, single, re- 
sides at home and assists his father in the 
operation of the farm. 



PRATT J. HARMAN. — Here is a home- 
grown, self-made man who is young in years, 
who has scored his initial success and whose 
life record, like that of almost any other youth- 
ful scion, is largely bound up in the record 
of his sire. 



Pratt J. Harman was born on the Lafayette 
Harris place near Walworth, Custer county. 
He arrived in the fragrant month of June, 
1890, a year subsequently to the practical end 
of the pioneer period, and yet his life has not 
been all roses and June sunshine. He is a 
son of Gustave and Lena (Bullard) Harman, 
the former a native of Germany and the latter 
a representative of several native-born gener- 
ations through the Empire state. This excel- 
lent couple have transmitted to their progeny 
the desirable characteristics of two distinct 
races. The father, who was a farmer most 
of his life, came to the United States when 
but sixteen years of age, and in his youth he 
followed farm work most of the time. There 
were exceptions, however, and the exceptions 
consisted of railroad grading — in fact he took 
part in grading the Burlington line in Custer 
county, through Broken Bow, and still later 
worked on the grade of the Comstock and 
Sargent branch of the same road. He went 
to Brown county in 1876 and there worked 
for Major Morris and other cattlemen. There, 
at Ainsworth, he was married in 1879, to 
Lena Bullard, whose father lived, and still 
lives, in the state of New York. ^Irs. Gus- 
tave Harman, mother of the subject of this 
sketch, was but thirteen years of age at the 
time of her mother's death. It was the next 
year after their marriage that Mr. and Mrs. 
Harman came to Custer county and began 
farming the place belonging to Lafayette Har- 
ris, where their son, Pratt J., was born. In 
the fall of 1890 they bought relinquishments 
of John Cain and they own that farm at the 
present time. This place they made their 
home until 1904, when they moved to the farm 
where they now live. Mr. Harman added to 
the original possessions until he now owns 640 
acres of well improved farms. Good build- 
ings have just been completed in section 13 
for the use of Pratt J. Harman, who does a 
general agricultural and stock-raising business! 
In the spring of 1907 Mr. and Mrs. Gustave 
Harman went to Idaho SjJiings, Colorado, 
but they returned to Nebraska that fall, locat- 
ing in Sargent. 

Pratt J. Harman returned to Custer county 
with his parents and began the farming oper- 
ations in which he is engaged at the present 
time. He is the only child in his father's 
family. He received his early education in 
the schools of Sargent, and later took a busi- 
ness and normal course in the Broken Bow 
Business and Normal college. He has never 
married and has given practically all of his 
time to farming, except for a term or two 
when he taught school, as so many others 



970 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 





e 
S 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



971 



have done — making teaching a stepping-stone 
to some other profession or occupation. He 
also had a contract for carrying mail between 
Sargent and Berwyn, which he held for more 
than one year. He is at present engaged in 
farming the place which his father first bought. 
He comes of a prominent family, his father 
and mother have both held the offices of mod- 
erator and school director for some time in 
district No. 100. 

Concerning the romance and experiences of 
early days, Pratt J. Harman states that when 
his father was paying attention to his mother 
prior to their marriage, he took her to a dance 
several miles distant from home, with an ox 
team. He also recalls their experiences in 
the dry years, when, after a dry summer, they 
found themselves in possession of more hogs 
than bushels of corn. Another year forty 
acres of wheat averaged two bushels an acre. 
On one occasion the father was caught in a 
blizzard which came up so suddenly that the 
wind turned the wagon around before they 
could turn the horses. They reached the barn 
with difficulty but could make their way from 
the barn to the house only by following a wire 
that had been previously placed for that pur- 
pose. These hardships are over and the young 
man faces the prospects of better times in the 
years that are to come. 



THEODORE LIEHS, who is accounted 
one of the leading and prosperous agricul- 
turists of the Mason City community, is one 
of the self-made men of Custer county, and his 
experiences here have been diversified and in- 
teresting, ranging from the days of sod houses 
and frontier conditions to the comforts and 
civilization of modern life. Mr. Liehs is a 
native of Germany, and was born October 26, 
1858, a son of Fred and Maggie ( Reeder) 
Liehs. His father, who was a grocer and won 
a modest business success, passed his entire 
life in his native country, both he and his wife 
having been born in Saxe-Holstein, Germany. 
By his first marriage he became the father of 
two children, of whom Theodore survives, and 
after the death of his first wife he was again 
married, Julius, the son of this marriage, hav- 
ing, at last reports received, been still living 
in Germany. The family belonged to the 
Lutheran church. 

Theodore Liehs received his early education 
in the public schools, and was variously em- 
ployed in his native land, principally in his 
father's store. W'hen he was twenty-six years 
of age he decided to try his fortunes in the 
United States, and accordingly he made his 



way to this country, where he arrived with 
but a small amount of money and with even 
less knowledge of the conditions and the lan- 
guage of the land of his adoption. When he 
arrived at Chicago, he found his financial re- 
sources exhausted, but he was able to borrow 
one dollar, with which he managed to continue 
on to his destination at Clinton, Iowa, where 
he obtained employment in a lumber yard and 
later in a butcher shop. One of his first acts 
was to return the borrowed money to Chicago, 
for Mr. Liehs' entire career has been char- 
acterized by the strictest honesty and utmost 
fidelity to engagements and responsibilities. 
During the four years that he worked at Clin- 
ton he saved his money carefully, and when he 
came to Custer county, in the latter part of 
1887, he was able to make a payment of $300 
on a pre-emption of 160 acres, the purchase 
price of which was $800. This property 
formed the nucleus for his present large hold- 
ings, for when he had his indebtedness cleared 
oflf he began buying more land, and/ to-day 
he is the owner of 640 acres, all located in 
the Mason City community. At the time of 
his arrival he took up his residence in an old 
sod house, and for a number of years he 
accepted his share of the hardships and dis- 
comforts of frontier existence, but as his 
finances improved he began to install comforts 
and conveniences on his land, and these cul- 
minated in the building of a comfortable and 
commodious residence, large and substantial 
barns, and well equipped outbuildings. His 
land is under a high state of cultivation, and 
through his good management and agricultur- 
al ability it yields large crops. In addition 
to his general farming operations, Mr. Liehs 
has been successful in the breeding of cattle, 
hogs, and horses, and is accounted a good 
judge of live stock. His success rests entirely 
upon his own efforts and merit, as he has 
worked his own way to his present enviable 
position, unaided by influential friends or out- 
side financial support. 

In 1882 Mr. Liehs married Miss Maggie 
Craiger, who was born in Germany, and to 
this vmion there were born three children, of 
whom two are living: Annie, who is the wife 
of Louis Kuchnel. a farmer in the state of 
Washington ; and Fred, who was educated in 
the district schools of Custer county, has spent 
his entire life in agricultural pursuits and is 
now his father's chief assistant in the opera- 
tion of the home farm. Mr. and Mrs. Liehs 
and their children are members of the Luth- 
eran church. In politics ]\Ir. Liehs maintains 
an inde|)endent stand. In connection with the 
nation's participation in the world war Mr. 



972 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Liehs has shown his loyalty by giving liberal 
support to the various agencies through which 
the government has been upheld in its war 
preparations and activities. 



SOREN SORENSEN. — Many of the 
early settlers in Custer county came to this 
section in the hope of securing land on which 
they could carry on agricultural industries, but 
there were others who, already ecjuipped with 
a useful trade, realized that their services 
would be in demand in the development and 
upbuilding of a new country. Thus men like 
Soren Sorensen, who were skilled in different 
trades and were ambitious to get ahead in the 
world, left Denmark and other European 
countries for growing communities in the great 
country across the Atlantic ocean, and in the 
course of time many of these found full op- 
portunity for their mechanical skill. ^Ir. Sor- 
ensen came to America in 1881 and located at 
Grand Island, Nebraska. 

Mr. Sorensen was born May 5, 1857, in 
Denmark. His parents. S. and Cassie (Jen- 
sen) Sorensen, passed their entire lives in 
Denmark. They had seven children and the 
following are living: D. C, who lives at Elva, 
Nebraska, is a bricklayer by trade; Mrs. Eliza 
Peterson remains in Denmark ; and Christ like- 
w^ise lives in Denmark. By trade the father 
was a cabinetmaker. 

After settling at Grand Island, in Hall coun- 
ty, Nebraska, Mr. Sorensen worked at the car- 
pyenter trade, which he had learned in his own 
country, and he soon found his time well oc- 
cupied. As population increased, houses had 
to be erected, and he was called to other places 
to complete work and some times he put up the 
first houses in a hamlet that soon grew into a 
town. This was the case at Litchfield, in Sher- 
man county, where he built the first house, in 

1890. In 1910 Mr. Sorensen came to Mason 
City, and since then he has been engaged in 
the business of selling lightning rods. 

In 1884 Mr. Sorensen married Miss .Anna 
Walker, who was born in Iowa and who died 
in 1898, leaving two children : Frank, now a 
farmer in Oregon, and Estella. the wife of 
John Goodenfelda, who conducts a hotel in 
Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Mr. Sorensen was mar- 
ried the second time in March. 1910. when 
Mrs. Anne C. Robertson became his wife. She 
was the widow of Rol)ert Robertson, who was 
born in Denmark and who died in Custer 
county, Nebraska. August 5, 1904. the Robert- 
eons having come to this county in November. 

1891. Mr. Robertson was a well-to-do farmer 
and left a good property, Mrs. Robertson later 



adding to the farm acreage. Mr. and Mrs. 
Robertson became the parents of eight children, 
concerning whom the following brief record is 
consistently entered : Charles operates the 
home farm in Custer county; Mrs. Mary Arp 
resides at Mason City, this county ; ^^'illiam 
and Fred are progressive farmers in this coun- 
ty ; Matt is a resident of Hazard, Sherman 
county; Lewis H. was a gallant young son of 
Custer county who sacrificed his life on the 
battlefields of France, and is accorded a tribute 
in following paragraphs ; Hans is associated in 
the work and management of the home farm, 
in Custer county; and Letitia is the wife of 
Nels Stanter, a farmer of this county. 

Mr. and ]\Irs. Sorensen hold membership in 
the Lutheran church, and they are well known 
throughout their section of Custer county, 
where they are held in unqualified popular con- 
fidence and esteem. In politics ^Ir. Sorensen 
maintains an independent attitude, as he does 
his own thinking and decides for himself in 
regard to the qualifications of candidates for 
public office. He is affiliated with the Mason 
City lodge of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows. 



LEWIS H. ROBERTSON. — Here is con- 
sistently given a memorial tribute to the late 
Lewis H. Robertson, who entered the military 
service of the L^nited States on the 5th of 
October. 1917, and who went with the Amer- 
ican Expeditionary' Force to France, where 
he was one of the heroic and gallant young 
Americans who fell in battle on the 26th of 
July, 1918. After having been cited for brav- 
ery, he gave his life that future generations 
might be blessed with the freedom and liberty 
which his native land has enjoyed for more 
than two centuries. From an appreciative es- 
timate that appeared in a Custer county news- 
paper at the time of the death of this gallant 
young patriot are taken the following extracts: 

Corporal Lewis H. Robertson was born at Davey, 
Lancaster county, Nebraska. .January 4, 1888. Wlien 
he reached the tender ace of three years he moved 
with the family to the Black Hill Basin, in the fall 
of 189L where he resided until seven years ago, 
after which he spent part of his time at Hazard, 
Nebraska, in partnership with his brother Matt. 
His father died three years after the family ar- 
rived in the Basin, August 5, 1894. 

Corporal Robertson's premature departure is 
mourned by his mother, Mrs. Anne C. Sorensen. and 
five brothers and two sisters. He will be missed 
also by a host of friends and many army comrades. 

Corporal Robertson entered the army October 5, 
1917, going as an alternate from Hazard, Sherman 
county, Nebraska, with the following men who were 
his comrades at Camp Funston : Rav Hennis, Law- 
rence Larson, Hcnr\- Rasmussen, William Rasmus- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



975 



sen, Ernest Jacobson, Chris H. Pierson, Earl Ecklev 
Joe Horak, NValter Cadwalder, and Henry Pillen ^' 
At Lamp I'unston he served in Compan'v K, Three 
Hundred and F.tty-fifth Infantry, and distinguished 
himself as a prom.smg soldier, and was transferred 
to Company G, Fourth Infantry, United States 

ktT'salL^'T "'r^^'"' '"'''■■'• V-gin-. five week 
S IQIS T? ^"m"l ''"r'^'S in France April 

Fnnltnn r T' "T ' ^^"""^^^ "^ ^v his otKicers at 
villP M.7: rf ^"c u^"?""*^' P'--^' Lieutenant Mel- 
ville, McClelen Schooks, and Orchard. He was 
also praised by his officers in France- Colonel Har- 
vey, Second Lieutenant R. C. Erwin, Sergeant Case 
and First Lieutenant J. A. Crawford. The Founh 

o"th;''Ve""f**^ ?*"'". ^l^"'^--^- '^-^^ i" the th k 
of the recent drive of the allies in which thev 

crowned thetnselv-es with high honors. It was in 
ns conflict that Corporal Lewis H. Robertson died 
in action, July 26th, at the hopeful age of thirty 
years, one month, and twenty davs. More deta led- 
diatT'^l'^t,'"''^'"?/* '^''' '''"^'' A" we know is 
that he slumbers amidst vast armies of fallen heroes 
on the sacred soil of France. Could he speak The 
following perhaps would be his message to us ' 



^'°w art thou ray of that eternal morn 

1 tiat breaks in ceaseless splendor, year on year. 



Where I have fallen upon my battle-ground 
xxk. . '7^^,.there rest -nor carry me awav. 

Thl J'li"' ^l^% '°"''' '" 'h^^'^ days be found 
Than hills of France to hold a soldier's clay' 

Nor need ye place a cross of wooden stuff 
Uver my head to mark my age and name • 
,iL^ "^^';y #''°""'^ '^ monument enough' 
lis all I wish of show or outward fame 

Deep in the hearts of fellow countrymen 
My fast, immortal sepulcher shall' be 

Win,. '''' 17 *''^1 "" *'"= '"'"b^ °f ancient kings. 
Wha matters where my dust shall scatter then ? 
shall have served my country oversea 
And loved her — dying with a heart that sings. 
. This whole community with one accord has noth- 

Do^rafRoh^"'^''' '\°^'' '"u ^on^n^emoration of Co - 
poral Robertson. Everywhere one hears the sincere 

He'askef ,- '^ "^^ =^" ''?"' ^°"'"-' - ideal r^i;' 
slacker hI "° '''^rPt"?"^ ^"d refused to be a 
Slacker. He was confirmed in the Danish Lutheran 
church at Black Hill Basin, December 25 190? He 
tian We"''°' ""'' '^'" *° "^'^ " consistent Chris! 
For the second time it becomes our sad but sacred 

Wth hi^b^H ^ ^°^f'" ''/' "P°" °"^ servL flag 
\-\.th hushed breath and subdued heart-beat w-e 
change his star of true blue to one of gold in com! 
niemoration o his faithful service and the sacrTe 

as T^s,,^"""^ '« ' ■"" '\'- ^"=»'" °^ his countr' For 
as Jesus, our Saviour, himself savs : "Greater love 

fof his° f':^i=;'ndt"" '"'''■ '''' ' '"^" ■^>' '^-" '^^^ 

Sleep well, dead lad, knight of the azure blue' 

Sleep well, thy stately sleep amid the bloom ' 
Love holds thee dear; Faith hails thee leal and true- 

I roud honor weaves rich chaplets for thy tomb 
Dead in the splendor of thv golden youth ' 

Uead in the promise of thv dawning day 
Yet neer to die, immortalized in truth 

A living star in freedom's skv always'' 
Deathless to ride, in never ending flight 
^ 1 hrough vaulted domes of spanless spaces far 
J ;_losc to the founts of quenchless, radiant light ' 
Th. T\f?P''"'''''"'^; ^°d'^ fadeless heroes' are 
born^ not- these hills where thou wast 

Nor yet these hearts that love thee, warm and 
dear; 



HORACE G. LANG has proved himself 
tlie possessor of a large amount of that ex- 
cellent quality of manhood and that self-re- 
hance which, united with perseverance and 
industry, have enabled him to become one of 
the valued men of Custer county. 

Mr. Lang was born at Grafton, Grafton 
county. New Hampshire, August 3, 1862. His 
father, Gilman Lang, was a native of New 
Ham.pshire and became a manufacturer of 
edged tools, an occupation which he followed 
until 1872, when he became a resident of Tay- 
lor county, Iowa, where he spent the remain- 
der of his days, passing away at the age of 
seventy-one years. In New Hampshire he 
married Miss Nancy EHwood, and she passed 
away at Broken Bow, Nebraska, at the age 
of seventy-one years. Thev were members 
of the Methodist church and were the parents 
of three sons, all of whom became residents 
of Custer county: George W., who was a 
farmer, is now deceased ; Warren J. is a resi- 
dent of Broken Bow; and Horace G is the 
subject of this sketch. 

Horace G. Lang was a lad of seven years 
when the home was established in Taylor coun- 
ty, Iowa, and there he was reared to man- 
hood, acquiring his education in the public 
schools. In 1883 he came to Custer county 
and secured a homestead, making his home in 
a sod house for five years. He then sold the 
place and bought his present farm. Here he 
owns 625 acres, under a high state of culti- 
vation, and on the place he has erected a splen- 
did set of improvements and carries on gen- 
eral farming and stock-raising. Mr. Lang 
was one of the very early settlers of Custe'r 
county and shared in the hardships of the 
pioneer days. He hauled water from Broken 
Bow. twenty-one miles away, and the lumber 
in his house w^as brought from Kearney. He 
hauled oats to Kearney and sold them for ten 
cents a bushel, besides carrying them up two 
flights of stairs. 

In Custer county Mr. Lang married Miss 
Clara Vincent, a native of Indiana. At her 
death she left five children: Rowena is the 
wife of Clarence Dunn and resides at Calla- 
way: she is the mother of two children and 
her husband is in the national army at the 
time of this writing; lone is the wife'of Wal- 
lace Blakeman, a farmer of Custer county, and 
tliey have two children ; Blanche (is the wife of 
George Edwards, a farmer of Custer countv 
and they have two children ; Elfa is the wife 



976 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



977 



of Frank Yohn, of Corliss, Wisconsin, and 
they have one child ; Clara is unmarried and 
resides in California. 

For his second wife Mr. Lang married Mrs. 
Martha Tvvell, whose maiden name was Mar- 
tha Dunn. She is a native of Taylor county, 
Iowa, and is a daughter of J. B. Dunn, a 
prominent citizen of that county. Mr. and 
Airs. Lang have a son, James G., who is a lad 
of fourteen years and who is assisting in the 
operation of the farm. 

Mr. and Mrs. Lang are members of Baptist 
church and in politics Air. Lang is a Republi- 
can, though in local afifairs he casts an inde- 
pendent ballot. He has never aspired to pub- 
lic office but has rendered efficient service as a 
member of the school board and helped to or- 
ganize the school district. 

Mr. Lang is a son of Oilman Doe, but, not 
liking the name, he applied to the proper au- 
thorities and had his name changed to Lang, 
his grandmother's maiden name having been 
Langley. 

Horace G. Lang is one of the influential men 
of his community, his word is as good as a 
bond and he is always found ready to aid any 
cause that has for its object the upbuilding 
of his adopted county. 



ELLIS W. GIVEN. — Of the many honest, 
industrious farmers who are the boast of Cus- 
ter county, not a few have passed the greater 
part of their careers in the vicinity of Merna, 
and a list of these would be incomplete with- 
out the name of Ellis Welch Given. Mr. 
Given is one of West Virginia's contributions 
to this region, having been born in that state 
February 10. 1866, and he is a son of Robert 
E. and Rachel M. (Jordan) Given, of whom 
more specific mention is made on other pages 
of this volume. 

E. W. Given was reared to the discipline 
of the farm, in Illinois and Nebraska, and 
accompanied the family to Custer county in 
1884. L'nder the direction of his father he 
learned the best methods of farming. He 
operated the home farm for several years 
while the parents were still living and after 
their death he came into possession of the old 
homestead. New improvements have been 
made, and) the property to-day is among the 
finest in the neighborhood. Mr. Given is the 
owner of 240 acres, devoted to mixed farm- 
ing. 

December 25, 1895, Mr. Given was united 
in marriage to Miss Katherine Jacquot, a 
daughter of Nicholas Jacquot, a record of 
whom will be found elsewhere in this history. 



Mr. and Airs. Given are the parents of three 
children : Brooks Elliot, Ardetta Deborah, 
and Robert Ellis, all of whom are at home. 
The family are members of the Methodist 
church and in politics Mr. Given is a Dem- 
ocrat. Mr. and Airs. Given represent two of 
Custer county's earliest families and are held 
in the highest of esteem by a large circle of 
friends and acquaintances. 

J. W. RAY. — A man of some prominence, 
a successful farmer, a generous and obliging 
neighbor, is named in this paragraph, and to 
tell the life story we go back to Lucas county, 
Iowa, where on the 23d day of February, 
1867, he made his debut into the world. He 
is a son of Jesse and Alargaret (Thomas) 
Ray, both of whom were natives of the Buck- 
eye state, splendid people of sterling qualities 
and well respected in the community of their 
home. 

Air. Ray has been a farmer all his life. His 
education, which is of a liberal character, was 
received in the public schools of Kansas and 
Nebraska, and at the early age of thirteen 
years he started out to make his own way in 
life. His success has been in keeping with 
his energy and dauntless spirit and has reached 
a grade often displayed in the county of op- 
portunity where he has his present home. 

The father, Jesse Ray, came to Nebraska 
in an early day, and homesteaded in Hamil- 
ton county. From that county he eventually 
moved back to Iowa, and from the latter 
state he later removed to Kansas. He and 
his wife were devoted Christian people, mem- 
bers of the Methodist church. To them were 
born eight children, five of whom are still 
living. The subject of this sketch and his 
sister, Mrs. Lloyd Foster, are the only ones 
living in Custer countv. 

On April 19, 1891,' J. W. Ray was united 
in marriage to Alartha Patterson, at Dodge, 
Nebraska. The parents of Airs. Ray were 
Nebraska pioneers, having come into the state 
in 1868 and having settled and homesteaded 
in Dodge county, where they continued to re- 
side until their death. The mother died in 
the fall of 1912, the father having passed 
away June I, 1901. Mrs. Ray is the only 
daughter living in Custer countv. She has a 
brother living in Dodge, Nebraska. 

Mr. and Mrs. Ray have four children : Ma- 
bel is the wife of James Ralls and lives in 
Loup county, and Ruby, Eunice, and William 
are at the parental home. Mr. and Airs. Ray 
have lived on the present place eighteen years. 
He has a fine stock of cattle, good horses and 
a well improved farm of 320 acres, — a very 



978 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



creditable showing for the opportunities that 
have been afforded him. He and his excel- 
lent family are highly respected by their 
neighbors, and their present energy will in- 
sure to Mr. and Mrs. Ray a competency for 
early retirement. Mr. Ray gives his allegiance 
to the Republican party, and he is counted as 
one of the staunch supporters of the political 
regime represented by that party. He is a 
member of the Modern \\'oodmen of America, 
from which he derives all the social and pe- 
cuniary benefits. 



STEPHEN A. DEAN. — Living in the 
vicinity of Broken Bow, in one of the splendid 
farm homes that adorn the middle section of 
the county, is Stephen A. Dean, who here 
enjoys the distinction and rating of a first- 
class farmer, an upright citizen, and one of the 
spirits to be consulted in connection with the 
promotion of any public enterprise. 

Stephen A. Dean was bom in Johnson coun- 
ty, Iowa, March 5, 1861, and is a son of \\'es- 
ley and Casandra (Zike) Dean. The father 
was a native of Ohio, but the mother came 
from Kentucky. They became the parents of 
seven children of whom three are still living — 
Stephen A., Mrs. Aha J. Moats, and Mary B. 
The father died when young Stephen was 
eleven years of age and the mother moved to 
Iowa City, where she gave her children a 
high-school education, thus furnishing them 
good equipment for life. 

After finishing his education. Stephen A. 
Dean returned to the old fami in Johnson 
county. Iowa, and began farming operations. 
He had everything to learn, for he had never 
farmed before, but, being twenty years of 
age. he went at it with a youtliful will and 
enthusiasm that conquered all difficulties and 
made things come his way. 

Following the natural course of humanity, 
on June 30. 1885, ^Ir. Dean was united in 
marriage to Miss Nellie E. Strang, a young 
lady of the home vicinity. Mrs. Dean was 
a daughter of James B. and Julia (Bailey) 
Strang. lx>th natives of the Empire state. 
From the time of their marriage, the Deans 
maintained an ideal home, and three children, 
all boys, made their advent into the family 
circle : Ervin E. was placed in class 2. divi- 
sion B of the final draft for service in the 
world war: Roy C, as a member of the One 
Hundred and Sixty-eighth Aviation Squad, 
was in France when the war came to a close ; 
and Harry O. was assigned to class 2 in the 
final military draft. Mrs. Dean was called to 
the life eternal in the vear 1902. 



Mr. Dean came to Custer county in 1882 
and pre-empted a quarter-section of land, five 
miles northwest of Broken Bow. He made 
proof on the claim and was the first one to re- 
ceive title for his land in this section. Mr. 
Dean later returned to Johnson county, Iowa, 
and bought from his mother the old home 
place, upon which he continued to farm and 
to raise and feed cattle and hogs, but in the 
meantime he kept his Custer county land rent- 
ed, and continually added to its improvement. 
November 26, 1903. he wedded Miss Ruth J. 
Thomas, who, like his first wife, was born in 
Johnson county, Iowa. She is a daughter of 
Robert M. and Malinda (Jones) Thomas. 
Three years after his second marriage Mr. 
Dean returned to Custer county, where he took 
up residence upon his pre-emption claim. This 
was in 1906. and since that time the Dean 
family have been continuous residents. They 
now have 280 acres of land, on which is one 
of the most attractive farm homes in the coun- 
ty. The land is in a high state of cultivation 
and Mr. Dean is rated as one of the foremost 
of the progressive farmers of the county. The 
family are members of the United Brethren 
church and are faithful constituents of the local 
Grange, to which they have contributed energy 
and leadership. In politics Mr. Dean is rated 
as a Democrat, but he is a man of broad infor- 
mation and strong con\-ictions. and accordingly 
issues and candidates must make an appeal of 
sincerity if they secure his support. 



ABEL H. FORD. — As a living example 
of what resolute working, earnest endeavor, 
and indomitable perseverance will accomplish, 
Abel H. Ford stands prominent among the 
worthy citizens of Custer county. Coming 
here in 1887, with no capital save that rep- 
resented by his personal qualities and charac- 
teristics, he has worked his way uninterrupt 
edly to a position of independence, and his 
status to-day is that of a substantial citfzen 
and prosperous agriculturist. 

Mr. Ford is a native of Iowa, where he was 
born April 6, 1860. a son of Jackson and 
Elizabeth (Savage) Ford. There were seven 
children in the family, of whom five are liv- 
ing: James B.. a salesman, of Des Moines. 
Iowa ; Abel H., of this review : Oscar, engaged 
in farming in Kansas: Delia, the wife of T. 
T. May : and Anna B.. the wife of Roy Minor, ^ 
who is engaged in mining near Bisbee, Ari- ^ < 
zona. Jackson Ford was for many years a 
farmer in Iowa, but he is now living in re- 
tirement in Colorado, at the advanced age of 
eighty-four years, while his wife, who is sev- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



979 




Mr. and Mrs. Stephen A. Dean 



980 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




< 

z 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



981 



enty-four years of age, makes her home with 
her son Abel. The father is independent in 
political views, and has never been identified 
with fraternal orders. 

Abel H. Ford was given a public-school 
education in Iowa and was reared on the home 
farm. Like many farmers' sons, he was at- 
tracted by railroading, and for five years he 
followed that vocation, only to return to the 
soil. In 1887 he came to Custer county and 
settled on a homestead twenty miles northwest 
of his present property, residing thereon un- 
til 1911, when he sold out and purchased his 
fann in section 36, township 19, range 19, 
where he has developed a splendid property 
and made many modern improvements. Mr. 
Ford follows general farming, in addition to 
which he raises considerable live stock, and 
in both departments he has shown himself 
thoroughly familiar with modern methods of 
procedure. Through fair dealing and honor- 
able transactions he has built up an excellent 
reputation in the community, and has gained 
popular confidence and respect as a public 
spirited citizen. He is independent in poli- 
tics, and has no fraternal connections. 

In 1887 Mr. Ford married Miss Martha D. 
Roberts, a daughter of William and Cynthia 
(Billings) Roberts, of Iowa, and three chil- 
dren have been born to them : Charles F., a 
farmer six miles northwest of Sargent, mar- 
ried Loula Kenyon ; Mamie E., is the wife 
of Ed Jameson, a farmer of Custer county : 
and William H. resides at home and assists 
his father in the operation of the home farm. 



JOHN A. DEVINE. — There is all of con- 
sistency in entering in this history a definite 
tribute to the memory of the late John A. De- 
vine, whose were pioneer honors in Custer 
county and whose character was the positive 
expression of a strong, loyal, and noble nature. 
He "stood four-square to every wind that 
blows ;" he wrought well as a member of the 
world's great army of productive workers : he 
was content to follow the even tenor of his 
way without ostentation or any desire to come 
into the white light of publicity, and he made 
his life count for good in all of its relations. 
To the civic and industrial development and 
upbuilding of Custer county Mr. Devine con- 
tributed his quota, and as a citizen he com- 
manded the fullest measure of popular con- 
fidence and esteem. 

John A. Devine was born in Ireland, on the 
2d day of February, 1845. and he was sixtv- 
three years of age at the time of his death, 
which occurred at his old homestead, near 



Oconto, Custer county, in 1909. Mr. Devine 
was a child when his parents immigrated to 
America from the fair old Emerald Isle, and 
the family home was established in Schuylkill 
county, Pennsylvania, where he was reared to 
manhood and where he acquired his early ed- 
ucation. There was solemnized his marriage 
to Miss Bridget Ann Sharp, and somewhat 
later they established their home at Streator, 
Illinois. In the latter state they continued 
their residence until 1889, when they came to 
Custer county, Nebraska, and settled on the 
homestead which is still the abiding place of 
Mrs. Devine and three of her children. Here 
Mr. Devine instituted the reclamation and de- 
velopment of a farm, and here he and his wife 
endured their full share of the hardships in- 
cidental to pioneer life. The passing years 
brought to them independence and prosperity, 
and there was not denied to them the fullest 
measure of good will and esteem on the part 
of the community in which they lived and la- 
bored to goodly ends. It has been consistently 
said that the word of Mr. Devine was as good 
as his bond, and thus he fully deserved the 
high esteem in which he was uniformly held. 
His religious faith was that of the Catholic 
church, of which his widow likewise is a de- 
voted communicant, and in politics he gave his 
allegiance to the Democratic party. Mrs. De- 
vine is now one of the venerable pioneer wo- 
men of Custer county and here her circle of 
friends is limited only by that of her acquain- 
tances. 

In conclusion is entered brief record con- 
cerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Devine: 
Charles is a resident of the state of Illinois; 
Frank, who has the management of the old 
home farm, is individually mentioned on other 
pages of this volume, as is also James V., who 
is cashier of the Farmers Bank of Oconto, 
this county ; Joseph remains at the old home 
farm and is associated in its work and man- 
agement ; John, the youngest son, is a dentist 
by profession and is engaged in practice in 
the city of Cheyenne, Wyoming; Martha, the 
widow of Joseph P. Berry, maintains her resi- 
dence at Oconto. Custer county : Anna is the 
wife of James Noon, of Joliet, Illinois ; and 
Mary, who is now with her mother on the 
o'd homestead, has been a successful and pop- 
ular teacher in the public schools. 



ALEY SH.\FER. who is one of the enter- 
prising and industrious young farmers and 
stock-raisers of Custer county, is well known 
and well established in the above industries, 
while in a more personal way he is regarded 



982 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



983 



with sentiments of highest esteem in the com- 
munity in which he hves. Not every young 
man would have proved so unselfish and re- 
sourceful as was he — - in the face of a domes- 
tic calamity — the death of his beloved mother 
— and his younger brothers and sisters, who 
have been crae fully reared and are a credit to 
the community, entertain for him justifiable 
gratitude and affection. 

Aley Shafer was born February 12, 1887, 
four miles north of Comstock, Custer county, 
Nebraska. He is the third in a family of 
twelve children born to his parents, Chile and 
Dolly (Arnold) Shafer. The father was born 
in Ohio, where he grew up on a farm and in 
1883 he came to Custer county, where he 
home-steaded and also took a tree claim. For 
many years he carried on farming and stock- 
raising with success. In 1915 he retired, and 
since then he has lived at Comstock. He is a 
Democrat in his political views. To his mar- 
riage with Dolly Arnold, who died in Feb- 
ruary, 1909, the following children were born : 
Nora B. is the wife of F. M. Tykward, a rail- 
road man of Whitefish, Montana ; Eliza J. is 
the wife of C. H. Tucker, a farmer near Ord, 
Nebraska; Aley is the subject of this sketch; 
Ralph O., who is a farmer near Comstock, 
married May Hammond; Hilda is the wife of 
Henry Edler, a farmer near Bennett, Iowa ; 
Grover C, who is a farmer near Comstock, 
married Alta Day; Alfred K., who conducts a 
draying business at Comstock, married Geor- 
gia Andrews ; Everett lives at Comstock ; 
Dolly fills a position as bookkeeper at White- 
fish, Montana ; Robert W. and Addie make 
their home with the subject of this record ; and 
Arnold lives at Comstock. 

Aley Shafer obtained his early education 
in the public schools at Comstock. He has 
always been interested in agricultural pursuits 
and at the present time is farming 220 acres 
in Custer county. His stock interests are im- 
portant and he makes a specialty of Duroc 
hogs. He owns valuable realty in the city of 
Comstock. 

Mr. Shafer has never married. Circum- 
stances were such when his mother was taken 
away, that he was called upon for care and 
devotion in behalf of the small children left 
motherless, and it was then that the "big 
brother," Aley, took charge and with the 
help of his sister-in-law, Mrs. May (Ham- 
mond) Shafer and R. O. Shafer, a home at- 
mosphere was created that compensated the 
children in part for the loss they had sus- 
tained in the death of their natural protec- 
tor. At this time the father was busy with 
his railway contracts, being in business with 
his brother, who had a contract with the B. & 



M. Railroad, on the Lane cut-ofif. This 
brother was later accidentally killed, by the 
discharge of a revolver that fell on the rails. 

Mr. Shafer is a Democrat in politics and 
fraternally is prominent in the order of Mod- 
ern Woodmen of America, is which he has 
been chief forester for the past eight years. 



ANTON K. DOBESH. — Down in the 
Ansley section where this particular member 
of the Dobesh family resides, it goes without 
saying that if his name is Dobesh he is a sub- 
stantial citizen, worthy of all credit and confi- 
dence. There are few names more potent in 
farm and business circles than that old-country 
name of Dobesh. which has been honored by 
other men as well as the subject of this sketch. 

Anton K. Dobesh was born in a dugout on 
the old Dobesh homestead in Custer county, 
Nebraska, in 1883, and comes of rich old- 
country blood, as is shown in the sketch of his 
father, Anton P. Dobesh, on another page of 
this volume. 

Anton K. Dobesh married Miss Clara E. 
Bristol, who was born in Iowa, in 1882, and 
they are the parents of five bright children, all 
of whom are at home, their names and respec- 
tive ages, in 1918. being here noted: Rupert, 
eleven years; Clara M., eight years; Veronika 
Virginia, six years ; Portia L., three years; and 
Anton K., Jr., one and one-half years. The 
first three children are now attending the pub- 
lic schools and the two younger children may 
be said to be arbiters of the household affairs 
in the Dobesh home. 

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Dobesh 
began life in a sod house, but are to-day the 
owners of one section, or 640 acres, of good 
land, which is in a high state of cultivation 
and equipped with good improvements. The 
sulendid outfit of modern farm implements is 
well housed in machine sheds, and every pos- 
sible convenience of modern farming is in evi- 
dence. Good grades of live stock, including 
Poland-China hogs and Red Durham cattle, 
are well featured and made prominent in the 
live-stock operations, conducted in connection 
with diversified agriculture. 

This family, like other families of the same 
name, bears a splendid reputation, and Mr. and 
Mrs. Dobesh are counted as very valuable citi- 
zens and neighbors. Mrs. Dobesh is a member 
of the Baptist church. Mr. Dobesh affiliates 
with no political party and announces that he 
is an independent voter and considers well the 
man to whom he gives the favors of his fran- 
chise. He is living on land which he bought 
from his father. 



984 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. XEHRASKA 



Patriotic appeals of the war drive have been 
met with generous response in liberal contri- 
butions on the part of Mr. and Mrs. Dobesh. 
Two near relatives of the family are in the 
war service at the time of this writing — Law- 
rence Bristol, brother of Mrs. Dobesh, is at 
Camp Ward, and Arthur Dobesh, a cousin of 
Anton K., is in the aviation corps and is in 
France. Prior to her marriage Mrs. Dobesh 
was a successful and popular teacher in the 
Custer county schools, and she thus continued 
her work in the pedagogic profession for six 
years. 

HUDSON J. FR-ASER. — One of the sub- 
stantial men of afifairs living in the eastern 
portion of Custer county is the subject whose 
name appears above. Although unencum- 
bered with domestic affairs, Hudson Jay Fra- 
ser rendered to his parents a commendable 
service and has helped to develop the local 
resources of his community. Mr. Eraser 
hails from the Empire state. He was bom 
March 9, 1869. He is a son of Charles and 
Lorinda (Hays) Eraser, both of whom were 
natives of New York. The father's lifelong 
occupation was that of farming, although at 
times he worked in the timber of northern 
Michigan, where he also did some trapping. 
In the father's family were six children, three 
of whom ar e now living. These, aside from 
the subject of these lines, are Clara, who lives 
with her brother on the farm, and Nellie, the 
wife of R. P. Moore. In the common schools 
of New York Mr. Eraser received his early 
education and later he attended school at 
Grand Island. Nebraska. He never married 
but has chosen to follow all these years the 
path of single blessedness. 

Hudson Jay Eraser came v;ith his parents 
to Custer county at the age of twelve years. 
The father located the homestead which is 
still the familv home and upon which Hudson 
Jay Eraser niade his home until 1897, when 
he bought land near Westenille. where he 
lived until the 1st of March. 1914. Then he 
returned to the old homestead to render much 
needed assistance to his mother. The mother 
died that same vear, her death occurring June 
6, 1914. The father had died in August the 
year before. Charles Eraser had always been 
active and prominent in local affairs, serving 
on the school board for a number of years. 
He was a Democrat in politics and he and his 
wife were members of the Methodist church. 
They experienced the common lot of pioneers. 
Lumber for their house had to be hauled from 
Grand Island and all the provisions had to be 



freighted from the same place. With a horse 
team it required five days to make the round 
trip. During the first winter they hauled 
wood for fuel, from the canyons near Wes- 
cott, about ten miles away. Their first habi- 
tations were made of sod and in these they 
passed their pioneer days. 

In his youth Hudson J. Eraser herded cat- 
tle, for which he earned seven dollars a month, 
but in spite of privations, droughts and small 
wages, the family succeeded in making a home 
in the new countr}', and to-day their improved 
and developed farm is a valued Custer county 
asset. 



HENRY B. GLOVER. — One of the widely 
known and representative men of Custer 
county who is first and foremost in fanning, 
stock-raising, and promotion of public affairs, 
is the substantial citizen introduced by the title 
line. Deserving of more extended mention 
than these paragraphs can afford, we regret 
our inability adequately to present the subject 
and his farm surroundings to the reader who 
many not know him. 

Mr. Glover was born in Livingston county, 
Illinois. September 24, 1861, and is a son of 
Samuel L. and Martha J. (Dunn) Glover. 
Samuel L. Glover is a native of the Empire 
state, and his wife was bom in Erie county, 
Pennsylvania. Samuel L. Glover removed to 
Illinois in 1857 and established himself in 
farming. Prior to that time he had been 
running a grocery store in Erie, Pennsylvania. 
He lived in Illinois for thirty years, and then 
came to Custer county. Xelaraska, where he 
bought the ranch upon which he made his 
home until his recent death, July 6. 1918. His 
widow still resides on the ranch and enjoys 
life at the advanced age of eighty-four year''. 
These parents brought into the world six chil- 
dren, all of whom have done great credit to 
their home and parentage : Deett is the wife 
of J. W. McRae. a Colorado farmer living 
near La Veta; Mary E. is the widow of Elva 
T. Potter and lives on the old home place; 
Grace is the widow of Eugene V. Sparks and 
she, too. lives on the home ])lace ; the fourth 
in the familv is Henry B., who is the subject 
of these lines; Percy D. married Augusta 
Lower and is farming in the vicinity of Wes- 
terville ; Sidney L. married Mrs. Lena Pete.- 
son, ucc Christensen, and they also are living 
near Westervillc. ■ 

Henr\' B. Glover was educated in the com- ■ 
nion schools of Illinois and attended the high 
school at Dwight. that state. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



985 




Henry B. Glover 



986 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



April 6, 1907, at Lincoln, Nebraska, Mr. 
Glover led to the marriage altar Miss Corda 
Johnson, a lady of unusual culture, she being 
the esteemed daughter of Reuben and Celina 
(Sisson) Johnson, who were Custer county 
pioneers, having come to the county in 1894. 
Here Mr. Johnson purchased part of a school 
section and leased the rest of it. The section 
was number 36, township 17, range 18. Mr. 
Johnson served for several years on the board 
of supervisors, and his death occurred in 190.>. 
In the Johnson family circle were seven chil- 
dren, five of whom are living. All of the 
surviving children have their homes in Custer 
countv with the exception of Charles, who 
resides in Atlanta, Georgia. Charles Johnson 
was prominent in the organization of a bank 
at Callaway and also one at Gering, this stale. 
Mr. and Mrs. Glover maintain an elegant 
home on one of the best improved farms m 
the county — a farm whose improvements 
would compare well with those of the farms 
in any state, in any locality. Here are big 
farm 'houses, one of which was occupied by 
Mr. Glover himself and the other by his fa- 
ther during his life time and now by his 
mother and sisters. Here are big bams, ex- 
tensive sheds and hog houses, the strongest 
kind of fences, water systems, and ever>- mon- 
ern convenience, so that the place may well 
be termed a model farm. The landed holdings 
amount to 1,080' acres. The stock consists of 
Poland-China hogs of the large and bony type, 
fashionable black Angus cattle, and draft • 
Percherons. Some of the cattle and horses 
are registered in herd and stallion books as 
aristocratic tvpes. 

No children of their own have blessed the 
home of Mr. and Mrs. Glover, but their be- 
nevolent disposition has contributed to the 
comfort and life equipment of two children 
whom they have taken into their home — 
Clarence J. Forte, who came to the Glover 
home at eleven vears of age, is now twenty- 
one years old and is at the time of this writ- 
ing at Camp Funston, in the ser\'ice of the 
country; a bright girl, Gertrude Johnson, is 
now an inmate of the home; where she en- 
joys all the privileges of A favored daughter. 
Aside from being a leading and extensive 
farmer, Henrv B. Glover has always been 
prominent in politics, as a Republican leader. 
In 1007 he was elected to the state senate, 
in which he represented Blaine. Loup. YUev. 
and Custer counties. He made a splendid 
record in the senate and has always been 
counted as an honest, dependable, progressive 
citizen who could be safely charged with the 
promotion of all public enterprises. 



WILLIS G. WILLIAMS is a Kentuckian 
by birth, but he has lived in Custer county 
thirty years and has here made a signal suc- 
cess of his farming operations. He lives in 
the north part of the county, where he is 
widely and favorably known. 

Mr Williams was bom Ivlarch 17, 1856, 
and is a son of William and Mary (Hale) 
Williams. His father was a famier who m 
the early days of the '60s entered the service 
of his country and served throughout the 
duration of the Civil war. Little of the 
father's operations during the war are remem- 
bered by the son. but the honorable discharge 
attested a valuable service rendered. The 
mother died in Kentucky March 8, 1897. In 
the parental home were five children, three 
of whom are still living — Willis G. is the 
subject whose name is in the title line; George 
L. is now living at Morrill, Nebraska, where 
he conducts a farm, the maiden name of his 
wife having been Linnie Tarleton ; and 
Polly is the wife of John Faulkner, residing 
in Kentucky. 

The early life of Willis G. Williams was 
passed in Kentncky, where he received a lib- 
eral education, and where also his farming 
activities commenced. He arrived in Custer 
countv, October 19. 1887. 

March 14. 1889, Mr. Williams married 
Mary C. Pfrehm. a daughter of John A. and 
Mary (Swigart-Miller) Pfrehm. who came to 
this county in 1879. Mrs. Williams' father 
homesteaded in section 32, and this property 
• now belongs to his daughter Emma. He also 
filed on a tree claim at the same time. He 
was a Democrat politically, and was rated as 
a splendid citizen. The mother was a mem- 
ber of the German Lutheran church. The 
parents died in this county, the father m 1885, 
and the mother in 1899. 

Twenty-seven vears ago Mr. and Mjs. 
Willis G. Williams boU£:ht the land on which 
they now have their farm home and do a 
general famiing and stock-raising business. 
This farm, however, has recently been sold, 
and they are undecided where tliey will effect 
their future location. _ . 

Into the familv circle of this estimable 
couple have come eight children: Effie P. is 
living at home; Minnie A., the wife of Archie 
Brooks, lives on a fami near Morrill, Ne- 
braska : Claude C. who married Hattie Bar- 
ger lives on a f^rm north of Walworth; 
Charles R. and Arthur G., and the twins, Earl 
O and Essie M.. are all at home. 

Mr Willims affiliates with the Democratic j 
party, and in local circles has been very ac- 
tive in evervthing that will tend to the up- ' 
building of 'the community. He has served 



HISTORY UF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



as moderator and clerk of school district No 
with the Methodist church. Mr. Williams 

. In the family story of Mrs. Williams is an 
.ncdent illustrating some of the difficu ties 
encountered by pioneers. In the eariy period 
of their homesteading. the father of^Mrs 
Williams farmed in Lancaster county in the 
^™F oi mo, while the children remained 
with the mother at home in Custer countTln 
order to complete the homestead rights On 
one occasion, while the father was !way the 
mother was herding the cattle by means of 
ropes, when the cattle became um^ly an3 ran 

Mr7'Pfr"f "^ '^'JT' "^""^ the feet of 
Mrs Pfrehm, which threw her to the eround 
and broke her hip. This caused her to faint 
from the pain, and she lay on the ground Tn 
the hot sun from ten o'clock in the forenoon 
until five in the afternoon, when one of the 
neighbors, who became alarmed at her ab 
sence, went out and found her. She ne^er 
recovered from this injury 



987 



the^st^ PENSE -Here follows in outline 
thl frJl seyenty-mne years, and brings to 
the front one of the veterans of the Civil war 
a man who has seen the first years of the 
frontier hfe and a man who has well earned 

irLe^nftim?" ^"' '^"^'^^ '^ -i°-- ^ ^^^ 

and Nancy (Gammon) Pense. His fathe? 

the n? T J'' ^ ^^""^'•' y^t, like most of 
he men of his generation, he had some trade 
and in this instance the father had served as' 
apprentice and learned the cooper's trade be 
sides which he had occasionally worked at 

to^bVatle lo^ '" U "\^ ^"T^'^ "^ ^ ^hoemake 
to be able to make shoes for his own family 

inr84?"".'?°''^^™"' 0'^'° to Wisco^ i^,- 
m 1845, and from there to Illinois, where he 

47 ir^' f" -f'''^- ^^''^'^-'^ °^^"^'-ed in 
nf \'u •^'"''>' '^^'■e t^" children seven 

of whom are hving at the present time but 

county He'h" '\'''^l °"^ "^'"? '" Custe 
count}. He has a brother, A. L. Pense who 

■s now located at Scottsbluff. but who for 
merly hved at Westerville, Custer coumy 
where he conducted a furniture store vXn 
that tovvn was "on the map." 

G. W. Pense was educated in the nubbV 
schools of Illinois but did not have opSr 
uniy to pursue his studies as long as^T 
sired. Nine months made up the refl school 
pnyileges that he enjoyed, he made he bes 



of these, however, and, being of an intelligent 
keen mind, he augmented %he fundamS 
principles received in the schools uni^^ S 
education qualified him for all the ansae 
tions incident to common life 

Septembers, 1861, Mr. Pense married Ar. 
-nta Black, at Pleasant Green, II h" is A 
.vear later he enlisted in the a^my and he 
served until July 1, 1865, rendering a hard 
yet in some ways remarkable, service He 
was never wounded or taken prisoner He 
was in successive engagements from Perry! 

tn M u^'T^l- °"^''''""^' ^"d finally got badc 
o Nashville Tennessee. During a per od of 
three months there were only five^ days in 
which he was not in some battle or sSmish 
During his eariy years he learned the bbck 

times but'^h"' "'"' ^^ worked at dif? rent" 
mnnJc I, "^ ^^""^ '^ "p in Warren county 
Illinois and commenced farminjr 

In 1874 Mr Pense came f?om Illinois to 
Clay county, Nebraska, whsre he resumed 
blacksmithing. From Clay • county he ^me 
to Custer county in 1881 He tnri T.- u 

hyes^on^^ the farm of his son-in-law, MonT^ 

During his early residence in Custer countv 
and also during a few years rS?dence £ 
Sherman county, Mr. Pense became ac 
qnainted with the Olivers, MitcheS and 
Ketchums, and he is familiar with many of 
the de ails connected with the Oliver Mi"chel 

CO int of the transactions in that connection 
whKh in substance agrees with the Mite eU' 
Ketchum. and Oliver story recorded else 
where in this volume ecoraed else- 

Mr. and Mrs. Pense became parents of ten 
children, nine of whom are living at the ores 
em time: Mrs. Monroe Freema^n and Harry 
Monroe Pense are the only ones living in tS 

. Mr. Pense is the owner of a minine claim 
m the west and he is confident tha" this wiU 
some day be very valuable. While provhi^ 
up on his claim he turned his hand t^taxf 
dermy, m which handicraft he made a remark 
able showing. Some of his work makes plen- 
did exhibition to-day in some of the eastern 
museums. At the time he lived in Sherman 
county he employed spare time and wirn'r 
evenings in different musical entertainments 
and he vvas often called upon to X fo; 
dances in Westerville, West Union, and in 



988 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



989 



different places ,n the county. On these trips 
his daughter, now Mrs. Freeman, accompanied 
h.m and played the cello as an accompani- 

^!? ,. u'", ^'°''"- ^'^^ ^^^^ then so small 
that she had to stand on a chair to reach the 
'"^t™'""i\ .The veteran and the pioneer has 
performed his service, has reared his family 
and deserves the rest that he enjoys in the 
years of his retirement. 



citl^^^Jr- PLOVER, who is a substantial 
citizen of Custer county, Nebraska, a pros- 
perous farmer and stock-raiser at a time when 
hese industries are, perhaps, of more impor- 
tance than ever before in the history of this 
country, has lived continuously in Custer 
county for the past thirty-three years He 
came here in 1885, in early manhood, accom- 
panying his father, who came here with caoi- 
tal and invested in land, purchasing- the old 
> ayne ranch, which is one of the well known 
places of the county. 

. ^^^'^y ^- Glover was born April 27 1863 
in Livingston county, Illinois. His parents' 
were Samuel and Martha J. (Dunn) Glover, 
the father having been born near Utica, New 
\ork, and the mother in Erie county, Penn- 
Set?"- .J'^^y.^d six children, as follows: 
ueett IS the wife of Joseph W. McRae a 
tanner, and they live near La Veta, in Huer- 
fano county, Colorado; Mary E. is the widow 
of Elva Potter; Grace is the widow of Eu- 
gene Spafks, who died in 1913; Henry B 
who is a farmer and lives on Glover's ranch' 
married Corda A. Johnson ; Percy D. of this 
sketch was next in order of birth ; and Sidney 
U, who IS a farmer near Westerville this 
county married Lena Christensen Peterson 

In the public schools of Livingston county, 
Il.nois, Percy D. Glover obtained excellem 
educational training and there he worked on 
his fathers farm until he was twenty-two 
years of age. He then came to Custer county 
on the Payne ranch, which his father bought 
-Mr Glover himself bought a homestead rieht 
in the same vicinity and on this he lived until 
1-W when he moved on his present fine farm 
which he has been operating ever since its' 
ocation being in section 12. township 17 ' He 
has always been a hard-working man and 
his honest and upright course in all neighbor- 
hood affairs has gained him the confidence and 
esteem of all who know him. He carries o„ 
his agricultural operations according to mod- 

that"^n°t f."^ has introduced improvements 
that add to the efficiencv of all his farm a- 
tivities. 

In January, 1887, Mr. Glover was united m 



marriage to Miss Augusta S. Lower, who was 
a daughter of Abraham and Catherine (Mil- 
ler) Lower, who had twelve children Of 
these children the following named survive and 
aii are well known and respected in their re- 

nrArf/°AT"-'^'''^ Margaret is the wife 
of Walter Morrison, who is manager of the 
Country Club at Kansas City, Missouri; Al- 
bert M who IS in the real-estate business at 
Uwight Ilhnois, married Mary Lorigan; Le 
Roy, who IS a farmer in Livingston county, 
Illinois, and owns a garage at Campus, mar- 
ried Hannah Morns; Frank, who is a farmer 
near Dwight. Illinois, married Mary WeUer- 
Marietta is the wife of Cyrus Hiddleson. of 
^t'Z'ru '^T^'.^^^'^^ois; Lillian is the 
wife of Thomas Magmre, a farmer near Cam- 
pus ; Grace is the wife of Ben C. Morris a 
farmer near Ames, Iowa; and Gertrude is [he 
wife of John Parsons, who is manager of a 
himber yard at Piper City, Illinoil Mr.^^ 
Glover died in May, 1914. having become the 
mother of sixteen children, fifte'en of whom 

iJ. i«88, and is a farmer on Glover's rannli 
married Nell^ Johnson; Fay, wh^was bo m 

MaSev r"^ ^^\^"''''" '^°""'>^- "^^^™d Irma 
iMattley, Guy, who was born March 1 1891' ' 
IS a farmer on the familv ranch; Ruth who 

TaJher T, ^.'^ I'' '''-' '"^-^'- -^^h he" 
ather, Lloyd, who was born December 28..- 

married"! V ^ ^''^'' °" ^^"^'''^ '^^' 

Mav 14 VsQ^^ Fountain; Glen, who was born 
Alay 14, 1895, is, at the time of this writino 
with the American Expeditionary Forces hi' 

and'Vh; '"''''' ''. '''' ^''^''-' department ; 
of th! .r'""', ^!^'^ '■espective dates of birth 
of the other children are here noted - Rex 
October 16. 1896; Frank, Februarv 5. 1901- 
Ray, March 8, 1902; Seth, Julv 11, 1903 • Ted 
December 5, 1904; Max. December 29 1905- 
loo^' ^fhi-uary 23, 1907; Ralph, July is' 
1908; and Clyde, July 15. 1909. A daughter' 
born March 2i, 1899, died September 20, 1899 
Mr. Glover may well be proud of this fine 
family and he has given his children every 
advantage m his power. He has always been 
a Republican in politics, like his father and 

dLt?[crNo.'98""'""^^ '' ^"^""-^^ °^ ^'''-°' 



HENRY J. PFREHM.- Heralded in the 
title line is a German name that belongs to a 
patriotic American citizen who in all war 
activities and bond drives has done all that 
was in his power to do. He is a pioneer of the 
eariy days, a homesteader of the virgin soil 



990 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



991 



and a man who in Custer county has expended 
years of effort and hard toil. 

Henry J. Pfrehm was born in lUinois, Aug- 
ust 10, 1865. He is a son of John A. Pfrehm, 
who was born at Swarzsbach, Germany, in 
1821, and who came to America in 1852. The 
mother was a native of Wurtemberg, Ger- 
many, and born in 1832. She came to Amer- 
ica with her parents in 1851, and settled in 
Petersburg, Illinois. The same fall she was 
married to a man by the name of Helies, who 
died in less than a year. Her maiden name 
was Mary Swigart. In 1853 she and John A. 
Pfrehm, father of Henry J. Pfrehm were 
married at Petersburg, Illinois, where they 
lived until 1868, when they moved to a farm. 
They were the parents of twelve children, all 
born in Menard county, Illinois — -John G., 
William, Lewis J., Frank A., George, Anna 
M., August W., Henry J., Mary, Emma E.. 
Dora K., and Edward P. The family lived on 
Indian creek until 1871 when they moved to 
Petersburg, and they lived in Illinois until 
1879, when they moved into the vicinity of 
Crete, Nebraska, where they stopped but a 
short time, and came on, making final settle- 
ment in West Union, Custer county. Here 
they settled on the southwest quarter of sec- 
tion 32. The father filed on this homestead 
June 16, 1879, and then returned to Crete and 
brought some of the family to the new home. 
Part of them, however, were left on the farm 
at Crete, and thus they passed the first winter 
with the family divided, living in two places. 
To keep in touch with each division of the 
family Mr. Pfrehm was on the road traveling 
most of the winter. Mr. Pfrehm took sick in 
1886 and died in December, 1888, his wife sur- 
viving him by ten years and passing away in 
1898. 

Henry J. Pfrehm was married December 
21, 1893, to Maggie E. Bitter, a daughter of 
Louis and Marie (Shark) Bitter, who were 
homesteaders in this county, near Walworth. 
Henry J. Pfrehm and his wife have never 
been blessed with children. They home- 
steaded near Walworth and now own the 
claim and home of his brother Frank A., de- 
ceased. They have in their combined hold- 
ings a half-section of land, one-quarter of 
which is owned by the husband and one-quar- 
ter by the wife. They conduct a general 
fanning and stock business, have good build- 
ings and are respected and highly spoken of 
by their neighbors. Mr. Pfrehm is a Demo- 
crat in politics, and both he and his wife are 
members of the Methodist church. 



JOHN A. DIETZ. — One might travel all 
day and half the night without finding a more 
substantial or reliable farmer-citizen than the 
one who bears the well known name in the 
title line above. In the central part of the 
county John, as he is familiarly known by his 
friends and neighbors, is rated as one of the 
progressive spirits and foremost fanners. 

Mr. Dietz was born in Green county, Wis- 
consin, in 1864. He is a son of Jacob and 
Fannie (Meacham) Dietz. The father was 
a native of Pennsylvania and the mother a na- 
tive of New York. Both were very excellent 
people, and at a ripe old age they are living 
in comfortable retirement in the state of Wis- 
consin, to which commonwealth the senior 
Dietz and his family moved in 1856, and where, 
in 1861. this worthy couple were joined in 
holy wedlock. It was there that their children, 
seven of them in number, were born — Walter 
W. (deceased), John A., Laura L., Mary B. 
(deceased), Charles H., Nettie L., and 
Stanley J. 

John A. Dietz was a young man when he 
came to Nebraska, and he located first in Buf- 
falo county, where his residence terminated 
after two years. From that section of the 
state he came to Custer county and bought a 
half-section of land in the Custer Center com- 
munity, in 1889. 

In januar>' of 1888 Mr. Dietz married Jessie 
M. Taylor, in Buffalo county. She is a daugh- 
ter of Miner Taylor and Lenora (Stearns) 
Taylor. In her father's family were the fol- 
lowing children: EHsha, Louisa Wiggins, 
Jerome, Julia Wells (deceased). Alpha (de- 
ceased), Allan, Jessie M., Frank E., Hettie M. 
Jacobs, Nellie E., and Willis W. In 1890 
Miner Taylor came into Custer county, where 
he bought a quarter-section of land near to 
the holdings of his son-in-law, John A. Dietz, 
and the two formed a sort of partnership by 
which they farmed together and together pur- 
chased more land until their holdings were 
rather extensive. The partnership, however, 
has been dissolved for several years and Mr. 
Dietz operates 343 acres of well improved land 
seven miles northwest of Broken Bow. The 
buildings on this place, including the farm 
home, are of the first order and make this a 
very desirable farm, there being none better 
in the central part of the county. The farm- 
ing operations are of a general character. Red 
polled cattle are prominently featured, Poland- 
China hogs are bred in big-boned types, and 
all horses, hogs, cattle, or stock of any kind 



992 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



on the Dietz farm are well fed, receive good 
care, and are handled under conditions that 
make them profitable. 

In the community Air. Dietz is rated as un- 
usually prominent. He is a member of the 
Odd Fellows and the local Grange, and for 
eighteen years has served as a member of the 
school board. Patriotic and loyal to the gov- 
ernment, he has responded liberally to all the 
appeals made by different war works — a sub- 
scriber to the bond drives, to the Red Cross. 
to the Y. M. C. A. work, and thrift-stamp 
drive. In addition to this, two of his boys en- 
tered the service, and both were in France, at 
the time this sketch was being prepared. 

In the Dietz home are seven children : Eva 
L., C. L. ( in the service of the United States, 
in France), Stacey T., Elsie F., Howard S. 
(in France),- Donald F.. and Delma L. The 
family enjoy the confidence and respect of the 
community in which they live, and are a credit 
to the county in which Mr. Dietz is a respon- 
sible citizen. 



JOSEPH LEUI. — Because of the number, 
importance and variety of his interests, Joseph 
Leui is accounted one of the most prominent 
business men of Comstock, and for a number 
of years has also been largely interested in 
farming and stock-raising. He is president 
of the Stock Buying Market, and in numerous 
ways his connection with civic and business 
affairs has contributed to progress and de- 
velopment in this thriving community. 

Mr. Leui was boni September 30, 1871, on 
a farm in Jefferson county, Missouri, and is a 
son of Balthazer and Frances (Teodorski) 
Leui. His father was a native of Switzerland 
who emigrated to the United States in young 
manhood and fought as a soldier during the 
entire period of the Civil war, participating in 
the battle of Gettysburg and many other fam- 
ous engagements, but never being wounded or 
taken prisoner. When he returned from the 
war he adopted the vocation of agriculturist 
and settled in Missouri, where he married a 
native of that state, and resided in Jefferson 
county until 1874, when he moved to Saun- 
ders county, Nebraska. Here he took a home- 
stead, on which he lived for about sixteen 
years, and then moved to Hayes county, which 
was his home until tl.e close of his life. He 
was a man of marked intelligence, industry 
and business capacity and made a decided suc- 
cess of his ventures. He and Mrs. Leui were 
the parents of ten children, of whom seven are 
living: Etta, who is the wife of E. B. Wool- 
ey, residing in Hayes county ; Joseph ; Cath- 



erine, the wife of Abner Moore, of Hayes 
county; Sarah A., the wife of George Aloore, 
of the same county; and Frank, LeRoy, and 
Fred, all residing in the same county. The 
father of these children was a staunch Repub- 
lican in politics, and he and the mother were 
strongly religious people. 

Joseph Leui was but three years of age 
when the family moved to Nebraska, and he 
has therefore spent practically all of his life 
in this state. He was educated in the schools 
of Saunders county for the most part, and 
when he began his independent career it was 
as a farmer, a vocation to which he is still 
attached in an important way. For two years 
after leaving Saunders county he was a resident 
of Brown county, but in 1910 came to Custer 
county, where he now owns 320 acres of fine 
land just west of the city of Comstock, and 
this is well improved and highly cultivated. 
In addition Mr. Leui is extensively engaged 
in buying and selling cattle and hogs, and is 
president of the Stock Buying Alarket, an 
organization composed of leading Comstock 
business men, ranchers and farmers. His 
standing is exceptionally high in business cir- 
cles and his associates depend upon his judg- 
ment and ability in matters of importance. In 
the field of real estate he has important con- 
nections, and carries on a large and thriving 
business in partnership with E. F. Skolil, in 
which he has transacted some large deals. 
Likewise he has an interest in an implement 
and plumbing business at Comstock, and also 
is part owner, with F. J. Skolil, in an automo- 
bile and truck business. His time is thus con- 
siderably occupied with his private affairs, but 
he has never been one to shirk the responsi- 
bilities of citizenship, and was recentlv a can- 
didate on the Republican ticket for supervisor 
of the Comstock district. Mrs. Leui is a 
member of the Congregational church. 

Mr. Leui w-as married near David City, 
Nebraska, Januarj' 19, 1893, to Aliss Eva 
.\llen, daughter of Solomon and Anna (Whit- 
ney) Allen, who were pioneer settlers of But- 
ler county. To this union there have been 
born six children : Foster A., who has been in 
Ivngland with the United States army, being a 
member of the Eighty-ninth Division of In- 
fantry, was wounded in action November 1, 
1918, and up to the time of the revision of this 
sketch no word had been received as to his con- 
dition ; Ralph, also a patriotic soldier, with 
Company B, Machine Gun Battalion, Amer- 
ican Expeditionary Forces, in France, was 
killed in action November 2. 1918; and Robert 
IL, Harney, Bessie, and Freddie are all at 
home with their parents. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



993 



HARRY M. BENTLEY, who is carrying 
on farming and stockraising operations in a 
modern and successful way not far from Sar- 
gent, has been a resident of Custer county 
practically all of his life, and is a product of 
its schools. He was born at Jackson, Jack- 
son county, Minnesota, October 24, 1877, a 
son of Isaac and Lucinda (Pinchin) Bentley, 
the former a native of Chemung county. New 
York, and the latter of Steuben county, in the 
same state. 

Isaac Bentley in his young manhood learned 
the trade of stone mason, which he followed 
with some degree of success until he turned 
his attention to fartning, and at which he has 
been employed at odd times throughout his 
career. In 1865 he moved to Wisconsin, 
where he was employed on a farm for four 
years, and then went to Iowa, where he re- 
sided for a like period. Subsequently he took 
up his rseidence in Jackson county, Minnesota, 
and that was his home until he decided to come 
to Custer county, the family driving in from 
Iowa in a wagon. On his arrival here, the 
father pre-empted land in section 33, town- 
ship 20, range 17, and settled down to farm- 
ing, and is still the owner of his original farm, 
which is largely worked by his son Harry M. 
While Mr. Isaac Bentley is now eighty-four 
years of age, he still retains his strength and 
activity, and during 1918 stacked over 100 
acres of wheat. He is also possessed of his 
faculties, and his memory frequently carries 
him back to the early days of the county, at 
which times he relates many interesting remin- 
iscences. During the first four years of his 
residence in the county, prairie fires burned 
all the available wood, and the early settlers 
were compelled to cut heavy weeds and dry 
them for their winter supply of fuel. Mr. 
Bentley was forced to travel to Scotia, a dis- 
tance of fifty miles, to reach the nearest mill, 
and there were numerous other discomforts 
and hardships, but he courageously persevered, 
and has lived to see his locality a prosperous 
and productive one. Of the five children born 
to Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Bentley, three are liv- 
ing: Byron, who married Edna Toorey, and 
is engaged in farming north of Taylor, Ne- 
braska : Harry M. ; and Clara, who is the wife 
of Richard Brockus, of Casper, Wyoming, 
connected with the Standard Oil Company. 

Harry M. Bentley was a child when brought 
by his parents to Custer county, and his edu- 
cation was completed here in school district 
No. 207, located in section 32. He has been 
a farmer and stock-raiser all of his life, and 
has been well satisfied with his vocation, which 
has brought him contentment and prosperity, 
and given him a position among his fellow- 



men as a substantial and reliable citizen. In 
addition to farming his father's land, he is the 
owner of a well-improved farm of eighty 
acres, in section 32, township 1, which is under 
a high state of cultivation and improved with 
modern buildings and equipment. In politics 
Mr. Harry M. Bentley is independent, and for 
the past five years has served his community 
in the capacity of school director. He is a 
member of the Modern Woodmen of America 
and both he and Mrs. Bentley belong to the 
Royal Neighbors. 

Harry M. Bentley was married January 11. 
1905, to Miss Jessie Grint, who was born near 
Sargent, daughter of J. E. Grint an agricultur- 
ist east of that place. To this union there 
have been bom three children : Ruth, bom 
July 9, 1908; Verna, born July 5, 1910; and 
Chris, born October 30, 1912. 



FRED KLANECKY is one of the men of 
Custer county who can point with justifiable 
pride to their accomplishments in the fields of 
agriculture and stock-raising. When he en- 
tered upon his career in 1899, his equipment, 
aside from three horses and some antiquated 
farm equipment, consisted principally of his 
ability, self-reliance and determination; today 
he is one of the most prosperous farmers of 
the Sargent community, although he is but in 
the prime of life. 

I\Ir. Klanecky was bom in the city of Bal- 
timore, Maryland, August 10, 1875, and is a 
son of Joseph and Anna (Dolezal) Klanecky, 
natives of Austria. His father was a shoe- 
maker by trade and followed that occupation 
in the old country, as well as in Baltimore, 
where he brought his family in 1874. He 
was making moderate progress when an epi- 
demic of cholera struck Baltimore, after he 
had resided there three years, and he accord- 
ingly fled the city and went to Omaha, where 
he found employment in a smelter. In 1882 
he cahie to Custer county and located on a 
homestead in sections 33 and 34, but after he 
had his family settled on the farm found that 
he must have money to buy a cow as well as 
to have a necesasry well sunk. As money was 
scarce in the family as well as in the com- 
munity, he resolutely walked back to Omaha, 
where he was again employed in the smelter, 
and thus earned the money necessary to carry 
the family through until 'such time as the pro- 
ducts of the farm would furnish the means of 
a livelihood. Eventually Mr. Klanecky be- 
came a successful and prosperous citizen of 
his community, developed a valuable farm, and 
lived to see his children all comfortably es- 
tablished in life and living within thirty miles 



994 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




tL. 



z 

o 



S5 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



995 



of the homestead. He continued to carry on 
operations until his death, which occurred De- 
cember 26, 1913. His first wife died at 
Omaha, in 1881, and he was again married, 
his widow, who owns the homestead, now be- 
ing a resident of Sargent. He had three sons 
by his first wife and three sons and three 
daughters by his second marriage, and all the 
children are married except two. Mrs. Klan- 
ecky is a member of the Catholic church, to 
which her husband also belonged. 

Fred Klanecky was seven years old when 
the family came to the Custer county home- 
stead, and at that time deer were still :o be 
found in abundance, furnishing meat for the 
family larder during the first hard years. He 
secured his education in dugout and sod 
schoolhouses, and in 1899 began farming op- 
erations on his own account. At that time he 
was possessed of three horses, a plow and a 
cultivator, but went into debt for 160 acres 
of land and homesteaded 120 acres more. He 
and his wife both worked industriously and 
indefatigably, with the result that at the end 
of seventeen years they were not only free 
from debt, but sold their farm for $11,200. 
At the present time Mr. Klanecky is the owner 
of 425 acres of some of the best land to be 
found in Custer county and this he has im- 
proved with fine buildings and modern equip- 
ment of all kinds. This is in marked contrast 
to the early days, when his buildings were 
necessarily of the plainest sort and his equip- 
ment the same, and when he was forced to 
haul water for stock and family use over one- 
half mile. Mr. Klanecky is one of the intelli- 
gent agriculturists of his region, progressive 
and enterprising, and a man of the highest in- 
tegrity. He is a Republican in politics, and he 
and Mrs. Klanecky are members of the Cath- 
olic church. 

On November 14, 1898, Mr. Klanecky was 
married to Miss Mary Benda, daughter of 
pioneers of 1882 in Valley county, who now 
live at Ord, having retired upon a well-earned 
competence. Three children have been born 
to this union, and all remain at the parental 
home, their names and respective dates of 
birth being here recorded: Anna, March 31, 
1900; Frank, January 17, 1912; Agnes, Sep- 
tember 16, 1913. 



CONRAD FLEISHMAN. — Among the 
early settlers of Custer county who have here 
made good use of opportunities, mention 
should be made of Conrad Fleishman. 

Mr. Fleishman was born in Bavaria, Ger- 
many, February 26, 1849, and is a son of 
Heronomous and Barbara (Haverman) 



Fleishman, who spent their entire lives in Ba- 
varia. Conrad Fleishman was reared in his 
native land and in 1870, when a young man 
of twenty-one years, to escape Prussian mili- 
tarism, he came to the United States, landing 
in New York city. He went from there to 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and as he did not have 
any trade he went to work on a farm, as the 
means of securing a living. For his services 
he received fourteen dollars a month as wages. 
On October 16, 1876, at New London, Wis- 
consin, Mr. Fleishman was united in niarriage 
to Miss ]\Iinnie Palaski. who was born in Po- 
sen, Germany, August 25, 1853. She was a 
young woman of nineteen when she came to 
America and soon after their marriage the 
young couple went to Door county, Wisconsin, 
where they bought forty acres of land and 
where they made their home until they came 
to Nebraska in 1880. On coming to this state 
they resided one year in Phelps county, and' 
in 1881 they came to Custer county and took 
a homestead in section 22. township 18, range 
22. Not a furrow had been turned nor an 
improvement made, but they set to work to de- 
velop a farm and make a home. Their first 
Iiouse was built of sod and was ten by twelve 
feet in dimensions. When the family outgrew 
this primitive domicile, Mr. Fleishman built a 
second one and later was built a third sod 
house, which still stands. In 1905 Mr. Fleish- 
man erected a modern, twelve-room, frame 
house, which constitutes as fine a home as can 
be found in the neighborhood. For many years 
he was actively engaged in farming, but he 
now rents his land and is living retired. He 
has been successful in his venture as a farmer 
in Custer county and to-day owns 640 acres. 
Mr. and Mrs. Fleishman became the parents 
of nine children as follows : Anna is the wife 
of Henry T. Michele, a farmer of Dale vallev; 
George is engaged in farming near the old 
home: Frank, John, and Theodore are de- 
ceased, all having reached young manhood ; 
Agnes is teaching the home school ; Matilda, 
now "Sister Genevieve," is in a convent at 
Gregory, South Dakota : Leo is in the national 
army at the time of this writing ; and Minnie is 
a teacher in the Custer county schools. The 
family are communicants of the Catholic 
church. 

After becoming a citizen of the United 
States Mr. Fleishman had the usual experi- 
.ences that fell to the lot of the early settlers, 
but he bravely met and overcame all obstacles 
and helped to make Custer county a better 
place in which to live. Mrs. Fleishman tells 
of the trip from Phelps county, when they 
drove an ox team and wagon. Slie says the 



996 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 




u, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



997 



old sod house had no window when she ar- 
rived, though there was a hole left in the wall 
for the window. These sterling pioneers have 
lived to see their children all grown and taking- 
care of themselves in the world, and they can 
look back upon the past without regret and 
forward to the future without fear. 



JAMES B. STONE. — It is not always 
Germany, Sweden, Bohemia or Ireland that 
furnishes the elementary thrift that flourishes 
and blossoms in the new land of the west. 
England, too, has furnished some of the sturdy 
sons who have rendered a remarkable service 
in county development. James B. Stone, 
whose name heads this paragraph, is a native 
of England and comes of English blood of 
rare and ancient lineage. He was born July 
31, 1877. His parents were Henry and Sarah 
(Rich) Stone. The father was a farmer dur- 
ing most of his life, although for twelve 
years he worked on the Great Western R. R. 
in England, part of which time he was a fore- 
man. He came to the United States in April, 
1886, and made his way to Custer county, 
where he landed without any money. He 
homesteaded on Clear creek, where he made 
his home for twelve or thirteen years. He 
then moved to Lee Park, wdiere he lived for 
five years. He sold his homestead to Robert 
Stone, his brother, and moved into Valley 
county, where he spent the remainder of his 
life. He died July 20, 1918. His wife, the 
mother of James B., still owns the Valley 
county land but makes her home in Arcadia. 
There were five children in the family of 
Henry Stone. They were : Emma, wife of J. 
W. Christian, lives in Arcadia. Albert mar- 
ried Nettie Potter and is now living in Tay- 
lor, Loup county. The third born is the sub- 
ject of this sketch. Simon married Fannie 
Jewel and is living in Washington. Fred 
married Vina Stevenson and is living on a 
farm near Arcadia, Nebraska. The senior 
Stone was independent in politics and both 
he and his wife were members of the Meth- 
odist church. Young James received part of 
his education in England but finished in the 
schools of Nebraska. With his parents he 
came direct from England to North Loup and 
was driven from North Loup to the Robert 
Stone homestead, east of Comstock. His 
parents brought with them four children of 
their own and three children of Thomas Stone, 
a brother who had lost his wife, which made 
them a family of seven children, to look after 
on the long voyage across the water. They 
were thirteen days in making the trip. Thomas 
Stone, a brother of Henry and father of the 



three children mentioned above, was one of 
the early settlers of this county. He now 
lives in Valley county. One of his children 
remained in England until she was 16 years of 
age. 

John B. Stone was married August 24, 1904, 
to Minnie L. Luedtke, a native daughter of the 
West who was born and raised only two miles 
from her present residence. She is a 
daughter of August and Roselle (Cook) 
Luedtke. Her parents were Valley county 
pioneers. Both are now deceased. In their 
family circle were five children. He was a 
Republican in national politics, but independ- 
ent in county and state. 

The Stones maintain a splendid and hos- 
pitable home and are hard working and thrifty 
people, obliging neighbors, always ready to 
contribute to those who need help and lend 
active assistance to any worthy cause. For ■ 
years James B. Stone was a noted "gizzard 
eater," but the last few years he passes the 
dainty morsels over to his immediate younger 
generation, which consists of two sturdy boys 
and two splendid, blue-eyed girls. 



GEORGE FLEISHMAN. — One of the 
younger agriculturists of Custer county who 
has made a success of his undertakings is the 
subject of this review. 

George Fleishman was born at Sister Bay, 
Door county, Wisconsin, September 30, 1878, 
and is a son of Conrad Fleishman, whose rec- 
ord as a pioneer will be found on other pages 
of this volume. 

Young Fleishman was a lad of four years 
when the family home was established in Cus- 
ter county. As a boy he watched the progress 
and growth, and as a young man he learned 
the best methods of planting and harvesting, 
under the guidance of his father. \\'hen he 
reached manhood he wisely chose the occupa- 
tion to which he had been reared, and while 
yet under the parental roof began farming for 
himself. For the past ten years he has occu- 
pied his present farm, a valuable tract of 160 
acres, under a high state of cultivation, with 
as good a set of buildings as can be found 
in this locality, all of which have been put here 
by the present owner. 

For a companion and helpmate Mr. Fleish- 
man chose Miss Anna Bader, who was born 
in Illinois, a daughter of Stephen and Monica 
(Sulzman) Bader, natives of Germany, who 
came to the LTnited States when young people 
and were married in Illinois. In 1888 the 
parents of Mrs. Fleishman came to Custer 
county, Nebraska, and took a homestead north- 



998 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 



east of Anselmo. The mother died in this 
county; August 9, 1905. The father married 
again and is still Hving. Mrs. Fleishman was 
reared in Custer county, was educated in the 
district and Broken Bow schools and at the 
time of her marriage was a popular teacher in 
the Custer county schools. She has become the 
mother of three children — Monica, Theresa, 
and George Conrad. 

Mr. and Mrs. Fleishman are mem]>ers of the 
Catholic church and are held in the highest of 
esteem by all who knciw them. 



R. B. SARGENT. — There are few names 
in Custer county more widely known than the 
one written above. The Sargents have been 
a prominent family of pioneers, as six of the 
boys settled here in early days. 

R. B. Sargent was born in Illinois but 
moved to Iowa when eleven years old. 
Several of his sisters live there now. When 
he was twenty-two years old the desire to see 
the great, promised west led him, with his 
brother John, to visit this "Great American 
Desert." They were so well pleased with the 
prospects that they filed on places and re- 
turned to settle up business, and bring stock 
for the new land. Their glowing tales pur- 
suaded others, and soon several of their old 
neiglibors were new ones. 

In the spring of 1882 Mr. Sargent built his 
sod shanty in section 6, township 19, range 18, 
in what is now known as Sargent valley. 
Later he sold this place and bought where he 
now lives. 

In July, 1891, Mr. Sargent was married to 
Lizzie Chrisman, daughter of Josepli and Lucy 
Clirisman, also pioneers. They have four 
children : Glenn, Charles, Irene, and Ken- 
neth, and all live at home except Charles, who 
married Thclma Ross : they now live on their 
fanu. 

Mr. Sargent tells of many experiences in 
early days, when towns were few and far 
away. He tells of many interesting incidents 
while hauling cedar posts from the "Dismal 
Swamps" to sell to the settlers at Westerville, 
the round trip requiring eight days. On one 
occasion he and his brother, while making the 
trip, were caught in a snow storm which cov- 
ered the ground a foot deep with snow. It 
took five days to reach home, and provisions 
were getting scarce. On another trip one of 
his neighbors lost one of his horses shortly 
after starting on the return trip but he was 
equal to the occasion. He threw off half his 
load of posts ; tied the singletree of the one 
horse fast to the wagon and, carrying the 



other end of the neckyoke, a week later he 
reached his shack. 

Mr. Sargent and his brother worked at the 
blacksmith trade in spare time and made 
eighty or ninety primative "antelope" breaking- 
plows which they sold to their neighbors. 
With these plows was turned the soil of many 
of Custer county's first farms. A few of 
these old plows may be seen in scrapheaps yet. 
Mr. Sargent also made wells, and some 300 
of these are scattered around the county. 
From 1900 to 1905 he conducted a store and 
was post-master at \\'alworth. This was the 
first store where Walworth now stands. 

The Sargents are fine people and their 
neighbors pay them the homage due to hon- 
est, upright citizens, who have rendered their 
countr)' valuable service. 



GEORGE V. ORVIS. — Here is a man 
that belongs to the north part of the county. 
He was born in the north garden spot known 
as West Union, September 15, 1880, conse- 
quently the responsibilities of active life are 
pressing heavily upon him. Just now in the 
vigor of his full manhood years, he belongs to 
the generation that must bear the responsibili- 
ties and manage the affairs of the present day. 

He is a son of John R. and Chaney M. 
(Sweet) Orvis (See sketch of Bert Orvis). 
As his birth occurred in Custer county, his 
life has been lived here. The district school 
of the country and the high school of Broken 
Bow bestowed U])on him a liberal education 
and qualified him for all business activities of 
the successful farmer's career. He lived on his 
father's place and helped in the affairs of the 
farm until 1902, when he was married to 
Jessie C. Garrison, a daughter of George and 
Amanda (Maple) Garrison. The date of 
marriage was December 15, 1902. The bride 
was an accomplished young woman, coming 
from a well known and substantial family. 
Her father's people came to Custer countv in 
the fall of 1882 and settled north of VVal- 
worth. Her father was a man of unusual ex- 
perience. He was born in 1840 in Greene 
county, Pennsylvania, in which her mother 
was born six years later. During the Civil 
war the father, (icorge Garrison, was a mem- 
ber of the Third Virginia Infantry, and he 
served until he lost one eye and was dis- 
charged for physical disability. After the war 
he was a bridge contractor for a number of 
years: conducting farming oi)cr;itions in Iowa, 
from which state they moved to this county 
in 1882, with horses and wagons. The mother 
died October 26, 1901, and the father May 10. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



999 



1908. It is remembered that the Garrison 
home was the first in the neighborhood that 
had a shingled roof. The neighbors pro- 
phesied at the time it was put on that the first 
wind would blow it off, but the calamity never 
happened. 

George V. Orvis and his wife established 
their own home after their marriage and are 
now heads of a splendid family of good repu- 
tation. Of their five children four are living: 
Fern L., bom July 2, 1906 ; Zoe Geraldine, 
May 16, 1909; Dean R. and Deo V., twins 
born March 15, 1912. Mr. and Mrs. Orvis 
are still to be counted as young people, with 
many years of active life before them, so far 
as outer appearances indicate, and the same 
application of thrift and judgment will com- 
pel the oncoming years to bring rich reward. 



D. B. EVANS. — One of the famihar 
spirits of Sargent, long connected with local 
affairs, who has contributed his part in the 
years past to the upbuilding of the county 
and who has had part in early day trials and 
experiences, is the man whose name spells 
the headline. 

Mr. Evans was born in Douglas county, 
Illinois, November 3, 1867, the son of John 
W. W. and Sarah (Smith) Evans. Tho 
senior Evans was a native of Wales and the 
mother a native of Ireland. The combination 
of Welsh and Irish blood flows in the veins 
of D. B. and imparts to him the vigorous 
spirit that has enabled him to survive the 
experiences of early day life in Custer county. 
The father, who was a farmer most of his life, 
came to this country in 1871 and settled on 
Indian Creek, York county, Nebraska, where 
he died in 1878. The mother lived until 
March 4, 1912. They were the parents of 
sixteen children : ten are living at the present 
time, but the subject, D. B. Evans, is the only 
one in this county. 

D. B. came to the county in 1885, pre- 
empted frmr miles east of Sargent, then 
homesteaded and later sold out anjd since 
that has made his home in Sargent. For 
nearly twenty-five years Mr. Evans has been 
road overseer and though not. posing as a 
moral reformer has been "mending the 
ways" of other people. He is counted as a 
good road man ; for ten years he has served 
as game warden. During his residence in 
Sargent he has been the proprietor of a meat 
market and has also conducted a real estate 
agency. 

Concerning the experiences of the early 
years, he was once deputized by George 
\\'alker. constable, to go down into the Weis- 



sert neighborhood and secure a horse thief 
that had been shot. The thief's partner had 
been captured and accordingly the dead and 
the living were brought together. The trial 
of the living man was before William Sher- 
man. The thief pleaded guilty and was taken 
to Brown county, where the jjroperty had been 
stolen and where he was afterwards taken 
from jail by a mob and hanged to a tele- 
graph pole. 

These years are gone, the experiences of 
the untamed years will never return, law abid- 
ing citizens have claimed the country. The 
irresponsible characters who always prey 
upon the unprotected settler of a frontier 
country have passed from the stage of action, 
and honor and virtue to-day reside in the 
citizenship, and law prevails everywhere. Any 
man who, like Evans, helped to bring order out 
of chaos has rendered a tribute to his county 
and service to his community. 

Mr. Evans socially is a member of the 
Ancient Order of United Workman and the 
Degree of Honor. For the last few years he 
has affiliated with the Democratic party. 



WALTER S. METCALF. — The name of 
Metcalf has appeared in this volume in other 
biographies. See sketches of Plin and Clar- 
ence Metcalf. 

Walter S. Metcalf is a son of Augustus 
and Lucia Metcalf. He was bom in Wyom- 
ing county. New York, March 24, 1860. He 
received his education in the common schools 
of New York and Ohio. He was married 
April 2, 1884, to Eva Parker, at Dennison, 
Iowa. Mrs. Metcalf is a daughter of James 
and Julia (Smith) Parker, both of whom were 
natives of New York state. Her father died 
at the age of eight-three years, in 1905, and 
her mother, at the advanced age of nine-two 
years, is still living and makes her home with 
the Metcalf s. 

Walter S. Metcalf came to Custer county 
in March, 1883, and commenced farming in 
the region of New Helena. A little later he 
homesteaded 160 acres in section 18, town- 
ship 19, range 19, which is still his home and 
has been such ever since, excepting the three 
years when his daughter attended school in 
Broken Bow, when they moved to that place 
in order to give her school advantages. After 
that they returned to the farm. They now 
own 400 acres in one body, which is well im- 
proved and stocked with the best breeds of 
cattle and hogs. Considerable attention is 
paid to dairying on the Metcalf ranch and 
this is found to be very profitable. The 
general appearances on the farm speak well 



1000 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1001 



for the management and care that the farm 
has received during the years that it has been 
in Mr. Metcalf's possession. In local affairs 
the Aletcalfs are counted prominent people 
and he has held most of the local and precinct 
offices. He has been a member of the school 
board in district No. 13 for a number of 
years. In connection with this school dis- 
trict, Mr. Metcalf contributes a bit of valu- 
able history. May 15, 1898, while school was 
in session, a cyclone swept over the building, 
tearing it to pieces, killing one child instantly 
and wounding several others. The child 
killed was Anna Fowler. Johnnie Olson had 
his jaw broken in two places, his collar bone 
broken in two places and several ribs frac- 
tured. Mr. and Mrs. Metcalf cared for him 
in their own home for a period of six weeks. 
Their own daughter also was badly hurt. 

The Metcalf home has been blessed with 
one child, Mabel who is now the wife of 
Floyd Pumphery, making her home in 
Ohiowa, Nebraska. The Metcalfs are splen- 
did neighbors, representative people, well 
posted in present day afifairs and have been 
always helpful and influential promoters of 
everything that in any way was calculated 
to benefit the community. They are members 
of the Methodist Episcopal church and re- 
sponsible for much of the good accomplished 
by the Walworth Sunday-school organized 
in an early day. 

GEORGE GROSS. —The career of George 
Gross, of Ansley, has been one in which perse- 
verance has triumphed over adversity, char- 
acter has overcome the disadvantages of lack 
of early opportunities, and industry has been 
rewarded in bounteous measure. Few if any 
of the residents of Custer county have been in 
greater degree the architects of their own for- 
tunes than has this former farmer and stock- 
man, who now, partly retired from active pur- 
suits, is engaged in selling insurance, his 
attractive home being on the outskirts of 
Ansley. 

Mr. Gross was born in Pennsylvania, Au- 
gust 22, 1862, and is a son of Josiah and Anna 
( Dunar) Gross, the former a native of Penn- 
sylvania, and the latter of Ireland, their 
marriage having been solemnized at Brooklyn, 
New York. The parents continued their resi- 
dence in Pennsylvania, until the close of their 
lives, the father having there followed farming 
and raising cattle, and there both died when 
their son George was young. The father was 
a Republican and a member of the Baptist 
church, while Mrs. Gross was a Catholic. 
There was one other child in the family: 



Jennie, who married F. S. Yaple, a farmer of 
Pennsylvania. 

Thrown on his own resources at the age of 
thirteen years, it was but natural that the early 
advantages of George Gross were not numer- 
ous. His education was confined to irregular 
attendance at the district schools, and he early 
began to work out among the neighboring 
farmers, in order to obtain his board and 
clothes. After three years thus spent he began 
to receive wages, seven dollars a month being 
his stipend the first year, out of which he 
saved the sum of forty dollars. During the 
year that followed he received nine dollars a 
month as remuneration for his labor, and out 
of this managed to put by sixty dollars, with 
which he came to S'aunders county, Nebraska. 
Wages were better in his new community, for 
he was given seventeen dollars a month the 
first year and twenty dollars the second year, 
and when he came to Custer county, in 1884, 
he Iiad $285, all saved by the hardest kind of 
work. When he lost this money, and was com- 
pelled to make a new start, it was a blow that 
would have discouraged most men, but he 
courageously settled down to work once more 
and located on a homestead. In order to hold 
his new home, and at the same time to make a 
living for himself, he was forced to seek all 
manner of employment, but he was willing, 
ambitious, and capable, and finally managed 
to get started on his upward climb. He con- 
tinued to reside on his farm, engaged in gen- 
eral farming and stock-raising, until 1915, by 
which time he had increased his property to 
200 acres, which he still owns. Since the date 
mentioned, he has lived in partial retirement, 
at the edge of Ansley, where he has a com- 
fortable home and twelve acres of land, and 
where he engages in selling insurance for a 
number of well known companies. During the 
time that he resided on the farm he erected 
substantial, modern, and attractive buildings 
and put in other improvements, and in various 
other ways contributed to the upbuilding of his 
community. He is a stockholder in the Se- 
curity State Bank at Ansley and a director of 
the State Farmers Insurance Company of 
( )maha, Nebraska. In writing policies he 
makes a specialty of fire and automobile in- 
surance. Mr. Gross is a Republican in politics. 
In 1888 Miss Gross married Anna Draper, 
and they became the parents of two children, 
of whom only one, Roy, is living. Roy Gross, 
who is the owner of a farm six miles south of 
Ansley, is one of the progressive young agri- 
culturists of his locality. In 1892 Mr. Gross 
married Bertha Whitney, who was born at 
Waterford, Pennsylvania, and they have two 



1002 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



children : Whitney, who is engaged in culti- 
vating his father's farm of 200 acres, and is 
an enterprising young agriculturist ; and Earl, 
who is connected with the National Refining 
Company, at Wahoo, Nebraska, as a ware- 
house man. By a former marriage, !Mrs. 
Gross had three daughters: ^Irs. Pearl Law- 
son and Mrs. Fern Chandler, residents of 
Wahoo; and Mrs. C. N. Harris, of Ansley. 
Mr. and Mrs. Gross and their children are 
members of the Christian church. 



OLIVER L. S WICK. — Among the sub- 
stantial farmers located in the fertile region 
of the ^Middle Loup there is none more widely 
known than the man whose name appears 
above. Mr. Swick is a native of Ohio He 
was born June 9, 1863. He is the son of 
Jesse and Eunice (^McQuisten) Swick. The 
parents were both natives of Beaver county, 
Pennsylvania, in which place thej' were mar- 
ried but later moved to Ohio, where they made 
their home until about the 3'ear 1887. Mrs. 
Swick died about this time and he remarried, 
and after his second marriage he came to Cus- 
ter county and located a homestead near 
Merna, on which he lived many years, his 
death occurring at the home of his son Oscar, 
when he was eighty-seven years of age. 

In the family of the elder Swick were nine 
children, Ijut the subject of this sketch and his 
brother Oscar are the only ones living in this 
county. The parents were members of the 
Christian church and in partisan affairs Mr. 
Swick was always counted a staunch Republi- 
can. 

The early days of young Oliver were spent 
in Ohio and it was here that he received a 
common school education. In April of 1886 
Mr. Swick came to Custer county and since 
that time has been one of the dependable citi- 
zens of the county. May 5, 1891, he lead to 
tlie marriage altar Miss Hope Gates, a daugh- 
ter of Stillman and Mary E. (McNeil) Gates, 
whose record appears elsewhere in this vol- 
ume. 

Since their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Swick 
have maintained a hospitable home, in which 
have been ensconced the necessities and most 
of the comforts of life. It is understood, 
however, that together thev faced the difficul- 
ties, trials and hardships of the early days and 
tosfether have accomplished the success with 
which thev are now credited. Of their nine 
children eight are living:: Alta, is deceased; 
Harry, who married Ethel Barnes, is at the 
present time a successful farmer: Hazel is the 
wife of William Books and lives near Mil- 
burn; Arva is the wife of Earl Hatcher, liv- 



ing at Lilhan ; Mary, Esther, and Ruth are all 
at home ; Lois Olive and Louis Oliver are 
twins. 

In the early days Mr. Swick bought a re- 
linquishment, upon which he filed and later 
commuted. This became the initial holding 
and early home, where he lived until thirteen 
years ago, when he sold and came to his pres- 
ent domain, where he owns 1,040 acres of 
good land. The family are members of the 
Christian church and he is a member of the 
Masonic order, independent in politics and 
withal a worthy citizen held in high repute by 
his neighbors. Mrs. Swick recalls the scenes 
of early years when many difficulties presented 
themselves. Freight was hauled from Grand 
Island or Loup City. On one occasion they 
were out of flour for days A neighbor, 
George Steele, had gone to Grand Island for a 
fresh supply. One of the old-time blizzards 
pounced upon them, and next morning the 
windows were so full of snow that they could 
not tell whether it was daylight or not. Dur- 
ing this time they ground wheat in the cofTee 
mill and subsisted on whole-wheat bread. 
Game was rather plentiful and oftentimes wild 
plums in the canyons made up the entire fruit 
supply with which the menu of that day was 
supplied. 

GEORGE DREESSEN was born January 
21, 1886, in Germany, and is a son of George 
C. and Matilda ( Frins) Dreesen. The ))ar- 
ents were both natives of Germany. The 
father came to the L^nited States when six- 
teen years of age. Later he returned, mar- 
ried the wife named above, and again, in 1886, 
with his family, when George was but 
a babe, came to this coimtry to make 
their future home. They settled on a home- 
stead in Cherry county, where also they en- 
tered a tree claim and pre-emption. Later 
they sold this land and bought near West 
Union, where they lived until about twelve 
years ago, when they moved to Grand Island, 
where both parents died. In their family 
circle were ten children, eight of them living 
at the present time. The father was always 
a Republican in politics, and the family was 
connected with the English Lutheran church. 

George Dreessen received a common-school 
education in the ^^'est L'nion and Grand Is- 
land schools, and has been a fanner all of his 
life. He was married December 29, 1909. his 
wife, Agnes, having been born in 1878, at 
Grand Island. Air. and Mrs. Dreessen are the 
proud parents of three very promising chil- 
dren and one child is deceased : Thelma M., 
born November 22. 1910; .\lbert R., born 




1A 



r-S 






HISTORY OF Cl'STER COL'NTY, NEBRASKA 



1005 



September 28, 1912, died October 21, 1912; 
Dorien M., born March 6, 1916, and Carl L., 
born February 1 ,1918. 

Mr. Dreessen is independent in poHtics, and 
is a member of the EngHsh Lutheran church. 
Mrs. Dreessen is a member of the Presbyter- 
ian church. They are very excellent people 
and religious discord does not mar the tran- 
quility of their home. 

In the possession of Margaret, sister of 
George Dreessen. is a family record that traces 
the members of her mother's family back for 
450 years. This is, perhaps, the longest gen- 
ealogy possessed by any inhabitant of Custer 
county. 



PAUL H. J. CARoTilERS, M. D. — 
Eight years of careful and skilled attention to 
the health and sanitation of Mason City and 
its people have enlarged the work of Dr. Paul 
H. J. Carothers and developed it to a point 
where it is deservedly accounted a necessary 
community asset. Since beginning his prac- 
tice here, in 1910, he has steadily advanced in 
his calling, and at the same time has contribu- 
ted to the city a modern hospital and three 
years of service in the capacity of city phy- 
sician. 

Dr. Carothers was horn at Wichita, Iowa, 
October 23, 1881, and is a son of John H. 
Carothers, in whose sketch, elsewhere in this 
work, will be found adequate data pertaining 
to the family history. The early education of 
Paul H. J. Carothers was oI)tained in the pub- 
lic schools of Ansley, Custer county, and in 
1900 he was graduated in the high school 
there. During his youth he had developed 
remarkable skill as a baseball player, and this 
was further developed while he was a member 
of the high-school team. After his graduation 
he saw a means of livelihood in this direction, 
and accordingly took up the national pastime 
as a profession, following it for si.x years. 
While he belonged to no regularly organized 
body, he became widely known as a member 
of independent teams, and was a general 
favorite with the "fans" in the various com- 
munities in which he played. During this 
period of his i)astiming, he carefully saved 
his earnings, which were not inconsiderable, 
for he had no idea of making baseball his life's 
business. He had studied privately, and in 
1906 was able to enter the medical depart- 
ment of Cotner University, Lincoln, Nebraska, 
where he took a complete course and was 
graduated in 1910. At that time Dr. Caroth- 
ers came to Mason City. All young physi- 
cians are required to pass through a certain 



probationary period before they accjuire a prac- 
tice, but in the case of Dr. Carothers it was 
necessary that this period be short, as his 
monetary assets at the time of his arrival 
totaled forty dollars. He therefore applied 
himself industriously to his calling, and his' 
energy, together with a pleasing personality 
and a readily discernible talent for his pro- 
fession, soon attracted to him a professional 
business that has continued to grow in size and 
importance to the present time. 

I)r. Carothers makes a specialty of surgery, 
a field in which he has attained something 
more than local distinction and reputation. 
He performs all manner of major and minor 
operations, some of his cases having been of 
a most comjjlicated and highly diffi:ult char- 
acter. In addition to doing post-graduate work 
at the Chicago Polyclinic, he has had the bene- 
fit of study and instruction luider the precep- 
torship of the eminent and distinguished Mayo 
brothers of Rochester, Minnesota. In 1915 
'he built a new private hospital at Mason City, 
a three-story structure with basement, and here 
he has twenty-one rooiiis and all equipment of 
vthe latest type. Comfort, convenience, and 
the most skilled attendance are afforded the 
patients, and the institution is one that would 
be a credit to a much larger community than 
Mason City. Dr. Carothers keeps fully abreast 
of the advancements made in both medicine 
and surgery, and belongs to various organiza- 
tions of his profession. He is serving as city 
physician, an office which he has held for 
three years, and in which he has been able to 
give the city the benefit of his trained skill and 
experience and to advocate a number of bene- 
ficial movements. Politically he is a Democrat, 
and his fraternal connection is with the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows. 

Dr. Carothers was married January 26, 
1913, to Miss Maybelle Chase, who was born 
at Mason City. She is a daughter of ITiram 
Chase, a pioneer of this community, where he 
conducted a drug store for many years — 
until his death, in July, 1913. Mr. and Mrs. 
Carothers are the parents of two children: 
Nadine and Maurine. 



JOHN LENSTROM. — From the early 
days Custer county has been indebted to 
Sweden for some of the most thrifty blood 
that flows in the veins of the early pioneers. 
John Lenstrom is one of the Scandinavian 
contingent to whom the county is indebted. 
He was born in Sweden February 12, 1858, of 
Swedish parents in whose veins flowed the 
countless generations in that northern land. 



1006 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



His parents were John and Christina Swan- 
son. The father was a carpenter by trade and 
in the family were five children, but John and 
his brother Ernest were the only two who 
ever came to the United States. John's boy- 
hood days were spent in Sweden, where he re- 
ceived a liberal education and where, in De- 
cember. 1879. he was married to Matilda 
Thornholm. The next year after his mar- 
riage he and his young wife started for Amer- 
ica, which was in the fall of 1880. The first 
year on his homestead is one long to be re- 
membered. There was a drouth and the crop 
failed. A prairie fire came rolling down on 
his little home and would have destroyed his 
home, barn and feed but for the fact that two 
wagon loads of people came out from Sargent 
and helped him fight the fire. The land was 
sandy and of light soil and this added to his 
difficulties. Then, too, there was no bridge 
across the river to Sargent, the nearest bridge 
being five miles west up the river toward 
West Union. When the weather was warm, it 
was his custom to wade the river but when it 
was cold he had to walk up to the bridge and 
back, altogether a distance of 10 miles. This 
he did day after day while working for differ- 
ent people in Sargent in order that he might 
support his family and get started at farming 
in this new country. 

Speaking of those times he recalls that often 
he was compelled to go into debt, but it is part 
of the Swedish nature to meet obligations, 
consequently he met every dollar of his in- 
debtedness. If he could not pay in cash, he 
worked for the people to whom he was in- 
debted and in one way or another secured the 
means by which he started his early farming 
operations. Today he has a splendid farm, is 
comfortably situated, although not enjoying 
the best of health. He rejoices, however, that 
he lives in the United States. His early pre- 
emption of 135 acres, upon which he lived for 
eight years, has been sold and likewise a home- 
stead of 120 acres southwe*;! of Conistock, 
upon which he lived another eight years. 
Since that time he has bought 160 acres and 
put on it splendid improvements. This is his 
home at the present time and upon which he 
has a good supply of hogs, cattle, and horses. 

His children are: Martin. Esther Ellen. 
John, Alex, Emrick, Conrad, Joseph, and 
Clarence, three of whom are still at home with 
their parents. The Lenstroms are dependable 
people, highly rated as neighbors and in every 
way an asset to their community. 

EDWARD E. GUTHRIE is a representa- 
tive of the younger generation of progressive 



and successful exponents of agricultural 
industry in Custer county and is specially en- 
titled to recognition in this history of the 
count)'. 

Mr. Guthrie was born in Chenango county, 
New York, May 1, 1878. His father, Edward 
Guthrie, who was a native of Ireland, was left 
an orphan when quite young and was sent to 
the home of an uncle who lived in the state 
of New York. There he grew to manhood 
and became a wagon-maker by trade. He 
followed his trade in New York state, and in 
1884 he came to Nebraska and settled at Elm 
Creek, ButTalo county. In the following year 
he came to Custer county and took a home- 
stead in the northwest part of the county, 
where he engaged in the cattle business. He 
died in Custer county nine years ago> at the 
age of seventy-four years. In New York 
state he married !Mary Brady, a native of the 
Empire state, and she now makes her home 
with her son Edward E. Five of the six children 
born to Edward and Mary (Brady) Guthrie 
are still living: Nellie is the wife of Joseph 
Rottgen, of Ohio; Charles is a farmer of 
Custer county; Edward E. was next in order 
of birth; Alice is the wife of Elijah Luce, of 
Merna ; and Richard Ralph is a captain in the 
national anny, having seen service in France, 
but having been sent back to the United States 
before the close of the war, to assist in pre- 
paring troops for serv-ice in Europve. 

Edward E. Guthrie was a young man of 
seventeen years when he and his brother 
Charles engaged in the cattle business. They 
owned a ranch and were in partnership until 
1915, when Edward E. took up farming on 
the place he now operates and which he had 
owned for several years. The property is im- 
proved with a nine-room house- and this is 
one of the finest homes in this part of the 
county. equipp)ed with steam heat, hot and 
cold running water, and electric lights. 

Mr. Guthrie has never married and seems 
to prefer single blessednesS' while his mother 
presides over the home. The Guthrie family 
is well and favorablv known. 



CHARLES ]\IELHAM. — Twenty-eight 
years of residence in Custer county have ac- 
complished the evolution of Charles Melham 
from a penniless, homelecs and friendless 
young man with no knowledge of the Amer- 
ican language or customs, into one of the best- 
informed men of his community, a substan- 
tial farmer and land-owner, and a highly-re- 
spected and esteemed citizen. His career has 
been a somewhat remarkable one. and in it 



TTTSTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1007 




Mr. and Mrs. Edward Guthrie 



1008 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



there lies a lesson for the encouragement of 
the youths of any land who are striving to get 
a start in life through their own resources. 

Mr. Melham is a native of the little-known 
country of Syria, Asia, and was born in the 
village of Amcheete, December 4, 1866, a son 
of Abraham and Mary ( Swanson ) Melham. 
He comes of a rather remarkable family, and 
was born in the house in which the family had 
lived for 300 years, a small stone structure 
which had been built by his great-great-grand- 
father, and which had also been the birthplace 
of his great-grandfather, grandfather and 
father. The family lived on the little farm 
which was rented by them, but in addi- 
tion to being a tiller of the soil, Abraham Mel- 
ham was a man of prominence in his locality, 
where he held prestige by reason of being a 
natural astronomer, which art, in his country, 
called for not only a reading of the heavens 
and knowledge of the heavenly bodies, but 
the capacity to measure the corn in the field, 
the wheat in the crop, the nuts on the tree, 
etc. While it is not the usual thing in Syria to 
come upon large families, there were eight 
children in the family of Abraham Melham, 
but despite his large family the father was able 
to give his children better educational advan- 
tages than generally fall to the lot of most of 
those of his race. The parents never left their 
native land, but Charles was ambitious to bet- 
ter himself, and when the opportunity arose 
bade farewell to his parents, when twentv-four 
years old, and immigrated to the United States. 
He arrived October 24, 1890, at Fall River, 
Massachusetts, and remained there until the 
following May, when he came to Custer 
county, Nebraska, arriving here without a 
dollar and without the sliehest knowledge of 
the countr)''s language. His first work was to 
operate a medicine wagon for W'atkins Reme- 
dies Company, and while he was thus engaged 
one of his first tasks was the mastering of the 
language of his adopted country, not alone as 
to speech, but also as to reading and writing. 
During the seven years that he was employed 
by the medicine company he saw many houses 
vacated which arc now occupied bv people who 
have grown wealthy in the county. Mr. Mel- 
ham's wants during his earlv years here were 
few, and he wisely and thriftily saved his 
earnines, which, as soon as they reached ap- 
preciable proportions, he invested in land. 
Soon he engaged actively in fanning and 
stock-raising, usine western methods, and kept 
on increasing his acreage. This system has 
brought him success, so that to-day he is the 
owner of 520 acres of highly improved land, 
on which he carries on farming, making a 
specialty of raising pedigreed Poland-China 



hogs and registered Red Polled cattle. His 
improvements are of the best, and at the pres- 
ent time he is installing an electric plant, with 
a fifty-light system, which will be sufficient to 
light his house, barns, and outbuildings. That 
he has been able to accomplish so much from 
such small beginnings denotes that Mr. Mel- 
ham is a man of initiative resource and 
strength of character. He is an extra well 
read man, especially, in history, and has made 
a particularly close study of his adopted coun- 
try's past, as he is grateful for the chance ex- 
tended to him by the United States for making 
a success of his life. This has led him to be 
independent in politics, for with him country 
comes before party. He was bom and reared 
in the faith of the Moronic orthodox church, 
the only branch in all the world of that faith, 
and while he does not worship in that faith 
here, he believes in all religious bodies and 
supports their movements generously. 

Mr. Melham was married March 25, 1900, 
to Miss Jennie M. Reynolds, a daughter of 
George E. and Amanda J. (Sweezey) Rey- 
nolds, pioneers of Custer county, who now 
reside at Bartley. To this union there have 
been born four children, of whom three are 
living: Ralph A., Leo L., and Kenneth, all 
at home. 



OSCAR THOMPSON. — Down in the 
fertile region of Burr Oak and on a splendid 
farm that is the stage of very successful 
farming operations, lives the subject of this 
sketch, Oscar Thompson who is in middle life 
and the acme of his manhood years. 

He was born in 1875 at Furnace. Scioto 
county. Ohio, and his gbod wife, Florence 
( W'oodrufF) Thompson, to whom he was 
married in 1897, was born in the same year. 
Mr. Thompson is a son of Silas Thompson, 
who was a native of Ohio, and who departed 
this life when seventy-seven years of age. He 
was twice married, his first wife, mother of 
the subject of this sketch, being Hanna (Ga- 
henej Thompson' who died when forty-two 
years of age. The second wife was Ellen 
I Humphrey) Thompson, who passed from 
this life in the sixty-fifth year of her age. 

In the family circle of the elder Thompson 
were the following children : John maintains 
his home in Rock county, Nebraska, where 
he operates a ranch. David is a Custer county 
farmer, as is also Edgar, and these are full 
brothers of Oscar. Elbert is a Custer county 
farmer and .-Kubrey lives in .An.sley. these two 
being half-brothers of Oscar. Belle Schriver 
lives in Kentucky. Anna Benedict is in Ur- 
hana, Ohio, and Lou Houston lives at Geneva, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1009 




Oscar Thompson and Family 



1010 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Nebraska. These are full sisters of Oscar 
Thompson, the immediate subject of this 
sketch. There are two half-sisters — Cora 
Hickman, who lives on a Custer county farm, 
and Maude Bass, whose home is in Omaha. 

In Oscar Thompson's immediate farmily is 
but one child, a bright young girl, who has 
come to make cheerful the family fireside. 
This daughter, Louise, is at present a student 
in the high school at Geneva, Nebraska. 

Mr. Thompson owns 180 acres of well im- 
proved land, but he leases additional land and 
is operating a farm of 300 acres. Only about 
fifty acres of his own land are under culti- 
vation. His live-stock operations include the 
raising of hogs, horses, and cattle. He has 
a full equipment of farm machinery, has good 
buildings, and an attractive home — in fact 
everything that goes to make farming a profit- 
able and comfortable occupation. Such sur- 
roundings make farm life attractive. Mr. 
Thompson and his family ride in a splendid 
motor car and have all modern conveniences. 
Mrs. Thompson is a member of the Presby- 
terian church. This is an excellent family 
that merits the good standing it sustains in 
the communitv. 



ALBERT McGregor. — Any record of 
the capable and industrious agriculturists of 
Custer county who have worked their way to 
position and prominence would be incomplete 
did it not contain the name and review of Al- 
bert McGregor, who is now engaged in exten- 
sive operations on section 33, township 1, in 
the Sargent neighborhood. For thirty years 
he has been a resident of the county and dur- 
ing this period has run the gamut of exper- 
iences from poverty to affluence and from 
humble position to independence. 

Mr. ^McCiregor was born in Joe Daviess 
county, Illinois, September 22, 1858, a son of 
Robert and Isabella (Bankhead) McGregor, 
natives of Edinburgh, Scotland. From the 
time that he passed boyhood, Robert McGre- 
gor was employed in the coal mines, working 
his way up through the various grades until 
the proud time when he donned the lighted 
cap of the full-fledged miner and was given a 
man's wages. He was twenty-one years of 
age when he came to the United States, and 
followed coal mining in Pennsylvania until 
1848, when he went to Illinois. There he en- 
gaged in farming in Joe Daviess county and 
remained until 1884, in the spring of which 
year he came to Custer county and took a 
homestead in Douglas Grove, that being his 
place of residence until his death, in 1887. He 



was a Republican in politics, but never held 
office, while his religious faith was that of the 
Lutheran church, as it was also of Mrs. Mc- 
Gregor, who survived her husband until 1892. 
They were the parents of nine children, of 
whom five are living, but Albert and his 
brother William are the only ones residing in 
Custer county. 

Albert McGregor was educated in the pub- 
lic schools of Illinois, and as a young man 
adopted the vocation of miner, which he fol- 
lowed until his coming to Custer county, in 
1888. Here he found employment as a farm 
hand and blacksmith, but even with both these 
occupations was unable to make both ends 
meet, and in order that he might earn a little 
more money for the hard times he would walk 
four miles night and morning to work on an 
irrigation ditch, this being outside of the 
hours devoted to his other vocations. For 
this added labor he received the sum of forty- 
five cents per day, and one of the stirring mo- 
ments of his career was when his pay was ad- 
vanced five cents per day. Eventually, 
through his industry and continued persever- 
ance, he was able to get a start, and from that 
time to the present his rise has been steady 
and encouraging. He is the owner of a good 
property located on section 32, township 1, on 
on which he carries on general farming and 
stock-raising, in both of which departments 
he has shown himself skilled and well in- 
formed. He has been too busily engaged with 
his private affairs to enter actively into pub 
lie life, but is a supporter of the principles 
and candidates of the Republican party, and a 
citizen who shows his interest in civic affairs 
by his support of progressive movements. 

Mr. McGregor was married in November, 
1884, at Taylor, Nebraska, to Miss Jennie Fer- 
ritor, whose parents were pioneers of Custer 
county of the year 1882. in which year Mr. 
Ferritor pre-empted land six miles northeast 
of Sargent. He died in the fall of 1912, and 
Mrs. Ferritor is now a resident of Douglas, 
Wyoming. Five children have been born to 
Mr. and Mrs. McGregor: Hugh, the pro- 
prietor of a garasre at Sargent, who married 
Stella Edwards ; Earl, who married Margaret 
Tolen, and is now employed in the L^nited 
States Government's shipyards at Pascagoula. 
Mississippi : and Cora, Hazel, and Gilbert, who 
are single and reside with their parents. 



ANSON B. HARTLEY, who belongs to 
tliat class of men who, more than any other, 
have a direct influence uixin the building up 
and development of any community • — the 
real estate operators — has resided in Custer 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1011 




Axsox B. Hartley axd Family 



1012 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



county for a period of more than thirty-five 
years. During a large part of this time he 
was engaged in farming, but since 1904 he 
has devoted himself to real estate almost to 
the exclusion of other interests. He is known 
as one of the most successful real-estate men 
in Custer county, particularly at Sargent, 
where his activities are centered. 

Mr. Hartley was born in Westchester 
county. New York, March 26, 1860. and is a 
son of Joseph W. and Mary E. (Atwood) 
Hartley. His father was born at Bellefon- 
taine, Ohio, a son of Dr. Aaron Hartley, and 
his mother at Mount Pleasant. Iowa, a daugh- 
ter of John Atwood. 

Joseph W. Hartley was one of the success- 
ful, prominent, and influential men of his day 
and one of the best known in Custer county. 
From New York he removed to Lincoln, Ne- 
braska, where he engaged in the banking bus- 
iness, in company with J. S'. Atwood. and con- 
tinued therein until 1880, when he came to 
Custer county. On :\Iarch 15, 1882, he home- 
steaded on what was then the Jess Gandy 
ranch, in section 9, township 19. range 19. on 
the Middle Loup river. There he farmed until 
1894, when he was called to Lincoln as general 
manager and purchasing agent for the Farm- 
ers Alliance — positions whL-h he retained to 
the time of his death, which occurred while 
he was on a visit to his son Anson B. at Sar- 
gent. He was buried at Lincoln. ]\Ir. Hart- 
ley was a Republican in politics and at one 
time served as supervisor for Lillian township. 
He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church and very active in church work, donat- 
ing considerable sums to the building of the 
West L'nion and Walworth churches of that 
faith and in other ways assisting in religious 
movements. He was also prominent in Ma- 
sonic and Odd Fellows circles. He and his 
wife were the parents of eight ciiildren, of 
whom six are living: Carrie is the wife of 
C. W. Gring, a traveling salesman living near 
Los Angeles, California ; Anson B.. of this re- 
view, was next in order of birth ; Joseph A. 
is a wholesale and retail dry-goods merchant 
of Columbus, Ohio : Russell E. is married and 
is engaged in the dry-goods business at Chil- 
licqthe. Ohio: Flora B. is the wife of Charles 
M. Martin, who is in mercantile lines at Du- 
luth, ^linnesota; and Edward, a bachelor, is 
a railroad man of Spokane. Washington. 

Anson B. Hartley received his early educa- 
cation in the public schools of Lincoln, and 
after his graduation in the high school in that 
city he engaged in farming. In 1883 he set- 
tled on a Custer county homestead, the south- 
east quarter of section 9. township 19, range 



19. and he continued to be engaged in agri- 
cultural activities with constantly increasing 
success until 1904. In the meantime he had 
been, from the time of his arrival, interested 
in realty dealing, and he eventually found his 
interests in this direction so heavy that he 
deemed it advisable to give his whole atten- 
tion thereto. On his removal to Sargent, in 1904, 
he formed a partnership with O. S. Pulliam, 
and this association continued, with mutual 
satisfaction, for three years. Mr. Hartley is 
a heavy landholder, and besides the most 
beautiful home at Sargent is the owner of 
a large amount of personal property, all of 
which he has accumulated through his own 
efforts and by strictly legitimate means and 
honorable dealing. Perhaps he has done as 
much for Custer county in building it up and 
developing it as any other one man, for dur- 
ing a period of thirty-five years he has steadily 
and unceasingly sung the county's praises, in 
endeavoring to induce people to make their 
homes here and business houses to center 
their activities in this progressive section. 

After reaching his majority, ^Ir. Hartley 
found that his viewp>oints in politics differed 
from that of his father, and he gave his sup- 
port to the Democratic ]iartv. He became a 
somewhat influential figure during the organ- 
ization of the Populist (larty. when he worked 
to great effect in combining the interests of 
the Democrats and Rejiublicans and patching 
up their feuds. He has been more of a worker 
in behalf of his friends and party tlian a 
seeker after personal preferment. As a citi- 
zen Mr. Hartley has always been glad to as- 
sume his responsibilities, and his name is 
found on the list of those supporting each 
movement that promises to better his com- 
munity in a worthy and practical manner. 

Mr Hartley was married March 6, 1884, 
to Miss ]\Iargie Dupray, a daughter of Fred 
M. Dupray, of the Gohecn valley, who settled 
on a homestead in Custer county in 1883. 
Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Hart- 
ley, the following record is given in conclu- 
sion of this review: Carrie E. is the wife of 
W. L. Probert, manager of the Farmers Ga- 
ra.ge at Sargent, and a dealer in cream and 
farm produce; Mabel is the wife of George 
Christensen. an agriculturist carrying on op- 
erations about four miles north of Sargent : 
Alfred A., who enlisted in the aviation corps 
of the L'nited States army, is, at the time of 
this writing, in the mechanical department, 
American training school, at Rockwell Field, 
San Diego. California : May resides with her 
parents : Bessie is a school teacher at Casper. 
\\'voming: Elma B.. who is a graduate of the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1013 



Sargent schools, is engaged in teaching; Ev- 
elyn D. is the wife of William D. Jorgensen, 
a farmer in the locality of Minden, Nebras- 
ka ; and Grace is engaged in teaching. 



EARL GLOVER, who belongs to one of 
the old and substantial pioneer families of 
■Custer county, was born May 19, 1888, near 
■Comstock, or its present site, and is a son of 
Percy D. and Gussie (Lower) Glover. The 
full history of the Glover family will be found 
on another page of this work. 

Earl Glover has spent his life in Custer 
county and has always been deeply interested 
in its substantial development. He obtained 
his education in the public schools and until 
1909 operated as a farmer for his father and 
then embarked in the same business for him- 
self. Since 1917 he has been farming on his 
uncle's ranch near Comstock. This ranch is 
one of the best improved in Custer county 
and is conducted along modern lines. It con- 
tains 1040 acres, giving space and pasturage 
for all kinds of stock, only of the best, how- 
ever. The specialties are Aberdeen Angus 
cattle, Percheron horses, and Poland China 
hogs. The money value of the shipments 
from this ranch is amazing. Careful, inter- 
ested and trained farmers and stock-raisers 
are absolutely necessary in an enterprise of 
such magnitude, and along this line Mr. Glover 
easily qualifies. 

Mr. Glover was married October 2, 1913, to 
Miss Ellen L. Johnson, who was also born in 
Custer county. Her father, Reuben Johnson, 
brought his family to Custer rountv in pioneer 
days and during life was a farmer on school 
section No. 36, near Westerville, and there 
both he and his wife died some years ago. 
Mr. and Mrs. Glover have no children. They 
are members of the Christian Science Church. 
Like his father before him, Mr. Glover has 
alwavs given his political support to the Re- 
publican party. He is a highly respected citi- 
zen and. like all the other Glovers in Custer 
county, has a wide circle of personal friends, 
because of pleasing personality, friendly 
neighborliness and sterling character. 



FRANK F. GARRISON, the Walworth 
merchant and postmaster, has lived most of his 
life in Custer county and here he spent his 
youthful days during the pioneer times that 
entailed hardships and privations which 
tested the metal of the generation to whose lot 
they fell. 

Frank Garrison discovered .America in Iowa, 
where he was born in Taylor county, Septem- 



ber 27, 1877. He is the second son of George 
and Amanda (Maple) Garrison, both of whom 
were natives of Pennsylvania. George Gar- 
rison was in early life a cabinetmaker by trade, 
but in later years followed bridge building al- 
most exclusively. He was for years in the 
employment of the Rio Grande and Kansas 
Pacific Railroads in Colorado. He built all 
the bridges on the Kansas Pacific line between 
Kansas City and Denver. He was the pro- 
moter of the Walworth bridge, which was the 
first built on the Middle Loup river west of 
North Loup. When he quit the railroad, he 
settled in Taylor county, Iowa, where he 
lived until 1882, engaged in farming pursuits. 
Then, putting his family into a covered wagon, 
he started the team westward and later landed 
in Custer county, where he bought a relin- 
quishment from Walter Bedwell and where 
he gained possession of the land by complet- 
ing the homestead rights. He engaged in gen- 
eral farming and stock-raising, making a spec- 
ialty of Short Horn Durham cattle. He was 
the first man to raise Poland-China hogs in the 
Middle Loup section of the county. He was 
affiliated, generally, with the Republican party, 
a member of the Masonic lodge. His wife, 
mother of Frank F., died October 26, 1901, 
and George Garrison, the father, died May 10, 
1908. They were the parents of four chil- 
dren. Besides Frank F., these were : George 
H., who is an engineer in the employ of the 
Southern Pacific Railroad. He married Miss 
Pollock, of Sparks, Nevada. Jessie C. mar- 
ried George Orvis and lives north of Wal- 
worth. Lulu M. married Bert Orvis and re- 
sides west of old West Union. 

Frank F. Garrison was educated in the dis- 
trict schools of this county. He had the ex- 
periences common to all who have been reared 
in these western preserves. March 9, 1904, he 
married Maude A. Gattlii?, at Taylor, Ne- 
Ijraska. She is a daughter in a pioneer fam- 
ily. Her people came to North Loup in 1883, 
and then to Custer in 1884. Her father home- 
steaded north of Sargent, where he lived for 
several years. At his retirement he moved 
to Sargent, where he died, February 10, 1918. 
His widow, mother of Mrs. Garrison, still 
lives in Sargent. In the Gattliff family were 
seven children, six of whom survive this 
present day. Aside from Mrs. Garrison 
these are: Georgia, who married A. A. Vin- 
dege and lives at Berwyn ; Nannie, who mar- 
ried Roy L. Sevier and lives at Sargent ; Elsie, 
who married Ray Leach and lives in Taylor, 
Nebraska ; Nellie, who married Forest Sar- 
gent and lives at Craig, Colorado; and 
Charles, who married Ocia Adams and re- 
sides at Sargent. 



1014 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



The home that Air. and Mrs. Garrison, es- 
tabhshed at the time of their marriage has 
been blessed with one child, Howard W., a 
bright lad who was born May 7. 1912. Mr. 
and Mrs. Garrison made their home on the 
old homestead, where they conducted a gen- 
eral fanning and stock-raising business, until 
the year 1913, when he took charge of and 
become general manager of the Walworth 
general merchandise store, which he had jnir- 
chased about two years prior to this time. 
He is still conducting the business and has 
made it a profitable country store — a con- 
venience the neighborhood could not well do 
without. He is postmaster of the Walworth 
postoffice. is a Republican in politics and he 
and his good wife have many friends and are 
well respected in the communitv. 



HENRY N. RAPP. — A substantial farm- 
er and well known and highly respected cit'- 
zen of Custer county is Henry N. Rapp. who 
has been a resident of this section for the 
past twenty years and during the entire period 
has been engaged in general farming. Mr. 
Rapp came to Nebraska from Ohio and was 
born in Jackson county, that state. July 25. 
I8.18. His parents were Christopher and 
Mary ( Spangler ) Rapp. The father was born 
in Germany but the mother was born in the 
United States. Christopher and Mary (Span- 
gler) Rapp were the parents of ten' children 
and the following eight survive : Peter, who 
is a farmer near Brownsville. Oregon ; John, 
who lives in Portsmouth. Ohio : Henry N.. 
whose name heads this review. Christopher, 
whose home is in Fayette county, Ohio: Jo- 
seph \\'., who lives in South Solon. Madi.son 
county, Ohio: Katie, who is the wife of Charles 
Smith, of Dayton. Ohio : Lena, who is the wife 
of Henry Wells, of Lucasville, Scioto county, 
C)hio: and .Anna, who is the wife of Philip 
Brust, of Chillicothe, Ohio. Christopher Rapj) 
and his wife were good. Christian people and 
were members of the United Brethren church. 
Before the Civil war he voted with the Repub- 
lican party, but afterward he gave his political 
support to the Democratic party. 

Henr>' N. Rapp attended the district schools 
in Ohio and assisted his father on the home 
farm. Since coming to Custer county he h-i-i 
acquired two C|uarter-sections of very fine land 
and has added greatly to its value by the im- 
provements he has made. He has been an in- 
dustrious man all his life and through hard 
work, backed by sound judgment, has devel- 
oped one of the best farms in the county. 

Mr. Rapp was married January 18. 1885. 



at Piketon. Ohio, to Flora Wilson, who was 
born in Ohio, July 11, 1865. and who died 
January 5, 1895. the mother of four children, 
the youngest being then aged two and one- 
half years. Concerning the children llie fol- 
lowing brief data are available: Carl, who re- 
remains with his father and is associated in 
the work and management of the home farm, 
married Miss Opal Hatfield, and they have 
two children — Mildred H. and \'elma lone. 
Ernest, who resides at South Broken Bow, 
married Miss Esther Mauk. and they have two 
children — Ernest and Willa Alae. Leland, 
who is a resident of Spencer Park, married 
Miss Sylvia Simonson. Grace, whose death 
occurred March 7. 1918, was the wife of Will- 
iam Perkins, and she is survived by three 
children — Flora, Esther, and Harold. 

For his second wife Air. Rapp wedded 
Lizzie Pfund. who was born at Marysville, 
Union countv, Ohio, on the 23d of October. 
1865. 

In politics Mr. Rapp gives his allegiance to 
the Democratic party, and he has been called 
upon to serve in various school offices in his 
district, including those of director, treasurer, 
and moderator. He is affiliated with the 
Modern Woodmen of America and is a mem- 
nier of the Methodist Episcopal church. 

LOYD GLOVER, who is a representative 
of one of the old pioneer families of Custer 
county that is highly respected all through 
this part of the state, was born on his father'> 
homestead near Comstock, Nebraska. Decem- 
ber 28. 1893. He is a son of Percy D. and 
Gussie (Lower) Glover, an extended sketch 
of whom, with the family histor\-. will be 
found in this work. 

Loyd Glover received a good, common- 
school education in his native county and has 
been a farmer and ranchman ever since he 
entered business life and has always main- 
tained his home in Custer county, where big 
things are done in the agricultural line. Mr. 
Glover is one of the experienced ranchmen 
employed by his uncle on his magnificent 
ranch of 1.040 acres, on which the finest of 
stock is raised and made ready for market. 
This ranch turns of? .Aberdeen Angus cattle. 
Percheron horses and Poland China hogs. 
The oi)eration of such a modern ranch as this 
is a stupendous undertaking but is not be- 
yond the business ability of Custer county 
farmers, with their perfected methods and 
modern equipments. 

Mr. Glover was married December 8. 1917, 
to Aliss Lena Fountain, who is a daughter of 
T. G. and Rena (Lockhart) Fountain. The 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1015 




Henry N. Rapp and Family 



101-6 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




z 
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« 



Z 
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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1017 



parents of Mrs. Glover reside at Broken Bow, 
Nebraska, where Mr. Fountain is agent and 
telegraph operator for the Chicago, Burling- 
ton & Quincy Railroad. Mrs. Glover has one 
sister and two brothers, namely: Inez, who 
is the wife of Ralph Taylor, who is a ranch- 
man near Whitman, in Grant county, Ne- 
braska ; and Max and Roger, both of whom 
are serving with the American Expeditionary 
Forces in France. Max being a driver of an 
army truck, and Roger belonging to a ma- 
chine gun division. In politics Mr. Glover, 
like his brother Earl, is a staunch Republican 
hut neither of them has desired any political 
rewards. Mr. Glover is a man of high per- 
sonal standing and recognized good citizen- 
ship. 



FRANK S. REED.. — All the honors of 
successful farming, stock-raising, and thrifty 
accumulation go with the nian whose name 
forms the title of this review. Custer county 
has many men who have made a remarkable 
success of western farming, who have by their 
thrift and energy, produced a competence, and 
have given to the world children of whom they 
may well be proud. One among this number, 
and standing in the first rank, is Frank S. 
Reed. He is a native of Putnam county, Illi- 
nois, in which state he was born February 7, 
1866. He is a son of James and Martha 
(Reed) Reed. The father was a native of the 
Buckeye state and the mother was born in 
Indiana. This excellent couple had in their 
family four children, all of whom have been 
an asset to their home communities. They are 
Tames \V., Rose E. HuiT, Annie Baker, and 
Frank S. 

The fortunes and misfortunes of early years 
seeni to have dealt severely with young Frank 
Reed. His mother died when he was seven 
years of age, and when he was only eleven 
years old he started out into the world to make 
his own living. He first hired to Aaron New- 
burn, for six dollars a month, and he stuck 
to the job for eighteen months, which was 
pretty good for a boy of his age. He never 
stopped work. In those early years he laid 
the foundation of his present-day thrift, and 
also formed the industrious habits that he has 
practiced all his life. When twenty-one years of 
age he thought it was time to take unto Iiim- 
self a helpmeet, and accordingly, on January 
31, 1877, at York, Nebraska, he married Miss 
Emma Jacobson, a daughter of Oscar and 
Zuba (Thompson) Jacobson. The young 
couple established a home for themselves and 
this was the beginning of their successful ac- 



tivities, which have culminated in substantial 
rewards for early privation, and long years 
of excessive toil. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Reed were born eight 
children : Oscar married Julia HuiT and is now 
farming for himself, fifteen miles southwest 
of Broken Bow. James E., who is farming 
in Custer county, married Nannie Button, and 
they have one child, a little girl. John W. 
married Gladys Predmore, a daughter of 
Henry Predmore. They live on a farm four 
and one-half miles south of the county seat. 
Henry is one of the gallant young Custer 
county boys who have given service in the 
national army in the great world war, and he 
is in France at the time this sketch is in prep- 
aration. Charles married Flossie Palmer and 
assists on the home farm ; Frederick, aged 
seventeen years ; Clara, aged fourteen, and 
Hattie, aged eleven, are at home. The mother 
of this family passed away January 14, 1918, 
at the age of fifty-three years. 

Mr. Reed came to Custer county in 1884. 
and after he had worked seven months with 
Levier Cramer he went back to York county, 
Nebraska, where he remained until 1895. Then 
a renewed desire to try his luck in the "big 
county" brought him back, and this time he 
located six miles northwest of Broken Bow. 
Against this place was a mortgage of $350, 
which afterward took the place, as the young 
man did not believe he would be able to pay, 
the debt. The same land today is worth fifty 
dollars an acre. For a time Mr. Reed was in 
partnership with Judge Reese, and during the 
four years he was with the Judge he succeeded 
in saving a nucleus of $1,0(X), which has since 
expanded into his present-day possessions. 
From this on, Mr. Reed's accumulation of 
property and sto:k and land was rapid. For- 
tune seemed to smile upon his investments 
and his labors, and to-day there is no more 
thrifty or substantial farmer anywhere in the 
central portion of the county. Fie owns 2,400 
acres of good land, not far from the county 
seat. He lives in a beautiful farm home, and 
has all equipments that a farm of that size re- 
quires. He has a splendid assemblage of live- 
stock and everything calculated to contribute 
to profitable farming. 

If Frank Reed has not already entered upon 
retirement and living at ease, it is from force 
of habit; the habit of work lingers with him 
at the present time, and it is hard for him to 
leave the farm, as he might well afford to do. 
Elsewhere in this volume will be found a pic- 
ture of immense corn piles, illustrating the 
agricultural resources of the county. These 
piles of corn were raised by Mr. Reed, on his 
present farm. 



1018 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




s 
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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1019 



ARNOLD KRBEL. who is a member of 
one of the pioneer families of Custer county, 
and at present the only representative of the 
Krbel family residing here, owns a large and 
well improved farm and, as a recent venture, 
has embarlced in the business of raising pure- 
bred Holstein cattle and White Chester hogs. 

Arnold Krbel was born January 11, 1875, 
in the village of Hluboky, province of Mora- 
via, Austria, and is one of a family of eight 
children, all of whom survive, born to his 
parents who are Joseph and Annie (Nemec) 
Krbel. They came to the United States in 
1881 and to Custer county, Nebraska, in July. 
1882, and homesteaded. In the spring of 1896 
they left this farm and moved to Madison 
county, where the father followed fanning 
until 1901, when he' retired and moved to 
Omaha, where both parents live in much com- 
fort. They are faithful members of the 
Catholic church. The father is a Democrat 
in politics. Line many others who have come 
to the United States in search of home and 
fortune, they had little capital to invest and 
for a long time had to work hard and endure 
many deprivations. They found compensa- 
tion, however, for their labors and now be- 
long to the substantial class and enjoy the re- 
spect and esteem of all whom know them, be- 
cause of their fine qualities. 

\\'hen Arnold Krbel went to school in boy- 
hood in Custer county, the sessions were con- 
ducted in a sod house, which undoubtedly had 
its advantages as well as disadvantages and 
was the only available place at that time. He 
assisted his father and helped him prove up 
on the homestead, remaining under the home 
roof until he was nineteen years of age. Dur- 
ing the following seven years his line of em- 
ployment led him to travel all through the 
northern states, but in 1901 he returned to 
the homestead in Custer county and has con- 
tinued here ever since. He has 320 acres of 
valuable land and the property is improved in 
the way of handsome and substantial build- 
ings, adequate to carrv on a large farm where 
its industries are conducted in a modern war. 
In addition to the stock mentioned above, he 
is interested also in raising a good strain of 
Shire horses. He can remember the time 
when his father had to draw water from a 
well 200 feet deep, with the help of the great 
strength of oxen. Those methods are no 
longer in use on Mr. Krbel's farm, a huge 
modern windmill doing the pumping, and 
other labor-saving devices may be noticed in 
other directions. 

Mr. Krbel was married September 10, 1900, 
to Miss Anna Chalupa, who died July 28. 
1910, leaving two sons, Edward and Emil, 



both of whom are at home. Mr. Krbel was 
married, second, July 13, 1912, at Omaha, to 
Miss Stazie Scheinost, and they have one 
child, who bears her mother's name. 

In politics Mr. Krbel is a Republican and 
at times he has served in public office, for two 
terms being road supervisor and was con- 
sidered a particularly efficient official. He is 
treasurer of School District No. 186. In 
many ways he has shown a spirit of enter- 
prise very commendable. He owned and op- 
erated the first telephone line in this vicinity, 
having subscribers over the whole northeast 
section of the county, from Comstock to Sar- 
gent. He operated it very satisfactorily for 
some six years and then sold the line to the 
subscribers. Mr. Krbel belongs to the C. Z. 
B. J., a Bohemian organization. 

Arnold Krbel was chief registerer for Sar- 
gent township No. 2 at the first registration, 
June 5, 1917, and also at the second registra- 
tion, September 12, 1918. He was also chair- 
man at the registration for the Fourth Liberty 
Loan drive. 



THEODORE RIDDER is the owner of a 
large and well improved ranch and is a ster- 
ling- citizen who has so applied old-country 
thrift and frugality to Nebraska conditions, 
that flattering success has attended his efforts. 

Theodore Ridder was born November 23, 
1865. in Germany, where his parents, Henry 
and Sophia (Beckman) Ridder were born in 
the province of Westphalia. The father was 
a hardworking farmer and managed to pro- 
vide for his family of ten children — Joseph, 
Theodore, Henry, Arnold, Frank, Bernard, 
Herman, ]\Irs. Mary Smith are living, and 
two other children are deceased. 

In 1883, when Theodore Ridder was seven- 
teen years of age, he and his eldest brother, 
Joseph, came to the LTnited States and made 
their way to West Point, Nebraska. Here 
Theodore hired out for twelve dollars a month. 
Within the following year the father and 
mother came to this country and bought a quar- 
ter-section of land in Cuming county. Young 
Theodore worked with his father for a short 
time, and he then rented land and started 
farming for himself. 

He was married October 2, 1889, at West 
Point. Nebraska, to Elizabeth Praest. a daugh- 
ter of John and Catherine ( Paschada) Praest. 
The Ridder home was then established, and 
ever since that time has been maintained, on 
the American plan of comfort and plenty. Mr. 
and Mrs. Ridder became the parents of twelve 
children, eleven of whom are living: Henry, 



1020 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



who is a farmer living near Callaway, married 
Elmita Poston : they have two children. Cath- 
erine is the wife of Albert P'andorf, residing 
on a farm near Callaway, and they have three 
children. Sophia is a graduate pharmacist, 
having received her education in St. Joseph 
Convent, Milwaukee. John, who is a farmer 
living near Oconto, married Opal Poston, and 
they have one child. Christina, who was edu- 
cated in the St. Joseph Convent at Milwaukee, 
is teaching at Peoria. Illinois. Bernard and 
Alois, who are attending high school, remain 
at home. Albert, Mary, and Clara are in the 
rural school. Master Paul is three years of 
age, and on him devolves the responsibility of 
ordering home affairs largely to his sweet 
will. 

Theodore Ridder was fortunate enough to 
receive, from his father, ninety-five acres of 
land in Cuming county, at the time of his mar- 
riage. He farmed this several years and then 
went to Stanton county and bought 320 acres, 
where he farmed and raised stock for eleven 
years. He then .sold out and bought a ranch 
of 2,300 acres in Wheeler county. After keep- 
ing this five years, he sold out and came to 
Custer county, where he bought 4,000 acres, 
six miles west of Callaway. This is to-day a 
very valuable property, and here he conducts 
a general farm and live-sto;k business. He 
is a breeder of registered Hereford cattle and 
handles live stock extensively. He has built 
a modern residence, which is lighted with elec- 
tricity and contains every home comfort. In 
addition to the fine property just mentioned, 
Air. Ridder owns also a tract of about 3.000 
acres near Oconto, this county. 

Mr. Ridder's first money was made bv rais- 
ing pigeons, which he sold in a town of his 
native country for eight cents a pair. Com- 
pared with his extensive operations of to-day, 
this would seem small business. But the day 
of small beginnings is not to be despised, as 
Mr. Ridder has demonstrated. The Ridders 
are a fine family and a credit to the county to 
which their home is a contribution. 



BERT L. ORVIS. — This sketch concerns 
a young farmer just on the threshold of mid- 
dle life, who has already made a marked suc- 
ter and later on farms. He was a robust 
to all the homage and distinction due to earlv 
pioneers. His farm home is in the vicinity of 
West Union, garden spot of all the territory 
lying north of the Middle Loup. Bert L. did 
not go out of the county to find a birth place. 
The stork charged with the responsibility of 



bringing young farmers to the earth missed 
Sargent by only a short wing-stroke and 
landed the subject in a farm home near that 
city, April 18, 1882. 

His parents were John R. and Chaney 
(Sweet) Oris, themselves natives of New 
York, but Custer county pioneers from an 
early date. The father was a fanner for 
most of his life, made his home in the state 
of Illinois until 1863, when he moved to Iowa, 
locating in Fayette, where he established him- 
self in the general mercantile business. In 
the spring of 1877 he loaded his family and 
possessions into a covered wagon and drove 
overland into Custer county. Caravans of 
that kind were very frequent in that day. He 
located in West Union and filed on the piece 
of land which is now the home farm of Bert 
L. In West Union he put up a store, black- 
smith shop and also for a time operated a 
hotel. This was in the old town of West 
Union and but a short distance from the old 
homestead. The senior Orvis lived on the 
farm until 1905 when he sold his interest to 
his son, Bert L., and retired to Sargent, where 
he erected a beautiful home and where he 
ended his days, March 7, 1910. His widow 
still surv'ives and occupies the Sargent home. 
They were the parents of eleven children, only 
seven of whom are living at the present time. 

Bert L., the product of Custer county, re- 
ceived his education in the district schools 
near Sargent and early directed his attention 
toward farming, close application to which 
has made him ver\- successful. With the com- 
ing of manhood, like most young men, his 
fancy turned to thoughts of love, and on 
March 3, 1902, in the city of Broken Bow, 
he led to the marriage altar Miss Lulu Garri- 
son. Tlie wife is a daughter of George 
and Amanda (Maple) Garrison, a substantial 
[jioncer coudIc who settled in the \\'alworth 
vicinity in 1882. 

Since marriage Bert L. and his wife have 
maintained an excellent home, which the vears 
have blessed with four children: Ruth. Hal. 
Elton, and Lysle are a splendid quartet of 
young Custerites and are full of life and prom- 
ise. Like the children of every family, they 
hold the keys to the future and bid fair to 
extend and expand the commendable char- 
acteristics of their parents to the coming gen- 
eration. 

The farm home, which was the original 
homestead of the father, is well improved 
with good buildings, is in a high state of cul- 
tivation and well stocked for successful and' 
profitable farm operations. A general farm- 
ing operation, with stock raising and feeding, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1021 



is successfully conducted by Mr. Orvis and 
he and his good wife enjoy an enviable repu- 
tation in their home community. 



STEPHEN MAPEL. — The north coun- 
try along the Middle Loup river is one of the 
best improved sections of the county. It has 
long rivalled the famous South Loup or the 
celebrated West Table. Each of these sec- 
tions, resourceful as they are, are indebted for 
their reputation to the stalwart pioneers who 
developed their resources and gave them a 
wealth of improvement. One of the men who 
has contributed to the Sargent region is the 
subject of this sketch. 

Stephen Mapel is a native of old Pennsyl- 
vania, the land of iron and red blooded Amer- 
icans. He was born in Greene county, Decem- 
ber, 20, 1860. His parents, Stephen and 
Ruth (Furman) Mapel were both natives of 
the same state. The father was by trade a 
blacksmith and miller, yet for the most of the 
time he was a farmer as well. Hg^'learned 
the blacksmithing trade before he was twenty- 
one and later became an expert miller but 
followed it but a few years, spending the re- 
mainer of his life on the farm. 'He died in 
the 78th year of his age, in Taylor county, 
Iowa. He and his good wife were the par- 
ents of ten children, six of whom are still liv- 
ing. Stephen and his brother Thomas, now 
living in Sargent, are the only ones in this 
county. 

Young Stephen grew to manhood in Iowa 
and received his education in the Iowa public 
schools. It was here that the fundamental 
principles which have stood him so well in 
hand during his farming career were deep laid 
in his youthful character. With his face turned 
toward the great west, he left the Hawkeye 
state in 1883 and came to this county, where 
he homesteaded near Lillian. He disposed of 
this place later and then, in 1889, on the 25th 
day of Januarv', he joined himself in marriage 
to Charlotte V. Banning, the daughter of 
Ephraim and Ruth (Reed) Banning. The 
Bannings were Custer county pioneers, having 
homesteaded here as early as 1883. He died 
in 1901. The Mapels have always maintained 
a comfortable home, around which are every 
indication of thrift and industry. They have 
five children: Jessie R., who is the wife of 
Fritz Dressen and lives between Walworth 
and West Union : Mary is the wife of Richard 
Dressen and lives near Walworth ; D. Lulu 
married AI. Doak and lives at Craig, Colorado ; 
H. R. Clare and Howard C. are at home. Mr. 
Mapel operates 200 acres of land, upon which 



he has good impro\ements and good stock. 
He makes a specialty of dairy cows and finds 
the production of cream a very profitable part 
of farming. He is one of the leading spirits of 
the community, the treasurer of school district 
No. 13, a Republican in politics, and both he 
and his wife are members of the Methodist 
church. 

Speaking reminiscently of early days, Mr. 
Mapel says that James Oxford was the first 
settler who fenced his pasture ; that Still- 
man Gates was the first man to put up a wind 
mill and that he and his brother were the first 
owners of a self-binder in that section of the 
country. 



MRS. MARY KLAPAL, who is very well 
known in Custer county and highly respected 
and esteemed everywhere, owns a large body 
of well improved land and is one of the 
county's most successful raisers of Whire 
Face or Hereford cattle. Mrs. Klapal came 
to Custer county with her husband in 1885 
and no one is better qualified to tell of the 
privations that the pioneers here were forced 
to endure, and is a notable example of what 
a courageous, frugal and resourceful woman 
can accomplish. She was born in Bohemia, 
September 8, 1863. Her mother died when 
she was five years old, but her aged father 
survives and is a comfortably retired resi- 
dent of Omaha, Nebraska. 

John Sekera, father of Mrs. Klapal, was 
born in Bohemia and belonged to the labor- 
ing class. As his own country at that time 
could oft'er little opportunity for a man, no 
matter how industrious, to get ahead in the 
world, he decided to immigrate to America, as 
many of his countrymen had already done, and 
had prospered in different parts of the United 
States. He took passage for New York on 
an old sailing vessel, in 1868, and in due time 
was landed safely. He had but 50 cents 
when he faced life in the strange city but he 
immediately secured work as a laborer on 
near-by farms and saved his money until he 
had sufficient to transport him to Omaha. 
Nebraska. There he went to work in a smel- 
ter and later on farms. He was a robust 
man or he could not have endured the hard 
work he engaged in, as he very often had to 
walk to and from his place of employment, 
the entire distance from Omaha to Fremont 
and Grand Island, on account of there being 
no rail transportation at that time. It was 
after the death of his first wife that he left 
Bohemia and later on he was married again, 
in America. Of his five children, two died in 



102j 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 





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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1025 



Bohemia and one still lives there: one lives 
at Omaha, and Mrs. Klapal belongs to Cus- 
ter county. 

Mrs. Klapal was fifteen years old when 
she came to the United States and joined her 
father at Omaha. In 1883 she was united in 
marriage with John Klapal, also of Bohemia, 
who died in 1900. They had the following 
children : John, who is a farmer living east 
of Sargent, Nebraska, married Leda Eret ; 
Mary, who is the wife of Frank Cernek, a 
farmer northwest of Sargent ; Annie, who is 
the wife of Jacob Cernek, lives in Garfield 
county ; Joseph, who lives east of Sargent, 
married Mary Kluna ; Frank, who' was a 
United States soldier, died in the training 
.camp at Camp Funston, February 7, 1918; 
Fred and Edward, both of whom are at home 
with their mother; and Josie, who is the wife 
of Lewis Chalupa, a farmer east of Sargent. 
Mrs. Klapal has the satisfaction of having a 
lumiber of her children settled near her and 
all the survivors are doing well. 

Two years after their marriage, Mr. and 
Mrs. Klapal came to make a home in Custer 
county, Nebraska. They homesteaded and 
secured tree claim and pre-emption and she 
yet owns these and through her thrift and 
business abiHty has been able to acquire ad- 
ditional land and now has in all 640 acres, 
well improved. She has given much attention 
to the cattle industry, her herds being ex- 
clusively White Face cattle. She has man- 
aged her affairs with remarkable judgment 
and her ability as a business woman is uni- 
versally acknowledged. While Mrs. Klapal 
is now in the enjoyment of all the comforts 
of life, she sometimes is willing to tell of the 
hardships of early days here. When she and 
her husband first landed on the homestead 
that was to be their future home, it was a 
desolate place. Prairie fires had burned 
fiercely and left the land bare of vegetation 
and, although spring had come in the calen- 
dar, it being the sixth of May, when they 
drove from Loup City it was through a snow 
storm that amounted to a blizzard. They 
were cold and hungry and Mrs. Klapal con- 
fesses that she was so discouraged that she 
cried through one day and night. This at- 
titude did not continue, however, for in every 
effort her husband later made, she was his 
ready helper, leading the oxen when he first 
broke up the tough sod, hauling water from 
the North Loup River, a distance of five miles, 
attending to domestic affairs and in the mean- 
while bearing and rearing a family of eight 
vigorous children All the medals for hero- 
ism do not, by right, belong to warriors. 



BORTON F. RIGGLE. — Among the rep- 
resentative self-made men and large landhold- 
ers of Custer county, few have been the 
architects of their own fortunes to a greater 
degree than Borton F. Riggle, who resides on 
a fine landed estate near Callaway. Were he 
asked to define the secret of success, from his 
own standpoint and experience, his reply would 
be, no doubt, that it is hard work and the 
taking advantage of fair opportunities. Al- 
ways and everywhere he remembers that his 
business career has been a successful one. and 
that to himself and all Nebraska men of his 
caliber is p)eculiarly applicable the well-worn 
maxim that "nothing succeeds like success." 

Mr. Riggie was born in Grant county, Indi- 
ana, January 15, 1855i a son of Andrew and 
Phoebe ( Borton) Riggie, natives of Guernsey 
county. Ohio. After residing for some years 
in Grant county, Indiana, Andrew Riggie, who 
was a farmer by vocation, moved, in 1860, to 
Iroquois county, Illinois, and five years later 
he took up his residence in Wayne county, 
Iowa, where he and his wife passed the re- 
mainder of their lives in agricultural pursuits. 
Wherever they lived they were respected peo- 
ple of their community. They were consistent 
members of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
and Mr. Riggie was a member of the Masonic 
fraternity. They had five children : Borton F, 
Miss Elizabeth, Mrs. Melissa Babcock, Isaac 
(a retired farmer of Derby, Iowa), and Mrs. 
Mary Miskimins. 

The early education of Borton F. Riggie 
was obtained in the district schools of Iroquois 
county. Illinois, and Wayne county. Iowa, and 
his early training was along agricultural lines,, 
but when he was twenty years of age he left 
the parental roof and went to Chariton, Iowa, 
where he became a clerk in a general store. 
After a short experience in connection with 
mercantile pursuits, he returned to the soil, 
and for some years he was a renter of land. 
January 19. 1878, in Wayne county, Iowa, he 
married Miss Lucy Deulen, who had been a 
school-teacher in that county, and who is a 
daughter of Kelen and Sarah (Dawson) Deu- 
len. Mr. and Mrs. Riggie continued to reside 
in Iowa until 1886, in March of which year 
they came to Custer county, Nebraska, and 
located three and one-half miles north of the 
present site of Callaway. In order to reach 
his new home Mr. Riggie was compelled to 
haul his goods overland all the wav from 
Plumb Creek, now Lexington. 

The early years of Mr. Riggle's stay in Cus- 
ter county were ones that taxed to the full the 
perseverance and determination of both him- 



1024 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



self and his worthy wife, for hardships were 
numerous, unforeseen obstacles were continual- 
ly appearing, and disappointments were so 
frequent as to become almost expected. Yet 
he forged steadily along and finally had his 
reward in seeing the progress he was making. 
Once on the up-hill journey, he made good 
headway, and he has since become one of the 
most successful men of his locality, being the 
owner of 560 acres of some of the finest land 
in Custer county — all accumulated legitimate- 
ly and honorably through industry and the 
proper utilization of every-day opportunities. 
IMr. Riggle is justly proud of his beautiful 
residence, and his other buildings are propor- 
tionately substantial and attractive. He is a 
stockholder and director of the Farmers State 
Bank of Callaway. Mr. Riggle has commanded 
respect because of the manner in which he has 
worked his way to success, and has secured 
esteem because of his straightforward way of 
living and of doing business. Mr. Riggle is 
a Republican, but is no politician. He and 
Mrs. Riggle belong to the Evangelical church, 
and they are always ready to give their sup- 
port to movements making for better citizen- 
ship, higher morals, and more, extended edu- 
cational advantages. 

Mr. and Mrs. Riggle have three children. 
Ethel, the eldest, married James E. Addie, a 
well known attorney of Hastings. Nebraska, 
and they have one son. Mr. Addie has been 
recently elevated to a position on the bench of 
the federal court. He is a Republican and an 
Odd Fellow, and he and Mrs. Addie are mem- 
bers of the Congregational church. Ida, the 
second child of Mr. and Mrs. Riggle. is the 
wife of Oscar Kolbo, who is a farmer and 
stockman near Lodi. Mr. Kolbo is a Repub- 
lican, and he and his wife belong to the Evan- 
gelical church. Frank Riggle. Mr. Riggle's 
only son, is the owner and operator of a farm 
north of that of his father, and four and one- 
half miles north of Callaway. He is an Odd 
Fellow and a Republican, and he and his wife 
belong to the Evangelical church. The maiden 
name of Mrs. Frank Riggle was Bertha Steel, 
and she is a daughter of George Steel, one 
of the very old settlers of New Helena, Custer 
county. \Ir. and Mrs. Frank Rig.gle have a 
winsome little daughter. 



THOMAS NEDBALEK, who is a sub- 
stantial fanner and stock-raiser in Custer 
county, lives on the old family homestead, 
situated on section 25, township 20, to which 
his parents came thirty-four years ago. Mr. 



Nedbalek three years later, Januar}' 6 1887, 
in Custer county, was born to John and Mary 
(Rejda) Nedbalek, the youngest of their fam- 
ily of six children. The other five, with one 
exception, live in Nebraska. John, the eld- 
est, lives in Garfield county and married 
Theresa Sebesta. Joseph is a traveling sales- 
man and lives in Central City and married 
Anna Schmidt. Frank is a fanner near 
Horse Creek, Canada. Anna is the wife of 
Daniel Capek and they live in Loup county. 
Frances is the wife of Joseph Bartu and they 
live near Arcadia. 

The parents of Thomas Nedbalek were born 
in Austria. While they were honest, worthy 
people, industrious and religious, they were 
not able in 1884 to make much headway in • 
Austria in the way of securing a home or 
making any provision for old age. There- 
fore when five children had been added to the 
family, they detennined to seek better indus- 
trial conditions and rewards in another coun- 
try, and thus it came about that they came to 
the United States, where they now live re- 
tired from work and in the enjoyment of 
many comforts. They came to Custer county, 
Nebraska, and secured a homestead. In 
those early days the privations and hardships 
were undeniably present, but no more so, 
perhaps, than in other sections of undeveloped 
countrj', and they had experienced hard times 
in their own land and did not expect to live 
lives of ease at first. The mother remained 
on the homestead and with care, frugality and 
hard work, kept the home going, while the 
father worked for others and thus obtained 
money with which he later could improve his 
own land and buy stock. It is an honorable 
record to look back upon and Thomas Ned- 
balek fully appreciates the sacrifices of his 
parents. 

Thomas Nedbalek obtained his education 
in the public schools of Custer county and 
helped his parents to prove up on the home- 
stead where he now lives. He has 520 acres 
of fine land, which he devotes to general farm- 
ing and stock-raising, being one of the big 
stockmen of the county. He carries on his 
farm industries along modem lines and has 
a recognized position in the same, and has 
long been identified with movements intended 
to advance high standards here. 

Mr. Nedbalek was married at Burwell, Ne- 
braska, April 14. 1909, to Miss Frances 
Stupka, whose father is an .American citizen 
and lives in \'alley county. Mr. and Mrs. 
Nedbalek have two sons: Toseph, who was 
born March 19, 1914 : and Rudolph who was 
born Febnian' 12, 1916. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1025 



PATRICK KILFOIL, familiarly known 
as "Paddy" was the first settler of Dale val- 
ley. He lived in this section of the state dur- 
ing the pioneer days — times when mutual 
hardships and privations drew men together 
in strong ties of friendship and led to the 
adoption of such names as that by which Mr. 
Kilfoil is known to all the early settlers. 

Patrick Kilfoil was born in the city of Gal- 
way, Ireland and is a son of Michael Kil- 
foil. As he was a very small child when his 
mother died he has no recollection of her and 
never knew her name. Patrick was the 
youngest of three children. In 1842 the 
father came to America and found employ- 
ment at one dollar a day, out of which he 
saved enough with which to send for the 
children. Mr. Kilfoil was a lad of four years 
at the time he came to America and his 
younger years were spent in Virginia and 
Kentucky, and upon reaching young manhood 
he found employment on railroads, an occupa- 
tion which he followed for many years. When 
the Civil war broke he enlisted, in 1861, for 
service in the Union Army and faithfully 
served for three years in preserving the Union. 
He was once wounded but owing to the severe 
fighting at the time he knew nothing of it 
till his comrades called his attention to it. 
Mr. Kilfoil's only brother was killed at the 
battle of Bull Run, at the very beginning of 
the war. His only sister passed away in Cali- 
fornia. The little bronze button on the lapel 
of his coat signifies membership in the Grand 
Army of the Republic and he belongs to the 
post at Merna. 

After his service in the army Mr. Kilfoil 
traveled in many parts of the country, working 
and taking in the sights. Among the places 
lie found employment was a stone quarn', 
taking out the stone used in building the state 
capitol at Des Moines, Iowa. 

Mr. Kilfoil came to Custer county in the 
early pioneer days and became the first settler 
of Dale valley. No one had yet located on 
West Table or in the vicinity of where Merna 
now stands. He took a homestead and tree 
claim and owing to the fact that he had given 
three years to the service of Uncle Sam he 
was able to prove up in two years. In recog- 
nition of his being the first settler of the 
neighborhood the township was named Kil- 
foil in his honor. He witnessed the hard- 
ships and privations of the early days and 
though never actively engaged in • farming he 
has owned land and always been interested in 
agriculture, until recently, when he disposed 
of his farm. The church at Dale was the 
first Catholic church to be erected in Custer 



county, and it was made possible largely 
through the benevolence of Mr. Kilfoil, who 
was the principal contributor. He has shown 
his loyalty and patriotism during the great 
world war and is the largest holder of liberty 
bonds in Custer county. He is also an im- 
portant stockholder in the Farmers Bank of 
Merna. Mr. Kilfoil has lived to see vast 
changes take place in the county where he was 
one of its earliest settlers and to the develop- 
ment and upbuilding of which he has been a 
liberal contributor. 

Mr. Kilfoil is a Democrat in politics but has 
never sought or held public ofiice. He has 
never married, preferring to live in single 
blessedness. He is well and favorably known 
not only in Custer county but over the state of 
Nebraska as well. 



FRANK KRIZ, whose fine farm is situated 
in section 25, township 1, near Sargent, Ne- 
braska, has been a resident of Custer county 
for the past ten years and of the state three 
times or more that long. He has been a resi- 
dent of three different counties of Nebraska, 
and has taken part, to some degree, in the 
development of each. 

Frank Kriz was born October 20, 1858, in 
Moravia. His parents were Joseph and Mary 
(Bartu) Kriz, both of whom were natives of 
Moravia, from which country they immigrated 
to the United States in 1884. The father de- 
sired to acquire land for a permanent home 
and this led to their coming to Nebraska. 
They settled in Saline county at first but later 
came to Custer county and here the father 
died in 1912. The mother lived until 1914. 
They were good people, honest and industri- 
ous, and had many friends in the iieitjhbor- 
hood in which they lived. They had three 
children, namely : Frank ; Fannie, who is the 
wife of Frank Visek, a farmer in Woods 
Park; Mar)', who is the wife of Joseph 
Zurek, a farmer in Wisconsin ; and there is a 
half brother, Joseph Bartu, who is a farmer 
south of Comstock, who married Frances Ned- 
balek. 

Frank Kriz obtained a common school edu- 
cation in his native land, and was taught to 
be frugal and industrious in his home. He 
grew up there and was variously employed 
before he came to the United States, in 1886. 
He located first in Saline county, Nebraska, 
and lived there two years and then moved to 
\'alley county, in 1888, and homesteaded there. 
He remained in that part of the state, en- 
gaged in developing his land and carrying on 
farm industries as he found them profitable 
up to 1908, in which year he was married for 



1026 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBR.\SKA 



the second time. After that he came to Cus- 
ter county and here has become one of the 
substantial and highly respected citizens. 

Mr. Kriz was married first to Mary Vy- 
beral. who died June 13, 1904, the mother of 
eight children, as follows : Frank, who lives 
in David City, Nebraska ; Joseph, who lives 
east of Sargent, Nebraska ; Carrie, who is the 
wife of Joseph Troyan, lives in Valley county; 
Emil, who is a soldier with the United States 
force in France ; Mary, who is deceased ; 
Louise, who is the wife of Rudolph Stefka, 
a farmer south of Comstock ; Annie, who is 
the wife of James Cedek, lives in Valley 
county; and James, who is unmarried, also 
lives in Valley county. 

Mr. Kriz was married, second, in July, 
1908, to Mrs. Mary (Jambor) Reyda, who 
was a widow and the mother of six children, 
as follows : Joseph, who lives south of Com- 
stock ; Frank, who is deceased ; and Matilda, 
Lewis, James, and Edward, all of whom live 
at home. Mention is here made of the 
other three children — Annie, who is 
the wife of Joseph Zedina, lives in Valley 
county; Mar\', who is the wife of Joseph 
Pipal, of Garfield county : and Emma, who is 
the wife of Frank Mason living in Valley 
county. Mr. and Mrs. Kriz have one daugh- 
ter, Imia. who was born .April 24, 1909. 



ANDREW J. ROATH. — Among the 
sturdy pioneers who came to northeastern 
Custer county during the late '70s was one 
who participated in the development of the 
county from the days of horse thieves and 
claim-jumpers, of hardships and of primitive 
conditions, to the present prosperity, security, 
and law-abiding civilization, is Andrew Jack- 
son Roath, for many years a farmer in the 
Cheesebro Canyon community, but for the 
past five years the proprietor of an automobile 
garage at Sargent. 

Mr. Roath was bom at Hardscrabble Cnow 
Streator), Illinois, December 4, 1857, and is a 
son of David and Mar\- (Swift) Roath. the 
former a native of New York, and the latter 
of Wayne county, that state. The parents of 
Mr. Roath were early settlers of Illinois, and 
his father, a farmer by vocation and a mason 
by trade, built the first brick house at Ottawa. 
He was a Republican, was a man of much 
industry, and during a long and active life 
achieved a moderate share of success. There 
were six children in the family: Elsie, of Ot- 
sego, Michigan ; Lucien, of Jersey City, New 
Jersey ; Andrew J., of this review ; Walter, of 
Los Angeles, California; Orange Judd, of Chi- 



cago. Illinois ; and Ernest D., of Los Angeles, 
California. 

.\ndrew J. Roath was educated in the pub- 
lic schools of Illinois, and remained at home 
until after he attained his majority, his youth- 
ful training being along agricultural lines. In 
March, 1879> he left the parental roof and 
struck out for Nebraska, eventually arriving 
at his destination in Custer county, where he 
homesteaded the northeast quarter of section 
6, township 20. range 18. Those were the 
days when might frequently made right, when 
rugged men from the four corners of the 
country came to secure homesteads, and when 
the lawless element to some extent was attract- 
ed by the f)ossibility of big and quick gains. 
Mr. Roath had numerous interesting experi- 
ences during the early days, his proximity to 
Cheesebro's Canyon bringing him into connec- 
tion with one exciting series of incidents. The 
canyon was so named by the reason of one 
Cheesebro seeing its possibilities, as it was 
heavily timbered with pine and cedar, the only 
timber to be secured for any purpose for miles- 
around. This Cheesebro filed on the canyon 
claim as a homestead and built a dugout there- 
on, but failed to live there, having made his- 
home with his people a mile or so away. For 
some time he sold cedar posts at fifty cents 
each to his neighbors and to those who came 
from as far as twenty and thirty miles away>- 
but a boastful remark caused his undoing. 
"I can eat sugar cookies." he is reported to 
have remarked to one of the less fortunate 
settlers, "while mo.st have to be thankful if 
they get corn bread." By this remark he meant 
that he could haul his cedar jxjsts to Grand 
Island or Kearney and find a ready sale at all 
times. The remark was widely reported and 
caused much hard feeling among the settlers- 
in the vicinity, who I>egan to take notice that 
Cheesebro did not make his home on his home- 
stead. Further investigation disclosed the fact 
that he had already earned a home in Minne- 
sota by homestead rights, which made him 
ineligible for one in Nebraska, and when these 
circumstances came to light, the neighbors - 
rightly felt that they were entitled to the cedar 
posts as much as their claimant. Therefore 
a crowd of eighteen of them joined together, 
entered the canyon and began to gather what 
])osts and timbers they needed for home con- 
sumption. On the second day Cheesebro ap- 
peared and endeavored to stop them, and, fail- 
ing in this, tried to bluff the matter through 
by asserting that his wife had filed on the 
claim. This still being ineffective to hold the 
homesteaders, he appealed to the L^nited States 
marshal, who made his appearance but who,. 



-HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1027 




Andrew J. Roath 



1028 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



after learning- the circumstances, did not in- 
terfere. The matter was then dropped by 
Cheesebro and the liomestead has since been 
proven up by others. 

Mr. Roath drove through to Custer county 
in true pioneer style, with a covered wagon, 
and brought with him a few household goods, 
several other articles, and some horses and a 
few head of live stock. He possessed no capi- 
tal and was forced to depend entirely upon his 
own resources to get a start, so that every 
dollar couhted. His first home was a log 
house, and in one load he hauled from Grand 
Island the lumber for his first frame house. 
When he had been here about three years, he 
had the misfortune to lose his three horses, 
which were stolen by one Kid Wade, a 
notorious character of the day and locality. 
After the theft the people advertised without 
avail, and finally a committee of vigilantes took 
matters into their own hands, and Mr. Roath 
recovered two of his horses, just five months 
to the day after they were stolen, but he never 
again saw the third horse. .-Kt the same time 
of this theft the race horse belonging to Or- 
lando PuUiam was taken, and this was re- 
covered at the .same time. Kid Wade was 
caught at Lemars, Iowa, by the vigilantes, af- 
ter a long chase, and was brought back to 
Cams Bridge, lirown county, Nebraska, where 
he was confined about three weeks. At the 
end of that time, the populace having become 
impatient at the delay, a crowd collected, took 
the prisoner from the officer in charge, and 
hanged him to a whistling post on the rail- 
road, at Bassett. Brown county. 

Mr. Roath continued to live on his home- 
stead and to thrive and prosper in wealth and 
in the esteem of the community, accumulating 
a satisfying fortune and developing one of the 
best farms of his neighborhood. In 1910 he 
retired from farming, and engaged in the 
garage business, although he retained posses^ 
sion of his farm, which he still owns. His first 
garage having been destroyed by fire, he re- 
built on the same site, and he now has a mod- 
ern structure, in which he is doing an excellent 
business. Mr. Roath is a Republican but is 
not active in public life. He is the father of 
two children: Roland A., born March 3, 1902; 
and Marv F., born August 30, 1907. 



FRANK CODAY. — The story of a live, 
energetic young farmer living in the vicinity 
of Sargent, is here consistently recorded. 

Frank Coday is a contribution credited to 
Iowa. Yet Iowa has had a small part in the 
formation of this Custer county citizen, since 



only the first three years of his life were 
lived with the Hawkeyes. He was born in 
Wapello county, Iowa, April 26, 1882, and is 
a son of Thomas and Emma (Sheppard) 
Coday, both natives of Ohio. The father was 
a farmer by life occupation. He brought his 
family to Custer county in 1885 and pre- 
empted a quarter-section of land. He lived 
here until 1915 when he moved to Brown 
county, this state, where he still resides and 
where he enjoys ranch life as it exists in that 
cattle county. There were seven children in 
the father's family, five of whom are still liv- 
ing. Frank and his two sisters are living in 
this county. One brother, Earl G. Coday, 
lives on a farm two and one-half miles south- 
west of Mason City ; and the other brother, 
Charles R. Coday, lives in Brown county, on 
his father's ranch. Amy Troxel lives on the 
Ranklin ranch in Blaine county, and Nellie 
\'anCleve is living in Callaway. Thomas 
Coday was once supervisor of this county and 
served as road overseer for several years. 

Frank Coday attended the district school 
in this county and here received his early 
training for his life occupation. It was here 
that he learned the rudiments of agriculture 
and the care of live stock, the qualities which 
formed the foundation of his present day 
achievements. 

He was married February 12, 1894, to Eva 
Owens, at Taylor, Nebraska. His wife is 
the daughter of Leonard and Mary (Klingler") 
Owen, pioneers of the county, since the days 
of 1890. They still make their home in the 
county. 

Into the home of Mr. and Mrs. Coday two 
children, with life and energy, have come to 
bring the blessings of a happy home. Max and 
Pearl are very bright and promising children 
and, with the opportunity that will be theirs, 
will make a name and mark in the world. 

Mr. Coday is independent in politics, is a 
member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows and an active leader in the Modem 
Woodmen of America, in which lodge he has 
passed through all the chairs. His member- 
ship is at Sargent. The Codays are splendid 
people and rated in the community as kind 
and obliging neighbors. 

JOHN STEW.ART. who is now residing on 
a small farm in the old town of Wescott, first 
came to Custer county in 1882. and from that 
time to the ])rcscnt he has been one of his com- 
munity's sound and jiractical citizens. For 
about a quarter of a century he was busily en- 
gaged in the development of his locality's re- 
sources, as an agriculturist, and at all times- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1029 




John Stewart 



1030 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



his views and activities have been compatible 
with progress. 

Mr. Stewart, as his name would indicate, is 
of Scotch nativity, he having been born in 
County Ross, Scotland, July 20, 1847, a son 
of Donald and Anna (McFail) Stewart. His 
parents passed their entire lives in Scotland, 
where the father was a farmer in a small way. 
and of the nine children none save John came 
to the United States, although nearly all left 
their native soil, immigrating to Canada, Aus- 
tralia, and other countries. John Stewart, the 
only survivor of his parents' children, came 
to the United States about the year 1870. He 
had received an ordinary education in the pub- 
lic schools of Scotland and was a young man 
of intelligence and ambition. Seeking a lo- 
cality in which to settle permanently, he trav- 
eled from New York to California and worked 
in various sections and at a number of voca- 
tions. He was prudent and thrifty, and wisely 
saved his earnings, so that when he came to 
Custer county, in 1882. he was jxjssessed of 
some capital, antl had the distinction of being 
the one to pay over the first money that was 
ever transferred in cash for a release on a 
homestead right in Custer county. This was 
the sum of $230 in gold, with which he bought 
the tree-claim right of a young woman. He 
also bought an ox-team, of a Mr. Woodward, 
and settled down to farm his property and to 
enter upon the career which brought him suc- 
cess and prosperity. Before he gained a foot- 
hold ujwn the ladder of achievement, Mr. 
Stewart, along with numerous others, was 
called to face many hardships and privations. 
Unlike the majority of others, he did not have 
a wife to assist in easing his burdens, for ^Ir. 
Stewart has never married. However, he was 
equal to every emergency, eventually won his 
way through, and for a long period was rec- 
ognized as one of the community's most pros- 
perous men. His good management brought 
him a comfortable fortune, and when he was 
ready to retire from the hard work of the 
farm, some ten or twelve years ago, he had for 
sale a valuable and highly improved farm, 
which brought a handsome figure. Mr. Stewart 
at that time moved to his present snug farm, 
in the old town of Wescott, and here he has 
since been busy in his garden. 

Mr. Stewart has always been a staunch and 
unfaltering Republican. During the height of 
the Populist movement he was frequently ap- 
proached in regard to the shifting of his sup- 
port, but he never changed his allegiance. He 
has not sought office, but has endeavored to 
place good men in positions of trust. Mr. 
Stewart, while a believer in religion, has never 



joined any particular church, 
favor secret societies. 



He does not 



FRANK SUTTON. — Here follows a 
plain story of pioneering and a story very 
common to Custer county inhabitants, vir- 
tually all of whom came from eastern stoc'n 
and ran the same gamut of experiences in the 
primitive days, and there is also a striking 
similarity in the success achieved by these 
citizens as exhibited by a present day survey. 
The man to whom the name and the title line 
belong, hails from Hoosierdom, where he w-as 
born in Carroll county, June 26, 1861. 

He is the son of Louis and Laurinda (Dim- 
mitt) Sutton. Father Louis Sutton and his 
wife were both natives of Indiana and farm- 
ers by occupation. He enlisted in the army 
in 1861 and after rendering a year of hard 
sefvice was discharged on account of physical 
disability. He returned home and engaged 
in farming until 1868, when with his family he 
moved to Appanoose county, Iowa, where he 
purchased a fann and made it his home until 
1882, w'hen the call of the west moved him 
again — this time to Custer county, where he 
bought a homestead which he made his home 
for the rest of his life. He died March 20, 
1887, as a result of disease contracted in the 
war. He was a Democrat in politics and a 
member of the Methodist church. He and his 
wife were the parents of seven children : Mary 
E. is the wife of J. \V. \\'allace. Sarah A. was 
the wife of J. H. Shimi, but is now deceased. 
Andrew J. married Julia Jennings and is now a 
clergyman located at Pueblo, Colorado. The 
fourth was the subject of whom we are writ- 
ing. John R. is a farmer living at Tyro, 
Kansas. Nancy J. is the wife of Fred Cum- 
mings, a fanner and stockman living at Fort 
Collins, Colorado. Walter M. lives at Penny- 
man, Virginia, where he is guarding water 
works for United States government. 

Mr. Sutton was educated in the common 
schools of Iowa and in 1888 was married to 
Flora Penick, who was spared to him but two 
short years. After her death he remarried, in 
September, 1896, to Maude Kenyon, in Loup 
coimty. The second Mrs. Sutton is a 
daughter of John A. and Sarah E. (Fuller) 
Kenyon. Her parents were early Custer 
county settlers of whom extended notice is 
given elsewhere. 

After coming to Custer county young Frank 
worked on the farm of his parents imtil 1905, 
when he started operations for himself. After 
three years he moved on to the old homestead, 
where he has lived ever since and upon which 
he has ]nit all the improvements of the pres- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1031 



ent time, replacing the sod buildings with new 
and more modern ones. 

In the family home of the Suttons were 
born two children : Raymond E. married 
Ethel Wells and has established a home for 
himself in Cummings Park ; Vida P. is at 
home. 

Mr. Sutton recalled some of his experiences 
of the early days. On one occasion he helped 
to haul hogs for R. G. Carr to North Loup. 
There were a hundred sixty-eight hogs to be 
hauled and it required a number of wagons, 
and accordingly the whole neighborhood 
turned out. This was in the winter of '85 
and '86. It was so cold that one of the men, 
George Pierce, would have frozen to death if 
it had not been for Mr. Sutton and David Col- 
trane. Pierce had gotten so cold and numb 
that he lay down and refused to move. They 
saved his life by using a whip on him and 
finally roused him up and angered him to the 
extent that they were able to get him up and 
move him on. Of the hundred and sixty- 
eight hogs ninety-two froze to death. Mr. 
Sutton pulled straw from a stack and put it 
into the wagon among the hogs in his load 
and this helped, he thinks, to save them. 



H. B. POINTER. — Over in the West 
Union precinct, which is entitled to be called 
one of the garden spots of Custer county, lives 
a substantial farmer in a splendid farm home, 
surrounded by a happy family whose name 
is spelled in the title line. Mr. Pointer des- 
cends from a good old Kentucky family. 

He was born in the Bluegrass state, March 
1, 1863, and was the fifth son of John and 
Hester (Sharp) Pointer, both very excellent 
Kentucky people who spent their lives in the 
Bluegrass state. The father was a farmer and 
a Democrat in politics and rated as one of the 
first citizens of the community in which he 
lived. The mother was a very excellent 
southern lady, a faithful adherent and sup- 
porter of the Baptist church. Recorded in 
the family Bible were the names of six chil- 
dren : Melvina, the wife of S. M. Davis, 
lives on an Illinois farm ; Tina, wife of Louis 
Johnson, also lives in Illinois ; John married 
Carrie Davis and is engaged in farming in 
Illinois; Maggie, the wife of William Pfrehm, 
lives in Bay City, Texas. The fifth name in 
the family roster is the one recorded at the 
head of this paragraph. James W. married 
Mattie Hargon, and is a photographer living 
in Malvern, Iowa. 

H. B. Pointer spent his early years in Illi- 
nois where he received a liberal education in 
the graded schools of Salisbury, that state. 



After leaving school he began practical farm- 
ing and has stuck to the vocation during the 
, major portion of his life. 

In 1889 he became a benedict by leading to 
the marriage altar Cora J. Carr, a Custer 
county young lady who came of an excellent 
family. Mrs. Pointer's people were early set- 
tlers in this county, coming here in August 
1878, locating both a homestead and tree' 
claim, and living on these claims until 1892, 
when they moved to Doris, this county, and 
began the operation of a flouring mill which 
Mr. Carr, the father, had owned for several 
years. In 1910 he retired from active life 
and devoted his time to the care of his prop- 
erty. For the last three years he has been liv- 
ing in Texas. In this family were five chil- 
dren, only two of whom are now living, Stan- 
ley and Airs. H. B. Pointer. 

The story goes among the West Union old 
timers that Mr. Carr's first wife was the first 
teacher in Custer county. It is certain that 
if she was not the first she was one of the 
first, as she taught a school for which she was 
paid by subscription in the fall of 1878. 

Mr. Pointer made a marked success of 
farming. Eighteen years of his life, how- 
ever, were spent in the milling business at 
Doris Lake, where he was in partnership with 
his father-in-law, mentioned above. After 
retiring from the mill he again resumed farm- 
ing, which has been his occupation for the last 
eight years. In his farming and stock-rais- 
ing operations he makes a specialty of Poland- 
China hogs and Rhode Island Red chickens, 
all of which not only show careful selection 
in breeding but splendid care and unusual at- 
tention. The farm consists of one hundred 
sixty acres, in West Union, where the fann 
home is located, and another farm south of 
the river. 

Three children have been the result of their 
marriage and all are living and have promis- 
ing prospects for the future: Lloyd married 
May Hill and is living on a farm near 
Sargent, on which he has made a success of 
his initial eflfort ; George, who is still single, 
lives at home and is charged with much of the 
responsibility of the home place; and Doris 
likewise remains at the parental home. 

In the early days of pioneering Mr. Pointer 
was here and had his share of the privations 
and hardships which were handed around so 
generously to the early settlers. He freighted 
from West Union to North Loup, a distance 
of fifty miles, and many nights, without over- 
much bedding, slept on the ground floors of 
the settlers' sod houses. This even in the win- 
ter time when the weather was so cold that 
the provisions they carried would be frozen. 



1032 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




z 

is 

o 
3 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1033 



The younger generation of Pointers will never 
know the hardships endured and the sacrifices 
made to establish residence and develop the 
splendid home they enjoyed during their child- 
hood years. 



DAA'ID DOWNEY. — In considering the 
Hfe record of the late David Downey, who for 
many years was one of Custer county's influ- 
ential and resi>ected citizens, a striking illus- 
tration is presented of what can be accom- 
plished through the exercise of energy, will 
power, and self-sacrifice, when directed along 
the right channels. When David Downey ar- 
rived at Kearney. Buffalo county, Nebraska, 
his worldly possessions consisted of a wife, 
their two sons and one daughter — J. M.. W. 
C, and Nellie, — their necessary clothing, and 
the sum of twenty-five cents in actual money. 
At the close of a busy, frugal, and useful life in 
this state, he passed away as one of Custer 
county's substantial and representative men, 
owning one of the largest stock ranches in 
this part of the country. 

David Downey was bom in Jefferson county, 
Ohio, in 1834, and was reared in Ohio, where 
he attended school as opportunity was af- 
forded in early boyhood. He soon became 
self-supporting through general day labor, but, 
possessing a large amount of common sense, 
he realized that such work did little to ad- 
vance his permanent fortunes and that there- 
fore a change must be made. He had heard 
many stories of the great opportunities that 
the great west offered, and he decided to try 
his fortune in Nebraska. He arrived in Kear- 
ney in 1879. He came to the state with the 
intention of securing land and establishing a 
permanent home, and in search of the same 
he stopped for a short time in Buffalo county. 
Mr. and Mrs. Downey from there came to 
Custer county and located their homestead, on 
which they filed in 1882. They lived here for 
a number of years in the same primitive way 
as did their neighbors, but in facing the many 
hardships that all encountered, they manifested 
more courage and resourcefulness than did 
many others, and they were finally well re- 
warded. From Kearney Mr. Downey had to 
haul the lumber with which to build their first 
substantial house. In the course of years he 
and his two sons became the owners of 1,800 
acres of highly cultivated land, some of the 
most valuable in middle Nebraska, modern im- 
provements adding to its value. He was greatly 
interested in raising good live stock, and for 
years the Downey ranch has been noted for 
its herds of Hereford cattle. 



Mr. Downey always insisted that the great- 
est event in his life was his marriage to Miss 
Emily McGregor, who was born at Columbus, 
Ohio, and who still resides on the old home- 
stead, with her two children, J. M. and Nellie. 

J. M. Downey has' taken his father's place 
in the management and operation of the ranch, 
and is one of the leading stockmen of the 
Loup township community, annually raising 
more than 200 head of fine Hereford cattle. 
Miss Nellie Downey, who has made teaching 
her profession, was for a number of years an 
instructor in the graded schools at Broken 
Bow, but for the past three years she has been 
engaged at Hastings. By patrons and pupils 
she is held in high esteem, both professionally 
and personally. 

The death of David Downey, which occurred 
March 9, 1918, removed not only one of the 
early settlers of the county, but also a man 
who had been of sterling worth in the com- 
munity — an example of industry and an ex- 
ponent of strict integrity. It was a great 
comfort to him in his last days to realize that 
he left his faithful life companion so well pro- 
vided for, and it likewise is a comfort to her 
to know that he lived to enjoy some of the 
ease his early industry had provided. The 
entire family belongs to the Presbyterian 
church. 



WILLIAM OBERG. — A specialist in the 
raising of Jersey Red hogs and Short Horn 
cattle, William Oberg is one of the well-to-do 
stockmen of his part of Custer county, and is 
carrying on extensive operations on his well- 
improved farm not far from Sargent, which he 
homesteaded not long after he had attained 
his majority. It has been his fortune to have 
played a helpful part in the development of 
the county, and while he has been so doing, to 
have gained the respect and confidence of his 
fellow-citizens here. 

Mr. Oberg was born in Sweden. February 
10, 1861, and is a son of Carl and Christina 
(Edgar) Oberg, who passed their entire lives 
in their native land. In his earlier life Carl 
Oberg had been a policeman in the city of 
Vadstena, but eventually turned his attention 
to farming, and throu,gh industry and careful 
handling of his affairs became the possessor of 
a modest competence, on which he retired in 
the evening of his life. In 1879 William 
Oberg and his sister, Mrs. Kling, who is now 
the wife of a prosperous farmer of Saunders 
county, Nebraska, immigrated to the United 
States. He had attended the schools of his 
native land and after locating in Saunders 
county was an occasional attendant of the dis- 



1034 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



trict school for a short term, in the meantime 
otherwise occupying himself by working as a 
farm hand. Me was eighteen years of age 
when he came to this country and was a youth 
of brawn and intelligence, but had little else 
to assist him to get a start save his ambition 
and spirit. Mr. Oberg was not far past his 
twenty-first birthday when he came to Custer 
county and homesteaded in section 19, town- 
ship 20, where he subsequently bought a quar- 
ter-section. He has always retained this 
property, having always been satisfied and 
seeing no reason for a change, and through 
careful industry and a proper appreciation of 
modern methods and devices has transformed 
his farm into a highly developed tract, on 
which are splendid buildings and other im- 
provements. Mr. Oberg is a specialist in the 
field of hog raising, and at this time is doing 
a large and profitable business in breeding 
Jersey Reds, in addition to which he has a 
small herd of Short-horn cattle. His business 
standing is of the best, and he is known as an 
enterprising and progressive man and a help- 
ful factor in movements which make for the 
betterment of his community. 

Mr. Oberg was married September 24, 
1884, to Miss Anna Monson, who was also 
born in Sweden, a daughter of Mons and In- 
gried (Olson) Nelson, who never left their 
native country. Mrs. Oberg came to the 
United States with a sister, and they were the 
only ones to immigrate to this land. To Mr. 
and Mrs. Oberg there have been born a fam- 
ily of eleven children, of whom there are eight 
now living: Charley, single, who resides at 
home and is his father's chief assistant in the 
cultivation of the farm; Fred, a veterinarian 
of Osceola, Nebraska, who married Freda 
Gnmkenmeyer ; Mary, who is the wife of El- 
mer Leep, a farmer near Milburn ; Jessie, who 
is the wife of Paul Vankleeck, a farmer and 
stockman residing in southeastern Wyoming, 
Goshen county, Wyoming ; Albert and Flos- 
sie, who are single and reside at home ; Anna, 
who resides at home and is a teacher in the 
public schools ; and Esther, who resides at 
home. 



WILLIAM STOCKHAM.— Among those 
who took part in the migration to Custer county 
during the latter '80s, and one who was destined 
to become a leading farmer and raiser of stock 
in the I'rokcn Bow community, was William 
Stockhani. He was at that time a young mar- 
ried man, with but little capital, but possessed 
of ambition and energy, and the bright pros- 
pects with which he viewed the new country 
have materialized into realities, for he is now 



successfully conducting operations on one of 
the county's valuable properties, that known 
as the D. Heenan ranch. 

Mr. Stockham was born in Scioto county, 
Ohio, May 7, 1857, a son of William and Eliz- 
abeth (Bennett) Stockman, who were natives 
of Ohio and who were farming people. There 
were six children in the family : James, Samuel, 
William, Joseph, Harvey, and E>avid. When 
William Stockman was six years of age his 
father died, and in 1865 his mother came wMth 
her family to Cass county, Nebraska, where 
she located four miles east and one-half mile 
south of the present site of Weeping Willow, 
where the husband and father had bought 
land uixjn w-hich he had never had the chance 
to locate. Nebraska at that time was still a 
wild country, with buffaloes roaming the plains 
and Indians still plentiful and. at times, dan- 
gerous. Thus it requires only a little imagi- 
nation to vizualize the dangers faced and the 
privations endured by this courageous widow 
with her large family of small children. How- 
ever, Mrs. Stockham kept her brood together, 
and she later contracted a second marriage, 
John W. Russell being a son of this union. 
The district schools of Cass county furnished 
William Stockham with his early education, 
and that he w^as an industrious youth is shown 
in the fact that when he was only nine years 
of age he began earning money, by drojiping 
com by hand, for a neighbor, the corn being 
thereafter covered by means of a hoe. He re- 
mained with his mother until he was past 
twenty-eight years of age, and on March 30, 
1886, near Nehawka, Nebraska, he married 
Miss Mary E. Ingwerson, a native of that 
place and a daughter of Frederick and Emma 
(Heath) Ingwerson. In the Ingwerson fam- 
ilv there were the following children : Tames. 
Charles E., Albert N., Mary E., Frank W., 
Mrs. Ida J. Lopp, Richard H., Mrs. Lucy A. 
St. John, Mrs. Ellen C. ^Mast, and Mrs. Laura 
I. Wilson. 

Not long after their marriage. Mr. and Mrs. 
Stockham came to Custer county, and in 1887 
they located on a farm fifteen miles west of 
Callaway. After residing there a short time, 
they removed to Wild Horse Flats, in Logan 
county, near the northeast corner of Custer 
county, wdiere they took a homestead and tree 
claim. There they continued to maintain their 
home for eight years, and thereafter they 
spent about one year in Custer county, follow- 
ing which they retiirned to the old Stockham 
place, where they continued its operation suc- 
cessfully for seven years. Then, in 1910, they 
came to their present place of residence, the 
D. Heenan ranch, south of Broken Bow, on 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1035 



the South Loup river. Mr. Stockham has con- 
tinued his agricultural operations here with 
splendid results, and is known as a skilled rep- 
resentative of the farming industry and an 
able handler of live stock. During the many 
years that he has lived in this part of Nebraska 
he has built up a reputation for sound integrity 
and honorable dealings, as well as for pro- 
gressive citizenship, and in the various activi- 
ties which have occupied his time he has been 
found reliable and trustworthy — fully deserv- 
ing of the respect and confidence in which he 
is held. 

Mr. and Mrs. Stockham have become the 
parents of four sons and five daughters, as 
follows: William Earl, Richard R., Charles, 
Alice E.. Stella N., Mabel, Ola, Lottie, and 
Clarence. The children have been given good 
educational advantages and are being reared 
to honorable and useful manhood and woman- 
hood, so that they will be able to fill capably 
whatever positions life holds for them. 



HARRIS M. COLTRANE is a represen- 
tative Custer county farmer who comes of 
southern stock. He lives in the vicinity of 
Sargent, where since 1885 he has been con- 
ducting farming operations on a more or less 
extensive scale and where he has made an 
enviable reputation as a substantial citizen 
and successful farmer. 

Mr. Coltrane was born down below the 
Mason and Dixon line, in Randolph county. 
North Carolina, May 13, 1861. His parents 
were Daniel L. and Amanda J. (Harris) Col- 
trane, both natives of North Carolina, where 
both were raised and lived their entire lives. 
He was a farmer, which occupation he fol- 
lowed to the exclusion of everything else. In 
the days of the Civil war he cast his fortunes 
with his state and served in the Confederate 
army for eight months, being wounded in the 
battle of Petersburg, Virginia, at the time of 
Lee's surrender. 

In the father's family were eight children, 
four of whom are living at the present time: 
Harris M. is the only one, however, living out- 
side of the county where they were born. 
Young Harris received his education in the 
graded schools of North Carolina and very 
early gave his attention to farming. He came 
to Custer county hi May, 1885, and for one 
or two years worked on a ranch. He started 
farming operations for himself as soon as pos- 
sible and three years after coming to the 
county bought a relinquishment known as the 
Jean Reed timber claim, on which he still 
lives. He developed the farm, put on all the 



improvements himself and today has an un- 
usually well improved place. 

In 1892 he was married to Mary E. Twiggs, 
a daughter of James L. and Eliza E. (Allan) 
Twiggs. Mrs. Coltrane's parents came to the 
county in 1882 and homesteaded three miles 
north of Sargent. In their family were ten 
children, seven of whom are still living. 

Into the family circle of Mr. and Mrs. Col- 
trane six children have been born : Clarence 
M. married Bessie Smith of Loup City and is 
now employed by the National Supply Com- 
pany at Casper, Wyoming. Loyd A. married 
Pearl Correll and is homesteading at Proctor, 
Colorado. Esther E. is teaching school. 
Clark K., Lewis L., and Hugh H. are at home. 

On the Coltrane farm considerable atten- 
tion is paid to Poland-China hogs and short- 
horn cattle, both lines of which are well rep- 
resented in fashionable types, and this breed- 
ing has been a source of profit to Mr. Coltrane. 
Mrs. Coltrane gives especial attention to 
White Plymouth Rock chickens and has a 
classy flock parading the barnyard. 

The needs of the country as represented in 
all patriotic war drives have appealed to the 
Coltranes and they have responded liberally 
to every call. They are patriotic, hospitable, 
courteous and maintain a reputation as good 
neighbors and excellent citizens. 



EUGENE S. SIMS. — Over in the north- 
east section of the county, in the Comstock 
region, lives an unassuming fanner who de- 
serves well the rewards of labor and sacrifice 
and who has given to Custer county the ser- 
vice of his best years. 

Eugene S. was born in Avoca, Iowa, March 
17, 1880. His parents were George W. and 
Lucy (Eglebarger) Sims. The father was a 
native of Henry county, Illinois, and the 
mother's native state was Iowa. The father 
was a farmer and came to Custer county in. 
1894. Prior to his advent into this county he 
had farmed in Iowa and Missouri. During 
the Civil war he enlisted in the Federal army 
and served three years, was twice slightly 
wounded and once taken prisoner. By 
strange coincidence his enlistment into the 
army was on his birthday, his discharge was 
dated on his birthday and his death occurred 
on the anniversary of his birth. There were 
ten children in the family, but Eugene S. is 
the only one living in Custer county. One 
brother was killed in the Philippine war and 
one, Basil, is now serving in the aviation de- 
partment of the United States army in 
Europe. 

Eugene received his education in the Iowa 



1036 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



public schools and in that state too he rolled 
his first furrow and followed his first plough. 
It was there that he learned both the theory 
and practice of farming and qualified himself 
for his present operations. 

His domestic life dates from the 2d day of 
November, 1902, when he led to the altar and 
claimed as his wife Letha E. Coover. She 
is the daughter of Jesse B. and Sarah 
(Hayes) Coover. The Coovers are well- 
known people in the vicinty of Muddy Valley, 
where they were pioneers since 1888. In the 
Coover family were seven children, but with 
the exception of Mrs. Sims none lives in Cus- 
ter county. Mr. and Mrs. Sims have an in- 
teresting family of young and growing child- 
ren. Merle was born August 19, 1903 ; Pearl, 
July 10, 1905 : CTen, August 18, 1907 ; Paul, 
September 14, 1914. 

Since 1894 Mr. and Mrs. Sims have been 
residents of Custer county. The 160 acres of 
land upon which he is living was purchased 
with the result of his own toil. He has it 
well improved, in a high state of cultivation 
and makes profitable returns from his stock- 
raising and feeding. Politically Mr. Sims 
affiliates with the Republican party. His wife 
is a member of the Christian church. He 
belongs to the Odd Fellows and also to the 
Woodmen of the World. The Sims family 
are modest, unpretentious people and enjoy a 
reputation for honesty and frugality that 
ranks them well in the communitv. 



SAMUEL WADDINGTON. — Among 
those who have contributed largely to the pros- 
perity of Custer county, and whose patient in- 
dustry and well directed energ}' have brought 
individual competencies, may be mentioned 
Samuel Waddirigton, who is one of the ex- 
tensive land-owners of the county. 

Mr. Waddington was born in Tuscarawas 
county, Ohio, June 12. 1850. His father, James 
Waddington, was a native of England and 
when a lx)y accompanied his parents to the 
United States, settling in Harrison county, 
Ohio, in 1835. There he grew to manhood 
and there he married Lydia Boreland. after 
which event he Ijccame a resident of Tuscara- 
was county, where he made his home until 
1886, when he came to Custer countv. Ne- 
braska, and secured the homestead on which he 
lived until his death. His wife passed away 
in Illinois and is buried in Custer county. They 
were the parents of sixteen children, as fol- 
lows: Hannah, who is deceased, was the wife 
of William \'. True, of Colfax. Colorado: 
Elizabeth married C. F. Carroll, and her death 



occurred in Ohio, in 1917; Grace married C. 
C. Carroll and resides at Oconee, Illinois ; Sam- 
uel is the subject of this sketch ; Burgarell 
died in Colorado, in ^lay, 1918 ; Eleanor is the 
wife of T. P. Bane and resides at Arrowsmith, 
Illinois: David is a resident of 0:onee, Illi- 
nois ; Henry lives at Riverside, California ; 
Andrew resides at Fowler, Colorado : Nancy 
is the wife of Abram Taylor, a resident of 
South Dakota ; Ann. widow of William Scott, 
resides at Fowler, Colorado ; Isaac died in 
Custer county, twelve years ago ; John died 
in Idaho, three years ago ; James is a resident 
of Montana; William S. resides in Custer 
county ; and one daughter died in childhood. 

Samuel \\'addington was reared to the 
sturdy discipline of the farm, in Ohio and Illi- 
nois, and when a young man liegan working 
on a farm by the month. In 1888 he came to 
Custer county and secured as a homestead 
the northeast quarter of section 14, township 
18, range 23, besides which he pre-empted 160 
acres — the east half of the northeast quarter 
and the east half of the southeast quarter of 
section 11 of this township. He was de- 
sirous of obtaining a good, level tract of 
land, and this seemed to answer the purpose. 
Here he was engaged in general farming until 
the dry years came on, when he made u]) his 
mind that stock-raising would be more suit- 
able to this part of the county. Consequently 
he invested in young stock, and from the first 
his enterprise began to prosper. As his re- 
sources increased, he invested in more land, 
and he is to-day the owner of 3.800 acres, all 
in one body and known as Waddington Ranch. 
This land lies in townships 18 and 19. range 
23, and is especially adapted for stock-raising. 
In past years Mr. \\'addington has operated 
extensively in raising and feeding cattle, and 
for many years past he has raised pure-bred 
Percheron horses, owning at the present time 
some very fine animals. 

Mr. \\"ad(ling'ton was united in marriage to 
Miss Margaret OUiver, a native of the same 
neighborh(x:)d as her husband. Their home 
has been blessed with seven children : Nettie 
is the wife of M. S. Cooper, of Blaine county, 
Nebraska ; Carrie married Chalmers G. Emp- 
field, of .\nselmo : Eva married Levi Empfield 
and resides in Callaway : Bert is married and 
engaged in farming in Custer county ; Jennie 
married Albert Hill and resides in Custer 
count)' ; McKinley is still at home : and Ada 
is the wife of John Schmitz, of Custer county. 

Mr. Waddington may truthfully be called 
a self-made man, as he never had a dollar 
given to him and all he has accumulated has 
been won through his own efforts and good 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1037 



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Samuei. W'addin'gtox 



1038 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



management. He is not a member of any 
religious denomination but is inclined to a be- 
lief in harmony with the Methodist faith. 
His political views are in accord with the 
principles of the Republican party. At the 
age of sixty-eight years he is a man well pre- 
served, still active in the work of the fields 
and ranch, and his circle of friends is co-ex- 
tensive with his circle of acquaintances. 

JOSEPH EXLEY. — A ver>' successful 
farm operator and one who has endured the 
hardships of early days, lives on a well kept 
farm in the Sargent vicinity and is introduced 
to the reader by the name on the headline. 

Joseph Exley was bom near Eddyville, 
Iowa. March 1, 1852. He was the third son 
of Thomas and Cynthia Elizabeth (Lafoon) 
Exley. The father a native of New Castle, 
England, descended from a long line of strict- 
ly Saxon ancestors. The mother was a native 
of North Carolina. Thomas Exley was a 
bookkeeper by profession, having served an 
apprenticeship for seven years in England 
before coming to America. Sometime in the 
year 1841 he came to the United States and 
located near Burlington, Iowa, and immedi- 
ately began farming. The early date of his 
settlement in Iowa enabled him to get govern- 
ment land, which he did, and improved it and 
by what he earned from his homestead he pur • 
chased other land until at one time he owned 
five hundred acres of Iowa land and had it 
well stocked and well improved. He and his 
good wife were the parents of eleven child- 
ren, eight of whom are still living. Joseph 
Exley and Mrs. Ed. Leach of Sargent are the 
only ones living in this county. 

The subject of this writing spent his early 
days in Iowa, where he received the instruction 
afforded by the countr}- schools and where 
he had his first instruction in the art of soil 
culture. He landed in Custer county March 
13, 1884, and filed on the homestead in sec- 
tion 7, township 20, range 18, which is still 
his home. 

He was married September 13, 1877, to 
Charity E. Shores, of Lucas county, Iowa. 
She was a very estimable lady and became the 
companion of his early life, the maker of his 
home and the mother of his six children. In 
1907 she was called from the earthly home 
to that land where rewards are supposed to 
await the faithful. Since her demise the hus- 
band has maintained the farm and the farm 
home, some of his children living with him 
and looking after the internal affairs of the 
household. 

The family roster contains the following 



names of children born into the Exley home: 
Nora Edith, born in 1879, is the wife of Will- 
iam B. Wright, a farmer living west of Tay- 
lor, in Loup countv : Thomas Ira, born in 
1880, died January 7, 1899; Orville Malvin, 
bom in 1883, married Etta Zion, and is op- 
erating a farm east of Sargent ; Cynthia 
\'iola, born in 1885, is single ; Lawrence 
Frederick, bom in 1887, married Jennie Lov- 
ett, and is farming in A\'yoming : Arthur Har- 
den, born in 1894, married Lucy \'anderveen 
and lives on the home place. 

Mr. Exley now owns 320 acres of good 
land, well improved and upon which he makes 
his home, but the active farming operations 
he has delegated to the children. All that is 
to be seen on the Exley fami is the result of 
labor and soil production in the years past. 
We are told that Mr. Exley arrived in Custer 
county with but a small portion of this world's 
goods and that his climbing operations com- 
menced at the bottom rimg of the ladder. His 
children, however, stayed with him and made 
the farm their home until they were twenty- 
one years of age and he credits them with be- 
ing of invaluable assistance. During the years 
of accumulation his reliance was upon toil, 
he never had recourse to speculation, he never 
made traps of dollars with which to catch 
dimes, his labor and his crops paid all his 
bills and put the improvements upon his place. 
There are few more striking examples of 
common thrift and simple energ\- than the 
subject of this sketch affords 

FRANK WOOD. — One of the prominent 
stockmen of the river region in the South 
Loup countn- is Frank Wood, who is now in 
his thirty-sixth year and in the prime of vigor- 
ous manhood. He was born on the old home 
place of which he is now manager. He is a 
son of Joshua Wood, a Custer county pioneer 
who was one of the men who had to do with 
the county's organization. He was elected the 
first sheriff of Custer county, but did not ac- 
cept the office. Joshua Wood is sixt}--six years 
old, in 1918, and lives in Kearney, Nebraska. 
His wife, Etta (Kilgore) \\'ood, mother of 
Frank, came of a prominent pioneer family 
and she is still living. They became the par- 
ents of two sons and one daughter — Walter 
is thirty-nine years of age and is manager of 
one ranch which is operated in connection with 
the Wood holdings : Mrs. Ada Overmire is 
thirty-eight years of age and lives on a farm 
near Cumro ; and Frank, of tliis review, is the 
youngest of the number. 

On the Wood ranch are to be found good 
grades of all kinds of stock, a specialty being 





.^r-r^-zK 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1041 



made of Hereford cattle. Here are to be found 
fine horses and well bred hogs, an automo- 
bile, good farm machinery, fences, windmills, 
and everything in the line of farm and stock 
equipment. 

In 1903 Frank Wood was united in mar- 
riage to Miss Abbie George, a daughter of 
Walter A. George, who is well and prominent- 
ly known throughout the entire state, and who 
served two terms as state treasurer. More 
specific mention of Mr. George will be found 
on other pages of this volume. 

Mr. and Mrs. Wood have two bright sons, 
Leo and Claudie, who are in school and pur- 
suing the course so common to young Ameri- 
cans of their class. Mrs. Wood is a member 
of the Baptist church at Kearney, Nebraska. 

The Wood ranch is one of the oldest and 
most famous in the south part of the county. 
The brothers' holdings comprise approximately 
3,000 acres, and those of the father 3,360 
acres — a tract which, as it comprises river- 
valley land, is exceedingly valuable. They 
own about 1,000 head of cattle, which makes 
theirs one of the largest cattle ranches in the 
county at the present day. 

Mr. Wood and his wife are excellent people 
and are highly respected by a wide circle of 
friends and acquaintances. Patriotic and gen- 
erous of disposition, they have been contrib- 
utors to every department of war work, 
responsive to all appeals and in the production 
of foodstufl^s they belong to that great class 
of American citizens who maintain the bul- 
warks of the production which feeds the army 
and has sustained the allies in the great world 
war. 



ALECK NELSON. — If they come from 
Sweden their credit is good and they are hard 
workers. That is the case with Aleck Nelson, 
whose home and fann are in the vicinity of 
Sargent. He was born in Carlskoga, Sweden, 
November 16, 1845, and is a son of Nels 
Nelson and Mary (Olson) Nelson, both de- 
scendants of a long Swedish ancestral line in 
the country they always lived. The early 
years of Mr. Nelson's career were spent in his 
native land, where he received a good education 
and learned economy by practical application 
of frugal and industrious habits. He came 
to America in 1863, where he made his first 
home and where he began agricultural pur- 
suits as carried on in this country. From 
Illinois he went to Clinton, Iowa, where he 
was employed in general work of various 
kinds for nearly seven years. 

His advent into Custer county occurred in 



the spring of 1879, at which time he filed on 
the homestead on which he has lived ever 
since. He now owns two hundred and forty 
acres of good land, well improved and equip- 
ped so that life for him and his family is much 
easier than in former years, when he was mak- 
ing his start. Mr. Nelson has had his full 
share of pioneer hardships and privations. 
He made eleven trips from his place to Grand 
Island and one from his place to Kearney and 
one to North Loup, with a yoke of oxen. The 
distance traveled in making these journeys 
was two thousand six hundred miles. It 
seems almost impossible that people could 
live under such conditions but it was done. 
These places mentioned were the railroad 
points and nearest markets for the farm pro- 
duce, and the trips had to be made. 

On one occasion he recalls having stopped 
in Ord over night and the only shelter to be 
obtained was an old livery barn, in which he 
had hard work to keep from freezing. Again 
on another occasion he and a neighbor made a 
trip to the Dismal swamps for cedar posts and 
were caught in a blizzard and came near losing 
their lives. 

The great pleasure of his life came in the 
spring of 1871, when he led to the marriage 
altar, in Carroll county, Illinois, Miss Isabel 
Ellis, a young lady of splendid character and 
fine quality, whose parents were natives of 
Scotland, coming to the United States in 1866. 
Mrs. Nelson's parents lived in Illinois from 
the time of their settlement until their death. 
There were two children in the family circle 
of her parents, but she is the only one living 
in Nebraska. 

Into the prosperous home of Mr. and Mrs. 
Nelson the years brought four bright, promis- 
ing children, but from time to time the shad- 
ows fell and only one now survives. Emil 
Nelson married Bertha Buhlke and is now es- 
tablished in a home of his own. He is em- 
ployed in a garage at Burwell, Nebraska. 

This excellent family belongs to the Swed- 
ish Lutheran church. Mr. Nelson is high in 
the circles of Odd Fellowship, of which order 
he has been a member for forty-nine years, 
having passed through all the chairs of the 
local and higher lodges. He is independent in 
politics, and votes always for the man he 
thinks best fitted for the office. 



JOSEPH FAJMON, who is a well known 
farmer and respected citizen of Custer county, 
has largely made his own way in the world, as 
his father died when he was only two years 
old ; nevertheless he owns a large body of pro- 
ductive land and is one of the large grain 



1042 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1043 



farmers of this section. He was born No- 
vember 1, 1872, in Saunders county, Nebraska, 
the elder of two children born to Joseph and 
Mary (Penas) Fajmon. 

The parents of Joseph Fajmon were born in 
Moravia, Austria, and lived there until 1871, 
when they immigrated to the United States. 
They were quiet, industrious people who left 
old ties and old country in the hope of better- 
ing their financial condition in another land. 
After reaching Nebraska, the father home- 
steaded in Saunders county, with the expecta- 
ton of proving up and developing his land into 
a profitable farm. During the first winter he 
worked in a smelter at Omaha, in order to se- 
cure capital with which to begin farming, hav- 
ing to walk the entire distance back and forth, 
on account of there being no railroads of any 
kind at that time in that neighborhood. He 
died in 1874, the father of two children : Jo- 
seph and Mary, the latter of whom is the wife 
of Frank Kosmata, and they live in Missouri. 
The mother lives in Garfield county, Ne- 
braska. 

Joseph Fajmon obtained his education in 
the public schools. He was seventeen years 
of age when he began farming for himself 
and knows how much hard work sometimes 
has to be done for a wage of ten dollars a 
month. He was steadv and industrious and 
gradually acquired land until now he owns 
320 acres, all well improved and fully stocked. 
He has carried on his farming operations con- 
tinuously and intelligently and is a large pro- 
ducer of corn and wheat, the great essentials 
in the year of 1918. Mr. Fajmon can re- 
member occasions during his early agricultural 
life, when he sold com at nine cents a bushel, 
and precious wheat at 35 cents. At that time 
there was but little grain grown in this part 
of the state. Mr. Fajmon's farm is situated 
on section 12, township 1, Custer county. 

Mr. Fajmon was married at Burwell, Ne- 
braska, January 2, 1899, to Miss Mary Kolou- 
sek, a daughter of Frank and Antonia (Po- 
chop) Kolousek, who have two other children, 
namely : Frances, who is the wife of Mike 
Hulinsky, a farmer living in Valley county, 
Nebraska ; and Frank, who is a farmer in Cali- 
fornia, and married Frances Matousek. Mrs. 
Fajmon's parents came to Custer county in 
1884, and secured the homestead on which 
they yet live. Mr. and Mrs. Fajmon have the 
following children : Mary, Phyllis, Anna, 
Rosie, Charles, Emma, Frances, Frank, and 
Lillie. Mr. Fajmon takes interest in all that 
concerns the substantial development of Cus- 
ter county, but has no desire to hold political 
office, and he casts his vote outside of party 



fines but in accordance with his own excellent 
judgment. 

GEORGE C. MARSH is one of the pioneers 
who came to Custer county in the '80s, and 
he has contributed his share to the civic and 
industrial development and upbuilding of the 
county. Mr. Marsh was born in the state of 
Ohio, on the 9th of August, 1860, and is a 
son of George Adam Marsh and Maria (Har- 
ing) Marsh, both of whom were natives of 
the old Buckeye state and each of whom at- 
tained to the age of seventy-three years : they 
became the parents of eight children, of whom 
George C. and Charles are residents of Ne- 
braska, Charles being a farmer in Buffalo 
county. 

George C. Marsh was twelve years of age 
at the time of the family removal from Ohio 
to Indiana, in which latter state he was reared 
to manhood and in which he received the ad- 
vantages of the public schools. He was a 
resident of Marshall county, Indiana, for a 
period of twelve years, and in 1884 he came 
to Nebraska, his arrival in Custer county tak- 
ing place in February of that year, and his 
tangible financial resources at the time having 
been just twelve and one-half dollars. He 
purchased a relinquishment to a claim and later 
filed entry on a timber claim. In 1892 he re- 
moved to the farm which is now his home. 
Mr. Marsh grappled earnestly and vigorously 
with the contending forces that are ever to be 
encountered in the development of a new coun- 
try, bore his share of trials and hardships, but 
he so ordered his course that eventually defi- 
nite success crowned his efforts. That he has 
made good, and more than good, is evidenced 
in his possessions and surroundings of the 
present day. He has 800 acres of good land, 
all clear from indebtedness, and on the same 
he raises good grades of horses and cattle, as 
well as Duroc-Jersey hogs of the best typje. 
His success as an agriculturist and stock- 
raiser has been due to his energy, thrift, and 
good judgment. Aside from his farm enter- 
prise he is a stockholder in the Eddyville State 
Bank, at Eddyville, Dawson county. Through- 
out his entire business career Mr. Marsh has 
adhered firmly to the principle of ordering all 
transactions on a cash basis, and thus he has 
never perniitted himself to become involved 
in perplexing indebtedness. In the early pe- 
riod of his residence in Custer county Mr. 
Marsh worked eight years on the Black ranch, 
of which he was foreman during five years 
of this time. By this employment he earned 
the money to buy his first land. He has been 



1044 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1045 



a man of persistent industry, has been pro- 
gressive and liberal in his civic attitude, has 
achieved worthy success, and has at all times 
commanded unequivocal popular esteem. 

In politics Mr. Marsh gives his allegiance 
to the Democratic party and he has been in- 
fluential in public affairs of a local order. He 
has served in various public offices in his home 
community and was for some time a valued 
member of the board of county comniissioners, 
his frequent election to office indicating the 
high estimate placed upon -him by his fellow 
citizens. Mr. Marsh is affiliated with the Bro- 
ken Bow lodge of the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows, and with the camp of the Modern 
Woodmen of America at Burr Oak. His home 
farm is eligibly situated in section 24, town- 
ship 14, range 20, and he receives his mail on 
one of the rural star-delivery routes from 
Broken Bow. 

The year 1891 recorded the marriage of 
Mr. Marsh to Miss Hattie A. Tidyman, who 
was born in a pioneer dugout in Yo-rk county, 
Nebraska, in 1869, the year of her nativity 
indicating that her parents settled in Nebraska 
prior to the admission of the state to the Union. 
Mr. and Airs. Marsh have five children, con- 
cerning whom brief record is offered in con- 
clusion of this review : Mrs. Lottie Coen re- 
sides in Torrington, Wyoming; Mrs. Alta Ab- 
bott is the wife of a prosperous Custer county 
farmer ; Essie remains at the parental home ; 
Clarence Ellsworth is operating one of his 
father's farms ; and Harvey George remains 
a member of the parental home circle. 



ROBERT N. KEYES. — Over in the vi- 
cinity of Sargent lives Robert N. Keyes, whose 
life story is here epitomized. Robert was 
born in Wisconsin, the northern state that 
puts iron and vigor into the blood of its na- 
tive born sons and daughters. The date of 
this event was March 8, 1875. His father 
was Benjamin Keyes and his mother Lida T. 
(Tascot) Keyes. 

The father was a native of Wisconsin and 
the mother was born in the Empire state. Mr. 
Keyes, senior, followed farming in Wisconsin 
until 1883. when he came with his family to 
Custer county and located a homestead in sec- 
tion 7, township 20, range 18, where he lived 
until the spring of 1891, when he moved to 
Broken Bow, where he died the next year. The 
family retained their home in the county seat 
until 1894. During their stay in Broken Bow, 
after the death of the father, two sisters of Mr 
Keyes died the same year, after which the fam- 
ily returned to the farm. Notwithstanding it 



was the dry year of '94, they went to work and 
have made that place their home ever since. 
The only child in the family of the senior 
Keyes now living is the subject of this sketch. 
The family were members of the Baptist 
church. Mr. Keyes during his life time voted 
the Republican ticket. 

Robert N. received his education in the dis- 
trict schools and by actual experience and hard 
knocks learned the science of farming and 
the care of stock. It was in early youth that 
he laid the foundations of present day suc- 
cess by the formation of good and industrious 
habits. 

He was married June 2, 1904, to Maude 
Willhort. in Round Valley. She is a 
daughter of Emanuel and Louisa (Paxton) 
Willhort. The Willhort family were old 
settlers and well respected in their community. 
Before her marriage Mrs. Keyes was a teacher 
and taught one term in the vicinity of her 
present home. 

As a result of this union seven children 
were born, six of whom are still living, mak- 
ing some sign and cheer for the home. They 
are Pearl, Ralph, Alfred, Alloma, Mabel, and 
Robert. 

The Keyes farm is the home of Durham 
cattle of fine and selected grades. Other 
stock, as hogs and cattle, complete the comple- 
ment and sustain the high grade. The farm 
consists of three hundred and twenty acres, 
about equally divided between pasture and 
cultivated lands. This proportion makes it 
a splendid stock farm and a very profitable 
one as well. 

The neighbors speak highly of the Keyes 
family and rate them as helpful members of 
the community. Mr. Keyes is independent in 
politics and pays attention to the qualities of 
the candidate rather than the party to which 
he belongs. 



GEORGE AIARY. — One of the foremost 
citizens of Custer county is George Mary, who 
is vice-president of the Oconto State' Bank 
and proprietor of a hardware and implement 
business at this place, and who has been iden- 
tified with Nebraska development for more 
than thirty years. He was reared at Cleveland, 
Ohio, and he remained with his parents until 
he was twenty-one years of age. in the mean- 
while attending school and learning the wheel- 
wright trade. 

In 1877 Mr. Mary came as far west as Wich- 
ita. Kansas, where he operated a meat market 
for three years. He then sought a business 
opportunity at Carroll, Iowa, where he worked 



1046 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, 'NEBRASKA 



for a time as a carpenter and also was a clerk 
in a hardware store. In 1884 he came to 
Custer county, Nebraska, where for two years 
he conducted a meat market at Lexington. In 
the summer of 1886, after obtaining the con- 
tract to furnish meat to Kilpatrick Brothers 
& Collins, contractors on the Burlington Rail- 
road, he moved to Broken Bow. and subse- 
quently he followed the railroad into the heart 
of the sand-hill country. When ready to be- 
come a permanent settler, Mr. Mary took a 
homestead which included a_ part of the town 
of Mullins, which later became the county seat 
of the then unorganized county of Hooker. 
There he became a citizen of public promi- 
nence and influence, and he ser^'ed as the first 
county clerk of Hooker county. In 1892 he 
came to C^conto and established his general 
hardware and agricultural-implement business. 
He accepted the office of vice-president of the 
Oconto State Bank, and additionally finds 
part of his time occupied in superintending 
his ranch property, comprising 1,300 acres. 
Mr. Mary has one son, George J., who was 
for four years cashier of the Oconto State 
Bank, and who, in connection with our nation's 
participation in the world war, entered the 
national army, as a member of Battery C, 
Three Hundred and Thirty-ninth Field Artil- 
lery, which was first stationed at Camp Dodge, 
Iowa. 

Mr. Mary, like many another successful bus- 
iness man, sometimes refers to boyhood days, 
when the acquisition of even a meager amount 
of capital w-as a matter of considerable efifort. 
for he grew up during Civil-war days and 
money for any purpose was not plentiful. 
Therefore when, by running errands, he had 
accumulated the sum of sixty-five cents, he felt 
reasonably rich, and being then, as now, pa- 
triotic, he determined to hide his wealth until 
the Fourth of July, when all of it could be 
expended for fire-crackers. At that time little 
coin was in circulation, small amounts being 
paid in "shinplaster," war-time paper money, 
and such currency constituted Mr. ^Mary's 
"hank roll" that he carefully hid for safekeep- 
ing, in a convenient pigeon coop. There are 
many tragedies in life and perhaps one of 
these may have been the finding of a mouse 
nest in the pigeon coop, on the Fourth of July, 
instead of the little paper-money roll so con- 
fidently hidden. 



AAIOS C. McININCH, who maintains a 
high standing among the substantial farmers 
of Custer county, is one of the native sons of 
Nebraska who have won success in the state 



of their nativity. The narrative of his career 
bears no thrilling chapters, but is a record of 
practical industry and capable management in 
agricultural matters and of sterling and public- 
spirited citizenship in civic aflfairs. 

Mr. Mclninch was born in Nemaha county, 
Nebraska, January 16, 1866, a son of Ben- 
jamin F. and Eliza (Kennedy) Mclninch. His 
father was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, 
and as a young man went to Buchanan county, 
Missouri, where he met and married Miss Eliza 
Kennedy, who hacf been taken by her parents 
to Missouri from her native state of Indiana. 
For a time the father farmed in Missouri, but 
at the tirne of the first free elections in Kan- 
sas he went to that state to see what was go- 
ing on, but not to live there. Subsequently, 
in 1856, he pushed on to the frontier of Ne- 
braska and settled in Nemaha county. He and 
his worthy and courageous wife were possessed 
of nothing but a yoke of steers and twenty- 
five cents in money, and they were in a dan- 
gerous country, where Indians, not always to 
be depended upon in those days, were their 
nearest neighbors ; but they resolutely worked 
out their own problems and achieved success, 
developing a good farm and establishing a 
home. Mr. Mclninch passed the rest of his 
life there and died on the farm, while his 
widow, now in advanced years, still makes her 
home there. Mr. Mclninch was prominent in 
Republican politics. Although his district nor- 
mally gave 600 Democratic majority, he was 
for twenty-eight years supervisor and was 
known far and wide as "Old Honest Frank." 
He was a Quaker in his religious faith, and 
his wife belonged to the Methodist Episcopal 
church, both having been highly respected and 
esteemed in their community. Of their eight 
children, seven are living: Mrs. Cora Wait, 
of Cairo, Nebraska ; J. W., a farmer of the 
Mason City community; Amos C, of this re- 
view: Otto S., a farmer in the neighborhood 
of Mason City; Frances J., the wife of James 
Rariden and living on her father's old place 
in Nemaha county; Belle, the wife of Bert 
Whitlow, of Auburn, Nebraska : and B. F., liv- 
ing on the old home place. 

Amos C. ]\lclninch received his education 
in the district schools of Nemaha county and 
the Nebraska State Normal School at Peru, 
and he began life as a farmer. He remained 
with his parents until he was twenty-seven 
years of age. at which time, in 1892. he came 
to Custer county and purchased school land. 
This he subsequently sold, and he then bought 
his present property, near Mason City, where 
he has made many fine improvements and es- 
tablished a record as one of the most thorough, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1047 



systematic, and successful farmers of his lo- 
cality. He maintains a lively and discriminat- 
ing interest in public alifairs, but merely as a 
good citizen and not as a seeker for personal 
preferment at the hands of any party or of his 
fellow citizens. 



VINCENT J. STEDRY. — Among the 
few pioneer agriculturists of Custer county 
who still reside on their homesteads is Vin- 
cent J. Stedry, who during his long residence 
here has worked out an admirable destiny 
and drawn about him, for the comfort and 
happiness of his later years, such substantial 
compensations as material independence, the 
credit for having contributed largely to the 
general development of the community, and 
the confidence and good will of his business 
and social associates. 

Mr. Stedry was born May 5. 1846, in Bo- 
hemia, and is a son of Joseph and Mary 
Stedry, there being four sons and four daugh- 
ters in the family, of whom he was the fourth 
child in order of birth. In 1854 the father 
brought his wife and six children to the 
United States and settled at Baltimore, from 
which city he enlisted for service in the Civil 
War, as a musician in the Third Regiment, 
Maryland Volunteer Infantry. After two 
years of service he was given an honorable 
discharge, because of physical disability, and 
returned to Baltimore, in which city the fam- 
ily continued to reside until 1870 — the year 
of their removal to Watertown, Wisconsin. 
There the father died in 1883, while the 
mother survived him for many years and 
passed away in California, in 1909. 

After attending the public schools of Balti- 
more, Vincent J. Stedry took a course in the 
University of Wisconsin, and in 1879, he 
came to Saline county, Nebraska, where his 
first employment was as a clerk in the post- 
office at Crete. He also taught in the public 
schools for about eleven years, and in con- 
nection with his educational work served some 
time as deputy register of deeds and in other 
positions in the Cv jrt house. While still a 
resident of Saline county, he married, Septem- 
ber 3, 1883, Miss Annie Karten. In the year 
following his marriage, he took up a home- 
stead on the southwest quarter of section 3, 
township 16, range 21, Custer county, but in 
1885 he went back to Saline county and did 
not return to his Custer county homestead 
until 1887, since which time he has continued 
to be engaged in agricultural pursuits here. 
He is now the owner of more than a section 
of land, upon which he has many good im- 
provements, but for a long time after he had 



become financially independent he continued 
to live in his little "soddy." The success 
which he has attained in his ventures has been 
due to his unfailing industry, his able man- 
agement of his affairs and the progressive 
ideas which he has brought into play in his 
operations. 

Mr. Stedry is one of the best known men 
of Custer county, particularly among tho=e 
Ijorn in his native land, for whom he has 
frequently acted as interpreter. In 1899 he 
was appointed oil inspector for Nebraska, by 
Governor Poynter, and he represented his dis- 
trict in that capacity in a capable manner. 
From the time that he was a teacher in the 
rural schools, he has been interested in all 
educational movements, and much of the prog- 
ress made in this direction in Custer county 
has been due to his efforts. Mr. Stedry sus- 
tained a severe loss in the death of his faith- 
ful wife, who passed away September 30, 
1909, leaving to mourn her loss a wide circle 
of friends, as well as her husband and their 
three children — Vincent, Ruby, and Oliver. 



JOHN S. McGRAW has been a resident 
of Custer county since 1880, and during the 
period of his stay here has had experiences, 
from roughing it in the pioneer days to being a 
participant in the prosperity and modern con- 
ditions of the progressive present. During 
the past ten years he has been engaged in 
handling real estate and loans at Broken Bow, 
and his faith and belief in his community have 
been generated by his own success. 

Mr. McGraw was born September 29, 1867, 
near Wabash, Indiana, a son of James Mc- 
Graw. His father was born in Ireland, in 
1843, and was six months old when he left his 
native land with his parents, John and Mary 
McGraw. The ship on which they had taken 
passage met with serious trouble and was all 
but wrecked, so that the family did not ar- 
rive at their destination, the town of Cobourg, 
county of Northumberland, Ontario, Canada, 
for six weeks. James McGraw was reared as 
a farmer, but when he was about seventeen 
years of age ran away from home and came 
to the United States, where, not long there- 
after, he enlisted in the Union army for ser- 
vice in the Civil war. He fought about three 
years in that struggle, being in a number of 
important engagements and receiving his hon- 
orable discharge at the end of the war, at 
which time he went to Wabash, Indiana, and 
engaged in farming. There he was married 
in 1866, to Frances Walker, a daughter of 
Cornelius Walker, a farmer and stockman 
from Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. McGraw immi- 



1043 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1049 



grated to Custer county, Nebraska, during the 
spring of 1880 and secured a homestead near 
Gates, which Mr ]\IcGraw still owns, being 
one of the men whose well-directed labors 
have resulted in success. He is a Republican 
in politics. 

As a lad John S. ^IcGraw Ijegan his wage- 
earning experience in the business of herding 
stock for Harvey B. Andrews, on Lillian 
creek. He has a rather vivid recollection of 
his first efforts in this direction, and is not 
very proud of his first accomplishments. 
When he was sent to herd a mixed bunch of 
horses, cattle and sheep, Mr. Andrews gave 
him a Texas mustang jjony and cautioned him 
under no circumstances to let go his hold on 
his mount. Familiarity breeds contempt, 
however, and the youth became careless as to 
his instructions, with the result that before he 
knew what was hajipening his pony was at 
liberty and kicking uj) its heels as it went over 
a sand-hill, seemingly saying: "Good bye, 
John." and making on a bee-line for the main 
Laughran ranch, eighteen miles up the river. 
Then Mr. McGraw's troubles began. The 
cattle cleaned up a field of corn belonging to 
J. N. Dryden before they could be stopped: 
the sheep ate up the corn crop belonging to 
A. J. Pearl, at the mouth of Victoria creek, 
and after the youthful herder had tried first 
to head off the cattle and then to round up the 
sheep, the horses stampeded and followed the 
mustang to the upper ranch. The youth, 
finally becoming discouraged and disgusted, 
jumped his position and footed it home, about 
a mile and a half away. Later on, he was 
more successful in his labors as a herder, for 
the impression left on his mind was a strong 
one, and for ten years he worked on various 
ranches in this locality. During this time he 
remembers when the wheat used in the mak- 
ing of flap-jacks was ground in a coftee mill, 
and he also has recorded that from Luce Can- 
yon, near Anselmo, he cut the first flag-pole 
used in a celebration at Broken Bow. His 
education was acquired through attendance at 
the district schools during the winter months, 
and gradually he accumulated capital through 
his labors until he finally engaged in farming 
on his own account. He still has a fine home 
near Gates, on the property which, he owns 
there. In 190S he came to Broken Bow and 
established the real estat? and loan business, 
of which he is still the head, and which he has 
built up to large and important proportions. 
Mr. McGraw is what is termed a live wire, 
and expresses it as his belief that Custer 
countv has all others l)eaten when it comes 
to right prices. 

Mr. McGraw was married at Gates, Ne- 



braska, March 8, 1894, to Miss Lydia E. 
Brown, and they are the parents of one child : 
Mildred M. They are consistent members of 
the Methodist Episcopal church, and Mr. Mc- 
Graw is a member of the Woodmen and a Ma- 
son of hiffh standing, as well as a Shriner. 



OR\'ILLE H. MAZE. — More than thirty- 
five years have passed since Orville H. Maze 
first came to Custer county, but he is still ac- 
tively interested in agricultural pursuits, and 
devotes himself to overseeing operations on 
his large farm north of Lodi. although his 
own home is in Callaway. At the time of his 
arrival he was a young married man without 
other capital than that represented by his am- 
bition and self-confidence, while to-day he is 
one of the substantial men of his locality and 
a factor in the life of his home vicinity. Mr. 
]\Iaze was born August 30, 1860, in Rush 
countv, Indiana, and is a son of Wesley A. and 
Sarah B. ( Pratt ) Maze. 

Wesley A. Maze was born in X'irginia, but 
as a young man went to Indiana, where he 
married Miss Sarah B. Pratt, their union re- 
sulting in the birth of five children, of whom 
four are living: Matthew T.. Orville H., Wes- 
ley B., and Mrs. Etta J. Bolton. Orville H. 
Maze received his education in the public 
schools and grew up on the home farm near 
Sharpsville. his first employment being drop- 
ping corn by hand, this to be covered with a 
hoe, for which he received a wage of fifteen 
cents per day. He remained on the home 
farm until his marriage, January 13, 1883, to 
^liss Ida M. Thomas, at Tipton, Indiana. She 
is a daughter of James A. and Mary E. 
Thomas, farnfing people of Indiana. 

In the spring of 1883, soon after their mar- 
riage, Mr. and Mrs. Maze received the in- 
spiration to try their fortunes in the west, 
and decided upon Custer county as their field 
of endeavor. They accordingly came to this 
county and located just north of the present 
site of Lodi, where they riiade their home for 
many years. Like other pioneers, they had to 
face hardships and overcome obstacles, but 
they were industrious and persevering, and in 
the end success rewarded their efforts. They 
are now the owners of 437 acres of farm land 
and 640 acres of school land, the farm being 
very productive and handsomely improved. 
Mr. I\Iaze still superintends operations on the 
land, but he and Mrs. Maze reside in their 
attractive, modern home at Callaway, where 
they are surrounded by every comfort and 
convenience — in striking contrast with their 
early days in Custer county, when they had to 



1050 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



be content with the merest necessities of Hfe. 
Mr. Maze has not only been an active agri- 
culturist, carrying- on extensive operations in 
farming and stock-raising, but has also been 
identified with important business interests and 
was manager of tlie Callaway Shipping Asso- 
ciation for ten years. He and his wife are 
earnest Christians and live their religion every 
day, Mr. Maze having been Sunday-school 
superintendent for a quarter of a centur)\ 
Three years ago he was a delegate to the 
United Evangelical conference at Barrington. 
Illinois, and in 1918 he was elected delegate 
to the general conference, held in October, 
at York, Pennsylvania. He is affiliated with 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and 
the Modem Woodmen of America. His rep- 
utation as a business man of sound and strict 
integrity, and as a helpful and constructive 
citizen, is finnly established. 

Concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. 
Maze, the following brief record is given : 
Cecil E. is deceased. Flossie P. is the wife 
of Hilmer Kolbo, proprietor of the Harry 
Evans garage, in the western part of Calla- 
way. Mr. and Mrs. Kolbo are members of the 
Lutheran church, and are the parents of three 
daughters and one son. Blanche B. is the 
wife of Silas B. Hoffman, foreman of the Gil- 
christ Lumber Company at Callaway. They 
are members of the Evangelical church, and 
are the parents of two daughters and two 
sons. Wesley E., who is the lessee of the Mrs. 
John Johnston farm, south of Callaway, mar- 
ried Effa Hanley. a daughter of Benjamin 
F. and Lona Hanley, the fonner a cousin of 
ex-Governor Hanley, of Indiana. Mr. and 
Mrs. Wesley E. Alaze are members of the 
L^nited Evangelical church and are the parents 
of one son and one daughter. Matthew H., 
who is a farmer and stockman on his father's 
ranch northwest of Lodi, married .Ada Myers, 
daughter of Elmer F. Myers, and they are 
members of the United Evangelical church, 
their oidy child being a daughter. Ruth R. 
is the wife of Troy Myers, who is farming 
his mother's land, two miles northwest of Cal- 
laway. They are members of the United 
Evangelical church, and are the parents of 
one daughter. The sons and sons-in-law are 
all independent in their political affiliations. 
Mr. Hoffman is an Odd Fellow, and Mr. 
Myers is a member of the Modern Woodmen 
of America. Wesley E. and Matthew H. 
Maze and Troy Myers were all listed in Class 
4 of the draft for the national army. 

Mr. Maze is a sterling Custer county citizen 
who has advanced himself from small begin- 
nings to high position, and the honorable 



manner in which he has done so has gained 
and held for him the respect of his fellow 
citizens. 



GEORGE R. RUSSOM. — When the Civil 

war came on the step-father of Mr. Russom 
enlisted in the Confederate army and was a 
member of Company C, One Hundred Forty- 
fifth Regiment, North Carolina infantry. He 
was taken prisoner and died in the military 
prison at Elmira, New York. After he left 
home Mr. Russom's mother did her best to 
support her children and he remembers when 
she worked for 75 cents a week binding swaths 
in a wheat field, he helping by running behind 
the two cradlers and putting the sheaves to- 
gether so that she could bind them. Thus he 
earned his first money and was able to buy a 
coveted rubber ball as the result of his work. 
In 1866 he accompanied his mother and the 
children to Delaware county, Indiana, where 
they lived four years and then moved to Hun- 
tington county and settled on forty acres of 
heavily timbered land. He was only seven- 
teen years old when he cleared off six acres of 
this land and by 1870 the family had a com- 
fortable story-and-a-half hewed-log house, 
he having chopped down the timber with 
which to build it. Mr. Russom labored hard 
during his early years of manhood, working 
in the timber, cutting and hauling logs and 
making staves and wagon and bugg\' spokes 
during the winters and farming in the sum- 
mers. With this record of industry-, it can 
hardly be said that he did not do well in In- 
diana, but the opening up of desirable sec- 
tions in Nebraska, seemed to offer better op- 
portunities for the homeseeker, and in 1883 
Mr. Russom came to Custer county, where he 
has lived ever since. He located four and one- 
half miles northwest of Broken Bow and his 
home tract contains 800 acres, on which he 
has one of the handsomest residences to be 
found in the county. 

Mr. Russom was married June 14. 1874, in 
Huntington county, Indiana, to Miss Marv J. 
Pope, a daughter of Robert and Mar)- A. 
(^lartin) Pope, the fonner of whom was born 
in the state of New York. There are five 
survivors of the Pope family, namely : Mc- 
Clellan, James R., Louis, Mrs. Margaret James 
and Mrs. Russom. Mr. and Mrs. Russom 
have a large and vigorous family and many 
of their children have homes not far distant 
from the homestead and all are well settled 
in life. The family record reads as follows: 
.\thelda M., who is the wife of Charles Bran- 
denburg, a farmer in Gage county, Oklahoma, 
and they have two sons and three daughters ; 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1051 



Coriiina E., who is the wife of Frank E. Tay- 
lor, who is the leading photographer of 
Broken Bow, and they have two daughters 
and one son ; Liiki B., who is the wife of 
Lewis Gift, who is a farmer three miles east 
of New Helena, in Custer county, and they 
have two sons and three daughters ; Leota C. 
who is the wife of Amos B. Lewis, who is a 
ranchman near Climax, Nebraska, and they 
have three daughters and two sons ; Viola, 
who is a twin sister of Leota C, is the wife 
of Jacob F. Clinebell, whose farm joins that 
of Mr. Russom on the southwest: by a for- 
mer marriage Mrs. Clinebell had two children 
and has two by her second marriage ; William 
G. R., who is a carpenter, at Scottsbluflf, Ne- 
braska, married Rhoda, daughter of Samuel 
Brown, and they have one child: John R., 
who is a farmer and lives in Broken Bow, 
married Glendora. daughter of Charles Rec- 
tor : George A., who operates on his father's 
land five miles northwest of Broken Bow. 
married Virginia, daughter of Peter L'Amor- 
eaux, and they have two sons ; Edna, who is 
the wife of Emery Beal, who is a son of El- 
gin Beal and a farmer six miles northwest of 
Broken Bow, and they have one child ; Fred 
L., who operates his father's land three miles 
northwest of Broken Bow, married Cora A., 
a daughter of Allen Reyner, and they have a 
daughter : Walter V., who is in the aviation 
branch of the National army, training now 
at Vancouver; and lone, who is the wife of 
Elwood Pelkey, who is a fanner on his father's 
home place. Mr. and Mrs. Pelkey have one 
son. 

Recently he has bought another tract, of 
800 acres, situated eight miles west of Broken 
Bow, to be utilized as a cattle ranch. As 
mentioned above, Mr. Russom has progressive 
ideas and is enterprising and thorough in the 
carrying on of his industries, and, realizing 
the public value of county fairs in an agricul- 
tural section, he has encouraged such organiza- 
tions and ably assisted in their management 
at Broken Bow. On account of the superior- 
ity of his exhibits he has carried off manv 
prizes and twice won blue ribbons at the, state 
fair. '■D, 



JOSEPH URBAN. — In the region of 
Comstock there are many very thrifty Bo- 
hemian families ; for the most part they are 
verv' desirable citizens and prosperous so far 
as this world's goods are concerned. To this 
contingent belongs Joseph Urban who was 
born in Bohemia April 15, 1873. He is the 
second son of James and Frances (Barta) 
Urban, both of whom were natives of Bo- 



hemia who journeyed from their native land 
in 1882, and crossing a continent of land and 
water settled in Fillmore cotinty, Nebraska, 
where they lived for five years. After that 
they moved to Valley county, in a covered 
wagon drawn by a yoke of oxen. Here they 
homesteaded a quarter section of land, upon 
which they made their home until about 1910. 
Then selling their place, they moved to Corn- 
stock where they are living at the present tim'e. 
The father is 77 years of age and the mother 
70. They are the parents of nine children, 
eight of whom are still living: James lives in 
Saline county, his wife being Fannie Barta; 
Joseph was the second ; John married Emma 
Zeblodial and lives at Prague, Oklahoma; 
Frank married Barbara Matousek and lives 
near Burwell ; Charlie married Frances Vale- 
sek and lives east of Comstock; Emil married 
Rosa Kluna and lives on a farm near Com- 
stock ; William married Ella Zeblodial and 
lives near Comstock ; Mary married Fred 
Nemeskel and is living north of Comstock; 
Frances married Emil Pleva but is now de- 
ceased. The family were for the most part 
Democratic in politics and members of the 
Catholic church. 

Joseph Urban received his education in the 
public schools of Valley county and has fol- 
lowed farming all his life, in which he has been 
more than usually successful. He has a good 
wife to whom is due a large part of the 
credit, for successes achieved. He was mar- 
ried in February, 1898, to Mary Krumal, the 
daughter of George and Anna (Veracek) 
Kramal. The Krumals were early settlers of 
this county, later moving to Omaha but now 
residing in Burwell. Born into the family 
home of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Urban are 
seven bright children, all of whom give prom- 
ise of developing into useful, desirable citi- 
zens. They are Joe, Louis, Albert, George, 
Ella. Rudolph, and Lizzie. All are at home 
under the parental roof and assist in the af- 
fairs of the fami. When the farming opera- 
tions of the Urbans began, they had nothing. 
His first attempt at farming w;as done alto- 
gether on borrowed capital but by the appli- 
cation of sound judgment, strict economy, and 
tireless energy, he made it pay. Today he 
owns 800 acres of good land, has splendid 
stock, some white-faced thoroughbred cattle, 
Duroc Jersey hogs and all the stock indicates 
good care and attention. His land is in three 
separate tracts, two of which have good im- 
provements. Looking back over the past he 
complains of but few crop failures. These 
were due to drouth and chinch bugs, but these 
losses fortunately came at a time when grain 
was raised in other sections and was conse- 



1052 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 




c 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1053 



quently cheap. The only offices he has ever 
held have been of a local nature. He was 
road overseer of his district for several years. 
He is a member of the Catholic church, as is 
the family, a member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows and of the Z. C. B. J., 
a Bohemian lodge. 



GEORGE T. MILLIGAN. — One of Cus- 
ter county's successful and well-to-do citizens 
whose present prosperous condition is due to 
his own industry and good judgment, is the 
gentleman whose name introduces this para- 
graph. 

Mr. Milligan is a native of Michigan, and 
was born near Port Huron, St. Clair county. 
He is a son of William and Elizabeth (Bur- 
ton) Milligan. The father was born in Ire- 
land and was left an orphan when only a boy. 
At the age of sixteen years he ran away from 
his native land and became a resident of 
Canada. There he met and married Miss 
Elizabeth Burton, and soon after this event 
he came to the states and became a farmer 
in St. Clair county, Michigan. When his son 
George was only one year old he moved to 
Macomb county, where he opened up a new 
farm, and he continued to be engaged in ag- 
ricultural pursuits during the remainder of 
his life, passing away in 1893, at the age of 
seventy-six years. His wife, who was a na- 
tive of Canada, passed away in Macomb 
county. ^Michigan, in 1890 at the age of sixty- 
five years. 

George T. Milligan was reared in his native 
state and when a young man of eighteen years 
came to Nebraska, arriving in Custer county 
September 2i, 1885. After paying stage fare 
from Kearney to Broken Bow he had the 
sum of two dollars and fifty cents. He at 
once made his way to Ortello valley, Custer 
county, where he found employment as a farm 
hand. When old enough, he secured a home- 
stead on West Table, but a little later he 
relinquished his claim and took a liomestead 
in Eureka valley. This was the scene of his 
activities for twenty-five years, and here he 
was successfully engaged in stock-raising and 
genera] agricultural enterprise. 

About five years ago ]\Ir. Milligan bought 
land near Ansehno, where he built extensive 
iiuprovements and continued to be engaged 
in agricultural pursuits. He and his family 
now reside on a finely improved tract adjoin- 
ing the village of Anselmo, Mrs. Milligan hav- 
ing inherited this farm from her father's 
estate. 

It was in Custer county that the marriage 



of George T. Milligan and Miss ]Mary A. 
Jacquot was solemnized. Mrs. Milligan is a 
native of Illinois, and is a daughter of Nich- 
olas Jacquot, who was an early settler of 
Custer county and whose record will be found 
elsewhere in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Mil- 
ligan have become the parents of five children : 
Zella is the wife of Charles Gladson, who op- 
erates Mr. Milligan's old fann in Eureka 
valley ; William H., who passed away Janu- 
ary 12, 1917, married Margaret iMathews, and 
his widow and two sons now reside at Ar- 
nold : Lizzie is the wife of Loren White, a 
farmer on West Table ; and Mary and Fred 
are at the parental home. 

Mr. and Mrs. Milligan are members of the 
Methodist church and in politics he is a Re- 
publican. He is one of those who came to 
Custer county in the pioneer times, and he has 
seen the country transformed into a well de- 
veloped section, while to the work of progress 
and upbuilding he has contributed his full 
share. From humble circumstances he has 
become a man of means, and to-day he is the 
owner of 1,440 acres of land in Custer county. 
While he has made a success of his under- 
takings, he has not been unmindful of his 
duties of citizenship and he is held in unqual- 
ified esteem by all who know him. 



JOSEPH H. McGUIRE. — Down on a 
splendid farm home in what is now the his- 
torical Powell Canyon, lives the progressive 
scion of a widely known hospitable sire. The 
name in the title line belongs to a pioneer 
family and the immediate subject has been a 
resident of the county ever since he was three 
months of age. This admits him to the ex- 
clusive circle of old timers of early settlers. 

Joseph H. McGuire is a native of Nebraska 
and was bom in Hamilton county, September 
15, 1883. He is the fourth borii of John H. 
and Anna (Davidson) McGuire. The father 
is a native of Illinois, but the mother, like her 
son, is a native of Nebraska. This estimable 
couple are the parents of nine children, eight 
of whom are still living. Aside from Joseph 
H.. they are: .A.rthur, deceased: Bessie Mars: 
Ashton ; Charles F. : Millia Wright : Edwin 
G. ; Alice Muliklin : and Lola, who is single' 
and engaged in the profession of teaching. 
The father and mother came to Custer county 
when Joseph H. was three months old and lo- 
cated a homestead in Powell Canyon, about 
five and one-half miles northeast of Arnold. 
This was their home until a few years ago : 
they retired from active life and are now well 
and comfortably located at Forest Grove, Ore- 



1054 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY, NEBRASKA 



gon. Their Powell Canyon home was one of 
the famous well known homes of the early 
days. It was noted far and wide for its open 
door and whole-souled hospitality. During 
the course of years hundreds of travellers 
found it a comfortable place to spend the night, 
get a good dinner or find shelter from the 
storm. In such a home as this the children 
were raised to manhood and womanhood, and 
it is small wonder that they have developed 
without exception into respected and useful 
citizens. The parents were devoted members 
of the Methodist church. Before retiring in 
his Oregon home, the father disposed of his 
land. Ten hundred and eighty acres of it were 
purchased by Joseph H. and his brother 
Charles F. 

The childhood years of young Joseph were 
spent on the canyon farm and in the canyon 
home he grew to manhood. His education 
was received in the common schools of the 
county and here in early youth he formed the 
early habit of industry and frugality which has 
stood him so well in hand since he has been 
facing the world for himself. 

The first money he remembers making was 
earned by riding a calf, which somebody in- 
discreetly dared him to mount. The fright- 
ened calf ran with him into the barn, where 
young Joseph was scraped ofif the calf and 
considerable skin scraped off his nose at the 
same time. For this achievement he received 
fifteen cents. With fifteen cents in his pocket, 
a scab on his nose didn't count. During his 
early manhood, Joseph fancied that he would 
like to see something of the world and as he 
had an opportunity to travel with a company 
soliciting orders for enlarging pictures, he 
went with them. One year in the employmen'; 
of this company netted some experience, while 
the coin of the realm for the mo.st part went 
to the company. It was perhaps this experi- 
ence that led him to decide on farming for a 
life occupation. 

When reaching his majority he homesteaded 
forty acres adjoining his father's land. To 
this diminuitive tract he has added by pur- 
chase until now his farm home is maintained 
on an eight hundred acre ranch, upon which 
there are good improvements and a fine con- 
tingent of good stock. He has followed di- 
versified farming and has achieved a general 
success. 

The domestic ties of his own home were 
first formed December 14, 1904, when, at 
Merna, Nebraska, he was joined in holy wed- 
lock to Miss Jessie Life, a ver\' estimable 
young lady, a native of the Hoosier state. 
Since their union Mrs. McGuire has not only 
presided over the affairs of the household but 



in every possible way has been an invaluable 
assistant to her husband. They are the happy 
parents of four children : Una F. ; Harry F. ; 
Johnny N. ; and Master Frederick B., who is 
now six years old and is a sturdy young di- 
rector of home affairs. All the children are 
bright and promising candidates for useful 
citizens. 

The McGuires are well-liked, accommodat- 
ing neighbors. Air. McGuire is a thirty-sec- 
ond degree Mason and a Shriner. In politics 
he aftiliates with the Republican party. 



HORACE NE\'E. — Over on the west side 
of the West Table which, by the way, is the 
most productive and largest of all of the ' 
celebrated tables in Custer county, there is no 
more widely known name than that of Neve, 
and it is to this remarkable family that Horace 
Neve belongs. 

Horace Neve was born June 27, 1868, in 
Juneau county, Wisconsin. His father, Sam- 
tiel Neve, was a native of England, and his 
mother, Roxie (Acres) Neve, was a native of 
Pennsylvania. His father was twice married 
and became the father of a very remarkable 
family of children. By his first union there 
were seven children, of whom Horace was the 
fourth born, the others being William J., Em- 
ely, Frank, Louis, Maye, and Belle E. Fine. 
The father's second marriage was to Lucinda 
Drew, of Wisconsin, and of this second union 
thirteen children were born — Frederick E., 
\'ioIa S'oltz, Lottie Fox, George, Mathias, 
Jennie Do.xy, Annie Zerlein. Henry, John, Roy, 
a son who died in infancy, William, and 
Richard. Sixteen of the children are still 
living. 

Samuel Neve came to the United States in 
1854 and made his home at Lyndon, Wiscon- 
sin, where he farmed during the summer, and 
during the fall and winter worked as a "lum- 
ber jack" in the ])ineries, as the pine forests 
were then called. This he continued for many 
years, and later, in connection with his farm- 
ing, he operated a threshing machine during 
the fall seasons of the year. Young Horace 
remembers that he purchased his first suit of 
clothes bv selling newspapers and magazines. 
He worked on the home farm in the summer 
time and went to school in the winter, .\fter 
he was old enough he assisted his father in 
running the thre.sliing machine. Samuel Xeve 
came to Custer county in 1882 and settled on 
the West Table, where he continued to reside 
until his death, July 29, 1913, and where his 
children grew to manhood and womanhood. 
For seven years Sanuiel Neve was road over- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1055 




Horace Neve 



1056 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



seer of the Cliff road district and for five 
years he served as school director. He en- 
joyed a splendid reputation and was always 
responsive to every call of duty. 

Young Horace stayed in the home domicile 
until he was twenty-three years of age. and 
he then bought a half-section of land, adjoin- 
ing his father's home place, and began farm- 
ing for himself. He never married but lived 
with his parents most of the time until about 
ten years ago. He recently sold his farm for 
sixty-five dollars an acre and has just bought 
420' acres three miles southeast of Berwyn. 
Mr. Neve has made four trips to Canada and 
in addition to this he has traveled extensively 
throughout the middle section of this country, 
partly on account of his health and partly to 
look for a location where conditions might be 
more favorable than here, but after his travels 
he returned to Custer county and bought the 
land upon which he expects to make his home 
during the rest of his life. The greater por- 
tion of his accumulation was made by raising 
hogs of the Berkshire and Poland-China va- 
rieties. In this phase of farm enterprise he 
was counted exceptionally successful. 

DAVID O. BROWN. — Custer county has 
every reason to be proud of the personnel of 
the fine array of men who are upholding her 
prestige and precedence in connection with the 
basic industries of agriculture and stock-rais- 
ing, and properly assigned to prominent classi- 
fication with these sterling exponents of mod- 
ern farm enterprise is the popular young cit- 
zen whose name initiates this paragraph. 

David O. Brown was born in Carroll 
county, Ohio, on the 23d of November, 1893, 
and he takes just pride in thus claiming the 
old Buckeye state as the place of his nativity, 
though this does not in the least militate 
against his loyalty to and appreciation of the 
county and state in which he now maintains 
his home. He is a son of David O. and Agnes 
( Price) Brown, the former of whom was bom 
in Columbiana county, Ohio, and the latter of 
whom was a daughter of Reed Price, a prom- 
inent citizen of Ohio. David O. Brown, Sr., 
and also Reed Price were numbered among 
the substantial settlers of Custer county and 
here the former acquired valuable farm prop- 
erty, his death having occurred in the city of 
Lincoln, this state, on the 5th of November, 
1914. Upon coming to Custer county he es- 
tablished his residence on a farm west of 
Broken Bow. He is survived by one son and 
three daughters, the only son being the sub- 
ject of this review and the daughters being 
Mrs. June Freedman, Mrs. May Booth and 
Mrs. Fern Aldrich. 



During the childhood days of David O. 
Brown, Jr., to whom this sketch is dedicated, 
the family home was maintained near Canton, 
Stark county, Ohio, and there he gained his 
preliminary education in the public schools, 
the while he assisted his father on the home 
farm, which was given over largely to the 
raising of fine live stock. Thus the youth 
gained early and valuable experience in con- 
nection with farm enterprise, including the 
handling of live stock. After having prose- 
cuted his studies in the Canton high school he 
took a course in a business college, after which 
he was for three years a student in St. Igna- 
tius College at Cleveland, Ohio. 

In the spring of 1914, Mr. Brown engaged 
in the automobile business at Berwyn, Custer 
county, and with this line of enterprise he 
was there identified for a period of three 
years. Upon the death of his father he found 
it incumbent upon him to assume management 
of the home farm and the general aft'airs of 
the estate. Accordingly he now resides on 
the old homestead, in section 29, township 17, 
range 16, and he is the owner of 420 acres of 
excellent land, the same being available for 
profitable agriculture but his intention being 
to give his attention in large measure to the 
raising of thoroughbred cattle, preference be- 
ing given to a high grade of pedigreed Here- 
fords. His character, his ability and his pro- 
gressiveness assure him of the maximum suc- 
cess in this important field of endeavor, for 
he is systematic in his management of affairs 
and is a business man of circumspection and 
vigor. 

On the 25th of November, in the fine old 
state of Ohio, was solemnized the marriage 
of Mr. Brown to Miss Lillian Courtright, who 
was born at Carrollton, that state, and who is 
a daughter of M. V. and Lydia (Ralston) 
Courtright, both likewise natives of that com- 
monwealth. Mr. and Mrs. Brown are popu- 
lar factors in the representative social activi- 
ties of their community and well merit the 
recognition accorded to them in this history 
of Custer county. 



ANDREW SO.MMER. — One of the earli- 
est settlers of Custer county and one who 
through his own efforts has reached the goal 
of success, the subject of this review well de- 
serves a place in the history of the county he 
has so notably heli)ecl to develop. 

-Andrew S'onmier is a native of France, 
born in .\lsace-L<:>rraine, November 25. 1844. 
His parents, John and Barbara (Gcrig) Som- 
mer, were natives of the same country as the 
son, and in 1848 they immigrated to America, 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1057 




Andrew Sommer 



1058 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



becoming residents of Peoria, Illinois, where 
both passed away. 

At the age of sixteen years Andrew Sommer 
found employment in the coal mines of Illi- 
nois, and for twenty years he followed the 
occupation of miner. 

When he was not yet twenty years of age, 
the Civil war being in progress, Mr. Sommer 
offered his services in defense of the Union, 
and in September, 1864. he enlisted in Company 
E, One Hundred and Eighth Illinois Infan- 
try, in which he served until the close of the 
war. He participated in the siege of Spanish 
Fort, and in many minor engagements and 
skirmishes, receiving an honorable discharge, 
at Chicago. Illinois, in August, 1865, after 
having made a creditable record for bravery 
and loyalty to duty. 

In the spring of 1880 Mr. Sommer came to 
Custer county, Nebraska, and secured as home- 
stead the northwest quarter of section 32, town- 
ship 18, range 22. Not a single improvement 
had been made, and a sod house continued 
the first home on the new farm. He also took 
a timber claim of 160 acres, and as the years 
passed he brought his land to a high state of 
cultivation. On the place he has erected a sub- 
stantial set of buildings, his being one of the 
best improved farms in Custer county. He 
has been extensively engaged in stock raising 
and feeding, of which he made marked success, 
and he is now the owner of more than 1,000 
acres of land, all within two miles of the home- 
stead which he obtained thirty-eight years ago. 
He has not been remiss in any duty as a citizen 
and has contributed liberally in time and money 
to those enterprises which have had to do with 
the upbuilding of the county. 

July 3, 1885, in Custer county, was solemn- 
ized the marriage of Mr. Sommer and Melissa 
(Keedy) Tygart, a native of Illinois and a 
daughter of the late Abraham and Elizabeth 
(Bickel) Keedy, the fomier of whom was born 
in Illinois and the latter in Indiana. By a 
former marriage, to Andrew Tygart, Mrs. 
Sommer had a son. Perry \V., who resides with 
his mother. ?^lr. and ^Irs. Sommer have four 
children: .\lmore, who married listher Col- 
linson, operates one of his father's farms ; Ben- 
jamin, who married Nora Sharp, likewise oper- 
ates land belonging to his father ; Eva is the 
wife of .Mvin Cole, a farmer two miles south 
of Merna : and Lizzie still resides with her 
parents. 

Mr. Sommer is a Republican in politics, and 
he served as justice of the peace for thirty 
years. He helped organize school district No. 
15, in 1882, and for several years served as 
treasurer of the same. 

For the past several years Mr. Sommer has 



abated the active work of the farm and has 
let the burden fall on the shoulders of younger 
men. Coming to Custer county without capi- 
tal, success has come to him through his own 
efforts and it has been justly deserved, plac- 
ing him among the prominent old settlers of 
the county. 



GEORGE W. McGAUHEY. — One of the 
young farmers of the western portion of the 
state, who is now in the first flush of middle 
life, is named above, but his fuil name is rarely 
used and hardly known by the circle of friends 
who familiarly and habitually call him 
George. 

George was born in Illinois, thirty-five years 
ago, but most of his life has been spent in 
Custer county. His father was Woodruff 
Henr\' McGauhey, a native of Kentucky, who 
died in Illinois at sixty-seven years of age. 

The mother's maiden name was Baird, and 
she also was a Kentuckian. After the death 
of the father the mother brought the family 
to Custer county and located them on the 
homestead, in 1899. All were industrious and 
energetic and were always able to take care of 
themselves. The children in the family, be- 
sides the subject of the sketch, were Mary 
Gibson, living in Anselmo, whose husband, a 
former Ansley banker, is deceased : Ned 
Franklin lives in Anselmo and is with tlie Mel- 
ville Lumber Company of Anselmo. 

George W. McGauhey chose for his wife 
Miss Rose Willetts, a native of Kansas and 
daughter of A. A. Willetts, a very prominent 
farmer and stockman of Anselmo. They now 
have four children. At the time of this writ- 
ing, Ellen is thirteen years old, Mar\'el is 
eleven, William five, and Master Glen has seen 
but three summers. 

Mr. McGaughey is farming on a somewhat 
extensive scale. He rents six hundred seventv 
acres of land, owns his own machiner\' and 
horse power and keeps a good grade of live 
stock. 

He is actively affiliated with the Woodmen 
of the World, in which he takes prominent and 
loyal part. Both he and his wife are hard 
working people and enjoy an excellent reputa- 
tion. They have a good start and unless un- 
usually ill luck Iiefalls them will have acquired 
a comjietency and have contributed their share 
to western development before old age over- 
takes them. 

IR.\ P. MILLS. — In naming the substan- 
tial and representative men of Custer county, 
respectful attention is called to Ira P. Mills, 
who for many years was a leading agricultur- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 1059 




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Mr. and Mrs. Ir.\ P. Mills 



1060 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, XEBRASK.- 




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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1061 



ist but who is now living retired in his com- 
fortable home at Arnold. He has been a resi- 
dent of the county for thirty-five years and 
has been a factor in its development along 
many lines. He was born in Madison county, 
Iowa, December 29, 1859, and is a son of Will- 
iam and Lucinda (Stark) Mills, the former 
of whom was born in Vermilion county, Illi- 
nois. Mr. Mills has two brothers : William 
G., who is now retired and residing at Arnold, 
married Millie Guy ; and E. Grant, who is a 
resident of Forest Grove, Oregon, married 
Bertha Needham, of Custer county. In 1865 
the father of Mr. Mills came with his family 
to Nebraska and located in Lancaster county, 
nine miles south of Lincoln, where he lived for 
eighteen years. 

Ira P. Mills was reared in Lancaster county, 
Nebraska, and from there came to Custer coun- 
ty in :\lay, 1883. He attended the Nebraska 
State University from 1878 until June, 1880. 
He was married July 6, 1881. at Roca, Lan-_ 
caster county, to Miss Clorinda Perrin, who 
was a daughter of . Joshua and Lucinda 
(Deems) Perrin. Mrs. Mills died in May, 
1917, the mother of four sons and one daugh- 
ter, as follows: William J., who attended the 
Nebraska Wesleyan L^'niversity for three years, 
is connected with the statistical department of 
the Union Pacific Railroad, at Omaha. He 
married Irma Bramon and they have two sons. 
Benjamin H., who is a dealer in agricultural 
implements at Arnold, married Myrtle, a 
daughter of George Reed, and they have two 
children. Bernard I., who is a physician of 
the Eclectic school and who resides at May- 
wood, Nebraska, married Delia, daughter of 
Walter Chamberlain. Helen L., is the wife of 
John Dennis and they live twenty miles south 
of Arnold. Floyd P., who is a farmer near 
Logan, Nebraska, married Ruth, a daughter of 
Edgar Pearce. 

When ^Ir. Mills came to Custer county he 
secured a homestead in Mills valley, and this 
property he still owns, his realty holdings ag- 
gregating 1,760 acres, in Custer and Logan 
counties. In politics he and his sons are Re- 
publicans and he served two years as county 
supervisor, representing Arnold township. 



ROY THOMAS. — The young farmer 
named in this head line is one of the pro- 
gressive young farmers of Custer county who 
were born in the county and have come into 
the stage of action in the time of the present 
generation and are now just entering the 
prime of their manhood years. 

Roy was born in Custer county on the 20th 



day of February, 1888, the son of George W. 
Thomas a well known and prominent citizen. 
It was here in Custer county that he received 
his education, here he has lived his life to the 
present time and here he began his lifetime 
occupation as a tiller of the soil, in which he 
has already made an initial success. Much of 
his success dates from July 12, 1911, at which 
time he led to the marriage altar Miss Nellie 
Hewitt, who is a daughter of George and 
Sarah Hewitt, of Hastings, Nebraska. In the 
family of Mrs. Thomas were ten children, but 
she is the only one living in this county. The 
Thomas home now has four children, bright 
]5iomising youngsters, full of life and energy. 
lola, Troy, Blount, and Faye all are at home 
and their presence assures no lonesome hours. 
Roy knows no other occupation than farm- 
ing. He owns a quarter section of land on 
which he has some improvements and in con- 
nection with which he rents three more quar- 
ter sections, which makes his farming activities 
unusually extensive. It requires work and 
energy to conduct a farm of this size, main- 
tain the proper complement of livestock and 
keep everything going, but all of these quali- 
ties Mr. Thomas and his wife both possess in 
a high degree. Their home is yet in its mak- 
ing, their accumulations are yet initial, the 
years are before them but present conditions 
and the record of the past, prophesy the suc- 
cess of coming years. They are well liked 
and highly respected by their neighbors and 
most of their social energy is expended in the 
neighborhood Grange, of which they are mem- 
bers and from which they derive both social 
and pecuniary advantages. Mr. Thomas does 
not count himself either Democratic or Re- 
publican. He votes the ticket that suits him 
best and that represents, as he believes, the 
best man. 



EMANUEL ^lYERS..— Of the follower of 
any reliable vocation no better recommenda- 
tion is asked than the credit of long employ- 
ment under a reliable management. For more 
than twenty years Emanuel Myers was con- 
nected with the Dierks Lumber Company, and 
at the present time he is living in comfortable 
retirement in his home at Comstock. 

Mr. Myers was born in Dallas county, Iowa, 
December 21, 1863, and is a son of Daniel B. 
and Jane (Gaddes) Myers, natives of Indiana, 
and early settlers of Iowa. The father, who 
was a carpenter by trade, took up farming 
when he located in Iowa, but on occasion fol- 
lowed his trade in addition to farming and 
raising stock. His death occurred in 1867, 
while his widow survived him for many years, 



1062 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 





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HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1063 



passing away in 1917. They were the parents 
of six children, of whom five are Hving — Airs. 
Elfreta Robinson is the wife of an Iowa farm- 
er; Rontha is the wife of Frank Austin, a 
blacksmith in Iowa; Charlotte is the wife of 
Charles Stout, an Iowa farmer; Theodore is a 
blacksmith in Iowa ; and Emanuel is the sub- 
ject of this review. Emanuel Myers was edu- 
cated in the common schools of Iowa, and in 
the spring of 1886 he came to Custer county, 
where for two years he operated a dray, at 
Ansley. In 1892 he began working for the 
Dierks Lumber Company, entering the service 
of that concern at Ansley, and subsequently 
being employed at Mason City and Greeley. 
In 1914 his health failed and he was practical- 
ly retired by the finu. which, in honor of his 
long, capable, and faithful ser\'ice. granted him 
a pension which permits him to live comforta- 
bly in his home at Comstock. He is one of 
the reliable and highly respected citizens of his 
community and is a public-spirited supporter 
of worthy movements advanced for the general 
welfare. May 6. 1888, in Custer county, Mr. 
Myers married Miss Fannie Stoneburner, the 
daughter of pioneer settlers of Custer county 
who are now residents of Omaha. To this 
union there were born four children : Miss 
Gertrude, who is employed at Bragg's drug 
store, Comstock, resides with her parents ; Wil- 
lard. in the United States Army, is at the train- 
ing camp at Indianapolis, Indiana, at the time 
of this writing; Alaudie is the wife of Russell 
Smith, employed in a drug store at Junction 
City, Kansas ; and Aliss Evelyn resides with 
her parents. 



GEORGE W. THOMAS. — Custer county 
has a large number of retired farmers, the 
most of whom have contributed the efforts of 
their lives to improving their farms and by 
hard work and rigid economy have secured a 
competence upon which they can retire and 
spend the last years of their lives in compara- 
tive ease and comfort. One of them is the 
man whose name constitutes the title line of 
this sketch. He lives in Broken Bow on a 
five-acre tract upon which he has a comfort- 
able home and maintains a deminutive farm 
that gives him both exercise and recreation. 

Mr. Thomas was born in Alontgomery 
county, Missouri, June 7, 1857. He is a 
son of Joseph and Malinda (McCardie) 
Thomas, in the family of whom were five 
children. The first born, Presly Thomas, is a 
substantial farmer living in Illinois. The sub- 
ject. George W.. and his brother are the only 
two of the five children now living. The early 



life of Mr. Thomas was spent in Missouri, 
where he had recourse to good public schools 
and very early in life turned his attention to 
agricultural pursuits. It was here that he 
met and led to the marriage altar, in 1875, Lora 
Fleener, whose parents were native Missour- 
ians and very excellent people. 

Into the Thomas home, as the years have 
passed, three children were born. Blanche is 
married to a Custer county farmer named 
Bennett. Concerning Gordon, the second 
born, see extended reference elsewhere under 
the title line of his own name. Roy also lives 
in Custer county and is the subject of a life 
sketch in this volume. 

The Thomas family came to Custer county 
in 1888. They had but little of this world's 
goods, Mr. Thomas says, practiiCally nothing. 
But they had energy and ambition and went to 
work. He entered a homestead, filed on a pre- 
emption, and built the soddy in which the fam- 
ily was domiciled for several years. He now 
owns a full section of good land south of Ans- 
ley, which is well improved and upon which 
are two sets of farm buildings. 

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas passed through the 
trying ordeals of pioneer days and arc now en- 
joying the well-earned reward of their toil and 
privations in early years. They are a well 
respected and highly esteemed family. Their 
church affiliation is with the Christian denom- 
ination. 



WILLIAM H. POULSOM. — Living in 
the vicinity of Merna is a farmer of English 
extraction who came to the county only eight 
years ago, who brought with him a goodly por- 
tion of this world's goods and whose invest- 
ments and subsequent operations have rated 
him among the first of the farming class. 

William H. Poulsom was born in Mon- 
mouthshire, England, September 15, 1861. 
He is a son of Daniel and Matilda Poulsom, 
natives of Bath, England, and fine people, 
highly connected with the Church of Eng- 
land: they were the parents of these children 
— James, Thomas. Matilda, Anna Reed, Emi- 
lie CJrchard, William H., and Rosa Strange. 

The first nineteen years of William Poul- 
som's life were spent in England, where he 
received a common-school education and where 
his first money was earned by raising and sell- 
ing garden produce from a little tract of land 
allotted him by his father from the main gar- 
den upon which the family dej^ended for a 
livelihood. With the money thus earned, young 
William started a bank account of which he 
was exceedingly proud, and it can be said that 



1064 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



that early bank account had a great influence 
upon his life and was in a measure responsible 
for the thrift of after life. When nineteen 
years of age he came to America. An older 
brother had preceded him to this country by 
twelve years and this brother was then located 
at Farragut. Iowa. It was to that locality 
that young William made his way, and there 
he worked for his brother on the farm for two 
years, being employed by the month. Wages 
in that day were small and he could earn but 
little by working by the month. Therefore he 
resolved to start farming operations for him- 
self as soon as possible. His brother helped 
him to start on rented land and after farming 
for himself two years he had funds enough to 
fit out a prairie schooner, with which he start- 
ed for Wahoo, Nebraska. He reached Wa- 
hoo in the spring of 1885, and in that locality 
he continued a land renter for six years. By 
that time he was able to buy 120 acres of land 
and later he was able to add forty acres, 
which rounded oiit the full quarter-section. 

The domestic life of Mr. Poulsom dates from 
]March 18, 1899, when, in Wahoo, Nebraska, 
he claimed in marriage the hand of Marj' Jasa, 
a native of Wahoo, but of German extraction, 
she being a daughter of James and Frances 
Jasa, who were natives of Moravia, Germany, 
and whose four other children are here named: 
Frances Truna, Joseph, Nettie Truna, and 
James. 

From its first establishment, the Poulsom 
home was well equipped and well provided 
with home comforts. In many ways it has 
been an ideal establishment of economy and 
convenience. Three children have come with 
the passing of years, all boys, full of ambition 
and promise. William J. is established on a 
portion of the home i)lace. farming for him- 
self, a mile and a half southwest of Merna. 
He married Joy Cosner and they have one 
child. They are connected with the Baptist 
church. The second son, Frank T., is con- 
nected with the .\merican base-hospital corps 
and is somewhere in France at the time of 
this writing. He constitutes the Poulsom 
contribution to the man power of the govern- 
ment. Daniel P. is at home with his parents 
and has not yet finished the graded sclux>ls, 

Mr. Poulsom sold his Wahoo possessions 
and arrived in Custer county in the early spring 
of 1910. Here he purchased a valuable farm, 
to which he has since added until his landed 
possessions comprise 360 acres, upon which 
are three sets of good improvements. The 
farm home is on one portion of this tract, and 
every day Mr. Poulsom gives himself vigor- 
ouslv to farm work and direction. In his esti- 



mation the time for his retirement or taking 
life easy has not yet arrived. From every point 
of view we have given the description of a 
successful and practical farmer. All the build- 
ings on the premises are in good condition. 
The stock is in good shape and indicates splen- 
did care and good feeding. The Poulsoms are 
rated well in the community and constitute one 
of the first families of the ^lerna district. Pa- 
triotism is not wanting in this family. Every 
appeal for war drives has met a generous re- 
sponse and nothing has been withheld that 
would contribute to the winning of the war. 



WILLIAM D. REDMOND, vice-president 
and manager of the Farmers State Bank of 
Mason City, Nebraska, is not only prominent 
in the financial field, but has also won distinc- 
tion as an educator and as a factor in public 
affairs. A man of high scholarship; of long 
experience in responsible positions, in which 
he displayed keen, decisive business qualities ; 
honored in every community in which he has 
had his home ; and with an acquaintanceship 
that extends over the state — his coming to 
the Farmers State Bank has not only brought 
added confidence to that substantial institu- 
tion, but has also added to Mason City's best 
ciizenship. 

William D. Redmond was bom in Lee 
county, Illinois, and is the next to the youngest 
of a family of eleven children born to John 
R. and Katherine (Bassett) Redmond. Both 
parents were born in Ireland, and both came 
to the United States in 1S30. They were 
united in marriage in Connecticut, and from 
there came to Nebraska in 1871. John R. 
Redmond homesteaded in Johnson county, 
where he continued to live until his death, in 
1905, in the meanwhile accumulating land un- 
til he owned 280 acres, all well improved. Be- 
sides William D., the following of his child- 
ren survive : Mrs. D. J- Turner, of Gridlev, 
California: Mrs. Sara J. Piatt, of Crab Or- 
chard, Nebraska : Joseph R., of Colby, Kan- 
sas ; Mrs. Katherine R. Doolittle, of Tacoma, 
Washington: Miss Madge V., of Kansas City, 
Missouri ; John L., of Crab Orchard, Ne- 
braska ; Dr. F. H., of San Antonio, Texas ; 
Miss Ella, of Crab Orchard : and Mrs. L. C. 
Hamly, of Lincoln, Nebraska. 

After completing his public-school course, 
in the Johnson county schools, William D. 
Redmond entered the Western Normal Col- 
lege at Shenandoah, Iowa, and was graduated 
in the advanced course of that institution. He 
then entered the educational field, holding a 
professional life-certificate and subsequently 
was principal of the schools of Crab Orchard 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1065 



and of Brock, Nebraska ; assistant state super- 
intendent of public instruction; and registrar 
and financial secretary of two state normal 
schools, being in the former relation at Peru, 
Nebraska, and serving in the latter at Wayne, 
Nebraska. For a number of years Mr. Red- 
mond has been valued in the councils of the 
Democratic party, and while residing in 
Nemaha county he served two years as deputy 
county clerk, and in 1907 represented Nemaha 
county in the Nebraska legislature. Prior to 
coming to Mason City Mr. Redmond had 
banking experience at both Brock and Crab 
C)rchard. In the fall of 1918 he bought a con- 
trolling interest in the Farmers State Bank, 
and its affairs are in a very prosperous condi- 
tion! He is affiliated with the Masonic fra- 
ternity, including the Order of the Eastern 
Star, and also with the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen. 



CHARLES NEWMAN, whose connection 
with the agricultural interests of Custer county 
commenced in 1886, has been a resident of 
this county ever since, with the exception of 
five years, from 1894 to 1899, which he spent 
in Idaho. He has brought to his work that 
unflagging industry which seldom fails of ac- 
complishment, and it is this factor that has 
brought him a desired success and gained him 
a place among the well-to-do farmers of the 
community. 

Mr. Newman was born in Ohio, in 1873, 
a son of Thomas and Lucy Newman, the for- 
mer of whom is deceased, while the latter 
stirvives as a resident of Ohio. There were 
five children in the family : Charles ; Archie, 
who resides on a farm in Montana ; Mrs. Ro- 
berta Heckman, who died in Idaho ; and Eva 
and Maggie, who still reside in Ohio with their 
mother. Charles Newman received his edu- 
cation in the public schools of Ohio and was 
brought up on a farm. In 1886 he came to 
Nebraska and located in Custer county, re- 
maining until 1894, when he went to Idaho 
and spent five years in that state. Returning 
then to Custer county, he bought his present 
farm, in section 4, township 71, not far from 
?kIason City, where he has since made his 
home and achieved his success. This is a 
property of 160 acres, the greater part of 
which is under cultivation and highly de- 
veloped, and here Mr. Newman has engaged 
industriously in farming and in the raising 
of cattle, horses and hogs. His improvements 
are modest but of good, substantial c|uality and 
ample for all his needs, and he owns good 
machinery that lightens his labors and adds to 
his efficiency.. Mr. Newman is somewhat of 



a mechanic and is capable of doing practically 
all of his own blacksmithing. His business 
methods have ever been honorable and 
straightforward, and his fidelity to engage- 
ments and faithfulness to friendships have 
gained for him the wami regard of his asso- 
ciates. Fraternally Mr. Newman is affiliated 
with the local lodge of the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows. 

Mr. Newman married Miss Mary Swanson, 
who was born in 1885, and they are the parents 
of four children, born as follows : Roberta, 
in 1905; Thomas, in 1907; Milford, in 1914; 
and Kenneth, in 1916. 



JAMES F. COCHRAN. — Here is the 
sketch of a young man who occupies a posi- 
tion of great responsibility and who as a ranch 
manager and stockman is making a decided 
success in the south Loup country, where the 
scene of his operations is laid. 

James is the son of Benjamin Franklin and 
Rebecca (Miller) Cochran, both of whom were 
natives of the Hoosier state. The father died 
at the age of thirty. The mother is still liv- 
ing, at the age of sixty. During his lifetime 
the father was a cooper by trade but at the 
same time followed farming for the principal 
part of his livelihood. The mother is a mem- 
ber of the Christian church. James came to 
Custer county and since then has been laying 
the foundation of what he hopes some day 
will be a comfortable fortune — one large 
enough to enable him to retire from active 
life. At the present time he has the manage- 
ment of the Hamer Ranch, owned by J. J. 
lioblits. This ranch consists of 3,280 acres, of 
which 380 acres are under cultivation. They 
handle 150 head of cattle, 150 head of hogs 
and a good grade of horses. The output of 
this ranch is the particular thing with which 
Mr. Cochran is charged. Ranches must pay, 
and when their operation is committed to a 
manager, their manager must assume a grave 
responsibility. This responsibility Mr. 
Cochran assumed and discharges in a very 
creditable manner. His wife was Eva Fritz, 
of Georgetown, Custer county. Mrs. Coch- 
ran comes from an emmiently respectable fam- 
ily and although young in years she is well 
prepared to preside over the home they have 
made for themselves and which they hope to 
be the shrine of much happiness in the years 
to come. 

Mr. Cohran is an independent voter. He 
owes no party political allegiance. He re- 
serves the right to do his own thinking and 
votes for candidates as their qualities and abili- 
ties appeal to his judgment. The Cochrans 



1066 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




a 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1067 



are fine people, highly considered and in good 
standing in their neighborhood. 



GEORGE M PROBERT. — More than a 
quarter of a century has rolled by since George 
M. Probert, one of Custer county's most sub- 
stantial citizens, came here, and in the posses- 
sion of a fine estate and in the enjoyment of 
unqualified popular esteem, he has much to 
show for his twenty-eight years of effort. Mr. 
Probert is a native of the grand old state of 
Iowa, and was born in Clayton county, Janu- 
ary 13, 1860. His parents were James and 
Euphemia (Muir) Probert. 

The parents of Mr. Probert were born in 
Muirkirk, Scotland, and they came to the 
United States in 1856 and settled in Clayton 
county, Iowa, where they spent the rest of 
their lives. In Scodand the father had been 
an iron worker, but after coming to America 
he devoted himself entirely to agricultural pur- 
suits. In Clayton county he jmrchased land, 
which he developed and improved. He was 
one of the leading members of the Presby- 
terian church in his neighborhood. Eight 
children were born to James and Euphemia 
Prol>ert and of these the following are living: 
Jeanette, who is the widow of Oliver Hall, lives 
at Viroqua. Wisconsin ; William, who is a re- 
tired farmer of Clayton county. Iowa, married 
Mary Grim ; George M. is the subject of this 
sketch ; and John, who is a farmer in Clayton 
county, married Nellie Davis. 

George M. Probert was afforded excellent 
educational advantages of those days, as 
gauged by the standards of the locality and 
period, and after completing the public-school 
course in Clayton county' he afterward took a 
full commercial course in Upper Iowa Univer- 
sity, at Fayette. He remained with his father 
on the home farm until his marriage, and, in 
fact, he has been a farmer all his life. When 
he came to Custer county, in the spring of 
1890, he not only brought with him his fam- 
ily but also a thorough knowledge of his voca- 
tion, as applicable to Iowa land and climate, 
as well as four horses and a cash capital of 
$700. His first land purchase was eleven 
acres, and on that tract he did his first experi- 
menting on Nebraska soil. Like other set- 
tlers, he encountered unexpected hardships, 
during which he lost all his horses. Many of 
the settlers of that time became entirely dis- 
couraged and returned to their former homes, 
but Mr. Probert was made of sterner stuff, 
and through courage and determination he 
gradually overcame the early disadvantages 
and long has been established on a sound finan- 



cial basis. His original land purchase was 
but the nucleus of his present large estate^ 
of 880 acres. With him farming and stock- 
raising have been extremely profitable indus- 
tries. Mr. Probert has taken much interest 
in improving his land and when he erected 
his present handsome residence, he chose a 
beautiful site. locating it on an eminence over- 
looking the Middle Loup valley. His home 
is probably the finest rural residence in Custer 
county and is modern in every respect, witli a 
hot-water heating system, running water, and 
acetylene lights. 

Air. Probert was married November 17, 
1881, to Miss Margaret Clemens, at West 
Union, Iowa. She is a daughter of Hender- 
son and Margaret ( Wood) Clemens, who were 
born in Ireland and who came to the United 
States prior to the Civil war, in which JMr. 
Clemens served three years as a soldier of 
the LTnion. His business was farming. Mr. 
and Mrs. Probert have had six children, as 
follows: Le Roy, who conducts a garage and 
is also in the protluce business at Sargent, Ne- 
braska, married Carrie Hartley ; Blanche, who 
died June 18, 1917, was the wife of Thomas 
B. Murray ; Ray E., who is a farmer near 
Sargent, married Bessie Grisham ; Edna is the 
wife of Walter Sargent, who is. at the time of 
this writing, in the national army, in training 
at Camp Lee. Virginia, and Effie and Georgia 
remain at the parental home, the former being 
a popular teacher in the local schools. Mr. 
Probert is independent in pvolitics. He is a 
man of recognized good judgment in all mat- 
ters and his neighbors of many years standing 
know that his word is ever a^ binding as a 
bond. 



EDWIN LUND, one of the enterprising and 
progressive agriculturists of Custer county, is 
carrying on extensive operations in the vicin- 
ity of Mason City, where hi? father secured 
a homestead as early as 1881. The one which 
the son now occupies is not the original prop- 
erty, but he has been a resident of the same 
vicinity for thirty-seven years, and is known 
as a practical and capable representative of the 
vo'cation of agriculture as practiced in this 
part of the country. 

Mr. Lund was born at Chicago, Illinois, 
August 22, 1876, a son of (;)le and Mollie 
( Bahle) Lund. His parents were natives of 
Norway, who came to the L''nited States as 
young people, the father about the year 1871, 
he locating at once at Chicago. Mrs. Lund's 
parents settled first in Michigan, but she was 
married at Chicago to Mr. Lund, who was 



1068 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1069 



working for the great packer Philip D. Ar- 
mour at that time and continued to do so for 
two years after their marriage. He then re- 
moved to Nebraska, and for more than two 
years was engaged in farming in Seward 
county, and in 1881 came to Custer county and 
secured a homestead, in addition to a pre- 
emption. He was still a poor man when he 
came to Custer county, but found here the op- 
portunity which he had sought, and through 
his untiring industry and antive ability 
worked out a creditable and satisfying suc- 
cess. He became the owner of 320 acres in 
the vicinity of his first settlement, but this 
he subsequently sold, and purchased land 
where his son Edwin is now carrying on op- 
erations, and where he owned a tract of 200 
acres. This he continued to operate intelli- 
gently and successfully until his death, in 
1902, at the age of sixty-three years. He was 
a well-read man in the Norwegian language, 
and was alive to all the important topics of 
the day, was a good and progressive citizen, 
and a staunch Republican. He was a member 
of the Lutheran church, as is Mrs. Lund, who 
survives him and resides in the state of Wash- 
ington. They were the parents of six chil- 
dren : Edwin, of this notice ; Martin, a far- 
mer of Sweetwater, Nebraska ; Marie, the 
wife of Ludwig John-son, a farmer of the 
state of Washington ; Kearnel O., a farmer of 
that state ; Albert, who works in a store and 
postoffice in Washington ; and Ella, who died 
at the age of six years. 

The public schools of Custer county fur- 
nished the medium through which Edwin 
Lund secured his education, and when he 
reached manhood he choose farming for his 
life work. He has never followed any other 
vocation and at the present time is the owner 
of a half-section of land, in addition to which 
he farms his mother's homestead. He has 
proved successful in his undertakings and car- 
ries on his operations in a modern way and 
according to the most highly approved meth- 
ods. He has not found the opportunity or 
the inclination to enter actively into public 
life, and in his political sentiment is inclined 
to be independent, although, other things being 
equal, he fa\'ors the Republican party. With 
Mrs. Lund, he belongs to the Danish Lutheran 
church. 

Mr. Lund was married in 1902, to Miss 
Mary Kirkegaard, who was born in Denmark, 
a daughter of Jens Kirkegaard, the owner of 
a small farm near Sioux City, Iowa. Four 
children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. 
Lund : Lillian, born in 1904 ; Marvin, born 
in 1906; and Arnold, born in 1910. all attend- 
ing school ; and Mildred, born in 1912. 



GEORGE LASH. — The late George Lash 
was one of the old-time and well known citi- 
zens of the southern part of the county, where 
he established his home and with his good 
wife reared a large family of children, all of 
whom developed into splendid, progressive 
citizens. 

He was born in Ohio, December 14, 1843. 
His father, Andrew Lash, was a prominent 
citizen of the Buckeye commonwealth. In the 
father's family were nine children. Gregory 
is living in Indiana ; John has his home in 
Avilla. Indiana : the third born was George, 
the subject of this n-iemoir; Anthony, Paul, and 
William are all living in Indiana; Elizabeth 
and Clara are deceased ; Christiana is not mar- 
ried and she resides in Indiana, as does also 
Mary, who married Mathew Sneeberger. 

It was in the public schools of Ohio that 
George Lash received his youthful education, 
and there he passed his boyhood and young 
manhood days. 

In 1880 was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. Lash to Miss Maria E. Wright, a daugh- 
ter of Isaac and Rachel (Mahaffy) Wright, 
and together they began the establishing of a 
home and laying the foundation for the com- 
petency they expected to have in store for old 
age. They became the parents of ten children 
all of whom are living: Hattie Romine is mar- 
ried to a farmer living near Cozad ; William 
is at home ; Francis Ezra, at the time of this 
writing, is in, the service of the country and 
stationed at Camp Humphrey, Virginia ; Alice 
married Jesse Hovey, a Custer county farmer; 
Flocey is working in Kearney ; Paul is another 
son in the service of the country and at this 
writing word has been received of his safe 
arrival in France, where he is serving in the 
medical department ; Andrew is in the infantry 
service and was located at Can-ip Dix, Massa- 
chusetts prior to going with his command to 
England : Flora is at home ; Elsie lives at 
Kearney ; and Arthur is helping on the honie 
ranch. 

Mr. and Mrs. Lash came to Custer county in 
1884. They came direct from Ohio and as 
soon as possible located a homestead, on which 
they established their residence. Mrs. Lash 
had almost more than her share of early-day 
privation and and pioneer experiences. 

Mr. Lash worked in Kearney for three years, 
leaving his wife on the homestead to maintain 
the residence while he was away providing the 
means of sustenance. They had no furniture 
in the house except dry-goods boxes. A\'ood 
was scarce, and the second winter of her resi- 
dence here, Mrs. Lash says they burned hay, 
while during a subsequent winter the}' had 



107O 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



to use corn-stalks for fuel. All the im- 
provements on the home place were put up by 
Mr. Lash. He planted apple seeds and later 
grafted the quality of fruit he desired. Ry 
this method he developed a fine orchard. The 
first residence of Mr. and Mrs. Lash in the 
early days was a sod structure, fourteen by 
.sixteen feet in dimensions, and in this they 
managed to live five years. Then they added 
another room, and they lived in the two rooms 
for three years longer. Then they built an- 
other sod house this being fourteen by tliirty 
feet, and this constituted their place of abode • 
until 1899. when they built the home which 
is now standing on the old homestead and in 
which Mrs. Lash makes her home. Mrs. Lash 
is a woman of unusual character, plucky, 
find determined, and all this will be realized 
when it is stated that in the early days she 
often walked to Kearney, a distance of sixty 
miles, and covered the distance in one day. 

Mrs. Lash is one of a family of eleven chil- 
dren, and those now living are: Belle Brooks, 
who resides in Oregon ; William, who is liv- 
ing in Colorado : Ezra, who resides in Milton, 
Nebraska ; John, who is a resident of Oakland, 
California: and Airs. George Lash, of whom 
we are writing, completes the list of surviving 
children. The Wright family were pioneers 
in central Nebraska, having come here in 
1S70. Mrs. Lash remembers the time when 
Crete was the nearest railroad station. Her 
father and brothers in those early days worked 
for the Union Pacific Railroad Company, in 
Fillmore county. 

The tragic death of Mr. Lash occurred on 
the 25th day nf May, 1915, at which time he 
was killed by a train on the Burlington Rail- 
road, near Broken Bow. He was a member 
of the Masonic fraternity, and the entire fam- 
ily is connected with the Baptist church. 



\V. R. CLINE. — Among the men who have 
contributed jjrogressireness of spirit, dignity 
of labor, and soundness of business manage- 
ment to the development of the agricultural 
interests of Custer countv, one whose career 
has Ijeen worthy of note is W. R. Cline, who 
is operating a splendid farm in the Broken 
Bow community, in co-operation with his 
lirother, E. j. Kline. The brothers are the 
owners of 38S acres of good land, in addition 
to which they haye a share in the family estate 
of 320 acres, 

W. R. Cline was born at Saybrook, Illinois, 
November 4, 1874, a son of W. H. and Etta 
(Brown) Cline. The paternal grandfather, 
George D. Cline, was born in \'irginia, and 



was a pioneer into the Western Reser\-e of 
Ohio, riding his only possession, a horse. 
Afterwards, he moved to Illinois, and there 
his death occurred. \V. H. Cline was bom in 
Ohio, where he was reared, and as a youth 
was taken by his parents to Illinois, where he 
was living at the outbreak of the Civil war. 
He early answered the call of his country, en- 
listing in Company D, Twenty-sixth Regiment, 
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, with which he 
fought in a number of leading engagements, 
including those connected with Sherman's 
great march to the sea. Enlisting as a cor- 
poral, during his four years of service he won 
steady promotion through his bravery and 
faithful service, and when he received his hon- 
orable discharge, it was with the rank of 
lieutenant. Following the war Mr. Cline re- 
turned to Illinois and was engaged in farming 
until October 11, 1888. when he came to Cus- 
ter county, Nebraska, and took a relinquish- 
ment claim of 160 acres, on which he resided 
until his death. He was an industrious man 
and a capable farmer and won success in his 
operations. In politics he was a Republican, 
and his religious faith was that of the United 
Brethren church, in which he died in 1909. 
Mrs. Cline, who survives him and belongs to 
the same church, resides with a daughter at 
Tyrone, Oklahoma. They were the parents 
of six children, as follows: \V. R. ; E. J., 
who is farming with his brother; Olin O., the 
owner of a farm in Kansas, but a resident of 
Tyrone, Oklahoma; Junie, the wife of Fred 
Speakman, a banker of Tyrone ; Warren H., 
a traveling salesman who delivers engines for 
the Avery Traction Company, of Peoria, Illi- 
nois ; and Paul B., who enlisted in the United 
States Army Aviation Corps, and was in 
training at the flying field at San Antonio, 
Texas, at the time this sketch was being pre- 
pared. 

W. R. Cline was educated in the public 
schools of Illinois and Nebraska, following 
which he took a business course in a com- 
mercial college at York, this state, and then 
settled down to fanning, a vocation which he 
has since continued to follow with much suc- 
cess. In connection with his brother, as be- 
fore noted, he is operating 388 acres which 
they own, carrying on a general business in 
farming and dealing in live stock, and in both 
directions he has made a success of his efl'orts. 
proper conservation and practical methods 
having been happily combined in his case with 
marked ])rogressiveness and some amount of 
experimenting with new ideas and processes. 
Mr. Cline is a Republican, and has taken a 
keen interest in political matters and public 
affairs, being the incumbent at this time of the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1071 



office of town clerk. He was married Decem- 
ber 20, 1903, to Miss Lillie Mast, who was 
born in Iowa, a daughter of Levi and Eliza- 
beth Mast, natives of Indiana who became 
early residents of Nebraska. Four children 
have been born to this union, as follows : 
Junie, in 1905 ; Lois, in 1909; Phyllis, in 1912; 
and Donald, in 1917. Mr. and Mrs. Cline 
and their children belong to the United Breth- 
ren church. 

E. y. Cline was born in McLean county, Illi- 
nois, May 16, 1879, a son of W. H. Cline, and 
received his education in the public schools 
of Custer county, Nebraska. He took up 
farming as his vocation in young manhood, and 
has since been associated with his brother, 
like whom, he owns a share in 388 acres, and 
in his father's estate. He is energetic in action 
and well informed as to his business, and the 
success that he has gained has come through 
industry and a direction of energy alone well- 
defined channels. In 1913 Mr. Cline was mar- 
ried to Miss Hazel Hammond, born in Iowa, 
a daughter of Eli Hammond, and two child- 
dren have been born to them : Vance, four 
years old ; and Billie, aged one year. Mr. and 
Mrs. Cline are members of the United Breth- 
ren church. In his political affiliation ]\Ir. 
Cline is a Republican.' 



JAMES FORAN. — The subject of this 
sketch is in middle life and full vigor of his 
manhood and strength. He is a prominent 
member of a prominent family and has con- 
tributed his full share to the rank and sta- 
tion the family has achieved. James was 
born in 1876, in Joliet, Illinois, where his early 
years were spent. He came from a well- 
known and respected family in whose veins 
coursed the blood of Irish lineage. He was 
the sixth born to Peter and Mary (Dough- 
erty) Foran, the former of whom was a na- 
tive of Ireland and the latter a native of 
Lockport, Illinois. The father died at the. age 
of fifty-two but the mother reached the ripe 
age of seventy-six. In 1885 the father lo- 
cated a homestead in Custer county and 
domiciled his family in a sod house ; it was 
on this place, while building a sod barn, that 
he was accidentally killed. 

In the parental home were the following 
children: Dominic, a Custer county man of 
whom extended mention is made on other 
pages of this volume ; Mary Power, who lives 
on a Custer county farm ; Susan whose home 
is in this county ; Ambrose, deceased ; Rose 
Michel and Agnes Hukey, both of whom are 
living in this county; Thomas, of whom a life 
sketch is to be found in this volume. The 



family were all devout Catholics and the men 
for the most part inclined to the Democrat 
party. 

James is one of the substantial farmers and 
stockmen of the county; solely by his own ef- 
forts he has developed the present ranch 
which he operates and has embellished with 
due improvements for the successful opera- 
tions with which he has charged himself. He 
homesteaded part of the land that now con- 
stitutes his ranch of one full section; the 
rest was added by purchase and paid for by 
hard work and good management. 

He married Josephine Snyder, of Hayes 
City, Kansas. Mrs. Foran has been a valu- 
able assistant to her husband and has co- 
operated with him in every detail of their do- 
mestic life or business operations. In their 
home are their bright children, whose names 
are Glen, Raymond, Lyle, and Wit ford. 

On the home ranch is found an excellent 
grade of live-stock, and the farm has been 
operated very successfully and profitably by 
Mr. Foran. He has paid considerable atten- 
tion to dairy cows and thinks that they con- 
stitute a very profitable adjunct to farming. 
The Forans commenced in a sod house and 
have worked hard for their present day ac- 
cumulation ; they have now a good equipment 
of farm machinery, adequate improvements, 
and the sod house, having served its purpose, 
has been replaced with a new modern bunga- 
low, comfortable and attractive. The Forans 
are fine people and maintain a hospitable 
home. 

JOE E. ORCHARD. — The subject of this 
sketch is a lifelong farmer and is one of the 
heavy producers of the county. He was 
born June 27, 1883, in the state of Iowa. He 
is a son of Shipton G. Orchard, whose sketch 
may be found elsewhere in this volume. 

He came to Custer county at an early age 
and here received his education in the public 
schools. In 1910 he was married to Mary 
Dobesh, the daughter of Francis Dobesh, who 
lives near Ansley. Since that time the years 
have brought five children into the family 
circle of Mr. and Mrs. Orchard. They are : 
Vivian Grace. Arthur Lamon, Donald Wood- 
row, Rachel Lucile, and Bonnie Elsie — all 
bright, happy children who bring a flood of 
sunshine into the farm home and who will be 
a valuable addition to the coming generation 
to which they belong. 

Mr. Orchard runs 520 acres of land, on 
which he raises splendid crops. The land be- 
longs to his father-in-law, Francis Dobesh. 
In addition to general farming and stock-rais- 



1072 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



ing, he specializes on hogs and for a number 
of years has turned off 100 square, blocky 
porkers each year. With present prices for 
pork, this becomes a very profitable operation. 

Mr. Orchard has spent all his life on the 
farm and knows every phase of the calling. 
By the neighbors he is rated a very success- 
ful farmer and stockman, which is owing not 
more to good judgment than to industrious 
habits. 

The Orchards are very active in social cir- 
cles. The family belong to the Christian 
church, in which they are rated as very valu- 
able communicants. They are also members 
of the local Grange and in connection with 
this institution have contributed their part 
to make Custer county noted throughout the 
entire state as the home of the Grange. Mr. 
Orchard also belongs to the Xon-partisan 
League, a somewhat modern organization com- 
posed mostly of farmers whose object is to 
secure favorable legislation for farmers and 
producers generally. In politics the affiliation 
is with the Democratic party, although a great 
deal of independence is exercised in the mat- 
ter of local candidates. 



CAPTAIN LYXX J. BUTCHER. — This 
review is dedicated, with pardonable pride on 
the part of Custer county people generally, to 
the life story and military career of Captain 
Lynn J. Butcher, who was born in Custer 
county and is therefore a Custer count)' pro- 
duct in the fullest sense of the term. If his 
family are proud of his achievements they are 
only exercising a family right, for which no 
apologies are necessary. 

The future captain made his debut into Cus- 
ter county March 28, 1883. His father, Sol- 
omon D. Butcher, is the well known pioneer 
citizen, photographer, and historian. The fa- 
ther's native state is West Virginia. The 
captain's mother, Lillie M. (Barber) Butcher, 
now deceased, was a Custer county lady of 
fine culture and rare fibre, and amid the hard- 
ships and privations of i)ioneer life she reared 
her son in the most creditable manner possible. 

The Captain's early years were spent upon 
a Custer county farm in the vicinity of Gates. 
It was here that he began his career by per- 
forming his first labor and earning his first 
money. His first work was gathering potato- 
bugs off the ])otato vines which the bugs were 
bent upon devouring, and he was paid at the 
rate of one cent per hundred. Just who 
counted the bugs is not disclosed, and at this 
late day is not germane to the topic. It should 
be added, however, that the bugs were plenti- 



ful and in a short time the future captain had 
a small bank account, which he carefully 
guarded. He was given a common-school ed- 
ucation and when seventeen years of age took 
a course in the Broken Bow Business College. 
Shortly after he had finished his business 
course his parents moved to Kearney, Ne- 
braska, where his father engaged in the pho- 
tographic business and Lynn L secured a 
position as clerk in the W. O. King depart- 
ment store, in which he remained for some 
time. 

Afterward he formed a partnership with 
hjs father in the photograph business and 
made a specialty of publishing postal-card 
views, under the firm name of Butcher & Son. 
This firm soon became well known as card 
publishers throughout western Nebraska. Col- 
orado. Wyoming, South Dakota, Missouri, 
Kansas, and Oklahoma. The father was on 
the road most of the time, making negatives 
and taking orders from retail dealers, while 
Lynn J. managed the business at home, em- 
])loying at all times from four to six young 
ladies, who worked at finishing and shipping 
cards. Aside from the regular gallery work, 
the books show that, during the three years 
they featured the postal-card work, they pub- 
lished and shipped to towns in the above men- 
tioned territor}- 2,250.000 postal-cards. 

Lynn J. Butcher finally took over his fa- 
ther's interest in the business and continued 
it for more than five years. He became very 
proficient as a photographer and would prob- 
ably have made an unusual financial success if 
the fortunes of war had not called him from 
his occui)ation. 

.\ glance at his military record below will 
disclose the fact that before leaving his busi- 
ness he had been actively identified with the 
National Guard, in which he had won promo- 
tions. On March 25, 1917, the government 
requisitioned his services and ordered him to 
the colors, and his active service in behalf of 
his county had then its real beginning. The 
following is his military recoril up to the 
present time : 

Enlisted in Company A. Second Nebraska In- 
fantry, July 14, 1904. At the close of his en- 
listment he was honorably discharged, July 
15, 1907. He re-enlisted in Company A, same 
regiment, June 5, 1911. and was appointed 
corporal, December 1st of the same year: he 
was aiijiointed (|uartermaster-sergeant. January 
22. 1''13. and was honorably discharged March 
10. 1913, to accept a commission as second 
lieutenant in Company L, Fourth Nebraska 
Infantry. 

On .\]it\\ 21. 1914. by sjK'cial order of the 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1073 




Captain Lyxx J. Butch rii 



1074 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



war department. No. 8. he was given a com- 
mission as first lieutenant in the same com- 
pany and regiment. This was rapid promo- 
tion, but the end was not yet. June 22, 1914, 
he was commissioned captain of his company 
in the Fourth Regiment of Nebraska Infantry. 
June 27. 1916, he was ordered into active ser- 
vice and, with other United States units, his 
command mobilized at Camp Lincoln, and en- 
tered upon Mexican border service. 

From July 7, 1916, to December 27. 1916, 
he was with hi.s company on the southern 
frontier, stationed in the Brownsville district, 
at Llano Grande. Te.xas, and later he was 
mustered out of the expeditionary ser\'ice of 
the L'nited States, at Fort Crook, near Omaha, 
on Januar}- 13, 1917. 

At Kearney, Nebraska, March 25, 1917, he 
was ordered back into the service of the coun- 
try. He left Kearney with his company, which 
afterward divided, and did guard duty at the 
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad bridge 
over the Platte river near .Ashland, with one 
division of the company, while the other per- 
formed a like service at the Union Pacific 
Railroad bridge near North Platte. The North 
Platte division was in charge of Second Lieu- 
tenant K. Y. Craig. 

Captain Butcher left Ashland August 25th 
of the same year, with his assembled company 
of 141 members, and joined the rest of his 
regiment at Omaha, from which city tliey en- 
trained for Camp Cody, at Deming, New ^lex- 
ico, where the mobilization camp for the states 
of Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, and South Da- 
kota National Guard troops was located. 

Following is the personnel of Company L 
of the "Fighting Fourth" line-up for "Uncle 
S'am" : 

Captain. Lynn J. Butcher; first lieutenant, 
Frank G. Tracy ; second lieutenant. Kenneth 
Y. Craig. 

Sergeants — Pitke, Edward F., first; Geist, 
William, mess; Foster, Clarence L., sup- 
ply; Allhands, Lee; Dunn, Lawrence C. ; 
Fisher, Roy A.; Sadler. Walter B. ; 
Sandberg. Ned J. ; Schneringer. Raymond ; 
S'toetzel. Henr\' W. Corporals — Ayers, 
Wayne ; Beyer. Dewey E. ; Brvick. Edward E. ; 
Hanover. Arthur C. ; James. Charles R. ; Lari- 
mer, Clifford ; Mattson, Paul C. ; Shivelv, John 
P.; Smith, Earl; Stround. Charles W. 'Me- 
chanics — Lewis, Thomas; Simon, Simon A, 
Buglers — Bennett, Delmar A.; Hein. Walter. 
Cooks — Larson. Leo F. ; Plummer. Floyd W. 
Privates — .Xdams. Arthur H. ; Albers. Otto; 
Albin, Nelson O. ; Anderson, Andrew ; Ander- 
son, Rolx;rt ; Aston, Raymond ; Bargar, Henry ; 
Barry, James N. ; Blauvelt, Ercel M.; Blood- 



good, Grant; Bragg, William T.. ; Briggs, Ben- 
jamin F. ; Briggs, Vernon F. ; Brown. Robert 
G. ; Chadd, Ira C. : Chadd. Oral ; Comstock, 
Bryan ; Cone. George ; Cooney, Ray H. ; 
Cooney, Theron B. ; Cornish. James L. ; Cor- 
lew. August; Danner, John A.; Davidson, 
Harrison ; Dexter. Frank D. ; Drum, Erwin G. ; 
Drum. Herbert L. ; Eddy, Eugene L. ; Ely, 
Arthur ; Erickson. Clifford ; Frederick, Ray F. ; 
Graham. \\'illiam ; Gray, Calvin G. ; Groeger, 
Francis A. ; Gustus. Vanner A. ; Hagstrom, 
Arvid ; Harmon, Harvey J. ; Haynes. Byron 
H. ; Irish. Lyman ; James. Alfred ; Johnson, 
Floyd ; Johnson. Fred ; Johnson. Guy ; John- 
son. Herbert; Jones. Charles E. ; Kelley, Harry 
E. ; Kell3% John J. ; Keyser, George A. ; Kolbo, 
Clarence; Lacey. Edward L. ; LaFleur. George 
H. ; Lansing, Claude I. ; Lewis, Herbert H. ; 
Littell, Jasper; Mansir, Charles R. ; Mattson, 
Herman G. ; Mayfield, Oviel ; McCammon, 
Benjamin ; McCartney, George ; McComb, 
Carrol G. ; McConnell, Ira O. ; ^IcFate. James 
W. ; McKenzie. Charles J. ; Murdock, Lloyd ; 
Nichols. Ralph E. ; Norris. George W. ; Ogle- 
vie. John B. ; Oglevie. Richard ; Overhiser, 
Harry C. ; Patterson. Floyd B. ; Perdue, King 
R. ; Pierce, Otis ; Pressey, Joseph W. ; Raw- 
son, Rufus R. ; Reddick, Lester; Reynolds, 
Foster M. ; Reynolds; Paul ; Richter. Carl ; 
Root. Dave; Root. Leo J.; Rosenthal, Charles 
R. ; Sadler, Fred T. ; Sanborn. Wallace O. ; 
Schneringer. Earl E. ; Sellars, Wilbur ; Sliaf- 
fer, Charles W. ; Shue, Ray ; Sivill, John E. ; 
Slattery. Don T. ; Solomon, George F. ; Stiles, 
Gerald H. ; Streeton. Guy \'. ; Swinyer. Earl ; 
Tilgner. Philip E. ; Tongish. Herman F. ; Tow- 
ery, James E. ; Tripp, Harvey ; Troth. George ; 
\'ath, Adam ; Wagner, Andv V, ; W'akefield, 
Richard M. ; Walker, Clarence J. ; Walsh, Pat- 
rick E. : Walton. Charles A. ; Ward, Merritt ; 
Ward, Ray M. ; Warner. Rolland R. ; Watkin, 
Thomas R. ; Weaver, Walter L. ; Webber. Jo- 
seph ; \\'ells. Elmer ; Whitehead, Dillow S. ; 
Williams. Bert A. ; Yaegle, Harold P. ; Zim- 
merman. Fred. 

Captain Butcher and his company arrived 
at Deming oh the 27th of August, 1917 ; on 
October 21. 1917, the new organization of the 
National Guards of the L^nited States was 
effected, and the Fourth Nebraska Infantry 
lost its identity. In the reorganization the reg- 
iment became the One Hundred and Twenty- 
seventh Heavy Field Artillery. As there was 
a surplus of captains. Captain Butcher, at his 
own request, was transferred to the Fifty- 
ninth Depot Brigade, on October 24. 1917. 
For the next two months he was assigned to 
special duty in photograph work for General 
George H. Harries, and also acted as range 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1075 



officer at the rifle range. He was also in 
command for some time of training Company 
No. 2, Depot Brigade. 

Once more came a transfer, and tliis time, 
December 30, 1917. Captain Butcher was as- 
signed to the One Hundred and Thirty-fourth 
Infantry, which was, under the old organiza- 
tion, the Fifth Nebraska. Here he was at- 
tached to Company B until February 11, 1918, 
when another transfer assigned him to the 
aviation camp of the signal corps at Waco, 
Texas. February 15th he was assigned to the 
command of the Twenty-third Recruit Squad- 
ron, of 200 men. On April 1st, order No. 27 
transferred twelve majors and thirty-eight cap- 
tains, inchiding Captain Butcher, to Camp 
Wadsworth, Spartanburg, South Carolina, at 
which place all reported. April 5th Captain 
Butcher was attached to the Fifty-fourth Pio- 
neer Infantry. On July 7, 1918, the new Six- 
tieth Pioneer Infantry was organized, and he 
was assigned to it and given command of 
Company B. Of this office he continued the 
incumbent until the signing of the historic ar- 
mistice brought the war to a close, his com- 
mand having thus far not been called to service 
in France. 

At Kearney, Nebraska, in April, 1907, Cap- 
tain Butcher married Miss Elma Carey, 
daughter of Edward and Cynthia (Shroy) 
Carey. Mrs. Butcher is a lady of refinement 
and culture and is highly respected in the 
community where she is known. In the Cap- 
tain's "home squad" is only one soldier. Mas- 
ter Melvin, a bright lad of eight years, who 
even now dreams of following in the military 
footsteps of his father. The Captain and his 
wife are members of the Christian church. He 
is an Odd Fellow high in the order, and is 
devoted to the fraternal interests fostered by 
this order. Politically he votes the Republican 
ticket. 



FREDERICK G. BEARDSLEY. — Ar- 
nold gets credit for a large community of in- 
dependent, substantial farmers ; men whose 
energy and ability have enabled them to do 
well for themselves and at the same time de- 
velop the county and make for it a reputation. 

Frederick Beardsley is a native of the Em- 
pire state, where he was born in 1867. He is 
the son of C. A. and Mary (Miller) Beards- 
ley, both of whom have been dead many 
years. The father reached the age of 55 but 
the mother died at the age of 35. They were 
very estimable people, the father, a blacksmith 
by occupation, followed iron work for the 
most of his life. There were eight children 



in the family. James, now deceased was a 
homesteader near Cozad. T. C. lives in 
Hastings. William is in New York. Melvin 
died in infancy. Charlotte Morton lives in 
Massachusetts. Rebecca Swart lives in 
Minnesota. Ida and Ella are deceased. Mr. 
Beardsley came to this county forty-one years 
ago, worked for his brother on a farm eigh- 
teen months, which was the first money he 
remembers making. He homesteaded in 1896 
and later homesteaded again, in Logan county. 
He sold this also and is now operating a 
rented farm, upon which he is making a fine 
showing with good grades of live stock. Mr. 
Beardsley is considered a good farmer and 
stock-man. He took unto himself a life part- 
ner and since that time Abbie C. Wilcker, a 
native of Ohio and a very estimable lady, has 
been the sharer of his joys and sorrows. She 
has co-operated with him in all his toil and 
plans and deserves like credit with himself 
for the home that they have been able to 
maintain and the property accumulated. 
They have raised a large family of children, 
all of whom do them credit. Ward Olsen, 
Homer, and, Daniel are all Custer county 
farmers getting a good start and developing 
into citizens of the first type. Cora Parell 
lives in David City. Lottie and George are 
at home. Mildred Parell lives in David City. 
Florence, Albert, and William are at home. 
Melvin is deceased, adie Wardrobe lives on 
a farm in this county. That Mr. Beardsley 
stands for advancement and progressive in- 
novations in the community is witnessed by 
the service that he has rendered as school di- 
rector and road overseer. He has been a pa- 
triotic citizen of unquestioned loyalty during 
the recent war drives and one of the men upon 
whom the difTerent countv committees could 
depend for school district organization, and it 
is largely due to his efforts that his school 
district made a splendid record. The Beards- 
leys stand high in the local community. 



L. O. WELCH, who has passed his entire 
career as a farmer of Custer county, is now 
the owner of 440 acres of finely improved 
land not far from Ansley. A part of this 
property was the original homestead of his 
pioneer father, who came to Custer county in 
1885, and whose reputation as a constructive 
and progressive citizen and a skilled agricul- 
turist the younger man is worthily maintain- 
ing. 

L. O. Welch was born on a farm in Cass 
county, Iowa, October 30, 1881, a son of O. 
S. and Leila (Harrington) Welch. His pa- 
ternal grandfather was Samuel Welch, a na- 



1076 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



tive of Vermont and a pioneer of Iowa, where 
he died ; and his maternal grandfather was 
Newbri Harrington, also born in the Green 
Mountain state, whose death occurred in Ne- 
braska. O. S. Welch was bom in Vermont 
and was a young man when he went to Iowa 
to decide upon locating there. Being favor- 
ably impressed with the outlook, he returned 
to his native state for his bride, and they be- 
gan life on the prairies of Cass county, where 
they made their home for some years. In 
1885 Mr. Welch, who was not satisfied with 
his progress in the Hawkeye state, brought 
his family to a homestead in Custer county, 
Nebraska, and here passed the remainder of 
his life in the cultivation of the soil and the 
establishing of a good home. He and Mrs. 
\\'elch were the parents of two children : 
Leota, the wife of E. A. Foster, a farmer of 
Custer county ; and L. O., of this notice. Mr. 
Welch was a Populist in politics, and served 
for a time as county supervisor of Custer 
county. He died in 1912, while his wife 
passed away in 1905. 

L. O. Welch acquired his education in the 
district schools of Custer county, where he 
was brought as a child of four years, and his 
early training was all along agricultural 
lines. When he reached his majority he 
adopted farming for his life work, and this 
has held his attention to the present time, 
when he is the owner of 440 acres of good 
land. He has made many improvements on 
his property, including a fine set of modern 
buildings, and is accounted a skilled farmer 
and stock-raiser and a man of broad informa- 
tion on many lines. An active member of the 
Grange, he has made frequent lectures before 
that body, in regard to pertinent questions of 
the day, and is particularly interested in the 
work of the Non-Partisan League. In regard 
to political matters he is independent of party 
connection. His fraternal connection is with 
the local lodge of the Highlanders. 

Mr. Welch was married in November, 1904, 
to Miss Grace Tunnell, who was born at 
Kearney, Nebraska, a daughter of William 
Tunnell. Mr. Tunnell passed away when she 
was a child, and she was reared by her step- 
father, John Hoge, a prominent attorney of 
Kearney, where .she completed her education 
in the high school. Air. and Mrs. Welch are 
the parents of three sons : Frank S., born in 
1906; John Iloge, born in 1908; and Robin 
Adair, horn in 1911. A daughter. Iris, died 
when three years old. Mrs. Welch is a mem- 
ber' of the Baptist church. 



GOTTLOB HISER. — When he first came 
to Custer county, in 1886, Mr. Iliser had near- 



ly reached middle age and was still a f)Oor 
man. While he had worked hard and intelli- 
gently, his activities had failed to bring him 
the success for which he had so eagerly and 
untiringly worked, and he sought the greater 
opportunities, although harder toil, of a new 
and developing country to grant him the pros- 
perity that had been denied him in the more 
populous communities. That his faith has been 
vindicated and that his judgment was sound, 
is shown in the fact that he is to-day one of 
the substantial agriculturists of Custer county, 
in the Litchfield community. 

Mr. Hiser was born in Wiirtemberg, Ger- 
many, February 5, 1847, a son of John and 
Dorothy (S'tark) Hiser. His parents were 
natives of Germany and were small agricul- 
tural people, the mother dying on the home 
place in her native land, and the father sub- 
sequently, in 1849, coming to the United States. 
In addition to Gottlob, there were five other 
children in the family, and all became com- 
municants of the Lutheran church. Gottlob 
Hiser was an infant when his mother died 
and was but two years of age when his father 
left Gennany for America, so that he was 
reared virtually as an orphan. However, he 
was well trained in his youth, being the re- 
cipient of a fairly good common-school edu- 
cation and early assimilating the lessons of 
industry and honesty. In 1867, when he was 
twenty years of age, he immigrated to the 
L'nited States, a fellow-passenger on ship- 
board being Christina Reif, who later became 
his wife. Mr. Hiser made his way to Hunt- 
ington county, Indiana, where he secured 
employment as a farm laborer, by the year, 
and, being sober, industrious, and capable, he 
had no trouble in getting a man's wages and 
in holding his position. After he had worked 
three years for the same employer, he started 
on a more independent career, and for a long 
time rented and leased land in Indiana. This 
did not prove satisfactory, and in 1885 he took 
the step which he had long contemplated, that 
of coming to Nebraska. For one year after 
his arrival, while he was familiarizing him- 
self with conditions, he rented a property, 
but in 1886 he came to Custer county and 
homesteaded a property of forty acres. He 
paid out on this original home, and then 
bought 160 acres of rough land, without im- 
provements, and put it under cultivation in 
addition to erecting buildings and installing 
equipment that made it a valuable and pro- 
ductive farm. His structures now include a 
pleasant and comfortable home, which he 
built himself, and which is furnished with the 
latest conveniences. During his career as an 
agriculturist Mr. Hiser has raised consider- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1077 




Mr. and Mrs. Gottloe Hiser 



1078 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



able live stock, and at present he feeds all his 
corn. As one of the self-made men of this 
county he is worthy of and receives the re- 
spect and esteem of his fellow citizens. In 
politics he is a Republican, and he has served 
as a member of the county board of super- 
visors, a capacity in which he displayed ability 
and a conscientious effort to assist his com- 
munity in a practical way. 

Mr. Hiser was united in marriage February 
8, 1868, to Miss Christina Reif, who was born 
in Germany and came to America at the same 
time as her husband and settled in Hunting- 
ton county, Indiana, where their marriage 
took place soon afterward. To this union 
there were born si.x children: Mary is the wife 
of Joe Ulre)', a farmer of Indiana ; EHas is 
a ranchman in Wyoming; Nona is the wife 
of John Myers, a cement manufacturer at 
Davenport, Iowa ; Sarah is the wife of Charles 
Grant, on a Wyoming ranch ; Minnie is the 
wife of Herman Holm, a farmer of Custer 
county ; and Edward resides with his parents. 

W. E. OWEN, whose successful operations 
as a general farmer and stockraiser on a vers* 
large body of land, make him prominent and 
important in the agricultural affairs of Custer 
county, resides in a comfortable and attrac- 
tive residence situated four miles southeast of 
Broken Bow. He was born in Grant county, 
Wisconsin, March 23, 1858. His parents 
were Henry Clay and Elizabeth (Martin) 
Owen, the former of whom was born in 
Michigan and the latter in Ohio. 

On both sides of the family the grandpar- 
ents settled in Wisconsin when their children 
were young and there the latter grew to ma- 
ture years and were married. Henry Clay 
Owen was a farmer in Wisconsin when he 
enlisted for service in the Civil war, enter- 
ing the Thirty-third Wisconsin Volunteer In- 
fantry, but he did not long survive, dying in 
1862, from disease brought on by the hard- 
ships of army life. He was survived by his 
widow and the following children : W. E. ; 
Mary, who became the wife of Charles Ham- 
lin, an old settler of Custer county and now a 
resident of Texas; and J. A. Owen, who car- 
ries on a teaming business at Broken Bow. 
Henry Clay Owen was a member of the 
Church of God. In political opinion he was a 
Republican. His widow married again and 
continued to live in Wisconsin. 

W. E. Owen had comparatively few educa- 
tional advantages in boyhood, attending the 
district schools for a short time only, but by 
the time he was twenty-one years of age had 
become competent as a farmer and during the 



succeeding eight years followed farming in 
Iowa. In 1886 he came to Custer county, Ne- 
braska, took up a pre-emption, and after prov- 
ing up on his claim continued to acquire land 
and at the present time has 2,773 acres of fine 
land, which he devotes to his agricultural in- 
dustries. He has been able to make farming 
and stock-raising in Custer county ver}' profit- 
able. 

In Iowa, in May, 1879, Mr. Owen was mar- 
ried to Samantha Snyder, who was born in 
Virginia and was brought to Iowa when a 
child. Her father, Allen Snyder, served 
three years in the Civil war. She died April 
6, 1903, without issue. Mr. Owen was mar- 
ried May 4, 1905, to Minnie Hayes, a native 
of Missouri, and they have two children : 
Claris, born January 29, 1906, and Iva, born 
September 21, 1912. Mr. Owen is a member 
of the Church of God. 



NICHOLAS JACQUOT. — In the years 
that have passed, many of the honored citizens 
of Custer county have gone to their reward. 
The impress of their lives and the evidences 
of their labors are found on everj' hand. The 
subject of this memoir was one whose record, 
as a citizen of genuine worth, should have a 
place in the annals of Custer county. 

Nicholas Jacquot was bom in the village 
of Tonnonvalle, France. December 11, 1844. 
In his native land he was reared to the age 
of nineteen years, and he then ran away from 
home and sailed for the United States. Three 
months later he enlisted in the Union army, 
and he served until the close of the Civil war, 
receiving an honorable discharge. At Wesley. 
Illinois, where he had charge of a hotel, he 
married Josephine Mitchell, and in 1867 they 
moved to Livingston county, that state. On 
the 10th of March, 1880, his wife died, and 
June 12, 1882, he married Alargaret Keam. 
In the month of Januar}-, 1883, he came to 
Custer county and secured a homestead in 
section 33, township 18, range 22. His first 
home was in a sod house, in which the family 
lived three years, with only a dirt floor. Mr. 
Jacquot had been in Nebraska some time be- 
fore coming here to make his home, and had 
purchased land in \'alley county'. He was en- 
gaged in farming in Livingston county, Illi- 
nois, and, not being the owner of the land, 
was paying crop rental. To see those big 
crops of corn and other grain gathered after 
so much hard work all summer, and then give 
the landlord two-fifths of all he raised, made 
him feel that he might do better in Nebraska, 
where he could own his own land. To his 



mSTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 1079 




iMk. AND Mrs. Nicholas Jacquot 



1080 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



wife and family he pictured Nebraska in any- 
thino- but glowing- colors, but they decided to 
try it. They endured all the hardships and 
privations incident to the period of develop- 
ment in Custer county and contributed their 
full share in the work of progress. Among 
other hardships, no greater one had to be 
encountered than that of securing water for 
stock as well as for family use. A large lagoon 
on the land he took as a homestead furnished 
the water not only for his own family but 
also for other early settlers, who would come 
for miles with barrels and haul away the pre- 
cious water. But in the month of June Mr. 
Jacquot dug a well, and for several" vears he 
engaged quite profitably in boring wells for 
other settlers. He engaged in farming, and 
for years bought and shipped stock, an enter- 
prise that added to his yearly income. He later 
engaged in the grain ' business, at Merna, 
where he operated an elevator, as did he also 
one at Ravenna, and later he bought one at 
Anselmo. His son Frank later entered into 
partnership with him, and this continued till 
failing health compelled the subject of this 
review to give up all business cares. He and 
his wife spent two years in California, think- 
ing to benefit his health, but he continued to 
grow worse, and at Rochester. Minnesota, on 
the 23d of June, 1911, the end came. 

In the passing of this pioneer, Custer county 
lost a good business man and worthy citizen, 
and his family a loving husband and father. 
Nicholas Jacquot was a successful man in all 
his varied business ventures and left his fam- 
ily a valuable estate. Herewith is given a 
record of the children : Of the first marriage 
six children were born — John, a resident of 
Colorado; Frank, of Merna, Custer county; 
]\Ia^\^ the wife of George Milligan, of Ansel- 
mo, this county ;' Jennie, who died in Illinois 
at the age of ten years; Kate, the wife of Ellis 
W. Given, of Custer county; and Lizzie, the 
wife of John Leonard, of this county. Of the 
second marriage there were five children — 
Edna May, wife of Archie Bolen, of Custer 
county ; George, residing on the old farm ; 
Eva, the deceased wife of Charles Luce; 
Nicholas, of Merna ; and Jennie, deceased. By 
a former marriage Mrs. Jacquot had three 
children — Elizabeth, widow of B. F. Ed- 
wards, of Anselmo, this county; Josephine, 
wife of E. J. Foley, of Anselmo; and Joseph, 
a farmer of Custer county. 

The data for this record of Nicholas Jacquot 
and his family were furnished by his widow, 
who now makes her home in IVIerna. She 
came to Custer county with her husband thirty- 
five years ago, shared in all tliose years of toil 



and hardship, and recites an interesting story 
of pioneer days in Custer county. It was on 
Decoration Day, 1891, she and her husband 
were driving to Anselmo, and in passing fields 
of grain on which he had loaned money he 
would point them out and remark that he 
would lose so much on this field and so much 
on that if they did not get rain. His wife tried 
to be cheerful and told him that rain would 
come, and, sure enough, that day a small cloud 
appeared in the sky and before night the coun- 
try was drenched with a good rain. They had 
their good times and hard times, but, withal, 
they lived to see the county develop into a 
prosperous one and the members of their 
family all become useful members of societ)^ 

Nicholas Jacquot was a Catholic in religious 
faith and in politics was a Democrat, though 
he never aspired to nor held public ofiice. He 
helped organize and served as president of the 
Home Bank of Menia. He was a successful 
man in all he undertook and will long be re- 
membered as a substantial pioneer of Custer 
countv. 



WALTER W. WATERS. — In his de- 
velopment from a countn,' school teacher to 
the proprietorship of a flourishing business 
enterprise and the mayoralty of a thriving 
and growing city, Walter \\'. Waters, of 
Broken Bow, has displayed the possession of 
perseverance, industry and real ability, and of 
personal qualities that attract and hold gen- 
eral confidence, whether in business or public 
life. He was born in Clark county, Missouri, 
April 19, 1873, a son of George O. and Elvira 
(Story) Waters, but has been a resident ot 
Custer county since 1879. 

George O. \\'aters, who was a native of 
Ohio, went to Missouri about the year 1865, 
and was there married, his wife being a na- 
tive of that state. They resided in Missouri, 
on a farm in Clark county, until 1879 when 
they removed to Custer county and Mr. Wat- 
ers almost immediately became an active fac- 
tor in the public life of the community. He 
was a member of the first board of county 
supervisors, was deputy clerk of the county 
court and at one time was elected county re- 
corder, but found the population of the county 
was not large enough and declined the office. 
Mr. and Mrs. Waters, of whom further data 
will be found in the sketch of R. E. Waters, 
elsewhere in this work, are now residents of 
California. They are members of the Meth- 
odist lC])!Scopal church, and Mr. Waters is a 
Republican. 

\\'alter ^^'. Waters attended the graded anti 
high schools of Broken Bow, graduating from 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1081 



the latter in 1894, and then furthered his edu- 
cation by attenadnce at Peru Normal school, 
where he completed his course in 1898. He 
immediately entered upon his career as an 
, educator, an experience which extended over 
a period of twelve years, during which time 
he first taught in the rural districts, later was 
principal of schools at Shelton and elsewhere, 
and finally became superintendent of schools 
at Saint Paul, Nebraska. When he gave up 
teaching as a vocation, in 1909, it was to enter 
commercial afTairs at Broken Bow, where, in 
partnership with C. S. Tooley, he embarked in 
a hardware business. After two years the 
partnership was dissolved and Mr. Waters en- 
gaged in the implement business on his own 
account at Broken Bow, an enterprise which 
he has since built up to large proportions. He 
carries a full and up-to-date line of tools and 
farming implements and machinery, and has 
had the satisfaction of seeing his trade grow 
in commensurate value with the efforts he 
has exercised and with the fairness of policy 
that he has used in the conduct of his trans- 
actions. Mr. Waters not only bears an ex- 
cellent reputation in business circles but is 
■one of foremost men in Broken Bow's civic 
and public life. When the people of this 
community came to the conclusion that they 
needed a chief executive who possessed busi- 
ness ability and at the same time the qualities 
necessary for leadership, Mr. Waters' name 
at once suggested itself, and he duly became 
the Republican candidate and was elected 
mayor. So satisfactory was his first term 
that he was re-elected by the largest majority 
ever given a candidate for this position. His 
administration of affairs has been character- 
ized by constructive work and civic advance- 
ment. 

Mr. Waters was married in 1895, to Miss 
Stella Brown, who was born in Illinois, and 
to this union there have been born three chil- 
dren : Helen, a graduate of Broken Bow 
High School, class of 1917, the same high 
school that her mother graduated from ; Car- 
roll, a pupil in eighth grade ; and Emily, a 
fifth grade pupil. Mr. and Mrs. Waters and 
their children are consistent attendants of the 
Christian church. 



FRANK HEAPS, who is one of the suc- 
cessful agriculturists of the community of 
Broken Bow, is another representative of the 
farming industry who has won success in his 
native state. Mr. Pleaps was born on a farm 
in Hamilton county, August 15, 1884, and is 
a son of Charles G. Heaps. 

The paternal grandparents of Mr. Heaps, 



Golden and Elizabeth (Woodruff) Heaps, 
were natives of England, the former born at 
London and the latter at Liverpool. They 
had nine children, of whom three still sur- 
vive: Mary, who is the widow of Thomas 
W. Palmer, a farmer; Elizabeth, the wife of 
Frank Groll, formerly a farmer but for the 
past two years a retired resident of Evans- 
ville, Indiana ; and Charles G. Charles G. 
Heaps was bom in Gibson county, Indiana, 
September 6, 1859, and received a public 
school education at Princeton, that state. 
Reared as a farmer, he adopted that profes- 
sion upon the attainment of his majority, 
shortly after which he came to Nebraska and 
bought eighty acres of land in Hamilton 
county. This he cultivated for several years, 
when he sold out and in 1884 came to Custer 
county, where he homesteaded a tract and 
where he has resided ever since. He is a 
practical and progressive agriculturist who 
has made a success of his affairs, because of 
his good judgment and persevering industry, 
and his standing in his community is that of a 
good citizen and a man of the highest integ- 
rity and strictest probity of character. He 
was reared in the faith of the Baptist church 
and has continued to follow its teachings. 
Politically he is a Democrat. He and Mrs. 
Heaps have had eight children, all of whom 
are living: J. O., who married Zoe Bishop 
and is engaged in farming at Lillian, Ne- 
braska ; Ada, the wife of David Dewey, a 
farmer; Frank, a widower, who is engaged 
in farming in Custer county; Earl, a farmer 
of this community, who married Velma 
Smith ; Maggie, the wife of Hugh Campbell, 
a fanner of Weissert ; Leone, the wife of Clar- 
ence Brown, a farmer; and Charles and Rex, 
who reside with their parents. 

Frank Heaps received his education in the 
common schools of Custer county, and when 
he completed his studies embarked in farm- 
ing, which has been his vocation to the pres- 
ent time. He has applied modern methods to 
his operations, with the result that he has 
made a success of his work, and gradually 
has become known as one of the more progres- 
sive members of the younger farming ele- 
ment. Mr. Heaps is a Democrat, but has ap- 
plied himself so closely to his agricultural la- 
bors that he has had little time for outside in- 
terests. He is not affiliated with any religious 
body or organization. 

Mr. Heaps was married to Miss Catherine 
Barnesberger, who is now deceased, and they 
became the parents of three children : Ro- 
sella, born September 28. 1912; Virginia, born 
March 28, 1914; and Edwin, born Tanuarv 4, 
1916. 



1082 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1083 



FOSTER JACKSON, who since his ar- 
rival in Broken Bow, in 1910, has been in- 
creasingly successful in his business opera- 
tions, has gradually developed into one of the 
leaders of his community's dealers in houses 
and general real estate. He was born on a 
farm in Van Wert county, Ohio, August 27, 
1878, and is a son of Simeon A. and Rebecca 
(Hayes) Jackson. 

Simeon A. Jackson was born in Pennsyl- 
vania, and as a young man went to Ohio, 
where he was residing at the outbreak of the 
Civil war. He was one of the first to answer 
the call for volunteers, joining one of the first 
Ohio infantry regiments, and during his four 
years of service took part in many important 
engagements, including Lookout Mountain. 
In that battle he was severely wounded and 
confined to the hospital for a time, but upon 
his recovery rejoined his regiment and fought 
until peace was declared. Returning then to 
Ohio, he resumed his farming operations in 
Van Wert county, where he passed the rest of 
his life and where his widow still survives. 
They became the parents of seven children, of 
whom the following survive: Willis, a con- 
tractor of Columbus, O. ; Minnie, who married 
Frank Richards, engaged in the implement 
business at St. Paul, Minnesota ; Oscar, who 
is a contractor and builder of Van Wert, 
Ohio ; Elias, a contractor of Lima, Ohio ; Otis, 
engaged in leasing oil lands at St. Louis, Mis- 
souri ; and Foster, the only one in Nebraska. 
The father of these children was a Republi- 
can in his political faith, but was never an 
office seeker. His wife, who was born in 
Mercer county, Ohio, is a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal church. 

The education of Foster Jackson was se- 
cured in the public schools of Mendon, Ohio, 
near which town the old homestead was lo- 
cated, and as a youth he was thoroughly 
trained in the various departments of agricul- 
ture. Thus equipped, in young manhood he 
went to Idaho, in which state he secured em- 
ployment as foreman of a ranch, a position 
which he retained for two years. Mr. Foster 
came to Broken Bow February 27, 1910, and 
established himself in business in the line of 
moving houses. This gradually led him into 
buying and selling houses, and he was quick 
to recognize the opportunities offered in the 
real estate field here, so that he has developed 
into one of the pushing and energetic men in 
the field of handling realty and is now carry- 
ing on a large business which has assumed 
important proportions. Mr. Foster has him- 
self contributed to the upbuilding of the com- 
munity by the erection of his own modern 
home, near the square, and several other resi- 
dences, and a specialty of his business is the 



remodeling of houses. Mr. Jackson is inde- 
pendent in his political views, preferring to 
choose his own candidates rather than to vote 
blindly with any certain party. He has at- 
tached himself to several movements which 
have been promulgated for the betterment of 
Broken Bow's interests and has shown him- 
self in various ways a constructive and public- 
spirited citizen. 

Mr. Jackson was married January 18, 
1903, prior to leaving Ohio, to Miss Maude 
Dull, who was born in the Buckeye state, m 
1882, a daughter of Delbert and Malissa Dull, 
both of whom were born in Ohio, where the 
father died and where Mrs. Dull still makes 
her home. Two children have come to this 
union : Ralph, born November 9, 1905 ; and 
Vaughn, born August 22, 1906. 



PHILIP JOHNSON. — In the death of 
Philip Johnson, Custer county lost one of its 
highly respected pioneer citizens — one who 
had shared in the hardships and experiences 
of the early settlers and contributed in a large 
measure to the building up and development 
of the community in which he lived. 

Philip Johnson was a native of Ohio, his 
birth having occurred April 23, 1842. In his 
native state he was reared and there he was 
united in marriage to Miss Wilhelmina Nolsch, 
who was born in Germany, February 19, 1843, 
and who came to the LInited States when she 
was ten years old. Mr. Johnson became a 
successful farmer and land owner in Ohio, 
where he carried on agricultural pursuits until 
1886, when he came to Nebraska and secured 
a homestead in Custer county. His first home 
was a primitive sod house, and after proving 
up on the homestead he sold the property and 
bought land in township 18, range 22, and 
township 18, range 23. This farm he admir- 
ably improved, and he made it one of the val- 
uable properties in Custer county. Here he 
resided until his tragic death called him from 
the scene of his earthly activities. 

On June 17, 1912, Mr. Johnson and his wife 
were on their way to visit his sister, when, 
at Mt. Vernon, Iowa, while changing trains, 
they were struck by a fast train and instantly 
killed. Their passing was a severe blow to their 
family and their many friends, as they were 
devoted parents and loyal friends. They were 
the parents of eight children : Jacob, of Broken 
Bow : Annie, wife of F. S. Ackerman ; 
Sarah, deceased wife of John Varnek ; David, 
a resident of Ohio ; Martin, who owns and op- 
erates the old farm ; May, who married Sam 
AIcGinnis and resides in Thomas county, Ne- 
braska ; Eva, wife of A. C. Anderson, of Lin- 



10&+ 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1085 



coin, Nebraska; and ^linnie, wife of Charles 
Higgins, of Lincoln. 

Philip Johnson and wife were members of 
the United Brethren church and in politics he 
was a Republican. 

In recording the lives of those brave men 
and women who established homes in Cvister 
county when the work of development was 
only initiated and who devoted years of sacri- 
fice and labor to make better the conditions 
of living for those who follow after them, we 
present to the readers of this volume a brief 
sketch of a worthy pioneer couple who did 
their full sharf and who are entitled to a 
memorial tribute in this history of Custer 
countv. 



M. LUDWIG JACKSON, whose standing 
as a substantial farmer and public-spirited citi- 
zen rests upon thirty years of connection with 
the agricultural and civic interests of Custer 
county, has won honorable success and repu- 
tation through his own efforts. He started his 
career as a landholder in 1888 and during the 
time that has elapsed has proved himself pre- 
pared for ^very emergency and worthy of ev- 
ery trust. Eike many others whose homes 
are in Custer county, Mr. Jackson was born 
in Sweden, his birth date being January 31, 
1858, and his parents Jacob and IVIaria (Nel- 
son) Jackson. 

Mr. Jackson was reared in an agricultural 
family, his father and forebears having fol- 
lowed the pursuits of the soil for many years in 
Sweden. His parents never left that country, 
nor did any other children in the family with 
the exception of John C. The youngest of 
the family, M. Ludwig Jackson, received ordi- 
nary educational advantages in the schools of 
his native land, where he was brought up un- 
der a rigid training as to the virtue of honesty 
and industry. He was dissatisfied with such 
opportunities as he found for advancement in 
Sweden, and shortly after attaining his ma- 
jority he left that country and immigrated to 
the United States. He soon found that in 
order to gain a start he must work hard and 
faithfully, and that opportunities were oft'ered 
only to the worthy and ambitious. For several 
years after reaching Grand Island, Nebraska, 
he followed railroading, and also for a like 
period was variously engaged in other em- 
ployments, but when he reached Grand Island 
he had only seventy dollars. However, he 
finally started out on another line, determined 
to gain success in the pursuit in which he had 
been reared, that of agriculture, to which he 
applied himself as a renter of land. He con- 



tinued in the same capacity for three seasons 
and succeeded in saving enough monev with 
which to purchase a team, and in 1888 came 
to Custer county and bought one quarter-sec- 
tion of land. He paid his indebtedness on this 
land, and then purchased eighty acres more, 
and since then he has made other additions, 
besides making improvements of all kinds, 
including the erection of substantial buildings. 
He has a pleasant and comfortable modern 
home, equipped with all conveniences, and his 
farm is a model of neatness and order. As a 
general farmer he has succeeded through the 
use of modern methods and -processes, com- 
bined with hard and constant work, and in the 
line of stock-raising he has also met with pros- 
perity, having a good grade of cattle and be- 
ing considered a well informed man in that 
direction. Mr. Jackson has not been prominent 
in public life, but has been a public-spirited 
supporter of worth-while movements and one 
who by his influence, precept, and example, 
has tried to secure good legislation for his 
community. In political aft'airs he takes an in- 
dependent stand, depending upon his own 
judgment in his selection of candidates and 
principles, rather than that of the parties. With 
his family, he belongs to the Baptist church. 
In 1891 Mr. Jackson married Miss Sadie 
Bray, daughter of William N. and Frances 
(Ogburn) Bray, natives respectively of Ohio 
and West Virginia. Mr. Bray is a retired 
farmer of Custer county, now living at Mason 
City. He came to this county in 1885 and 
spent thirty years in farming and stock-rais- 
ing. A full sketch of his career will be found 
elsewhere in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson 
became the parents of seven children : George 
L., who, at the time of this writing, is in 
training for service in the United States army, 
in camp at Cambridge, Massachusetts ; Carl 
F., who is with the American Expeditionary 
Forces, in France ; Edward W., who is now 
in service in the United States army; and 
Clara M., Cressie, Kermit J., and Archie C, 
who are at home with their parents. 



A^IOS B. LEWIS. — Another intelligent, 
progressive farmer and stockman who belongs 
to one of the widely known pioneer families 
of the county is the one whose life sketch 
here follows. 

Amos B. Lewis was born in 1877 and has 
been a resident of the county ever since he 
was two years of age. Here he received his 
education, lived through the days of childhood 
and boyhood, and he finds himself to-day in 
the prime and vigor of middle life, surrounded 



1086 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 




X 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1087 



by an interesting family and engaged in a 
profitable occupation. He is the son of Moses 
and Martha E. (Howe) Lewis, both very ex- 
cellent people. The father was a native of 
New York and the mother of Illinois. The 
father, who was a Civil war veteran, was 
possessed of a mechanical genius and was the 
inventor of some very helpful farm tools, not- 
ably ledger blades for a mowing machine, and 
a cultivator of exceptional utility. He came 
to the state in 1879 and homesteaded one mile 
east and north of Broken Bow. Both the 
father and mother were charter members of 
the First Baptist church of Broken Bow. The 
father is deceased. The mother has since re- 
married and is living in Grand Island. They 
were the parents of five children, all of whom 
have done exceptionally well out in the 
world of useful activity. John, the first born, 
is a prominent citizen of Wayne, where he is 
a member of the faculty of the Wayne State 
Normal. Amos, whose name appears above, 
is the second bom. George M. is jn Seattle, 
where he is engaged in electrical ralroading. 
Garland E. is at Niagara Falls, where he is 
professor of chemistry in a noted institution 
of learning. Leland j. is an instructor in the 
Columbia University. Both John and Gar- 
land were among the superintendents of pub- 
lic instruction of Custer county, each serving 
with credit to himself and profit to the school 
system. . 

Amos B. Lewis homesteaded in 1905 and to 
this has added other acres until to-day he has 
a holding of 2.450 acres, upon which he usual- 
ly runs about three hundred head of cattle 
the year around. The cattle are fine-grade 
Polled Durhams. His fancy in hogs runs to 
the Duroc Jerseys and in the breeding of this 
type he has made a splendid showing. Since 
nearly all his life has been spent in this county 
he has known its progress and development 
and has had much to do himself with some 
of the early events. 

He claims the distinction of being on the 
first railroad engine that ran into Broken Bow. 
He was joined in holy wedlock to Leota C. 
Russom. a daughter in one of the first families 
of the county. Mrs. Lewis is an estimable 
lady of culture and refinement and has been 
an able assistant to her husband in all his agri- 
cultural enterprises and community service. 
Into their home the years have brought five 
children, all interesting and of much promise. 
They are Loma E. ; Eula V. ; Theodore V. ; 
Rowena M. ; and John R. All are at home 
and in full pursuit of their education. The 
family belongs to the Baptist church, and is 
rated as a leading family in the community. 



Amos is a Republican, a township officer and a 
general contributor and supporter of all local 
enterprises. 

HERMAN H. E. HUENEFELD. —Along 
with other substantial farmers of the Roten 
valley must be placed Mr. Huenefeld, whose 
life story follows. 

Herman H. E. Huenefeld was born in Grant 
county, Wisconsin, July 3, 1864, and he is a 
son of Carl and Louisa (Hasse) Huenefeld, 
both natives of Germany. The parents were 
splendid people, and they had five children — 
Carl, Fred, Louise Klein, Simon, and Herman 
H. E. The father was a farmer, and he came 
from Germany to Freeport, Illinois, when 
Carl, the first-born son of the family, was 
but one year old. The family stopped in Free- 
port for a short time, and from there moved 
to Grant county, Wisconsin, where the sub- 
ject of this sketch was born and reared. Con- 
cerning his early days spent on a farm, Her- 
man H. E. Huenefeld remembers that he had 
to carry a light cradle in cradling a field of 
grain full of stumps. It was his job to locate 
the stumps and have his cousin stop and cradle 
around them. For this service he received the 
first fifteen-cent piece in script that he ever 
saw. When he was thirteen years of age his 
mother died, and one year later his father 
passed away, leaving the children doubly or- 
phaned. They remained on the farm, how- 
ever, the sister keeping them together and 
tending- to the household duties. When the 
brother Fred married, his wife took charge of 
the home, and the brothers worked the land 
together until the farm was sold and the family 
came to Custer county. This was in the spring 
of 1886. The three brothers. Fred, Simon and 
Herman, located about sixteen miles south- 
west of Callaway, in Roten valley. Each 
bought a half-section of railroad land, for two 
dollars and fifty cents an acre. At the present 
time this land is worth at least fifty dollars an 
acre. 

February 26. 1889, in Grant county, Wis- 
consin, was recorded the marriage of Herman 
H. E. Huenefeld to Miss Emma Casper, a 
daughter of Joseph and Mary (Herberlein) 
Casper, who were natives of Germany, and 
who had ten children, eight of whom are living 
at the present time — Jacob. Carl, Henry, 
Emil. Albert, William, Joseph, and Emma. 

Mr. and Mrs. Huenefeld started their home 
in a very modest way, and they maintained it 
over the extreme difficulties of the first years. 
Like their neighbors, they hauled water from 
five to nine miles, and then had to pay five 



1088 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



cents a barrel for it besides the hauling. Some- 
times the wagon sent for water had to wait 
all night for the wind to come up and start the 
pump. In connection with those early days 
Mr. Huenefeld says that it was an interesting 
proposition to figure out how they could get 
the three per cent, a month to pay for money 
they had to Ijorrow at the bank to tide them 
over the hard times. Yet the family survived 
all these difficulties and have come now to the 
crest of the hill, where life is easier and labor 
not so strenuous. The landed holdings con- 
sist of 480 acres, well improved and in high 
cultivation. Farming and stock-raising have 
paid for everything, supported the family, and 
are responsible for the present accumulation. 
Following is brief record concerning the chil- 
dren of Mr. and Mrs. Huenefeld: Clara is the 
wife of Leslie Dickerson, a farmer living about 
three and one-half miles south of Cozad, and 
they have two children ; Lena is a teacher who 
received training at the business college at 
Broken Bow, and she makes her home with 
the parents ; Rosa is deceased ; Erma and Nora 
have finished the eighth grade in the public 
schools and both are at the parental home. 

The family belong to the Evangelical church, 
in which they are faithful, consistent members. 
Mr. Huenefeld declares allegiance to no po- 
litical party, rating himself as an independent. 
In exercising the franchise he makes his own 
selection of candidates. 



ALONZO B. ASH. — The Ash family 
came to Custer county, Nebraska, with the 
first settlers, and for almost forty years the 
name has stood for good citizenship, enter- 
prising spirit and sound, practical business 
methods. The family has always been an 
agricultural one, farming and stock-raising 
claiming the attention of father and sons, and 
in these industries they have been very suc- 
cessful. A representative member of this old 
Custer county family is found in Alonzo B. 
Ash, whose fine farm is located on section 31, 
township 21, with postoffice at Broken Bow, 
Nebraska. 

Alonzo B. Ash was bom September 26, 
1871, at Marshalltown, Marshall county, 
Iowa, His parents were Jesse M. and In- 
diana Ash, both of whom were born at Shel- 
byville, Indiana. There were ten children in 
the family, namely: Elva, Alonzo B., Ward, 
Blanche, Harrj', Herbert, Boyd, Vennie. 
George, and Corbett, all of whom are living 
with the exception of George. With prudent 
preparation for the future of his growing 
family, Jesse M. Ash for some time consid- 



ered the relative advantages presented by dif- 
ferent western states before he decided on 
coming to Nebraska, led thereto by the state's 
even temperature, fertile soil and, at that 
time, an extensive farm area for homestead- 
ing. Alonzo B. was eight years old when, in 
April, 1879, settlement was made in Custer 
county, and here he has continued to live con- 
tentedly ever since. He was educated in the 
public schools and was trained to efficiency in 
his vocation, through the routine of farm 
work. Mr. Ash now finds himself a man of 
the utmost value to his country in her time 
of need, and as a loyal and patriotic citizen he 
is making every effort to adci to the already 
bounteous yield of his acres. He has long 
been deemed one of the county's most pro- 
gressive stock-raisers, his farm showing 
standard stock only. He raises pure-bred 
Shire horses and makes a specialty of Poland 
China hogs. 

Mr. Ash was married at Broken Bow, Ne- 
braska, November 4, 1906, to Miss Etta Doty, 
who is a daughter of Josephus and Martha 
Doty, and they have the following children : 
Blanche, Fern, Boyd, Chris, and Ernest. Mr. 
Ash has never been very active in politics but 
votes with the Democratic party. 



JOHN O. JACKSON. — In naming the 
pioneers of Custer county the late John O. 
Jackson will be recalled, for he was one of the 
dependable men here in early days and sub- 
sequently prospered with the county. He was 
a fine man in every way — courageous and re- 
sourceful, keen in business and industrious in 
habit — and in all he did he was honorable 
and upright, and just to his fellow men. 

John O. Jackson was born December 11, 
1849, in Sweden, and died in Nebraska, Jan- 
uary 2, 1914. He remained in his native land 
until he was eighteen years old and then start- 
ed out alone to make his way in the world. 
He crossed the Atlantic ocean to the United 
States and landed on hospitable shores, for he 
easily found employment wherever he went 
and before reaching Nebraska had traveled 
through many of the states of the Union. He 
located at first in Pennsylvania, then went to 
^linnesota and then to Arkansas, and he vis- 
ited other sections prior to 1878, when he 
came to Merrick county. Nebraska. In the 
meanwhile he worked on farms, saved his 
monev. and became acquainted with the lan- 
guage and customs. \\"iien he reached Custer 
county, alx)ut 1879, he had matured plans and 
settled convictions. He homesteadcd in a de- 
sirable part of the county and took up a tree 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1089 




John O. Jackson 



1090 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



claim. He kept on adding to his possessions 
until, at the time of his death, he owned a 
whole section of land. His homestead was 
well developed and well stocked and continues 
to be a source of large revenue to his family. 

Mr. Jackson was married August 10, 1878, 
to Aliss Florence Beaman, a daughter of A. 
and Esther (Lamb) Beaman, who were na- 
tives of Franklin county. New York, and who 
came to Nebraska at an early day. Mr. Bea- 
man owned a large estate in Merrick county 
and both he and his wife died there. Of their 
family of nine children Mrs. Jackson was the 
first born. To Mr. and Mrs. Jackson five chil- 
dren were born, the survivors being: Maude is 
the wife of Thomas Bahr. a farmer near Mon- 
tevista, Colorado, and they have four children 
— John, Grace, Margaret, and Robert J. ; 
Grace, second daughter of the subject of this 
memoir, is the wife of Ralph Keplinger, who 
not only farms his own quarter-section but also, 
a quarter-section belonging to 'Mrs. Jackson, 
he and his wife having two children — Maude 
and Lyle ; Belle, who resides with her mother 
at Grand Island, has completed a course in 
the Nebraska Normal School at Kearney, and 
is now in the pedagogic profession. 

Mr. Jackson always took an interest in poli- 
tics and had sound ojjinions on the leading is- 
sues of the day. In his early political life he 
was a Republican but later he foUnd himself 
more in syn^pathy with the Democratic party. 
He belonged to the Ancient Order of United 
Workmen and attended the Mason City lodge 
of the same. For many years he was a faith- 
ful member of the Baptist church, and in 
various ways he contributed to other agencies 
for good in the county. He was a marked ex- 
ample of the self-made man, and what he 
accomplished was the result of his own unas- 
sisted efforts. 



E. P. \\'-\LTER is now entering his thir- 
tieth year of serv'ice with the Chicago, Bur- 
lington & Quincy Railroad and is without 
doubt one of the best known railroad men in 
Nebraska, having entered upon his career in 
1889. Mr. Walter, who started his service 
with the Burlington route as a roustabout and 
who is now general agent for that great com- 
pany at Broken Bow, was born in Coming, 
Iowa, December 14, 1871, and is a son of 
Jacob and Emily (Weaver) Walter. 

Jacob ^^'alte^ was born in Bavaria, in 1833, 
and was five years of age when brought to 
the United tales by his parents, who settled 
in Ohio. There he was bound out to learn 
the harnessmaker's trade, which he mastered 



and followed as a journeyman in Ohio prior 
to his migration to Missouri, when he was still 
a young man. In the latter state he was mar- 
ried to Eniily Weaver, who was born at Canal 
Dover, Ohio, in 1836, and they soon moved to 
Quincy, Iowa, where they established their 
home prior to the advent of the railroads, 
which necessitated their freighting their 
household goods from Saint Joseph. For a 
number of years Mr. Walter was engaged in 
business at Corning and later at Creston, but 
he eventually retired and in his declining years 
moved to Colorado, his death occurring in 
1898 at Denver, while Mrs. Walter passed 
away in 1892, at Colorado Springs. They 
were the parents of two sons and two daugh- 
ters : Cora, the wife of T. H. Campbell, audi- 
tor of the Colorado National Bank of Denver, 
with which institution he has been identified 
for thirty years; Sarah, of Los Angeles, Cali- 
fornia, widow of Will Foreman, who for 
twenty-eight years was traveling auditor for 
the Burlington ; Charles S., engaged in the 
piano business at San Francisco ; and E. P. 
Mr. and Mrs. Walter were consistent members 
of the Congregational church and were 
actively interested in church afifairs. He was 
a Republican. 

E. P. Walter completed his education in the 
high schools of Omaha and Denver, from the 
latter of which he graduated in 1889, and in 
that same year lije joined the service of the com- 
pany with which he is yet connected. Rail- 
road work appealed to his nature as a youth, 
but as he was untrained he was forced to start 
in a humble capacity and began his labors as 
a common roustabout. However, his indus- 
tr\' and energ\- soon won him promotion ; he 
became in turn telegrapher, operator and 
agent, and at various times was transferred, 
as his usefulness grew, to larger and more im- 
portant posts. Until 1907 he was on what is 
known as the McCook Division, but in the 
year mentioned he came to the Alliance Divi- 
sion, and after being at Crawford for three 
years came to Broken Bow, in 1912, as general 
agent for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 
Railroad, having complete charge of everything 
pertaining to the road's interests and posses- 
sions at this jjoint. Coming into daily contact 
with thousands of people, as he has and does, 
it is but natural that Sir. Walter should have 
a wide acquaintance and that he should be un- 
equivocally popular. He is recognized as a 
skilled, thorough and well informed railroad 
man, in whose hands the company's interests 
are safe. 

Mr. Walter was married at Brighton, Iowa, 
in 1895, to Miss Jessie W^ilkins, who was 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1091 



born at Lexington, Iowa, and four children 
have been born to them: Ben, attending 
Creighton University as a medical student ; 
Joe, who graduated from the Broken Bow 
high school in 1918; Paul, a freshman in that 
school, at present spending his time with his 
uncle in Colorado ; and Edna, a public school 
student. Mr. and Mrs. Walter and their 
children belong to the Methodist Episcopal 
church. He is a Royal Arch Mason, has 
ser\-ed as master of his blue lodge, and is a 
Republican with independent inclinations. He 
has taken a deep interest in civic affairs, and 
was practically the founder of the Public Ser- 
vice Club, of which he is at this time secretary. 



ORLANDO M. WOLF, now one of the 
prosperous farmers and stockmen of the Sar- 
gent community in Custer county, belongs to 
that class of men who have attained their 
present positions of prominence and leader- 
ship solely through the medium of their own 
efforts. When he first came to this region, 
more than thirty years ago, his capital in re- 
gard to finances was represented by the sum 
of five dollars, and in the several years that 
followed he experienced all the hardships 
imaginable connected with life in an unde- 
veloped locality. However, he has persevered 
and labored, and to-day is the owner of 960 
acres of land, highly cultivated, and made 
more valuable by improvements of a modern 
character. 

Mr. Wolf was born in Washington county, 
Pennsylvania, April 2, 1865, a son of Peter 
and Caroline (Woodmansee) Wolf, natives 
of Pennsylvania, who passed their lives in 
their native state and were devotees of the 
peaceful pursuits of the soil in a highly civil- 
ized community. They were devout church 
members, highly respected by their neighbors, 
and Mr. Wolf was a staunch supporter of 
Democratic principles. They had seven 
children, of whom six are living: Elizabeth, 
who is the'wife of Joseph Bailey, a miner of 
New Cumberland. West Virginia : John, a 
fanner near Sargent, who married Alice 
Lundy ; Sarah M., a resident of Oakdale, 
Pennsylvania, who is the widow of William 
Chapman ; Orlando M., of this notice ; Will- 
iam H., a steel mill operator of Tylerdale, 
Pennsylvania, who married Laura Blair; and 
Charles, whose present whereabouts are un- 
known. 

Orlando M. Wolf received his education in 
the common schools of Pennsylvania, where 
he was reared on the home farm, and was 
variously employed until after he was eigh- 
teen years old, when he severed home ties and 



struck out to make his own way in the world. 
He arrived at Grand Island, Nebraska, with 
but five dollars, and in November, 1883, 
started to work in Custer county. The time 
did not seem auspicious for his permanent 
settlement, however, and in March, 1885, he 
went west and for eleven years was employed 
in various ways. During this time he ex- 
perienced discouragements and disappoint- 
ments that would have broken the spirit of a 
less persistent and sturdy man, for he lost 
his crops by hail, had them burned up by 
drought, and suffered various other misfor- 
tunes, and one winter he and his wife were 
both compelled to go out and work, at $13 
per month, in order that they might live 
through the winter months and have some- 
thing with which to start the following spring. 
However, their perseverance and courage 
were rewarded, for when Mr. Wolf returned 
to Custer county he had sufficient means with 
which to purchase a farm, and also to home- 
stead 120 acres, and this latter tract, in sec- 
tion 30, township 17, still fonns a part of his 
960 acres. Of this land, 800 acres is all in 
one body, and the whole property is in an ex- 
cellent state of cultivation. Mr. Wolf has 
engaged to some extent in farming, but has 
made more of a feature of stock-raising, and 
in this has been very successful. He has his 
property improved with a fine home, substan- 
tial barns and good outbuildings, and the en- 
tire place evidences Mr. Wolf's energetic and 
progressive spirit and his modern ideas of 
agriculture. He has not entered actively 
into public affairs, but supports good move- 
ments and is known as a public-spirited citi- 
zen. 

Mr. Wolf was married December 25, 1888, 
to Miss Clara Ferris, a daughter of William 
and Evaline (Huntley) Ferris, of Round Val- 
ley, and to this union there have been bom 
rive children, as follows : Sylvia, who is the 
wife of Howard Cooper, engaged in farming 
near Sargent ; Charles, who married Edith 
Woods, and is engaged in agriculture in this 
community; Mary E., the wife of Elmer 
Ellingson, of Round Valley ; and Ernest and 
Leonard, who are single, and are their father's 
assistants in the work of the home farm and 
ranch. 



JESSE BRADBURN, who is an enter- 
prising and careful farmer on section 7, town- 
ship 34, near Round Valley, Custer county, 
has practically spent his entire life in this 
part of the state of Nebraska. He was bom 
at Elton, Custer county, August 1, 1886. His 
parents, Joseph and Mary (Lawton) Brad- 



1092 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




fa 

a 
< 



W 



a; 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1093 



burn, came here in 1884 and bought a home- 
stead right. They had seven children and 
five of these survive, namely : Grace, who is 
the wife of Charles Fresch, a lumberman, of 
Glenville, Nebraska ; Jesse ; Wilbur, who was 
born September 4, 1892, lives at home; Ern- 
est, who is a farmer in Round Valley, married 
Permelia Ward; and Twila, who is the wife 
of George Martin, at present a worker in a 
munitions plant at Utica, New York. 

Jesse Bradburn was educated in the coun- 
try schools in Custer county and the high 
school at Broken Bow. Farming and stock- 
raising have engaged his attention ever since. 



RALLY E. HICKENBOTTOM. — The 
reader may well note the name that initiates 
this paragraph and then read the following' 
story of a thrifty farmer who credits all he is 
and has to the opportunities of this western 
country. 

Rally E. Hickenbottom was born in Jeffer- 
son county, Iowa, on the 4th of January, 1864, 
and is a son of Stephen and Caroline (Taylor) 
Hickenbottom, the former of whom was born 
and reared in Kentucky and the latter of whom 
was a native of West Virginia. In the home 
circle of this excellent couple were twelve chil- 
dren, all of whom are living except three. 
Those deceased are Mrs. Mary Snyder, Ste- 
phen and Mrs. Margaret F. Bayles. The sur- 
viving children are Mrs. Prudence Pfoutz, 
William T., Mrs. Jane Eastman, Mrs. Sadie 
Moore, Mrs. Josephine Baker, Mrs. Johanna 
Jensen. Mrs. Belle Case, Rally E., and Jane. 
Stephen Hickenbottom was a farmer by voca- 
tion and he maintained a comfortable home for 
his family. 

Rally K. Hickenbottom lived at home and 
worked on the farm until he was twenty-one 
years of age, and in the meanwhile he obtained 
a sfood common-school education that has 
stood him well in hand in later years. When 
he became of age his father gave him a span 
of horses, with harness and wagon, and started 
him out into the world. What became of the 
harness and wagon is not recorded, but it can 
safelv be said that the team hauled him over 
the long road that eventually led him to his 
present home, more than thirty years ago. 

In Jefferson county, Iowa, on the 4th of 
Alay, 1887, was solemnized the marriage of 
Mr. Hickenbottom to Miss Lora C. Stallman, 
a daughter of Solomon and Hannah (Her- 
man) Stallman. of that county, her parents 
having been Pennsylvania people and both 
having been faithful members of the Presby- 



terian church. Since that day the home of 
Mr. and I\lrs. Hickenbottom has been blessed 
with seven children : Rally C. married Miss 
Frances S'chreycr and they reside on a farm 
six miles north of Callaway. They have two 
children. Rally C. Hickenbottom was assigned 
to class No. 4 in the selective draft for service 
in the world war. Mrs. Lydia J. Volenweider 
lives with her husband on a farm near Oconto, 
and they have three children. Leslie A., a 
farmer near Callaway, was registered in the 
last draft and was assigned to class No. 2. The 
maiden name of his wife was Annie Lewis. 
Frederick J., who is associated with his fa- 
ther in the operations of the home farm, was 
classified in the first division in the war draft. 
Alamie D. and ]\Iary C. were twins, and the 
latter died at the age of eight months. Mamie 
D. is the wife of Edmond K. Lichtenberger 
and they reside on a farm near Callaway. Delia, 
who remains at the parental home, is a student 
in the Callaway high school. The boys of the 
family are all Republicans in politics and all 
are doing well in their initial activities in farm 
enterprse. The married daughters have ex- 
cellent husbands and are establishing comfort- 
able and ideal homes. 

Air. Hickenbottom came to Custer county in 
1887 and located on Spring creek, where he 
rented land during the first year of his resi- 
dence in the county. He then purchased 160 
acres on the Tallin Table, where he hved two 
years, and he then returned to Iowa. Two 
years of further residence in the Hawkeye 
state proved suiificient, and once more he 
turned his face westward and made his way 
to Custer county. At this time he purchased 
what was known as the old Chris Nelson 
homestead, and here he has continuously main- 
tained his home to the present time. He has 
600 acres of good land, and the property is 
so well improved, with an excellent array also 
of good live stock, that the fine farm home 
may consistently be said to face "easy street." 
Mr. Hickenbottom has placed himself in a sub- 
stantial financial position by means of his 
successful operations in agricultural enterprise 
and stock-raising. He and his sons are affili- 
ated with the Royal Highlanders and in politics 
he maintains an independent attitude, giving 
his support to men and measures meeting the 
approval of his judgment, irrespective of parti- 
san lines. He holds membership in the Calla- 
way lodge of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows. The Hickenbottoms are in every 
sense one of the first families of Custer county. 



1094 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



ROSCOE M. LEACH, one of the native- 
bom sons of Custer county who has made a 
success of his farming and stock-raising 
operations, is located in section 10, township 
2. His entire career has been devoted to 
work of an agricultural character and his 
property gives evidence of the presence of 
good management and skilled treatment. Air. 
Leach was born on a farm northwest of Sar- 
gent, December 5, 1884, a son of Edward P. 
and Mar}' (Exley) Leach. 

The paternal grandfather of Mr. Leach, 
William Leach, was born in Kentucky, from 
whence he went to Indiana, and there mar- 
ried Emily Henderson, a native of that state. 
They farmed in Johnson county for a time, 
but in 1859 removed to Lucas county, Iowa, 
where Mrs. Leach died April 22, 1875, her 
husband surviving until March 27, 1911, when 
he had reached an advanced age. Edward P. 
Leach was bom in Johnson county, Indiana, 
and was still a youth when his parents re- 
moved to Iowa. He reached manhood there, 
but in 1883 left that state and came to Custer 
county, where he settled on a homestead. A 
man of marked industrs-, he succeeded in the 
development of a good and paying farm, but 
about 1903 his health failed, and he turned 
his attention to the monument business, at 
Sargent, with which he had been connected 
for some five years previously. He is one of 
the prominent and influential citizens of his 
community and has been a leader of the 
Democratic party there for some years. He 
has been frequently called upon for public 
service, having served as justice of the peace 
for the past four tenns, as road overseer for 
two terms, and as a member of the board of 
school directors for the past twenty-two years. 
With Mrs. Leach, he belongs to the Aleth- 
odist Episcopal church. They are the par- 
ents of five children, as follows : Charles, a 
farmer seven miles south of Sargent, who 
married Emma Niell ; Roy, engaged in gen- 
eral merchandising at Sargent, who married 
Hettie GatlifT; Roscoe M. ; Mabel E., the 
wife of Claude Athey, a farmer of the 
Broken Bow community ; and Vema, a far- 
mer three miles northwest of Sargent, who 
married Grace Towne. 

Roscoe M. Leach was educated in the dis- 
trict schools near Sargent and was reared to 
manhood on the home fami. He took up 
farming on his own account when he entered 
upon his independent career, and has never 
followed any other vocation, being satisfied 
with life in the country- and the results that 
his industrious and well-applied labor has 
brought him. He carries on general fanning 
in a modem way and also raises stock to some 



extent, and is accounted progressive and en- 
teqjrising by his fellow-citizens. His repu- 
tation for integrity in the community is of 
the best and while he has not been an office 
holder he has given his support to movements 
in a way that exemplifies his public spirit. 
Mr. Leach is a Republican, and his fraternal 
affiliation is with the local lodge of the Mod- 
ern Woodmen of America. 

On August 30, 1909, Mr. Leach was mar- 
ried to Miss Elsie E. GatlifT, who was born at 
West Union, Custer county, August 9, 1889, 
a daughter of William and Sarah (Stone) 
Gatliti', and they have six children, bom as 
follows : Berta, August 28. 1909 ; Elton, No- 
vember 29, 1910: Dale, April 10, 1912; El- 
wood, Febnian,- 1, 1914; Vera, July 21, 1915; 
and Dotty, November 29, 1916. 



DR. LEONARD C. H.\YES. — Among 
the new developments which have been 
brought about by the endeavor of man to as- 
sist in the alleviation of the physical ills of 
humanity, a profession which is rapidly as- 
suming a recognized place is that of chiro- 
practic — briefly a system or practice of ad- 
justing the joints, especially of the spine, by 
hand, for the curing of disease. In this field, 
the first legally qualified and licensed chiro- 
practor to locate in Custer county was Dr. 
Leonard C. Hayes, who since Februarv. 1916. 
has been successfully engaged in practice at 
Broken Bow. 

Doctor Hayes was born at Salem, Henry 
county, Iowa, March 31, 1882, a son of Law- 
rence Monroe Hayes and Mary Alice 
( Hreach) Hayes, and a grandson of John ^^'es- 
ley Hayes and Isaac Breach. His father was 
born at Salem, Iowa, in 1847, and there oc- 
curred his marriage to Miss Mary A. Breach, 
who was born in Belmont county, Ohio, in 
1851. In the spring of 1885, with their chil- 
dren they removed to Chase county, Nebraska. 
There they resided on a homestead farm until 
18''5, when they moved to Lincoln, the death 
of Mr. Hayes occurring June 29. 1911, in that 
city, where Mrs. Hayes still makes her home. 
There were four children in the family, all of 
whom are living: Lillian, the wife of James 
Anderson, of Sheridan, Wyoming: Daniel W.. 
president of the Nebraska Normal School at 
Peru; Alvin C a farmer of Aitkin, Miime- 
sota : and Leonard C, of this review. 

Leonard C. Hayes prosecuted his earliest 
studies in a sod schoolhouse in Chase county, 
Nebraska, which he attended from 1887 to 
1895. and then he was given the benefits of at- 
tendance at the public schools in Lincoln, where 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1095 




Dr. Leonard C. Haves 



1096 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1097 



he was graduated in the high school as a mem- 
ber of the class of 1898. He then entered the 
normal school there. Leaving school in 1899, 
in the fall of that year he took employment 
as a clerk with the \Vestern Union Telegraph 
Company, in Lincoln, and he was subsequent- 
ly promoted operator, then assistant manager, 
and finally was made manager of the com- 
pany's office at St. Joseph, Missouri. In 1907 
he left the service of the Western Lhiion and 
entered that of the Chicago, Burlington & 
Quincy Railroad, as station agent at IMars- 
land, Nebraska, but in 1910 he resigned his 
position to enter college at Lincoln, to study 
chiropractic. After graduating from the Ne- 
braska Chiropractic College, Doctor Hayes 
opened his first office at Omaha, in the sum- 
mer of 1913, and he enjoyed a very good prac- 
tice there until his removal to Broken Bow, 
in February, 1916. His practice here began 
to grow from the very start, and at the pres- 
ent time he usually treats from forty to sixty 
patients a da3^ Doctor Hayes is a member 
of the LTnited Chiropractors' Association, the 
Universal Chiropractors' Association, and 
the Nebraska Chiropractors' Association. Po- 
litically he is a Democrat. He took member- 
ship in Yeoman Lodge, August 14, 1914, and 
at present is foreman of that lodge at Broken 
Bow. Doctor Hayes was converted by Harold 
Bell Wright and joined the Christian church 
at Kansas City, ilissouri, in 1905. He re- 
mained a member of that church until his re- 
moval to Broken Bow, in 1916, when he 
became a member of the First Baptist church 
of this city. 

At Omaha, in April, 1915, Doctor Hayes 
married Miss Helen Louise Cramer, daughter 
of Mr. and Mrs. P. C. Cramer, of that city, 
where Mrs. Hayes' father is a successful 
building contractor. There were six children 
in the Cramer family — Helen Louise, Mil- 
dred K.. Clarence C, Charles, Margaret, and 
Richard. 



PETER GEERSEN. — Among the lead- 
ing farmers and stock-raisers and extensive 
landowners of the vicinity of Sargent, few 
hold a more enviable position in the esteem 
of their fellow-citizens than does Peter Geer- 
sen. Mr. Geersen has been a resident of 
Custer county for only about four years, but 
during this period has added to the reputation 
established by him in Howard county, as a 
skilled agriculturist and a public-spirited citi- 
zen. 

Peter Geersen was bom at Kelso, Howard 
county, Nebraska, October 18, 1873, a son of 
Frank and Gertrude (Jensen) Geersen, the 



former born in Denmark and the latter in 
Norway. Frank Geersen came to the United 
States about the year 1866 and took up a 
homestead at Kelso, Howard county, but sub- 
sequently moved to Dannebrog, in the same 
county, where he continued to be engaged in 
farming until his death, June 13, 1910. He 
was a Democrat in politics and he and Mrs, 
Geersen were faithful members of the Luth- 
eran church. Of their six children, five are 
living: Peter; Anna, the wife of John A. 
Johnson, a farmer of Dannebrog; Marj', the 
wife of Isaac Ohlund, a railroad man of 
Laramie, Wyoming; George, who is single 
and lives with his brother Peter near Sar- 
gent; and Julia, the wife of Axel Hansen, a 
painter of Dannebrog. 

Peter Geersen was educated at Dannebrog. 
in the public schools, and when he reached 
manhood followed in the footsteps of his 
father and devoted himself to agricultural 
pursuits. He remained as a resident of his 
native county until 1914, in which year he 
came to Custer county and bought, near Sar- 
gent, the property known as the George 
Brown farm, a tract in section 8, to%ynship 17. 
Here he has carried on general fanning, mak- 
ing a specialty of breeding pure-bred Per- 
cheron horses, for which this farm has gained 
somewhat more than a local reputation. His 
operations have been extensive, his methods 
modem, and his manner of transacting busi- 
ness such as to stamp him indelibly as a man.-' 
of practicality as well as integrity. 

Mr. Geersen was married at St. Paul, Ne- 
braska, March 6, 1901, to Miss Lillie M. 
Hood, a daughter of James A. and Emily 
(Shafer) Hood, pioneers of Nebraska, and 
they are the parents of six children, born as 
follows : Beulah, bora July 3, 1902 ; Harold, 
born March 12, 1906 ; Lela, July 30, 1907 ; 
Marion, January 11, 1909; Albert, June 26, 
1911; and Norma, August 24, 1913. Mr. 
Geersen is a Democrat. He is a member of 
the Modern Woodmen of America and the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows, and at pres- 
ent is noble grand in the latter order at Sar- 
gent. 



FRED HAUCK has been a resident of Cus- 
ter county for thirty years and during this 
time has developed a career that has been as 
honorable as it has been satisfying. He has 
identified himself with movements that have 
been progressive and constructive, and at all 
times has conducted himself and his activities 
in a manner that has gained him the good 
will and respect of his associates and ac- 
quaintances. 

Mr. Hauck was born in Germany, Decern- 



1098 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1099 



ber 13, 1855, a son of Peter and Selma ( Alil- 
ler) Hauck, who passed their entire lives in 
Germany. The father was a member of the 
agricultural class, and was an industrious 
worker who was honored in his community 
as a home-loving- man, and who was resjjected 
because of the success he made of his under- 
takings, he and his worthy wife having been 
devout members of the Lutheran church. 
They became the parents of twelve children, 
of whom four are living: Christ, who is en- 
gaged in farming in California ; Selma, who 
is the wife of Fred Bresh, of that state ; Fred, 
who is the subject of this sketch ; and Volun- 
tine. who is the proprietor of a transfer busi- 
ness at St. Louis. Fred Hauck was educated in 
the public schools of Germany and was reared 
to habits of thrift, industry, and integrity. He 
was brought up as a farmer and followed that 
vocation in his native land until he reached 
the age of thirty-two years, at which time 
he immigrated to the L'nited States and made 
his way to Custer county, Nebraska. He was 
originally the owner of a tree claim in Sher- 
man county, which he sold, and later he home- 
steaded a tract in Custer county, which he 
also sold. He then bought his present farm, 
a valuable tract which he has brought to a 
high state of cultivation, and on which he has 
numerous improvements that are of modern 
type and that add to its value and attractive- 
ness. Mr. Hauck was by no means a rich 
man when he came to Custer county ; in fact, 
he had little capital except that represented by 
his abiliy and other personal attributes, but his 
work has been so well done and his affairs 
so capably managed that he is now accounted 
a well-to-do man, and is placed among the 
substantial agriculturists who have made their 
own way. His present holdings approximate 
780 acres of good land, on which he does gen- 
eral farming in an intelligent, intensive, and 
modern way, in addition to which he has been 
successful in his activities as a raiser of cattle 
and hogs, of which he ships many to the mar- 
kets each year. 

May 5, 1888, Mr. ILiuck married Miss 
Anna Beck, of Sherman county, she being a 
daughter of Hans Beck, an early settler of that 
county. To this union there have come ten 
children : Charles, who is engaged in farming 
in Custer county ; Henry, who is his father's 
assistant on the home farm ; Rosatte, who is 
the wife of \'ern Fleming, a farmer of Custer 
county ; Kate, who is the wife of Toney 
Devish, of this county ; William, who is on 
the home place ; Minnie, who is the wife of 
Arthur S'alone, a farmer of Grant, Nebraska ; 
Selma, who is the wife of Charles Foster, a 



farmer and stock-raiser of Custer county ; and 
Dora, Gertie, and Floyd, who remain at the 
parental home. The family belongs to the 
Lutheran church, and Mr. Hauck is a Demo- 
crat in his political allegiance. 



DALE P. STOUGH will be remembered- 
by citizens of Custer county as a member of 
the bar of this county from l^ll until 1915. 
He came to Broken Bow in 1911 and asso- 
ciated himself with Judge James R. Dean, who 
is now serving as supreme judge of Ne- 
braska. Mr. Stough was reared at Creston, 
Iowa, and for five years had been a member of 
a Sunday-school class under the tutelage of 
Rev. W. L. Gaston, editor of this Custer 
county history. Mr. Stough attended the 
University of Nebraska in 1908-9 and in 1911 
he was graduated in Creighton College of 
Lav\r. 

During his residence in Custer county, Mr. 
Stough took an active part in numerous lines 
of activity pertinent to the county's affairs. 
He served as secretary of the Broken Bow 
Merchants' Federation for more than three 
years, resigning when he went to Lincoln, in 
1915, as secretary to the chief justice of the 
supreme court. He was secretary of various 
political committees and clubs, including the 
Sixth District Democratic Congressional Com- 
mittee, Wilson and Marshall Club, in 1912, 
and other political bodies. For three years 
he was clerk of St. John's Episcopal parish 
and superintendent of the Sunday school. He 
served two years as secretary of the Custer 
county Sunday School Association. Since 
leaving Broken Bow, Mr. Stough has been 
author of numerous articles and is now en- 
gaged in editorial work on a history of Hall 
county, similar to this history of Custer 
county. 

Mr. Stough was united in marriage in June, 
1913, to Miss Cassie Mary Beeler, of Daven- 
port, Iowa, and their first home was in Broken 
Bow. Their only child, Ida Mildred Stough, 
was born in Broken Bow, in 1914. Mr. and 
Mrs. Stough are now residing at Grand Is- 
land, Nebraska, where ]\Tr. Stough holds the 
position of official court reporter of the 
Eleventh judicial district. 

HEINRICH KROEGER. — No better il- 
lustration of the value of industry, persever- 
ance, and the intelligent management of one's 
resources and interests could be found than 
the career of Heinrich Kroeger, now one of 
the representative farmers of the Alason City 
localitv of Custer countv. Coming to this coun- 



1100 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



try with absolutely no capital except that rep- 
resented by his native ability, he has made the 
most of his opportunities and has so well di- 
rected his activities that he is to-day in a 
position of independence, the while he is re- 
spected and esteemed as a well-to-do and sub- 
stantial citizen. 

Mr. Kroeger was born in Holstein, Ger- 
many, February 13, 1856. and is a son of Au- 
gust and Margaretta (Folkmier) Kroeger. 
Mr. Kroeger's father was a native of Germany, 
where he spent his entire life with the excep- 
tion of seven years, when he was in the Danish 
army as a musician, playing a single-valve 
horn. By trade a weaver of cloth, during the 
harvest seasons he acted as a hand in the 
field, and he thus rounded out a useful and 
fairly successful career. He and his wife, 
who also died in Germany, were members of 
the Lutheran church. They had five children, 
of whom four are living: Heinrich, of "this 
sketch; Maggie, the wife of Theodore Liehs, 
who is individually mentioned on other pages 
of this volume; Alary, the wife of \\'illiam 
Trent, of Buflfalo county, Nebraska ; and Fred, 
a resident of Colorado. 

Heinrich Kroeger received his youthful ed- 
ucation in the public schools of Holstein, Ger- 
many, and was twenty-six years of age when 
he immigrated to the United States. His first 
settlement was at Comanche, Iowa, where he 
secured employment at plowing, at a wage of 
twenty-five cents a day. At that time he 
could not speak English, and his eflforts to get 
ahead were greatly hampered by this fact, but 
he rapidly learned to speak the language of 
his adopted land and was thus able to get 
better employment. Eventually he obtained a 
position in a .saw mill, where he worked about 
two years, and during his stay in Iowa suc- 
ceeded in saving $400, which he brought with 
him to Custer county in 1884, In that year 
he homesteaded 160 acres of land, and sub- 
sequently he Ixiught a timber claim, for $600, 
and planted many trees. From a start of ab- 
solutely nothing, Mr, Kroeger has built up 
his fortunes until to-day he is the owner of 
1,280 acres of valuable Custer county land, all 
secured through legitimate business channels 
and through the medium of his own ability 
and hard work. When he came to Custer 
county Mr. Kroeger made his home in a little 
sod house, which boasted of the barest neces- 
sities of life. To-day he owns four sets of 
modern buildings, equipped with the latest ap- 
pliances and conveniences, Mr. Kroeger is a 
general farmer and a skilled one, and he also 
raises wliite-faced Hereford cattle, of which 
he has a herd of eighteen head, with a thor- 



oughbred bull at the head, and in addition to 
this he breeds a good grade of hogs, having 
twenty-four at this time. In politics Mr, Kroe- 
ger is indepeiident, and his religious belief is 
that of the Lutheran church. 

In 1878 Mr. Kroeger married Miss Doris 
Ilepner, who was born in Germany, and to 
this union there have been born three sons, all 
of whom are engaged in agricultural opera- 
tions on their father's land, and all of whom 
are married and the heads of families. Will- 
iam, the eldest, has two children — Bertha and 
Bessie; Frank has three children — Edwin, 
Edith, and Elaine; and John has three children 
■ — ■ Irene, Raymond, and Glenn. 

THOMAS TEAHON. — The story in 
these paragraphs contains a splendid tribute to 
Irish thrift and energ}-. The sons of Ire- 
land have always made good in America. The 
opportunities of the west have always come 
to their hand to meet universal iinprovement. 

The name in the headline belongs to 
Thomas Teahon. a prominent resident in the 
section southwest of Anselmo. He was born 
in Ireland, in 1860. He is the son of Patrick 
and Elizabeth (Donahue) Teahon, The par- 
ents were very estimable people of Irish line- 
age, who came to America in 1885, attracted 
by the free land to be obtained through the 
homestead or pre-emption laws. They were 
the parents of eleven children, and on the 
family roster are inscribed the following 
names : John, a Custer county farmer ; 
Thomas, the subject of this sketch; Man-, de- 
ceased ; Patrick, who was killed in a railroad 
accident in Deadwood, S. D, ; Jerrj', a Custer 
county farmer ; Joseph, deceased ; Johannah 
Skinner, a resident of Themiopolis, Wyom- 
ing; Nelly lives in Alliance, Nebraska; Alike 
lives in New York, where he is connected with 
the Metropolitan Insurance Company; Ted, 
a Custer county farmer; and Elizabeth, who 
is deceased. 

The family are staunch Roman Catholics 
and the men for the most part are independ- 
ent voters, paying little attention( to party 
affiliation. 

Two marriages enter into the life of Mr. 
Teahon; His first wife was Bridget Mc- 
Gowan, who became the mother of five child- 
ren ; Vernie was killed by lightning; Louis 
was killed by a horse falling upon him ; Clara 
Beal lives in Colorado ; the fourth child died 
in infancy, and the fifth child, Agnes, lives in 
York. 

The second wife is a native of Ireland and 
at the present time is fifty-two years of age. 
To the second union has lieen born another 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1101 



family of five children: Herbert, eighteen; 
Thomas, fifteen; Charles, eleven; Julian, 
seven ; the third born died in infancy. The 
four living children are all in the home dorru- 
qile and in connection with home duties and 
farm work are attending school, and give 
promise of developing into characteristic 
Irish-American citizens of whom the parents 
may well feel proud. 

Mr. Teahon homesteaded 150 acres and 
also pre-empted another quarter section. 
These became the nucleus of his present day 
holdings. At the present time he is the owner 
of 900 acres, adapted to agriculture and stock- 
raising. In addition to the land he owns he 
has a section of land leased and all this com- 
bines to make this a splendid stock ranch. 
He has fair improvements, adequate for the 
stock operations he carries on. 

The ranch carries an average of 130 head 
the year round, and in addition to cattle Mr. 
Teahon has giveiT some attention to sheep and 
now has a small flock of 120 head which he 
finds very profitable. 

When on the Teahon ranch it is hard to 
realize that when Mr. Teahon landed in Cus- 
ter county the sum total of his capital was 
five dollars, and all he possesses to-day is the 
accretion of that capital combined with tire- 
less energy and indomitable pluck. 

In the local community Mr. Teahon has al- 
ways been a progressive spirit and during 
the war time did his share in contributions 
and work, to secure for his local district the 
amounts required of it by the quotas levied. 
He has served on the school board for the 
last six years. 

He lived through the pioneer times, has 
had his experiences in sod houses, blizzards, 
and prairie fires, and notwithstanding, un- 
usual fatalities seem tO' have attended the 
family to vv'hich he belongs. He is to-day 
hale and hearty and bids fair to survive 
another quarter of a centurs*, in which to en- 
joy the fruits of his toil. 

JOSEPH A. HAUMONT, who is a pros- 
perous farmer and stock-raiser of Custer 
county, Nebraska, is well and favorably 
known all over the county, which has been his 
home all his life. Mr. Haumont is an ex- 
ample of what may be accomplished by the 
application of intelligent energy in one direc- 
tion, his success in his agricultural activities 
depending not only on his natural leanings 
but also upon his special training along scien- 
tific lines. 

Joseph A. Haumont was born May 21, 
1893, in Custer county, Nebraska. His par- 



ents are Louis and Phoebe J. (Thompson) 
Haumont. Louis Haumont was born near 
the beautiful old city of Brussels, Belgium, 
and left there when a young man and came 
to the United States. During the time he 
lived in the state of Illinois and worked on 
farms, he was married to Phoebe J. Thomp- 
son, who was born in that state, a daughter 
of William Thompson. Afterward they 
came to Custer county, Nebraska. They had 
the following children : Joseph A., William, 
Jules, Stella and Loren L. 

In the public schools of Custer county 
Joseph A. Haumont secured his early educa- 
tion, and he grew up on his father's farm. 
As he grew older and recognized the responsi- 
bilities that would be his in developing the 
land and raising the best of stock, he deter- 
mined to thoroughly prepare himself by ac- 
quiring practical as well as scientific knowl- 
edge along these lines and became a student 
in the University School of Agriculture, at 
Lincoln, Nebraska. There he became ac- 
quainted with the scientific methods of ad- 
vanced farming and live-stock raising and he is 
applying this knowledge in carrj'ing on his 
industries on his farm, which is situated in 
section 27, township 21, Custer county. 

Joseph A. Haumont was married Decem- 
ber 22, 1915, at Broken Bow, Nebraska, to 
Aliss Emma Gutzman, a daughter of Daniel 
and Diana (Kepless) Gutzman. The father 
of Mrs. Haumont is deceased. Mr. and Mrs. 
Haumont have one son, Owen G., who was 
born May 20, 1918. As a well educated 
young man, Mr. Haumont takes a deep inter- 
est in public matters, especially in regard to 
Custer county and, like his father, is a Re- 
publican in politics. 

EUGENE ARMSTRONG, of Sargent, is 
one of the men who, starting their lives as 
agriculturists, have turned their attention to 
commercial affairs and through their abil- 
ity and industry have placed them- 
selves in positions of independence. Mr. 
Armstrong's line at the present time is the 
windmill and pump business, which he has fol- 
lowed for eighteen years, and in which he is 
one of the best known men in Custer and the 
surrounding counties, having developed his 
specialty to large proportions. He is a native 
of Carroll county, Indiana, and was born Oc- 
tober 14, 1864, a son of W. H. and Lucinda 
(Crabhill) Armstrong. 

W. H. Armstrong, a native of Kentucky, 
was taken by his parents as a child to Indiana, 
where he met and married Lucinda Crabhill. 
a native of Pennsylvania. He had received a 



1102 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COLXTV. XEURASKA 



good education in his youth and his first vo- 
cation upon entering actively upon a career 
of his own was that of an educator, but he 
gave up the labors of the school room in favor 
of the implements of the agriculturist. In 1866 
he removed to Iowa, where for two years he 
tilled the soil, and about 1S(>9 he took his fam- 
ilv to York county, Nebraska, where he home- 
steaded a tract, pre-empted another, and took 
up a timber claim, and there rounded out his 
life in farming and stock-raising, having quite 
a large business in the latter direction. He 
was a progressive man in many ways and ex- 
tended his energies to numerous fields of 
activity. He was the builder of the first store 
at Waco, Nebraska, which he himself occu- 
pied as a dealer in general merchandise, and 
did a large business with the farmers in buying 
live stock and grain. He and his wife were 
the parents of eleven children. 

Eugene Armstrong, more familiarly known 
to his associates and business friends as 
"Gene," was two years of age when he was 
taken to Iowa, and about five years old when 
the family located in York county, Nebraska. 
There he received his education in the district 
schools and received a good training along 
both agricultural and business lines, which ex- 
perience has since been of the greatest value 
to him. When ready to enter upon a career 
of his own, he chose farming, which he fol- 
lowed in connection with other business until 
1900, when he gave up all other interests to 
devote himself exclusively to the windmill and 
pump business, to which he has since given his 
best energies and talents. With headquarters 
at Sargent, he commands a large and con- 
stantly growing trade throughout this section 
of the countr)'-side. and his .straightforward 
manner of doing business and his fidelity to 
engagements and contracts have gained him 
many friends and a warm and sincere regard 
in business circles. Mr. .Annstrong is not 
active in public life, but is a sound and sub- 
stantial man whose citizenship is of a public- 
spirited and practical quality. 

On December 24, 1893, Mr. Armstrong was 
united in marriage with Miss Ella M. Wood, 
of Coburg, daughter of the late Lemuel Wood 
and of Mrs. Minerva A. Wood, a resident of 
Sargent. Three children have been born to 
this union: LeRoy. single, a graduate of 
Sargent high school and of Creighton Univer- 
sity of Omaha, now first sergeant in the 
United States Medical Corps, Base Hospital 
No. 101, American P. O. 701, American Ex- 
peditionarv Forces. France, bom November 
24, 1894;'l^na. bom March 1. 1903, who is 
attending school; and Gavlord E., born May 
6, 1908, who is also a public school student. 



J.\.MES R. L.WG. — Many causes contrib- 
ute to the almost invariable interest surround- 
ing the first actual settler in any community. 
As the years add distance and romance to his 
arrival, the honor becomes a coveted one. es- 
pecially if the settlement has utilized its most 
enlightening opportunities and has become the 
aboiie of peaceful and prosperous humanity. 
So it is that more than passing mention is 
due to James R. Lang, who was the first to 
file on a homestead in Custer county, the date 
being June 8, 1874, although he had settled 
thereon several weeks previously. To-day Mr. 
Lang, living in comfortable retirement at 
Litchfield, is the jx^rsonification of a life well 
lived, of energies well directed, of a mind 
tuned to the harmony of his surroundings, and 
of a heart which has lost nothing of its warmth 
and sympathy in its journey from the rude 
dugout of pioneer times to the affluence of the 
twentieth century. This vigorous personality, 
outlined against the background of events in 
Custer county since 1874, commands the con- 
fidence and res{)ect of his fellow citizens. He 
has built up character as well as fortmie. and 
has supported the substantial and fundamental 
processes of civilization. 

James R. Lang was Ixjrn in Harrison 
county, Indiana, February 17 . 1852. a son of 
Isaac anti Amy (Laymon) Lang, and a grand- 
son of Francis Lang and Emanuel Laymon. 
His father was born in Indiana, and was mar- 
ried in that state, his wife having been born 
in \'irginia but having been brought to the 
Iloosier state as a child. Isaac I^ang was an 
industrious and enterprising farmer and had 
made a ]X)sition for himself in life prior to 
the outbreak of the Civil war. .\ staunch Re- 
publican, he was a strong Union man, and 
during the struggle between the north and the 
south he enlisteil in the Home Guards, in con- 
nection with which he met his death during 
the famous Morgan Raid. Like ]\Irs. Lang, he 
belonged to the Methodist Episcopal church. 
There were eight children in their family, of 
whom but three survive : James R., of this 
notice ; Howard, engaged in farming and 
stock-raising near Litchfield. Sherman county ; 
and Mrs. Elniira \N'eaver. residing at Mason 
City. 

The education of James R. Lang was se- 
cured in the public schools of Harrison county, 
Indiana, and as a youth he was called upon 
to start early to contribute his support to the 
family, the father having died. Shortly after 
he passed his majority, he decided that better 
opportimities for advancement awaited him in 
the west, and .\pril 12. 1874. he left home, ar- 
riving at Grand Island. Nebraska, three days 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1103 




James R. Lang and Family 



1104 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




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h4 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1105 



later. On the 20th of the following May he 
made settlement on a homestead in Custer 
county, filing on this June 8th of the same 
year. Mr. Lang tramped out his first crop of 
wheat in 1876, and in the following year pur- 
chased a small sorghum mill and began mak- 
ing sorghum. In 1878. in partnership with 
two neighbors, he bought the first threshing 
machine to be found in Custer county, this 
machine having two-horse power. In 1881, in 
line with his spirit of progress, Mr. Lang made 
a donation of ten acres of land for the loca- 
tion of a gristmill, and in the same year he 
became the owner of his first mower. Also 
in that year he opened a small general store 
on his old homestead, and this was largely 
patronized by the early settlers of the locality. 

In 1888 ilr. Lang had the distinction of 
sowing the first alfalfa in Custer county, the 
seed coming from California, and this was 
plowed up in the spring of 1918. having stood 
for thirty years. During the early days, when 
money was scarce, Mr. Lang engaged in vari- 
ous employments in order to make a living, 
and for several years he hauled wood, which 
he sold at Kearney. The first barn which was 
built on his farm was used not only for agri- 
cultural purposes, but also for the holding of 
religious services and for the dances of the 
early settlers. He also assisted in the settle- 
ment of the county by locating claims for 
various newcomers, from 1879 to 1882, during 
which time there was a large intlux of pio- 
neers. Gradually, as the years passed, he pros- 
pered in his afifairs, to such an extent that he 
became possessed of 960 acres of land, and 
in 1910 he retired from active pursuits and 
moved to Litchfield. Here he became one of 
the organizers of the Farmers Lumber Com- 
pany, of which he is at present one of the 
interested members. Mr. Lang voted the Re- 
publican ticket for the first time in Custer 
county, at Georgetown, and he still continues 
to support the party cause as a general rule, 
although inclined to be independent. He is 
well known fraternally, having passed the 
chairs of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows, belonging to the Modern Woodmen of 
America, and being a thirty-second-degree 
Mason. He is very popular with his fellow 
members in these orders. 

In 1873, while still a resident of Indiana, 
Mr. Lang was united in marriage with Miss 
Rovilla Jane Foster, who was born in Indi- 
ana, a daughter of Samuel Foster, who died 
in that state. To Mr. and Mrs. Lang there 
have been born nine children: George W., 
who is the proprietor of an automobile garage 
at Litchfield ; Cortez,who is engaged in fanning 



in Sherman county ; Albert, who is a member 
of the police force of Richmond, California ; 
Robert, who is a brakeman of Alliance, Ne- 
braska ; Eunice, who died in infancy ; Harvey, 
who is a clerk in the Bank of Litchfield ; 
Blanche, who is the wife of Charles Mills, of 
Custer county ; James R., who resides on the 
old homestead in Custer county ; and Frank, 
who also is on this Custer county farm. 



CHARLES HICKEY. — This paragraph 
introduces a young farmer and stock-raiser 
who belongs to a prominent family, several 
members of whom have special mention on 
other pages of this volume. His residence and 
farm operations are staged in Eureka Valley, 
noted as a semi-agricultural and stock-raising 
region. Charles was born in Saline county, this 
state, in 1881, but most of his life has been 
spent in Custer county, he having come to the 
county when ten years of age. Here he re- 
ceived a common school education and was 
initiated into the ways of western pioneer 
life. As to the family history of his father, 
see sketch of Jerry Hickey. Charles formed 
his life partnership with Agnes Foran, whose 
brother, James Foran, is written extendedly 
in this history and which sketch contains 
mention of the father and family. 

Into the home established by Mr. and Mrs. 
Hickey have been bom five children : Clar- 
ence, the second child, is deceased ; Alice, 
Viola is deceased ; and LeRoy. All the chil- 
dren are at home and are energetic, promising 
Custer county youngsters in whom the par- 
ents can feel a justifiable pride. This aggres- 
sive young farmer owns three hundred and 
sixty acres, of which two hvmdred and sixty 
is under cultivation. Here he follows di- 
versified farming and has embarked in stock- 
raising on a scale that will insure profitable 
accumulation as the years go by. The place 
carries fifty head of cattle. These are of 
high grade, inclining to blooded types. He is 
also a breeder of good horses and keeps on 
the place a splendid Percheron stallion. In 
the local activities of the community, Mr. 
Hickey is road overseer, a promoter of all 
public enterprises, is an independent voter and 
the family are connected with the Catholic 
church. Eureka Valley is a good neighbor- 
hood and the family of Mr. and Mrs. Charles 
Hickey have helped to establish its reputation. 

JOEL F. LANUM. — For thirty-seven years 
Joel F. Lanum has been helping to make his- 
tory in Custer county, and so well has he di- 
rected his energies that he is now spending 



1106 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, XEBR.\SKA 



the evening of life in gracious retirement, free 
from all business and financial cares. He has 
led a simple, active, and methodical life, and 
his busy liands and mind have worked together 
in gaining him success along agricultural and 
commercial lines, while his admirable qualities 
of character have served to win to him re- 
spect and esteem in the communities in which 
he lias made his home. 

Mr. Lanum was born ^larch 20, 1851, in 
Morrow county, Ohio, and is a son of Dennis 
and Phoebe (Brown) Lanum. His father, a 
native of Virginia, moved to Ohio when eigh- 
teen years of age and was there married, Mrs. 
Lanum being a native of the Buckeye state. 
In 1866. after spending some years in farm- 
ing in Morrow county, Dennis LanurrL re- 
moved with his family to Indiana, where he 
purchased a farm, in DeKalb county, that 
communitj- continuing to be his home until his 
death. He was a Mason and a Democrat and 
was a man of industry and honorable conduct. 
He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
church, to which his wife, who died in Ohio, 
also belonged. They had six children, of 
whom two are living: Joel F.. and ]\Ian,-, the 
latter being a resident of Edison, Ohio, and 
being the widow of Caul Bell. 

Joel F. Lanum was given the advantages 
accruing from only a limited education in the 
district schools, as he was early called upon 
to do his share in supporting the familv. and 
both in Ohio and Indiana he not only labored 
on the farm, but also, in the winter months, 
went into the lumber woods and plied his 
axe with the timbermen. After his marriage 
he moved to Macon county. Illinois, where he 
resided several years, without adding mate- 
rially to his fortune, and in 1881 he came to 
Nebraska, where he took up a claim in Custer 
county. In the following year he brought his 
family to Nebraska, having made some prep- 
arations for receiving them, and when they 
were all settled he found that his financial re- 
sources were reduced to about $100. How- 
ever, he possessed strength of mind and body, 
self-reliance and determination, and with these 
he set about to work his way to success. How 
well he succeeded in his aims and ambitions 
can be seen in the fact that he not only trans- 
formed his homestead and tree claims into 
fertile and valuable farms, but also increased 
his acreage until he is now the owner of a 
half-section. In 1898 Mr. Lanum transferred 
the hard work of the farm to younger shoul- 
ders arid moved to Ansley. where he purchased 
lots and erected a feed and livery stable. His 
good business ability enabled him to also make 
a success of this venture, and he continued as 



proprietor of the business until his retirement 
from all activities, in March, 1918. 

In 1871 Mr. Lanum married Miss Esther 
Ann Davis, who was born in Pennsylvania, 
and of this union were bom nine children: 
Mar}' Belle, who is the wife of Albert Arnold, 
a retired farmer of Ansley; Rufus, who is 
engaged in farming in Minnesota ; Dennis, who 
is a member of the police force of San Fran- 
cisco, California; Frank and John, who are 
associated in the ownership of the livery barn 
at Ansley ; Perry, who is engaged in the meat- 
market business at Ansley ; Kem, who is a 
railroad man at Ravenna, Nebraska ; Lula, 
who is the wife of William Gooch, engaged 
in the automobile business at Grand Island ; 
and Judson, who carries on operations on his 
father's Custer county farm. Mr. and Mrs. 
Lanum and their children are members of the 
Methodist Episcopal church. He is a Demo- 
crat in politics and while not an office-seeker 
is a man who willingly and generously sup- 
ports all worthy and beneficial movements and 
discharges the duties of citizenship in an hon- 
orable manner. 



EDWARD F. SKOLIL, who is a prominent 
citizen of Custer county, is mayor of Corn- 
stock, and also cashier of the Citizens Bank 
of that thriving town. Notwithstanding his 
connection with affairs of so much importance, 
Mayor Skolil is yet a young man. He was 
born July 1, 1891, in \'alley county. Nebraska, 
one of a family of seven children bom to Jo- 
seph and Magdalena (Bedlivy) Skolil, both 
of whom were born in Bohemia, Austria-Hun- 
gary. The parents came to the L'nited States 
in 1873. the father stopping first in Michigan, 
and the mother coming directly to Saline 
county. Nebraska. 

In spite of the many hard, practical facts 
connected with the life of Joseph Skolil, father 
of Mayor Skolil, it reads almost like a ro- 
mance. Coming to America a poor laborer 
from the Austrian mines, with no knowledge 
of the English language and no influential 
friends, within a period of less than forty 
years, through industry and gocKl judgment, 
he built up a substantial fortune ; through per- 
sonal integrity won confidence and esteem ; 
and, dying, left an honorable name and rec- 
ord behind him. After his marriage he secured 
a homestead near Comstock, but across the line 
in \'alley county. Nebraska, and set about de- 
veloping his own property, besides working 
for others at farm labor, although prior to 
this he had had no agricultural experience. 
He was determined to succeed, and the time 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1107 




Mr. and Mrs. Euwarii F. Skulil and their Elder Son 



1108 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



came when he was able to give each of his 
sons a farm. Besides this, he still owned 480 
acres of additional land at the time of his 
death, March 11, 1911. As indicated above, 
he started with nothingf, and he left an estate 
worth $40,000. His children were as follows: 
Frank, who is a farmer and dealer in agricul- 
tural implements at Comstock, married An- 
tonia Tvrdik; Emil, who is a farmer near Ar- 
cadia, Nebraska, married Ida Radii ; James, 
who is operating his farm of 340 acres, north 
of Comstock, married Emma Kokes; Joseph 
lives on the homestead with his mother : Anna 
is the wife of John Vodehnal, who is a farmer 
north of Comstock; Mary is the wife of John 
Novotny, who operates a farm of 160 acres, 
north of Comstock ; and Edward F. is the im- 
mediate subject of this review. 

Edward F. Skolil had no educational ad- 
vantages beyond those afforded by the public 
schools, but that he appreciated and profited 
by these may be inferred from the fact that 
he was graduated from the high school before 
he was eighteen years old. The Citizens State 
Bank of Comstock is now one of the substantial 
financial institutions of Custer county. It be- 
gan busuiess with a capital of $5,000, which has 
been increased to $30,000, with resources now 
over $50,000, and Mr. Skolil has been cashier 
since he was nineteen years old — a fair testi- 
monial to his business acumen. 

Edward F. Skolil was married at Comstock, 
Nebra.ska, December 2, 1913, to Miss Beulah 
Dunbar, who belongs to one of the pioneer 
families of Otoe county, Nebraska, her father, 
W. E. Dunbar, being one of the very early 
and prominent men of that section, and in his 
honor the name Dunbar having been given to 
the present town of that name. Mayor and 
Mrs. Skolil have two .sons — Edward F.. who 
was bom July 1, 1916, and Eldon Dunbar, 
who was born April 7, 1919. 

In addition to his business activities, Mr. 
Skolil from earliest manhood has taken a deep 
and earnest interest in civic matters and has 
worked for the advancement of Comstock with 
commendable energA'. In politics he is a Re- 
publican, lie has been chairman of the town 
board for the past year and is at the head 
of municipal affairs, being elected to the may- 
oralty in 1918. Fraternal life has also engaged 
the attention of this active, vigorous, wide- 
awake young man, and he is a member of a 
number of the leading organizations, including 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the 
Knights of Pythias, Z. C. B. J., and the Mod- 
ern \\'oodmen of .America. In the last named 
order he passed through all the offices, and 
served four years as clerk. 



WATT W. PERRIN. — Custer county is 
well represented in the agricultural industry 
by energetic men of the younger generation, 
upon whom the county is depending for its 
development and progress as a producing cen- 
ter in the future. Among these is found 
Watt W. Perrin, who has passed his entire 
life in the vicinity of Sargent, a worthy rep- 
resentative of a pioneer agricultural family 
of central Nebraska. Mr. Perrin was bopi 
on the farm which he now occupies, in section 
16, township 17, a son of Similien L. and 
Sophia (Tobias) Perrin. 

The father of Mr. Perrin was bom at New 
Orleans, Louisiana, and was a young man 
when he came to Custer county and took up 
a homestead. He continued to be engaged in 
farming and raising stock until 1899, in which 
year he moved to Sargent to become pro- 
prietor of the Beatrice Cream Station, which 
he conducted for nine years. He was then 
appointed postmaster and discharged the du- 
ties of that office capably for seven years, 
since which time he has lived in honorable re- 
tirement at Sargent. He married Sophia To- 
bias, a daughter of Isaac C. Tobias, and they 
became the parents of three sons : Harold 
I., a jeweler of Sargent, who married Allona 
Wood and has two children ; Louis E., man- 
ager of the Arnold Lumber Yard of the Dierks 
Lumber Company, who married Lorene Rus- 
misell, and has one child ; and Watt W. 

Watt W. Perrin received his early educa- 
tion in the public schools of Sargent, follow- 
ing which he spent two years in the State 
University at Lincoln. When he adopted a 
vocation it was that of farming, and while 
still classed among the younger agriculturists 
of his locality he has already demonstrated 
the possession of qualities that should lead to 
his success, and his property bears every indi- 
cation of being handled by one thoroughly 
familiar with his business, and progressive 
by habit and nature. Mr. Perrin maintains 
an independent stand in regard to political 
matters, and his only fraternal connection is 
with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 
He was married November 4, 1917, at the 
home of the bride, to Miss Gladys Ruse, a 
daughter of Charles W. and Mary (Cooper) 
Ruse, pioneers of Custer county. Mr. and 
Mrs. Perrin are members of the Methodist 
Episcopal church, which they attend at Sar- 
gent. 



W. R. SYNDER. — Prominent among the 
native sons of Nebraska who have won success 
in the field of agricultural effort, one who 
has won his own way to position and stands 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1100 




Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Synder 



1110 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



high in the regard of his fellow citizens is 
W. R. Synder. While not a native of Custer 
county, during the twelve or more years that 
he has made his home within its borders he 
has become so thoroughly inoculated with the 
spirit of energy and progressiveness that char- 
acterizes this thriving and fertile community 
that he has adopted its customs without ex- 
ception, and is uniformly accepted by the older 
residents as a sterling citizen whose presence 
is beneficial to the community. 

Air. Synder was born on a farm in Seward 
county, Nebraska, January 6, 1877, and is a 
son of Carl and Louise (Templen) Synder. 
Through years of industry and honorable deal- 
ing his father, who was a successful agricul- 
turist in that county, had won the esteem of 
his neighbors and associates. In his youth 
W. R. Synder was given good educational ad- 
vantages in the public schools, while his lei- 
sure time was passed in assimilating the prin- 
ciples of modern agriculture. He remained in 
the county of Seward until 1884, when he 
moved to Nance county. There he remained 
until 1906, when he came to Custer county, 
having received assurance of the fertility of 
the land and of other advantages and oppor- 
tunities here. He has had no chance to regret 
his move, for his ventures in this locality have 
been uniformly satisfactory and successful. At 
the present time Mr. Synder is the owner 
of a farm of 160 acres, which is in a high state 
of cultivation, and on which he has modern 
improvements and handsome and substantial 
Iniildings, this attractive farmstead being 
located in section 26, township 71. Here 
he carries on farming in an up-to-date 
way, and makes a specialty of growing corn 
and raising hogs, in both of which fields of 
endeavor he has been markedly successful. 
Mr. Synder takes a good citizen's interest in 
matters pertaining to the welfare of his com- 
munity, but has not been attracted by politics 
or public life. He and his wife hold member- 
ship in the Evangelical church. 

Mr. Synder first married Miss Martha Ro- 
der, who is now deceased. Prior to her mar- 
riage, the present !Mrs. Synder was Miss Esther 
Wischmeier. 



EMIL C. OHME. — This name belongs on 
the roster of pioneers. It belongs to a man 
who is a native of Nebraska and practically 
all of his life has been spent in Custer county. 
There are few if any who have lived here 
longer than he. He was less than one year 
of age when his parents brought him here 
and has been a constant resident of the county 



for forty- four years. He was born in Omaha, 
Augtist 26, 1873, and is a son of Frank and 
Caroline (Smith) Ohme, of whom extended 
mention is made elsewhere in this volume. 

It was here in the early days of the county 
that Emil spent his boyhood and here he grew 
to manhood. It was in the first school of the 
county that he acquired his early education, 
and here he began life for himself. February 
21, 1896, he married Luella Thomas, a daugh- 
ter of Isaac and Rachel (Connor) Thomas, 
both of whom were early settlers in Valley 
county. Her father is deceased and her 
mother is still living, making her home with 
Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Ohme. 

ilr. and Mrs. Emil Ohme have eight child- 
ren : Frank is ser\-ing in the United States 
navy and is captain of a gun crew on the 
cruiser "Seattle" ; Sylvia married Frank 
Spear and lives west of Comstock ; Ernest, 
Bernice, Caroline, Harold, Rachel, and Emil, 
Jr., are still at home. 

Emil Ohme is the owner of 560 acres, with 
good improvements, $5,000 having been spent 
the last year in improvements. The stock on 
the place are of a good grade and show that 
good care is given them. The family are in- 
terested in community development and im- 
provement. They have a host of friends who 
agree that they are entitled to the prosperity 
that has come to them. 



CLARK J. STEVENS. — From the time 
of his arrival in Custer county, Clark J. 
Stevens has been continuously identified with 
prominent interests at Ansley — connected 
with the rising mercantile, industrial, financial, 
and civic interests of the community — and 
there is probably no other man who has con- 
tributed in greater degree or in more diversi- 
fied ways to the development of this section. 
Merchant, banker, miller, farmer, and promo- 
ter of public-spirited undertakings, he has at 
all times wielded a beneficial influence, and his 
work has been constructive and helpful. 

Mr. Stevens was born May 10, 1861, at 
Salem, New York, and is a son of Clark A. 
and Julia A. (Rice) Stevens. His paternal 
grandfather was Franklin Stevens, who spent 
his life in his natives state of New York, and 
his maternal grandf4ther, Roswel! Rice, also a 
life-long resident of: the Empire state, was a 
wealthy business man. and virtual founder of 
the Jerome B. Rice Seed Company. Clark A. 
Stevens was born in Washington county. New 
York, but passed the greater ])art of his ca- 
reer at North Adanis, Massachusetts, where 
he was a successful shoe merchant, his death 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



nil 




Ci.AkK T. Stkvens 



1112 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



occurring at Salem, New York. He was a 
Republican, and his religious faith was that of 
the Methodist Episcopal church, as is that of 
his widow, who now resides at Kingston, New 
York. They had two children: Clark J., of 
this review, and Harriett O., the wife of J. 
E. Browning, a capitalist of New York city. 

Clark J. Stevens was educated at Salem, 
New York, where he was graduated in the 
high school and also a business college. He 
received his first banking experience with the 
First National Bank of Hoosick Falls. New 
York, an institution of which he was teller 
for seven years. In 1886 he came to Ansley 
and became the first banker of this community, 
continuing in the banking -business until 1902, 
when he sold his interests to Clarence Alackey. 
He had large holdings also in the Bank of 
Commerce, the Bank of Broken Bow, and the 
Bank of Mason City, and was and is still ac- 
counted one of the best informed banking men 
in this part of the state. When he left the 
banking business, in 1902, he engaged in mer- 
cantile pursuits, and in this direction has 
achieved a like success, his store now being 
the largest in the town, with an extended sup- 
porting patronage on the part of the represen- 
tative people of this section. Mr. Stevens' 
splendid business abilities were also directed 
for fifteen years to the ownership and manage- 
ment of a mill, but after his milling property 
was destroyed by fire he retired from that 
field of endeavor. His progressive spirit led 
him to establish the first telephone company 
here, of which he has been president for a 
number of years; and he was likewise the 
builder of the first electric-light plant west of 
Grand Island, of which he was the operator 
and president of the company for fifteen years. 
In each of these directions his business trans- 
actions have been handled in a manner that 
has left his record without a blemish, and his 
associates and those who have known him in 
business dealings have foimd him a man of 
the strictest integrity. His faith in the future 
of his adopted communit>' has been expressed 
by his investment in realty, and at present he 
is the owner of two well improved and highly 
cultivated Custer county farms. 

Mr. Stevens was married (first) to Miss 
Carrie McXaughton. by whom he had four 
children, of whom two are living: Florence 
E., the wife of Dr. Richard Harvey, a practic- 
ing physician of San Francisco, California ; 
and J. Eugene, employed as engineer of the 
State Harlxir Commission, of San Francisco. 
In 1903 Mr. Stevens married Miss .•\nna 
Green, of Seward. Nebraska. Mr. Stevens has 
long been prominent in Masonry. He has filled 



all the offices of the blue lodge, has received 
the thirt>'-second degree of the Scottish Rite, 
is a Knight Templar, and is also a noble of 
the Mystic Shrine. A Republican in politics, 
he has been interested in civic affairs, and has 
rendered his communit}' helpful service as a 
member of the town board for a long period 
and as a member of the school board for fifteen 
years. 



CHARLES D. LAMB, who is a prosper- 
ous business man of Mason City, to which 
place he came in 1918, is well known in Cus- 
ter county, where he has followed agricul- 
tural pursuits for many years. Mr. Lamb 
was born in Fremont county, Iowa, in 1871, 
and first came to Nebraska in 1894. 

The parents of Air. Lamb were Silas O. 
and Martha (Meeks) Lamb, the former of 
whom was born in Indiana, 1837, and the lat- 
ter in Indiana, in 1838. They had children 
as follows : Julian, who lives at Shenandoah, 
Page county, Iowa ; M. L., who owns a mov- 
ing-picture theater at Mason City ; Mrs. Ellen 
Mayer, who lives at Riverton, Iowa ; James 
Elwood, who is employed by an elevator com- 
pany at Riverton ; Mrs. Manilla Carroll, who 
lives at Mason City; Mrs. Mattie Roberts, 
who lives at Riverton, Iowa ; Charles D., of 
this sketch, who is in the garage business at 
Mason City ; Chester, who is a farmer in Cus- 
ter county ; and Ida, who is deceased. The 
mother of the above family died when fifty- 
four years of age, she having been a faithful 
member of the Methodist Episcopal church, 
as is also her husband, Silas O.. who is one 
of the most venerable of the Methodist con- 
gregation in the community in which he yet 
lives. He moved from Indiana to Iowa and 
in 1867 bought what was known as the Riv- 
erton mill, which he operated for twenty 
years, in the meanwhile acquiring land in 
Fremont county. He is a Republican voter. 

Charles D. Lamb attended the public 
schools in Fremont county, Iowa. In 1894 
he first came to Nebraska but was called back 
to Iowa by the death of his mother, in 1895. 
He then came back to Nebraska and for three 
years worked as a railroad man. He spent 
four years in Chern>' countv, where he had 
success as a cattle and sheep man. In 1900 
he bought 160 acres in Custer county, and 
here he lived until 1918, with the exception 
of two years in the lumber business in Ore- 
gon. In June, 1918, Mr. Lamb established 
himself in business at Mason City, erecting a 
fine garage there, its dimensions being 50 by 
100 feet It is a modern structure in evei^ 
jiarticular. Mr. Lamb carries a complete line 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1113 



of automobile assessories, has expert me- 
chanicians in his employ, and does all kinds 
of car repairing. 

Charles D. Lamb was united in marriage to 
Miss Cora M. Jenks, who was bom in Vir- 
ginia, in 1876, and they have the following 
children : Leonard, Leah, Carrie, Mabel, Ed- 
ward, Lester, and Wilma, all attending school 
except Leonard, who is associated with his 
father in business. In his political views Mr. 
Lamb is a Socialist. Since coming to Mason 
City he was accorded evidence of popular 
confidence through election to the school 
board, but his business affairs engage his at- 
tention at the present time and he failed to 
qualify for office, although not failing in ap- 
preciation of the honor. He has not accepted 
many public offices but the county does not 
forget the excellent service he rendered it 
for nine years as road overseer. 



ASMUS JESSEN chose Custer county 
for the operations of his lifetime. He was born 
at Kaffan, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, No- 
vember 27, 1849. He lived the major portion 
of his life in this county and here ended his 
days. He departed this life, in Custer county, 
on the 23d of December, 1915, aged sixty-six 
years and twenty-seven days. He came to 
Custer county twenty-eight years ago and got 
his start in land possessions by homesteading, 
he having immigrated to America in 1879. He 
met the conditions of the time, worked hard 
and made a fair success. In all his un- 
dertakings he was ably assisted by his wife 
whose maiden name was Lena C. Michels, and 
who is a native of Iowa, she being a daughter 
of Christopher and Gertrude Rlichels. The 
marriage of Mr. and Mrs. lessen occurred 
April 27, 1905. The name o'f Mrs. Jessen's 
first husband was Hickey, and she has seven 
children, as here noted : Anna McClure, who 
lives in this county ; Christopher, who lives in 
Lincoln, where he conducts a real-estate busi- 
ness ; Charles Hickey, who lives on a Custer 
farm ; Jerry Hickey, who also is a Custer 
county farmer ; EHzabeth Foran, who lives 
on a farm in this county : James, who also 
farms in this county ; and Rosella Tobey, 
who lives on the home place. Mrs. Jessen 
continues to reside on the home place, has 
600 acres in all, with good improvements and 
a fine grade of stock. Her father was a 
pioneer Nebraskan who homesteaded in Sa- 
line county. He was the first stone-mason in 
that section of the countr)', although the first 
house he himself occupied was made of hay. 
The second was made of logs. He was the 
first of any of the relations to come to Custer 



county, at which time he possessed but a team 
and wagon. He was a man of intelligence 
and public spirit and served as justice of the 
peace both in Saline county and Custer county. 
He also was a school officer. He belonged 
to the Catholic church. There were eleven 
children in this family, three of whom are 
dead. Joe lives in Michigan; John and 
Henry and Katie Bass lived near Merna; 
August lives near Arnold; Elizabeth Mona- 
han lives in Colorado; Charles lives in Colo- 
rado, and his son lives with Mrs. Jessen. 

Mr. Jessen was a progressive citizen, was 
a member of the German Lutheran church, 
and was affiliated with the American Brother- 
hood. Since his death Mrs. Jessen has been 
conducting the general farming operations so 
long carried on under the direction of her 
late husband, and she has made a decided suc- 
cess. She has also continued his interest and 
service in local or community affairs. For 
the last seven years she has been a member of 
the school board, in which capacity she has 
rendered splendid servivce. She is a woman 
of force and ability and has brought her farm 
into the list of paying, profitable Custer 
county ranches. 

Mr. Jessen is survived by one sister, who 
remains" in Germany, and by two brothers, 
Tohn and William, who are residents of the 
state of Pennsylvania. 



ARTHUR C. SHAW, who proudly claims 
Custer county as his birthplace, is one of the 
substantial men of this section and is prosper- 
ing in all his farm undertakings. He belongs 
to one of the early pioneer famiHes of the 
county and the name of Shaw is well known 
not only in agricultural life but also in the 
cement industry, in which the father of Mr. 
Shaw has been financially interested since 
1907, and which he has developed into a large 
business. 

Arthur C. Shaw was born August 4, 1883, 
near Sargent, Nebraska. He is a son of D. 
M. and Slary (Courtney) Shaw, the second 
of a family of four children, namely: Earl 
L., who is employed as a bookkeeper in a 
business house at Roundup, Montana, mar- 
ried Ruth Pickle ; Arthur C. ; Jessie, who died 
at the age of nineteen years ; and Ethel, who 
is the wife of Lee Cooledge, of Central City, 
Nebraska, a commercial traveler for the Mu- 
tual Oil Company. 

When the parents of Mr. Shaw came to 
Custer county, in 1878, they homesteaded two 
miles east of Sargent, and this land is yet 
owned by Mr. Shaw and is occupied and op- 
erated by Arthur C. Shaw. Through the 



1114 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




s 
< 

fa 






HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1115 



hard times that followed, many of the earliest 
settlers became so thoroug;hly discouraged 
that they gave up their land and returned to 
eastern states, but Mr. Shaw and his family 
were never willing to do that and the time 
came when they were well rewarded for their 
courage and determination. In those early 
days it sometimes seemed as if the elements 
were in league to drive the ill-prepared set- 
tlers from this neighborhood, and there is 
tradition that no winter was ever quite so se- 
vere as was the winter of 1889. It has often 
been demonstrated that people grow some- 
what indifferent when continually under the 
shadow of danger, hence in Custer county 
neighborhood social activities were not neg- 
lected and when Mrs. Shaw, mother of 
Arthur C, was invited to a party some little 
distance from home, she accepted, as did all 
the members of the Sager family near by, ex- 
cept Mrs. Sager herself. Mr. Shaw for- 
tunately had not given himself the treat of a 
little social intercourse but remained at home 
to take care of the children and keep the fires 
going, as the weather was bitterly cold and 
soon a blizzardly snow storm was sweeping 
over the prairie. As it grew worse, Mr. 
Shaw remembered their neighbor, Mrs. Sager, 
who had been left entirely alone by the merry- 
makers. With that feeling of neighborly re- 
sponsibility that even yet is sometimes appar- 
ent among these worthy people who have 
weathered hard times together, he struggled 
through the snow to her home, probably a 
sod house, and found her greatly in need of 
help, and he remained to attend to her fires 
and cook her some food. Then he started 
back home and probably would never have 
reached there except for being blown against 
a wire fence, which gave him something to 
hold to, and he finally reached home almost 
dead with the cold. The storm kept Mrs. 
Shaw at the home of her entertainers for 
three days. In 1911 Mr. Shaw retired from 
the farm and moved to Sargent. He has 
been interested in the cement business since 
1907 and expanded its scope at Sargent and 
still carries on this enterprise. 

Arthur C. Shaw obtained his education In 
the public schools of Sargent. He has always 
lived on his father's farm and has the entire 
management of the same, carrying on its in- 
dustries very successfully. He raises fine 
crops that reflect credit on his farm knowl- 
edge and methods, and raises also some of 
the best standard stock in the county — Aber- 
deen-Angus cattle and Poland China hogs in 
particular. Mr. Shaw is unmarried. In 
politics he is a Democrat. He has always 
taken a great deal of interest in all movements 



that have promised substantial development 
and feels justified in asserting that the pres- 
ent generation should never forget how help- 
ful in bringing about present conditions were 
that sturdy band, their pioneer fathers and 
mothers, who sometimes stood, as in military 
parlance, "with their backs to the wall," and 
still overcame drouth, storm, insect pests, 
disease, poverty and hunger. Some of these 
have passed on, but others yet remain and 
have been priviledged to enjoy a measure of 
recompense for their labors. 



HARVEY STOCKHAM, who is one of 
Custer county's successful agriculturists and 
representative citizens, came here thirty-five 
years ago and still owns, with much other val- 
uable property, his original homestead. Mr. 
Stockham was born in Scioto county, Ohio, 
.\pril 18, 1863, and is a son of William and 
Elizabeth (Bennett) Stockham. 

When Harvey Stockham was a boy, on ev- 
ery convenient location on various farms in 
many states, might at some time or another, 
be seen the lazily rising smoke from the char- 
coal pits, for then the burning of charcoal 
was a profitable industry, carried on, as it was, 
after primitive methods. His father's occupa- 
tion in Scioto county was the burning of char- 
coal, but as a charcoal collier William Stock- 
ham did not find himself able to lay aside much 
for the future, as he had nine children to pro- 
vide for, and thus came about his resolution 
to move to Nebraska, secure a homestead, and 
through agricultural industry, find a compe- 
tency. In 1864, three years before Nebraska 
became a state, he visited the territory and 
bought a farm in Cass county, and in the fall 
of 1865, with his family and household goods, 
he started with team and wagon to make the 
long journey across the country. The travelers 
reached Clarke county, Iowa, when the father 
was stricken with typhoid fever, and he died 
at Osceola, that state. Three days later, the 
baby daughter, Mary, succumbed also and her 
ashes rest at Albia, Iowa. There was nothing 
for the desolated wife and mother to do but 
to continue on the way, and finally the new 
home in Cass county was reached. There the 
mother and children all lived until the latter 
were grown. In 1875 the mother married E. 
H. Russell. 

Harvey Stockham recalls very distinctly 
many of the hardships of pioneer life, in both 
Cass and in Custer counties, to which latter 
county he came in 1883. Of his parents' fam- 
ily the following reached maturity: James, 
Samuel, William, Joseph, Harvey, and David. 



1116 HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 





HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



in; 



Eliza, Hannah, and Mary all died in infancy. 
Mr, Stockham homesteaded the 160 acres on 
which he lives, and took a tree claim of 160 
acres — ■ a total of 320 acres. His homestead 
is situated on Red Fern Table, ten miles west 
of Oconto, and he has gradually added to his 
estate until he now has 480 acres of land-- — 
all of hig-h value. He has devoted himself 
diligently to his farm industries for these many 
years and has met with entirely satisfactory 
results, his enterprise and good judgment, his 
courage and perseverance, all having been 
called upon largely within the many years Mr, 
Stockham has lived here, 

]Mr. Stockham was married January 4, 1893, 
near Lodi, Nebraska, to Miss Anna Thurman, 
who was born in Seward county, this state, 
and who died in Custer county, January 17, 
1916, She was a daughter of Joseph and Re- 
becca fSchlonaker) Thurman, Mr. and Mrs. 
Stockham had one son and one daughter — 
Emery, who is a farmer in the county, con- 
ducts operations on both his own and his fa- 
ther's land, and Esther is the wife of Ray 
Walker, who is a farmer fifteen miles north- 
west of Oconto, Emer}' and Esther are twins, 
Emery was looking forward to donning a sol- 
dier's uniform and his friends, of whom there 
are many, know the uniform would have been 
creditably worn by him in the world war for 
universal freedom. 

]\Ir, Stockham is a Democrat in politics, and 
he and his children belong to the Evangelical 
church. He is preparing to take things a little 
easier in the future, after practically retiring, 
and expects to purchase a winter home in the 
south. 



FRANK OHME. — This is the name of a 
man who has been a resident of this county 
since the beginning of white man's occupation. 
He was among the very first of the early 
settlers and by reference to the historical 
part of this work you will find that he was 
the first man to file on land in Custer county, 
the land office being at Grand Island. 

Mr. Ohme was born in Germany, February 
13, 1844. His parents were Charles and 
Mary (Menike) Ohme, both of whom were 
natives of Germany and spent their entire 
lives in that country. Frank is the only sur- 
vivor of the family and the only one to come 
to America, Mr, Ohme came to America in 
1869 and spent one year in Wisconsin, and 
then came to Nebraska and spent four years 
in Douglas and Sarpy counties. He came 
to Custer county in 1874 and located in the 
northeastern portion of the county. Here he 



built a sod house and with the same plow 
turned the sod of the second, if not the first, 
field in Custer county. In 1873 he was mar- 
ried to Miss Caroline Smith a native of Ger- 
many, whose parents died in the fatherland. 
In that pioneer home privations and hardships 
were endured and here their four children 
were born, all of whom have now grown to 
manhood and womanhood. Emil is a farmer 
in this county; Emma is the wife of Frank 
Thomas, of Mitchell, Nebraska ; Otto is mar- 
ried and lives at Mitchell, Nebraska ; Oscar is 
married and lives near Sargent. 

The achievements that Mr, and Mrs, Ohme 
have accomplished during these years is indi- 
cated in the fact that the homestead of 160 
acres and a tree claim of forty acres have 
grown to a farm of over 1,000 acres and it is 
one of the best stock farms in this part of the 
country. In speaking of hardships Mr. Ohme 
recalls the grasshopper years of 1874-5-6. 
These were followed by years of plenty and 
from 1880 to 1890 Mr, Ohme raised an 
average of sixty bushels of corn to the acre. 
They well remember the Indian scare of the 
early days and one one occasion Mrs. Ohme 
and the children were sent to Loup City, In 
those years the country abounded with wild 
game and though Mr, Ohme was no hunter 
they always had plenty of . fresh meat. He 
exchanged potatoes, etc, for game. He is in- 
dependent in politics, so far as the home ticket 
is concerned, but in state and national aft'airs 
votes the Republican ticket. The name is one 
of the first in the county and they have always 
taken a leading part in the affairs of their 
community, 

ROBERT YOHN, — Still rated among the 
younger generation of agriculturists in Custer 
county, Robert Yohn is one of the progressive 
and energetic tillers of the soil upon whom 
much depends for the future prosperitv of 
this section of Nebraska, He has spent his 
entire life within the county's borders and 
has an intimate knowledge of conditions pre- 
vailing here as pertaining to agricultural mat- 
ters — a knowledge gained through experience 
and one which is assisting him materially in 
his individual advancement, 

Mr, Yohn was born on his father's home- 
stead in the vicinity of Mason City, Custer 
county, Nebraska, August 16, 1890, and is a 
son of John and Julia (Wiland) Yohn, natives 
of Austria. His parents immigrated to the 
United States in 1884, settling at once in Cus- 
ter county, where the father homesteaded a 
tract of eighty acres, in 1885, and where he con- 
tinued to be engaged in farm enterprises until 



1118 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1119 



his death. John Yohn was bom in Austria, 
September 27, 1827, and died November 19, 
1914, aged eighty-seven years, one month, and 
t\vent\'-three days. He was fairly successful 
in the business afTairs of life, was independent 
in his political stand, and in religion was a 
member of the Catholic church, to which his 
widow, who survives him and makes her home 
with her son Robert, also belongs. They were 
the parents of six children, as follows : Annie, 
who married Fred Trampy, a farmer of Buf- 
falo county, Nebraska ; Bertha, who married 
]\Iack Scully, a farmer of Wyoming; Tillie, 
who married Herman Jones, a farmer of Buf- 
falo county, Nebraska ; Robert, to whom this 
sketch is dedicated ; Will, who enlisted in the 
United States service in August, 1918, and 
was stationed at Camp Dodge, Iowa, at the 
time this article was written ; and Ernest, who 
is deceased. 

The district schools of Custer county furn- 
ished Robert Yohn with his educational train- 
ing, and when he completed his studies he 
adopted farming as his life work. One year 
before the death of his father he bought eighty 
acres of land, and this he cultivates at present, 
in addition to the old homestead, the manage- 
ment of which he assumed when his father 
passed away, but which is still owned by his 
mother. Mr. Yohn still makes his home in 
the old sod house which was built by his fa- 
ther in the early days, but he has good farm 
equipment and numerous improvements. He 
does general farming, and makes a specialty 
of raising red Duroc hogs, of which he has 126 
at this writing. As a citizen and a business 
man, his record is beyond reproach. 



CHARLES L. HORN. — Elsewhere in 
this volume is recorded the life history of U. 
S. Horn, a native of Nemaha county. We 
now record the life sketch of his brother, 
Charles L. Horn, who was born in Nemaha 
county, this state. May 10, 1864. For record 
concerning his parents reference may be made 
to the sketch of U. S. Horn. 

The early years of Charles L. Horn were 
spent in Nemaha county, where he improved 
the opportunities of farm and outdoor life 
and laid the foundation for the successful 
career into which he has now developed as a 
farmer and stock-raiser. It was here that he 
received his education in the common schools 
and laid the foundations of manhood and busi- 
ness acumen, both of which are part of his 
valuable assets at the present time. When 
twenty-three years of age Mr. Horn thought 
it time to take unto himself a helpmeet and 



settle down for a home-making career. Ac- 
cordingly he married, December 22, 1887, a 
Nemaha county young lady, Maud Faukner, 
who comes of splendid lineage, and who, like 
himself, is a native of Nemaha county, where 
she had like social and school advantages. 

To the union of Charles L. Horn and Maud 
(Faukner) Horn seven children were born: 
Stella is the wife of Troy Jewell, a young Cus- 
ter county farmer; Charles, Jr., married Nel- 
lie Kellogg and is operating a farm for him- 
self in the good old county of Custer; Ralph 
is another young Custer county farmer who 
is married and doing well^ his wife's maiden 
name having been Minnie Kellogg ; the fourth 
child, a daughter named Helen, is deceased; 
Alice is pursuing her studies in the Nebraska 
State Normal School at Kearney; and Louis 
and Hazel are at home. 

The Horns were successful farmers and 
stockmen in the eastern part of the state be- 
fore coming to Custer ; accordingly, they came 
here in a position to secure good land and 
commence farming under the best possible 
conditions. Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Horn 
came to Custer county in 1904, and settled on 
the place which is now their home. Their 
holdings to-day comprise 1,050 acres of 
splendid land, well improved and in a high 
state of cultivation, and, with its equipments, 
theirs is one of the best farms in the entire 
county. 

Mr. Horn delights in farming and in the 
matter of stock-raising he seems to be "to the 
manner born." He takes an active interest 
in both social and public affairs, has been gen- 
erous in his contributions to different phases 
of war drives and, withal, manifested a pa- 
triotic and commendable attitude in the na- 
tional crisis incidental to the great world war. 
He is prominent in the local lodge of the In- 
dependent Order of Odd Fellows. 



JAMES R. YOUNG.— Here is presented 
the name of a very substantial farmer who 
lives in the Gates community, who since the 
early pioneer days has been a resident on the 
land he now occupies, and who has been one 
of the constructive factors in the com- 
munity. Mr. Young is a native of the Hoosier 
state. He was born September 8, 1837, and 
is now past the four-score line. He is a son of 
James and Minerva (Evans) Young, the for- 
mer a native of Pennsylvania, and the latter 
of Kentucky. The father was a farmer of 
lifelong occupation. His last years were spent 
in Illinois. He was a member of the Demo- 
cratic party and the family affiliated with the 
L'niversalist church. In the family of lames 



1120 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Young there were twelve children, only five 
of whom are now living. 

James R. Young is the only one of the fam- 
ily living in Custer county. He stayed at 
home until he married. This was in March, 
1868, in Harrison county, Indiana, where he 
wedded Miss Mary Miller, a daughter of Peter 
L. and Lydia (Dntrow) Miller. The Millers 
were pioneers of Indiana and were a very 
prominent family. 

James R. Young received a liberal educa- 
tion in the Indiana schools, and by occupation 
he has been a farmer all his life. He came 
to Custer county in the fall of 1882 and made 
a fine selection of land in the region of the 
Middle Loup. Here he entered both a home- 
stead and a tree claim, and he still lives on the 
tree claim, while the homestead lies just across 
the road. To-day his possessions are 800 acres, 
w^ell improved and well stocked. Speaking 
reminiscently, he says that he had but ver>' 
little when he made his start in this county 
and that all he has to-day was made by work 
and hard knocks. He likes the free and easy 
west, and believes that these are happy and 
prosperous times that the present generation 
is not prepared to fully appreciate. He \ras 
reared in. the place where Morgan, the Con- 
federate raider, crossed the Ohio river during 
the Civil war and he saw part of the fighting 
— could see the explosion of shells as they 
were hurled through the air by the great gims. 
He is very familiar with the happenings of the 
war days, having lived in the vicinity of some 
of the great battle fields. 

Mr. Young and his good wife have always 
maintained a hospitable home, and they are 
the parents of five children : William E. mar- 
ried Nellie Howe and lives near Gates; Amos 
W. married Hattie Vose and lives in Wiscon- 
sin; Charles P. married Ruby Wallace and 
lives near Gates; George E. and James A. are 
twins: the former married Flora Ford and 
lives near Gates, and the latter married Lydia 
Hatcher and lives on the old homestead. Mr. 
and Mrs. Young also reared a girl by the 
name of Nettie Fessenden, who came into their 
home at the age of six years and remained 
with them until she was married to Fred Sims, 
who lives in Colorado. 

Mr. Young is a Democrat in politics and 
has been a member and trustee of the Metho- 
dist church at Gates ever since it was organ- 
ized. The name of Young is widely known 
throughout all the Middle Loup vicinity and 
is highly respected, and James R. Young and 
his wife have a host of friends who wish 
them every comfort and happiness during their 
declining years. 



JACOB WORACEK. — One of the pio- 
neer families of Custer county that is still rep- 
resented here, bears the name of Woracek. 
lacob Woracek the elder, came here with his 
two sons in 1883. They homesteaded, the 
elder son finishing the proving up, and the 
father continued on the homestead until his 
death, in 1918. The younger son. who bears 
his name, is Jacob Woracek, who is one of 
the county's substantial farmers and success- 
ful stockraisers. 

Jacob Woracek was bom August 10, 1872, 
at Green Bay, Wisconsin. His parents were 
Jacob and Anna (Scklesch) Woracek. They 
were born in Bohemia and when they came 
to the United States, in May, 1871, they sought 
a home in a section where other Bohemians 
had already settled, finding it in Brown 
county, Wisconsin. There the father bought 
forty acres of land and was making satisfac- 
tory progress when, the death of the mother, 
in 1875, caused a change in his plans. He 
disposed of his Wisconsin land and moved to 
Colfax county, Nebraska, and entered upon 
the life of a fanner there. He remained 
three years, when, discouraged on account of 
his consecutive loss of crops from chinch bugs, 
grasshoppers and rust, he came with his two 
sons to Custer county to begin over again, 
after some years of residence in Omaha, 
where his children had a chance to go to 
school. The Woraceks reached Custer 
county in 1883 and settled in section 2, town- 
ship 18, range 17. There were four children 
in the family and all sun-ive, namely: Al- 
bert, who is a resident of Jamestown, North 
Dakota, married Fannie Penas ; Jacob ; 
Joseph, who is a farmer, lives at Comstock, 
Nebraska, married Kate Woracek ; and Anna, 
who is the wife of Frank Trvidek, a farmer 
living southwest of Comstock. 

Jacob Woracek was eleven years old when 
he accompaned his father and brother to Cus- 
ter county and he lived at home until he was 
twenty years old. He never had many school 
advantages but was naturally quick to learn 
and picked up a fair education by paying close 
attention to instruction given him by those 
with whom he worked, \\hen twenty years 
old he returned to Omaha and learned the 
butchering busines, but in 1901 he returned 
to Custer county, in order to engage in farm- 
ing and stock-raising for himself. At first 
he rented land but soon made purchases, and 
he now owns 480 acres, all well improved. He 
has had hardships, like a large majority of his 
neighl)ors. but has found that hard work and 
careful management have been helpful in 
overcoming them and now has reached a po- 
sition of financial independence. He makes a 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1121 



specialty of raising White Face cattle and has 
a fine herd at all times. According to his 
experience the Jersey Red breed is the best 
kind of hog to raise in Nebraska, and he sells 
a fine lot every year. He also has a good stock 
of horses, mainly Percherons. All his op- 
erations are carried on with care and good 
judgment and the results are proving highly 
satisfactory. 

Mr. Woracek was married at Ord, Ne- 
braska, April 8, 1902, to Miss Mary Danskey, 
and they have the following children, all of 
whom live at home : Vaclav, Mary, Rosa, 
Edward, Adolph, Frank, Joseph, and Veron- 
ica. The children of the family have an un- 
usual pet that has been on the fann for the 
past four years, it being a wild deer. It is 
a beautiful creature and not only Mr. Wora- 
cek's family takes an interest in it, but the en- 
tire neighborhood is proud of it and there is 
no danger of any one in this part of the 
county ever disturbing it. 



HARVEY E. LEACH. — Nebraska, and 
Custer county especially, was settled in the 
early days by men and women who came 
from Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio 
and who sought here the opportunities that 
did not exist in the older states. 

Harv'ey E. Leach belongs to the contingent 
that came from Indiana. In that state he 
was bom November 28, 1861. He is the son 
of Abraham and Mary (McKnight) Leach, ex- 
cellent people of sturdy qualities, from whom 
their son inherited the traits of thrift and in- 
dustr)'^ upon which his present day accumula- 
tions are based. The father was a native of 
Canada and the mother a native of Scotland. 
The father was a carpenter and millwright by 
trade but followed that occupation only in the 
earlier years of his life. He is still living 
and makes his home with his son Harvey E. 
and a daughter living in Beatrice, Nebraska. 
The mother died in 1905. The parents came 
to Custer county in 1885, locating on a home- 
stead, in the vicinity of Clear creek, on which 
they lived until 1896. That has since been 
sold and the old gentleman has retired from 
active life. In the day of his activity he was 
a Democrat in politics, for many years was a 
member of the county central committee, and 
he served as justice of the peace and in other 
township offices for many years. This 
worthy couple were the parents of twelve 
children, seven of whom are living. A daugh- 
ter, Margaret Wilson, living at Ansley, and 
Harvey E. are the only ones living in this 
county. The others are. Hanford, deceased ; 
Harr>', living at Blair, Nebraska; IBert, living 



ni Joliet, Illinois ; Mary Alden, living at Bea- 
trice, Nebraska ; Hugh, living at Oakes, North 
Dakota ; Wellington, living at Thedf ord, Ne- 
braska ; and Eliza Dawson, deceased. Three 
others died in infancy. 

Harvey Leach received the education of the 
common schools, inclined to farming as an 
occupation and has consequently been a tiller 
of the soil all the years of his life. Decem- 
ber 25, 1881, he married Sarah Gentry, a 
daughter of Andrew and Mary Gentry, early 
pioneers of the county, where they located in 
1882, both being now deceased. Mrs. Leach 
became the mother of six children and her 
death occurred March 21, 1902. Mr. Leach 
contracted a second marriage, with Elizabeth 
Slater, daughter of James Slater, who is now 
a resident of Los Angeles, California. To 
this union five children have been born : Her- 
bert, Leland, Ruland, Willard, and Louise. 

The Leaches maintain a splendid home and 
operate a farm of 1,120 acres, 300 acres of 
which are in cultivation and the rest in alfalfa 
and grass land. Mr. Leach deals extensively 
in stock of all kinds and keeps about 200 head 
of horses and cattle on the place the year 
round. He is independent in politics, is en- 
tirely without political aspirations, and never 
held public office. Socially he is a prominent 
member of the Masonic order. The entire 
community count the Leaches as popular citi- 
zens and good neighbors. 



RAYMOND GEISER. — The young farm- 
er named above is thirty-five years of age 
and is engaged in active operations on a farm 
in the Arnold vicinity. He was born in 1883, 
in Creston, Iowa, and is a son of Jacob and 
Barbara (Miller) Geiser. The father is a 
native of Switzerland where he was born in 
1849. The mother, however, is a native of 
New York, where she was born in 1851. They 
are still living and make their home in Sar- 
gent. The father, who worked at the carpen- 
ter trade for twelve years, came to America 
and landed in New York in 1869. From there 
he came west and located on an Iowa farm. 
He stayed on this farm twelve years, then fol- 
lowed again the star that leads westward, 
and came to Custer county. Near Sargent he 
bought 320 acres of land, on which a part of 
the town is situated. He sold this land, then 
bought 496 acres in the Arnold district, and 
practically put on all the improvements him- 
self, all of which are good and belong to the 
first order. He had but little money when 
he landed in the United States. As a boy he 
worked in the mills in Switzerland. He and 
his good wife are the parents of eight child- 



1122 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



ren : Charles lives near Sargent : Charlotte 
SulHvan lives in Idaho ; Georgia was next in 
order of birth ; Ella Scriber lives in Burwell. 
Nebraska; \\'ilbur, and Raymond are Custer 
county farmers ; Alma Amos lives in Dry- 
valley ; Jesse is a Custer county farmer. The 
father affiliates with the Democratic party 
and has been a member of the school board in 
Sargent for six years. 

For thirty-four years of his life Raymond 
Geiser has lived in Custer county, which re- 
veals the fact that he was only one year old 
when he came to the county. Accordingly it 
was here that he received his education and 
early training. Here he began his farming 
operations. His first work was in Sargent, 
near which place he lived when a boy. He 
was married on December 17, 1904, to Mar- 
garet Davis, of Blaine county, a daughter of 
George and Sarah Davis. Since their 
marriage they have maintained one of the 
commendable homes in the county and have 
become the parents of four children : Henry, 
is twelve years of age ; Floyd, ten ; George, 
eight, and Barbara, five. All of the children 
are at home, are attending school and are 
candidates for useful manhood and woman- 
hood. The Geiser farm consists of 280 
acres, of which 220 are in cultivation. Good 
improvements, a fair grade of live stock and 
general indications of thrift are to be seen on 
the premises. Mr. Geiser has served as road 
overseer for four years, is treasurer of the 
school board and has been prominent in all 
local matters concerning war drives. 

SEDONIA GRIEBEL is a woman of in- 
domitable spirit. She is of foreign extraction 
and has more than made good in America, the 
land of opportunity. She had a part in the 
pioneer days of Custer county development 
and with her husband gathered together 
enough of this world's goods to give to each 
of a large family of children a good eudcation 
and a fair start in life. Besides her land liold- 
ings Mrs. Griebel has a beautiful home in Sar- 
gent, where she has opportunity to spend her 
remaining years in comparative ease and 
luxury. 

Mrs. Griebel was born July 4, 1851. in Ba- 
varia, Germany, and is a daughter of John and 
Rosalie (Neiterhemmer) Kieveline. Ix)th na- 
tives of Germany. The father came to the 
United States in 1833. when his daughter S'e- 
donia was but two years of age. He worked 
in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania, in the rolling 
mills and saved his money, with which he 
bought land at a low price, near the town. For 
this land he was afterward offered SI. 000 an 



acre, but refused to sell. He died several years 
ago. In his family were six children, all of 
whom are living, but the subject of this sketch 
is the only one in Custer county. The mother 
of Mrs. Griebel died before the father came 
to the United States. Mrs. Griebel's advent 
into this country did not occur until she was 
twenty-one years old. when she joined her 
father in Pennsylvania. 

In 1847 Miss Sedonia Kieveline became the 
wife of Benedict Griebel and they continued 
their residence in Pennsylvania until the spring 
of 1875, when they came west and settled near 
Columbus. Nebraska, where Mr. Griebel 
farmed until 1880, when they came to Custer 
county and homesteaded near Walworth. They 
took a tree claim and a pre-emption, established 
a home, endured the trials and privations, 
worked, economized, saved, invested their 
earnings, raised stock, proved up on their land, 
bought more, and at the time of Mr. Griebel's 
death, September 28, 1902, they owned 1,600 
acres. Since then Mrs. Griebel has divided 
nearly 1.000 acres of the land among the chil- 
dren. She still owns 640 acres. 

Mr. and Mrs. Griebel became the parents of 
eleven children, ten of whom are still living: 
Minnie, who became the wife of A. P. Smith, 
is now deceased ; Frank married Jessie Young, 
and they reside near Walworth; Katherine is 
the wife of A. L. Luce and they live at Shelton, 
Colorado ; Florendena lives at home ; Magde- 
line, single, is living on a homestead in Wyo- 
ming; Rosena is the wife of Ira Williams and 
is living north of Walworth ; Lawrence mar- 
ried Pearl Dewey and is living on the home 
place, near Walworth; Benedict is unmarried 
and lives at Walworth ; Jerome is in the na- 
tional army and at the time of this writing is 
located at Camp Funston ; Leo is on the home 
place ; and Sedonia is a popular school teacher 
at West Union. 

Mrs. Griebel and her husband drove over- 
land from Columbus to this county, and started 
with forty-two head of cattle and three hogs. 
Two of their cows were killed on the way, at 
Central City. The span of horses they drove 
through cost $-KX) and was an extra fine team 
— at that time considered the best span of 
horses in the county. On their way Mr. and 
Mrs. Griebel were offered many trades for the 
horses. \\'hen they came to this county there 
were four homes in Sargent, one of these was 
owned by Mr. Spacht, one by Mr. Austin, one 
bv Mr. Savidge, and one by Mr. Pcrrin. The 
home of the .Austins was a dugout, and Mrs. 
Griebel thought that it would be impossible to 
live in such a house, but she found out that her 
own home was to be similar. Thev moved into 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 1123 




Benedict Griebel 



1124 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTV, XEBR.\SKA 



a hunter's dugout, which liad a willow roof, 
and the first night in this habitation Mr. Grie- 
bel had to be away looking after the cattle. 
There came up a violent rain storm and Mrs. 
Griebel stayed up the entire night, fearing 
what might happen. 

In 1912 Airs. Griebel sold the stock, closed up 
the affairs of the farm, and moved into Sar- 
gent, where she owns one of the most beauti- 
ful homes in the city. She is a faithful and 
devout member of the Catholic church. 



MRS. FRANCES C. DWOIL\K, who suc- 
cessfully conducts a large mercantile business 
at Comstock, is not only recognized as com- 
petent in business affairs, but also as an ex- 
emplar of a long unrecognized force that is 
quietly but surely moulding public opinion. 
Mrs. Dworak, who is highly educated, was for 
a number of years a valued teacher in the pub- 
lic schools of Nebraska, and in many ways she 
has been connected vvith cultural activities 
that have worked for the betterment of the 
communities in which she has lived. 

Frances C. Rybin was born at Anamosa, 
Jones county, Iowa, and is a daughter of John 
and Josephine (Sokol) Rybin, the former of 
whom was bom in Bohemia, Austria-Hun- 
gary, and the latter in Jackson county, Iowa. 
Mrs. Dworak is the elder of the two children, 
and Josephine is the wife of Walter Williams, 
who is engaged in the plumbing business at 
Ames, Iowa. 

John Rybin came from Bohemia to the 
United States about forty-five years ago. set- 
tling first in Iowa and later moving to Vallev 
county, Nebraska, where he and his wife still 
reside. Farming has been his vocation and he 
has prospered. In his political views he is a 
Republican. 

Endowed with a quick understanding, even 
in childhood, Frances C. Rybin very early 
completed the common-school course in Jack- 
son county, Iowa, and after being creditably 
graduated in the high school she embraced 
school-teaching as a profession. As a teacher 
she became well known and highly appre- 
ciated in Valley county, Nebraska. In 1894 
John F. Dworak w-ent into a furniture and 
undertaking business at Genoa, Nance county, 
Nebraska. Prior to that, on April 11, 1891, 
he was united in marriage to Miss Frances C. 
Rydin, at Ord, Nebraska, and one son was 
born to them, Lamore, who was bom April 
13, 1905. 

In 1904 Mr. and Mrs. Dworak returned 
from Genoa to Ord, Nebraska, where he be- 
came associated with his brother in a mer- 
cantile business and where Mrs. Dworak re- 



sumed teaching. In 1905 they engaged in the 
general merchandise business at Comstock, 
with a small stock of reliable goods, and estab- 
lished a representative business house. This 
proved a very successful enterprise, both Mr. 
and Mrs. Dworak devoting themselves to its 
furtherance until the death of Mr. Dworak, 
which occurred in June, 1909. Since that 
time Mrs. Dworak has assumed all responsi- 
bility, and. with good judgment and thorough 
imderstanding of business principles, she has 
made her business a very important factor in 
the commercial life of Comstock. She occu- 
pies a store forty-eight by sixty feet in dimen- 
sion, well lighted with a Delco lighting sys- 
tem, and modem and up-to-date in its equip- 
ment. 

In politics Mr. Dworak was a Democrat. 
He was a member of the Presbyterian church 
and Mrs. Dworak holds membership in the 
same religious body. Although Mrs. Dworak 
is very modest in speaking of her efforts in 
the business field, they are apparent enough 
to reflect great credit upon her. 

CHARLES G. SANDERS is one of the 
wide-awake, progressive men of Custer county, 
where he is interested in several enterprises 
that help to make Anselmo one of the leading 
business centers of the county. 

Mr. Sanders is a native of the south. He 
was born in Kosciusko, Atala county, Missis- 
sippi, March 6, 1869, and is a son of Zachariah 
and A. J. (Davis) Sanders, both natives of 
-Mississippi, in which state they spent their 
entire lives, having passed away many years 
ago. 

Our suliject was thrown upon his own re- 
sources when quite young and was a boy of 
fourteen when he came to Nebraska and found 
employment on a farm near Nebraska City. 
He diligently applied himself to agricultural 
pursuits and in 1897 he came to Custer county. 
Here he engaged in the cattle business on the 
Middle Loup river, in partnership with J. H. 
Catron, a banker of Nebraska City, who had 
large land holdings in Custer county. Mr. 
Sanders made a success of the stock business 
and conducted a ranch for several years. For 
eight years he resided on a farm of 640 acres, 
which he still owns and which is eight miles 
south of .Anselmo. There he carried on di- 
versified farming operations, but recently he 
took up his abode in Anselmo. Other enter- 
prises have profited by his good judgment. 
He is president of the Farmers" Alercantile 
Company. Inc., of .\nselmo, is president of the 
,\nsclmo State Bank, and also manages the 
Custer countv affairs of the Catron estate. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1125 




Charges G. Sanders 



1126 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



At Nebraska City Mr. Sanders was united 
in marriage to Miss Lydia Harmon, who was 
born in Virginia, and who accompanied her 
parents, Joseph and Sarah Harmon, to Otoe 
count}', Nebraska, in 1883. Mr. and Mrs. 
Sanders have a family of six children : Elsie is 
the wife of M. C. \\'addin,gton ; and Erma, 
Nelson, Winona, Lucile, and Henry are still 
under the parental roof. 

The family are members of the United 
Brethren church and in politics Mr. Sanders 
is a Democrat. Loud in his praises of the op- 
portunities to be found in his adopted county, 
he has been an important factor in enterprices 
which have had to do with the unbuilding of 
his community, and he is held in the highest 
of esteem bv all who know him. 



WILLIAM M. GILMORE. — There are 
many still familiar names that are closely as- 
sociated with the pioneer history of Nebraska, 
and one of these that is worthily represented 
in Custer county is that of Gilmore. Will- 
iam M. Gilmore, who owns a fine property 
in Ryno valley, came to Custer county in 
1898, and here he has ever since been identified 
with land development and agricultural indus- 
try. He is a native of Nebraska, bom in 
York county. August 4, 1867, and is one of a 
family of fourteen children born to Jacob 
R. and Sarah Gilmore. 

William M. Gilmore grew up when pio- 
neer conditions still prevailed in York county 
— when a large part of that section was prac- 
tically unsettled. He recalls the many hard- 
ships of those days and also, with feelings 
of admiration, remembers the courage and 
resourcefulness with which they were met and 
overcome. His school opportunities were 
somewhat meager but were such that he was 
able to lay a sound foundation for the sub- 
stantial superstructure of practical knowledge 
which he has since built up and through which 
he has effectively overcome the early handi- 
cap. He has been careful that his children 
should have the best educational advantages 
possible. 

Mr. Gilmore remained at home with his 
parents until he was twenty-one years of 
age. In 1898 he came to Custer county and 
located at first on land situated four miles 
east of Oconto, south of the South Loup river. 
There he remained one year and he then 
moved to a farm two miles east of Oconto, 
where he continued operations two years. In 
1906 he bought his present fine property in 
Ryno valley, where he has 240 acres, well 
developed and improved. In addition to op- 
erating this land, in partnership with his son 



Harry E. Gilmore, he also leases an additional 
160 acres. Mr. Gilmore has the reputation 
of being a very efficient farmer, careful and 
experienced, and his agricultural undertakings 
have been ver)- successful. His postoffice ad- 
dress is Callawav. 

In 1890, at York, Nebraska, William M. 
Gilmore was united in marriage to Miss Mat- 
tie MacDaniel. Mrs. Gilmore has three 
brothers and two sisters, namely : Theodore 
Walter, Henry, John, Maie, and Ellen. Mr. 
and Mrs. Gilmore have four sons, fine, sturdy, 
patriotic young Americans who are a credit 
to state and country. The eldest, C. Homer 
Gilmore, is engaged in farming in the south- 
ern part of the county, near Oconto ; Harry 
E., the second son. who is in partnership 
with his father in the large fanning opera- 
tions above mentioned, was preparing for 
militant' service in the national army at the 
time when the world war came to a close ; 
Orville L., also did his best to make Custer 
covmty a banner section in raising crops with 
which to help win the world war ; and Samuel 
R.. is yet in school. Mr. Gilmore and his 
older sons are Democrats in their political 
views. 

GEORGE W. STOUFFER was born in 
Ogle county. Illinois, !\Iarch 2. 1860. a son of 
Daniel W. and Frances (Petrie) Stouffer, who 
were bom in Maryland and who were early 
settlers in Ogle county. Illinois, where both 
passed away. 

George W. Stouffer was reared in his native 
state and when a lad of sixteen he began work- 
ing by the month on a farm, later engaging as 
a farmer on his own account. For a time he 
operated a tract of land in Plymouth county. 
Iowa, this property having belonged to his 
father. 

In 1888 Mr. Stouffer came to Custer county 
and bought a relinquishment of 160 acres in 
section 20, township 18. range 21. He proved 
up on this claim, and upon selling the same 
he purchased land in Dale valley. In 1892 he 
bought 160 acres where he now lives, the place 
at that time having a sod house and other 
meager improvements. To-day he is the owner 
of 800 acres, all in one body, and successfully 
conducts a general farming and stock-raising 
enterprise. A good grade of cattle is to be 
found in the pastures and some fine Percheron 
horses are raised on the place. The improve- 
ments are among the best in the neighborhood, 
all having been put there by the present owner. 

Mr. Stouffer was married, in Iowa, to Miss 
Mattic Johnson, who passed away in Custer 
county, leaving two children : Guy, who is mar- 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1127 




George \V. Stouffer 



1128 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



ried and has two children, owns and o]>erates 
a farm of 200 acres adjoining his father's 
place; and Terr)' is now deceased. 

For his second wife Mr. Stouffer married 
^liss Lillie Taylor, and she passed away five 
years ago, leaving five children: flattie. 
Gladys, Daniel, Mabel, and Frances, all of 
whom are at home except Daniel, who is in 
the national army at the time of this writing. 

Mr. Stouffer is a member of the Merna camp 
of the ^lodern Woodmen of America, and in 
politics is independent. He is one of the pro- 
gressive, up-to-date farmers of Custer county 
and is widely and favorably known. 

EDQAR E. THOMPSON, who owns and 
resides upon a well improved farm and cattle 
ranch in the vicinity of Broken Bow, is one 
of the substantial exponents of farm industr>' 
in the county and is a sterling citizen who is 
entitled to recognition in this histor)-. 

Mr. Thompson was born in Scioto county, 
Ohio, and in 1918 he celebrated the forty-fifth 
anniversary of his birth. He is a son of Silas 
and Hannah (Gahine) Thompson, both like- 
wise natives of the old Buckeye state. The 
mother passed away at the age of forty-two 
years and the father subsequently married 
Ellen Humphrey, he having continued his 
residence in Ohio until his death, at the age of 
seventy-seven years. Silas Thompson be- 
came the father of twelve children. Of the 
sons of the first marriage it may be noted 
that John is a resident of Rock county. Ne- 
braska ; Oscar is individually mentioned on 
other pages of this work ; and David and 
Edgar E. are both residents of Custer county, 
where they are identified with farm enter- 
prise, the latter being the immediate subject 
of this review. The three sun-iving daugh- 
ters of the first marriage of Silas Thompson 
are Airs. Belle Schriver, a resident of Ken- 
tucky; Mrs. .Anna Benedict, of Urbana, Ohio; 
and Mrs. Lou Houston, of Geneva, Nebraska. 
Elbert and .Aubrey are sons of the second 
marriage and both are residents of Custer 
county. Mrs. Cora Hickman, of Custer 
county, and Mrs. Maude Bass, of Omaha, are 
daughters of the second marriage. 

Edgar E. Thompson was reared and edu- 
cated in Ohio and in the earlier period of his 
residence in Custer county he was employed 
for ten years on the Parmelee ranch. There- 
after he was similarly employed on the Tier- 
ney ranch, for seven years. Thus he was 
given the best of advantages for gaining ex- 
perience and becoming an adept in the hand- 
ling and feeding of live stock. He is now 
the owner of 320 acres of land, of which 240 



are available for cultivation and devoted to 
this purpose. He conducts a general agricul- 
tural and stock-raising business, and has good 
types of cattle, hogs and horses. He has re- 
sided on his preent homestead since 1915 and 
is gradually adding to the excellent improve- 
ments of permanent order. He has provided 
the requisite farm machinery' and other ac- 
cessories for the facilitating of operations, and 
his energ)' and progressive policies assure him 
cumulative success in his well ordered enter- 
prise. His herd of cattle at the time of this 
writing numbers about 150 head. 

The year 1898 recorded the marriage of 
Mr. Thompson to Mina Higgins, who was 
born in Iowa and who has proved a true com- 
panion and helpmeet to her husband. She 
has aided greatly in furthering his success and 
has made the pleasant home one of attractive- 
ness and gracious hospitality. Mr. and Mrs. 
Thompson have two children — Charles, who 
is nineteen years of age (1918) and who gives 
valuable aid to his father in connection with 
the operations of the home farm ; and Louisa, 
who is seven years old and is a medium for 
the dissemination of light and happiness jn 
the parental home. 

JOSEPH S. WHITE. — A fine strain of 
Hoosier blood was infused into Custer county 
in the early pioneer days, and the county has 
had from this source much to gain and nothing 
to lose. The stalwart sons and gracious daugh- 
ters of Indiana are numbered among the best 
of Custer county pioneers. 

Joseph S. White, to whom this sketch is 
dedicated, takes due satisfaction in reverting 
to the Hoosier commonwealth as the place of 
his nativity. He was born in Daviess county, 
Indiana, on the 3d of August, 1851, and is a 
son of Closes B. and Lucinda (]\IcReynolds) 
White, of whose nine children seven are living, 
Joseph S., of this review being the eldest of 
the number ; Mrs. Rebecca J. Smith resides in 
Douglas county, Missouri; Nancy S. likewise 
lives in that county ; Anne maintains her home 
at St. Joseph, Missouri ; Ellen is a resident of 
the state of Washington ; George resides in 
the city of St. Joseph, ^Missouri ; and James 
G. lives with his brother Joseph S., of this 
sketch. 

Moses B. White, in company with his fam- 
ily and other relatives, immigrated to the 
west in the autumn of 1856, some of the num- 
ber establishing residence in Missouri and 
others in Iowa. Moses B. White located in 
Clarke county, Iowa, where he gained his full, 
share of experience as a pioneer settler of the 
Hawkeve state and where he continued his 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1129 




Mr. and Mrs. Joseph S. White 



1130 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBR.\SKA 



residence until his removal to Andrew county, 
Missouri. 

Joseph S. \\'hite was five years of age at 
the time of the family immigration to Iowa, 
and his early educational advantages, meager 
in scope, were those afforded during the ten 
years of the family's residence in Clarke coun- 
ty, Iowa. In April, 1889, Joseph S. White and 
his brother, James G., immigrated from An- 
drew county, Missouri, to Nebraska, and set- 
tled in Custer county. The subject of this 
review experienced many hardships and trials 
incidental to pioneer life in Custer county, and 
privations and isolation were bravely borne. 
Mr. White has stated that coyotes, jack-rab- 
bits, and fleas seemed omnipresent, and that 
the maximum discomforts to settlers were en- 
tailed by the invasions of the fleas, which are 
now. fortunately, a thing of the past, while 
coyotes and jack-rabbits have been practically 
subdued. The sod shanties that dotted the 
pioneer plains have nearly all disappeared, 
though occasionally one is encountered, as a 
reminder of the early days. The prairie fires 
that used to sweep the country at inters^als, 
adding materially to the troubles of the set- 
tlers, are now very infrequent. Thus Mr. White 
has satisfaction in knowing that he has been 
not only a witness of but also a participant 
in the march of development and progress in 
Custer county. He arrived in the county on 
the 20th of April, 1889. and forthwith entered 
claim to a homestead, about eighteen miles 
southeast of Broken Bow, in section 14, town- 
ship 14, where he essayed the task of reclaim- 
ing a productive farm and developing a home 
worthy of the name. 

Like most of the Custer county pioneers 
of the '80s. Mr. White had but little of this 
world's goods, and his original habitation in 
the county was a primitive dugout. When 
from this he was enabled to remove to a sod 
house, the latter seemed almost a mansion, 
in comparison with the bank dugout. The 
passing years have not denied to him a gener- 
ous measure of success and prosperity, as is 
attested by the fact that to-day he is the 
owner of 360 acres of land, the same being 
well improved and effectively given over to 
diversified agriculture and stock-raising. His 
old homestead is still his place of residence 
and he is living in comfortable circumstances, 
the while he enjoys the unqualified respect 
and esteem of the community in which he has 
lived and labored to goodly ends. His wife 
died in Missouri, in 1887, and his children 
were thus denied a mother's care, though he 
established a comfortable pioneer home after 
coming to Custer county. He encountered his 



full share of the vicissitudes and hardships 
that marked the earlier period of settlement 
in the county, and he merits enduring honor 
for the contribution which he has made to 
civic and industrial progress in this now fa- 
vored section of Nebraska. In the retrospec- 
tion that brings to him memories of the pioneer 
epoch, he can but feel that his efforts have 
been rewarded and that now his "lines are 
cast in pleasant places." He is an earnest 
member of the Church of God and is loyally 
interested in all things pertaining to the com- 
munal welfare. 

In the year 1880 was solemnized the mar- 
riage of I\Ir. White to Miss Louella Courter, 
whose death occurred in Missouri, in 1887, 
as previously noted in this context, and the 
two surviving children of this union are Mary 
Elizabeth and Birdie L. 



WEST WHITNEY. — With Mason City 
as his postoflice address, Mr. Whitney owns 
a well improved farm and is proving dis- 
tinctly progressive and successful in his 
operations as one of the representative agri- 
culturists and stock-growers of this part of 
the county. 

Mr. Whitney was born in Johnson county, 
Nebraska, in the year 1879 and is a son of 
Delbert and Lucy Whitney. He has three 
sisters, concerning whom the following brief 
record may consistently be offered : Lou is 
the wife of John Clinton, a farmer in Colo- 
rado; May is the wife of Ed. Peterson, who 
is employed in one of the large packing houses 
in the city of Omaha ; and Mattie is the wife 
of Roy Morgan, a prosperous farmer in 
Custer county. 

Mr. Whitney is indebted to the public 
schools of Nebraska for his early educational 
discipline and has been associated with farm 
enterprise from his youth to the present time. 
In 1902 he wedded Miss Addie Nelson, who 
was born in Indiana, and thereafter he was 
engaged in farming on rented land until 1908. 
when he came to Custer county and purchased 
land which he has developed into one of the 
valuable and productive fanns of the county, 
the place being devoted to diversified agricul- 
ture and to the raising of excellent types of 
live stock, including Shorthorn cattle and 
Poland-China hogs, besides which Mr. 
Whitney is the owner of a fine Shire stallion 
and has given special attention to breeding of 
horses of this type. In politics he is an in- 
dependent voter and he attends and supports 
the Christian church, of which his wife is a 
member. He is one of the alert and progres- 
sive exponents of farm enterprise in Custer 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1131 



county, is always ready to do his part in the 
support of measures and enterprises advanced 
for the general good of the community and 
is well entitled to recognition in this histor}-. 



GEORGE F. DEWEY. — It is a substantial 
farmer that answers to the celebrated cogno- 
men in this caption line. He is a man of 
sterling qualities, is a successful farmer and 
stockman and is one of the leading spirits in 
the community where he resides. 

George F. Dewey was born in the state of 
Iowa, in 1868. He is a son of Samuel and 
Amelia (Young) Dewey, very excellent peo- 
ple. The father was a native of Indiana, the 
mother was an English lady. Both have passed 
to their reward, at the ages of sixty-four and 
fifty years respectively. In their family were 
seven children : Mary Peck lives at Cedar 
Bluffs, Nebraska ; James H. lives on a farm in 
Custer count}' ; Louise lives in Lincoln ; Laura 
Charling lives at Ithaca, Saunders cotmty : 
]\Iyrtle is in Nevada ; Ellen Lemar is the wife 
of a physician living in Osceola, Nebraska, and 
the third born in this family was George F., 
of whom we are writing. The father came to 
Nebraska in 1880 and established his first 
home in Saunders county. From there he 
moved to Lancaster county, then to Wahoo 
and from there came to Custer county after 
retiring. He was always rated as a very suc- 
cessful man and was known as a breeder of 
pure-blood Poland-China hogs. He bought 
land here and he died in 1905. 

George F. Dewey grew up on a fann, re- 
ceived a liberal education in the public schools, 
and twenty-two years ago, in 1897, he led to 
the marriage altar Miss Bertha Bristol, who 
was born in Iowa, in 1878, the daughter of 
very estimable parents and herself a lady of 
high standing and fine character. They have 
established a home and maintain it with all 
the comforts and advantages of modern life. 
They have two children : Laura is the wife 
of Edward Lee, of Custer county, and Frank 
is pursuing his studies in the Ansley school. 
]\Ir. and Mrs. Dewey bought the land that now 
constitutes their home and for a time they 
lived in a sod house. The degree of success 
attained by j\Ir. Dewey is well marked by the 
statement that he owns 720 acres, on which 
are good improvements and stock of hieh 
grade. Some of the cattle are registered. He 
has hogs of the Duroc-Jersey strain and the 
horses are patterned after fashionable Perch- 
eron models. Cattle raising is the most promi- 
nent feature of his operations. Everj'thing 
around him on the farm is the result of his 
own labor and frugality, in all of which, how- 



ever, he had valuable assistance on the part of 
his wife, who graciously presides over his 
household. The farm home is ornamented 
with fruit trees and everywhere a homelike 
appearance is presented. 

In social affairs the Deweys are prominent 
and helpful promoters. They belong to the 
Grange, Royal Highlanders, and Modern 
Woodmen, and they give preference to the 
Grange. Independent in politics, Mr. Dewey 
claims no allegiance to any political party. 
This is a well known and respected family 
whose members are honored by all their 
friends and acquaintances. 



JOHN W. CHERRY has secure place as 
one of the representative agriculturists and 
stock-growers of the younger generation in 
Custer county, is a member of a well known 
and highly esteemed family of this cotmty 
and takes justifiable pride in claiming Ne- 
braska as the place of his nativity. Mr. 
Cherry is now the owner of a half-section of 
excellent land, well improved and equipped 
with modern machinery and other accessories 
essential to progressive farm enterprise, his 
home being in the vicinity of Cumro, which 
is his postoffice address. Concerning the 
family adequate mention is made on other 
pages of this work, in the sketch of the career 
of Joseph H. Cherry, father of him whose 
name introduces this paragraph. 

John W. Cherry was born in Box Butte 
county, Nebraska, in the year 1889, and has 
been a resident of Custer county since early 
childhood, his parents having here established 
their home in 1891. Here he was reared and 
educated and here he has found splendid op- 
portunity for successful achievement in con- 
nection with farm enterprise, his landed prop- 
erty being given over to diversified agriculture 
and the raising of good types of live stock. 

Loyal as a citizen and duly interested in 
community affairs, Mr. Cherry- is independent 
in politics and supports the men and measures 
meeting the approval of his judgment. He 
holds membership in the Presbyterian church 
and his wife is a member of the Baptist 
church. 

The maiden name of Mr. Cherry's wife was 
Lucy Mason, and she is a daughter of Isaac 
and Mary Mason. Mr. and Mrs. Cherry have 
one child, Sylvia, who is six years of age at 
the time of this writing, in the spring of 1919. 



JOHN FORTIK. — Bohemian blood and 
muscle, combined with Custer county soil and 
opportunity, make a combination hard to 



1132 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




s 
g 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1133 



beat — a combination that is renowned for 
frugality and thrift. John Fortik is the com- 
bination and his farm home as presented to- 
day is the result of his toil and enterprise. 

John Fortik was born forty-nine years ago, 
in Bohemia, a province that has given to 
America many men wlio have made a success 
in all the high calhngs of life. He came to the 
United States when but ten years of age, and 
made Saline county, this state, his first home. 
There he stayed six years, and he then went to 
Buffalo county, where he spent one year. From 
there it was an easy journey into Custer 
county, where he homesteaded upon reaching 
his majority. He proved up on the homestead, 
and it is to-day his home. He has added to 
it, however, until he is the owner of a half- 
section of good land. 

During his early life Mr. Fortik received 
common-school education, applied himself dili- 
gently, saved his money, and consequently has 
been able to make the commendable showing 
that is here described. The improvements on 
his place are good. He has fine horses of the 
draft-stock pattern, and owns his land in fee 
simple, without mortgage or debt. 

In speaking of the early days, Mr. Fortik 
says he worked out until he was twenty-three 
years of age, and that he had but very little 
when he reached Custer county. What he has 
to-day has been the result of farming opera- 
tions. He remembers that on one occasion, 
when hard pressed for money, he tried to bor- 
row twenty dollars, but, failing to secure it, 
he has never tried to borrow a cent since that 
time. 

He belongs to the Catholic church, is inde- 
pendent in politics, trailing in the wake of no 
political party, and prefermg to select his own 
candidates and vote for qualifications as men 
represent them, regardless of political brands. 

MRS. SUE E. STUPPLEBEEN. — In the 
year 1884 there journeyed to Custer county 
from Kansas a young married couple who were 
to become well known to the early residents 
of the Callaway vicinity — Martin H. Stupple- 
been and his wife, the maiden name of the latter 
having been Sue E. Parry. For years there- 
after they occupied what was known as the 
"Half-Way House," twelve miles north of 
Callaway, and the hospitality which they ex- 
tended to friends and strangers, settlers and 
travelers, is still well remembered with grati- 
tude. Martin H. Stupplebeen departed this 
life January 14, 1916, and his widow is still 
the owner of the old homestead, although she 
now makes her home at Callaway, where she 
has a wide circle of friends. 



Sue E. Parry was born March 22, 1860, in 
Richland county, Ohio, a daughter of Lewellyn 
H. and Mary E. (Schrack) Parry, natives of 
the same county, highly respected and honored 
farming people, and devout members of the 
Baptist church. Mr. and Mrs. Parry became 
the parents of nine children, of whom seven 
are living: Lilly F. is the wife of James D. 
Barrett, a farmer of Perry, Oklahoma; Sue 
E. is the immediate subject of this review ; 
Howard V., who is a stock salesman of Fair- 
view, Oklahoma, married Sadie Colwell ; 
George F., who is a ranchman and stock farm- 
er of Vici. Oklahoma, married Ella McCollum ; 
Charles E. is a bachelor and is a farmer at 
Cestos, Oklahoma; Mary A. is the wife of 
Frank Phillips, a farmer of Coyle, Oklahoma; 
and Eew T., who is a farmer of Cestos, Ok- 
lahoma, married Frances Langley. The men 
in this family are, without exception, Demo- 
crats. 

When Sue E. Parry was three years of age 
her parents removed to near Fort Dodge, 
Iowa, and at Frankfort, Kansas, on August 
4, 1884, was solemnized her marriage to Martin 
H. Stupplebeen, a son of Martin and Gertrude 
(Holsapple) Stupplebeen. Shortly after their 
marriage Mr. and Mrs. Stupplebeen came to 
Custer county and located twelve miles north- 
west of Callaway, at wliat was known as the 
"Half- Way House," this title having been ap- 
plied because of the fact that the house was 
about half way between Callaway and Arnold. 
At that time, and for several years thereafter, 
settlement was slow and neighbors were few 
and far apart. On the opposite side of the 
Loup river lived Mrs. Frank Brega, and ^Irs. 
Brega and Mrs. Stupplebeen became fast 
friends who would regularly meet and visit 
across the river. On all too many occasions 
it was necessary to cut these meetings short, 
because of the activity of the insects, which in 
those days were omnipresent in this region. 
I\Iany of the pioneers traveling up and down 
the Loup river in early times have reason to 
remember with gratitude the whole-souled hos- 
pitality with which they were greeted and en- 
tertained by Mr. and Mrs. Stupplelx?en, whose 
latch-string was always out. IMr. Stupplebeen 
was a hard and energetic worker. Through 
industry and good management and the assist- 
ance of his capable wife he succeeded in the 
development of a valuable and well improved 
farm, on which he continued operations until 
his death, January 14. 1916. He was accounted 
one of the reliable citizens of his community, 
and was a man who commanded respect by 
reason of his strict integrity and personal pro- 
bity. He was a Democrat in politics, but public 



1134 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COLXTY. NEBRASKA 



^ 



life did not appeal to him. Following the de- 
mise of her husband, Mrs. Stupplebeen moved 
to Callaway, and here she resides in a comfort- 
able, modern home, and is surrounded by many 
loyal friends. 

Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. 
Stupplebeen: Jennie E. is the wife of Clyde 
Wail, a farmer of Wallace, Nebraska, and they 
have two children : Raymond H., who is en- 
gaged in farming on Cliff Table, twelve miles 
northeast of Arnold, married Hazel Wardrobe, 
daughter of William Wardrobe, and they have 
one son ; Elva F. is the wife of James C. 
Crowder, a farmer of Eight Point, Montana, 
and they have one daughter and one son ; and 
Miss Stella M. remains with her mother, at 
Callaway. 

JOHN J. KULHANEK, who is a prosper- 
ous general fanner residing near Ansley, Cus- 
ter county, was born in 1864, in Austria. He 
carries on a general line of farming and also 
pays attention to stock-raising, keeping a good 
grade only. His property is well improved 
and evidences of thrift and good management 
may be observed on every side. 

j\Ir. Kulhanek has a fine family. He mar- 
ried ]\Iiss Enkellia Matejka. who was born in 
Saunders county, Nebraska, in 1874. Her 
parents were John and Anna (Bartosch) Ma- 
tejka. both of whom were born in Austria: 
they came to the United States and spent all 
their after life on their fann in Saunders 
county, Nebraska, where both died, the father 
when aged sixty-five years. Mr. and Mrs. 
Kulhanek have four children, namely : Ru- 
dolph, who is a farmer on Deer creek : Adolph, 
who is also a farmer : Anna, who lives with 
her parents ; and .\lvin, who is a farmer on 
Deer creek. The family belongs to the Roman 
Catholic church. Mr. Kulhanek is an Ameri- 
can citizen and he gives his political support 
to the Republican party. The family is well 
known in the county and is held in deserved 
esteem. 



GEORGE W. ANKNEY, a resi<lcnt of 
Custer county since 1882, has been varioush' 
identified with the interests of this region 
since the time of his arrival, and, principally 
as an agriculturist, has accumulated a com- 
petence that permits him to pass the evening 
of life in comfortable circumstances, at his 
pleasant home at Sargent. He is a native of 
Coshocton. Ohio, and was born September 10. 
18.^0. being a son of Joseph and Abbie 
(Brown) Ankney. 

Joseph Ankney was born in Pennsylvania, 



but in young manhood pushed toward the 
west, locating first in Ohio, where he met and 
married Miss Abbie Brown, a native of that 
state, and where he was engaged in farming, 
in Coshocton county, until 1851. In that year 
he removed to Jones county-, Iowa, which was 
his home for many years, and thence he went 
to Mitchell county, Kansas, which was his 
place of residence for five years. In 1888 he 
came to Nebraska, and from that time until 
his death, at the age of eighty-two years, he 
made his home among his children. He was 
an industrious man, always alive to opportu- 
nity and able to make the most of his chances. 
He succeeded as an agriculturist, and as a pub- 
lic-spirited and useful citizen of the various 
communities in which he resided, he was al- 
ways held in high esteem by his associates. He 
was a staunch and unwavering Democrat in 
politics, and he and Mrs. .\nkney were faithful 
members of the ]\Iethodi&t Episcopal church. 
They were the parents of ten children, of 
whom three survive : Joseph, who married Su- 
san \'ananberg, is a retired farmer of Scotts- 
bluff, Nebraska; George W. is the subject of 
this sketch; and Edward, who married Eliza 
Pierce, is a retired farmer of Grand Island, 
Nebraska. 

The common schools of Jones county, Iowa, 
furnished George W. Ankney with his educa- 
tional training, and his boyhood was passed 
on his father's farm, where, under the elder 
man's direction, he was taught all the arts and 
methods pertaining to the vocation of agri- 
culture. At Taylor, Nebraska, he was united 
in marriage, July 5, 1886. to Mrs. Harriet 
(Northey) Cummings, widow of James Cum- 
mings and daughter of Robert and Ruth 
(Hall) Northey, natives of Vermont. Mrs. 
Ankney's parents were farming people who 
came to Nebraska in 1879 and took up a home- 
stead at Cummings Park, at a time when there 
were but five families in the vicinity, the near- 
est postoffice being at Loup City, about forty- 
five miles away. There Miss Northey met 
and married James Cummings, a well-to-do 
young farmer, and he met his death by a fall 
mt9 a well, this being the only well for miles 
aroimd. 

Mr. Ankney had come to Custer county in 
1882 and settled at Cummings Park, where he 
took up a homestead and where he resided 
until 1893. At that time, because of failing 
health, he moved to Burwell, which continued 
to be his home for thirteen years, removal 
being made to Sargent in 1906. He is ac- 
counted one of the well-to-do and substantial 
men of his locality, a reliable, dependable citizen 
who always supports beneficial movements with 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1135 




Mr. and Mrs. George VV. Anknev 



1136 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1137 



his influence, means, and energies. He has not 
cared for public life and is not actively con- 
cerned in politics. While still a resident of 
Vermont, Mrs. Ankney adopted a child of 
three years. Idella Cummings, whom she reared 
to young womanhood. This foster daughter 
then married and moved to Maine. Mr. and 
Mrs. Ankney adopted a nephew, James Ank- 
ney, who was five years old, and reared him 
until he was sixteen, when he left their home 
to work for himself: at the time of this writ- 
ing James Ankney is a member of the national 
army and is stationed in New Alexico. 



CHARLES FORTIK, who is a prominent 
man in his township in Custer county, carries 
on general farming and is meeting with the 
success that his industry and excellent methods 
deserve. He is a native of Nebraska, bom in 
Buffalo county, in 1886. His parents were 
Joseph and Anna (Kine) Fortik, both of 
whom were born in Austria. When they came 
to America and settled in Nebraska, the father 
here homesteaded and became the owner of a 
quarter section. During his lifetime he made 
many improvements. Both he and wife died 
on their farm in Custer county. They were 
members of the Roman Catholic church. 

Charles Fortik accompanied his parents 
when they moved from Buft'alo county to Cus- 
ter county. Farming has been his business all 
his life and he is now very successfully oper- 
ating 2-K) acres, eighty acres being his own 
property, on which he has placed substantial 
improvements. He gives some attention to 
stock-raising. He cultivates his land according 
to modem methods and owns first-class farm 
machinen,'. 

In 1916 ^Ir. Fortik was united in marriage 
to Miss Lila Holland, who was born in 1898, 
near Wiessert, Custer county, and is a daugh- 
ter of John and Kate ("Spencer) Holland, who 
are farming people living near Ansley, Ne- 
braska. Mr. Fortik belongs to the order of 
Modern Woodmen, and that he is a man of 
foresight and prudence is shown in the fact 
that he carries an accident-insurance policy. 
He is a Democrat and takes considerable in- 
terest in politics. He has served ver\- ac- 
ceptably in the office of road overseer. 

ALBERT Y. SUTTON. — After a long 
life of industry and usefulness, the worthy 
citizen of Broken Bow whose name constitutes 
the caption of this sketch is now spending his 
declining years in comfortable and contented 
retirement. Mr. Sutton was born in Peoria 
count)', Illinois, June 17, 1841, and has been 



a resident of Custer county for twenty-eight 
years, during which time he has been success- 
ful in the accumulation of considerable farm- 
ing and realty holdings. 

William Sutton, the father of Albert Y. 
Sutton, was born at Parsonsfield, York county, 
Maine, where he passed his early life in agri- 
cultural pursuits, removing from there to Pe- 
oria county, Illinois, where he married and 
reared his children, later moving to Hooper, 
Dodge county, Nebraska, where he died and 
was buried, as was also his wife, Mary J. 
He was a member of the Republican party and 
belonged to the Baptist church, as did also 
Mrs. Sutton, who bore the maiden name of 
Mary Young and who was the daughter of 
Levi Young, They were the parents of five 
children, of whom three are living: Albert Y. 
is the subject of this sketch ; William, who is 
a mechanic and school-teacher in Arkansas, a 
Republican and a member of the Baptist 
church, married Eva Hickok, daughter of Will- 
iam H. Hickok ; and Fannie E. is the wife of 
Joseph Wrigley, a retired farmer at Peoria, 
Illinois, a veteran of the Civil war, member 
of the Methodist Episcopal church, and a 
Republican. 

Albert Y. Sutton well remembers the first 
dollar which he ever eamed and the circum- 
stances of securing it. It was a gold piece and 
was earned when he took the place of a sick 
uncle in work on the farm, and its reception 
gave more pleasure to him than any he has 
earned since. This gold piece he gave to the 
foreign mission. He went to the country 
schools and assisted his father on the farm, 
and in 1861 commenced a college course at 
Shurtleff College, Upper Alton, Illinois, which 
old and honored institution he attended one 
and one-half years. His career, however, like 
those of other youths of his day, was inter- 
rupted by the Civil war, and in October, 1862, 
he laid aside his books and studies to don his 
country's uniform, shoulder a rifle, and become 
a member of Company E, Seventj'-seventh 
Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry. With 
that organization he served until the close of 
the war, and during his service he participated 
in some heavy fighting, including Vicksburg, 
the Red River expedition under General 
Banks, Mobile, Spanish Fort, and Fort Blake- 
lev. \\'hen peace was declared, he was honor- 
ably discharged, with a splendid record, and 
returned to his home, where for about a year 
he operated a farm. 

August 26, 1866, in Peoria county. Illinois, 
Mr. Sutton married ^liss Abbie Donnell, a 
daughter of Captain Thomas and Ruth 
(Curtis) Donnell, natives of Plymouth county. 



1138 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, XEBR.\SKA 



Massachusetts, her father having been a sea 
captain, and both he and his wife having been 
members of the Episcopal church. Miss Don- 
nell came from Massachusetts to IlHnois to 
teach school, and she taught about two years 
before her marriage to Mr. Sutton, the young 
soldier. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. 
Sutton settled down for a short time to agri- 
cultural pursuits, but in 1867 they came to 
Dodge county, Nebraska, where he followed 
farming and the real-estate business until 1890. 
Then he came to Broken Bow, where he has 
since been splendidly successful in accumulat- 
ing holdings in farming property and other 
real estate. He is accounted one of the well- 
to-do men of his community, and is living in 
quiet retirement, surrounded by all the com- 
forts of life. 

Of the five children born to Mr. and Mrs. 
Sutton there are two living: Jennie E. and 
Herbert O. Jennie E. married Hon. J. R. 
Dean, on the of the foremost lawyers of the 
state and now a judge of the Nebraska supreme 
court, with residence at Lincoln. Judge and 
Mrs. Dean are members of the Presb\-terian 
church, he is a Democrat in politics and fra- 
ternally he is affiliated with the Masons, Odd 
Fellows, and Workmen. A biography of Judge 
Dean will be found elsewhere in this work. 
He and Mrs. Dean have two children: Paul 
H. and Dorothy S. Herbert O. Sutton is a 
graduate of the Nebraska State University 
and has always been in educational work, hav- 
ing charge at present of the physical-science 
department at the State Normal School at 
Kearney. He is a Republican in politics, and 
he and his wife hold membership in the Pres- 
byterian church. Mr. Sutton wedded Miss 
Harriet Tripp and they have an adopted child, 
Evan M. 



REINHART WANKE. — The modest op- 
erations of Reinhart Wanke are so common 
to Custer county that they attract small atten- 
tion from those who do not know him inti- 
mately. The neighbors, however, appreciate 
the work of this frugal, industrious pioneer 
who has lived quietly, who has reared his chil- 
dren to manhood and womanhood, and who 
well deserves a place in the Custer roll of 
honor on which are inscribed the names of 
the successful farmers and responsible citizens. 

Reinhart ^\'anke was born in Germany, in 
1847. and comes of a strong German family 
noted for frugality and thrift. The father's name 
was Reinhart and the family name of the 
mother was Ludmille. Years ago the parents 
moved to the United States and settled in 



Platte county, Nebraska, where they spent the 
remainder of their lives. 

Reinhart \\'anke, Jr., came to Nebraska ia 
1878, and is accordingly a pioneer of forty 
years standing. The first eight years of his 
Hfe in Nebraska were spent in Butler count)'. 
Thirty-two years ago last March (1918) he 
moved to Custer county and selected a home- 
stead, and since that time he has been identi- 
fied with agricultural pursuits and the general 
development of the country. 

Mrs. Wanke was formerly Miss Mary 
Turck, a native of Austria, where her parents 
lived and died. Mr. and Mrs. Reinhart be- 
came the parents of six children : Reinhart 
lives in California; Mary lives in Nevada; 
Englebert lives in Idaho : Ernest lives in Ne- 
vada ; Robert died in 1887 : Ernestice died two 
years ago, she having been the wife of Will- 
iam Binder. 

The Wanke farm residence, which contains 
the well deserved home comforts, is located 
on a splendid quarter-section of land, well im- 
proved, and rendered unusually profitable by 
good cultivation. All to be seen on the prem- 
ises, which represents the life accumulations 
of Mr. Wanke, is the result of his own toil 
and industry'. Mr. and Mrs. Wanke are well 
respected and locally prominent. They are 
faithful members of the Catholic church and 
in their advanced years are provided with 
home comforts, while they are happy in the 
realization that their children are representa- 
tive men and women of whom they Jiave 
reason to be proud. 

JOSEPH C. HEAIPSTEAD is one of the 
venerable and honored citizens of Broken Bow, 
has been a resident of Custer county since 
1902, and during the greater part of the inter- 
vening years he has here lived virtually re- 
tired from active business affairs. He is a 
scion of a prominent and influential family 
that was founded in Missouri in the very early 
period of the history of that commonwealth, 
and the name which he bears has been identi- 
fied with American annals since the colonial 
era. 

Joseph Conway Hempstead was born in St. 
Louis county. Missouri, on the 14th of March, 
1848, and is a son of John and Lucinda (Con- 
way) Hempstead, the former of whom was 
born in the vicinity of Hartford. Connecticut, 
and the latter of whom was born in St Louis 
county, Missouri, where her parents were 
pioneer settlers — at a time when that section 
of the Union was on the very frontier of civi- 
lization. John Hempstead was reared and 
educated in New England and in his youth he 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1143 



named Childs, a family that was distinguished 
in militarj' life. Mr. Newman's great-grand- 
father Childs fought as a soldier in the Revo- 
lutionary war; his grandfather, Charles 
Childs, took part in the War of 1812, while 
three uncles of his mother, Samuel, Nelson, 
and Seth Childs, were Union soldiers during 
the Civil war. The mother of Mr. Newman 
was bom in New York, July 16, 1826, and 
died February 14, 1890. Mr. Newman had 
one full sister, Clarissa, who died at the age 
of nine years. His father, Darius Newman, 
was born near Geneva, New York, and was 
reared on a farm. After marriage he came to 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1848, and settled in 
Brown county in 1849, buying a half-section 
of land from the Fox Improvement Company. 
In May, 1855, he left his family to go on a 
prospecting tour to Minnesota. The country 
was practically a wilderness at that time and 
the fate of Mr. Newman can only be conjec- 
tured, as he was never afterward heard from. 
He had been a man of some importance and 
was very active in the Whig party. Through 
the mother's second marriage, Mr. Newman 
had one half-sister and two half-brothers, 
namely : Bessie, who died at Menasha, Wis- 
consin : Charles Gear, who is a fanner on the 
old homestead in Brown county ; and William, 
who operates a milk route at Menasha. The 
mother was a member of the Methodist Epis- 
copal church. 

In March, 1879, Henry C. Newman came to 
Nebraska and filed on a claim on Elk creek, 
South Loup township, Custer county, and also 
proved up on a tree claim. From 1880 until 
1884 he had charge of F. C. Dodge's cattle in- 
terests on Elk creek, then carried on farming 
on his own claim until 1888, when he sold his 
land and moved to within six miles of Mason 
City, where he bought a half-section, subse- 
quently expended much money in improving 
it and still owns the property. After retiring 
from the active work of the farm he moved 
into Mason City and for two years afterward 
managed the Farmers Co-operative store 
there. 

Mr. Newman was united in marriage to 
Barbara Illingworth, who was born in 1856, 
near Liverpool, England. Her parents were 
Rhodes and Ann (Minikin) Illingworth, the 
former of whom was born in England in 1826 
and died in Kansas, in July, 1884. The latter 
was bom in England, February' 4. 1830, and 
died in May, 1903. The father of Mrs. New- 
man was a carpenter by trade. In 1870 he 
came to the United States with his family, 
and after working at his trade for a time in 
the city of Chicago, he went to Wisconsin and 
from there to Kansas. Both he and wife 



were members of the Episcopal church. Mrs. 
Newman was the third born of their children, 
the others being as follows : Polly, who is 
the wife of Stephen Evans, a gardner at Los 
Angeles, California; Benjamin, who lives at 
Chicago, follows his father's trade; and Ada, 
who is the wife of Herman Riese, a Canadian 
farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Newman have had 
children as follows : Rhodes Ollie, who was 
born in 1888, is a farmer in Custer county; 
John Darius, who was born September 14, 
1889, entered military service in in the United 
States May 29, 1918, had training at Camp 
Dodge and Fort Snelling, then detailed to 
duty at Cicero, Illinois, contracted the influ- 
enza and died October 21, 1918, a brave sold- 
ier, just the same as if on the field of battle; 
Hugh Charles, who was born June 6, 1891, is 
fanning the home place ; Ada Ann, who was 
born August 4, 1892, spent three years in the 
Wesleyan University at Lincoln, taught school 
four years and is now a trained nurse in the 
Ford Hospital at Ohaha ; and Sybil Catherine, 
who was bom Febmary 10, 1893, died Decem- 
ber 8, 1894. In 1891 Mr. and Mrs. Newman 
united with the Evangelical church but trans- 
ferred to the Methodist Episcopal cliurch. as 
more in accord with their religious belief and 
practice, when they moved to Mason City, 
and are active in its many avenues of Chris- 
tian benevolence. Politically Mr. Newman is 
a Republican, with independent tendencies. 
He takes no very active part in political af- 
fairs at present, but during his many years 
on the farm was foremost in public move- 
ments and served in numerous official capaci- 
ties. From 1887 until 1888 he was a member 
of the county board of supervisors ; from 1885 
to 1886 was township supervisor; for thir- 
teen years was school director of School Dis- 
trict 19, and of District 146 for nine consecu- 
tive years. He is a member of the fraternal 
order of Modern Woodmen. Perhaps in no 
section of Custer county is his name unknown 
and it is always mentioned wth respect. 

JOB P. WARD, who came to Custer county 
in 1882 and has since been successfully advanc- 
ing his interests and position as a farmer and 
grower of live stock, is a Pennsylvanian by 
birth, but to all intents and purposes is a son 
of the sturdy west. While the state of his 
nativity could ofifer hini nothing that ]>romised 
success, he has found in Nebraska the oppor- 
tunity to work out a satisfying career of 
achievement, and to-day he is accounted a 
leading and substantial citizen, thoroughly rep- 
resentative of the community of his adoption. 

Mr. \\'ard was born in Pennsylvania, March 



1144 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1145 



6, 1854, a son of George Samuel Ward and 
Hannah (Spendlove) Ward, natives of Eng- 
land. Hannah Spendlove Ward and the late 
President William McKinley were first cousins. 
George Samuel Ward, who was a maker of 
tortoise-shell combs in England, came to the 
United States in the '40s and here he settled 
on a farm, agricultural pursuits being his vo- 
cation up to the time of his death, in 1878. 
Mrs. Ward survived him until 1903, and both 
died in the faith of the Wesleyan Methodist 
church. He was a Republican in politics and 
was accounted one of the well-to-do men of 
his locality. Of the elev3n children in the 
family. Job P. is the only survivor. 

After attending the common schools of his 
native state. Job P. Ward learned the trade 
of blacksmith, a vocation which he followed 
for several years, also doing some farming. 
At the time of his father's death, in 1878, he 
came to Nebraska, first settling in Polk county, 
where he resided one year. In 1879 he re- 
moved to Buffalo county, where he resided in 
a sod house while trj'ing his hand at farming, 
but in 1882 he disposed of his interests there 
and came to Custer count3% where he secured 
a homestead and a tree claim. He still owns 
his homestead, and is now residing on the 
tree claim, to which he has added by purchase 
until he is the owner of a section of land. Dur- 
ing the early days Mr. Ward experienced all 
the hardships of the pioneer settler, -and at 
times found it hard to make both ends meet. 
He was frequently compelled to turn his hand 
to other employments in order that he and 
his family might secure the bare necessities 
of life, and during early times often hauled 
wood to Kearney, where he accepted whatever 
small amounts he could secure for it. In his 
wife he had a faithful companion during these 
hard times and sod-house days, their marriage 
having been solemnized in 1878. Mrs. Ward, 
whose maiden name was Sarah Jones, was like- 
wise born in Pennsylvania. They became the 
parents of eight children : Loretta is the wife 
of Mahlon Kelley and they reside at Bel- 
lingham, Washington ; Ida, a graduate of the 
State Normal School, is now teacher of Eng- 
lish in the school at David City, Nebraska ; 
James, at home, is his father's assistant in the 
management and operation of the farm ; 
Harry, v.dio rents land near the home estate, 
is engaged in fanning; Emma is the wife of 
Bruce Williams, of IMcPherson, Kansas, a 
preacher of the Dunkard faith ; Mary Rosella 
is the wife of John Mitchell, also a Dunkard 
preacher, and they are living in Indiana : and 
Galen and Philip are at the parental home. 
Mr. and Mrs. Ward and their children are 



members of the Dunkard church. In politics 
Air. Ward is a Republican. He is a public- 
spirited citizen, and for a quarter of a centur)- 
served as a member of the school board. 

Mr. Ward does general farming, and from 
a start of absolutely nothing has risen to be one 
of the successful men of the county. He also 
does a large business in growing stock, and 
in the summer of 1918 he disposed of seven 
thousand dollars' worth of live stock, including 
cattle, horses, mules, and hogs, the hogs being 
of the full-blooded Duroc breed. In April, 
1918, he sold two old sows and nine young 
pigs that averaged 365 pounds. In business 
circles his reputation is an excellent one, his 
associates having every reason to have con- 
fidence in his integrity and fidelity. 



WILLIAM STRUEA.rPLER, who is well 
and favorably known in Custer county, owns 
a large body of land here and has one of the 
most highly cultivated farms in this whole 
section. He is a man of great industry, and 
his good judgment has been shown in his adop- 
tion of the best of farm methods, with the re- 
sult that he has accomplished more in eleven 
years than have many men who have been in 
the county twice as long. 

William Struempler was born in Germany, 
June 3. 1866. a son of Christian Struempler. 
He attended school through his boyhood and 
was variously engaged in his own coimtry until 
1885, when he accompanied his brother, Her- 
man Struempler, to the United States. 

William Struempler was married at St. Paul, 
Nebraska. January' 18. 1894, to Miss Johanna 
Tiede, a daughter of Carl Tiede, and they have 
twelve children, namely: Carl C. William F., 
Lydia L.. Henry H., Emil E., Theodore J., 
Magdalena J., Alma M., Frederick G., Albert 
AL, Martin A., and Dorothy C. 

In the spring of 1907 Air. Struempler sett'ed 
on Buffalo creek, in Custer county, and he re- 
sides in section 33. township 13, range 22. He 
owns 480 acres of excellent land and has 200 
acres under a high state of cultivation. All 
of his land is fenced and cross-fenced. He has 
accomplished wonders here, for when he set- 
tled, this was raw prairie land. and within eleven 
years he has so developed and improved it that 
he could easily sell it for $25,000. In addition 
to general farming he raises cattle and other 
live stock, and his wife, not to be outdone in 
thrift, manages a large flock of poultry and 
looks after the making of butter. All of these 
industries are carried on with the practical 
methods that make a well regidated farm a 
profitable investment. The children of the 



1146 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 




u< 






HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1147 



family are being taught habits of industry 
and economy and are being impressed with 
the value of individual integrity and honesty, 
Mr. Struempler not only setting them an ex- 
ample, but also taking pride in the fact that 
his given word is as good as if it were his 
signed note. 



EBENEZER NICHELSON. — The story 
of Ebenezer Nichelson, a plain, unassuming 
farmer in the Callaway region, is easily told. 
He was born in Indiana, October 6, 1854. His 
father, James Nichelson, was a native of Mary- 
land and a blacksmith by trade and occupa- 
tion. The mother's maiden names was Susan 
Higdon. In the family of James and Susan 
Nichelson, father and mother of the subject 
of this sketch, were eight children, four of 
whom are still living. The surviving ones are 
William Nichelson, Isaac Nichelson. Ebenezer 
Nichelson ( whose story we are telling) , and 
James H. Nichelson. In 1862 James Nichel- 
son moved to Champaign county, Illinios, 
where he worked at his trade, more or less, 
until his death, which occurred four years 
later. When but five years of age young Eben, 
as he was called, was left motherless. Thus, 
at twelve years of age, he was bereft of both 
parents, and very early in life thrown entirely 
upon his own resources. He was an indus- 
trious lad of frugal habits, and found work 
enough to keep him busy. He worked con- 
stanth', regardless of the small pay by which 
labor was remunerated in those days. 

On March 4. 1883, before leaving Cham- 
paign county, Illinois, Mr. Nichelson was mar- 
ried to Miss Hanna B. Hayes. Mrs. Nichel- 
son was born and married in the same house 
in Champaign county, Illinois. Her parents 
were natives of Ohio. Her father, Thompson 
P. Hayes, was a prominent citizen of Green- 
ville, in the Buckeye state. Her mother's 
maiden name was Sarah A. Dunn. Mrs. 
Nichelson has four brothers and one sister. 
They are: David, x\sa, Joseph M., and John 
W. Hayes, Jeanetta (Hayes) Haines, and Ben- 
jamin F. Hayes. The Hayes family were af- 
filiated with the United Brethren church. 

Mr. and Mrs. Nichelson came to Custer 
county in the fall of 1883 and located on a 
pre-emption claim five miles southwest of Cal- 
laway, where they still reside. They have 
made good in Custer county and are now the 
possessors of 200 acres of fertile land, on 
which they have a beautiful home and are 
are in very comfortable circumstances. Mr. 
Nichelson is prominent in fraternal circles, 
being both an Odd Fellow and a Mason. 



It causes Mr. Nichelson some amusement 
when he contrasts the opportunities and re- 
munerations of the present day with those 
that obtained when he was a boy. The first 
dollar he earned was paid him by a neighbor 
for plowing corn with one horse and the old- 
fashioned "double-shovel plow — a mode of 
cuhivation that wouldn't get very far in these 
days of the double and triple rowed machinery. 

Mr. Nichelson is to-day one of the substan- 
tial men and progressive spirits of Custer 
county. His development of liis early pre- 
emption claim and the general improvements 
which he has added to the assets of the com- 
monwealth, make the county indebted to him. 
He and his wife are highly respected and 
have a host of friends who delight to see them 
so comfortbly fixed and pleasantly surrounded. 



WILLIAM H. WATTS. — In the person 
of Mr. Watts, Iowa made a contribution which 
Custer county is in a position to appreciate. 
He came into the county in an early day, and 
in the most trying time of its entire history. 
By exceptional pluck and tireless energy he 
has succeeded in materially contributing to the 
present-day wealth and resources of this 
favored section of Nebraska. 

Mr. Watts was born in Iowa on the 19th of 
February, 1870, and is a son of John and Julia 
(O'Daniel) ■V\'atts, in whose family were three 
children: Mary Alice is the wife of John 
Cherry and they reside in this good county; 
Jennie is deceased : and William H., the sub- 
ject of this sketch, is to-day rendering a good 
account of himself. 

Mr. Watts' arrival in Custer county dates 
from the dry year of 1894, at which time his 
father located here. The first purchase of land 
for the Watts farm was a tract of 200 acres, 
which was diligently tilled and improved, and 
to which successive additions were made until 
the landed holdings are now 600 acres, which 
trebles the original purchase. Mr. Watts be- 
gan with nothing and has worked hard for 
every dollar of his accumulation. 

In 1902 Mr. Watts married Elizabeth Cher- 
ry, who has been a faithful and companionable 
home-maker, and they are the parents of four 
children — Clifford, Clarence, Elmer, and 
Charles — all bright, sturdy lads who are liv- 
ing at home and pursuing their education in 
■ the community school. 

In connection with agriculture, stock-raising 
is a prominent feature of the farm enterprise 
of Mr. Watts. A fine herd of cattle, and yards 
filled with splendid hogs, add to the thrifty 
appearance of his fine farm. The buildings are 



1148 



HISTORY OF CL'STER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 




w 



^ 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1149 




Mr. and Mrs. \\'ii.i,i.\m H. Watts 



1150 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



good, the other improvements are adequate, 
and peace and prosperity are domiciled with 
the family. 

Independent in poHtics. Mr. Watts cares 
httle for party or name. He makes his own 
selection of candidates for whom he votes. 
The family are Presbyterians. 



SILAS C. WALDRON, one of the substan- 
tial ranchmen living in the Callaway vicinity, 
had more than the usual pioneer experiences, 
and. surviving the early days, he is rated as 
one of the heavy land-owners and food pro- 
ducers of Custer county at the present time. 

Silas C. Waldron is a native of ^^'isconsin, 
in which state he was born May 24. 1860. 
He is a son of Arbitha and Emily (Chapin) 
Waldron. the former a native of Canada and 
the latter of Massachusetts. The subject of 
this sketch is the only survivor in a family of 
four children. 

Mr. Waldron's early life was spent at the 
parental farm home, where he was a valuable 
assistant, and incidentally he ran the gamut 
of the countrj' school, obtaining a fundamental 
education that has served him well in an offi- 
cial and business capacity throughout the 
eventful years of his life. In addition to 
attending the district school he worked at 
home and took a course in the high s:hool. 

In 1884 he made his advent into Custer 
county, coming with Charles and Frank Red- 
fern, for whom the Red fern Table was named. 
His own land and early home is located on 
the Waldron Table, ten miles south of Calla- 
way. He commenced his improvements in the 
days when water had to be hauled ten miles. 
All kind of means were resorted to for obtain- 
ing water for stock and house purposes ; the 
lagoons were scooped out. cisterns were dug, 
snow melted, and all this hel{>ed to supply 
water. Young Silas worked for stockmen and 
did everything he could to lK>ld and improve 
his claim. 

Mr. Waldron was united in marriage De- 
cember 12, 1894, in Elim township, this coun- 
ty, to Miss Edna E. Twist, a daughter of 
Salem and Awilda (Albright) Twist. After 
their marriage Silas Waldron and his wife es- 
tablished their home, and began their opera- 
tions as Custer county farmers and home- 
makers. They have two children: Mrs. Fay 
Westman is the wife of a farmer near Calla- 
way, and she has no children ; the second child. 
Fxlna M.. is making her home W'ith her 
grandmother, at \'aneta. Oregon. Mrs. Wal- 
dron died at the time of Edna's birth, and this 



daughter is a very popular young lady, a grad- 
uate of the high school. 

Mr. Waldron contracted a second marriage 
July 16, 1904, at Broken Bow. when he wedded 
Sopha Gustus, a lady from Illinois, she being 
a daughter of John and Matilda (VanGreen) 
Gustus, both natives of Sweden. Mr. and 
Mrs. Waldron have seven children — Charles 
T., Harry A., John A., Eva E., Esther M., 
Sidne)' C, and Anna R. 

Mr. Waldron has taken more or less active 
part in public affairs. In 1886 he was ap- 
pointed deputy sheriff, under Charles Penn, 
who was one of the most celebrated sheriffs 
Custer county ever elected. In the capacity 
of deputy sheriff Mr. Waldron served two 
years, and he had many exciting experiences 
in effecting arrests of outlaws and thieves, 
who were far more numerous in the early days 
than now. He was rated as one of Custer 
county's most efficient officers, one who was 
always ready, day or night, for any trip or 
any service required. He also sen-ed as town 
clerk of his precinct, and he represented Grant 
township on the board of supervisers during 
the hard year of 1894. He served until the 
board of supervisors was reduced from twen- 
ty-four to seven members. He has also been 
justice of the peace in his locality. 

Successful as a ranchman and stock-raiser, 
Mr. Waldron's accumulations and property 
place him in good circumstances. He owns 
2.000 acres of land, and aims to handle from 
200 to 250 cattle, and from 100 to 150 head of 
hogs on the place at all times. Of his land 
450 acres are in cultivation, and he superin- 
tends the operations himself. 

In looking back upon those early days and 
the experiences through which he has passed, 
Mr. Waldron feels that he has contributed his 
bit to the development of the county. He is en- 
titled to this opinion. His contribution has cer- 
tainly been no small one. He recalls that when 
he was a boy his first money was received as 
pay for trapping pocket-gophers, a bounty for 
which was offered by Cass county, where his 
first individual enterprises were staged. 

The Waldrons rate well in the community, 
financially, socially, and in every way. Mr. 
Waldron is a member of the Inde]>endent Or- 
der of Odd Fellows, and is Republican in his 
political affiliation. 

HAR^■EY J. WHITEMAN.— Though 
he is still a young man in years, it may con- 
sistently be said that Harvey J. Wliitcman is 
not lacking in maturity of experience. His 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1151 




Mr. and Mrs. Sil.\s C. Walurox 



1152 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COL'XTY, NEBRASKA 



career has covered a period in which he has 
been graduated froni the school of hard work, 
made for himself a position in the business 
world, and settled himself permanently as a 
sound and reliable citizen of Broken Bow, 
where he is proprietor of the business con- 
ducted under the title of the Community Sales 
Company, this concern being recognized as 
one of the city's essential and well ordered 
commercial adjuncts. 

Mr. W'hiteman claims the Sunflower state 
as the place of his nativit)-. and thus he is 
naturally imbued with the progressive spirit 
Cowley county, Kansas, September 5, 1887, 
of the west. He was bom on a farm in 
and is the second eldest of seven children born 
to Albert L. and Alvira (Tomlini W'hiteman. 
Of the other children brief record may con- 
sistently be entered at this juncture : t)ennis 
and Effie are deceased; ]\Ialissa A. is the wife 
of Fred E. Dye, of Mulvane. Kansas; Albert 
L., who is a graduate, with a life certificate, 
from the Ray Automobile School, Kansas 
City, and who is now a mechanic at Pittsburg, 
Kansas, married Gladys Oxford, a daughter 
of Robert Oxford; Olive May is the wife of 
Stephen Johnson and they reside in the state 
of Colorado ; and Russell W . resides with his 
father, near Cambridge, Kansas. 

A public-school education started Harvey 
J. W'hiteman upon his way in the world, and 
this training came from the schools of Jasper 
county, Missouri, where his parents established 
their home when he was six years of age. He 
was able to attend school during the winter 
terms only, as he was expected to contribute 
to the family support by such serv-ice as he 
could give during the summer seasons. A 
loving influence passed from his life when he 
was but twelve years old, when his mother 
died, the family having been at that time resi- 
dents of Atlanta, Kansas. Shortly after the 
death of his devoted mother the self-reliant 
lad left the paternal home, and incidentally he 
felt himself competent to cope with any emer- 
gency that might come. He had already earned 
his first money, by riding one of the horses 
of a binder team, on the neighboring domain 
of a farmer named Buck, in the Missouri com- 
munity, and after initiating his independent 
career his energy and self-confidence gained 
him employment in various positions, in each 
of which he proved reliable, trustworthy, and 
ambitions. Naturally his promotions came with 
regularity and he was finally able to feel that 
the time would come when he would be the 
owner of a business of his own. During his 
working years he was employed, among others, 



by S. A. Schooley and J. A. Rudolph, ranch- 
men in Cowley county, Kansas, and he re- 
mained with these gentlemen, as foreman of 
their ranch, until the partnership was dis- 
solved. Following this, Mr. W'hiteman was 
for four years foreman of the Kinkaid inter- 
ests in Brown county, Nebraska, and in 1912 
he came to Broken Bow and established him- 
self in business as proprietor of the enterprise 
conducted under the title of the Community 
Sales Company. In the conducting of well 
equipped feed yards, sales stables, and general 
operations in the buying and selling of horses, 
mules, and other live stock, this concern has 
a secure place of leadership, as is evident when 
it is stated that its business in 1918 attained 
to an aggregate of fully S400.000. 

Mr. W'hiteman is a Custer county young 
man who has made good. It has been in his 
case merely a question of relying upon his 
own initiative and his own resources. He has 
not asked for extraneous assistance in any way. 
In his forward march toward material success 
he has shown the true western spirit, and if 
what he has already achieved is to be viewed 
as a criterion, he should feel assured of still 
greater success with the passing years. 

In politics Mr. Whiteman is found arrayed 
as a staunch supporter of the cause of the Re- 
publican party, and in a fraternal way he is 
affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of Amer- 
ica. He has had no ambition for public office, 
but has proved loyal and progressive as a citi- 
zen and given his influence and support in 
assisting civic movements advanced for the 
general good of the community. 

September 23, 1907, recorded the marriage 
of Mr. Whiteman to Miss Nellie B. Simons, 
a daughter of Adam B. and Hannah E. (Daw- 
son) Simons, who reside on their fine farm 
estate near Burden, Kansas. Mr. Simons hav- 
ing been born in White county. Indiana, and 
his wife at Galesburg. Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. 
Simons are members of the Evangelical church 
and he is affiliated with the Independent Or- 
der of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen 
of America. Of their nine children seven are 
living, namely: George R.. Beniamin F., 
Nellie B., Mary G.. Elsie F.. Ilattie E., and 
Margaret V. Mr. and Mrs. Whiteman be- 
came the parents of four children : Navilla 
Bernice, who is ten years of age at the time 
of this writing, in the spring of 1919; Harold 
Ross, who died at the age of four years ; .^dam 
Albert, who died at the age of nine months; 
and Elsie Blanche, who is two years of age. 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 1153 




Harvev J. Whiteman 



1154 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1155 



NELS WESTMAN. — Here is written the 
name of another man who hails from northern 
Europe and in whose veins the blood of Swe- 
den has become a valuable asset to America. 
Just now in middle life, he has reached that 
place in his accumulations where he can af- 
ford surcease from strenuous eiTort and give 
opportunity to his children, who already have 
demonstrated that they are worthy of the name 
they bear. 

Nels Westman was born September 3, 1868, 
in the frugal land of Sweden. He was the 
second child of Peter and Magdelian (Ander- 
son) Westman, both Swedish by long lineage. 
His maternal grandsire was Andrew Ander- 
son, one of the prominent characters of his 
native community. In the father's family 
were three children. Aside from Nels they 
are Anna Nelson, and Augusta Johnson. His 
father came to this country in 1869, and located 
in Galva. Illinois, where he worked on the 
railroad. In two years he accumulated enough 
money to send for his family and was joined 
by them and thus the first home young Nels 
had in America was established. The prin- 
ciples of industry and thrift, always so rigidly 
enforced in European countries, stood young 
Nels well in hand in the new world and have 
stimulated his efforts throughout his entire 
career. When a mere lad he gathered rags 
and iron and sold them for a few pennies. 
Later he began working for the neighbors. 
His first field work was dropping corn, and by 
this he earned money for his own clothes. 
Since thirteen years of age he has faced the 
world for himself, and his present holdings 
and surroundings attest that he "has made 
good." 

The domestic career of Air. Westman dates 
from November 7, 1889, when, in Alinden, 
Nebraska, he was joined in wedlock to Anna 
Nelson, a native of Denmark, and a daughter 
of Peter and Mary (Christofersen) Nelson, 
both of whom were sturdy Danes by a long 
succession of ancestors. In the family of Airs. 
Westman were the following- : Mary Wal- 
berg; .\nna Westman; Hanna Oman; Chris- 
tine Rodine ; and two half-brothers. Rasmun 
Larsen and James Larsen. In the home 
Mr. and Mrs. Westman established, comforts 
have predominated and thrift has supplied} 
every need. They have three children. Ed- 
mund P. J. married Fay Waldron and is farm- 
ing on his own land, near Callaway. He and 
his wife belong to the Evangelical church. 
Aimer N.. who also is farming his own land, 
near Callaway, married Alma Anderson, and 
they, too, belong to the Evangelical church. 
There is one boy in their family. Karine 



married James Oral Henry, who is farming on 
his own land, in the Callaway section. They 
belong to the Evangelical church. 

The Westmans came to Custer county in 
1907. He had bought the land two years 
previously to that time. The location is ten 
miles southwest of Callaway, on the famous 
Stop Table. Many tinies this is mentioned in 
this volume. The Westmans have added to 
their original purchase until they now own 
880 acres, 480 of which is called table land. 
Mr. Westman has his farm well improved and 
well stocked, and that portion devoted to agri- 
cultural purposes is in a high state of cultiva- 
tion. By his diversified farming he deposits 
his eggs in several baskets, and he believes 
that if one crop fails it is better to have another 
to fall back vtpon. He attributes to hogs and 
cattle his greatest source of revenue. Mr. and 
Airs. Westman were reared in the Swedish 
Lutheran church, are stanch supporters of all 
moral and uplifting movements, are patriotic 
-Americans and are generally regarded as lead- 
ing spirits in the community. At the present 
time they have retired from active labors but 
they still live on the home farm, overseeing the 
operations of those to whom it is leased. 



FR.AXK KLIXKAIAN is a progressive, en- 
terprising farmer and stockman who lives in 
the south part of the county, in a particularly 
productive locality, known as Sells valley. Mr. 
Klinkman came when pioneer days were over, 
but he has proved himself a valuable asset 
and is one worthy to be rated well as a Custer 
citizen. 

Air. Klinkman was born in St. Joseph 
county. Alichigan, September 10, 1868. Both 
his father and mother were of staunch German 
lineage and both were born in Gernianj^. The 
father was Fred Klinkman and the mother's 
maiden name was Freda Aliller. In the fam- 
ily were the following children : Henry, Frank, 
Louis. Edith Holmes, and two half-sisters, 
Hannah Rubenstein and Caroline Perschal. 
Fred Klinkman came to the LTnited States in 
1855 and here he passed the remainder of his 
life. He died when his son Frank was seven 
years of age. The bo}' remained with his 
mother until he was ten years old, when his 
mother remarried, and he went to live with an 
elderly couple, for whom he worked for his 
board and clothes, the while he went to school 
in the winter time. This continued for two 
years, after which he went to Center\nlle, 
Alichigan, and worked summers and attended 
school in the winter. In this way he earned 
about fortv dollars a vear more than his 



1156 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



11 



:>/ 



clothes, the most of which he gave to his 
mother. Afterward his mother made him a 
present of a five-dollar gold piece, which he 
highly prized because of the donor. 

Two years before he reached his majority, 
Air. Klinkman turned his face toward the west 
and came to Nebraska, where for two years he 
worked in Polk county, receiving from ten to 
fifteen dollars a month. He began his domes- 
tic life on the 3d day of May, 1890, at Osce- 
ola, where he led to the marriage altar Miss 
Caroline Timm, a lady of fine qualities, who 
came from Wisconsin. Slie is a daughter of 
Louis and Johanna (Persohn) Timm, both 
German people, born near Mecklenburg, Ger- 
many. In many ways Mrs. Klinkman's fam- 
ily were remarkable. The grandparents on 
her father's side died while crossina" the ocean 
in a sailing vessel. They were sixteen weeks 
on the water. Louis Timm was then fourteen 
years of age. Three years later, when seven- 
teen, he enlisted in the army and served three 
years. 

The Klinkman home has always been com- 
fortable in its appointments and ample in its 
provisions. As the years went by it became 
the home and shelter of a large family of 
children, all of whom do credit to their father 
and mother. The y6ung Klinkmans are ten 
in number and bear the following names: 
Conrad A., who was in the draft but never 
served, is farming his own land, near Cozad ; 
Edith E. was next in order of birth ; Mattie 
E. is the wife of Dean Booker and they live 
on a farm near Cozad, their children being 
three in number; Lily L.. Ruth H., Roy, Vida 
J.. A'era I., Harold G., and Ivan L. are all at 
home. It should be noted that Ruth H. and 
Roy are twins, fourteen years of age, and that 
^'ida I. and Vera I. also are twins, twelve 
years of age. at the opening of the year 1919. 

Mr. Klinkman and his family located in Cus- 
ter county in the year 1906 and bought 320 
acres of good land, which they still own and 
occupy as a home. Farming and stock-raising 
have made all the money with which the place 
has been improved and which makes up the 
sum total of the Klinkman possessions. They 
have just built an elegant farm residence and 
are well fixed for the oncoming years. The 
family enjoy a splendid reputation and are de- 
voted members of the Evangelical church. 
There is a local church, with commodious 
building, two miles from the farm. The po- 
litical tendencies of Mr. Klinkman are Demo- 
cratic. 



■CRANDDALL D. SAMSON. — Down 
near Oconto is a prosperous young farmer, 



who has accumulated enough of this world's 
goods to provide for himself and family a very 
comfortable home and to enable him to take 
life easy. Crandall D. Samson is a native of 
Champaign county, Illinois, where he was born 
June 8, 1872. His father, James W. Samson, 
was a native of Marshall county, Indiana. 
His mother, Eliza E. (Watson) Samson, was 
a native of Ohio, James W. Samson was 
a frontiersman and had part in early wes- 
tern expeditions. In 1859 he left Leaven- 
worth, Kansas, with an ox team and drove 
through to Pike's Peak. He accompanied a 
crowd of buffalo hunters, who were killing 
bufi'aloes for their hides. When he reached 
the Colorado gold-fields, he lost no time in 
commencing prospecting operations and final- 
ly he located a claim, which he worked for 
two years, when the outbreak of the war called 
for young men of Samson's caliber, and he en- 
listed in the First Colorado Cavalry, in which 
he served four years. Shortly after his en- 
listment he had an opportunity to sell his min- 
ing claim for $10,000, but was unable to get a 
furlough long enough to close up the deal and 
consummate the transaction. Accordingly, the 
claim was "jumped" and became a total loss to 
him. The First Colorado Cavalry was assigned 
to scouting duty and Indian fighting during 
most of his term of service. After his dis- 
charge he returned to his Illinois home, and 
was married to Eliza E. Watson, a daughter 
of Jonathan Watson, a prominent citizen of the 
Buckeye state. Airs. Samson's mother's 
maiden name was Delia Gregor. Crandall D. 
Samson is one of a family of eight children, 
all of whom are still living. The firstborn is 
Mrs. Margaret A. Hardyman ; Crandall D. was 
the second in order of birth ; the third is Airs. 
Emma Al. Street ; the fourth is Watson R. ; the 
fifth is Airs. Blanch B. \Mnkleman ; the sixth 
is David: the seventh is Airs. Gloraetta Lowe; 
and the eighth is Guy. 

Crandall D. Samson earned his first money 
by doing chores for his grandmother. She 
gave him a calf, which his father let him keep, 
and when it was grown it was sold and the 
money was invested in other calves. These 
early transactions started the youth in the di- 
rection of farming and stock-raising. He at- 
tended the public schools and received a good 
common-school education. His father's fam- 
ily was large, and as soon as he was able to 
work Crandall was thrown upon his own re- 
sources. Since that time he has made his own 
living and has gathered the competency he now 
possesses. His father and mother, with seven 
children, landed in Custer county in 1892. and 
located four miles west of Octonto. 

Air. Samson was married Alarch 28, 1900, 



1158 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY. NEBRASKA 







u 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1159 



to Miss Alinnie Carroll, who was a native of 
Bedford county. Pennsylvania. She was the 
daughter of H. Carroll and Ruth Carroll. From 
this union two children were born — R. Wal- 
ter, and Gladys G. Walter graduated from 
the high school and at present is attending the 
State Agricultural School at Lincoln, Nebras- 
ka. Gladys G. is in attendance at the Western 
Union College, at LeMars, Iowa. Mrs. Sam- 
son, mother of the children, died May 12, 1903. 
Mr. Samson was again married Alarch 28, 
1912, when ]\Iiss Allie V. Stoughton became 
his wife, she being a representative of an old 
English family. 

Mr. and Mrs. Samson own 320 acres of land, 
three and one-half miles northwest of Oconto, 
and by thrift and industrv' have accummulated 
a competency for old age. Both are members 
of the Evangelical church at Oconto. Mr. 
Samson is affiliated with the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen 
of America. He is a Republican in politics. 
He is always called in the community con- 
sultations of his neighbors, and he is one of 
the upright and valued men of his community. 



GEORGE W. HAjNIMOND. — Among the 
farmers of recognized moral and material 
worth whose labors have largely helped to 
develop the interests of Custer county, is 
George W. Hammond. ^Nlr. Hammond's suc- 
cess in life, which has not been inconsiderable, 
rests wholly with himself and his abilities, for 
his equipment at the outset of his career was 
of only an ordinary character, and he was 
compelled to rely solely upon his own re- 
sources. 

]\Ir. Hammond was born in Harrison 
county, Indiana, August 5- 1860, a son of 
George and Rachel (Schwartz) Hammond. 
The parents were early settlers of Indiana 
and followed agriculture there in a small way 
until their migration, in 1884, to Custer county. 
Here they passed the remainder of their lives 
in the cultivation of the soil and the develop- 
ment of a home' and they here rounded out 
honorable and useful careers, leaving many to 
mourn their loss when they were called to 
their final rest. They were the parents of 
eight children, of whom three survive: Ab, 
who is engaged in farming on a property near 
Ansley ; George W., whose name initiates this 
article : and Alexander, who follows farming, 
in Kimball county, this state. George W. Ham- 
mond received only limited educational advan- 
tages, in Indiana, and his entire training during 
his youth was along agricultural lines. He 
reached his majority in Indiana, but continued 



to be associated with his father, and with him, 
in 1884, he came to Nebraska. Upon his ar- 
rival he filed on a homestead, and this has con- 
tinued to be his home to the present time, al- 
though it has greatly grown in size by reason 
of numerous purchases, and now, in acreage, 
comprises a half-section of land. All of this 
has been accumulated by Mr. Hammond 
through legitimate channels of business, and 
his reputation in the business world is one that 
will bear the closest scrutiny. He has devoted 
himself to general farming in all its depart- 
ments, raises all kinds of live stock, and is 
known to be thoroughly familiar with the most 
approved methods and processes in farm in- 
dustry, being, all in all, a thorough, systematic, 
and successful farmer who is typical of the 
most worthy and substantial agricultural ele- 
ment of the county. 

January 30> 1882, Mr. Hammond married 
Miss Mary Hannell, who was born in Harrison 
county, Indiana, a daughter of Michael and 
Matilda (Brown) Hannell, the former a native 
of Germany, and the latter of Indiana. To 
^Ir. and Mrs. Hamiuond there have been born 
twelve children, of whom eleven are living : 
Charity, who is the wife of Bert Jones, of 
Kimball county, Nebraska ; Sam, who is en- 
gaged in farming in Custer county ; May, who 
is the wife of Clarence Evans, a farmer twelve 
miles east of Broken Bow ; Elsie, who is the 
wife of C. B. Edwards, of Yankee Hill, Cali- 
fornia ; Bill, who farms in Kimball county, Ne- 
braska, and is a homesteader of Wyoming; 
Joe, of Kimball county, who prepared himself 
to enter the United States military service ; 
Pearl, who is the wife of George Miller, of 
Kimball county; Edith, who died at the age 
of twenty years ; and Dewey, Alabel, Gladys, 
and Lloyd, who remain with their parents. 
Mrs. Hammond is a member of the Lutheran 
church. Mr. Hammond belongs to the local 
lodge of the Modern Woodmen of America. 
He is a Repubhcan in politics, but his only 
public office has been that of school director, 
in which he rendered efficient and conscientious 
service, for eight vears. 



JOHN ROBERTSON.— This is the plain 
story of a plain man who has run the expe- 
riences common to Custer county settlers, one 
who has made here his farm home and here 
reared his family to creditable manhood and 
womanhood. 

Mr. Robertson is a native of Kankakee coun- 
ty. Illinois, where he was born February 21, 
1865. He is a son of Walter and Margaret 
(Johnson) Robertson, both of whom were 



1160 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



born in Scotland. The parents, a splendid 
Scotch couple, maintained, in strict conformity 
to Scottish customs, an ideal Scottish home, 
in which were born seven children — George, 
Gavin, Walter, Margaret Lang, John, Martha 
Williams, and William (deceased). The fa- 
ther's occupation in Scotland was that of a 
coal- miner. He married in Scotland but came 
to the United States in 1878, and settled at 
Clark City, Illinois, where he followed coal- 
mining as a business for nine years. He then 
quit the mines and came to Custer county, Ne- 
braska, which in those days was a domain of 
almost endless opportunity. He located a 
claim on the Cottonwood, eight miles south of 
Callaway, and there established his home, and 
arranged for the maintenance of his family. It 
was here that the boyhood years of John Rol>- 
ertson were spent. It was here that he received 
the common education of the Custer county 
youths, and here that he learned by practical 
experience all details of practical farming and 
stock-raising. 

After passing through the experiences com- 
mon to youth, John Robertson married, June 
28, 1911, Miss Sadie McGuigan. Mrs. Rob- 
ertson, like her husband, is of Scotch extrac- 
tion, and is a daughter of John and Mary 
(Armour) McGuigan, both of whom came 
from Scotland. The young couple established 
their own home and they now have two chil- 
dren — Georgia A., six vears old, and \'erla 
S., four years old (19i81. Mr. and Mrs. 
Robertson are living on the home place of the 
former's father, but Mr. Robertson has just 
bought 240 acres adjoining on the east, and 
this property he expects to improve for a home 
of his own, in the very near future. 

Mr. and Mrs. Robertson are both well and 
favorably known, and the neighbors predict 
that their energy and thrifty habits will pro- 
vide amply for the years of their retirement. 
They bear a splendid name in the neighbor- 
hood and are known as obliging, desirable 
neighbors. Their religious alTiliations arc with 
the Catholic church. 

Mr. Robertson's farming operations are of 
a mixed nature, large dependence being placed 
upon live stock, and cattle, hogs, and sheep 
have prominent place in his operations. Mr. 
Robertson .says that his first dollar was earned 
when he was a mere lad, by herding cattle for 
Theodore Lang, but he does not remember 
now whether the money so earned went for 
candv or peanuts. He kept no book accounts 
in those days, and only one thing concerning 
his first financial exploit is fixed in his mind 



and at the present time — and that is that the 
money is gone. 



WILLIAM C. JOHNSTON was born Oc- 
tober 26, 1855, in the county of Victoria, 
Province of Ontario, Canada. His father, 
William Johnston, was born January 6, 1819, 
in the parish of Inver, county of Donegal, Ire- 
land. His mother's maiden name was Isabella 
Cassidy, and she likewise was a native of Ire- 
land. Mr. Johnston's parents were married 
in 1846, and in their family were eleven chil- 
dren, five of whom are still living — William 
C, James O., Margaret E. (wife of James 
K. Alorrison), and Lucy (wife of Wood C. 
Gray). 

William C. Johnston came to the L'nited 
States in 1879 and located in Saginaw, ]\Iichi- 
gan. Thereafter he spent two years in Minne- 
sota, and in 1882 he came to Nebraska and 
located one mile north of Lodi, Custer county, 
where he has resided ever since. After his 
arrival in the county he kept bachelor quarters 
for two years, at the expiration of which time 
his sister Margaret came from Canada and 
relieved him of household duties. Four years 
later she became the wife of James K. Alorri- 
son. This gave Mr. Johnston a hint that it 
might be in order for him to take unto himself 
a wife, and accordingly, July 24, 1889, he 
married Miss Louise Cornish, who was born 
in the state of New York, and was a daughter 
of Lyman C. Cornish, her father having be- 
come a well known citizen in Custer county, 
and her mother, Eunice A. (Lowe) Cornisli, 
having been a New York woman. 

During the married life of Mr. and Mrs. 
Johnston, six children came to bless their 
home, and four of the number are still living 
— • Isabelle M., who is a graduate of the Grand 
Island Baptist Academy, fitted herself for 
teaching, but she now lives at home with her 
father; Louisa M., also a graduate of the 
same school, is a teacher and is at the paternal 
home; .Mgena M. is attending the Kearney 
Normal School ; and Edwin C, of the home 
circle, is in the si.xth grade of his school career. 

The hai)piness of this home was oversha- 
dowed with a great sorrow on August 16, 1916, 
when the loved wife and mother was sum- 
moned to the life eternal, leaving her devoted 
family to mourn her loss. 

Mr. Johnston owns 6-10 acres of land, which 
is well improved and makes a splendid home 
for his chiklren. He says that when he landed 
in Custer countv there were onlv two houses 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1161 




William C. Johnston and Family 



1162 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. NEBRASKA 







HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1163 



between his place and Oconto. He has about 
275 acres of land in cultivation and in farming 
and stock-raising he has made the money which 
constitutes a modest Custer county fortune. 
When a boy he earned his first money by 
pulling the tops from carrots in a neighbor's 
garden. 

The Johnstons are excellent people and 
rated in the community as fine neighbors. Re- 
ligiously they are Baptists and faithful sup- 
porters of the little church at Lodi. In politics 
jMr. Johnston is independent. 

HENRY S. POSTON, whose story is told 
here, is a native of the historic Old Dominion 
state. He was born at Fairfax Courthouse, 
Virginia, March 27, 1861. His parents, Will- 
iam and Susan (Hamilton) Poston, were like- 
wise born in \"irginia. In the family of Will- 
iam Poston were eleven children. Only three 
are living — Mrs. Susan Long, Mrs. Araminta 
Brigham, and Henry S'., the subject of this 
sketch. 

Air. Poston's parents died when he was 
twelve years of age, and he then went to make 
his home with one of his sisters. He worked 
on the farm in the summer time and attended 
school in the winter. Recalling conditions 
under which \'irginia farming was conducted, 
he says : "I remember working day after 
day hoeing corn and thinning out by hand, 
for fifty cents a day." In work of this kind 
yovmg Henry did as much as any full-grown 
man could have done. When he was nineteen 
years of age he went to the city of Washing- 
ton, where he worked with his brother at the 
carpenter's trade. After a few years, thinking 
that he liked farming better, and hearing the 
call of the west, he came out to Kansas, where 
he worked in Marshall county about four years. 
In 1887 he turned his face to the northwest 
and crossed the line into Custer county, Ne- 
braska, where he located a pre-emption claim, 
five miles northwest of Callaway. 

In November, 1889, at Broken Bow. Mr. Pos- 
ton married Aliss Clara Schreyer, a daughter 
of Frederic Schreyer, who was one of the first 
settlers on the South Loup river west of Cal- 
laway, and to whom was given the honor of 
naming Triumph Precinct. Frederic Schreyer 
was born in Germany. Air. and Mrs. Poston 
are the parents of nine children: Mrs. Aramin- 
ta Ridden ; Mrs. Alice Olson ; Mrs. \'irginia 
Rookstool : Mrs. Lela Butler ; Miss Maude 
Poston, who is a recent graduate of 
the high school in Gothenburg, and who 
still resides under the parental roof ; Mrs. 
Opal Ridden ; Frederic, who assists his 



father on the farm and at present is a student 
in the Callaway high school ; Albert ; and last, 
but not least. Master Richard Poston, who has 
reached only his third year but is nevertheless 
the dictator of the entire situation. The Pos- 
tons own 200 splendid acres in the North Loup 
valley and have now reached the place where 
thev feel able to build a splendid farm home, 
which is in the course of construction at the 
time this article is written, and which is to be 
a model farm house. An elaborate water sys- 
tem, by which a hydraulic ram lifts water from 
a never-failing spring into the house, yards, 
and barns, is now being developed. Mr. Pos- 
ton maintains an artificial pond, in which he 
is raising fish on a small scale, yet sufficient for 
home consumption. 

Mr. Poston states that he earned his first 
money by turning a grindstone, and the mem- 
ory of that old grindstone he claims gives him 
the backache still. For this service, on one 
occasion, he received ten cents in paper or 
script currency. It was more highly prized 
than any money he has received since. It was 
never destined, however, for profitable invest- 
ment. He carried it around in the pocket of 
a pair of linen trousers, and one luckless day 
the trousers went into the washtub ; money and 
all. And when they came out the ten cents 
in script had faded into a scrap of white paper. 

Mr. Poston is a prominent member of the 
Modem Woodmen of America. He takes a 
lively interest in politics, generally affiliating 
with the Democratic party. He is progressive 
in spirit and stands for everything progressive, 
helpful, and honest. The family are attend- 
ants of the Evangelical church. 



AUGUST W. F ROHDE AND OTTO 
ROHDE. — It is ever and again the same old 
story. Old-country thrift, replanted on wes- 
tern soil, brings success and develops the com- 
petency that renders life independent. Both 
August and his brother Otto are German 
farmers, natives of Germany and representa- 
tive of the frugal, thrifty German type. They 
came to this country in April, 1882, and in Ne- 
braska they first came to Grand Island, Hall 
county. They have made Custer county the 
stage of their operations and they are num- 
bered among the successful and substantial 
farmers of the community in which they 
reside. 

For extended mention of their parents, ref- 
erence may be made to the sketch of Albert 
Rohde, elsewhere in this volume. In 1884 
they came into the Custer county south region, 
where thev located a homestead, and thev now 



1164 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY, NEBRASKA 



have the father's homestead and each owns 
three quarter-sections of good land. Otto 
owns one-quarter section in Custer county and 
two in the adjoining county of Buffalo, on 
the south. They are painstaking farmers and 
stockmen of a very practical type. They kec]) 
good horses, breed the best grade of cattle and 
hogs, and seem thoroughly convinced Lliat it 
pays better to produce the blooded tv-pes than 
to waste feed and time on inferior breeds of 
scrub stock. They have their places well im- 
proved and are supplied with modern ma- 
chinery and every kind of equipment required 
for modern, profitable farming. Farms well 
fenced and in a high state of cultivation, show 
that much work has been done, and the sur- 
roundings denote that the toil has \ytien re- 
munerated. Miller is their closest town, and 
there they are well known and enjoy the con- 
fidence of the business interests. They are 
Protestants in religious faith and are inter- 
ested in every progressive enterprise that tends 
to better the community. They manifested in 
every possible way their loyalty to the govern- 
ment during the progress of the great world 
war, by assisting in every possible way and 
by contributing to all the war drives. They 
were lil>eral contributors to Red Cross and 
Young Men's Christian Association work and 
purchased lionds to the extent of their ability. 
The Rohde boys have a wide circle of friends 
and are held in gootUy esteem by all who 
know them. 



JOHN HELMUTH. who is one of Custer 
county's most respected citizens, is also one of 
of its real pioneers and has the distinction of 
being the first man to locate on Red Fern 
Table — thirty-four years ago. He has wit- 
nessed wonderful changes during that long 
period and has seen men and whole families 
come and go, but never, even in the days of 
greatest hardship, has he entertained the idea 
of parting with his land and home. More than 
that, he has given encouragement to others and 
they, relying upon his practical judgment and 
good sense, have likewise weathered the storm 
and are safely in harbor. He has been active 
in promoting local enterprises that he deemed 
of general benefit to farmers and stockmen, 
and has always been foremost in maintaining 
schools and churches. 

John Ilelnuith was born November 2. 1857. 
in Oberlauerengen, Bavaria, Gennany. His 
parents, John and Mary N. ( Benkcrt I Hel- 
muth, were born in Germany, and thev had 
four children: William E., John, Christ, and 
Caroline Marv. the last named being the wife 



of George ^lary, and having one son. By a 
second nxarriage, the mother had one son, 
August Wirsching. The father of Mr. Hel- 
niuth was a farmer and belonged to the Luth- 
eran church. 

In February. 1870, John Helmuth, the im- 
mediate subject of this sketch, came to the 
United States and located first in Jo Daviess 
county, Illinois, where he worked for five 
years on the farm of General John A. Logan, 
who was one of that state's distinguished mil- 
itary men and statesmen. Although he did 
well in Illinois, Mr. Helmuth wanted land and 
a home of his own, and that brought him to 
Custer county, Nebraska, in February, 1884. 
when he located on the southeast quarter of 
section 12, township 13, range 23, where he 
still lives. It was lonely at first, but Ernest 
Schneider came soon afterward, and before 
spring had passed Christ Helmuth. James 
Whitehead, John Aluller, Chris and Henry 
Muller, Harvey Stockham. Otto Jester. Will- 
iam Greenfield, and Charles and Fred Drum 
had settled in the neighborhood. These settlers 
all suffered from lack of wells, and for five 
years they had to haul their water a consider- 
able distance. Mr. Helmuth, always a leader 
in enterprise, was the first one to put down 
a well on the Table, finding water at a depth 
of 456 feet. This was in 1889, and since then 
he has put down three other wells. Almost 
every settler of the present daj' has a fine 
flowing well, and the lack of sufficient water 
is practically no more a matter for consider- 
ation. The early settlers made little preten- 
sion, all living at first in dugouts or sod houses. 
While these primitive domiciles were usually 
of rather small dimensions, they had the ad- 
vantage of being warm in winter and cool in 
summer. 

Mr. Helmuth was married June 8, 188-1. at 
what is now the flourishing town of Lexington, 
Nebraska, to Miss Lillie Schneider, was was 
born in Jo Daviess county. Illinois, a daughter 
of Ernst and Johanna ( Kaeb) Schneider, na- 
tives of Germany. The following named chil- 
dren were born to Mr. and Mrs. Helmuth: 
W'illiam C. who lives at home, is farming 
with his father on shares ; Bertha D. is the 
widow of John McXulty, who died Septem- 
ber 2H. 1918. he having been a farmer near 
Oconto, and being survived by two daugh- 
ters; Charles C. is at home and is heljiing his 
father operate the 800-acre farm, with 400 
acres under cultivation, in corn and small 
grain ; John G., who was in the training camp 
at Camp Dix, New Jersey, but since Septem- 
ber 1st in France, is in the L'nited States 
service as a member of the Three Hundred 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1167 



and Thirty-fifth Field Artillery, Eighty-seventh 
Division, and he arrived with his command in 
France in the early part of September, 1918; 
and Emma C. and Lillie A. remain at the 
parental home. 

Mr. Helmuth is a Democrat in politics. He 
has always taken much interest in the public 
schools and for many years has been a mem- 
ber of the school board of his district, whicrh 



was organized in Grant township in 1885. He 
belongs to the Oconto camp of the Modern 
Woodmen of America, and Mrs. Helmuth is 
a member of the Royal Neighbors. They are 
members of the Lutheran church. As a loyal 
and patrioti: citizen of the United States, Mr. 
Helmuth has served as a committeeman in 
Grant township for the Council of Defense. 



INDEX 



AcKERMAS, Frank S., 631 
Adams, David T., 628 
Alexander, Amos O., 551 
Allen, Andrew F., 599 
Allen, Richard E., 765 
Allen, John R., 508 
Allyn, Virgil, 702 
Amos, Alfred, 629 
Amsberry, Darius M., 488 
Amsberry, John A., 896 
.\msberry, Lyman E., 860 
Amsberry, Orrie, 330 
.\msberry. Will D., 874 
Anderson, Axel E., 535 
Anderson. John P., 604 
Anderson, Olaf G., 605 
Anderson, Rasmus, 545 
Andrews, Harvey B., 500 
Andrews, Henry H., 956 
Andrews, Jeff, 332 
Anki^ey, George W., 1134 
Apperson, Albert F., 734 
Armstrong, Eugene, 1101 
Arthur, Fred H., 503 
Ash, Alonzo B., 1088 
Athey, William B., 914 
Atkisson, H. K., 430 
Avis, Edmond J., 895 

Baalhorn, William, 854 
Backes, John, Sr., 864 
Bader, Albert, 586 
Bahr, Fred J., 433 
Bailey, George T., 601 
Bailey, George William, 737 
Baillie, Sadie E., 939 
Baker, Frank, 598 
Baker, Jim, 498 
Baker, John F., 631 
Baker, Rolland T., 656 
Baker, Wesley N., 639 
Bangs, Roscoe R., 518 
Barber, Eber, 597 
Barrett, Evens, 653 
Barrett, Henry T., 551 
Bartu, Joseph, 947 
Bass, Charles E., 830 
Bass, James G., 878 
Bass, T. W., 938 
Bates, J. M., 668 
Bayne, Albert, 537 
Beal, Charles W., 564 
Beal, Elgin L., 609 
Beardsley, Frederick G., 1075 
Heckler. Fred W., 661 
Bellis, Richard, 476 
Beltz, William C, 700 
Bence, Walter A.. 559 
Benger, Curtis B., 710 
Bergman, Arthur, 330 
Bentley, Harry M., 993 
Bernert, Felix, 674 



Bernert, Joseph, 333 
Biggerstaff, Commodore C, 453 
Birnie, Thomas M., 734 
Black, Hiram R.. 493 
Blakeman, Charles E., 662 
Blankenship, Martin F., 414 
Boblits, Eugene J., 543 
Boeking, William, 550 
Boots, Mark O., 561 
Boots, Will N., 561 
Bowley, Daniel G., 458 
Bowley, Dewitt, 525 
Bowley, William O.. 594 
Bowman, Carl E., 888 
Bowman, Charles W.. 413 
Boyd, Norman E., 523 
Brachear, Hartford R., 507 
Bradburn, Jesse 1091 
Bragg, Charles D., 750 
Bramer, Charles F., 437 
Brand, J. H., 877 
Branstiter, Charles E.. 805 
Brass, Albert, 883 
Bray, William N., 818 
Brega, Richard E., 623 
Bridges, John T., 654 
Bristol, Rupert C. 831 
Brittan. Clifford N.. 444 
Brittan, Walter M., 442 
Brodine, Henry S., 927 
Brown. David O.. 1056 
Brown, Earl W.. 462 
Brown, James H., 801 
Brown, Thomas H., 437 
Brown, U. Grant, 640 
Bryan, J. Harry. 413 
Bryan, Joseph, 417 
Buckner, Glen, 331 
Buckner, W^lliam T., 788 
Burdick, James N., 332 
Burnham. Harry F., 583 
Burrow, Herman, 650 
Butcher. Lynn J., 1072 
Butcher, Solomon D., 962 
Butler, Allen L., 853 
Butler, Edwin A., 529 
Byler, Joseph D., 460 

Cain. Henry E., 330 
Calhoon. Artellus P., 461 
Callen, Miles D., 608 
Cameron. John, 648 
Camin, Frederick, 884 
Carothers, John H., 866 
Carothers. Paul H. J., 1005 
Case. Jacob M., 504 
Case, Peter M., 614 
Cavenee. John E-, 890 
Cavenee. Paul E.. 508 
Chapin. Emery J., 796 
Chase. Hiram C, 913 
Cherrv. Tohn. Sr., 892 



Cherry, John W., 1131 
Cherry, Joseph H., Jr., 580 
Cherry, Joseph H., Sr., 900 
Chiles, Logan W., 772 
Chrisman, Albert R., 424 
Chrisman, Charles S., 845 
Christen, David, 492 
Christen, Pius, 564 
Christesen, Thomas, 654 
Clements, Ralph, 910 
Cline, W. R., 1070 
Clouse, William T., 505 
Clow, Loyd, 331 
Cochran, James F., 1065 
Coday, Frank, 1028 
Coffman, Hiram T., 881 
Coffman, Paul, 328 
Cole, Joseph T., 681 
Cole, Lewis C, 916 
Cole, L. Emmett, 429 
Coltrane. Harris M.. 1035 
Condon, Thomas, 904 
Cornish, Arthur B.. 866 
Cornish, Lee, 690 
Cory, Daniel W., 682 
Couhig. William, 617 
Coulter, B. Frank, 909 
Cox, Benjamin F., 789 
Cramer, Frank, 634 
Cramer, Henry A., 613 
Cramer, Levier B., 440 
Criss. William A.. 816 
Crosley. Thornton S., Sr., 890 
Cross, William J., 886 
Cunningham, Ed. 914 
Currie. Frank M.. 744 

Daoy, Perry M.. 851 
Dady. Quintus J., 860 
Daily, Alvin, 491 
Daily, John A.. 880 
Daily. Marion S., 567 
Daily, William G., 563 
Daley, Elisha Budd, 642 
Davidson, James, 662 
Davis, C. J., 931 
Davis, Lon, 451 
Davis. William M.. 920 
Deal, Ernest R., 708 
Dean, James R.. 448 
Dean, Stephen A., 978 
De Losh, .Mexander, 494 
Devine, Frank, 525 
Devine, James V.. 676 
Devine, John A., 981 
Dewey, George F., 1131 
Dickson. William M.. 833 
Dietz. John A., 991 
Dinwiddle. James. 780 
Dittmar, Barthol, 787 
Dobesh. .Anton K., 983 
Dobesh, Anton P., 579 



1170 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, XEBR.\SKA 



Dobesh, Frank, 893 
Dobesh, Frank H.. 584 
Dobesh, Thomas. 895 
Douglass, John J., 435 
Downey, David, 1033 
Downey, John J., 922 
Downin. Albert B., 874 
Downing, Linn S., 723 
Dowse, HHza, 763 
Dowse, Lewis R.. 417 
Draper, Charles N., 721 
Dresel, John. 927 
Dreeessen, George, 1002 
Duncan, Robert R., 425 
Dworak, Mrs. Frances C, 1124 

Eddy. Marshall E-, 464 
Ellersick, Charles F., 415 
Embree, Ernest N., 634 
Embree, Frederick C, 929 
Empfield, Chalmers G., 933 
Empfield, Levi S., 512 
Evans, D. B., 999 
Evans. Harry C. 447 
Exley, Joseph, 1038 

Fajmon, Joseph, 1041 
Facknitz, Otto, 960 
Fanta, John, 910 
Farley, Robert, 582 
Farritor, James, 327 
Fenstermacher, Clark H.. 547 
Fisher, Charles C. 893 
Fisher, Daniel H., 607 
Fisher, William F., 937 
Fleishman, Conrad, 995 
Fleishman. George, 997 
Fleming, Vernon E., 899 
Flieder, William. 795 
Fodge, Charles W., 707 
Foley, Edward J., 828 
Foran, Dominic, 629 
Foran, James. 1071 
Foran. Thomas. 679 
Ford. Abel H., 978 
Ford, Norman Dwight, 664 
Forsyth, Charles Mason, 797 
Forsyth, James R., 794 
Fortik, Anton. 885 
Fortik. Charles. 1137 
Fortik. John, 1131 
Fortik. Joseph. Jr.. 626 
Fraser. Hudson J.. 984 
Fulton, Reed W., 1140 

Gadd, Nathan T., 632 
Gaines, Elbert P., 411 
Gandy, Amos W., 567 
Garrison. Charles W., 930 
Garrison. Frank F.. 1013 
Gates. Stillman. 732 
Gcersen. Peter. 1097 
Geiser. Raymond. 1121 
George. Nc, 672 
Giddings. Joseph M.. 803 
Gilligan. Thomas J.. 558 
Gilmore. William M.. 1126 
Given, Ellis W.. 977 
Given. Robert E.. 469 
Given. Sampson. 630 
Glazier. Hamilton B., 416 
Glover, Earl. 1013 
Glover. Henry B.. 984 
Clover, LoyH, ini4 



Glover, Percy D., 989 
Goodrich, David .\., 871 
Gorham, Frank .\., 913 
Govier, John, 535 
Granger, Charles A., 444 
Griebel. Sedonia, 1122 
Griffin, John W., 729 
Grint, John E., 738 
Gross, George, 1001 
Gschwind, John A., 941 
Gundy, Mrs. Albert, 526 
Gustafson, Arvid, 660 
Gustus, Vanner A.. 333 
Guthrie, Edward E.. 1006 

Haefele, Joseph, 947 
Hall, Nels A., 561 
Hall. Richard, 736 
Halouska, James, 627 
Hammond. George W.. 1159 
Hanna, John H., 902 
Hanson, Ellis, 569 
Hardin, Ben, 857 
Hargan. John H., 959 
Karman, Pratt J., 969 
Harris, Joseph A., 906 
Harry. Clay, 423 
Hart, George H., 593 
Hartley, Anson B., 1010 
Hartson, G. Thomas, 534 
Hartson, James B., 907 
Haskell, James D.. 447 
Hauck, Fred. 1097 
Hauenstine. Joseph D.. 472 
Haumont. Joseph A,, 1101 
Haumont. Paul J.. 498 
Hayes. Leonard C. 1094 
Heaps. Frank, 1081 
Heaps, William E., 431 
Helmuth. Christ. 670 
Helmuth, John. 1164 
Helmuth. Susie, 837 
Hemphill. Omer E.. 948 
Hempstead. Joseph C, 1138 
Henderson. John C, 737 
Henderson. Walter M.. 656 
Hendricks. Grant. 773 
Henry. Peter N.. 467 
Hermes. James H.. 409 
Hewett. James K.. 408 
HIckenbottom. Rally E.. 1093 
Hickey. Charles, 1105 
Hickey. Jerry. Jr.. 635 
Hicks. Frank L.. 620 
Hill. Millard. 960 
Hillman. Arince T.. 714 
Himmelright. Charles E.. 691 
Hines, Lloyd. 785 
Hiser. Gotlob, 1076 
Hiser. James H.. 836 
Hoffman. Frederick I... 698 
Hogg. Henry. 795 
Holcomb. Carl. 539 
Holcomb. Charles H., 403 
Holcomb. Floyd. 544 
Holeman. Grover A., 813 
Horn, Charles L.. 1119 
Horn. U. S., 506 
Home. Bernie D.. 585 
Hothem. John, 522 
Hough. Preston W.. 71 1 
Houghton. Philip C... 819 
House. E. C. 475 
Housel. William A., 407 



Howell. James A., 783 
Huenefeld. Herman H. E., 1087 
Huffaker, James W., 570 
Huffman, Levi W., 663 
Huffman. William C. 606 
Hughes. Gilbert H., 752 
Humphrey, Augustin R.. 403 
Hunnell, Charles 0., 684 
Hunter, Robert A.. 548 
Hurst, Warren Thomas, 459 

Ihlow, William, 714 
Imboden, Roy, 332 
Ingram, James M., 574 

Jackson, Foster, 1083 
Jackson, John O.. 1088 
Jackson, M. Ludwig, 1085 
Jacobs, Florian, 487 
Jacobsen, Harry. 648 
Jacoby. Samuel W., 587 
Jacquot, George, 631 
Jacquot, Nicholas, 1078 
Jaeger, August, 722 
James, Oliver D., 513 
Janesofskj-, Peter, 950 
Jarusek. Charles. 715 
Jelinek, Frank, 580 
Jennings, Benjamin B., 593 
Jennings, John A., 592 
Jensen, Marius C, 722 
Jessen, Asmus. 1113 
Johnson. Achilles D., 948 
Johnson, Albert P.. 446 
Johnson. James. 787 
Johnson-Malm. John H.. 747 
Johnson. Philip, 1083 
Johnston, William C, 1160 
Jones, D. J., 766 
Jones, James B.. 822 
Jones, Melvin K., 792 
Jones. Orel. 655 
Jones. William T., 771 
Juel, Chris, 826 
Juker, Albert L.. 598 
June. Oscar M.. 939 

KaElin, Joseph, 506 
Kalous, Frank, 599 
Kaupp, Christian, 793 
Kearney, Samuel T., 539 
Kelly, Robert J., 426 
Kelly, William H., 596 
Kennedy, Horace F., 441 
Kennedy. Joseph D., 653 
Kenyon. John A.. 625 
Kepler, Henry A., 835 
Keyes, Robert N., 1045 
Kiker, Benjamin F.. 689 
Kilfoil, Patrick, 1025 
Kilgore. Coe. 589 
Kimball. Bert F., 749 
Kimball. Burritt W., 424 
Kimball. Harry C. 439 
Kimberling. John M.. 407 
Kimberling, Lewis. 832 
Kirkpatrick. Lester D., 471 
Klanecky. Fred. 993 
Klapal. Mary. 1021 
Kingbeil. John C. 802 
Klinkman, Chester .-V.. 603 
Klinkman. Frank, 1155 
Klump. Hardy B.. 695 
Klump. J.ncob B., 479 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1171 



KJuna, \'aclav, 743 
Knapp, Harry R., 482 
Knight, Ellis W., 486 
Knight, John D., 920 
Knox, J. M., 624 
Kobl, Franz, 695 
Kolbo, Hans J., 574 
Kolbo, Melvin K., 572 
Kolbo, Oliver J., 716 
Kolbo, Paul C, 518 
Koozer, Charles C, 609 
Kramer, John M., 562 
Krbel, Arnold, 1019 
Krenz, Carl R., 470 
Krikac, Vencel, 658 
Kriss, James, 794 
Kriz, Frank, 1025 
Kroeger, Heinrich, 1099 
Kruser, Elray H., 704 
Kulhanek, Frank, 591 
Kulhanek, Jacob. 875 
Kulhanek, John J.. 1134 
Kulhanek, Lewis, 873 

Lamb, Charles D., 1112 
Landis, Henry B., 427 
Lang, Cortez E., 828 
Lang, Horace G., 975 
Lang. James R.. 1102 
Lange, James, 459 
Lange, Marius. 804 
Lanura, Joel F., 1105 
Larson, Edward T., 868 
Lash, George, 1069 
Laughran, James R., 809 
Laughran, Thomas, 811 
Lauridson, C. B., 824 
Leach, Harvey E.. 1121 
Leach, Roily C. 704 
Leach, Roscoe M., 1094 
Lee, Canute, 479 
Lee, James J., 584 
Leech, Corydon T.. 621 
Leech, Ivan L., 620 
Leininger, Philip H., 618 
Lenstrom, John, 1005 
Leo, Dorcas Hogue, 646 
Leonard. Bryan, 448 
Leonard. Hubert. 497 
Leui, Joseph. 992 
Leui. Ralph C, 333 
Lewis, Amos B., 1085 
Lewis, William H., 490 
Liehs, Theodore. 971 
Liles, Frank, 742 
Lincoln, George W., 789 
Linder, Joseph H., 766 
Linder, Marshall B.. 779 
Lindly. James, 718 
Line. William T. S.. 536 
Livermore. Guy E-. 546 
Lomax. Harvard. 406 
Long. John P.. 796 
Longfellow, Charley. 605 
Longfellow, John R.. 606 
Longfellow. John R., Jr.. 615 
Longmore. Louis C, 705 
Longmore. Roy L.. 661 
Lovejoy. Frank E . 953 
Lowry, .Archie L.. 532 
Lowry, Henry L.. 678 
Lowry. James M.. 727 
Luce. Samuel M., 430 
Lund. Edwin. 1067 



Lundy, James W., 638 
Lynch, Philip W., 725 

McCandless, Lucian, 581 
JlcCandless, William L., 848 
McCarthy, Michael, 575 
McCarty, Frank J., 480 
McCarty, James D., 487 
McCarty, Michael, 470 
McCarty, Robert, 478 
McCarty. Robert D.. 455 
McCormick, Joseph P., 655 
McCrea, George L-, 689 
McDermott, B. A., 573 
McDermott, John H., 636 
McDonald, W^lliam, 754 
McEvoy, Ed. P., 685 
McGaughey, George W., 1058 
McGrath, Philip, 575 
McGraw, John S., 1047 
McGregor, Albert, 1010 
McGugin, David, 636 
McGuire. Joseph H.. 1053 
Mclninch, Amos C, 1046 
McKenty, Stuart B., S47 
McKinney, George W., 857 
McKnight, William H.. 456 
McRae, George W.. 482 
Mc Worthy, Sylvester. 551 
Mackey, Clarence, 457 
Mackley, William H., 955 
Malm, Joseph H. (Johnson). 747 
Mapel, Stephen, 1021 
Maroney, John T., 474 
Marsh, George C. 1043 
Martin, William E., 471 
Mary, George, 1045 
Mason, Anson T.. 583 
Mason. L. H.. 587 
Mathauser, Charles B.. 782 
Mathews. Charles R.. 595 
Mathon. Steward B., 721 
Mattox. Charles B., 793 
Matz, Charles, 748 
Matz, John, 731 
Maxson. James W.. 786 
Maze, Orville H., 1049 
Melham, Charles. 1006 
Melham, Noah. 463 
Melville, J. H.. 91" 
Metcalf. Clarence, 624 
Metcalf. Plin L.. 412 
Metcalf. Walter S.. 999 
Mevis. Oliver H.. 478 
Michele, Henry T., 698 
Miller, Albert, 730 
Miller, August H., 862 
Miller, Frank, 585 
Miller, Sam, 330 
Miller. Wesley, 670 
Miller, William, 709 
Miller. William L.. 869 
Milligan. George T.. 1053 
Milligan. James V.. 635 
:Mills. Guy P., 775 
Mills. Ira P.. 1058 
Mills. John C, 637 
Mills. William G.. 492 
Minogue. Thomas F.. 818 
Mohatt, Francis X.. 660 
Moomey. Otis H., 554 
:Moore. Joseph C, 812 
Moore. Joshua C. 875 
Moore. Ross G.. 924 



Moore, Walter S., SS6 
Moran, John, 701 
Moravec, Joseph J., 826 
Morgan, AIHe L-, 547 
Morgan, Edward F.. 942 
Morgan, Nicholas il.. 740 
Moroney, Joseph, 692 
Morris, Benjamin P., 887 
Morris, Earl O., 837 
Morrison, Frederick W.. 688 
Morrison, Lee H., 510 
Morrow, Augustus, 865 
Morrow, John H., 851 
Mossman, Frank N., 880 
Mougey, Charles L.. 671 
Mourey, Orville M., 485 
Mullen, Peter W., 543 
MuUins, Charles L., 445 
Mulvany, John, 810 
Murphy, Owen C. 687 
Myers, Edwin F., 806 
Myers, Emanuel, 1061 
Myers, Harmer E., 431 
Myers, Henry H., 775 
Myers, John A., 755 

Nansel, Godfrey, 797 
Narragon. Austin A.. 671 
Naylor. J. C, 968 
Xedbalek, Thomas, 1024 
Xeedham. Frank E., 767 
Nelson, Aleck, 1041 
Nelson, Chris, 692 
Nelson, Gustaf W., 801 
Nelson, James E. G.. 885 
Nelson, Jens P., 741 
Neth, Jesse E., 815 
Neth, S., 709 
Neve, Horace, 1054 
Neve, Lewis, 652 
Newcomb, Lewis S.. 861 
Newman, Charles, 1065 
Newman, Henry C, 1142 
Nicholas. Benjamin L.. 676 
Nichelson, Ebenezer. 1147 
Nixon, William C, 732 
Norbury, Thomas, 468 
Norden, Fred, 695 

Oberg, William, 1033 
O'Brien, Alfred, 879 
Ohme. Emil C. 1110 
Ohme, Frank, 1117 
Olsen. John, 959 
Orchard, Joe E., 1071 
Orchard, Shipton G., 950 
Orvis, Bert L., IO20 
Orvis, George V., 998 
Ostrand. August. 474 
Owen. W. E.. 1078 
Oxford. Herbert. 817 
Oxford, Lilburn F., 421 

Paine, George E.. 858 
Palmer, George F., 589 
Palmer, Joseph Elwood, 328 
Peale, James N., 549 
Pearce, Charles B., 473 
Pederson, Peter R.. 498 
Pelkey. George J.. 742 
Penn, Charles. 427 
Penn. W. H.. 452 
Pennington. George E.. 452 
Pense. G. W., 987 



1172 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUXTY. XEBR.\SKA 



I'erkins, Glen O., 823 
Perkins, S. A., 821 
Perrin, Harold I., 619 
Perrin, l^ouis E., 781 
Perrin, Watt W., 1108 
Pesek, John, 735 
Peterson, Adolph, 603 
Peterson, Andrew, 443 
Peterson, Milton, 615 
Pfrehm, Henry J., 989 
Pickett, Lindley M., 720 
Pierce, Henry O., 944 
Pierce, Lyman, 644 
Pierce, William C. 859 
Pirnie, Alexander, 560 
Pointer, H. B., 1031 
Poland, William, 968 
Porath, Rhinehart, 438 
Porter, George E., 919 
Poston, Henry S., 1163 
Poulsom. William H., 1063 
Powers, William, 628 
Predmore, Daniel W., 838 
Preston, Lewis L., 767 
Probert, George M., 1067 
Purcell, Emerson R., 576 
Purcell, William G., 713 

Rapp, Henry N., 1014 
Rarden. Charles E., 829 
Ray, J. W., 977 
Read. Clay D., 659 
Ream, James D., 514 
Redmond, William D., 1064 
Reed, Charles E., 467 
Reed, Frank S., 1017 
Reed, Frederick A., 852 
Reese, John, 610 
Reinhard, John, 511 
Rcneau, Isaac A., 934 
Rhodes, John R., 839 
Rhodes. Roscoe, 331 
Rice. William J., 677 
Richtmyer. George E., 533 
Ridder, Theodore, 1019 
Riggle, Borton F., 1023 
Rimpley. George, 697 
Roath. Andrew J., 1026 
Robertson, George, 725 
Robertson. John, 1159 
Robertson, Lewis H., 329-972 
Rockwell. Daniel R.. 481 
Roerick. Gustav. 329 
Rohde. Albert. 843 
Rohde. August W. F.. 1163 
Rohde, Otto, 1163 
Rohde. Roland, 497 
Ross, Raymond, 327 
Rosso. William N., 855 
Rowan. Louis M., 803 
Rudgc. John M., 331 
Rumery. .\rthur C, 872 
Runyan, Merle M.. 647 
Runyan. William A., 730 
Russell. John H.. 469 
Russell. Joseph F., 800 
Russell. Thomas B.. 825 
Russom, George .\., 749 
Russom. George R.. 1050 

Sadler. William B.. 854 
Sams. Chester. 499 
Sams. Roy B.. 504 
Samson. Crandall D.. 1157 



Samuelson, John M., 840 
Sanders, Charles G., 1124 
Sanderson, Charles H., 667 
Sargent, R. B., 998 
Sauter, Gage, 331 
Schaper, William C, 524 
Schmid, Henry, 724 
Schimdt, Charles, 690 
Schmitz, John B., 703 
Schreyer, Alfred, 790 
Schuder, Alvin M., 644 
Schultze, Fred. 896 
Schultze, Henry, 896 
Scott, Ennis, 532 
Seaney, Jacob J., 463 
Seevers, Robert M., 785 
Seiver, Clyde G., 32" 
Sell, Lincoln G., 537 
Sellon, George I., 450 
Sennett, Edward M., 496 
Sennett, John Mark, 556 
Shafer, Aley, 981 
Shaw, Arthur C, 1113 
Shepard, Archibald H., 812 
Sheppard, Charles E., 540 
Sherman, Harry A., 900 
Sherman, Ruth, 904 
Shively, Brenard A., 509 
Shoemaker, Jesse F., 571 
Shoemaker, Willie C, 484 
Shook, Charles A., 821 
Shultz, George M., 618 
Sims, Eugene S., 1035 
Simmons. George W., 579 
Skolil, Edward F., 1106 
Sloggett. Alfred C, 428 
Sloggett, Charles J., 608 
Sloggett. Harvey M., 332 
Sloggett. Perry. 572 
Smith, Benjamin F.. 684 
Smith. Charles L.. 652 
Smith, Edward. 829 
Smith. George H.. 724 
Smith. Oliver G- 456 
Smith, William, 763 
Snyder, John A.. 886 
Sommer, Andrew, 1056 
Sommer, Benjamin F., 634 
Sorensen, Soren. 972 
Speer, Wilber M., 651 
Spencer. Aimer E-, 534 
Spratt, Estel P., 792 
Spurgeon, \\"illiam V.. 626 
Squires. Edwin E.. 556 
Staab, John, 531 
Staab, John E., 869 
Stebbins. Willis M.. 646 
Stedry, Vincent J., 1047 
Steel. L. Nolan, 666 
Stefka, Joseph. 952 
Steiger. Philip J.. 512 
Steinmeier. Charles H. F.. 850 
Sterner. Samuel O., 553 
Stevens. Clark J.. 1110 
Stevens. Q. Howard. 435 
Stevens. William L., 711 
Stewart. John. 1028 
Stockham. Harvey, 1115 
Stockham. William. 1034 
Stokes. Henry G.. 930 
Stone. James B.. 997 
Stone. Malcolm P.. 569 
Story. Omer T., 937 
Stouffer, George W., 1126 



Stoufler, Madison M., 753 
Stough, Dale P., 1099 
Stradley, Philip R., 616 
Strieder. Peter, 485 
Struempler, William, 1145 
Stupplebeen, Sue E., 1133 
Sullivan, Homer M., 474 
Sutton, Albert Y., 1137 
Sutton, Frank, 1030 
Swanson. Charles, 945 
Sweeney, Edward J., 527 
Sweeney, Henry, 526 
Swenson. Carl, 484 
Swick. Oliver L.. 1002 
Synder, W. R., 1108 

Talbot, Claris, 811 
Talbot, Joe, 755 
Talbot, Robert C, 602 
Tallin, John, 643 
Taylor, Charles E., 753 
Taylor, Elisha, 439 
Teahon. John, 528 
Teahon, Patrick, 486 
Teahon, Thomas, 1100 
Tennant, William R., 591 
Thomas, Adelbert Logan, 816 
Thomas , Charles, 617 
Thomas, Clyde O., 332 
Thomas, Daniel, 659 
Thomas, George W., 1063 
Thomas, Gordon. 593 
Thomas, James A. O., 953 
Thomas. Roy. 1061 
Thomas. Wesley, 613 
Thompson. Edgar E.. 1128 
Thompson. Oscar. 1008 
Thostesen, Zachariah, 642 
Tietjens, Henry, 645 
Tobias. Wilber E.. 925 
Tomes. Louis J., 616 
Tooley. Charles S., 566 
Torgerson, Thomas. 491 
Trueman. George \\'.. 528 
Tucker, Claris A., 330 

Uhlman. William U., 560 
Urban, Joseph, 1051 

Van Antwerp, Albert J., 426 
Van Buskirk, Samuel, 454 
Van Home. Augustus C, 850 
Varney. Thomas T.. 717 
Visek. Frank. 831 
Voglcr. Casper, 878 

Waddincton. Sami'El. 1036 
Waddington. William S.. 573 
Wagner. William M.. 847 
Waldron, Silas C, 1150 
Walker, Robert B., 538 
Wallace. James S.. 495 
Walsh. William. 873 
Walter. E. P., 1090 
Wankc. Reinhart. 113S 
Ward. Job P.. 1143 
Wardrobe. William E.. 696 
Warnemunde, Fred C 652 
Warrington, Mack C, 404 
Waterbury, Harvey S.. 522 
Waters. Robert E.. 422 
Waters. Walter W.. 1080 
Watkins. Mella. 554 
Watts, William H.. 1147 



^EC23,949 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1173 



Webb, Chester, 332 
Webb, Eugene M., 6/5 
Weesner, Eugene M., 614 
W«hliiig, John C, 756 
Weisenveder, Frank H., 597 
Welch, Benjamin F., 683 
Welch, L. O., 1075 
Werber, James E., 621 
Wescott, Walter S., 750 
Westcott, John F., 702 
Westman, Nels, 1155 
Weverka, John H., 824 
White, Joseph S., 1128 
Whitehead, James. 844 
Whiteman, Harvey J., 1150 
Whitney. West. 1130 



Wieland. John D., 466 
Wilkerson, Elmer \'., 669 
Williams, John L-, 679 
Williams, Watt, 942 
Williams, Willis G., 986 
Williams. W. W., 590 
Wilson, Henry L., 483 
Wilson, John E., 833 
Wilson. Joseph F., 442 
Wolf, Orlando M., 1091 
Wolniczek, Joseph, 627 
Wolsleben, Ada, 935 
Wood. Frank. 1038 
Wood. Joshua, 768 
Wood, Walter. 521 
Woodruff. Diah. 776 



Woodruff, Harry, 505 
Woracek, Jacob, 1120 
Worrell, Charles A., 639 

Yates. Homer M., 332 
Yohn, Robert, 1117 
Young, James R., 1119 
Young, Milo F., 410 
Young. William R., 552 

Zachry, Charles, 782 
Zimmer, Alois, 774 
Zimmer. Julius. 11^ 
Zimmerman, Henry E.. 809 
Zoerb, Philip C, 708 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Amsberry, Darius M., 489 
Amsberry, John A., 898 
Amsberrj', Mrs. John A., 898 
Andrews, Harvey B., SOI 
Ankney, George \V., 1135 
Ankney, Mrs. George, 1135 
Avis, Edmond J. and Family, 894 

Bailev, Geobce T. (Home and Family 

Group) 600 
Baker, Holland T., 657 
Baker, Mrs. Rolland T.. 657 
Beal, Charles W., 565 
Bellis, Richard, 477 
Bellis, Mrs. Richard, 477 
Boblits, Eugene J., 542 
Bowman, Carl E., 889 
Brand, J. H., 876 
Brand, Mrs. J. H., 876 
Brass, Albert (Residence) 882 
Brega. Richard E., 622 
Brega, Mrs. Richard E., 622 
Brown, U. Grant, 641 
Butcher, Lynn J., 1073 
Butcher, Solomon D., 963 
Butcher, Mrs. Solomon D., 963 

Cameron, John, 649 
Carothers, Paul H. J., 1004 
Cavenee, John E., 891 
Chase. Hiram C. 912 
Cherry, Joseph H., Sr., 901 
Cherry, Mrs. Joseph H., Sr., 901 
Cole, Joseph T. and Family, 680 
Condon, Thomas, 905 
Coulter, B. Frank, 908 
Coulter, Mrs. B. Frank, 908 
Cunningham, Ed, 915 
Cunningham, Mrs Ed, 915 
Currie, Frank M., 745 

Davis, William M., 921 
Dean, James R., 449 
Dean, Stephen A., 979 
Dean, Mrs. Stephen A., 979 
Devine, John A., 980 
Devine, Mrs. John A., 980 
Dietz, John A., 990 
Dobesh, Anton K., 982 
Dobesh, Mrs. Anton K., 982 
Douglass, John J., 434 
Douglass. Mrs. John J., 434 
Downey, David, 1032 
Downey, Mrs. David, 1032 
Downey, John J., 923 
Downey, Mrs. John J., 923 
Dowse, Lewis R., 419 
Dowse. Mrs. Lewis R., 419 
Dresel, John, 926 
Dresel, Mrs. John, 926 

Eddy. Marshall E., 465 

Embree, Frederick C, and Family 928 



Empfield, Chalmers G. and Family, 932 

FisHEK, William F. and Family, 936 
Fleishman, Conrad (Residence) 994 
Fleishman, (George (Residence) 996 
Fodge, Charles W. and Family, 706 
Ford, Norman Dwight. 665 
Fulton, Reed W. and Grandchildren, 
1141 

Gadd, Nathan T., 633 

Gaston. W. L., Frontispiece 

Gates, Stillman, 733 

George, Nc and Family, 673 

Given, Ellis W. and Family, 976 

Glover, Henry B., 985 

Glover, Percy D., 988 

Glover, Mrs. Percy D., 988 

Griebel, Benedict, 12j 

Grint, John E., 739 

Gross, George, 1000 

Gross, Mrs. George, 1000 

Gschwind, John A. and Family, 940 

Guthrie, Edward, 1007 

Guthrie, Mrs. Edward. 1007 

Haefele, Joseph axd Family, 946 
Hartley, Anson B. and Family, 1011 
Hauck, Fred and Family, 1096 
Hayes, Leonard C, 1095 
Hickenbottom, Rally E. and Family, 

1092 
Hill, Millard, 961 
Hill, Mrs. Millard. 961 
Hiser, Gottlob, 1077 
Hiser, Mrs. (k)ttlob, 1077 
Houghton, Philip G.. 820 
Huenefcld, Herman H. E. and Family, 

1086 
Humphrey, Augustin R., 402 

Jackson, John O.. 1089 

Jackson, M. Ludwig and Family, 1084 

Jacquot, Nicholas, 1079 

Jacquot, Mrs. Nicholas. 1079 

Johnson, /\chilles D. and Family. 949 

Johnson, Philip. 1082 

Johnson, Mrs. Philip, 1082 

Johnston, William C. and Family. 1161 

Juel, Chris, 827 

Juel, Mrs. Chris, 827 

Kepler, Henry A.. 834 
Kepler, Mrs. Henry A., 834 
Klinkman, Frank and Family. 1156 
Kroeger, Heinrich and Family. 1098 

Lanc, James R. and Family. 1103 
Lanum, Joel F. and Family. 1104 
Lash, George, 1068 
Lash, Mrs. George. 1068 
Liehs. Theodore. 970 
Liehs, Mrs. Theodore, 970 



Lindly, James, 719 
Lowrj', James il., 726 
Lowry, Mrs. James M., 726 

McCandless, William L., 849 
McKinney, George W. and Family, 856 
Mackley, William H. and Family, 954 
Marsh, George C. and Family, 1042 
Mary, George and Family. 1044 
Maze, Orville H. and Family, 1048 
Michele, Henry T. (Residence) 699 
Michele, Christopher (Pioneer Resi- 
dence) 699 
Miller, August H., 863 
Miller, Mrs. August H., 563 
Miller, William L. and Family, 870 
Miller, William L. (Grandchildren of) 

871 
Milligan, Oorge T^ and Family, 1052 
Mills, Ira P., 1059 
Mills, Mrs. Ira P., 1059 
Moroney, Joseph (Home of) 693 
Moroney, Martin (Old Home of) 693 
Murphy, Owen C. and Family, 686 
Myers, Edwin F., 807 
Myers, Emanuel and Family. 1060 

Nansel, Godfrey, 798 

Nansel, Godfrey and Family, 799 

Nansel. Mrs. Godfrey, 798 

Nation, L. D., 966 

Nation, Ruby L., 967 

Neth, Jesse E., 814 

Neth, Mrs. Jesse E., 814 

Neve, Horace. 1055 

Nichelson, Ebenezer, 1148 

Nichelson, Mrs. Ebenezer, 1148 

Orchard, Shipton G., 951 
Orchard, Mrs. Shipton G.. 951 

Palmer. George F., 588 
Palmer, Mrs. George F., 588 
Perkins, S. A.. 820 
Poston, Henry S. and Family. 1162 
Poulsom, William H. and Family, 1062 
Probert, George M. and Family, 1066 
Purcell, Emerson R.. 577 * 

Purccll. William G.. 712 

Rapp, Henry N. and Family, 1015 

Ream. James D., 516 

Ream, Mrs. James D.. 517 

Reed. Frank S. and Family. 1016 

Reese. John, 611 

Ridder, Theodore and Family, 1018 

Riggle, Borton F. and Family, 1022 

Roath, .Andrew J., 1027 

Robertson, Lewis H., 973 

Rohde, Albert. 842 

Rohde, Otto, 1163 

Samson. Crandall D. and Family. 1158 
Sanders, Charles G., 1125 



HISTORY OF CUSTER COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



1175 



Schreyer, Alfred and Family. 791 
Seevers, Robert M. ena family, 784 
Skolil, Edward F., 1107 
Skolil, Mrs. Edward F., 1107 
Sommer, Andrew, 1057 
Squires, Edwin E.. 557 
Staab, John and Family. 530 
Stevens, Clark J., 1111 
Stewart, Jobfi, 1029 
Stockham, Harvey and Famiiy. 1114 
Stouffer, George W., 1127 
Struempler, William and Family. 1146 
Stupplebeen, Sue E- (Family Home) 

1132 
Sutton, Albert V., 1136 



Sutton, Mrs. Albert Y., 1136 
Synder, W. R., 1109 
Synder, Mrs. W. R. 1109 

Thompson, Oscar and Family, 1009 

Waddington, Samuel, 1037 
Waldron, Silas C, 1I5I 
Waldron. Mrs. Silas C, 1131 
Wanke, Reinhart, 1139 
Wanke, Mrs. Reinhart, 1139 
Ward. Job P. and Family, 1144 
Watts, William H., 1149 
Watts. Mrs. William H.. 1149 
Welding. John C. and Family, 757 



Wehling, John C. (Farm \"iew) 760 
Wescott, Walter S., 751 
Westman, Nels and Family, 1154 
White, Joseph S., 1129 
White, Mrs. Joseph S., 1129 
Whiteman, Harvey J., 1153 
Williams, Watt, 943 
Wood, Frank, 1039 
Wood, Joshua, 769 
Wood, Walter, 520 
Woodruff. Diah, 777 

YoHN, John, 1116 

Yohn, Mrs. John, 1116 

Young. The James R. Family. 1118 









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